Low-dose daily de-escalatory administration of tadalafil for psychological erectile dysfunction / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of low-dose daily de-escalatory administration of tadalafil on psychological erectile dysfunction (ED).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We randomized 84 psychological ED patients into an observation and a control group of equal number to receive low-dose daily de-escalatory administration and on-demand medication of tadalafil, respectively, both for 2 months. We compared the scores on IIEF-5 and erection hardness (EHS) between the two groups before and after the treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The treatment and follow-up were accomplished for 79 cases, with 5 withdrawals in the control group. The IIEF-5 and EHS scores were remarkably improved in both the observation and control groups after treatment. The rate of therapeutic effectiveness was significantly higher in the observation group than in the control (95.2% vs 86.5%, P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Low-dose daily de-escalatory administration of tadalafil is highly effective and even better than on-demand medication of tadalafil for psychological ED.</p>

Optimization of magnetic resonance sequences in lymph node staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Detection rate of retropharyngeal lymph node metastasis in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) needs to be improved. The purpose of this study was to compare three magnetic resonance (MR) sequences for detecting lymph nodes in patients with NPC.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Between July 2007 and March 2008, MR staging of pre-treated tumor was conducted on 120 patients with pathologically confirmed NPC. The outcome of three different sequences for MR NPC staging were compared: coronal short TI inversion recovery (STIR), axial proton density fat-suppressed (PDWI fs), and coronal contrast enhanced fast spin echo T1 weighted fat-suppressed (CE FSE T1WI fs). Nodal classification method (1999) was applied to count the number of retropharyngeal and cervical lymph nodes discovered by each MR sequence. Paired t tests were used for statistical analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 2575 lymph nodes were found using coronal STIR sequence; 1816 lymph nodes for coronal CE FSE T1WI fs sequence and 2638 lymph nodes for axial PDWI fs sequence. Significant differences existed in the number of lymph nodes detected by axial PDWI fs and coronal CE FSE T1WI fs sequence (paired t test, P < 0.05), with the former sequence getting higher numbers. Statistical differences also existed between coronal STIR and coronal CE FSE T1WI fs sequence (paired t test, P < 0.05), with the former sequence getting higher numbers. No significant difference was found between coronal STIR sequence and axial PDWI fs sequence (paired t test, P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>For the detection of retropharyngeal and cervical lymph nodes, coronal STIR sequence and axial PDWI fs sequence have similar performance and both sequences showed better detection than CE FSE T1WI fs sequence. Furthermore, by combining coronal STIR sequence and axial PDWI fs sequence, we can improve the detection of lymph nodes in NPC N-staging before treatment, especially for lymph nodes located in the thoracic entrance.</p>

Randomized trail of nasal synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation compared with nasal continuous positive airway pressure in preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the efficacy of nasal synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation (nSIMV) and nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) in preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Fifty preterm infants with RDS who received pulmonary surfactant were randomized to nSIMV and nCPAP groups after extubation. Clinical signs, symptoms and blood gas results following nSIMV or nCPAP were compared in the two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the nCPAP group, the nSIMV group had a lower incidence of failure respiratory support (24% vs 60%; P<0.05), a lower incidence of hypercarbonia (12% vs 40%; P<0.05) and a lower incidence of hypoxia (24% vs 36%; P<0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>nSIMV is more effective in respiratory support in preterm infants with RDS.</p>

Image quality stability of whole-body diffusion weighted imaging / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the reproducibility of whole-body diffusion weighted imaging (WB-DWI) technique in healthy volunteers under normal breathing with background body signal suppression.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>WB-DWI was performed on 32 healthy volunteers twice within two-week period using short TI inversion-recovery diffusion-weighted echo-planar imaging sequence and built-in body coil. The volunteers were scanned across six stations continuously covering the entire body from the head to the feet under normal breathing. The bone apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and exponential ADC (eADC) of regions of interest (ROIs) were measured. We analyzed correlation of the results using paired-t-test to assess the reproducibility of the WB-DWI technique.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>We were successful in collecting and analyzing data of 64 WB-DWI images. There was no significant difference in bone ADC and eADC of 824 ROIs between the paired observers and paired scans (P>0.05). Most of the images from all stations were of diagnostic quality.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The measurements of bone ADC and eADC have good reproducibility. WB-DWI technique under normal breathing with background body signal suppression is adequate.</p>

Significance of Twenty-Four Hours Oesophageal Power of Hydrogen Monitoring for Gastroesophageal Reflux in 30 Neonates with Pneumonia / 实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To investigate the effects of pneumonia on gastroesophageal reflux(GER)of neonates.Methods The distal 24 h esophageal pH monitoring was performed in 30 neonates with pneumonia and 30 controls.The number of reflux episodes,the number of refluxover 5 min,the longest time of reflux,the total time of pH

Correlative study between MRI signal intensity of the lumbar intervertebral disc and collagen content in the nucleus pulposus / 中华放射学杂志

Objective To study correlation between MRI signal intensity of the lumbar intervertebral disc and collagen content in the nucleus pulposus.Methods Thirty-one cases with lumbar intervertebral disc herniation(male 21,female 10)received percutaneous lumbar disketetomy.Thirty-one specimens of nucleous pulposus were obtained from percutaneous lumbar disketctomy procedure and collagen content in them was measured with reformed hydroxyproline measurement method.The signal intensity(SI) of lumbar intervertebral disc and cerebrospinal fluid was measured in T_2 WI sagittal image and then ratio of disc SI to cerebrospinal fluid SI was calculated.The Pearson analysis was used to analyze the correlation between the collagen content and SI ratio and disc SI on T_2 WI.Results Collagen content and SI ratio were (231.0?63.5)mg/g and 0.19?0.07,respectively.There was negative correlation between them (r=-0.61,P