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Biomedical subjects

G Yao

Publications and source records attributed to G Yao.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Monte Carlo simulation of an optical coherence tomography signal in homogeneous turbid media.

The Monte Carlo technique with angle biasing is used to simulate the optical coherence tomography (OCT) signal from homogeneous turbid media. The OCT signal is divided into two categories: one is from a target imaging layer in the medium (Class I); the other is from the rest of the medium (Class II). These two classes of signal are very different in their spatial distributions, angular distributions and the numbers of experienced scattering events. Multiply scattered light contributes to the Class I signal as well as the Class II signal. The average number of scattering events increases linearly with the probing depth. The Class II signal decays much more slowly than the Class I signal whose decay constant is close to the total attenuation coefficient of the turbid medium. The effect of the optical properties of the medium on the Class I signal decay is studied.

Anisotropy↗
PubMed1999

Full-field mapping of ultrasonic field by light-source-synchronized projection.

A simple method for imaging ultrasonic fields in clear media is introduced. A modulated laser source is used to project the ultrasonic field onto a CCD camera. By use of the source-synchronized lock-in detection scheme, 2D images of the amplitude and phase distributions can be determined simultaneously. This technique is experimentally demonstrated with a 1-MHz and a 3.5-MHz ultrasonic transducer operated in continuous-wave mode. This method is very straightforward to implement and can be combined with the traditional tomographic reconstruction technique to obtain the 3D distribution of an ultrasonic field.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

[Long-term effect of lamivudine treatment in chronic hepatitis B virus infection].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term effect of lamivudine on the loss of serum HBV DNA, HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion and ALT levels in chronic hepatitis B patients and its safety profile and tolerance with multi-center, randomized, double blind and placebo controlled trial. METHOD: 429 patients with chronic HBV infection as defined by positive HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV DNA were enrolled and randomized into lamivudine and placebo groups. 322 patients received lamivudine 100 mg daily and 107 patients received placebo treatment for 12 weeks. Then, all patients were offered a further 40 weeks of open label lamivudine treatment. The efficacy and safety were evaluated with clinical, biochemical, hematological and virological parameters. RESULTS: After 12 weeks treatment, HBV DNA response (serum HBV DNA < 1.6 ng/L) rate in lamivudine group was higher than in placebo group (92.2% VS 14.1%, P < 0.01); but at week 52, there was no difference between lamivudine and placebo/lamivudine groups (71.0% VS 77.7%, P > 0.05). Rate of HBV DNA breakthrough in lamivudine group was higher than in placebo/lamivudine group (24.4% VS 8.5%, P < 0.01). Proportion of HBeAg/anti-HBe seroconversion had no difference in two groups (7.5% VS 5.2%, P > 0.05). By week 12, ALT normalization rate in lamivudine group was higher than in placebo group (60.3% VS 27.5%, P < 0.01); but after 52 weeks treatment, there was no difference between two groups (70.9% VS 74.5%, P > 0.05). At week 48, HBV YMDD mutation rate in lamivudine group was higher than in placebo/lamivudine group (14.6% VS 5.0%, P < 0.05). The incidence of adverse events was similar for both lamivudine and placebo/lamivudine group up to week 12 and 52. There was few severe drug-related adverse event. CONCLUSION: Sustained HBV replication suppression could be obtained from long-term treatment with lamivudine 100 mg daily accompanied with good tolerance and safety.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study of lamivudine in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of lamivudine on the loss of serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion and ALT levels in chronic hepatitis B patients and its safety profile and tolerance compared with placebo. METHODS: Four hundred and twenty-nine patients with chronic HBV infection as defined by positive HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV DNA were enrolled and randomized into lamivudine and placebo groups. Three hundred and twenty-two patients received lamivudine 100 mg daily and 107 patients received placebo treatment for 12 weeks. Then, all patients were offered a further 9-month open label lamivudine treatment. The efficacy and safety were evaluated with clinical, biochemical, hematological and virological parameters. RESULTS: During the 12-week treatment period, 92.2% of lamivudine treated patients became HBV DNA negative (below 1.6 pg/ml) compared with only 14.1% of those receiving placebo (P < 0.01). At the end of 12 week, the sustained negative rate for HBV DNA in the lamivudine treated group was 78.5% compared with the placebo group (11.1%; P < 0.01). There was a trend to a high proportion of patients treated with lamivudine to lose HBeAg (8.1%) and develop antiHBe (10.2%) than treated with placebo (5.3% and 6.4% respectively), but this difference was not statistically significant. Patients with elevated ALT levels at baseline became normal in 60. 3% of the lamivudine treated group compared with the placebo group where only 27.5% were normal (P < 0.01). Lamivudine was well tolerated in a dose of (100 mg daily) and the overall incidence of adverse events was similar to that of the placebo. CONCLUSIONS: Lamivudine (100 mg daily) is very effective in the inhibition of HBV replication, indicated by the rapid loss of serum HBV DNA, and often accompanied by a decrease of serum ALT levels. Lamivudine is well tolerated without severe adverse events during treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

[Morphological cure of cerebral arteriovenous malformations by endovascular therapeutics].

OBJECTIVE: To sum up the clinical characteristics and typical manifestation by analysing clinical materials from total embolized cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) via endovascular embolization. METHODS: We reviewed clinical and image materials of 50 patients whose cerebral AVM were embolized entirely and found the cerebral AVM morphological cure by endovascular embolization after studying the size, position, artery supply, therapeutics and follow-up. RESULTS: 50 patients with cerebral AVM were embolized by endovascular therapy, accounting for 17% of all patients. Malformation lesions were medium or small type, with a diameter less than 3 cm, 95% of them were located in the tentorium superior. Terminal end blood supply was common to AVM and especially medium cerebral artery (MCA) or its branches. 97% of the patients were graded III or below by spectzler grading system. 70% of them had a history of intracranial hemorrhage and were cured by one therapy. CONCLUSIONS: It is a reliable and feasible method for morphological cure in cerebral AVM via endovascular therapeutics only, but case selection is important, that is, medium or small AVM with single branch terminal end blood supply in the tentorium superior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Long-term efficacy of recombinant interferon alpha 2a in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C: a randomized prospective study comparing two dose schedules in Chinese patients.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the long-term efficacy of a dose of 3 million units (MU) of r-IFN alpha 2a (IFN-alpha 2a) three times a week (t.i.w.) for 6 months with a starting dose 6 MU for 3 months and subsequent reduction to 3 MU t.i.w for further 3 months. METHODS: Sixty-eight serological and histological chronic hepatitis C patients with elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were enrolled and randomized into two groups. Sixty-three patients were completed with full course of treatment. Five patients were withdrawn from trial (2 due to personal reasons and 3 due to adverse drug reactions during treatment). Thirty patients received 6 MU IFN-alpha 2a t.i.w., 3 months followed by 3 MU t.i.w. for another 3 months (Group A). Thirty-three patients received 3 MU IFN-alpha 2a t.i.w. for 6 months (Group B). RESULTS: The sex, age, baseline serum bilirubin, ALT and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were matched in both groups. At the end of the 6th month, the complete and partial response rates in Group A were 60.0% and 16.7% respectively, and the clearance of serum HCV-RNA was 53.3%. In Group B, the complete and partial response rates were 72.7% and 6.1% respectively, and the clearance of HCV-RNA was 61.3%. The patients were followed up for 6, 12, and 18 months after stopping treatment. In Group A, the rates of complete normalization of ALT and clearance of serum HCV-RNA at 24 months were 50.0% and 60.0% respectively. In Group B, the rates of normalization of ALT and clearance of HCV-RNA at 24 months were 54.4% and 41.9% respectively. The efficacy between the two groups showed no statistically significant difference. The response rates of treatment were similar to those in the patients with HCV genotype 1b and 2a. Six patients (10.8% of the study population) developed neutralization antibodies to IFN-alpha 2a during treatment, and four of them were responded to the treatment. Adverse drug reactions (ADR), were common, but most of them were tolerable, and the incidence of ADR was in both groups, but the severity was higher in Group A. CONCLUSIONS: IFN-alpha 2a is effective in the treatment of Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis C. The sustained response rates and adverse drug reactions among two dose schedule groups are similar.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

[Spectroscopic characterization of a new terbium complex with red fluorescence].

Usually, the emission spectra of terbium complexes exhibit 490 nm, 545 nm bands (green color) under the excitation of UV light, which is ascribed to the two 5D4 - 7F6, 5D4 - 7F5 transition. In this report, pink red fluorescence under the excitation of 300-370nm UV light is observed for a new 1, 10-phenanthroline-2-naphthoate complex of terbium. The fluorescence, FT-IR, ICP and X-ray fluorescence analysis were performed. The results showed that under the perturbation of the ligands field, the probability of 5D4 - 7F3 transition of terbium ion was greatly enhanced, while the probability of 5D4 - 7F5 transition was greatly decreased in the complex. Therefore, pink-red fluorescence was observed for the title complex.

English Abstract↗
PubMed1997

Calcium ions and tyrosine phosphorylation interact coordinately with actin to regulate cytoprotective responses to stretching.

The actin-dependent sensory and response elements of stromal cells that are involved in mechanical signal transduction are poorly understood. To study mechanotransduction we have described previously a collagen-magnetic bead model in which application of well-defined forces to integrins induces an immediate (< 1 second) calcium influx. In this report we used the model to determine the role of calcium ions and tyrosine-phosphorylation in the regulation of force-mediated actin assembly and the resulting change in membrane rigidity. Collagen-beads were bound to cells through the focal adhesion-associated proteins talin, vinculin, alpha 2-integrin and beta-actin, indicating that force application was mediated through cytoskeletal elements. When force (2 N/m2) was applied to collagen beads, confocal microscopy showed a marked vertical extension of the cell which was counteracted by an actin-mediated retraction. Immunoblotting showed that force application induced F-actin accumulation at the bead-membrane complex but vinculin, talin and alpha 2-integrin remained unchanged. Atomic force microscopy showed that membrane rigidity increased 6-fold in the vicinity of beads which had been exposed to force. Force also induced tyrosine phosphorylation of several cytoplasmic proteins including paxillin. The force-induced actin accumulation was blocked in cells loaded with BAPTA/AM or in cells preincubated with genistein, an inhibitor of tyrosine phosphorylation. Repeated force application progressively inhibited the amplitude of force-induced calcium ion flux. As force-induced actin reorganization was dependent on calcium and tyrosine phosphorylation, and as progressive increases of filamentous actin in the submembrane cortex were correlated with increased membrane rigidity and dampened calcium influx, we suggest that cortical actin regulates stretch-activated cation permeable channel activity and provides a desensitization mechanism for cells exposed to repeated long-term mechanical stimuli. The actin response may be cytoprotective since it counteracts the initial force-mediated membrane extension and potentially strengthens cytoskeletal integrity at force-transfer points.

Actins↗
PubMed1997

[The detection of serum hepatitis B virus Pre-S1 antigen and its relationship with HBeAg/anti-HBe and HBV DNA by polymerase chain reaction].

150 specimens were collected from chronic hepatitis patients, asymptomatic hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) carriers and healthy individuals. Serum Pre-S1 and HBV markers were determined by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and HBV DNA was tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). According to the results, specimens could be classified into five different groups: HBsAg and hepatitis e antigen (HBeAg) both positive; HBsAg positive and HBeAg/anti-HBe both negative; HBsAg and anti-HBe both positive with HBeAg negative; HBsAg negative with positive antibodies to s, c and e antigens; negative in all HBV markers. Each groups comprised 30 specimens respectively. The positive rate and relative titer (sample A value/cut-off value) of Pre-S1 Ag in HBeAg positive group (66.6%, 4.3250 +/- 2.2013, respectively) were markedly higher than those in HBeAg negative group (31.6%, 1.7863 +/- 0.6339, respectively, P<0.01). The detection rate of Pre-S1 Ag in these samples were 82% coincided with that of HBV DNA. The positive rate of Pre-S1 in the sera from five groups with different HB markers were well correlated to that of HBV DNA (r=0.9826, P<0.01). These results suggest that serum Pre-S1 detection can be used as a marker for the presence of the HBV genome and its quantitation will be correlated with the replication of virus.

DNA, Viral↗
PubMed1995

[Histopathological and immunohistochemical study of ovarian polyembryoma].

A case of polyembryoma which is rare in ovarian malignant germ cell tumors was reported. Microscopically, numerous and variable embryoid bodies, surrounded by embryonic hepatoid tissues, trophoblastic cells and multiple elements, were observed. The results of immunohistochemical analysis were: (1) alpha fetoprotein (AFP) was not only shown positive in yolk sac cells among the embryoid bodies, in the endoderm and in the margins of the ectodermal cells, but also in multiple elements in the mucinous matrix. (2) Hepatoid tissues reacted positively to AFP and alpha antitrypsin (AAT) as well as to hCG. (3) By using hCG and human placental lactogen (hPL) as markers it is proven that among trophoblastic cells of the tumor, not only syncytiotrophoblastic cells but also the intermediate cells and the cytotrophoblastic cells could be identified.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[Effects of pregnant exposure to electromagnetic field emitted by electric blankets on brain catecholamine and behavior in offspring mice].

NIH pregnant mice were exposed to electromagnetic field emitted by electric blankets with 1-1.2kV/m and 0.2-0.4microT for five hours daily during their whole gestational period. Catecholamine (CA) content in the hypothalamus of their newborn offsprings was quantitatively measured with histochemical methods, and their varied behavioral activities were determined with behavioral toxicological methods. Results showed catecholamine content in exposed offsprings decreased significantly not only seven days but also 40 days after delivery as compared with the controls (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively).

Animals↗
PubMed1995

A study of immunoactivity of retinal S-antigen in retinoblastoma.

PURPOSES: To study retinal S-antigen expression in human retinoblastoma and assess if there is a correlation between S-antigen immunoactivity and degree of retinoblastoma cell differentiations. METHODS: Ten cases of Chinese retinoblastoma parafin-embedded tissues were applied for this study. A strain of monoclonal antibody,MabA9C6, which defines an epitope in S-antigen retained in fixed-tissue sections, was used to study S-antigen expression in 10 cases of retinoblastomas. S-antigen was localized by the biotinavidin indirect immunoperoxidase technique and purified MabA9C6 ascites fluid was used with 1:100 dilution. The whole procedure could be finished within a few hours. RESULTS: The S-antigen immunoactivity was observed in different patterns: the "normal" photoreceptor elements incorporated in 3 cases of growing tumors; 3 of 4 Fleurettes and E-W rosettes; and scattered tumor cells in 50% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: The result suggests that the expression of S-antigen in retinoblastoma may be used to assess the degree of tumor differentiation as another tumor marker in retinoblastoma.

Antigens↗
PubMed1993

Utility of predicting group membership and the role of spatial visualization in becoming an engineer, physical scientist, or artist.

This article has two themes: First, we explicate how the prediction of group membership can augment test validation designs restricted to prediction of individual differences in criterion performance. Second, we illustrate the utility of this methodology by documenting the importance of spatial visualization for becoming an engineer, physical scientist, or artist. This involved various longitudinal analyses on a sample of 400,000 high school students tracked after 11 years following their high school graduation. The predictive validities of Spatial-Math and Verbal-Math ability composites were established by successfully differentiating a variety of educational and occupational groups. One implication of our findings is that physical science and engineering disciplines appear to be losing many talented persons by restricting assessment to conventional mathematical and verbal abilities, such as those of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Adolescent↗