RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Urological calculi often cause renal colic, which is characterized by paroxysmal or persistent severe pain in the upper abdomen or lumbar region. Development of methods to quickly relieve these pain symptoms has garnered clinical attention. Wrist-ankle acupuncture is a type of floating acupuncture therapy administered at selected points in the carpal and ankle areas, and it has good pain-relieving effects. We used wrist-ankle acupuncture combined with pain nursing for pain intervention in patients with renal calculi to confirm its application and safety. AIM: To study the effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture combined with pain nursing in the treatment of urinary calculi with acute pain. METHODS: Eighty-two patients with urinary calculi with acute pain as the first symptom followed at our hospital from November 2019 to June 2021 were enrolled in the study and classified into two groups according to the odd and even numbers of the visit sequences, each with 41 cases. The control group received a routine nursing intervention and intramuscular injection of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, whereas the observation group received pain management nursing and wrist-ankle acupuncture. Subsequently, the pain-relieving effect was compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The score on the visual analog scale (VAS) at 24, 48, and 72 h postintervention was decreased in both groups compared with the baseline data; moreover, the observation group scored significantly lower than the control group on the VAS at each time point after the intervention (P < 0.05). The clinical efficacy at 24 h postintervention was not significantly different between the two groups (P > 0.05). In turn, the pain recurrence rate at 72 h postintervention was lower in the observation group compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Finally, the nursing satisfaction rate in the observation group was significantly higher than that observed in the control group (P < 0.05). No serious adverse reactions occurred during the treatment and the safety of treatment was high in both groups. CONCLUSION: Wrist-ankle acupuncture combined with pain nursing for treating urolithiasis with acute pain effectively alleviated the degree of pain and reduced the recurrence rate, which was worthy of clinical application.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Radionuclide imaging of reporter gene expression holds promise for noninvasive monitoring of gene therapy. Herpes simplex virus 1-thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) has been successfully applied to the tumor tissue.We explored the feasibility of the expression imaging of HSV1-tk reporter gene in rat myocardium by using SPECT reporter probe (131)I-2'-fluoro-2'-deoxy-1-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl-5-iodouracil ((131)I-FIAU) and autoradiography (ARG). METHODS: The recombinant Ad5-tk carrying HSV1-tk gene and adenovirus (Ad5-null) as vector were constructed and intramyocardially injected into SD rats. Experiment was grouped for different aims as follows: (1) Influence of time on the imaging after transfection reporter gene: rats were injected with (131)I-FIAU at day 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 after transfection of 1 x 10(8)pfu Ad5-tk; (2) Influence of various titers on the imaging: rats underwent intramyocardial injection with various titers of Ad5-tk (5 x 10(8), 1 x 10(8), 5 x 10(7), 1 x 10(7)pfu). After 2 days, rats were injected with (131)I-FIAU in tail vein. Equal volume Ad-nulls was intramyocardially injected to control rats. Rats were killed 24 h after injection of (131)I-FIAU and the hearts were rapidly dissected for gamma counts measurement. The total myocardial (131)I-FIAU accumulation was quantified in percent of injected dose per gram myocardium (%ID/g). The myocardial reporter gene expression was semi-quantitatively determined by ARG and RT-PCR. RESULTS: ARG and RT-PCR showed that the local expression of reporter gene increased in proportion with increasing titer and decreased in proportion with time post injection. The semi-quantitative assay showed there were significant correlations among %ID/g, RT-PCR and ARG: r(2) = 0.963, P < 0.05 for RT-PCR and ARG; r(2) = 0.996, P < 0.01 for %ID/g and ARG in rats received various reporter gene titers at identical time point post injection; r(2) = 0.950, P < 0.05 for RT-PCR and ARG; r(2) = 0.980, P < 0.01 for %ID/g and ARG for rats received identical reporter gene titer on various time points post injection. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that cardiac reporter gene imaging with HSV1-tk as reporter gene and (131)I-FIAU as reporter probe was feasible in rats. The optimal Ad5-tk titer is 1 x 10(8) pfu and the optimal imaging time is 24 h to 48 h post gene transfer. HSV1-tk/FIAU may be used for the noninvasive monitoring of cardiac gene therapy.
