We selected 106 hemiplegic patients with shoulder pain hospitalized after stroke from three hospit-als in Nanjing, China between February 2007 and January 2012. Al patients had complete clinical data sets and accounted for 45.5% of the inpatients because of stroke. Results showed that the number of patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain post stroke increased yearly, attacking mainly males 50-69 years of age. Of 106 patients, there were 60 cases (56.6%) of adhesive capsulitis, 19 (17.9%) of shoulder subluxation, 14 (13.2%) of complex regional pain syndrome, and 13 (12.6%) of central pain. The main symptoms were shoulder pain (100%), limit of shoulder mobility (98.1%), and adhesion of the scapula (56.6%). MRI of the shoulder showed tendon and ligament lesions (57.1%) and rotator cuff tear (38.1%). 53.8%of central pain was related to the thalamus, in addition to the basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebel opontine angle. Shoulder pain, upper limb motor function, and function independence were significantly improved after comprehensive rehabilitation. In par-ticular, electroacupuncture based on basic physical therapy exhibited efficacy on shoulder tion and complex regional pain syndrome. Multiple linear regression results showed a negative re-lationship of efficacy of pain management with the attack period of shoulder pain, involvement of the posterior limb of the internal capsule, and duration between onset and rehabilitation treatment, but a positive correlation with pain-related education, pain regression period, and pain diagnosis.

Thirty pathological y diagnosed patients with grade III-IV primary or recurrent malignant glioma (tumor diameter 3-7 cm) were randomly divided into two groups. The control group underwent conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In the hyperthermia group, primary cases received hyperthermia treatment, and patients with recurrent tumors were treated with hyperthermia in com-bination with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Hyperthermia treatment was administered using a 13.56-MHz radio frequency hyperthermia device. Electrodes were inserted into the tumor with the aid of a CT-guided stereotactic apparatus and heat was applied for 1 hour. During 3 months after hyperthermia, patients were evaluated with head CT or MRI every month. Gliomas in the hyper-thermia group exhibited growth retardation or growth termination. Necrosis was evident in 80%of the heated tumor tissue and there was a decrease in tumor diameter. Our findings indicate that ra-dio frequency hyperthermia has a beneficial effect in the treatment of malignant glioma.

Approximately 50-70% of patients experience incision-induced mechanical nociception after sur-gery. However, the mechanism underlying incision-induced mechanical nociception is stil unclear. Interleukin-10 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor are important pain mediators, but whether in-terleukin-10 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor are involved in incision-induced mechanical no-ciception remains uncertain. In this study, forty rats were divided randomly into the incision surgery (n=32) and sham surgery (n=8) groups. Plantar incision on the central part of left hind paw was performed under anesthesia in rats from the surgery group. Rats in the sham surgery group re-ceived anesthesia, but not an incision. Von Frey test results showed that, compared with the sham surgery group, incision surgery decreased the withdrawal threshold of rats at 0.5, 3, 6 and 24 hours after incision. Immunofluorescence staining in the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord (L 3-5 ) showed that interleukin-10 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor were expressed mainly on smal-and medium-sized neurons (diameter<20μm and 20-40μm) and satel ite cells in the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord (L 3-5 ) in the sham surgery group. By contrast, in the surgery group, high expression of interleukin-10 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor appeared in large-sized neurons (diameter>40μm) at 6 and 24 hours after incision surgery, which corresponded to the decreased mechanical withdrawal threshold of rats in the surgery group. These experimental findings suggest that expression pattern shift of interleukin-10 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor induced by inci-sion surgery in dorsal root ganglia of rats was closely involved in lowering the threshold to me-chanical stimulus in the hind paw fol owing incision surgery. Pain-related mediators induced by in-cision surgery in dorsal root ganglia of rats possibly underlie mechanical nociception in ipsilateral hind paws.

In the present study, we investigated the effects of hypothyroidism on the morphology of astrocytes and microglia in the hippocampus of Zucker diabetic fatty rats and Zucker lean control rats. To in-duce hypothyroidism, Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty rats at 7 weeks of age oral y received the vehicle or methimazole, an anti-thyroid drug, treatment for 5 weeks and were sacrificed at 12 weeks of age in al groups for blood chemistry and immunohistochemical staining. In the methimazole-treated Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty rats, the serum circulating tri odothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) levels were significantly decreased compared to levels ob-served in the vehicle-treated Zucker lean control or Zucker diabetic fatty rats. This reduction was more prominent in the methimazole-treated Zucker diabetic fatty group. Glial fibril ary acidic protein immunoreactive astrocytes and ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (Iba-1)-immunoreactive microglia in the Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty group were diffusely detected in the hippocampal CA1 region and dentate gyrus. There were no significant differences in the glial fibril ary acidic protein and Iba-1 immunoreactivity in the CA1 region and dentate gyrus between Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty groups. However, in the methimazole-treated Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty groups, the processes of glial fibril ary acidic protein immunoreactive astrocytes and Iba-1 immunoreactive microglia, were significantly decreased in both the CA1 region and dentate gyrus compared to that in the vehicle-treated Zucker lean control and Zucker diabetic fatty groups. These results suggest that diabetes has no effect on the mor-phology of astrocytes and microglia and that hypothyroidism during the onset of diabetes promi-nently reduces the processes of astrocytes and microglia.