Lichen planus with multiple system involvement including the mouth, vagina, urethra, and scalp: a case report

This is a case report of lichen planus (LP) with multiple system involvement. A 35-year-old female patient was admitted in November 2014 with a 5-year history of painful/difficult sexual intercourse and loss of oral mucosa, and an 8-year history of focal hair loss. Earlier, the patient had been unable to adhere to corticosteroid therapy because of severe adverse side effects. In September 2014, labia minora mucosa defects and stricture of the urethral orifice (with dysuria), vaginal orifice, and vagina were identified. Biopsy was performed and a diagnosis of erosive LP was made. The patient was treated with an oral immunosuppressant (cyclosporine A) and urethral/vaginal dilatation. Urine flow rate and sex life were improved after 6 months and she discontinued medication. Four years later, the patient reported a good overall treatment efficacy. LP can involve multiple systems and should be considered in patients with dyspareunia. Immunosuppressive agents can achieve a satisfactory effect in patients with contraindication to corticosteroid.

Analysis of traditional Chinese medicine syndromes in 159 German migraine patients / 中国中药杂志

Data mining method was adopted to collect 159 cases of German migraine patients who live in the TCM-Klinik Bad Kötzting Hospital from January 2013 to March 2015. The general case information was divided into age, gender, profession, characteristics of headache, degree of headache, accompanied symptoms and tongue pulse, and included in corresponding databases. Initial data was standardized and cleaned to get a data form suitable for analysis. SPSS system software was adopted to make a frequency statistics analysis for such variables as gender, age, profession, headache characteristic and accompanied symptoms. The results showed that German migraine cases feature a universality of age, long disease cycle and easy recurrence; And most of the patients were mental workers. There were two common clinical TCM symptoms, namely hyperactivity of liver Yang type and Qi deficiency & phlegm dampness. The common symptoms are forehead tingling, recurrent headache, vomiting and nausea, dark tongue, thin and white fur tongue, wiry pulse and slippery pulse. The disease is related to the pathology of stagnation of Qi, phlegm and blood stasis in liver, spleen, kidney and stomach.

Treatment of nonunion of femoral shaft fracture after initial locked intramedullary fixation with plate and xenogenic bony plate / 中国骨伤

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical effects of plate and xenogenic bony plate for the treatment of nonunion of femoral shaft fracture after initial fixation with locked intramedullary nailing.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From February 2006 to June 2013, 21 cases with nonunion of femoral shaft fracture after initial fixation with locked intramedullary nailing were treated with femoral plate and contralateral xenogenic bony plate. There were 12 males and 9 females with an average age of 34.8 years old (ranging from 18 to 62 years). The time of nonunion was 9 to 18 months (averaged 12.8 months). The clinical outcomes of the treatment were evaluated by Merchan assessment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All of the patients were primary healing, and on complications such as infection,fat embolism, internal fixation breaking or rotational deformity, shortening were occurred. All the cases were followed up for 13.2 months (ranging from 8 to 24 months). Nineteen cases were bone healed,the time of union averaged 6.2 months (ranging from 4 to 9 months). Two cases appeared delayed union and gained bony union after 7 to 13 months' observation. According to the criterion of Merchan,the results were excellent in 13 cases, good in 6 cases, poor in 2 cases.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Treatment of nonunion of femoral shaft fracture after initial locked intramedullary fixation with plate and xenogenic bony plate has advantages of high curative rate and low complications, good postoperative function recovery, it is a reliable treatment to elevate the stability of fixation and promote the osteogenesis.</p>

Reference value of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity for the eastern Chinese population and potential influencing factors

The present study was conducted to obtain reference values for brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and to evaluate influencing factors of baPWV according to gender. Using automatic devices, baPWV was measured simultaneously in 2095 subjects. A total of 647 healthy subjects, none of whom presented atherosclerotic risk factors, were analyzed in the present study. Two different statistical methods were used to obtain reference values for baPWV according to subject gender and age. The association between baPWV value and gender, as well as other features, were analyzed. For male subjects, multiple stepwise analysis showed that age, systolic blood pressure (SBP), heart rate (HR), and plasma levels of triglycerides (TG) were independent predictors of baPWV. For female subjects, age, SBP, HR, and plasma levels of uric acid (UA) were independent predictors of baPWV. In male subjects, the upper limits of baPWV values were 1497.43/1425.00, 1518.67/1513.25, 1715.97/1726.50, 1925.20/1971.90, and 2310.18/2115.00 cm/s, obtained using two different statistical methods for the age ranges of 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70 and older, respectively. For females, the upper limits of baPWV values were 1426.70/1411.13, 1559.15/1498.95, 1733.50/1739.00, 1958.63/1973.78, and 2720.80/2577.00 cm/s for the age ranges of 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70 and older, respectively. Aging is the most important influencing factor for baPWV value and its effect is more prominent in females. The reference values of baPWV according to age and gender may be useful for the clinical diagnosis and preventive therapy of cardiovascular diseases.

Correlation of EphA2 protein expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the expression of EphA2 protein in tissue specimens and cell lines of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), and to further study the correlation of EphA2 protein expression with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in LSCC.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Western blot was applied to assess the EphA2 protein expression in LSCC cell line Hep-2 cells and the head and neck immortalized epithelial cell line NP-69 cells. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on paraffin sections of 88 cases of LSCC specimens and 16 cases of adjcent normal tissue samples to investigate the EphA2 protein expression, and to futher elucidate its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with the NP-69 cells, EphA2 expression in LSCC cell line Hep-2 cells was upregulated. The positive rates of EphA2 expression in LSCC and adjcent normal tissues samples were 80.7% and 43.8%, respectively, with a significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.001). EphA2 overexpresion was closely correlated with clinical stage (I + II/III + IV, P = 0.005), metastasis (P = 0.025) and recurrence (P = 0.021) in LSCC. Furthermore, patients with EphA2 overexpression had poorer tumor-free survival and 5-year overall survival compared with that in patients with low EphA2 expression (33.3% vs. 63.2%, P = 0.003; 46.7% vs. 81.6%, P = 0.002). EphA2 expression combined with clinical stage provided a better predictive value in prognosis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that EphA2 expression is an independent prognostic factor for patients with LSCC (P = 0.019).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The results of this study demonstrate that EphA2 protein expression is significantly increased in LSCC tissues and cell lines, and EphA2 protein overexpression is associated with tumor recurrence, metastasis and poorer prognosis in LSCC patients. These results suggest that EphA2 may play a critical role in the initiation and progression of LSCC, implicating EphA2 as a valuable marker for the prediction of recurrence, metastasis and prognosis in LSCC.</p>