Comparing Half-Dose Photodynamic Therapy with Subthreshold Micropulse Laser for the Treatment of Central Serous Chorioretinopathy.

Purpose: To compare the anatomic and functional outcomes of half-dose photodynamic therapy (PDT) and yellow 577-nm subthreshold micropulse laser (SMLT) in treating patients with chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR).

Design: Prospective, double-masked, randomized, controlled clinical trial.

Participants: Patients with chronic CSCR confirmed by clinical features and multimodal imaging.

TAK1 inhibition attenuates both inflammation and fibrosis in experimental pneumoconiosis.

Pneumoconiosis, caused by inhalation of mineral dusts, is a major occupational disease worldwide. Currently, there are no effective drugs owing to a lack of potential therapeutic targets during either the inflammation or fibrosis molecular events in pneumoconiosis. Here, we performed microarrays to identify aberrantly expressed genes in the above molecular events and found a hub gene transforming growth factor-β-activated kinase 1 (), which was highly expressed and activated in pneumoconiosis patients as well as silica-exposed rats with experimental pneumoconiosis.

Type IIB human skeletal muscle fibers positively correlate with bone mineral density irrespective to age.

Background: Age-associated decrease in type IIA/B human skeletal muscle fibers was detected in human biopsies in our previous study. The relationship between change in muscle fiber typing and bone mineral density (BMD) is, however, unknown either cross-sectionally or longitudinally. We therefore conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate their correlation using human muscle biopsies.

Stereoselective formation of a single-stranded helicate: structure of a bis(palladium-allyl)quaterpyridine complex and its use in catalytic enantioselective allylic substitution.

Chiral C2-symmetric quaterpyridine L reacts with [Pd(eta3-C3H5)Cl]2 to form a chiral single-stranded helical binuclear palladium complex of formula [Pd2(eta3-C3H5)2(L)]2+; the complex can efficiently catalyze allylic substitution of 1,3-diphenylprop-2-enyl acetate with dimethyl malonate with enantioselectivity up to 85%.

Age-associated decrease of type IIA/B human skeletal muscle fibers.

Elderly individuals often fall because of poor muscle strength and reduced balancing ability related to muscle aging. However, it is unclear whether changes in muscle fiber types contribute to poor strength or imbalance. We studied age- associated changes in human skeletal muscle fibers using muscle biopsy specimens taken from 65 male and female Chinese patients aged 17-96 years.

The application of capillary electrophoresis for enantiomeric separation of N,N-dimethylamphetamine and its related analogs: intelligence study on N,N-dimethylamphetamine samples in crystalline and tablet forms.

This paper reports a new capillary zone electrophoresis method for the simultaneous chiral determination of the enantiomers of N,N-dimethylamphetamine (DMA), methamphetamine (MA), ephedrine (E), pseudoephedrine (PE) and methylephedrine (Me-E). In this study, a number of electophoretic parameters were examined and optimized including the choice of chiral selectors, the use of short-chain tetraalkylammonium cations, the effect of chiral selector concentration, buffer concentration, applied voltage and capillary temperature. Heptakis(2,6-di-O-methyl)-beta-cyclodextrin (DM-beta-CD) and tetrabutylammonium (TBA) being the best chiral selector and buffer cation, respectively, the optimized electrophoretic conditions were found to be: 20 mM DM-beta-CD, 50 mM TBAPO(4) at pH 2.

Lack of efficacy of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound on prevention of postmenopausal bone loss evaluated at the distal radius in older Chinese women.

A within-subject, randomized, and prospective intervention trial was done to evaluate the potential effect of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound on prevention of postmenopausal bone loss. Twenty healthy postmenopausal women between the ages of 51-81 years met the inclusion criteria. The treatment hand was randomly selected, and the contralateral site served as a control.

Complex tibial fracture outcomes following treatment with low-intensity pulsed ultrasound.

A clinical study was conducted to investigate the effect of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (US) stimulation (LIPUS) on the healing of complex tibial fractures. Thirty complex tibial fractures were randomly assigned to the treatment with LIPUS (n = 16) or by a dummy machine (sham-exposed: n = 14). The fractures were immobilized by either internal or external fixations according to the clinical indications.