[Current practice patterns of preoperative bowel preparation in elective colorectal surgery: a nation-wide survey of Chinese surgeons].

Objective: To understand the current practice of preoperative bowel preparation in elective colorectal surgery in China. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted through wechat. The content of the questionnaire survey included professional title of the participants, the hospital class, dietary preparation and protocol, oral laxatives and specific types, oral antibiotics, gastric intubation, and mechanical enema before elective colorectal surgery. A stratified analysis based on hospital class was conducted to understand their current practice of preoperative bowel preparation in elective colorectal surgery. Result: A total of 600 questionnaires were issued, and 516 (86.00%) questionnaires of participants from different hospitals, engaged in colorectal surgery or general surgeons were recovered, of which 366 were from tertiary hospitals (70.93%) and 150 from secondary hospitals (29.07%). For diet preparation, the proportions of right hemicolic, left hemicolic and rectal surgery were 81.59% (421/516), 84.88% (438/516) and 84.88% (438/516) respectively. The average time of preoperative dietary preparation was 2.03 days. The study showed that 85.85% (443/516) of surgeons chose oral laxatives for bowel preparation in all colorectal surgery, while only 4.26% (22/516) of surgeons did not choose oral laxatives. For mechanical enema, the proportions of right hemicolic, left hemicolic and rectal surgery were 19.19% (99/516), 30.04% (155/516) and 32.75% (169/516) respectively. Preoperative oral antibiotics was used by 34.69% (179/516) of the respondents. 94.38% (487/516) of participants were satisfied with bowel preparation, and 55.43% (286/516) of participants believed that preoperative bowel preparation was well tolerated. In terms of preoperative oral laxatives, there was no statistically significant difference between different levels of hospitals [secondary hospitals vs. tertiary hospitals: 90.00% (135/150) vs. 84.15% (308/366), χ(2)=2.995, P=0.084]. Compared with the tertiary hospitals, the surgeons in the secondary hospitals accounted for higher proportions in diet preparation [87.33% (131/150) vs. 76.78% (281/366), χ(2)=7.369, P=0.007], gastric intubation [54.00% (81/150) vs. 36.33% (133/366), χ(2)=13.672, P<0.001], preoperative oral antibiotics [58.67% (88/150) vs. 24.86% (91/366), χ(2)=12.259, P<0.001] and enema [28.67% (43/150) vs. 15.30% (56/366), χ(2)=53.661, P<0.001]. Conclusion: Although the preoperative bowel preparation practice in elective colorectal surgery for most of surgeons in China is basically the same as the current international protocol, the proportions of mechanical enema and gastric intubation before surgery are still relatively high.

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of tyr and tyrp1 genes in normal and albino yellow catfish Tachysurus fulvidraco.

The full-length complementary DNA of two genes related to vertebrate albinism, the tyrosinase gene tyr and tyrosinase-related protein 1 gene tyrp1, were cloned and analysed from normal and albino yellow catfish Tachysurus fulvidraco. The open reading frames (ORF) of tyr and tyrp1 encode putative peptides of 533 and 526 amino acids (amino-acid), both of which possess two conserved copper binding sites. The homologous identities of deduced amino-acid sequences showed that both Tyr and Tyrp1 of T. fulvidraco share considerable similarity with that of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Both tyr and tyrp1 were expressed in a wide range of adult tissues. Tyr gene had the highest expression level in the brain of both normal and albino T. fulvidraco. Tyrp1 had the highest expression level in the skin of normal groups, and the fin of albino groups. The messenger (m)RNA expressions of tyr and tyrp1 were detectable at different early developmental stages and varied with embryonic and larval growth. Tyr and tyrp1 mRNA have obvious tissue specificity both in normal and albino T. fulvidraco and higher expression levels were detected in the normal group revealing that tyr and tyrp1 may have an important role in pigmentation. These results will provide useful data for understanding the molecular mechanism of melanin formation and the occurrence of albinism in T. fulvidraco.

Age-related expression of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II A in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of senescence accelerated mouse prone/8 mice is modulated by anti-Alzheimer's disease drugs.

Senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM) prone/8 (SAMP8) is a good animal model to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of age-related learning and memory deficits such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) at the gene and protein levels, and SAM resistant/1 (SAMR1) is its normal control. Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II-alpha (CaMKIIalpha) is one of the most abundant subunits of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II in cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and is closely linked to AD. In this study, we used real time fluorescence quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot techniques to examine the expression of CaMKIIalpha mRNA and protein in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus of SAMP8 both with aging and following treatment with anti-AD drugs (for example, natural product huperzine A (HupA) and traditional Chinese medicinal prescription Liu-Wei-Di-Huang decoction (LW), Ba-Wei-Di-Huang decoction (BW), Huang-Lian-Jie-Du decoction (HL), Dang-Gui-Shao-Yao-San (DSS) and Tiao-Xin-Fang decoction (TXF)). The results showed that the levels of both CaMKIIalpha mRNA and protein decreased significantly in the cerebral cortex of SAMR1 with aging, but increased significantly in the cerebral cortex of SAMP8. Compared with age-matched SAMR1, the expression of mRNA and protein of CaMKIIalpha significantly increased in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus of SAMP8 after 10 months of age. After SAMP8 was treated with the previously mentioned drugs, the abnormally high expression of CaMKIIalpha was relatively down-regulated. These results indicated that the expression of CaMKIIalpha in the brain of SAMP8 was abnormal and that this abnormality could be reversed with anti-AD drugs. These data suggest that CaMKIIalpha may play an important role in the age-related cognitive deterioration in AD, and may be a potential targets for anti-AD drugs.

[Study on Chinese herb incense to disinfect wards' air].

The purpose of this study was to find out a proper way to do the air sterilization in the wards. In this study, Chinese herb-burn-incense was used to different wards. Its effect was compared with routine air sterilization methods such as ultraviolet radiator, formaldehyde, and lactiacid method. The bacterial culture of the air was done. The result indicated that Chinese herb-burn-incense not only had the same effect as routine methods in air sterilization but also had no irritation to the patients.

[Relationship between syndrome differentiation and blood total fibrinolytic activity, superoxide dismutase and albumin in nephrosis syndrome].

Relationship between the Syndrome Differentiation and total fibrinolytic activity (TFA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), serum albumin (Alb) was observed in 118 pediatric patients with nephrosis syndrome. The results suggested that there was significant difference between Damp-Heat type and Spleen Deficiency type in terms of blood TFA, SOD and serum Alb. Very significant positive correlation was found between serum Alb and TFA, P < 0.01. The level of TFA in pediatric patients with edema was significantly lower than that in normal children, the more the degree of edema, the more the level of TFA activity. It was shown that there would be possibility to find intrinsic connection between Syndrome Differentiation and laboratory findings.