Objective To evaluate the effect of schistosomiasis control in“Oriental Star shipwreck event”in Jianli County, Hubei Province,so as to provide experiences for schistosomiasis prevention and control in rescue of emergency in the future. Methods According to the data of historical schistosomiasis prevalence and the results of the field survey in the townships in the upstream and downstream of the rescue spots,the emergency handling measures of schistosomiasis control were evaluated. Meanwhile,the Oncomelania hupensis snail situation,priority crowd chemotherapy,key aquatic monitoring,and illness moni?toring of people and livestock were investigated to evaluate the schistosomiasis control effect after the events comprehensively. Results There were no schistosome?infected snails found in the place of shipwreck and the rescue spots. The average density of O. hupensis snails in 5 townships of Jianli County was 0.064 snails/0.1 m2 ,and there were no infected snails found. The positive rate of 2 090 migrants in the schistosomiasis serologic tests was 0.29%and there were no positive ones found in the fecal exami?nation. There were no acute schistosomiasis cases found by the sentinel surveillance fever clinics,and also no positive cattle were found. The results of sentinel mice monitoring in the place of shipwreck and 4 villages in the upstream and downstream showed no infected mice were found. Conclusion The schistosomiasis control measures taken after the shipwreck is effective, which achieves the goal of no schistosomiasis transmission after emergency.

Objective:To study the role of ethanol extract of Euonymus alatus stems (EAT) and ethanol extract of Euonymus alatus wings (EAW) in anti-hepatic fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride in mice, and to explore its preliminary mechanism. Methods:Sixty C57BL/6 mice were selected and randomly divided into healthy control group, carbon tetrachloride model (CTM) group, EAW low dose (EAW-L) group, EAW high dose (EAW-H) group, EAT low dose (EAT-L) group and EAT high dose (EAT-H) group, with 10 mice in each group. Three days before modeling, the mice of EAT-L, EAT-H, EAW-L and EAW-H group were gavaged with EAT or EAW at 2.0 or 8.0 g/kg, respectively, and the mice of healthy control group and CTM group were gavaged with equal volume of pure water, once a day till the 30th day after modeling (total 33 times). Five percent carbon tetrachloride olive oil solution was intraperitoneally injected at 8 mL/kg to establish liver fibrosis model in CTM, EAT-L, EAT-H, EAW-L and EAW-H groups. The mice in the healthy control group were intraperitoneally injected with equal volume of 0.9% sodium chloride solution, twice per week for 30 days, and a total of 9 times of injection. The liver index, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBil) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were detected. Hematoxylin-eosin and Masson staining were used to observe the pathological changes of mouse liver tissue and calculate the collagen volume fraction. The liver inflammatory response and fibrosis degree were evaluated by histological activity index (HAI) and Ishak system score. The level of α-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA)in liver tissue was both detected by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 at protein and mRNA level was detected by Western blotting and fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Analysis of variance, Tukey test and Dunn test were used for statistical analysis.Results:The hepatic indexes of EAW-L, EAW-H and EAT-H groups were lower than that of CTM group(0.06±0.01, 0.05±0.01 and 0.05±0.01 vs. 0.07±0.01), and the differences were statistically significant ( q=5.12, 7.70, 7.11; all P<0.01). The serum ALT and AST levels of EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L and EAT-H groups were lower than those of CTM group((601.76±141.38), (283.35±42.32), (734.74±116.06) and (391.60±34.33) U/L vs.(982.45±96.04) U/L, (509.49±152.29), (345.41±67.39), (282.30±65.72) and(243.23±45.20) U/L vs.(766.01±114.49) U/L), and the differences were statistically significant ( qALT =9.88, 20.81, 7.65, 17.58, qAST =5.11, 12.52, 14.92, 15.56; all P<0.001). The serum TBil levels of EAW-H and EAT-H groups were lower than that of CTM group((6.81±0.49) and (7.08±1.78) μmol/L vs.(12.68±3.28) μmol/L), and the differences were statistically significant( q=6.31, 6.01; both P<0.01). The serum IL-6 levels of EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L and EAT-H groups were lower than that of CTM group((29.26±5.42), (24.28±4.75), (9.05±1.74) and (8.01±1.24) ng/L vs.(53.21±10.05) ng/L); the serum IL-6 level of EAT-L group was lower than that of EAW-L group; the serum IL-6 level of EAT-H group was lower than that of EAW-H group, and the differences were statistically significant( q=12.20, 14.73, 22.48, 22.11, 10.28, 7.96; all P <0.001). The collagen volume fractions of EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L and EAT-H groups were lower than that of CTM group (6.15±1.09, 2.91±0.76, 7.07±1.37 and 5.31±0.80 vs. 12.36±1.96); the collagen volume fraction of EAW-H group was lower than that of EAW-L, EAT-L and EAT-H groups, and the differences were statistically significant( q=11.68, 17.78, 9.94, 13.25; 6.10, 7.84, 4.53; all P <0.05). The HAI and Ishak system scores of EAW-H and EAT-H groups were lower than those of CTM group (6.0 (5.5, 7.5) and 7.0 (6.0, 7.5) vs. 13.0 (12.0, 13.0), 1.0 (1.0, 2.0) and 2.0 (1.0, 2.0) vs. 4.0 (3.0, 4.0)), and the differences were statistically significant( ZHAI=3.38, 3.23, Zlshak=3.22, 3.03; all P<0.05). The result of immunohistochemical analysis showed that the expression levels of α-SMA in the mice liver tissues of EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L, EAT-H and CTM groups were 4.76±0.36, 2.75±0.29, 3.72±0.34, 5.20±0.79 and 5.98±0.52, respectively. The result of Western blotting showed that the expression levels of α-SMA in the mice liver tissues of CTM, EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L and EAT-H groups were 0.96±0.11, 0.67±0.07, 0.22±0.01, 0.78±0.08 and 0.68±0.07, respectively. Two detection methods both showed that the expression levels of α-SMA of EAW-L, EAW-H and EAT-H groups were lower than that of CTM group; the expression level of α-SMA of EAW-H group was lower than that of EAW-L, EAT-L and EAT-H group, and the differences were statistically significant( qimmunohistochemical =6.06, 15.95, 11.18, 9.92, 12.10 and 4.79, qWestern blotting=7.29, 18.34, 6.84, 11.05, 13.97 and 11.49, all P<0.05). The expression levels of MMP2 and ERK1/2 at protein and mRNA levels in the mice liver tissues of EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L, EAT-H and CTM groups were 0.18±0.04, 0.16±0.04, 0.28±0.02, 0.21±0.02 and 0.84±0.02, 0.80±0.02, 0.57±0.08, 0.83±0.03, 0.69±0.02 and 0.91±0.04, 18.74±1.90, 10.73±1.24, 24.99±1.84, 7.19±0.48 and 24.68±1.18, 29.44±4.47, 11.96±0.53, 24.75±4.04, 5.30±0.36 and 35.76±0.85, respectively. The expression levels of MMP2 at protein level in EAW-L, EAW-H, EAT-L and EAT-H groups were lower than that in CTM group; the expression levels of ERK1/2 at protein level in EAW-H and EAT-H groups were lower than that in CTM group; the expression level of ERK1/2 at protein level in EAW-H group was lower than that in EAT-H group; the expression levels of MMP2 and ERK1/2 at mRNA level in EAW-H and EAT-H group were lower than those in CTM group; the expression levels of MMP2 and ERK1/2 at mRNA level in EAW-H group were lower than those in EAW-L group; the expression levels of MMP2 and ERK1/2 at mRNA level in EAT-H group were lower than those in EAT-L and EAW-H groups, and the differences were statistically significant( q=22.15, 22.96, 18.87, 21.31; 13.42, 8.53; 4.90; 18.57, 23.29, 16.49, 21.11; 10.66, 12.12; 23.70, 15.38, 13.48, 16.73; all P<0.05). Conclusions:Both EAT and EAW can alleviate carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury and liver fibrosis in mice, which may be related with inhibiting the expression of ERK1/2 and IL-6 and then affecting the Ras/ERK-MMP2 signaling pathway.

Objective To compare the molluscicidal effects between“Luo-wei”(TDS),a plant molluscicide in 4 percent, and metaldehyde and niclosamide(MNSC)in the field. Methods A natural ecological environment with Oncomelania hupensis was selected as the test area,the test concentrations of TDS and MNSC were 2.5 g/m3 and 2 ml/m3 respectively by the immersion method;the test doses of TDS and MNSC were 3 g/m2 and 2 ml/m2 respectively by the spray method;the doses of WPN in a control group were 2 g/m3 and 2 g/m2 respectively by the two methods above-mentioned. The molluscicidal effects between TDS and MNSC were compared by using the synchronous design method and parallel comparative method. Results In the TDS group,the death rate of snails was 90.70%by immersion for 24 hours,reached to 81.40%after spraying for 7 days,and there were no significant differences among the observation time points in molluscicidal effects(P>0.05). One day after the spraying,the death rate of snails was less in the TDS group compared with that in the MSCN group(P<0.01),but the death rates of snails were similar in both groups 3 days after the spraying(P>0.05). In the MSCN group,the death rate of snails was 99.17%by immersion for 24 hours,reached to 66.07% by spraying for 1 day. In the WPS group,the death rate of snails was 97.15% by immersion for 24 hours,reached to 71.43%after spraying for 1 day,and there were no significant differences(both P>0.05). Conclusion TDS has a good molluscicidal activity and stable efficacy,and the molluscicidal effect of TDS is similar to that of MSCN in the filed, but the molluscicidal sensitivity of TDS is lower than that of MSCN.

BACKGROUNDThe prevalence of thyroid nodules (TN) is increasing rapidly. This study analyzed the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of TN in surgically treated patients and identified the risk factors for malignant nodules (MN) to provide more understanding of the differential diagnosis of TN.

METHODSA total of 6 304 TN cases who underwent thyroid surgery were included in this retrospective study. The clinical data were collected to evaluate the clinical and epidemiological characteristics and related risk factors for MN. The nature of TN (benign nodules (BN) or MN), medical records, laboratory data, and imaging data were analyzed. The risk factors for MN were screened using Spearman's rank correlation analysis and nonconditional binary Logistic regression analysis.

RESULTSThe number of surgically treated TN cases increased yearly. A total of 34.33% of cases were MN and 65.67% were BN. Up to 56.74% of these cases underwent unnecessary surgery. Among the MN cases, papillary thyroid carcinoma accounted for 94%, in which 46.71% coexisted with benign thyroid disease and 32.28% with multiple foci. Single-related factor analysis showed that age, employment, disease duration, history of breast nodules and/or hypertension, the levels of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb), and thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPoAb), and ultrasound features of TN were related to MN. Stepwise nonconditional binary Logistic regression analysis showed that 13 factors may be the independent risk factors for MN, including <40 years old, previous history of breast nodules and/or hypertension, disease duration <1 month, employment, hypoechoic nodule, irregular nodules, nodule calcification, solid echo nodule, fuzzy boundary, rich blood flow within nodules, abnormal lymph nodes around the neck, nodule diameter <1 cm, and abnormally high TgAb.

CONCLUSIONSOur results demonstrate a rapid increase in surgically treated TN cases and ratio of MN and indicate unnecessary surgeries in some cases. This study also suggest that age, duration of thyroid disease, history of breast disease and/or hypertension, the levels of serum TSH, TgAb, and TPoAb, and ultrasound features of TN are related to MN, and some of these factors may be the risk factors for MN.

Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; Thyroid Nodule ; epidemiology