Pain relief effect of breast feeding and music therapy during heel lance for healthy-term neonates in China: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: to test the effectiveness of breast feeding (BF), music therapy (MT), and combined breast feeding and music therapy (BF+MT) on pain relief in healthy-term neonates during heel lance. DESIGN: randomised controlled trial. SETTING: in the postpartum unit of one university-affiliated hospital in China from August 2013 to February 2014. PARTICIPANTS: among 288 healthy-term neonates recruited, 250 completed the trial. All neonates were undergoing heel lancing for metabolic screening, were breast fed, and had not been fed for the previous 30 minutes. INTERVENTIONS: all participants were randomly assigned into four groups - BF, MT, BF+MT, and no intervention - with 72 neonates in each group. Neonates in the control group received routine care. Neonates in the other three intervention groups received corresponding interventions five minutes before the heel lancing and throughout the whole procedure. MEASUREMENTS: Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS), latency to first cry, and duration of first crying. FINDINGS: mean changes in NIPS scores from baseline over time was dependent on the interventions given. Neonates in the BF and combined BF+MT groups had significantly longer latency to first cry, shorter duration of first crying, and lower pain mean score during and one minute after heel lance, compared to the other two groups. No significant difference in pain response was found between BF groups with or without music therapy. The MT group did not achieve a significantly reduced pain response in all outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: BF could significantly reduce pain response in healthy-term neonates during heel lance. MT did not enhance the effect of pain relief of BF. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: healthy-term neonates should be breast fed to alleviate pain during heel lance. There is no need for the additional input of classical music on breast feeding in clinic to relieve procedural pain. Nurses should encourage breast feeding to relieve pain during heel lance.

[The effect of fluoride on the metabolism of teeth and bone in rats].

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of fluoride on the metabolism of teeth and bone in rats, and to probe the mechanism of pathogenesis of dental fluorosis. METHODS: A total of 48 Wistar rats were randomly and equally divided into 4 groups including control group (distilled water), low-dose group(NaF,50 mg/L), medium-dose group (NaF,100 mg/L) and high-dose group (NaF, 150 mg/L). After 8 weeks, the rats were sacrificed under anesthesia, and serums were collected. The biochemical technique was used to test serum calcium. Changes in the fluorine content in serums and teeth of each group were analyzed with fluoride ion selective electrode method. Radioimmunoassay was employed to detect the levels of osteocalcin (OC), parathormone (PTH) and calcitonin (CT), respectively. SPSS13.0 software package was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The fluorine content in serum and teeth in the fluoride group were significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05), and increased with the increasing concentrations (F value was 11.234 and 275.148 respectively, P<0.01). The level of calcium in serum (F=3.906, P<0.05) in the fluoride group was significantly lower than in the control group. The level of PTH and OC in serum in medium and high-dose group were significantly higher than in the control group (P<0.01), with the level of CT in high-dose group decreased significantly (P<0.01). The differences of the level of OC, PTH, CT between groups were significant (F value was 8.548, 3.801 and 5.121 respectively, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Fluoride affects the metabolism of teeth and bone in rats and OC, PTH, CT plays a key role in the pathogenesis of dental fluorosis.

[Morphologic characteristics and clinical significance of Neiguan (PC 6)].

OBJECTIVE: To provide appropriate needling angle and depth for the acupuncture and acupoint injection at Neiguan (PC 6), and to avoid damaging nerves and vessels so as to produce its maximum effect. METHODS: Thirty adults' upper-limb samples were used to dissect and observe the referred hierarchical structure and adjoining crucially nerves and vessels in needling Neiguan (PC 6) according to the national standard Acupoint Location (GB 12346-90). RESULTS: In this punctuation region, there are three parts rich in connective tissues containing the nerves and blood vessels. The surface part is between the skin and the musculus flexor digitorum superficialis and it is the tissue which contains medial and lateral antebrachial cutaneous nerve and its nutrient artery. The middle part is between the musculus flexor digitorum superficialis and the flexor digitorum profundus muscle and contains the median nerve, its palmar branch of and artery. The deep part is between the pronator quadratus muscle and the interosseous membrane and contains the anterior interosseous nerve. When perpendicular needling, the depth of needling the body from skin to the superficial surface of the musculus flexor digitorum superficialis and to the superficial surface of the flexor digitorum profundus muscle is (6.68 +/- 0.64) mm and (12.37 +/- 0.87) mm respectively. The depth of needling the body from skin to the superficial surface of the pronator quadratus muscle and to the superficial surface of the anterior interosseous terminal branch of the nerves is (17.83 +/- 1.00) mm and (30.87 +/- 1.85) mm respectively, and the proportional cun is (2.20 +/- 0.14) cm. The ulnaris cord of median nerves are located at the radial of the needle. The deep layers could touch the anterior interosseous nerve ending. CONCLUSION: Perpendicularly needling Neiguan (PC 6) for 3 fen (6.68 mm), 5 fen (12.37 mm) and 1.4 cun (30.87 mm) will stimulate the nervus vascularis of the rich part of surface, middle and deep connective tissues respectively and produce the acupuncture effect. During the acupoint injection, perforating the needle perpendicularly at the middle point of the two tendons or deviating slightly to the direction of tendon of palmaris longus can avoid the damage of the median nerve cord.

Systematic studies on quality of main species of Herba epimedii / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To achieve the quality control of Herba Epimedii, and to evaluate the quality of medical materials of the 8 official species including the 5 species recorded in 'Chinese Pharmacopoeia' including Epimedium brevicornum, E. sagittatum, E. pubescens, E. koreanum and E. wushanense, and the 3 other species (E. acuminatum, E. myrianthum, E. leptorrhizum) recorded in 'Guizhou Quality Criteria for Traditional Chinese Medical Material and Nationality Medical Material', and E. pseudowushanuse (new species) which is used as E. wushanense for a long time.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The contents of icariin and total flavonoids of 102 samples of 9 officinal species of Herba Epimedii were determined by HPLC and UV, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULT AND CONCLUSION</b>The contents of icariin in about 30% of the samples of the 5 species recorded in 'Chinese Pharmacopoeia' were lower than 0.5%, which is acceptable quality recorded in 'Chinese Pharmacopoeia'. Refering the literatures, we suggested the total contents of epimedin A, B, C and icariin (epi-medium multi-glycosides, ABCI) should be established as a new standard instead of the content of icariin. The content of total flavonoids, not less than 5.0%, and ABCI, not less than 1.3%, could be used to evaluate the quality of the above medical materials efficiently.</p>

Toluene diisocyanate exposure induces laryngo-tracheal eosinophilia, which can be ameliorated by supplementation with antioxidant vitamins in guinea pigs.

OBJECTIVE: Toluene diisocyanate (TDI)-induced asthma is a common cause of occupational lung disease. In addition, a sore throat is one of the complaints of TDI-exposed workers. The aim of the present study was to determine whether TDI exposure induces laryngeal and/or tracheal lesions in experimental animals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Guinea pigs underwent naris application of TDI three times, and their respiratory tracts were then examined using light and electron microscopy. Some animals simultaneously received vitamins C and E. which function as antioxidant agents. RESULTS: When TDI-treated animals showed the clinical sign of labored breathing, many eosinophils had appeared in the lamina propria and mucosa of both the larynx and trachea, which finally infiltrated the tract lumen through the ruptured epithelium. Laryngo-tracheal inflammation was more severe than that observed in the lungs. However, supplementation with antioxidant vitamins in TDI-treated animals ameliorated the respiratory eosinophilia. CONCLUSION: Naris application of TDI induced laryngotracheitis. which was significantly suppressed by the antioxidant vitamins, This implies a preventive effect of the vitamins on this occupational disease.