OBJECTIVETo investigate the predictive value of pediatrics end-stage liver disease (PELD) or the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) in the prognosis of pediatric acute liver failure (PALF) treated with artificial liver support system (ALSS).

METHODThe clinical data of 47 children with acute liver failure seen from August 2008 to July 2013 treated in Children's Hospital, Fudan University were analyzed. Thirty children were treated with ALSS in addition to conventional comprehensive medical treatment (ALSS group). Seventeen children were treated with only conventional comprehensive medical treatment (control group). The main biochemical parameters and coagulation function parameters before and after treatment were compared in the ALSS group and the mortality rates were compared between the two groups. The patients were graded by PELD or MELD when they were hospitalized and the relationship of PELD or MELD scores and mortalities of child patients with the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) were analyzed.

RESULTThere were significant differences in total bilirubin (TB) ((302 ± 208) vs. (161 ± 129) µmol/L); alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ((161 ± 225) vs. (761 ± 834) U/L); aspartate aminotransferase ( AST) (66 (35, 123 ) vs. 447 (184, 1,129 ) U/L) ; international normalized ratio (INR) ((2.6 ± 1.6) vs. (5.1 ± 4.0)); prothrombin time activity percentage (PTA) ((42 ± 25)% vs. (22 ± 13)%); albumin( ALB) ((35 ± 5) vs. (33 ± 6) g/L) in the ALSS group after treatment. Through the ROC curve analysis, the best PELD/MELD threshold was 25 to predict the patients survival after ALSS therapy, with a sensitivity of 92. 3% , and a specificity of 94.1% at the cutoff point. The area under the ROC curve was 0. 912. The mortality of patients with PELD or MELD score below 25 in the ALSS group (1/13) was lower than the control group (3/4) (P = 0.022), and the mortality of patients with PELD or MELD score over 25 (16/17) was higher than that of the control group (10/13) (P = 0.290).

CONCLUSIONPELD or MELD score is a valid index in prognostic evaluation of ALSS therapy, which may provide an evidence for the therapeutic strategies of PALF. Patients with PELD or MELD score below 25 treated with ALSS obtained more benefit.

Alanine Transaminase ; Bilirubin ; Child ; End Stage Liver Disease ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Humans ; Liver Failure, Acute ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Liver Function Tests ; Liver, Artificial ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Prognosis ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity

Objective To establish the continuing nursing model for ventilator-dependent children in China and explore its feasibility.Methods Ventilator-dependent children in our hospital from October 2015 to February 2017 were recruited.Self-designed home ventilation follow-up card and long-term ventilator-dependent children outpatient follow-up card were used to collect information.We established files for patients trained and evaluated caregivers conducted discharge assessment for patients and family status performed follow-up and management.Results Totally 30 cases of parents and caregivers received home care training and passed the examination 15 cases of ventilator-dependent children returned home with home ventilator and 12 received follow-up.The total readmission rate was 58.3％;among them the readmission rate in one month was 33.3％.One case died due to deteriorated primary disease and 11 cases used home mechanical ventilation successfully during follow-up.The length of home mechanical ventilation varied from 5 months to 2 years.Conclusion The continuing nursing model for ventilator-dependent children is feasible.

The present study was aimed to use the 3-D cone beam CT (CBCT) as a new method in human bite marks identification which was carried out in experimental pigskin to assess its effectiveness in our laboratory. Bite marks were digital photographed according to American Board of Forensic Odontology (ABFO) guidelines. In this study, the data of the suspect's dental casts were collected by scanning in two ways: one was after plate scanning, in which the comparison overlays were generated by Adobe Photoshop 8.0 software; the other was by CBCT, which generated comparison overlays automatically. The bite marks were blind identified with the two kinds of data of the suspect's dental casts respectively. ROC curve was used to analyze the sensitivity, specificity, and 95% confidence interval. The results showed that CBCT method got a larger area under the ROC curve: 0.784 (SE = 0.074, 95% CI = 0.639-0.929), and got a very high specificity (specificity 98.7%, 95% CI = 94.5%-99.8%). Thus, this study illustrates that the CBCT used in bite mark identification is an effective and accurate tool and has stronger ability to exclude suspects compared with the conventional method, but the comparison process needs further study to enhance its effectiveness in bite mark identification.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Bites, Human ; diagnostic imaging ; Cone-Beam Computed Tomography ; methods ; Copying Processes ; Dental Models ; Dentition ; Female ; Forensic Dentistry ; methods ; Humans ; Imaging, Three-Dimensional ; methods ; Male ; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of perioperative application of intestinal probiotics to substitute oral intestinal antimicrobial agents on intestinal flora and immune function in surgical patients with colorectal cancer.

METHODSSixty patients with colorectal cancer undergoing elective laparoscopic radical surgery were randomized to receive preoperative bowel preparation using oral intestinal antimicrobial agents (n=20) or using oral intestinal probiotics (Jinshuangqi Tablets, 2.0 g, 3 times daily) since the fifth day before the operation and at 24 h after the operation for 7 consecutive days. Upon admission and 7 days after the operation, fecal samples and fasting peripheral venous blood were collected from the patients to examine the intestinal flora and serum levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2), IgA, IgG, and IgM, NK cell activity, T lymphocytes subsets CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio.

RESULTSAt 7 days after the operation, the patients receiving probiotics showed significantly increased counts of intestinal Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Enterococcus (P<0.05) and significantly lowered counts of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (P<0.05). The serum levels of IL-2, IgA, IgG and IgM as well as CD4(+) cell percentage all increased significantly in probiotics group compared with those in patients with conventional intestinal preparation (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONSPerioperative application of intestinal probiotics to replace preoperative oral intestinal antimicrobial agents can effectively correct intestinal flora imbalance and improve the immune function of surgical patients with colorectal cancer.

Aged ; Bifidobacterium ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; immunology ; microbiology ; Female ; Humans ; Intestines ; microbiology ; Intraoperative Period ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Premedication ; Probiotics ; therapeutic use ; Prospective Studies ; Single-Blind Method

The main reason for prolonged mechanic ventilation in children staying in PICU for a long time is that it cannot weaning.The reasons for prolonged mechanic ventilation are complex and diverse, and how to deal with it is a difficult problem faced by clinicians.This review summarized the etiology and weaning strategies of prolonged mechanic ventilation in children, so as to provide evidence for clinicians to deal with this problem.

Mechanical ventilation is becoming more and more common in clinical practice.It certainly helps patients to overcome the respiratory failure in children, but in the meantime, also lead to ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction(VIDD). VIDD is common in mechanical ventilation patients and are associated with prolonged duration of mechanical ventilation, difficult weaning, pulmonary infection and the mortality.With the development of clinical medical technology, more and more convenient devices are applied to monitor diaphragm function.This review expounded the latest monitoring technology and assessment indices of VIDD, including pressure-generating capacity, imaging examination and diaphragm electrical activity.

Objective:To explore the reproducibility of ultrasound measurements of children′s anterior, middle and posterior diaphragm motions.Methods:Thirty children admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit were positioned supine and a 5MHz ultrasound probe was placed over the intersection of their right midclavicular line with the costal margin. M-mode ultrasound was used to record the excursion and contraction velocity of the anterior, middle and posterior diaphragm during respiration. The observations were duplicated so the repeatability of the measurements could be evaluated using intra-group correlation coefficients calculated for the diaphragm excursions and the contraction velocities. Analysis of variance was used to explore the differences in excursion and contraction velocity among different parts of the diaphragm.Results:The intra-group correlation coefficients calculated for the anterior, middle and posterior diaphragm were 0.89, 0.95 and 0.90 respectively. The corresponding values for the contraction velocities were 0.90, 0.94 and 0.95 respectively. Both variables measured by ultrasound showed high repeatability. The average anterior, middle and posterior diaphragm excursion values (in mm) were 8.1±3.1, 7.4±3.0 and 5.5±2.3, and the corresponding average contraction velocities (in mm/s) were 12.5±4.8, 11.5±6.3 and 8.9±4.0.Conclusions:Measurements of children′s diaphragm motions using ultrasound show high repeatability. The excursions and contraction velocities of the anterior, middle and posterior diaphragm differ in children. The motion of one part of the diaphragm cannot represent the functioning of the entire diaphragm.

Children with prolonged mechanical ventilation often have complex conditions, such as long hospital stay of PICU.They have many complications and high mortality.In addition, these patients have low quality of life, lack of psychological care, family emotional communication, and heavy burden of disease.The long-term management and rehabilitation of these children should be strengthened.This study summarized the researches of prolonged mechanical ventilation in adults at home and abroad, in order to provide experience for prolonged mechanical ventilation management in children.

Objective To analyze the clinical effects of procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids combined with external hemorrhoidectomy in the treatment of mixed hemorrhoid. Methods Clinical data of 108 patients with mix hemorrhoid who were admitted to our hospital from January 2012 to January 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. The 108 patients were assigned to an observation group and a control group according to the surgical procedures. 54 patients in the ob-servation group received procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids combined with external hemorrhoidectomy, and 54 pa-tients in the control group received the conventional Milligan-Morgan operation. Each clinical index, pain conditions within 3 days after surgery and complications within 6 months after the surgery in the two groups were compared. Re-sults Surgery time, amount of bleeding during surgery, hospitalization time, and hospitalization expenses in the observa-tion group were all significantly better than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Pain scores in 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after the surgery in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). In 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after the surgery, patients in the observation group had suffered less pain than those in the control group. Except for one of the patients who had complications before the surgery, total incidence of complications within 6 months after the surgery in the observation group was 18.51%, significantly lower than that of 81.50% in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05). Conclusion The procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids combined with external hemor-rhoidectomy in the treatment of mix hemorrhoid has favorable effects of lower pain degree and less incidence of com-plications, and the combined procedure is suitable to be further promoted and applied clinically.

Objective:To analyze the clinical situation of critically ill children with Montgomery T-tube，aiming to summarize the characteristics of T-tube application in pediatric and the experience of postoperative airway management in PICU.Methods:The etiology，clinical characteristics，complications and ICU admissions of patients with Montgomery T-tube admitted to the Pediatric Hospital of Fudan University from April 2019 to December 2021 were analyzed，and the application of T-tube in patients with critical conditions requiring long-term mechanical ventilation was described in the light of clinical experience.Results:During the study period,seven children were admitted to the PICU after T-tube insertion,including three males and four females,aged 9~75 months.Five children received mechanical ventilation.Among them,there were five cases with congenital laryngeal malformations,one case with tracheoesophageal fistula,and one case with laryngeal papilloma.The main complications were sputum blockage,infection,and granulation proliferation.One child died of secretion blockage,while the other children were successfully evacuated from the T-tube.The longest retention time of the T-tube was 367 days.Five patients experienced hoarseness after removing the T-tube,and upon re-examination with fiberoptic bronchoscopy,no recurrence of subglottic stenosis was observed.There was no respiratory distress or wheezing,and there were no abnormalities observed during regular outpatient follow-up after discharge.After discharge,the quality of life of the six surviving children improved compared to preoperative,and they all resumed oral feeding.There were no complaints of swallowing difficulties or aspiration during outpatient follow-up.But they were all combined with malnutrition.Conclusion:The Montgomery T-tube is a secure and dependable airway stent utilized for airway remodeling and the maintenance of airway patency following interventional surgery.For critically ill children,early management of airway clearance and infection prevention are imperative.