The relationship between diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction and leukoaraiosis.

Cognitive dysfunction is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system, which often associates with ageing brain as well as neurodegenerative diseases. A growing body of evidence suggests that patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have a significantly higher risk of cognitive impairment. In recent years, studies have found that patients with diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction have an increased burden of leukoaraiosis (LA), and larger white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume. With the recent advancement of technologies, multimodal imaging is widely exploited for the precise evaluation of central nervous system diseases. Emerging studies suggest that LA pathology can be used as a predictive signal of white matter lesions in patients with diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction, providing support for early identification and diagnosis of disease. This article reviews the findings, epidemiological characteristics, pathogenesis, imaging features, prevention and treatment of LA pathophysiology in patients with diabetes-related cognitive dysfunction.

Isolation of active substances and bioactivity of Aconitum sinomontanum Nakai.

In order to obtain the active compounds against third armyworm (Mythimna separata) contained in Aconitum sinomontanum Nakai by solvent partition, successive fractionation on silica gel and bioassay by the conventional leaf disc method, three diterpenoidal alkaloids were isolated for the first time from the roots of A. sinomontanum Nakai. Their structures were established as demethylenedelcorine, 18-O-methylgigactonine and lepenine based on their spectral data and X-ray diffraction analysis. Demethylenedelcorine and 18-O-methylgigactonine exhibited better pesticidal activities against M. separata, while lepenine had the induce-feeding activity against M. separata. The three diterpenoidal alkaloids exhibited bactericidal and fungicidal activities against certain kinds of the tested bacteria and fungi.

[Determination of fraxinellone in root bark of Dictamnus dasycarpus by RP-HPLC].

OBJECTIVE: To develop a RP-HPLC method for determination of fraxinellone in Dictamnus dasycarpus. METHOD: RP-HPLC conditions were as follows: AT-LICHROM C18(4.6 mm x 250 mm) column, MeOH-H2O (70:30) as a mobile phase, detection wavelength 240 nm, column temperature 25 degrees C, Flow velocity 0.5 mL x min(-1). RESULT: Linear relationship is very good (r = 0.9999) in 0.018-0.18 mg x mL(-1). The average recovery is 98.9%, RSD is 1.2% (n = 4). CONCLUSION: The method is simple and repeatable and can be used for quantitative analysis of fraxinellone in root bark of D. dasycarpus.

[A single factor analysis of the prognosis of 301 hepatitis failure cases and a study of a scoring system on their prognostic assessment].

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the factors related to prognosis of hepatitis failure and to determine the factors which significantly affect it, and to build a scoring system for assessment of the prognosis of hepatitis failure and also to examine its efficacy for clinical use. METHODS: Clinical data from 301 patients were analyzed retrospectively. The correlated degree between those single factors and prognosis of hepatitis failure was explored by logistic regression analysis. Independent risk factors of prognosis and those correlated coefficients, which were from logistic regression analysis, were used to build a scoring system. This system was used in analyzing the clinical data of 275 patients to examine its efficacy of the prognostic assessment. RESULTS: The factors that significantly affected the prognosis of hepatitis failure included age, clinical typing, hepatic coma, total bilirubin, and others (P < 0.01). Some factors, including PTA, blood urea, sodium and hepatic coma, were independent risk factors of prognosis. The scoring system built gave different scores between the effective treatment group and ineffective treatment group with statistical significance (P < 0.01). When the score was less than 40, the probability of a recovery was 76.9%; when the score was 40 to 80, the probability of a recovery was only 12.5%. When the score was more than 80, the probability of a recovery dropped to 0%. CONCLUSIONS: The factors, including PTA, blood urea and sodium and hepatic coma, are important in building a scoring system to assess the prognosis of hepatitis failure. The scoring system we built is very effective in evaluating the prognosis of hepatitis failure.