Treatment of complicated urinary tract infection and acute pyelonephritis by short-course intravenous levofloxacin (750 mg/day) or conventional intravenous/oral levofloxacin (500 mg/day): prospective, open-label, randomized, controlled, multicenter, non-inferiority clinical trial.

Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of short-course intravenous levofloxacin (LVFX) 750 mg with a conventional intravenous/oral regimen of LVFX 500 mg in patients from China with complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) and acute pyelonephritis (APN).

Methods: This was a prospective, open-label, randomized, controlled, multicenter, non-inferiority clinical trial. Patients with cUTI and APN were randomly assigned to a short-course therapy group (intravenous LVFX at750 mg/day for 5 days) or a conventional therapy group (intravenous/oral regimen of LVFX at 500 mg/day for 7-14 days).

[Non-compaction cardiomyopathy in a 5-generation Chinese family].

Objective: Familial left ventricular noncompaction(LVNC) is quite rare. We screened for the presence of LVNC and related clinical characteristics in a 5-generation Chinese family.

Methods: Comprehensive medical history was obtained from 40 members in a 5-generation Chinese family.

Antithrombotic drug therapy for IgA nephropathy: a meta analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Antithrombotic agents, including antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants and thrombolysis agents, have been widely used in the management of immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy in Chinese and Japanese populations. To systematically evaluate the effects of antithrombotic agents for IgA nephropathy.

Methods: Data sources consisted of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese Science and Technology Periodicals Databases (CNKI) and Japana Centra Revuo Medicina (http://www.

[Classification and functional study of peripheral blood dendritic cells in patients with coronary artery disease with different atherosclerotic plaques].

Objective: To study the quantitative and functional changes of peripheral blood dendritic cells (DCs) and their subsets in the leukocyte population in patients with coronary artery disease (CHD) with different coronary artery plaques and explore the relation between DCs and coronary plaque development.

Methods: Thirty CHD patients were divided into SAP (10 cases), UAP (10 cases) and ACS (10 cases) groups, with another 10 patients having negative result in coronary angiography as the control group. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) was performed to identify the nature of the plaques.

Effectiveness of a school-based AIDS education program among rural students in HIV high epidemic area of China.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a life-planning skills training program using participatory methods among rural senior high school students in Shangcai County, Henan Province, China.

Methods: The study was a quasi-experimental study conducted in three Shangcai County senior high schools with comparable socioculture-economic and demographic characteristics (two interventions and one control). The intervention, a life-planning skills program that uses participatory training methods, combining information education with effective skills building, was provided to all first-grade students (14-18 years old; 87% of them are between 15 and 17 years old) in the intervention group from October 2003 to December 2003.

[The effect of telomerase reverse transcriptase on 5-HT induced pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells proliferation].

Objective: To investigate the effect of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) to the proliferation of 5-HT induced pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs).

Methods: The PASMCs proliferation experiment was performed to detect the effort on PASMCs of 5-HT or ASODN TERT (antisense oligoribonucleotides TERT designed according to the rat TERT mRNA sequence of gene bank). The immunohistochemistry staining experiment and the in situ hybridization experiment were to detect the TERT protein and mRNA expression with 5-HT or ASODN TERT.

[Oxidative stress status in patients with various degrees of chronic renal insufficiency].

Objective: To observe the changes of lipid peroxidation and antioxidative enzyme activities of chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) and to explore their effects on the pathogenesis of CRI.

Methods: Serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), serum glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) in 36 non-dialyzed patients with various degrees and 12 hemodialyzed (HD) were determined with the method of chemistry colorimetry.

Results: Thirty-six CRI and 12 HD patients included in the study had higher SOD activities when compared with the controls [(110.

[Effects of basic fibroblast growth factor on rat models of Alzheimer disease].

Objective: To study the effects of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on the praxiology and cerebral acetylcholinesterase (AchE) fiber density of kainic acid-lesioned rat models of Alzheimer disease (AD).

Methods: AD models were induced in 30 normal adult rats by damaging the rat nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) with kainic acid, and the models were then assigned into 3 groups to receive cerebroventricular infusion with bFGF, saline or nothing for treatment, serving respectively as the treatment group at 30 min, 1, 3 and 7 d after the injury, sham treatment group or injury group. Another 10 rats were used as control group, which received saline injections into the NBM without further treatment.

[Expression of urotensinII in human coronary artery and coronary atherosclerosis].

Objective: To assess the expression intensity of urotensinII (UII) in normal and atheromatous human coronary artery and explore its significance in coronary atherosclerosis.

Methods: Specimens of coronary arteries were obtained from 5 normal subjects and the expression of human UII in the specimens was detected by immunohistochemical method.

Results: UII expression was found in the endothelial cells (ECs), foam cells (FCs), inflammatory cells (ICs) and intima smooth muscle cells (ISMs) of human coronary artery.