Serum Bilirubin Levels and Disease Severity in Patients with Pneumoconiosis.

Aim: To investigate the association between serum bilirubin and disease severity in patients with pneumoconiosis. Methods: The study comprised 45 patients with pneumoconiosis retrospectively; all pneumoconiosis patients were classified into I, II, and III stage according to the radiological severity. Results: Serum direct bilirubin levels were significantly lower in III stage pneumoconiosis patients than those in I/II stage (p = 0.012) but not serum indirect bilirubin. Serum direct bilirubin was negatively correlated with radiological severity in patients with pneumoconiosis (r = -0.320; p = 0.032); by multiple linear-regression analysis, we observed that serum direct bilirubin levels had independent association with radiological severity in patients with pneumoconiosis (beta = -0.459; p = 0.005). Conclusions: Serum direct bilirubin levels are negatively associated with disease severity in patients with pneumoconiosis.

Detection of Pseudorabies Virus Antibodies in Human Encephalitis Cases.

Pseudorabies virus (PRV), a veterinary pathogen that infects domestic animals as well as wild animals such as wild boar and feral swine, was recently reported to infect human and led to endophthalmitis and encephalitis. A retrospective seroepidemiologic survey was conducted using 1,335 serum samples collected from patients with encephalitis and ELISA positive rates were 12.16%, 14.25%, and 6.52% in 2012, 2013, and 2017, respectively. The virus neutralizing antibody titers of positive samples correlated well with ELISA results. The pseudorabies virus antibody positive rate of patients with encephalitis were higher than that of healthy people in 2017. The above results suggest that some undefined human encephalitis cases may be caused by PRV infection.

Infection prevalence and phylogenetic analysis of Perkinsus olseni in Ruditapes philippinarum from East China.

The prevalence of Perkinsus sp. infection in Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum was investigated in the coastal areas of east China. Thirteen groups of clams were collected from 5 sites: Dandong and Qingdao Bays (Yellow Sea), Weifang Bay (Bohai Sea), and Ningbo and Fuzhou Bays (East China Sea). The clams were tested for perkinsosis infection using Ray's fluid thioglycollate medium culture assay. Perkinsus sp. was found in samples from all 5 sites from May 2008 to May 2009. Infection prevalence ranged from 43.75 to 95.83%, and was significantly higher in October than in May. The only 3 uninfected groups of clams were collected from Weifang Bay, the site farthest from the ocean. There was no difference in the prevalence of infection among the remaining 4 sites. The conserved internal transcribed spacer regions of the ribosomal RNA gene complex in each of the Perkinsus sp. isolates were amplified by PCR. The resulting amplicons were sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed. All the Perkinsus isolates were identified as Perkinsus olseni.