Efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccination in patients with asymptomatic or mild illness during the Omicron epidemic in Guangzhou: a multi-centre retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the widespread administration of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, the impact on patients with asymptomatic to mild illness remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess the efficacy of various vaccine doses and types on the duration of isolation duration and discharge rates, the viral shedding duration, and negative rates in asymptomatic to mild COVID-19 patients. METHODS: We included adult patients at the Fangcang isolation centres in Pazhou or Yongning between November and December 2022. We analysed data on basic demographics, admission details, laboratory indicators and vaccination information. RESULTS: A total of 6560 infected patients were included (3584 from Pazhou and 2976 from Yongning). Of these, 90.6% received inactivated vaccines, 3.66% received recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike protein subunit vaccines and 0.91% received adenovirus vaccines. Among the 6173 vaccinated individuals, 71.9% received a booster dose. By day 9, the isolation rate reached 50% among vaccinated patients. On day 7.5, the positive rate among vaccinated individuals reached 50%. CONCLUSIONS: Full vaccination was effective, with heterologous vaccines showing greater efficacy than inactivated vaccines alone. However, there was no significant difference in the vaccine protective effect 12 months after vaccination.

Learning Skill Characteristics From Manipulations.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has increasingly become the main treatment for coronary artery disease. The procedure requires high experienced skills and dexterous manipulations. However, there are few techniques to model PCI skill so far. In this study, a learning framework with local and ensemble learning is proposed to learn skill characteristics of different skill-level subjects from their PCI manipulations. Ten interventional cardiologists (four experts and six novices) were recruited to deliver a medical guidewire to two target arteries on a porcine model for in vivo studies. Simultaneously, translation and twist manipulations of thumb, forefinger, and wrist are acquired with electromagnetic (EM) and fiber-optic bend (FOB) sensors, respectively. These behavior data are then processed with wavelet packet decomposition (WPD) under 1-10 levels for feature extraction. The feature vectors are further fed into three candidate individual classifiers in the local learning layer. Furthermore, the local learning results from different manipulation behaviors are fused in the ensemble learning layer with three rule-based ensemble learning algorithms. In subject-dependent skill characteristics learning, the ensemble learning can achieve 100% accuracy, significantly outperforming the best local result (90%). Furthermore, ensemble learning can also maintain 73% accuracy in subject-independent schemes. These promising results demonstrate the great potential of the proposed method to facilitate skill learning in surgical robotics and skill assessment in clinical practice.

Efficacy observation of bortezomib combined with chemotherapy in treatment of relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia / 白血病·淋巴瘤

Objective:To investigate the effectiveness and safety of bortezomib combined with conventional chemotherapy regimens for treatment of relapsed/refractory acute B lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).Methods:Twenty patients with relapsed/refractory B-ALL treated with bortezomib combined with chemotherapy in Jiaozuo People's Hospital Affiliated to Xinxiang Medical College, Jiaozuo Coal Industry Group Central Hospital and the Second People's Hospital of Jiaozuo from September 2021 to June 2022 were collected, and their treatment response and prognosis were retrospectively analyzed.Results:The median age of the 20 patients was 49.5 years old (25.0-58.5 years old); 12 were male and 8 were female; 12 were relapsed and 8 were refractory. All patients completed 1 course of bortezomib (1.6 mg/m 2, subcutaneous injection on days 2 and 16) combined with chemotherapy. Before bortezomib treatment, there were 0 case of complete remission (CR), 7 cases of partial remission (PR) and 13 cases of non-remission (NR) in 20 patients, the objective remission rate (ORR) was 35% (7/20), and all were positive for minimal residual disease (MRD). After bortezomib treatment, there were 13 cases of CR, 3 cases of PR and 4 cases of NR, and the ORR was 80% (16/20); the MRD of all patients decreased, among which 13 cases (65%) turned to negative; the differences were statistically significant when comparing CR rate, ORR and MRD negative conversion rate before and after bortezomib treatment ( χ2 values were 65.41, 8.83 and 19.30, all P < 0.05). Four of the 20 patients developed central nervous system infiltration despite bone marrow remission, and one died from post-chemotherapy infection. Myelosuppression occurred in all patients, the incidence of infection was 90% (18/20), and the incidence of digestive system adverse effects was 75% (15/20). Conclusions:Bortezomib combined with conventional chemotherapy regimens is effective and well tolerated in the treatment of relapsed/refractory ALL, and has the potential to enable patients with multi-drug resistant relapse to overcome resistance and to achieve deep remission.

Nutritional status and its association with in-hospital major adverse cardiac events in patients with severe heart failure: a prospective study / Estado nutricional y su asociación con eventos cardíacos adversos mayores intrahospitalarios en pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca grave: un estudio prospectivo

Objectives: this study aimed to evaluate the relationship of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS2002) and in-hospital major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients with severe heart failure. Methods: an observational study was conducted at the emergency intensive care units (EICU) of Shandong University Qilu Hospital from January 2017 to December 2019. Nutritional screening and assessment were performed at the time of admission to hospital with the NRS2002. Results: of the 209 patients included, 16 cases (7.66 %) were not at nutritional risk, and 193 cases (92.34 %) were at risk. Among them, 12 cases (5.74 %) were malnourished, 38 cases (18.18 %) were at high nutritional risk, and 115 cases (55.02 %) were overweight and obese. The differences in prealbumin (PA) and N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide precursor (NT-proBNP) between the 2 groups were statistically signific ant (p < 0.05). A total of 134 cases (64.12 %) received nutrition treatment support, of which 39 cases (29.10 %) received enteral nutrition (EN), 77 cases (57.46 %) parenteral nutrition, and 18 cases (13.43 %) enteral nutrition combined with parenteral nutrition (EN + SPN) support treatment. In all, 31 cases (54.39 %) reached 100 % of the target dose. Patients in the EN and EN + SPN groups had 37 MACE (64.91 %) and 31 enteral nutrition complications (54.39 %), with differences between the 3 groups being statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: the nutritional risk of patients with severe heart failure is high, and age and heart function are positively correlated with nutritional risk. The complications rate of patients with high nutritional risk is significantly higher than in those with low risk; the higher the nutritional risk, the higher the hospital mortality rate — that is, nutritional risk affects disease outcome (AU)

Objetivos: este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar la relación del Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS2002) con los eventos cardiacos adversos mayores intrahospitalarios (MACE) en pacientes con insuficiencia cardiaca grave. Métodos: se realizó un estudio observacional en las unidades de cuidados intensivos de emergencia (UCIE) del Hospital Qilu de la Universidad de Shandong desde enero de 2017 a diciembre de 2019. Se realizaron un cribado y una evaluación nutricional en el momento del ingreso hospitalario con el NRS2002. Resultados: de los 209 pacientes incluidos, 16 casos (7,66 %) no tenían riesgo nutricional y 193 casos (92,34 %) sí lo tenían. Entre ellos, 12 casos (5,74 %) estaban desnutridos, 38 casos (18,18 %) tenían un alto riesgo nutricional y 115 casos (55,02 %) tenían sobrepeso u obesidad. Las diferencias de prealbúmina (PA) y precursor del péptido natriurético de tipo B N-terminal (NT-proBNP) entre los 2 grupos fueron estadísticamente significativas (p < 0,05). En total, 134 casos (64,12 %) recibieron soporte de tratamiento nutricional, de los que 39 casos (29,10 %) recibieron nutrición enteral (NE), 77 casos (57,46 %) nutrición parenteral y 18 casos (13,43 %) nutrición enteral combinada con nutrición parenteral (NE + SPN) como tratamiento de apoyo. Treinta y un casos (54,39 %) alcanzaron la dosis objetivo al 100 %. Los pacientes de los grupos EN y EN + SPN tuvieron 37 MACE (64,91 %) y 31 complicaciones de la nutrición enteral (54,39 %), siendo la diferencia entre los 3 grupos estadísticamente significativa (p < 0,05). Conclusiones: el riesgo nutricional de los pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca grave es alto; la edad y la función cardiaca se correlacionan positivamente con el riesgo nutricional. La complicación de los pacientes con alto riesgo nutricional es significativamente mayor que la de los de bajo riesgo; cuanto mayor es el riesgo nutricional (AU)

Construction of sensitive indicators of nursing quality in dental clinic / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective:To construct a set of sensitive quality indexes for specialized nursing in dental clinics. These indicators are used to monitor and evaluate the quality of dental outpatient nursing care.Methods:Based on "structure-process-outcome" three-dimensional theory, through literature research, semi-structured interviews with 14 medical and nursing staff in Hefei Stomatological Hospital and two rounds of Delphi expert consultation with 19 stomatological management experts in stomatology departments of 19 first-class hospitals or third-class stomatological specialized hospitals in 11 provinces and cities in China, the three-level index system was determined, the calculation formula and data collection method of each index were clarified, and the weight of each index was determined by analytic hierarchy process.Results:The effective recovery rate of the two rounds of expert consultation was 100% and 89.47%. The expert authority coefficient were 0.905 and 0.906. Kendall′s W coefficients of the first, second and third level indicators in the second round of consultation were 0.206, 0.122 and 0.114. The differences were statistically significant ( χ2=7.00, 18.61, 149.23, all P<0.05). These indicators were assigned importance values ranged from 4.12 to 4.88 (>3.50), and coefficient of variations ranged from 0.07 to 0.23(<0.25). The final indicators included 3 first-level indicators, 10 second-level indicators and 26 third-level indicators. Conclusions:The research method of the constructed index is scientific, the content is reliable and the pertinence is strong. These indicators are conducive to the objective evaluation of the quality of dental outpatient care.

Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of the complete chloroplast genome of Lycopus europaeus / 药学学报

We intend to study the structural characteristics of Lycopus europaeus Linn. chloroplast genome and compare the evolutionary relationship of species from Lamiaceae with similar medicinal effects. The total DNA of Lycopus europaeus was sequenced using the Illumina Hiseq 4000 Sequencing platform and was assembled using NOVOplasty software. And then we annotated and analyzed the genome using the CPGAVAS2 online tool. We constructed the phylogenetic tree using the Stellera chamaejasme and Potentilla chinensis as the outgroup. The whole length of Lycopus europaeus chloroplast genome was 152 085 bp. A total of 132 genes were annotated including 88 protein-coding genes, 8 rRNA genes and 36 tRNA genes. Among them, 8 protein-coding genes (ndhB, rps7, rps12, rps19, rpl2, rpl23, ycf2, ycf15), 7 tRNA coding genes (trnM-CAU, trnL CAA, trnN-GUU, trnE-UUC, trnV-GAC, trnA-UGC, trnR-ACG) and 4 rRNA coding genes (rrn16s, rrn23s, rrn4.5s, rrn5s) are located in the IR region. There are 13 protein coding genes [rps16, rps19 (×2), atpF, rpoC1, rpl2 (×2), petB, petD, rpl16, ndhB (×2), ndhA] each contains one intron, two protein-coding genes (ycf3, clpP) each contain two introns, and 8 tRNA coding genes each contain one intron. A total of 34 SSRs were detected in the chloroplast genome of Lycopus europaeus. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that two species in the Lycopus genus, four species in the Dracocephalum genus, Glechoma longituba, two species in the Mentha genus and Prunella vulgari, in total 10 species are most related. The complete genome sequence of Lycopus europaeus was obtained and analyzed, which clarified the evolutional relationship between the species of Lycopus europaeus and in the Lamiaceae family.

Predictors and Dynamic Nomogram to Determine the Individual Risk of Malignant Brain Edema After Endovascular Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background@#and Purpose This study aimed to construct an optimal dynamic nomogram for predicting malignant brain edema (MBE) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients after endovascular thrombectomy (ET). @*Methods@#We enrolled AIS patients after ET from May 2017 to April 2021. MBE was defined as a midline shift of >5 mm at the septum pellucidum or pineal gland based on follow-up computed tomography within 5 days after ET. Multivariate logistic regression and LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) regression were used to construct the nomogram. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and decisioncurve analysis were used to compare our nomogram with two previous risk models for predicting brain edema after ET. @*Results@#MBE developed in 72 (21.9%) of the 329 eligible patients. Our dynamic web-based nomogram (https://successful.shinyapps.io/DynNomapp/) consisted of five parameters: basal cistern effacement, postoperative National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, brain atrophy, hypoattenuation area, and stroke etiology. The nomogram showed good discrimination ability, with a C-index (Harrell’s concordance index) of 0.925 (95% confidence interval=0.890–0.961), and good calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow test, p=0.386). All variables had variance inflation factors of 0.7, suggesting no significant collinearity among them. The AUC of our nomogram (0.925) was superior to those of Xiang-liang Chen and colleagues (0.843) and Ming-yang Du and colleagues (0.728). @*Conclusions@#Our web-based dynamic nomogram reliably predicted the risk of MBE in AIS patients after ET, and hence is worthy of further evaluation.

Analysis and suggestions on harvest period standards of plant medicinal materials in 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia / 中国中药杂志

The improvement of the harvest period standards is critical in the quality control of Chinese medicinal materials. The present study statistically analyzed the harvest period standards of plant medicinal materials in the 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia(Vol.Ⅰ) and put forward the existing problems and suggestions based on herbal records and modern research to provide references for the improvement of the standards. According to the statistical analysis, in 499 types of plant medicinal materials, harvest period standards are recorded under 486 types, accounting for 97.4%, and are lacking in the remaining. Only one medicinal material(Stellariae Radix) is recorded with the standard of the harvest year. The standards of the harvest season and phenological period are recorded under 233 types, accounting for 46.7%. For 237 types, only harvest season is specified, accounting for 47.5%, and for 15 types, only harvest phenological period is specified, accounting for 3.0%. Among 222 types mainly derived from cultivation and 51 types from wild resources and cultivation, only 11 types are recorded with harvest period of cultivated products. Only Stellariae Radix is recorded with the harvest period standards for the wild and cultivated products separately. The harvest period standards of plant medicinal materials with different medicinal parts have certain rules to follow. The main problems about the harvest period standards are discovered. Specifically, no harvest period standards are recorded under 13 types of plant medicinal materials. Almost all perennial cultivated medicinal materials are not recorded with harvest year standard. No phenological period standard is found under 250 types of plant medicinal materials. There is no clear distinction between the harvest period standards of cultivated and wild products. The evidence for harvest period standards of 26 types of plant medicinal materials that can be harvested all year round is insufficient. As a result, it is proposed to strengthen basic research in response to the above-mentioned problems and improve the harvest period standards as soon as possible to ensure the quality of Chinese medicinal materials.

An Improved Networked Predictive Controller for Vascular Robot Using 5G Networks.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has gradually become the most common treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) in clinical practice due to its advantages of small trauma and quick recovery. However, the availability of hospitals with cardiac catheterization facilities and trained interventionalists is extremely limited in remote and underdeveloped areas. Remote vascular robotic system can assist interventionalists to complete operations precisely, and reduce occupational health hazards occurrence. In this paper, a bionic remote vascular robot is introduced in detail from three parts: mechanism, communication architecture, and controller model. Firstly, human finger-like mechanisms in vascular robot enable the interventionalists to advance, retract and rotate the guidewires or balloons. Secondly, a 5G-based communication system is built to satisfy the end-to-end requirements of strong data transmission and packet priority setting in remote robot control. Thirdly, a generalized predictive controller (GPC) is developed to suppress the effect of time-varying network delay and parameter identification error, while adding a designed polynomial compensation module to reduce tracking error and improve system responsiveness. Then, the simulation experiment verifies the system performance in comparison with different algorithms, network delay, and packet loss rate. Finally, the improved control system conducted PCI on an experimental pig, which reduced the delivery integral absolute error (IAE) by at least 20% compared with traditional methods.

Design and Performance Evaluation of a Novel Vascular Robotic System for Complex Percutaneous Coronary Interventions.

The robotic-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention is an emerging technology with great potential to solve the shortcomings of existing treatments. However, the current robotic systems can not manipulate two guidewires or ballons/stents simultaneously for coronary bifurcation lesions. This paper presents VasCure, a novel bio-inspired vascular robotic system, to deliver two guidewires and stents into the main branch and side branch of bifurcation lesions in sequence. The system is designed in master-slave architecture to reduce occupational hazards of radiation exposure and orthopedic injury to interventional surgeons. The slave delivery device has one active roller and two passive rollers to manipulate two interventional devices. The performance of the VasCure was verified by in vitro and in vivo animal experiments. In vitro results showed the robotic system has good accuracy to deliver guidewires and the maximum error is 0.38mm. In an animal experiment, the interventional surgeon delivered two guidewires and balloons to the left circumflex branch and the left anterior descending branch of the pig, which confirmed the feasibility of the vascular robotic system.

Nomogram Incorporating Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography Predicting Time to the Development of Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.

BACKGROUND: It is valuable to predict the time to the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in patients with advanced prostate cancer (PCa). This study aimed to build and validate a nomogram incorporating the clinicopathologic characteristics and the parameters of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) to predict the time to CRPC after androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). METHODS: Patients with PCa were divided into the training (n = 183) and validation cohorts (n = 37) for nomogram construction and validation. The clinicopathologic characteristics and CEUS parameters were analyzed to determine the independent prognosis factors and serve as the basis of the nomogram to estimate the risk of 1-, 2-, and 3-year progress to CRPC. RESULTS: T stage, distant metastasis, Gleason score, area under the curve (AUC), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir, and time to PSA nadir were the independent predictors of CRPC (all P < 0.05). Three nomograms were built to predict the time to CRPC. Owing to the inclusion of CEUS parameter, the discrimination of the established nomogram (C-index: 0.825 and 0.797 for training and validation datasets) was improved compared with the traditional prediction model (C-index: 0.825 and 0.797), and when it excluded posttreatment PSA, it still obtained an acceptable discrimination (C-index: 0.825 and 0.797). CONCLUSIONS: The established nomogram including regular prognostic indicators and CEUS obtained an improved accuracy for the prediction of the time to CRPC. It was also applicable for early prediction of CRPC when it excluded posttreatment PSA, which might be helpful for individualized diagnosis and treatment.

The Recent HIV-1 Infections in Blood Donors of Fuzhou Zone / 中国实验血液学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the recent HIV-1 infections of the blood donors in Fuzhou zone.@*METHODS@#The positive HIV antibody confirmatory samples in Fuzhou zone from 2012 to 2016 were collected and tested by LAg-Avidity EIA, and HIV long-term infections or recent infections were determined.@*RESULTS@#405 371 cases of blood donors were tested in the period from 2012 to 2016, and 94 HIV confirmatory positive samples were collected. 35 cases were recent infections determined by LAg-Avidity EIA, the annual HIV-1 incidences were 1.326‰, 0.845‰, 0.694‰, 1.148‰ and 0.364‰, the average incidences were 0.863‰. Among 94 cases of HIV confirmatory positive donors，58 cases were first donors and 36 cases were repeated donors, 17(29.3%) and 18 (50.0%) cases were recent infections respectively, which showed statistical significance（χ@*CONCLUSION@#The HIV-1 incidences were stable among blood donors in Fuzhou zone. The percentage of HIV-1 recent infections in repeated donors were more higher than that in first donors.

Association Between Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Indicators and Prostate Cancer Biochemical Recurrence After Treatment.

BACKGROUND: Some patients with prostate cancer (PCa) will experience biochemical recurrence (BCR) after treatment. Current researches have identified the influencing factors of BCR, but these factors are difficult to quantify and hence unable to accurately predict the BCR in PCa patients. OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) indicators in predicting the BCR after treatment by evaluating the association between them. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study, 157 PCa patients were recruited and received prostate specific antigen (PSA) measurement, CEUS, pathological classification, and immunohistochemistry after puncture biopsy. PCa patients with BCR were included in the recurrence group, while the remaining patients were included in the non-recurrence group after a 5-year follow-up. The clinical characteristics and CEUS indicators were compared between the two groups, and the multivariable COX regression was used for screening the influencing factors of BCR. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to analyze the value of potential factors in predicting BCR. The effect of the combined prediction model was explored to improve the accuracy of the prediction. RESULTS: Twelve patients are lost during the follow-up period and the final analysis included 145 patients. The 5-year BCR rate of PCa patients was 27%, with 43 patients in the recurrence group and 102 patients in the non-recurrence group. Multivariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis (P<0.001), distant metastasis (P<0.001), Gleason score (P<0.001), pretreatment PSA (P<0.001), treatment method (P<0.001), peak intensity (PI) (P=0.001), and time to peak (TTP) (P=0.003) were independent influencing factors for BCR after treatment. ROC analysis showed that the AUCs of all indicators in predicting BCR were not high (all <0.9). The combination of lymph node metastasis, Gleason score, pretreatment PSA, and treatment method can improve the predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.85), but the AUC was still under 0.9. The combined prediction model including CEUS time-intensity curve (TIC) indicators (PI and TTP) could accurately predict the BCR after treatment (AUC=0.953). The sensitivity and specificity were 93.02% and 88.24%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The prediction model including TIC indicators and common influencing factors can more accurately predict the BCR in PCa patients.

Advances in treatment of neurodegenerative diseases: Perspectives for combination of stem cells with neurotrophic factors.

Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, are a group of incurable neurological disorders, characterized by the chronic progressive loss of different neuronal subtypes. However, despite its increasing prevalence among the ever-increasing aging population, little progress has been made in the coincident immense efforts towards development of therapeutic agents. Research interest has recently turned towards stem cells including stem cells-derived exosomes, neurotrophic factors, and their combination as potential therapeutic agents in neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we summarize the progress in therapeutic strategies based on stem cells combined with neurotrophic factors and mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes for neurodegenerative diseases, with an emphasis on the combination therapy.

EDAG mediates Hsp70 nuclear localization in erythroblasts and rescues dyserythropoiesis in myelodysplastic syndrome.

During human erythroid maturation, Hsp70 translocates into the nucleus and protects GATA-1 from caspase-3 cleavage. Failure of Hsp70 to localize to the nucleus was found in Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) erythroblasts and can induce dyserythropoiesis, with arrest of maturation and death of erythroblasts. However, the mechanism of the nuclear trafficking of Hsp70 in erythroblasts remains unknown. Here, we found the hematopoietic transcriptional regulator, EDAG, to be a novel binding partner of Hsp70 that forms a protein complex with Hsp70 and GATA-1 during human normal erythroid differentiation. EDAG overexpression blocked the cytoplasmic translocation of Hsp70 induced by EPO deprivation, inhibited GATA-1 degradation, thereby promoting erythroid maturation in an Hsp70-dependent manner. Furthermore, in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients with dyserythropoiesis, EDAG is dramatically down-regulated, and forced expression of EDAG has been found to restore the localization of Hsp70 in the nucleus and elevate the protein level of GATA-1 to a significant extent. In addition, EDAG rescued the dyserythropoiesis of MDS patients by increasing erythroid differentiation and decreasing cell apoptosis. This study demonstrates the molecular mechanism of Hsp70 nuclear sustaining during erythroid maturation and establishes that EDAG might be a suitable therapeutic target for dyserythropoiesis in MDS patients.

Clinical features and the maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with coronavirus disease 2019

BACKGROUNDThere is little information about the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) during pregnancy. This study aimed to determine the clinical features and the maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with Covid-19. METHODSIn this retrospective analysis from five hospitals, we included pregnant women with Covid-19 from January 1 to February 20, 2020. The primary composite endpoints were admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), the use of mechanical ventilation, or death. Secondary endpoints included the clinical severity of Covid-19, neonatal mortality, admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and the incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) of pregnant women and newborns. RESULTSThirty-three pregnant women with Covid-19 and 28 newborns were identified. One (3%) pregnant woman needed the use of mechanical ventilation. No pregnant women admitted to the ICU. There were no moralities among pregnant women or newborns. The percentages of pregnant women with mild, moderate, and severe symptoms were 13 (39.4%),19(57.6%), and 1(3%). One (3.6%) newborn developed ARDS and was admitted to the NICU. The rate of perinatal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was 3.6%. CONCLUSIONSThis report suggests that pregnant women are not at increased risk for severe illness or mortality with Covid-19 compared with the general population. The SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy might not be associated with as adverse obstetrical and neonatal outcomes that are seen with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection during pregnancy. (Funded by the National Key Research and Development Program.)

Relationship between blood routine characteristics and clinical classification in 129 COVID-19 patients / 上海预防医学

Objective To investigate the characteristics of blood routine in 129 patients with COVID-19, and analyze the correlation between blood routine parameter changes and clinical classification. Methods A total of 129 COVID-19 patients were recruited and their blood samples were collected at the beginning and the end of treatment.The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio(NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio(PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio(LMR) and C-reactive protein(CRP) were determined and used to calculate Δ NLR, Δ PLR, Δ LMR.The differences in these parameters were compared between the non-severe group (93 cases) and the severe group (36 cases).In addition, the relationship between the changes in blood routine test result and the prognosis of patients was determined. Results The average age of 129 patients was 46.9±17.4 years old, and the ratio of male to female was 1.2 ∶ 1.Thirty-five (35) cases (27.1%) had leucopenia (< 4×109/L) and 59 cases (45.7%) had lymphopenia (< 1.1×109/L).There were statistically significant differences in age, treatment days, blood routine indexes between these two groups.In all the patients, the differences between before and after treatment were statistically significant in the following: leukocyte number, neutrophil cell percentage, lymphocyte number, lymphocyte percentage, monocyte number, monocyte percentage.The differences in RBC, HGB, CRP, and NLR between the two groups before and after treatment were also statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion The older COVID-19 patients have lower number of lymphocytes, higher NLR and PLR, lower LMR and higher CRP.They have a higher risk of progressing to severe disease.After treatment, there is an increase in the number of granulocytes, especially the number of lymphocytes, while a decrease in CRP and NLR.The change of lymphocyte count, NLR and CRP levels can predict the risk of severe COVID-19 and evaluate the therapeutic effect.

Comparative analysis of three complete chloroplast genomes of Inula genus with phylogenetic analysis of 49 plants from Carduoideae / 药学学报

italic>Inula japonica, Inula hupehensis and Inula linaariifolia are all medicinal plants of Inula L. in the Compositae family, and Inula hupehensis is endemic to China. In order to compare their genomic sequence differences and provide scientific basis for their germplasm conservation and development, we obtained and analyzed the complete chloroplast genomes of these three species. Total DNAs were extracted from fresh leaves and subjected to next-generation DNA sequencing. NOVOPlasty was used to assemble the chloroplast genomes from the sequence reads. CPGAVAS2 was used to annotate the genes and repeats in each genome. Lastly, phylogenomics analysis was conducted using RAxML. The results showed that the total length of the chloroplast genome of Inula japonica, Inula hupehensis and Inula linaariifolia is 150 754, 150 909, and 150 812 bp respectively, each consisting of a large single copy region, a small single copy region and a pair of inverted repeat regions. In addition, the G/C content of all three chloroplast genomes was approximately 37.7% and each encoded 111 unique genes, including 79 protein-coding, 28 tRNA and 4 rRNA genes. Meanwhile, 32, 33, 34 simple repeat sequences, 18, 22, 18 tandem repeat sequences and 33, 37, 38 scattered repeat sequences were identified in three species. Phylogenomic analysis showed that all three species of Inula L. and Pluchea indica were clustered together, with the relationship between Inuleae and Senecioneae closer, suggesting that Inuleae may have originated from the Senecioneae, not the Cardueae. The data in this study not only enriches the chloroplast genome database of Inula L., but also lays the foundation for the future studies of species identification, phylogenetic relationships, evolution history and genetic diversity of Inula species.

Advance in Development of Neurons and Glial Cells in Brain Tissue of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (review) / 中国康复理论与实践

Autism spectrum disorder is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that occur in early childhood. The specific pathogenesis is not clear. Abnormal development of neurons and glial cells is a significant feature of patients with autism spectrum disorder. This article reviewed the changes in neurons, astrocyte, microglial cell and oligodendroglia cell in autism spectrum disorder.