Applying Lean Six Sigma to Reduce the Incidence of Unplanned Surgery Cancellation at a Large Comprehensive Tertiary Hospital in China.

Unplanned surgery cancellation (USC) was an important quality management issue in the course of medical care for surgical patients, which caused inappropriate use of hospital resources and had negative impacts on quality and safety. This study used Lean Six Sigma to reduce the incidence of USC. Following the Lean Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) process, the main factors influencing the USC were identified, such as the time of informing patient admission, the time of submitting operation notice, and the management of test report follow-up.

Ursolic acid enhances mouse liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy.

Context: Ursolic acid is a pentacyclic triterpenoid which has hepatoprotective and antihepatotoxic activities.

Objective: This study investigated whether ursolic acid is able to stimulate liver regeneration in partially hepatectomized mice.

Materials And Methods: Ursolic acid or the vehicle solution was orally administered to the experimental, sham-operated and vehicle-treated group mice for 7 days, positive control animal (mice) was treated with recombinant human hepatocyte growth factor (rhHGF), and then the 70% liver partial hepatectomy was performed.

Effects of higenamine and its 1-naphthyl analogs, YS-49 and YS-51, on platelet TXA2 synthesis and aggregation.

The effects of higenamine and its 1-naphthyl analogs, YS-49 and YS-51, on thromboxane A(2) (TXA(2)) formation from arachidonic acid (AA) and aggregation in platelets, were investigated. YS-49 and YS-51 (IC(50); 32.8 and 39.

Anti-platelet aggregating and anti-oxidative activities of 11-O-(4'-O-methylgalloyl)-bergenin, a new compound isolated from Crassula cv. 'Himaturi'.

A new compound, 11- O-(4'- O-methylgalloyl)-bergenin was isolated from the MeOH extract of Crassula cv. 'Himaturi'. The structure of the compound was determined on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic data.

Catsper3 and catsper4 encode two cation channel-like proteins exclusively expressed in the testis.

CATSPER1 and CATSPER2 are two cation channel-like proteins exclusively expressed in the testis and essential for normal sperm motility and male fertility. Using in silico subtraction and database mining, we identified expressed sequence tags encoding two previously uncharacterized cation channel-like proteins structurally homologous to CATSPER1 and CATSPER2. Similar to CATSPER1 and CATSPER2, these two proteins contain a single-ion transport domain comprised of six transmembrane spanning regions, in which the fourth transmembrane region resembles a voltage sensor and a pore-forming region lies between transmembrane regions 5 and 6.

Two new non-glycosidic iridoids from the leaves of Campsis grandiflora.

Two new non-glycosidic iridoids, which were named cachinol (1) and 1-O-methyl cachinol (2), were isolated from the methanol extract of the leaves of Campsis grandiflora together with a known iridoid cachineside I (3). The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were determined on the basis of spectroscopic methods including two dimensional NMR and high resolution mass spectrometry. All of the isolated compounds showed mild inhibitory activities on rat platelet aggregation.

Platelet anti-aggregating triterpenoids from the leaves of Acanthopanax senticosus and the fruits of A. sessiliflorus.

Six triterpenoids, chiisanogenin, chiisanoside, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, beta-sitosterol and daucosterol, were isolated as the platelet anti-aggregating components from the leaves of Acanthopanax senticosus and the fruits of A. sessiliflorus. Chiisanogenin showed about 50-fold higher potency than acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) on U46619-induced platelet aggregation (IC50o:6.

Phenolic and furan type compounds isolated from Gastrodia elata and their anti-platelet effects.

Nine phenolic (1-9) and two furan type (10, 11) compounds, were isolated from the methanolic extract of the tuber of Gastrodia elata Blume (Orchidaceae) in the course of continuing search for platelet anti-aggregating plant components. Compound 1 was identified as 4,4'-dihydroxybenzyl sulfone, a novel compound for the best of our knowledge. Compound 10, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxaldehyde, was isolated for the first time from this plant.

Anti-platelet pentacyclic triterpenoids from leaves of Campsis grandiflora.

Five pentacyclic triterpenoids, oleanolic acid (1), hederagenin (2), ursolic acid (3), tormentic acid (4) and myrianthic acid (5), were isolated from the methanol extract of the leaves of Campsis grandiflora, and structures of the compounds were established by the spectroscopic methods. Compounds 2, 3, 4, and 5 were isolated for the first time from the genus Campsis. All of the compounds (IC50: 45.

Platelet anti-aggregatory effects of coumarins from the roots of Angelica genuflexa and A. gigas.

Five coumarins, isoimperatorin (1), pabulenol (2), isooxypeucedanin (3), oxypeucedanin hydrate (4) and osthol (5) were isolated from the MeOH extract of Angelica genuflexa in the course of searching for anti-platelet and anti-coagulant components from plants. Pabulenol (2) was isolated from A. genuflexa for the first time.