Chinese medical journal
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Chinese medical journal · Jan 2012
Ventricular synchronicity: observations comparing pulse flow and tissue Doppler assessment in a Chinese healthy adult cohort.
Mechanical asynchrony is an important parameter in predicting the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy, but detailed knowledge about cardiac timing in healthy persons is scarce. Therefore, in the current study, we sought to investigate the physiological status of interventricular synchronicity using pulse wave flow and tissue Doppler imaging in a healthy Chinese population. ⋯ Left and right ventricles were well synchronized at the onsets of systole and diastole even though interventricular peak systolic and peak early diastolic dyssynchrony was observed in healthy people by pulse wave Doppler imaging. In addition, diastolic timing events were slightly affected by age and gender.
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Chinese medical journal · Jan 2012
Associations of plasma homocysteine and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels with arterial stiffness in Chinese population: a community-based study.
Arterial stiffness increases with age and is also associated with traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Little is known about the relations of homocysteine and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) to arterial stiffness in the Chinese community. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of plasma homocysteine and hs-CRP levels with arterial stiffness in a community-based cohort. ⋯ In the Chinese population, plasma homocysteine levels are associated with alterations of aortic stiffness, whereas plasma levels of hs-CRP are not independently related to artery stiffening.
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Chinese medical journal · Jan 2012
Meta AnalysisEfficacy and safety of micafungin for invasive candida infections: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Invasive fungal infections such as candidiasis and mold infections cause significant morbidity and mortality in seriously ill patients. Micafungin is an echinocandin antifungal agent with potent activity against most species of Candida and Aspergillus. We did this meta-analysis to clarify whether micafungin offers superior efficacy and safety compared with other antifungal agent for treating infections associated with invasive candidiasis. ⋯ Micafungin has a good safety and tolerability profile, with an efficacy at least comparable to the other antifungal agents. Micafungin offers advantages over other agents for antifungal prophylaxis. Micafungin offers an appropriate alternative for antifungal prophylaxis rather than the treatment of invasive candida infections.
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Chinese medical journal · Jan 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialExtracorporeal shock wave treatment for non-inflammatory chronic pelvic pain syndrome: a prospective, randomized and sham-controlled study.
Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is a clinical syndrome characterized by pain in the perineum, pelvis, suprapubic area, or external genitalia and variable degrees of voiding and ejaculatory disturbance. The analgesic effect of extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT) was an interesting phenomenon with an unclear mechanism discovered by chance in the applications for urolithiasis, on which ESWT has become an increasingly popular therapeutic approach as an alternative option for the treatment of a number of soft tissue complaints. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of ESWT in non-inflammatory (IIIB) CP/CPPS. ⋯ ESWT exhibits a potentially therapeutic role in the treatment of CP/CPPS.
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Chinese medical journal · Jan 2012
¹¹C-methionine and ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/CT in the evaluation of patients with suspected primary and residual/recurrent gliomas.
(18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is the most widely used radiotracer in tumor imaging, but its use for brain gliomas and recurrence is limited by the high (18)F-FDG uptake in normal brain tissue. (11)C-methionine (MET) has low uptake in the normal brain tissue, providing potential advantages over (18)F-FDG. The aim of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of (11)C-MET compared to (18)F-FDG positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) in patients with suspected primary and residual/recurrent gliomas. ⋯ (11)C-MET PET/CT is superior to (18)F-FDG PET/CT in detecting and delineating gliomas and residual/recurrent tumors, especially low-grade gliomas and residual/recurrent lesions present in gray matter, but its role in non-invasive grading of the tumors is limited.