The reliability and validity of short form-36 questionnaire in patients with gout / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective To investigate the reliability and validity of the medical outcomes by applying short form-36 (SF-36) in evaluating gout patients’ health related quality of life (HRQOL).Methods Gout patientswere enrolled between March 2016 and June 2016 in Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.Patients completed the SF-36 questionnaire.Summary scores,physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) were calculated by summing factor-weighted scores across all 8 subscales,with factor weights derived from general population.The indicators of reliability and validity included internal consistency,test-retest reliability,structural and discriminant validity,ceiling and floor effect.Results Totally 306 patients were enrolled.The internal consistency test showed that the Cronbach α coefficients ranged from 0.782 to 0.822,and the test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from 0.720 to 0.986 (P＜0.01).Structural validity analysis showed that there were two items whose eigenvalues were greater than one with the cumulative contribution rate of 66.1％.The discriminant validity analysis found that patients with more numbers of tophi,higher frequency of flare,multi-arthrosis involved and more complications had less scores of PCS and MCS (P＜0.05).There was a high ceiling effect on physiological function and a higher ceiling and floor effect on role limitation and emotional function caused hy impaired physical health.Conclusion The SF-36 can be used for the assessment of HRQOL in Chinese gout patients but disease specific questionnaire are warranted.

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in 737 primary and middle school students aged 6 -17 in Changsha / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the mental health condition of primary and middle school students in Changsha and to provide reference for future evaluation or intervention.@*METHODS@#Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (the edition for parents) was used to investigate 737 primary and middle school students aged 6-17 in Changsha.@*RESULTS@#The prevalence of difficulty was 14.11%. The males showed higher scores of problem, hyperactivity and impact, while the females scored higher in emotional symptom as well as prosocial behaviors. Students aged 11-13 and 14-17 showed higher scores of total difficulties, peer problems and emotional symptom than those aged 6-10. Apart from higher scores of total difficulties and peer problems, the other scores were similar to the normal scores in China. there was significant difference in the normal scores between china and other countries.@*CONCLUSION@#mental health problems have divergent characters in gender and age. This study also highlights the importance of establishing local norms of SDQ and the need for appropriate measures in practical situations.

Induction of hepatic acute phase reactants by conditioned medium from lipopolysaccharide treated human dermal fibroblasts / 第二军医大学学报

To test the hypothesis that dermal fibroblasts (DF) are an important source of cytokines which elicit major changes in hepatic synthesis of acute phase reactants(APRs). Metkods: Condi-tioned medium(CM) from human DF challenged with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (I,PS) was collected andIL-10 and IL-6 levels were measured- The ability of DF conditioned medium(fLPS) and dexamethasone(Dex) to mediate an hepatic acute phase response was tested on rat hepatoma H4 cells- Various concentra-tions and combinations of CM (?LPS), recombinant IL-6 (rhIL-6) and Dex were tested for their abilitiesto stimulate albumin, Q,-acid glycoprotein (AGP), a,-antitrypsin (AT) and transferrin mRNA synthesis.Results: LPS stimulated IL-6 production by DF and Dex inhibited this producti0n. IL-6 and CM+LPS in-hibited the production of albumin mRNA,while the expression of AT and AGP 0ccurred 0nly with CM+LPS+Dex. However,IL-6 alone had an inhibitory effect 0n albumin and transferrin mRNA producti0n.Dex maximized the effects 0f lL-6 and CM, and was essential f0r AGP gene expression. C0nclusion: (l)LPS-treated human DF can secrete IL-6, but not IL-101 (2)DF may als0 pr0duce other cyt0kines whichmodulate hepatic pr0tein synthesis during the acute phase response l (3) Dex inhibits IL-6 production byDF, but enhances its ability to stimulate the acute phase response.