Neurology practice and stroke services across East China: a multi-site, county-level hospital-based survey.

BACKGROUND: Neurological disorders are an economic and public health burden which requires efficient and adequate medical resources. Currently, little is known about the status of the quality of neurological care services available in China. As neurological primary care is mostly provided at the county hospital level, investigation of this geographical level is required. The aim of this study is to evaluate currently available neurology care services in Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations in east China. METHODS: A multi-site, county-level hospital-based observational survey was conducted in east China from January 2017 to December 2017. A questionnaire was made to assess hospital and the departmental patient care capabilities, human resources and technical capacity in neurology departments. RESULTS: Of 228 hospitals across the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations, 217 documents were returned. Of these, 22 were excluded due to invalid hospital information or duplicate submission. Overall, most hospitals have neurology departments (162, 83.1%) while less than half of the hospitals have a stroke center (80, 41.0%) and neurology emergency department (46, 23.6%). Among 162 hospitals with neurology department, 5 were excluded due to inadequate sharing, leaving 157 hospitals for analysis. About 84.1% of these neurology departments can administer intravenous thrombolysis while about one third of them has the ability to perform arterial thrombectomy (36.9%). In addition, 46.2% of hospitals can carry out computed tomography angiography (CTA) in emergency room. Tertiary care hospitals are much more equipped with modern medical resources compared to the secondary hospitals. In four administrative regions, the neurology services are better in more economically advanced regions. CONCLUSIONS: Neurological care services need to be enhanced at the county-level hospitals to improve health care delivery.

Assessment of the effect of different vitrification solutions on human ovarian tissue after short-term xenotransplantation onto the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane.

Chemotherapy can lead to the loss of fertility and premature ovarian failure in young women who suffer from malignant diseases. Freezing ovarian tissue by vitrification allows for the preservation of a large number of follicles prior to treatment, yet no established protocols have been optimized with respect to the vitrification solution. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the early stage of human ovarian tissue xenotransplantated onto the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane after vitrification, and to determine the effect of different vitrification solutions on ovarian tissue quality-as defined by morphology and viability of follicles, neovascularization, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. Each vitrification protocol had a different impact on ovarian tissue at the early transplantation stage; one process using the lowest concentrations of ethylene glycol and dimethylsulfoxide, plus sucrose, demonstrated a moderate advantage compared to the other protocols. We also demonstrated that the chorioallantoic membrane model can be a useful alternative for short-term xenotransplantation studies of angiogenesis into human ovarian cortical tissue.

[Role of cytological test for cervices to identify human papillomavirus in the screening program on serious cervical lesion].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the value of cervical cytology and hybrid capture II (HC- II) human papillomavarus (HPV) test for screening cervical lesion. METHODS: Conventional papanicolaou (Pap) smear by improved take-samples, liquid-based cytology test (LCT) and HC- II human papillomavarus test were performed in 425 women in Shang Mei-lin community of Futian region in Shenzhen city, from December 2007 to March 2008 and the above methods were performed in 75 women in Shenzhen Hospital of Peking University at the same time. Age stratified sampling was used. Samples of Pap were taken a broom-type sampling device (take-samples used for LCT) with split-sampling method. Those women with HPV-positive, Pap> or =atypical squamous cells of undetermined sign (ASCUS) or LCT> or =ASCUS received multi-spot biopsy and endocervical curettage under colposcopy. Final diagnosis would depend on pathological findings as well, to evaluate the values of Pap, LCT, HC-II HPV, Pap-HPV parallel test, LCT-HPV parallel test, Pap-HPV serial test and LCT-HPV serial test for the screening program on cervical cancer. RESULTS: (1) In this study, 7 women had cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) II, another 7 had CIN III, 1 had cervical cancer in the community; 9 had CIN II, 11 had CIN III, 3 had cervical cancer in the hospital, respectively. (2) The sensitivity of HC-II HPV and cytology-HPV parallel test for detecting > or =CIN II was >95.0% while negative pre-value were nearly 100.0%. (3) There were no significant differences of screening effectiveness and unsatisfactory rates between Pap of improved take-samples and LCT. (4) The cost-effectiveness ratio of Pap-HPV parallel test was higher than LCT-HPV parallel test. CONCLUSION: It was suggested that the first choice for screening of cervical serious lesion were HC-II HPV and cytology-HPV parallel test while Pap-HPV parallel test was the best method for screening purposes.