Prevalence of mental health problems in frontline healthcare workers after the first outbreak of COVID-19 in China: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: More than 210,000 medical workers have fought against the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hubei in China since December 2019. However, the prevalence of mental health problems in frontline medical staff after fighting COVID-19 is still unknown. METHODS: Medical workers in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei Province were invited to participate a cross-sectional and convenience sampling online survey, which assessed the prevalence of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). RESULTS: A total of 1,091 responses (33% male and 67% female) were valid for statistical analysis. The prevalence was anxiety 53%, insomnia 79%, depression 56%, and PTSD 11%. Healthcare workers in Wuhan were more likely to face risks of anxiety (56% vs. 52%, P = 0.03) and PTSD (15% vs. 9%, P = 0.03) than those in other cities of Hubei. In terms of educational attainment, those with doctoral and masters' (D/M) degrees may experience more anxiety (median of 7.0, [interquartile range (IQR) 2.0-8.5] vs. median 5.0 [IQR 5.0-8.0], P = 0.02) and PTSD (median 26.0 [IQR 19.5-33.0] vs. median 23.0 [IQR 19.0-31.0], P = 0.04) than those with lower educational degrees. CONCLUSIONS: The mental problems were an important issue for the healthcare workers after COVID-19. Thus, an early intervention on such mental problems is necessary for healthcare workers.

[Combined external skeletal fixation instrumentation with locked intramedullary nailing for tibia lengthening].

OBJECTIVE: To shorten the time of external skeletal fixation on legs, and enhance quality of limb lengthening, avoid complications of shortening, bending, twisting and etc. METHODS: Insert pin transcortical to attack external skeletal fixation simultaneously, put un-reaming locked intramedullary nail (do not insert distal locked screw) into endosteum of lengthening bone. After the legs achieved predetermined length, insert distal locked screw and then remove external skeletal fixation, locked intramedullary nail, then maintain consolidation of rehabilitation. RESULTS: The group lengthened legs for 412 cases. The range of lengthening was 3 to 18 cm. Mean length was 7.6 cm. The mean time for needed external skeletal fixation was 20 d/cm. The mean time of osteogenesis was 56 d/cm. For complications, there were 3 tibias ununion cases and 1 varus ankle. All cases were treated undergoing twice. CONCLUSIONS: The method reduces the time for needed external skeletal fixation visibly, enhances the quality of limb lengthening remarkably, prevents complications of shortening new bone, deformity, bending and re-fracture which do not effect the healing time. This is a new choice of limb lengthening.

[Analysis of the development of dental insurance in China].

This article explained the character of dental disease and effective facts for dental health utilization, and current situation of basic medical insurance for oral diseases through checking up relative articles. Dental insurance had a positive effect on utilization of dental medical service and public oral health. The PEST tool was used to analyze the environment of dental insurance developing direction and feasibility in this article, and then raise some suggestions and core strategies for developing dental insurance. We believe that the dental insurance can increase the oral health service utilizations and enhance the oral health for Chinese people. Only oral insurance will be developed, Chinese oral health could be geared to international practice.

Analysis of interspecies adherence of oral bacteria using a membrane binding assay coupled with polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profiling.

Information on co-adherence of different oral bacterial species is important for understanding interspecies interactions within oral microbial community. Current knowledge on this topic is heavily based on pariwise coaggregation of known, cultivable species. In this study, we employed a membrane binding assay coupled with polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) to systematically analyze the co-adherence profiles of oral bacterial species, and achieved a more profound knowledge beyond pairwise coaggregation. Two oral bacterial species were selected to serve as "bait": Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) whose ability to adhere to a multitude of oral bacterial species has been extensively studied for pairwise interactions and Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) whose interacting partners are largely unknown. To enable screening of interacting partner species within bacterial mixtures, cells of the "bait" oral bacterium were immobilized on nitrocellulose membranes which were washed and blocked to prevent unspecific binding. The "prey" bacterial mixtures (including known species or natural saliva samples) were added, unbound cells were washed off after the incubation period and the remaining cells were eluted using 0.2 mol x L(-1) glycine. Genomic DNA was extracted, subjected to 16S rRNA PCR amplification and separation of the resulting PCR products by DGGE. Selected bands were recovered from the gel, sequenced and identified via Nucleotide BLAST searches against different databases. While few bacterial species bound to S. mutans, consistent with previous findings F. nucleatum adhered to a variety of bacterial species including uncultivable and uncharacterized ones. This new approach can more effectively analyze the co-adherence profiles of oral bacteria, and could facilitate the systematic study of interbacterial binding of oral microbial species.

Development and evaluation of a safe and effective sugar-free herbal lollipop that kills cavity-causing bacteria.

Dental caries (tooth decay) is caused by a specific group of cariogenic bacteria, like Streptococcus mutans, which convert dietary sugars into acids that dissolve the mineral in tooth structure. Killing cariogenic bacteria is an effective way to control or prevent tooth decay. In a previous study, we discovered a novel compound (Glycyrrhizol A), from the extraction of licorice roots, with strong antimicrobial activity against cariogenic bacteria. In the current study, we developed a method to produce these specific herbal extracts in large quantities, and then used these extracts to develop a sugar-free lollipop that effectively kills cariogenic bacteria like Streptococcus mutans. Further studies showed that these sugar-free lollipops are safe and their antimicrobial activity is stable. Two pilot human studies indicate that a brief application of these lollipops (twice a day for ten days) led to a marked reduction of cariogenic bacteria in oral cavity among most human subjects tested. This herbal lollipop could be a novel tool to promote oral health through functional foods.

[Interaction of human oral microbial community].

Human body is inhabited by large number of microbial organisms that form complex ecosystems. Oral cavity is one of the major sites for microbial colonization. Oral microbial diversity is huge as the compositions vary among different oral cavities, different locations within the same oral cavity, or same location at different time points. The differences in compositions and varieties determine the balance of human oral microbial ecosystem, which is directly associated with oral disease or health. This review focuses on the history and new progress of the studies on human oral microbial communities.

[Human oral microbial community and dental plaque biofilm].

Dental plaque is structurally a kind of biofilm which contains a variety of micro-organisms. The interreaction of oral micro-organisms may affect the nature, forms, and toxicity of the dental plaque biofilm, as well as the localization and field planting of bacteria inside the biofilm. The signal transduction existed between the bacterium has an important effect on the formation and virulence of bacterial biofilm. This reviewing paper focuses on the latest research progress of human oral microbial community and dental plaque biofilm.

[Study on immunogenicity of DNA vaccine encoding human cytomegalovirus gB and pp150 fusion gene].

OBJECTIVE: To provide experimental evidence for development of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) nucleic acid vaccine, HCMV surface protein (gB), membrane protein (pp150), and gB-pp150 fused gene eukaryotic expression vector were constructed. METHODS: gB and pp150 genes were amplified and fused into gB-pp150, then were cloned into pcDNA 3.1 (+) to obtain recombinant expression plasmids pcDNA 3.1 (+) -gB, pcDNA 3.1 (+) -pp150 and pcDNA 3.1 (+) -gB-pp150, which were encapsulated with chitosan. Mouse were vaccinated and the humoral and cell immune response were determined by ELISA, specific proliferative response of plenic lymphocytes. RESULTS: The gB, pp150 and gB-pp150 fusion gene eukaryotic expression vector were successfully constructed. The antibodies A value induced by pcDNA3.1(+) -gB or pcDNA3.1 (+) -gB-pp150 were much higher than that of pcDNA3.1 (+) (P < 0.01). The IFN-gamma levels induced by pcDNA3.1 (+) -pp150 and pcDNA3.1 (+) -gB-pp150 were significantly higher than that of pcDNA3.1 (+). There are significant diference between the stimulating indexes of pcDNA3.1(+) -pp150 or pcDNA3.1 (+) -gB-pp150 immunized and normal mice. CONCLUSION: The DNA vaccine pcDNA3.1 (+) -gB can induce significant humoral immunity response, and pcDNA3.1 (+) -pp150 can induce high cellular immune response, whereas pcDNA3.1 (+) -gB-pp150 can induce both humoral and cellar immune responses in BALB/c mice.

Targeted antimicrobial therapy against Streptococcus mutans establishes protective non-cariogenic oral biofilms and reduces subsequent infection.

AIM: Dental biofilms are complex communities composed largely of harmless bacteria. Certain pathogenic species including Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) can become predominant when host factors such as dietary sucrose intake imbalance the biofilm ecology. Current approaches to control S. mutans infection are not pathogen-specific and eliminate the entire oral community along with any protective benefits provided. Here, we tested the hypothesis that removal of S. mutans from the oral community through targeted antimicrobial therapy achieves protection against subsequent S. mutans colonization. METHODOLOGY: Controlled amounts of S. mutans were mixed with S. mutans-free saliva, grown into biofilms and visualized by antibody staining and cfu quantization. Two specifically-targeted antimicrobial peptides (STAMPs) against S. mutans were tested for their ability to reduce S. mutans biofilm incorporation upon treatment of the inocula. The resulting biofilms were also evaluated for their ability to resist subsequent exogenous S. mutans colonization. RESULTS: S. mutans colonization was considerably reduced ( +/- 0.4 fold reduction, P=0.01) when the surface was preoccupied with saliva-derived biofilms. Furthermore, treatment with S. mutans-specific STAMPs yielded S. mutans-deficient biofilms with significant protection against further S. mutans colonization (5 minutes treatment: 38 +/- 13 fold reduction P=0.01; 16 hours treatment: 96 +/- 28 fold reduction P=0.07). CONCLUSION: S. mutans infection is reduced by the presence of existing biofilms. Thus maintaining a healthy or "normal" biofilm through targeted antimicrobial therapy (such as the STAMPs) could represent an effective strategy for the treatment and prevention of S. mutans colonization in the oral cavity and caries progression.

Oral microbiology: past, present and future.

Since the initial observations of oral bacteria within dental plaque by van Leeuwenhoek using his primitive microscopes in 1680, an event that is generally recognized as the advent of oral microbiological investigation, oral microbiology has gone through phases of "reductionism" and "holism". From the small beginnings of the Miller and Black period, in which microbiologists followed Koch's postulates, took the reductionist approach to try to study the complex oral microbial community by analyzing individual species; to the modern era when oral researchers embrace "holism" or "system thinking", adopt new concepts such as interspecies interaction, microbial community, biofilms, poly-microbial diseases, oral microbiological knowledge has burgeoned and our ability to identify the resident organisms in dental plaque and decipher the interactions between key components has rapidly increased, such knowledge has greatly changed our view of the oral microbial flora, provided invaluable insight into the etiology of dental and periodontal diseases, opened the door to new approaches and techniques for developing new therapeutic and preventive tools for combating oral polymicrobial diseases.

[Intra-nasal scanning of tumors in nasal cavity and paranasal sinus with endoscopic ultrasonography].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate endoscopic ultrasonography for masses in nasal cavity and paranasal sinus. METHODS: Under the guidance of nasal endoscope, sonographic scan of 18 masses within nasal cavity and paranasal sinus was performed by using 10 MHz catheter transducer with diameter of 3.3 mm under local anesthesia. Twelve of them were benign tumors and 6 of them were malignant ones, which were confirmed by pathological examination of resected specimens. RESULTS: Under the guidance of nasal endoscope, masses could be observed accurately with catheter transducer. On gray scale ultrasound, most masses were heterogeneous hypoechoic, tumors with rich blood vessels were lower hypoechoic, and some showed irregular anechoic area due to dilated vascular net. Neurofibroma was with well-defined and regular border and entire capsule; chordoma was without distinct edge and capsule. A giant pituitary tumor eroding bone of sphenoid sinus and intruding into nasal cavity. The relationship between mass and internal carotid artery could be demonstrated using color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI). Blood flowing signals in masses could be detected by CDFI, and spectral Doppler could discriminate arterial or venous blood flowing signals and measure its velocity. The rich blood supply was observed in fibroangioma, the rich flow signals and high velocity could be detected in malignant tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Nasal endoscope-guided sonography for soft tissue masses in nasal cavity is of exact location, clear image and high resolution, which can reveal blood flow signals sensitively, differentiate arterial and venous blood signals and measure the velocity of them. It provides a new imaging modality for masses within nasal cavity, sinuses and skull base.