Low frequency sound stimulation greatly improved the outcome of a refractory postherpetic neuralgia patient with mood and sleep disorder: a case report.

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a common and severe chronic complication of the herpes zoster (HZ) virus (shingles) involving prolonged pain which may last from weeks to years. Primary treatment involves oral therapies, although few patients experience a pain reduction of greater than 50%. Due to limited effective treatments, symptoms and comorbidities, including physical disability and emotional distress, are recurrent, and interfere with daily activities and sleep. A 34-year-old male had experienced refractory PHN on the right 3 to 5 thoracic dermatomes for about 3.5 years, accompanied with mood and sleep disorder. During this time, several treatments had been attempted, including systemic tricyclic antidepressants, opioid analgesics, anticonvulsants, topical lidocaine, epidural block, and spinal cord stimulation (SCS); however, their outcomes had been unsatisfactory. Low frequency sound stimulation (LFSS) was found effective in reducing the pain, and improving the state of both mood and the sleep. At the time of this report, the patient had been using this treatment for more than 240 days, his quality of life had improved significantly, and no side effects had been observed. LFSS is component of musical therapy, which categorized under complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It uses audible sound (40-120 Hz) to produce a physical effect through the transducer when applied directly to the body, which can affect pain perception via mood and sleep improvement, activating an anti-pain effect in the brain. This case provides a rationale to study LFSS in patients with refractory neuropathic pain.

Triazole-stabilized fluorescence sensor for highly selective detection of copper in tea and animal feed.

A triazole-stabilized fluorescence sensor is developed for copper detection in the study. Tris-(benzyltriazolylmethyl)amine (TBTA) is used to improve the sensitivity and stability for the sensing system. A series of comparative experiments are performed with and without TBTA. In the presence of TBTA, the fluorescence decrease ratio is enhanced from 2.46 to 118.25; the detection limit is reduced from 67 nM to 3.6 nM; the higher selectivity toward copper compared to the other metal ions is verified, including K+, Ca2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Mg2+, Mn2+, Pb2+, Hg2+, Fe3+ and Cr3+. Besides, the sensing system is successfully applied for copper determination in complex tea samples and chicken feed samples with the recovery range of 91.67-116.8%. A good consistency between the presented sensor and the flame atom absorbance spectrometry (FAAS) is confirmed by the low relative errors with the range from -2.39% to 7.02%.

[Effect of the folic acid and vitamin B2 on the diabetes mellitus rats with diabetic nephropathy].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship among the folic acid, vitamin B12 and diabetic nephropathy and to discuss the mechanism of the diabetic microangiopathy. METHODS: We selected 80 SD rats, and then divided them into 2 groups randomly. Those were the control group and the model groups. During the process of this study, the control group was fed with the normal animal feeds; the model groups were fed with the high calorie diets for 10 weeks. At the end of the tenth week, the rats of the model group were induced to diabetes mellitus by intraperitoneal injection with streptozocin 30mg/kg, and then we divided the diabetes mellitus rats into 4 groups which measured the levels of the blood fat (total cholesterin, triglyceride), Fins, FBG, SOD, MDA, GSH-Px. Results (1) Through feeding the rats with the special feeds for a long time, and then injecting with streptozocin can make them develop to be the diabetes mellitus. The model groups' levels of the triglyceride, the cholesterin and the random blood glucose were (1.07 +/- 0.27), (2.29 +/- 0.42), (21.12 +/- 4.21) mmol/L, respectively, those were significantly higher than the control group's levels which were (1.11 +/- 0.20), (0.68 +/- 0.11), (5.73 +/- 0.26) mmol/L (P < 0.05). (2) After given different interference, for the group of the diabetes mellitus rats that without fed with vitamin B12 and folic acid, the degree of the pathological change of kidney tissue was the most serious through the method of periodic acid-Schiff' s staining (PAS), and the level of the MDA was also highest (P < 0.05), the level of the GSH-Px was lowest (P < 0.05) during the all groups. What' s more, both of the folic acid and the vitamin B12 could reduce the increase of the 24hours urinary albumin, especially using the folic acid and the vitamin B12 together. CONCLUSION: Using the special feeds to feed the SD rats for ten weeks and then inject STZ (30 mg/kg) from abdominal cavity can make them develop to be the diabetes mellitus. The supplement with folic acid and vitamin B12 had the effect of protecting the capillary of the kidney from damage, and the mechanism may have something to do with the effect of anti-oxygenation.