Association of Mycoplasma pneumoniae coinfection with adenovirus pneumonia severity in children

Between the winter of 2018 and the end of 2019, there has been an epidemic of adenovirus infection in southern China, including Zhejiang Province. The number of children suffering from adenovirus pneumonia (AP) has significantly increased. AP can be accompanied by Mycoplasma pneumoniae in children. This study aimed to investigate the association of M. pneumoniae and identify the risk factors for coinfection on hospitalized patients with AP. The patients were classified into two groups by etiologic analysis (single AP and AP with M. pneumoniae coinfection groups). The clinical manifestations, clinical medication, and laboratory and imaging findings of the two groups were compared and analyzed. The coinfection group (n = 125) had a significantly longer duration of fever than the single AP group (n = 171; P = 0.03). Shortness of breath (P = 0.023) and pulmonary imaging findings, such as pulmonary consolidation, atelectasis, pleural effusion, and multilobe lesions (P < 0.05), were more common in the coinfection group. The patients with coinfection had more severe symptoms, significantly longer hospitalization time and an increased proportion of using glucocorticoids and/or immunoglobulin needing oxygen inhalation (P < 0.05). The incidence of AP with M. pneumoniae coinfection is high. The prolonged fever duration and pulmonary imaging findings could be used as prediction factors to predict M. pneumoniae coinfection in children with AP. Patients with AP coinfected with MP may easily develop severe illness. Hence, a reasonable change in the treatment is necessary (AU)

Investigation on serum pertussis toxin antibody levels in children aged 0-14 in Hangzhou / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective:To investigate the serum antibody level in children with pertussis in Hangzhou city, and to evaluate the incidence of pertussis in children and the immunization effect of vaccine.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted.The pertussis toxin IgG antibody levels in 1 486 children aged 0-14 who received physical exa-mination in Hangzhou Children′s Hospital from January to December 2018 of were collected and analyzed.Serum antibody level ≥30 IU/mL was considered seropositive.The children enrolled were divided into the 0-3-year-old, 4-6-year-old, 7-9-year-old and 10-14-year-old groups; then the children under 3 years old were subdivided into groups of 0-<3 months, 3-<6 months, 6-<9 months, 9-<12 months, 12-<18 months, and 18-≤ 36 months; finally, the children were grouped according to their vaccination times, the pertussis toxin IgG antibody level and the infection rate of pertussis were compared among different groups by Mann- Whitney U, Kruskal- Wallis and χ2 tests. Results:The overall positive rate of the pertussis toxin IgG antibody was 23.62% (351/1 486), and the median antibody concentration was 6.60 IU/mL.Among children aged 0-14, the 0-3-year-old children had the highest positive rate of the pertussis toxin IgG antibody and the highest median antibody concentration, which were 24.58% (29/118) and 6.95 IU/mL, respectively.There was no significant difference in the antibody positive rate and the median antibody concentration among different age groups (all P>0.05). Among different subgroups of children aged 0-3, the pertussis toxin IgG antibody positive rate and the median antibody concentration were statistically significant (all P<0.05). It was predicted that the pertussis infection rate in children over 3 years old in Hangzhou was about 45.99%.The patients receiving more than 3 doses of vaccination accounted for 87.48% (1 300/1 486), and their antibody positive rate was 25.46% (331/1 300). After excluding unvaccinated children, the comparison results suggested that there was statistical significance in the antibody positive rate and median antibody concentration among different vaccination groups ( χ2=24.467, 67.438, all P<0.001). Conclusions:The serum pertussis toxin IgG antibody positive rate in children aged 0-14 in Hangzhou is low, but their predicted pertussis infection rate is higher.Children aged 0-14 are easy to become a main source of infection.Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to and strengthen the vaccination plan and research, enhance the monitoring of the infection source, and prevent the " recurrence of pertussis" .

WITHDRAWN: Anti-arthritic effect of pilose antler peptide on adjuvant-induced rheumatoid arthritis in rats.

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Antihyperuricemic effect of liquiritigenin in potassium oxonate-induced hyperuricemic rats.

The aim is to investigate the anti-hyperuricemic and renal protective effects of liquiritigenin in potassium oxonate-induced hyperuricemic rats. Hyperuricemia in rats was induced were induced with potassium oxonate (250mg/kg) intragastrically for 7 days, and liquiritigenin (20, 40mg/kg) and allopurinol (5mg/kg) were daily administrated to the rats orally 1h after the potassium oxonate exposure. Liquiritigenin significantly reversed the elevated productions of uric acid in serum and urine and pro-inflammation cytokines in serum and kidney, which shown that liquiritigenin has renal protective effects. Histological study shows that liquiritigenin inhibited severe necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration in potassium oxonate-treated rats. Furthermore, liquiritigenin mediated the activities of aquaporins 4 (AQP4), and regulated the activation of NF-κB p65 and the degradation of IκBα. Finally, significant increases of nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein adaptor (ASC) adaptor and cleaved caspased-1 were restored by liquiritigenin. Therefore, liquiritigenin might improve renal inflammation by suppressing renal AQP4/NF-κB/IκBα and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in hyperuricemic rats.

Research on the application of digital imaging and communications in medicine standard in imaging equipment procurement / 中国医学装备

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is the international standard for medical images and related information (ISO 12052). It defines the formats for medical imaging that can be exchanged with the data and quality necessary for clinical use. DICOM is implemented in almost every radiology, cardiology imaging, and radiotherapy device (X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, etc.), PET devices data transferring, and increasingly in devices in other medical domains such as ophthalmology and dentistry. During the procurement plan process of imaging equipment, not only the hardware technology needs to be planed, but also the invisible software part needs to be detail planed, the DICOM technology is always easily ignored or not decrypted inaccurately. This article is to elaborate the basic application of the DICOM standard and introduce the most common DICOM interfaces and their functions in equipment procurement. These interfaces include imaging equipment procurement such as CT, MR, US, PET.