Complement factor 3 among children with hepatitis A: Assessment of bilirubin levels.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the complement factor 3 levels in children with hepatitis A. METHODS: This observational study was conducted at the Infectious Diseases Hospital of Hotan District, China, from September 2014 to January 2015, and comprised children with hepatitis A and controls. The patients were divided into two groups. The ones with total bilirubin less than or equal to 2mg/dl comprised group A, while the ones whose total bilirubin was more than 2mg/dl was named group B. Besides, we enrolled age- and gender-matched healthy children as controls. SPSS 13 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 100 participants, 41(41%) were in group A, 29(29%) in group B and 30(30%) were controls. The serum level of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bile acid, the incidence of ascites and the incidence of hepatic encephalopathy were significantly increased in patients of group B when compared to group A (p=0.046, p=0.009, p<0.0001, p=0.018 and p=0.026). The levels of prothrombin time activity, total protein and albumin were higher in group A (p<0.0001, p<0.0001, and p <0.0001). Total hepatitis A patients had significantly lower serum complement factor 3 levels compared to normal controls (p =0.018). Group B had significantly lower serum complement factor 3 levels compared to normal controls (p <0.0001) and group A (p<0.0001). In total patients, complement factor 3 levels were negatively correlated with total bilirubin and alanine aminotransferase (p=0.029), while complement factor 3 levels were positively correlated with prothrombin time activity (p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Complement factor 3 values were found to be decreased in children hospitalised with hyperbilirubinaemia hepatitis A.

[Health Risk Assessment of Microcystins from Drinking Water Source by Monte Carlo Simulation Method].

To investigate the microcystins(MCs:MC-RR, MC-LR and MC-YR) exposure from drinking water source and to assess the health risk using Monte Carlo simulation method. 90 samples randomly collected from five sample points set along the river were determined using the national standard method (GB/T 20466-2006) during the period of January to June 2016. Professional risk assessment software@Risk7.0 was used to evaluate the dietary intake (exposure) risk of MCs based on building a nonparametric probabilistic evaluation model. First, 90 samples with the MCs were collected for fitting of distribution and the optimal fitting distribution model was selected from the results of three statistical test methods:the Chi-Squared test, the Anderson-Darling test and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Of the 90 water samples tested, the most frequently detectable MCs was MC-RR with the detectable rate of up to 51.11% within the content range of 0.0017-0.3863 µg·L-1, followed by 47.78% of MC-LR within the range of 0.0285-0.2796 µg·L-1, and 21.11% of MC-YR within 0.0030-0.1362 µg·L-1. These results indicated that vast majority of MCs in testing samples were at relatively low levels with the highest concentration of MC-RR at 0.3863 µg·L-1 and MC-YR concentration was the lowest from drinking water source. The fit distribution of MC-LR concentration was the ExtValueMin(0.11391, 0.098462) and that of MC-RR was Logistic(0.058064, 0.053044)(the first number was µ as the position parameter, the second number was σ as the scale parameter). The result indicated that health risks of MC-LR from drinking water source were higher than those of MC-RR and MCs pollution and would lead to high potential health risks especially for children. The health risks caused by the MC-LR from drinking water source for children were significantly higher than the maximum allowance levels recommended by USEPA(1×10-4), and the health risks caused by the MC-LR from drinking water source for adults were significantly higher than the maximum allowance levels recommended by ICRP(5×10-5). Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the protection and monitoring of drinking water source for effective control of water pollution and protection of human health.