Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in acute ischemic stroke: a review.

Stroke, also known as cerebrovascular disease, is a common and serious neurological disease, which is also the fourth leading cause of death in the United States so far. Hyperbaric medicine, as an emerging interdisciplinary subject, has been applied in the treatment of cerebral vascular diseases since the 1960s. Now it is widely used to treat a variety of clinical disorders, especially hypoxia-induced disorders. However, owing to the complex mechanisms of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment, the therapeutic time window and the undefined dose as well as some common clinical side effects (such as middle ear barotrauma), the widespread promotion and application of HBO was hindered, slowing down the hyperbaric medicine development. In August 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration declared artery occlusion as one of the 13 specific indications for HBO therapy. This provides opportunities, to some extent, for the further development of hyperbaric medicine. Currently, the mechanisms of HBO therapy for ischemic stroke are still not very clear. This review focuses on the potential mechanisms of HBO therapy in acute ischemic stroke as well as the time window.

[Clinical characterization and treatment of acute decompression sickness after group repeated dives].

OBJECTIVE: To clinically characterize the divers who suffer from decompression sickness in group after diving, optimize therapeutic treatment settings for grouped patients where the conventional individualized treatment cannot be implemented. METHODS: Clinical parameters of patients such as age, professional seniority in dive, labor intensity, diving depth and their symptoms were statistically categorized to identify the factors that correlate with treatment efficacy and recurrence rate. In accordance with the symptoms and the reactions to pressure, 4 treatment programs were applied: Program A, Program B, Program C, Program D. RESULTS: (1) age, professional seniority, diving depth, length of service, dive frequency were positively correlated with the treatment efficacy (P<0.05, P<0.01), and these parameters together with pain intensity were also positively correlated with recurrence risk (P<0.05, P<0.01), while long latency time of the disease often related with poor therapeutic outcome and high recurrence rate (P<0.01), (2) pain intensity were positively affected by age, diving depth and dive frequency (P<0.05, P<0.01), whereas negatively affected by disease latency time (P<0.01), (3) Four elements in this clinic project, selection of treatment program, length of service, diving depth and disease latency time of patient, were responsible for (or: could account for) 48.0% change of treatment efficacy, (4) Among Programs using different therapeutic pressure, Program D, C and B had better outcomes than Program A (P<0.01, P<0.05). Also, less patients in Program D, C and B suffered from recurrence with relative to Program A (P<0.01, P<0.05), (5) Between Programs adopting same hyperbaric pressure and treatment duration time, Program D was more efficient and fewer recurrent cases were found in it if compared to Program B (P<0.05), (6) In programs with same pressure and duration time settings, Program D was remarkably superior to program C in regard of its treatment efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: In condition with only limited clinic supplies, Program D could be the first choice to provide the hyperbaric oxygen as an ideal group treatment, and it is not very necessary for the clinician to provide individualized therapy. An appropriate extension of stay in hyperbaric chamber may apply to some patients but depending on the clinical symptoms, however, no longer time than 120 min is recommended.

[Design of automatic monitoring for hyperbaric oxygen-cabins by using microcomputer].

This paper introduces a kind of union of hyperbaric oxygen-cabins and a microcomputer through which, the temperature measurement, the monitoring of oxygen concentration and air exchange are realized automatically with uniformly ascending voltage and static constant voltage.

High Prevalence of HBV in Tibet, China.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV), distributed throughout the world, is classified into seven geographically separated genotypes designated A to G. Since the prevalence of HBV infection in isolated ethnic Tibetan populations in China, and the HBV genotypes involved have been hither to remained unclear, we collected 262 blood samples from four isolated villages in the east and west regions of Tibet. The prevalence of HBV infection was estimated by EIA for HBV Ag and HBV Ab. The HBV genotypes were determined by a PCR-microwell plate hybridization method using plasma DNA. The prevalence of HBV Ag and HBV Ab positives was 19.1% (50/262 cases) and 29.0% (76/262 cases), respectively. We detected only the C genotype (20/20 cases), this being known as a predominant type of HBV among Mongoloid populations in Asia. The results revealed, for the first time, that Tibetan villagers have a high rate of infection with HBV of C genotype, in line with the available data for chronic hepatitis and liver cancer.