Effects of Dietary Cholesterol and its Oxidation Products on Pathological Lesions and Cholesterol and Lipid Oxidation in the Rabbit Liver

The effects of dietary cholesterol (CHO) and cholesterol oxidation productions (COPs) on the induction of pathological lesions in rabbit liver tissues were determined. Rabbits were fed with a chow containing no additives or added with 1 g CHO, 2 g CHO, 0.9 g CHO + 0.1 COPs, 0.8 g CHO + 0.2 g COPs, 0.5 g CHO + 0.5 g COPs, 1.6 g CHO + 0.4 g COPs, or 1.2 g CHO + 0.8 g COPs per kg diet. Liver lesions were induced only when the levels of CHO and COPs in the diet were very high. The amount of CHO in the liver increased when dietary CHO was increased; by comparison, dietary COPs affected liver CHO amounts to a lesser extent. The TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances) value of the liver samples also increased when dietary CHO and COP levels were elevated, and the TBARS value was more strongly affected by the amount of COPs in the diet than by the amount of CHO. At 6 and 12 weeks, COP levels were highest in the group that received 1.2 g CHO + 0.8 g COPs, followed by the 0.5 g CHO + 0.5 g COPs and 1.6 g CHO + 0.4 g COPs groups; the control (0 g) group showed the lowest COP levels among all groups. This indicated that not only dietary CHO but also COPs were involved in hypercholesterolemia-induced liver lesions when the amount of CHO and COPs was high

Effects and treatment methods of acupuncture and herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome/premenstrual dysphoric disorder: systematic review

BACKGROUND: During their reproductive years about 10% of women experience some kind of symptoms before menstruation (PMS) in a degree that affects their quality of life (QOL). Acupuncture and herbal medicine has been a recent favorable therapeutic approach. Thus we aimed to review the effects of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the past decade as a preceding research in order to further investigate the most effective Korean Medicine treatment for PMS/PMDD. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted using electronic databases on studies published between 2002 and 2012. Our review included randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of acupuncture and herbal medicine for PMS/PMDD. Interventions include acupuncture or herbal medicine. Clinical information including statistical tests was extracted from the articles and summarized in tabular form or in the text. Study outcomes were presented as the rate of improvement (%) and/or end-of-treatment scores. RESULTS: The search yielded 19 studies. In screening the RCTs, 8 studies in acupuncture and 11 studies in herbal medicine that matched the criteria were identified. Different acupuncture techniques including traditional acupuncture, hand acupuncture and moxibustion, and traditional acupuncture technique with auricular points, have been selected for analysis. In herbal medicine, studies on Vitex Agnus castus, Hypericum perforatum, Xiao yao san, Elsholtzia splendens, Cirsium japonicum, and Gingko biloba L. were identified. Experimental groups with Acupuncture and herbal medicine treatment (all herbal medicine except Cirsium japonicum) had significantly improved results regarding PMS/PMDD. CONCLUSIONS: Limited evidence supports the efficacy of alternative medicinal interventions such as acupuncture and herbal medicine in controlling premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Acupuncture and herbal medicine treatments for premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder showed a 50% or better reduction of symptoms compared to the initial state. In both acupuncture and herbal medical interventions, there have been no serious adverse events reported, proving the safety of the interventions while most of the interventions provided over 50% relief of symptoms associated with PMS/PMDD. Stricter diagnostic criteria may have excluded many participants from some studies. Also, depending on the severity of symptoms, the rate of improvement in the outcomes of the studies may have greatly differed

Evaluation of the Cross-Protective Efficacy of a Chimeric Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Constructed Based on Two Field Strains

One of the major hurdles to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) vaccinology is the limited or no cross-protection conferred by current vaccines. To overcome this challenge, a PRRS chimeric virus (CV) was constructed using an FL12-based cDNA infectious clone in which open reading frames (ORFs) 3–4 and ORFs 5–6 were replaced with the two Korean field isolates K08-1054 and K07-2273,respectively. This virus was evaluated as a vaccine candidate to provide simultaneous protection against two genetically distinct PRRS virus (PRRSV) strains. Thirty PRRS-negative three-week-old pigs were divided into five groups and vaccinated with CV, K08-1054, K07-2273, VR-2332, or a mock inoculum. At 25 days post-vaccination (dpv), the pigs in each group were divided further into two groups and challenged with either K08-1054 or K07-2273. All of the pigs were observed until 42 dpv and were euthanized for pathological evaluation. Overall, the CV-vaccinated group exhibited higher levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), and interleukin-12 (IL-12) expression and of serum virus-neutralizing antibodies compared with the other groups after vaccination and also demonstrated better protection levels against both viruses compared with the challenge control group. Based on these results, it was concluded that CV might be an effective vaccine model that can confer a broader range of cross-protection to various PRRSV strains

Venous Hemangioma of Parapharyngeal Space with Calcification

A hemangioma of the parapharyngeal space (PPS) is an extremely rare tumor and is responsible for 0.5-1% of all tumors occurring in the PPS. We report a case of PPS venous hemangioma in a 49-year-old woman presenting with diffuse swelling in the submandibular region. A preoperative computed tomography (CT) scan showed a cystic mass with multiple calcifications in the PPS. The calcific nodules were round and about 2 mm in diameter. The hemangioma was completely resected via a transcervical approach. During surgery, we found several calcific nodules, which represented phleoboliths or areas of thrombosis with dystrophic calcification. Despite its rarity, a venous hemangioma of the PPS should be considered in a differential diagnosis when a cystic mass with calcification is found by CT scan. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a PPS venous hemangioma; we describe its pathognomonic findings on imaging

Validation and Reliability of a Smartphone Application for the International Prostate Symptom Score Questionnaire: A Randomized Repeated Measures Crossover Study

Background: Smartphone-based assessment may be a useful diagnostic and monitoring tool for patients. There have been many attempts to create a smartphone diagnostic tool for clinical use in various medical fields but few have demonstrated scientific validity. Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a smartphone application of the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and to demonstrate its validity and reliability. Methods: From June 2012 to May 2013, a total of 1581 male participants (>= 40 years old), with or without lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), visited our urology clinic via the health improvement center at Soonchunhyang University Hospital (Republic of Korea) and were enrolled in this study. A randomized repeated measures crossover design was employed using a smartphone application of the IPSS and the conventional paper form of the IPSS. Paired t test under a hypothesis of non-inferior trial was conducted. For the reliability test, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was measured. Results: The total score of the IPSS (P=.289) and each item of the IPSS (P=.157-1.000) showed no differences between the paper version and the smartphone version of the IPSS. The mild, moderate, and severe LUTS groups showed no differences between the two versions of the IPSS. A significant correlation was noted in the total group (ICC=.935, P<.001). The mild, moderate, and severe LUTS groups also showed significant correlations (ICC=.616,.549, and .548 respectively, all P<.001). There was selection bias in this study, as only participants who had smartphones could participate. Conclusions: The validity and reliability of the smartphone application version were comparable to the conventional paper version of the IPSS. The smartphone application of the IPSS could be an effective method for measuring lower urinary tract symptoms.X1144Ysciescopu

Microlensing Detections of Planets in Binary Stellar Systems

We demonstrate that microlensing can be used for detecting planets in binary stellar systems. This is possible because in the geometry of planetary binary systems where the planet orbits one of the binary component and the other binary star is located at a large distance, both planet and secondary companion produce perturbations at a common region around the planet-hosting binary star and thus the signatures of both planet and binary companion can be detected in the light curves of high-magnification lensing events. We find that identifying planets in binary systems is optimized when the secondary is located in a certain range which depends on the type of the planet. The proposed method can detect planets with masses down to one tenth of the Jupiter mass in binaries with separations <~ 100 AU. These ranges of planet mass and binary separation are not covered by other methods and thus microlensing would be able to make the planetary binary sample richer.Comment: 5 pages, two figures in JPG forma

Graphene Q-switched Yb:KYW planar waveguide laser

A diode-pumped Yb:KYW planar waveguide laser, single-mode Q-switched by evanescent-field interaction with graphene, is demonstrated for the first time. Few-layer graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition is transferred onto the top of a guiding layer, which initiates stable Q-switched operation in a 2.4-cm-long waveguide laser operating near 1027 nm. Average output powers up to 34 mW and pulse durations as short as 349 ns are achieved. The measured output beam profile, clearly exhibiting a single mode, agrees well with the theoretically calculated mode intensity distribution inside the waveguide. As the pump power is increased, the repetition rate and pulse energy increase from 191 to 607 kHz and from 7.4 to 58.6 nJ, respectively, whereas the pulse duration decreases from 2.09 μs to 349 ns

Multiple intestinal lymphomatous polyposis in a Jindo dog

A male, 5-year-old Jindo dog underwent enterectomy and enteroanastomosis due to ileus of the intestine at a local veterinary hospital. Grossly, the excised intestine showed markedly thickened multinodular masses in the serosal layer of the upper part, and soft-to-firm, cream-colored neoplastic masses that displayed extensive nodular mucosal protuberances into the lumen. The neoplastic masses were filled with large round cells that were ovoid in shape and they had pale and/or hyperchromatic nuclei. The neoplastic cells had mainly infiltrated into the mucosal and submucosal layers, and they had diffusely invaded the muscular and serosal layers. Therefore, the diagnosis of canine multiple intestinal malignant lymphomatous polyposis was made based on the gross and histopathological findings. The origin of these tumor cells was determined to be B-cells since they were positive for anti-CD20