[Proteomics of serum exosomes in children in the acute stage of Kawasaki disease: a prospective study]. / æ€¥æ€§æœŸå·å´Žç— æ‚£å„¿è¡€æ¸ å¤–æ³Œä½“è›‹ç™½è´¨ç»„å­¦çš„å‰çž»æ€§ç ”ç©¶.

OBJECTIVES: To study the biological processes and functions of serum exosomes in children in the acute stage of Kawasaki disease (KD), so as to provide new biomarkers for the early diagnosis of KD. METHODS: In this prospective study, 13 children with KD who were treated in Children's Hospital of Soochow University from June 2019 to August 2020 were enrolled as the KD group, and 13 children who were hospitalized due to bacterial infection during the same period were enrolled as the control group. Whole blood was collected on the next morning after admission, serum samples were obtained by centrifugation, and exosomes were extracted through ultracentrifugation. Serum exosomes were analyzed by label-free quantitative proteomics, and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were screened out for functional enrichment analysis. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was plotted, and unique proteins were validated by targeted proteomics. RESULTS: A total of 131 DEPs were screened out for the two groups, among which 27 proteins were detected in both groups. There were 48 unique DEPs in the KD group, among which 23 were upregulated and 25 were downregulated, and these proteins acted on "complement and coagulation cascades" and "the MAPK signaling pathway". Validation by targeted proteomics showed that FGG, SERPING1, C1R, C1QA, IGHG4, and C1QC proteins were quantifiable in the KD group. A total of 29 proteins were only expressed in the control group, among which 12 were upregulated and 17 were downregulated. Four proteins were quantifiable based on targeted proteomics, i.e., VWF, ECM1, F13A1, and TTR. A PPI network was plotted for each group. In the KD group, FGG and C1QC had close interaction with other proteins, while in the control group, VWF had close interaction with other proteins. CONCLUSIONS: The serum exosomes FGG and C1QC in children in the acute stage of KD are expected to become the biomarkers for the early diagnosis of KD. For children with unexplained fever, detection of FGG, C1QC1, and VWF may help with etiological screening.

[Association between serum uric acid and subclinical cardiac damage in children with primary hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the condition of subclinical cardiac damage in children with primary hypertension and the association between serum uric acid and subclinical cardiac damage. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 55 children who were hospitalized and diagnosed with primary hypertension in the Department of Cardiology, Children's Hospital of Soochow University from January 2015 to June 2020. Forty-five healthy children, matched for age and sex, were enrolled as the control group. The two groups were compared in terms of clinical features, laboratory examination, and parameters for left ventricular structure, systolic function, and diastolic function. The correlation of serum uric acid with the parameters for left ventricular structure, systolic function, and diastolic function in children with primary hypertension was analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the hypertension group had significantly higher left ventricular mass (LVM), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), and relative wall thickness (RWT) (P < 0.05). Among the children with primary hypertension, 20 (36%) had left ventricular hypertrophy. The hypertension group had significantly larger left atrial diameter and aortic root diameter than the control group (P < 0.05). The hypertension group had a significantly higher ratio of early diastolic mitral inflow velocity to early diastolic mitral annular velocity than the control group (P < 0.05). The correlation analysis showed that in children with primary hypertension, serum uric acid was positively correlated with LVM (r=0.534, P < 0.01), left atrial diameter (r=0.459, P < 0.01), and aortic root diameter (r=0.361, P=0.010). After adjustment for blood pressure, serum uric acid was still positively correlated with the above parameters (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Children with primary hypertension may have subclinical cardiac damage such as left ventricular hypertrophy, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, left atrial enlargement, and proximal aortic dilation. Elevated serum uric acid is significantly associated with cardiac damage in children with primary hypertension.

[Value of three scoring systems in evaluating the prognosis of children with severe sepsis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the predictive value of Pediatric Age-adapted Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score (pSOFA), Pediatric Risk of Mortality Score III (PRISM III), and Pediatric Critical Illness Score (PCIS) in children with severe sepsis. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 193 hospitalized children with severe sepsis. According to the final outcome, these children were divided into a survival group with 151 children and a death group with 42 children. The scores of pSOFA, PRISM III, and PCIS were determined according to the worst values of each index within 24 hours after admission. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the efficiency of each scoring system in predicting the risk of death due to sepsis. Smooth curve fitting was used to analyze the correlation between the three scoring systems and the threshold effect of each scoring system. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the application value of each scoring system. RESULTS: The ROC analysis showed that PCIS and pSOFA had a similar predictive value (P=0.182) and that PRISM III and pSOFA had a similar predictive value (P=0.210), while PRISM III had a better predictive value than PCIS (P=0.045). PRISM III had the highest degree of fitting with prognosis, followed by pSOFA and PCIS. The DCA analysis showed that when the risk of death was 0.4 and 0.6 in children with severe sepsis and the three scoring systems were used as the basis for emergency intervention decision-making, pSOFA achieved the highest standardized net benefit, followed by PRISM III and PCIS. CONCLUSIONS: All three scoring systems have a certain value in predicting the prognosis of children with severe sepsis, and pSOFA has a better value than PRISM III and PCIS.

[Clinical effect of pidotimod oral liquid as adjuvant therapy for infectious mononucleosis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical effect of pidotimod oral liquid as adjuvant therapy for infectious mononucleosis and its effect on T lymphocyte subsets. METHODS: A total of 76 children with infectious mononucleosis, who were admitted to the hospital between July 2016 and June 2017, were enrolled and randomly divided into two groups: conventional treatment and pidotimod treatment (n=38 each). The children in the conventional treatment group were given antiviral therapy with ganciclovir for injection and symptomatic treatment. Those in the pidotimod treatment group were given pidotimod oral liquid in addition to the treatment in the conventional treatment group. The course of treatment was two weeks for both groups. The two groups were compared in terms of the recovery of clinical indices and the changes in peripheral blood T lymphocyte subsets. RESULTS: Compared with the conventional treatment group, the pidotimod treatment group had significantly shorter fever clearance time, time to the disappearance of isthmopyra, time to the relief of lymph node enlargement, time to the relief of hepatosplenomegaly, and length of hospital stay (P<0.05). After treatment, the pidotimod treatment group had significant reductions in the percentages of CD3+ and CD8+ T cells and had significantly lower percentages of CD3+ and CD8+ T cells than the conventional treatment group (P<0.001). The pidotimod treatment group had significant increases in the percentage of CD4+ T cells and CD4+/CD8+ ratio after treatment, which was significantly higher than those in the conventional treatment group (P<0.001). The conventional treatment group had no significant changes in T lymphocyte subsets after treatment (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Pidotimod oral liquid has a good clinical effect as the adjuvant therapy for infectious mononucleosis and can improve cellular immune function, so it holds promise for clinical application.