Exploration and study on the modern distance education in traditional Chinese medicine colleges and universities / 中华医学教育探索杂志

This article takes the modern distance education of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine for example, and analyzes the current situation and future development paths of modern distance education in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) colleges and universities, which has provided references for other TCM colleges and universities to set up modern distance education, and laid the foundation for further improving the quality of distance education and social influence, optimizing the modern TCM talent cultivation system, and enhancing the quality of TCM talent cultivation.

Positive rate and accuracy of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology for detecting suspected thyroid carcinoma nodules of different sizes / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the accuracy and positive rate of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-FNA) cytology for detecting suspected thyroid cancer nodules of different sizes.@*METHODS@#A total of 591 patients with 594 suspected malignant thyroid nodules received examinations with US-FNA cytology. Based on their size, the nodules were divided into group I (4-5 mm), group II (6-10 mm), group III (>10 mm). With the results of pathology as the standard, we analyzed the results of US-FNA cytology for detecting thyroid carcinoma in terms of its accuracy, indeterminate rate, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for nodules of different sizes.@*RESULTS@#The positive rates in group I, group II and group III were 39.2% (40/102), 48.2% (172/357) and 65.2% (88/135), respectively, similar between groups I and II (=0.107) and differed significantly between groups I and III (=0.000) and between groups II and III (=0.001). The accuracy, indeterminate rate, positive predictive value and negative predictive value in the 3 groups were 95.5% (21/22), 97.1% (100/103), and 94.4% (51/54); 2.9% (3/102), 2.8% (10/357), and 1.5% (2/135); 100%, 100%, and 98%; 66.7%, 57.1%, and 33.3%, respectively, showing no significant differences among the 3 groups.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The size of the thyroid nodules can affect the positive rate but does not have significant effects on the accuracy, indeterminate rate, positive predictive value or negative predictive value of US-FNA cytology.

Effects of apolipoproteinA1 on reverse cholesterol transport and expression of ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 in human acute monocytic leukemia cell line macrophage-derived foam cells / 中华老年医学杂志

Objective To investigate the effects of apolipoproteinA1 (apoA1) on levels of cholesterol, cholesteryl ester (CE), and expression of ATP-bindiag cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) in human acute monocytie leukemia cell line (THP-1) macrophage-derived foam cells.Methods The cultured THP-1 cells were induced into foam cells by exposing first to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA, 50 ng/ml) for 48 h, and then to oxidized-low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL, 50μg/ml) for 48 h.Under treatment of apoA1 in different doses (5, 10, 15 and 20 μg/ml) and one simple dose (10 μg/ml) for different time (6, 12 and 24 h), THP-1 macrophage-derived foam cells were incubated to observe the expression of cholesterol and ABCA1.The concentrations of cellular total cholesterol (TC), free cholesterol (FC) and CE were determined by oxidization enzymatic methods.Oil red O dyeing experiment was used to show the cellular lipid droplets in the cells.The expression of ABCA1 was tested by immunofluorescence method.Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was applied to investigate mRNA expression of ABCA1.Results The THP-1 cells turned into typical foam cells after treated with PMA (50 ng/ml) for 48 h, and ox-LDL (50 μg/ml) for 48 h.apoA1 could lower the levels of TC, FC and CE in THP-1 macrophage-derived foam cells in a dose-dependent and a time-dependant manner, apoA1 could increase the expression of ABCA1 protein in THP-1maerophage-derived foam cells without up-regulation of mRNA.Antibody of ABCA1 could up- regulate the expression of ABCA1.Conclusions apoA1 may decrease the levels of cholesterols in THP-1 macrophage-derived foam cells, by promoting the expression of ABCA1 and the reverse cholesterol transport of high density lipoprotein.