ALDH2 Protects Against Ischemic Stroke in Rats by Facilitating 4-HNE Clearance and AQP4 Down-Regulation.

Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is a new therapeutic target in the central nervous system. However, the association between ALDH2 and brain edema following ischemic stroke (IS) remains unclear. The present study was investigated to whether active ALDH2 can attenuate brain edema by using a rat model of IS, with the aim of clarifying the underlying mechanisms involved. Rats were administered the ALDH2 agonist Alda-1, vehicle or the ALDH2 inhibitor cyanamide (CYA) 15 min prior to a 1.5 h middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) surgery. The effects of ALDH2 were subsequently investigated 24 h after reperfusion by evaluating neurological function, infarct sizes, brain edema volumes, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) levels, and aquaporin 4 (AQP4) protein expression. The results demonstrated that increasing ALDH2 activity significantly improved neurological deficits, reduced infarct sizes, and attenuated brain edema after MCAO. Alda-1 administration led to decreased 4-HNE levels and inhibited AQP4 protein expression in the peri-infarct section of the brain. Whereas, CYA administration increased 4-HNE levels, AQP4 expression, and simultaneously aggravated brain edema following MCAO. In conclusion, increasing ALDH2 activity can improve brain edema, infarct volumes, and reduce neurological impairment in a rat IS model. The therapeutic benefits of ALDH2 are related to 4-HNE clearance and AQP4 down-regulation.

Factors associated with psychological characteristics in patients with hepatic malignancy before interventional procedures.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the psychological characteristics of hepatic malignancy patients before interventional procedures and assess associations with related factors. METHODS: Two hundred and thirteen patients requiring interventional procedure for hepatic malignancy were asked to complete a survey of health knowledge and psychological symptom on health knowledge questionnaire and SCL-90 before interventional procedure. Logistic regression analysis was employed to determine the association of various demographic, clinical and health knowledge factors with the presence of psychological symptoms in patients. RESULTS: Eight psychological symptom scores, i.e. somatization, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobia, paranoid ideations and psychotic states, were significantly higher than the normal range (P< 0.001). Of 213 cases in the study, 49 families (23.00%) concealed the diagnoses of hepatic carcinoma from patients; 135 patients (63.38%) described the prognosis of the disease correctly. It was demonstrated that the correlations between psychological symptoms and related factors, i.e. age, gender, education, interventional procedure times and health knowledge, were statistically significant (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: Psychological distress is severe in hepatic malignancy patients before interventional procedures. Age, gender, education, interventional procedure times and health knowledge are associated with psychological symptoms which are significant different from the normal range in Chinese.

Psychological intervention reduces postembolization pain during hepatic arterial chemoembolization therapy: a complementary approach to drug analgesia.

AIM: To assess whether psychological intervention reduces postembolization pain during hepatic arterial chemoembolization therapy. METHODS: Two hundred and sixty-two patients, who required hepatic arterial chemoembolization for hepatic malignancy and postembolization pain, were randomized into control group (n = 46, receiving medication) and intervention group (n = 216, receiving psychological intervention and medication in turn). The symptom checklist-90 (SCL-90) was used to scale the psychological symptoms of the patients before operation. Pain was scored with a 0 to 10 numeric rating scale (NRS-10) before and after analgesia as well as after psychological intervention (only in intervention group). RESULTS: All psychological symptomatic scores measured with SCL-90 in the intervention group were higher than the normal range in Chinese (P < 0.05). The somatization, phobia and anxiety symptomatic scores were associated with pain numerical rating score before analgesia (r = 0.141, 0.157 and 0.192, respectively, P < 0.05). Patients in both groups experienced pain relief after medication, psychotherapy or psychotherapy combined with medication during the procedure (P < 0.01). Only some patients in the intervention group reported partial or entire pain relief (29.17% and 2.31%) after psychological intervention. The pain score after analgesia in the intervention group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Severe psychological distress occurs in patients with hepatic malignancy. Psychological intervention reduces pain scores significantly during hepatic arterial chemoembolization therapy and is thus, highly recommended as a complementary approach to drug analgesia.