Effects of acupuncture therapy on plasma neuropeptide Y levels and resuscitation in patients with very early stage acute cerebral infarction A randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND： It is known that acupuncture therapy can decrease plasma neuropeptide Y （NPY） levels in patients with cerebral infarction, but different types of acupuncture therapy used in various stages of cerebral infarction have not been evaluated. OBJECTIVE： To explore the effect of acupuncture therapy on resuscitation （Xingnao Kaiqiao） and plasma NPY levels in patients with very early stage acute cerebral infarction. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING： This case-controlled study was performed at the Affiliated Hospital of the Medical College of the Chinese People＇s Armed Police Force between September 2004 and October 2005. PARTICIPANTS： Sixty patients with acute cerebral infarction of ≤ 6 hours were used in this study. Patients were randomly divided into an acupuncture therapy group （n = 30） and a routine treatment group （n = 30）. Another 30 healthy subjects were used as the control group. METHODS： The acupuncture therapy of Xingnao Kaiqiao used in the acupuncture therapy group was based on routine western medical treatment and was performed at bilateral Neiguan （PCG） using the twirling, reinforcing-reducing method, Renzhong （DU26） using heavy bird-pecking needling, Sanyinjiao （SPG） using reinforcing and reducing by lifting and thrusting the needle, Jiquan （HT1）, Weizhong （BL40） and Chize （LU5） using reinforcing and reducing by lifting and thrusting the needle. The acupuncture lasted for 14 days. Patients in the routine treatment group underwent routine medical treatment and no intervention was given to subjects in the control group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： A 4 mL venous blood sample was obtained at different time points, i.e., immediately after hospitalization, the next morning, 7 and 14 days after treatment, to measure plasma NPY levels pre- and post-treatment using the radio-immunity method. RESULTS： The plasma NPY levels were significantly higher in both the routine treatment group and the acupuncture therapy group than in the control group pre- and post-treatment （P 〈 0.01）. In particular, the plasma NPY levels in both the acupuncture therapy group and the routine treatment group were increased 7 days post-treatment but decreased from 7-14 days post-treatment. In addition, the plasma NPY levels were significantly lower in the acupuncture therapy group than in the routine treatment group on day 7 and 14 post-treatment （P 〈 0.01）. CONCLUSION： Acupuncture therapy of Xingnao Kaiqiao can decrease plasma NPY levels in patients with very early stage acute cerebral infarction. In addition, the therapeutic effect of acupuncture with a prolonged therapy time is superior to routine treatment.

The Strong Continuity Hypothesis: Evidence from Arabic-speaking children data

This paper examines the acquisition of subject-verb agreement inflections in the natural speech corpus of two mono-lingual children speaking Yemeni Ibbi Arabic(YIA)between 2 and 3 years old.The two children are Ibrahim and Wala(between the age of 2;1 and 2;10)with Mean Lenghth of Utterance(MLU)range of 2.72 to 3.23 for Ibrahim and 2.9 to 3.27 for Wala.YIA,as a variety of Arabic,has rich and complex morphological system with a fusional type.Verbs are inflected with tense and agreement.Each verbal inflection is marked for person,number,and gender agreement.However,this paper attempts to explore how agreement forms are acquired by YIA-speaking children and examines when YIA children distinguish between first,second,and third person agreement,singular and plural,masculine and feminine agreement forms.The paper argues that agreement inflections(person,number,gender)are available to children early,thereby supporting the Strong Continuity Hypothesis(Lust,1999).Moreover,the results give evidence to Wexler’s Hypothesis(1998),Very Early Knowledge of Inflection(VEKI),which says that children know the grammatical and phonological properties of inflections in a language in the earliest stages when they enter the two-word stage.Similarly,this study tests Hoekstra and Hyams’(1995)Early Morpho-syntactic Convergence(EMC)which proposed that children acquire the specifics of inflections of the target language at an early stage.

Genetics on early onset inflammatory bowel disease:An update

Inflammatory bowel disease(IBD)is more common in adults than in children.Onset of IBD before 17 years of age is referred as pediatric onset IBD and is further categorized as very early onset IBD(VEO-IBD)for children who are diagnosed before 6 years of age,infantile IBD who had the disease before 2 years of age and neonatal onset IBD for children less than 28 days of life.Children presenting with early onset disease may have a monogenic basis.Knowledge and awareness of the clinical manifestations facilitates early evaluation and diagnosis.Next generation sequencing is helpful in making the genetic diagnosis.Treatment of childhood IBD is difficult;targeted therapies and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation form the mainstay.In this review we aim to summarize the genetic defects associated with IBD phenotype.We describe genetic location and functions of various genetic defect associated with VEO-IBD with their key clinical manifestations.We also provide clinical clues to suspect these conditions and approaches to the diagnosis of these disorders and suitable treatment options.