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The effects of streptozotocin-diabetes on adrenomedullin gene expression and peptide levels in the gastrointestinal system of theratWong, Ching-keung., 黃靜強. January 2006 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences
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152 |
Oral care practice in cancer nursingYip, Shuaih-yee, Bethia., 葉率意. January 2006 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice
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153 |
Influenza vaccination and its association with Guillain-barréSyndromeFok, Nga-yin, Angel., 霍雅妍. January 2010 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health
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154 |
Evidence-based guideline for using negative pressure wound therapy in diabetic foot careTang, Wan-yi, Winnie., 鄧韻怡. January 2011 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing
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155 |
Epstein-barr virus shedding and cytokine alterations in the oropharynxduring HIV-1 infectionPerera, Ranawaka Arachchige Prasad Mahendra. January 2010 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Dentistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
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156 |
Role of lipocalin-2 in cardiac dysfunction associated with aging and dietary obesityYang, Bo, 杨波 January 2012 (has links)
Obesity is closely related to many medical complications such as type 2 diabetes,
hypertension and heart failure. Obesity and other factors, including elevated blood
glucose levels, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, constitute a constellation of symptoms
known as the metabolic syndrome, which are the risk factors for coronary artery
disease. Lipocalin-2 is a pro-inflammatory adipokine causally involved in the
development of obesity-associated metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Recent
clinical and experimental evidences demonstrate an association between augmented
circulating lipocalin-2 and cardiac dysfunction. However, little is known about the
detailed roles of lipocalin-2 in regulating pathophysiological functions of the heart.
The present study was designed to compare the heart functions of mice with normal
(WT) or deficient lipocalin-2 (Lcn2-KO) expression and to examine the molecular
mechanisms underlying lipocalin-2-mediated deteriorated effects in hearts.
Echocardiographic analysis revealed that the myocardial contractile function was
significantly improved in hearts of Lcn2-KO mice, under both standard chow and
high fat diet conditions. The heart function before and after I/R injury (20-min of
global ischemia followed by 60-min of reperfusion) was assessed using the
Langendorff perfusion system. Compared with WT littermates, hearts from Lcn2-KO
mice showed improved functional recovery and reduced infarct size following I/R.
These phenomena can be observed in mice under both standard chow and high fat
feeding conditions.
Under baseline condition, the mitochondrial function of hearts from Lcn2-KO
mice was significantly enhanced, as demonstrated by biochemical analysis of
respiratory chain activity, markers of biogenesis and oxidative stress, as well as
electron microscopic investigation of the mitochondrial ultrastructure. Acute or
chronic administration of lipocalin-2 impaired cardiac functional recovery to I/R and
dampened the mitochondrial function in hearts of Lcn2-KO mice. These effects were
associated with an extensive modification of the fatty acyl chain compositions of
intracellular phospholipids. In particular, lipocalin-2 facilitated the redistribution of
linoleic acid (C18:2) among different types of phospholipid, including cardiolipin,
which is exclusively located in the mitochondria inner membrane.
The direct effects of lipocalin-2 on both H9c2 and NCM cells were also
examined. TUNEL assay and flow cytometry analysis demonstrated that lipocalin-2
treatment promoted apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. Lipocalin-2 induced an early phase
of phosphatidylserine exposure, followed by Bax-translocation and caspase-3
cleavage. The results collectively suggested that lipocalin-2 initiated the intrinsic
mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway. In the hearts of Lcn2-KO mice,
significantly reduced number of apoptotic cells was observed after I/R injury.
In conclusion, lacking of lipocalin-2 improved heart function recovery during I/R
injury via mitochondrial function restoration, phospholipids remodeling, and
inhibition of cardiomyocytes apoptosis. / published_or_final_version / Pharmacology and Pharmacy / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
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157 |
Evaluation of Immuknow assay for predicting the risk of infection and rejection in liver transplantation recipients in Hong Kong陳旭昇, Chan, Yuk-sing. January 2011 (has links)
Background: Liver transplantation is a curative method for end-stage liver
diseases, small unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma and acute liver failure. The
discovery of immunosuppressive drugs increases the survival rate of liver
transplanted recipients by reducing the incidence of graft rejection. Several
complications such as renal dysfunction and increase risk of malignancy result
from life-long treatment of transplanted recipients with immunosuppressant. If
recipients are over-immunosuppressed, the risk of infection might be increased.
On the other hands, if recipients are under-immunosuppressed, the risk of
rejection would be increased. It should be useful if a test or a bio-marker that
could predict and differentiate infection and rejection in transplanted recipients.
Therefore, patients could be treated before adverse conditions. Although
therapeutic drug monitoring has been performed as a routine test, it is mainly
targeted for minimizing drug toxicity but little help in predicting infection and
rejection. A new assay named Cylex? Immuknow? assay is designed to measure
global cell mediated immunity of immunosuppressed population, by quantifying
the amount of ATP synthesis by CD4+ T cells in response to PHA stimulation. It is
undergoing evaluation in assessing the immune status of patients in order to
predict the risk of infection and rejection, and also other conditions. (1, 2)
Objectives: In this pilot study, we would like to evaluate ImmuKnow for
predicting the risk of infection and rejection in liver transplanted recipients in
Hong Kong.
Methods: Blood samples were collected from liver transplanted recipients at
different time intervals. The immune cell response of these patients was measured
by Immuknow assay. Patients with low immune response might have a high risk
of infection, patients with high immune response might have a high risk of
rejection, and patients with moderate immune response should be clinically stable.
Results and conclusion: Twenty-six blood samples were collected from eight
transplanted recipients. The average Immuknow assay value for the
post-transplant samples was 304.6 ng/mL ATP which represented moderate
immune cell response according to the interpretation table. (Table 3) This was
reasonable as the subjects were all clinically stable by well-controlled
immunosuppression. The result was consistent with other studies. (1, 3) However,
the association between low immune cell response and infection, and the
association between high immune cell response and graft rejection could not be
investigated as both of these conditions were not found in this pilot study. A larger
study including episodes of infection and rejection should be conducted in order
to evaluate the value of Immuknow assay more completely. / published_or_final_version / Pathology / Master / Master of Medical Sciences
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Reducing the complications associated with emulsification in the use of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based silicone oil in vitreous surgery by engineering approachesChan, Yau-kei, 陳佑祺 January 2013 (has links)
Silicone oil (SO) is widely used as the long-term intraocular tamponade in treating various eye diseases such as complicated retinal detachment, proliferative vitreoretinopathy, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, giant retinal tear and ocular trauma. However, its propensity to emulsify is an inherent problem of its long-term use in-vivo. Dispersal of SO into many tiny oil droplets causes numerous complications such as inflammation, glaucoma and reproliferation. It may also be responsible for possible toxicity to both retina and optic nerve.
Emulsification is one of the problems associated to the use of SO as a long-term intraocular tamponade. This study focused on the understanding on the physical nature and formation of in-vivo SO emulsion and the development of methods to reduce the complications associated with emulsification of SO by engineering approaches. A stepper motor driven mechanical platform was built to study the fluid flow of SO within an eye model chamber during eye-like movements and a quantitative method was established to study SO emulsification, both in-vivo and in-vitro. This method was used to compare the relative resistance of different SO against emulsification. In the last part of the thesis a novel rinse was proposed which aimed at removing the emulsified SO droplets in-vivo in an effective way.
In the dynamic eye model experiment, both the increase in shear viscosity of SO and the extent of SO fill had an effect in reducing the shear. These effects were small compared to the effect of indents at reducing shear rate during eye-like movements.
When SO emulsions from patients were analyzed it was found that over 90% of the emulsified droplets were outside the observable range under slit-lamp biomicroscopy.
When the emulsification resistance of SO was tested using the quantitative method the result confirmed that SO with high-molecular-weight component (HMWC) was more emulsification resistant than SO with the same shear viscosity. The addition of HMWC increases the elasticity and thus increasing its resistance against emulsification.
A novel rinse was also proposed to remove the emulsified droplets using physical phenomenon of double emulsification.
To conclude, this study improved the understanding of the formation of SO emulsification. The clinical observable emulsified droplets are probably in all cases that was just the tip of the iceberg. Three practical suggestions were made: Firstly, the use of SO and encircling scleral buckling procedure in combination might reduce the shear rate. Secondly, the use of HMWC can reduce emulsification. Lastly, there may be a role in rinsing out the emulsified droplets using the proposed novel solution. The novel solution is going to fully developed and commercialized in the near future. / published_or_final_version / Ophthalmology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
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A systemic review of maternal infections and schizophreniaDing, Zhipeng, 丁志芃 January 2014 (has links)
Background
Findings for the association of prenatal maternal infections and schizophrenia are inconsistent. Whether specific maternal infections may contribute to central nervous system dysfunction, like schizophrenia remains unknown. Thus, a systematic review is conducted to clarify the role of infections on the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
Methods
A manual and electronic search of the literature for prenatal maternal infection at the individual level and the diagnosis of schizophrenia in offspring was conducted. All the included studies are searched from PubMed and EMBASE databases and generally based on population level datasets with cohort or nested case-control studies designs. We only focus on three kinds of maternal infections in the review (i.e. influenza pandemic, rubella and Toxoplasmosis), other infections such as herpes simples, varicella‐zoster virus and polio were excluded. Positive family history of psychotic illness was excluded as genetic disposition is established as a strong risk factor of developing schizophrenia in offspring.
Results
Fifteen studies were included in this systemic review. Nine (60%) of these studies reported a positive association between maternal infections and the development of schizophrenia in the later lives of their offspring, while six (40%) of these studies indicated that there is no significant difference among cases of schizophrenia in maternal infections exposure and the control subjects or no association between schizophrenia in offspring and the infections during pregnancy as the exposure. Among all the studies, thirteen cohort studies and two nested‐case studies were examined. Eight (61.5%) showed a positive association, meanwhile five (38.5%) showed a null association. Two nested‐case control studies both suggested that maternal infection exposure is a risk factor for schizophrenia.
Conclusion
Findings for the association of prenatal maternal infections and schizophrenia are not equal to the evidence for causation. Due to the absence of external validity due to small and non‐representative samples, selection bias was suspected even with a significant result. Additionally, multiple exposures were hard to testify during pregnancy. Even we adjusted for the measured confounders, residual confounding such as genetic disposition and socioeconomic status, as well as unmeasured confounding are concerns. Quasi-experimental methods may help improve causal inference such as the use of instrumental variable analysis in future studies. Preventive strategies such as immunizations need to be deliberated carefully to weight the benefit and the potential impact. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health
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Management of intestinal failure - parenteral nutrition, experimental small bowel transplantation and preservation injury of small bowelallograft陳廣亮, Chan, Kwong-leung. January 1999 (has links)
published_or_final_version / Surgery / Master / Master of Surgery
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