Effect of premedication on lesion detection rate and visualization of the mucosa during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: a multicenter large sample randomized controlled double-blind study.

BACKGROUND: Premedication in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for higher lesions detection rate has not been well studied so far. This study aimed to confirm whether premedication could improve the detection rate of early cancer or precancerous lesions and mucosal visibility. METHOD: From July 2015 to December 2015, 7200 participants from 6 centers were screened by endoscopy with one of the 4 following premedications randomly: (1) water (group D); (2) pronase (group A); (3) simethicone (group B); (4) pronase and simethicone (group C). Early cancer and precancerous lesions detection rates were taken as the primary endpoints, and mucosal visibility was taken as the secondary endpoint. They were compared among four groups to determine different premedication effects in terms of different anatomical sites. Trial was registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry; the registration number is ChiCTR-IOR-17010985. RESULTS: The upper gastrointestinal overall precancerous lesion detection rates among four groups were 8.7, 8.4, 10.0, and 10.3%, the overall early cancer detection rates were 1.3, 1.4%, 1.5, and 1.6%, both without significant difference (p = 0.138 and 0.878). However, the visibility score distributions between control group (D) and premedication groups (A, B, and C) were all statistically significant, with all anatomical sites p values < 0.001. Subgroup analyses, from 2 centers without screening before, also showed significant difference in esophageal (3.9, 3.3, 4.5, and 8.4% with p = 0.004) and overall (7.0, 5.5, 7.3, and 12.0% with p = 0.004) precancerous lesion detection rate. CONCLUSIONS: Premedication with pronase and simethicone may not increase lesion detection rates but could significantly increase the upper gastrointestinal mucosal visibility.

[Analysis of psychological status and relevant factors of patients with esophageal and gastric cardia precancerous lesions in Linzhou of Henan].

Objective: To explore the psychological status and related factors in patients with precancerous of esophageal and gastric cardia in Linzhou of Henan. Methods: Clinical psycho-rating scale of Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS, score ≥50 points with symptoms of anxiety) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS, score ≥53 points with the symptoms of depression) were applied to survey life events and psychological status of subjects who aged 40-69 years old and participated in"The Early diagnosis and Early Treatment"program in Linzhou cancer hospital from July 2015 to Jan 2016. Patients with lower intraepithelial neoplasia or high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia were selected as precancerous lesions (n=118), and patients with normal grade were selected as healthy controls (n=210). Compare the differences of the scores between the two groups, and the logistic regression model was used to analyze the related factors of precancerous lesions and psychological status of the study subjects. Results: Precancerous lesions included esophageal (72 cases), gastric cardia (40 cases), esophageal and cardia dual source (6 cases); Precancerous lesions and healthy controls aged (57.17±7.71) and (53.12±7.99) years old, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). The anxiety and depression scale showed that the scores of SAS and SDS scores in the precancerous lesions were (37.18±10.01), (40.44±8.37) points, and (34.02±6.63), (38.49±8.73) points in control group, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.002, 0.032). While the social support total score (38.26±5.26), and subjective support score (24.08±3.83) and objective support score (7.50±1.89) in control group were all higher than those of precancerous group (36.80±6.18, 23.01±3.93, 6.93±1.57), and the difference were statistically significant (P=0.024, 0.016, 0.004). In addition, the Logistic analysis showed that subjects with low objective social support, subjective social support and anxiety symptoms were more likely to develop precancerous lesions, and the OR were 0.81, 0.72 and 1.05, respectively (P=0.028, 0.005, 0.009). Conclusion: Social support, anxiety and depression status may be related to the occurrence and development of esophageal and gastric cardia precancerous lesions.

[Basic characteristics and survival analysis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma].

Objective: To analyze the basic characteristics of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and further explore the major factors affecting the prognosis of HCC patients. Methods: A total of 800 HCC patients were randomly selected from the Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Their clinical and follow-up information was obtained from medical record. Univariate analysis of variance, Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis were used to analyze the patients' age at diagnosis and survival time, etc. Results: The average age of diagnosis was 55.04 years among all the 800 HCC patients, and the sex ratio of male to female was 4.48. The infection rates of HBV and HCV were 78.6% (629/800) and 5.8% (46/800), respectively. The smoking rate was 41.0% (328/800) and the alcohol consumption rate was 38.5% (328/800). 259 (32.4%) patients underwent radical treatments with liver resection as major therapy, and 541 (67.6%) patients adopted non-radical treatments with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) as major therapy. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates of the HCC patients were 73.2%, 53.7% and 42.4%, respectively. The risk factors for prognosis included alcohol abuse and treatment methods. The HR of alcohol abuse was 1.326 (95%CI: 1.058 to 1.661) and HR of treatment methods was 3.301 (95% CI: 2.483 to 4.387). Conclusions: Men account for the majority of HCC patients, and most patients have a lower age at diagnosis and adopt non-radical treatments. The exposure rates of HBV infection and alcohol abuse of HCC patients are significantly higher than those of general population. The major risk factors affecting prognosis and survival are treatments and alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse and HBV may have synergistic effects on the survival of HCC patients.

Post-acute stroke patients use brain-computer interface to activate electrical stimulation.

Through certain mental actions, our electroencephalogram (EEG) can be regulated to operate a brain-computer interface (BCI), which translates the EEG patterns into commands that can be used to operate devices such as prostheses. This allows paralyzed persons to gain direct brain control of the paretic limb, which could open up many possibilities for rehabilitative and assistive applications. When using a BCI neuroprosthesis in stroke, one question that has surfaced is whether stroke patients are able to produce a sufficient change in EEG that can be used as a control signal to operate a prosthesis.

Correlation of near-infrared spectroscopy and transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex in overt reading and musical tasks.

In overt reading and singing tasks, actual vocalization of words in a rhythmic fashion is performed. During execution of these tasks, the role of underlying vascular processes in relation to cortical excitability changes in a spatial manner is uncertain. Our objective was to investigate cortical excitability changes during reading and singing with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), as well as vascular changes with nearinfrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Findings with TMS and NIRS were correlated. TMS and NIRS recordings were performed in 5 normal subjects while they performed reading and singing tasks separately. TMS was applied over the left motor cortex at 9 positions 2.5 cm apart. NIRS recordings were made over these identical positions. Although both TMS and NIRS showed significant mean cortical excitability and hemodynamic changes from baseline during vocalization tasks, there was no significant spatial correlation of these changes evaluated with the 2 techniques over the left motor cortex. Our findings suggest that increased left-sided cortical excitability from overt vocalization tasks in the corresponding "hand area" were the result of "functional connectivity," rather than an underlying "vascular overflow mechanism" from the adjacent speech processing or face/mouth areas. Our findings also imply that functional neurophysiological and vascular methods may evaluate separate underlying processes, although subjects performed identical vocalization tasks. Future research combining similar methodologies should embrace this aspect and harness their separate capabilities.

Pharmacokinetics of lactosaminated recombinant human growth hormone in mice.

AIM: To study the pharmacokinetic characteristics of lactosaminated recombinant human growth hormone (hGH-L) in mice. METHODS: The biodistribution was studied with in vivo radioactive tracer technique. The pharmacokinetics was investigated by radioimmunoassay (RIA) method of hGH-L. The results were compared with that of recombinant human growth hormone (hGH). RESULTS: 125I-hGH-L has remarkable livertaxis. The area under drug concentration-time curve (32686.9 microg . min . L-1) in blood and serum mean residence time (21.4 min) of hGH-L are less than that of hGH (36913.1 microg . min . L-1 and 24.9 min) (P < 0.05). In target organ liver, hGH-L distribution half life (1.8 min) and elimination half life (11.1 min) are shorter than that of hGH (2.1 min and 27.7 min) (P < 0.05). The area under drug concentration-time curve (17621.9 microg . min . L-1) of hGH-L is bigger than that of hGH(12148.2 microg . min . L-1) (P < 0.05) in liver. CONCLUSION: The pharmacokinetic parameters of hGH-L has obvious advantage over that of hGH.

[Preparation of hepatic targeting antivirus agent NGA-ACV and its targeting property].

Neoglycoalbumin (NGA), a special ligend of asialoglycoprotein receptor on the hepatocyte, was linked via a butanediacyl bridge to acyclovir to form a conjugate NGA-ACV. By using DTA (Differential thermoanalysis) and HPLC analysis, ACV was shown to be connected with NGA by covalent bonds and stable in blood. The radio-biodistribution of 131I-NGA-ACV with high drug density in vivo was carried out in mice. The maximum absorption of 131I-NGA-ACV in liver was 81.7 +/- 10.4% at 5 min. The radioimage of 131I-NGA-ACV with high or low drug density in rabbit showed no significant difference in liver targeting property. The competitive connection tests indicated that 131I-NGA-ACV was concentrated in liver through receptor mediated mechanism. A tentative test of antihepatitis B of NGA-ACV and ACV in vitro showed that the effective dose of the former was significantly lower than that of the latter.