Rehabilitation effect of exercise with soft tissue manipulation in patients with lumbar muscle strain.

OBJECTIVE: To study the rehabilitation effect of exercise with soft tissue manipulation therapy for patients with lumbar muscle strain. METHODS: Patients with lumbar muscle strain who met the inclusion criteria for study were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. Conventional therapy (i.e., triple therapy of needle, moxibustion, and cupping jar) was implemented for control group patients with lumbar muscle strain, whereas the combination therapy of exercise with manipulation was implemented for experimental group patients with lumbar muscle strain. Pain levels of the two groups of patients were graded using the VAS score, and finally, the rehabilitation effect of the two groups of patients was evaluated. Comparative analysis was performed using SPSS17.0 software, t-test, variance and χ2 test, and other statistical methods. RESULTS: After treatment, there is a significant difference in average visual analogue scale (VAS) score between experimental group and control group, which meets P < 0.05; difference in joint range of motion between experimental group patients and control group patients was P < 0.05; the total treatment efficiency of experimental group patients was 99%, whereas that of control group was 79%. CONCLUSION: Rehabilitation effect of exercise with soft tissue manipulation therapy for lumbar muscle strain is more significant.

Biomarkers in the lung cancer diagnosis: a clinical perspective.

The propensity for tumor biomarkers to be detected in serum at an early disease stage has become an area of interest for clinicians. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of 7 tumor biomarkers, namely, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), cytokeratin 19 (CYFRA-21-1), alpha-fetoprotein, carbohydrate antigen-125 (CA-125), carbohydrate antigen-19.9 (CA-19.9), and ferritin, independently or in combination for the diagnosis of lung cancer. Electrochemiluminescence immunization was used to determine biomarker levels expressed in 530 patients with pulmonary disease and 229 healthy subjects. The observed levels of CEA, NSE, CYFRA-21-1, CA-125, and CA-19.9 in patients with pathologically confirmed lung cancer were significantly higher than those in patients with benign pulmonary disease or control subjects. Adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and small cell carcinoma of the lung were associated with the highest observed levels of CA-125, CYFRA-21-1, and NSE, respectively. Combining biomarkers successfully led to the diagnosis of lung cancer. CEA + NSE + CA-125 showed the highest sensitivity for small cell carcinoma, at 83.33%, whereas CEA + NSE + CYFRA-21-1 + CA-125 showed 94.11% sensitivity for squamous cell carcinoma. The combination of 6 biomarkers, namely, CEA + NSE + CYFRA-21-1 + CA-125 + ferritin + CA-19.9, showed 80.49% sensitivity for adenocarcinoma. Combining biomarkers significantly aided in the diagnosis of lung cancer. However, this increased sensitivity on combination was accompanied by a decreased specificity for lung cancer subtypes. Combining biomarkers appropriately increases their sensitivity and helps with the diagnosis of lung cancer.

Topoisomerase I associates specifically with simian virus 40 large-T-antigen double hexamer-origin complexes.

Topoisomerase I (topo I) is required for releasing torsional stress during simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA replication. Recently, it has been demonstrated that topo I participates in initiation of replication as well as in elongation. Although T antigen and topo I can bind to one another in vitro, there is no direct evidence that topo I is a component of the replication initiation complex. We demonstrate in this report that topo I associates with T-antigen double hexamers bound to SV40 origin DNA (T(DH)) but not to single hexamers. This association has the same nucleotide and DNA requirements as those for the formation of double hexamers on DNA. Interestingly, topo I prefers to bind to fully formed T(DH) complexes over other oligomerized forms of T antigen associated with the origin. High ratios of topo I to origin DNA destabilize T(DH). The partial unwinding of a small-circular-DNA substrate is dependent on the presence of both T antigen and topo I but is inhibited at high topo I concentrations. Competition experiments with a topo I-binding fragment of T antigen indicate that an interaction between T antigen and topo I occurs during the unwinding reaction. We propose that topo I is recruited to the initiation complex after the assembly of T(DH) and before unwinding to facilitate DNA replication.

The activity of topoisomerase I is modulated by large T antigen during unwinding of the SV40 origin.

When simian virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen binds to the virus origin of replication, it forms a double hexamer that functions as a helicase to unwind the DNA bidirectionally. We demonstrate in this report that T antigen can unwind and release an origin DNA single strand of less than full length in the presence of purified human topoisomerase I. The sites nicked by topoisomerase I in the strands released by T antigen during DNA unwinding were localized primarily to the "late" side of the origin, and the template for lagging strand synthesis was preferred significantly over the one for leading strand synthesis. Importantly, these sites were, for the most part, different from the sites nicked by topoisomerase I in the absence of T antigen. These data indicate that T antigen activates topoisomerase I nicking at discrete sites and releases these nicked strands during unwinding. We hypothesize that a single molecule of topoisomerase I can form a functional complex with a double hexamer of T antigen to simultaneously relax and unwind double-stranded origin-containing DNA.

The use of AIDS surveillance data for short-term prediction of AIDS cases in Madrid, Spain.

The paper presents a preliminary attempt to predict the numbers of AIDS cases in the Community of Madrid (CAM) up to 1992. Using AIDS case surveillance data gathered by CAM, and a statistical procedure that includes a distribution for reporting delays, the numbers of new diagnoses, reports, AIDS deaths and numbers of patients alive is predicted. Approximate confidence limits for the numbers of new diagnoses are given. We emphasise that these predictions are tentative given the nature of the reporting delays, and discuss the use of such predictions and the requirements for their improvement.

Preventive screening of adolescent mothers and infants: Critical variables in assessing risk for child maltreatment.

One hundred, ninety adolescent mother-infant dyads judged to be at extreme risk for relationship failure and possible child maltreatment were assessed by a trained nurse/social worker team within 24 hours of delivery of the infant. The statewide Central Registry of child maltreatment reports was later examined to learn which mothers had been reported since the initial assessment 12 to 27 months earlier. The subsamples of this resulted in 172 Non-CPS mother-infant dyads and in 18 CPS-involved mother-infant dyads. Comparison of differences revealed that the key signals of risk were the personal, environmental, and educational isolations from those elements critical to the successful rearing of a child. Necessary, but absent, elements of successful maternal-infant relationship were found to include: knowledge of child care techniques and alternatives discipline and parent-skills; more appropriate assessments of mother-infant dyads; and greater social support for the mother's seeking and finding other appropriate child care helpers.