[Comparison of IgA/VCA, IgA/EA, IgG/EA in immunoenzyme methods and ZEBRA ELISA in early diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.].

BACKGROUND: To develop an ELISA method using Herpesvirus hominis type 4 (EBV) IgG/Zebra as capture antigen for large population screening. METHODS: The ELISA method used purified ZEBRA antigen to detect the IgG/ZEBRA antibody from serum in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and normal healthy subjects. RESULTS: Of 288 NPC sera, 262 were detected positive, the sensitivity was 91%, while 5 of 96 normal sera were detected positive, the specificity was 94.8% and the results of NPC group and healthy group displayed significant difference (P less than 0.001). IgA/VCA, IgA/EA, IgG/EA in immunoenzyme methods and ZEBRA ELISA were compared during the NPC screening in two cities: Huizhou, Guangdong and Guiping, Guangxi, 5463 and 2017 samples respectively were tested and 5 earlier NPC patients were found. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that this method has high specificity and sensitivity, and can be used for large population screening to assist early phase NPC diagnosis.

Culturally appropriate nutrition education improves infant feeding and growth in rural Sichuan, China.

Chinese studies indicate that the growth of rural infants and children lags behind that of their urban counterparts after 4 mo of age and that the gap is widening. However, the rural areas are home to >85% of China's 300 million children. Clearly, culturally appropriate rural complementary feeding interventions are needed to close the growth and health gaps. After a 1990 survey of infants in rural Sichuan confirmed that poor infant feeding practices rather than inadequate household food resources were responsible for the growth faltering, a year-long community-based pilot nutrition education intervention (n congruent with 250 infants each in Education and Control groups) was undertaken in four townships. The goal was to improve infant growth by improving infant feeding practices. Features of the intervention included the training and mobilizing of village nutrition educators who made monthly growth monitoring and complementary feeding counseling visits to all pregnant women and families with infants born during the intervention in the study villages. After 1 y, the Education group mothers showed significantly higher nutrition knowledge and better reported infant feeding practices than their Control group counterparts. Also, the Education group infants were significantly heavier and longer, but only at 12 mo (weight-for-age -1.17 vs. -1.93; P = 0.004; height-for-age -1.32 vs. -1.96; P = 0.022), had higher breast-feeding rates overall (83% vs. 75%; P = 0.034) and lower anemia rates (22% vs. 32%; P = 0.008) than the Control group infants. We conclude that these methods have potential for adaptation and development to other rural areas in the county, province and nation.

[Resistant rate to antibiotics in Tian Tan Hospital for 3 years].

The resistance to antibiotics of the 985 clinical isolates collected in Tian Tan hospital was studied. The results showed that S. aureus had a resistant rate of more than 90% to penicillin and was also highly resistant to erythromycin. Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) was isolated in 15.6% of all the isolates with S. aureus. The isolation rate of MRSA is lower than that in other countries or districts of West Pacific Area. K. pneumonia and other Gram negative bacilli had a resistant rate of 0.6% to amikacin and P. aeruginosa was all sensitive to Polymyxin-B.

Screening for upper digestive tract cancer with an occult blood bead detector. Investigation of a normal north China population.

Screening of the general population for cancer of the upper digestive tract using an occult blood bead detector supplemented by fibergastroscopy was able to detect 126 cancers of the esophagus, gastric cardia, and stomach. This screening was carried out in two of the high-risk areas, Yangzhong and Wun counties, located in central eastern and north China. The occult blood bead detector, swallowed and retained in the stomach for 3 minutes, was able to sort out the suspected persons by its coloration from sky blue (+) to dark blue ( ) on removal. The subsequent fibergastroscopy could make a definite diagnosis by biopsy specimen. A preliminary trial performed on patients with established cancers was 100% (18 of 18) positive for stomach cancer and 81% (13 of 16) positive for esophageal cancer. A public survey of the high-risk areas, screening 38,073 normal persons ranging in age from 35 to 70 years, showed positive results in 9204 (24.2%) persons. Subsequent fibergastroscopy carried out in 4023 occult blood bead detector positive persons showed 126 cancers (41 of the esophagus, 46 of the gastric cardia, and 39 of the stomach). Factors influencing the cancer detection rate were sex, age, and degree of positivity of the occult blood bead detector test. Seventy per cent (89 of 126) of the cancers discovered were in an early stage. The occult blood bead detector costs the primary screened person only 30 cents and may be practical for the large-scale screening of cancer of the upper digestive tract in developing areas.