OBJECTIVETo study the clinical efficacy of sublingual immunotherapy using standardized Dermatophagoides farinae extract for children with combined allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome.

METHODSFifty-two children, from 4 to 14 years of age, with mite-sensitive combined allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome were treated sublingually with standardized Dermatophagoides farinae extract. The clinical efficacy was evaluated by monthly follow-up visits. After treatment for 1 or 2 years using the standardized Dermatophagoides farinae extract, the asthma and rhinitis symptom scores, medication scores and adverse reactions before and after treatment were evaluated. SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the data.

RESULTSThe allergic asthma symptom scores before treatment during the day were 3.22 ± 0.66 and at night 2.05 ± 0.57. After 1 year of treatment, the day and night scores (1.68 ± 0.61, 0.94 ± 0.32) respectively, were decreased significantly (q values were 15.25 and 13.78 respectively, all P < 0.01). After 2 years of treatment, the scores (0.61 ± 0.28, 0.43 ± 0.13) were also decreased significantly (q values were 10.29 and 6.07 respectively, all P < 0.01). The allergic rhinitis symptom scores and medication scores were 2.34 ± 0.59 and 3.09 ± 1.01 respectively before treatment and 1.21 ± 0.46 and 1.89 ± 0.64 after 1 year of treatment. The differences were significant (q values were 15.48 and 18.61 respectively, all P < 0.01). The allergic rhinitis symptom scores and medication scores were 1.02 ± 0.37 and 1.49 ± 0.38 after 2 years of treatment. There was no significant difference between 2 years of treatment and 1 year of treatment (q values were 2.53 and 2.78 respectively, all P > 0.05). There were no severe adverse events during the treatment, except for mild mouth cavity discomfort.

CONCLUSIONSSublingual immunotherapy using standardized Dermatophagoides farinae extract is safe and effective in the treatment of children with combined allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome.

Administration, Sublingual ; Adolescent ; Animals ; Antigens, Dermatophagoides ; administration & dosage ; immunology ; Asthma ; therapy ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Dermatophagoides farinae ; immunology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; Male ; Rhinitis, Allergic, Perennial ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome

Adult ; Ascites ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; complications ; therapy ; Male ; Middle Aged

OBJECTIVETo describe the prevalence of anemia and yearly trends (1993-2003) among women who came to the hospitals or maternal and child health units for premarital examinations in 6 counties of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

METHODSData were obtained from the records of the premarital examinations in perinatal health care surveillance system that had been established since 1992 in these areas. We reviewed hemoglobin levels of those women who were enrolled in the perinatal health care surveillance system from 1993 to 2003. Anemia was defined according to the WHO (2001) criterion. We calculated the prevalence of anemia and analyzed the yearly trends based on the data of hemoglobin concentration.

RESULTSIn the period of 1993-2003, there were 82 995 anemia cases identified among 193,434 women with an overall anemia rate as 42.9%. The rates of anemia were high (65.5%) in 1993 but low (25.8%) in 2003. 99.7% of the anemic women whose hemoglobin concentration were between 80-119.9 g/L. Time trend analysis indicated a significant decline on anemia rate while monthly analysis showed that the prevalence rates were high (48.2%) in September and low in March (39.5%). The results also showed that the prevalence rates of anemia were relatively higher in farmers and workers in rural enterprises, and lower in Han ethnicity than minorities. The higher prevalence rates of anemia were presented among the women with less education, lower body mass index, or at older age.

CONCLUSIONFor those premarital women in 6 counties of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the overall anemic rate presented a significant downward trend between 1993 and 2003 while the prevalence of anemia remained high, especially for the women with less education, lower body mass index or older ages.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Anemia ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Premarital Examinations ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Due to special physiological characteristics, articular infection is difficult to be cured successfully. Early diagnosis is critical for the treatment of articular infection, thereafter, searching for a biomarker with high sensitivity and specificity is necessary.OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the value of procalcitonin for diagnosing joint infection in adult.METHODS: A computer-based online research was performed for the literature in PubMed, EMbase, the Cochrane Library and CNKI databases from 1990 to June 2017. Literature screening and data extraction were conducted by two reviewers independently according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The risk of bias of included studies was assessed by using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2. Meta-analysis was then performed using Stata 14.0 software. The pooled weighted sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio were calculated; the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn and the area under the curve was calculated.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) A total of 10 studies were included, involving 893 patients. (2) The pooled weighted sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of procalcitonin diagnosing joint infection were 0.82 (95%CI=0.72-0.89), 0.89 (95%CI=0.82-0.93), 7.20 (95%CI=4.6-11.3), 0.20 (95%CI=0.13-0.32), 35 (95%CI=18-71) and 0.92 (95%CI=0.90-0.94), respectively. (3) To conclude, procalcitonin exhibits more diagnostic efficiency for assessing articular infection in adults.

Objective To explore the effect of PM2.5 on the mortality of cardio-cerebrovascular disease in Suzhou, China. Methods The death data, air pollutant data and meteorological data from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017 in Suzhou were collected. The general additive Poisson regression model was used to analyse the association of exposure to PM2.5 with the daily deaths due to cardio-cerebrovascular disease, and to calculate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) for an interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5. Results The number of deaths from cardio-cerebrovascular disease was 30 200. On average, there were approximately 41 deaths per day. The daily median concentration of PM2.5 was 37.13 μg/m3 and IQR was 30.75 μg/m3. The RR values of single-day death and average death from cardio-cerebrovascular disease were 1.017(1.001-1.034) and 1.055(1.019-1.093)with an IQR increase of PM2.5 concentration, respectively. Stratified by gender and age, female and the elderly aged over 65 had higher risks of death from the cardio-cerebrovascular disease. Conclusion The elevated level of ambient PM2.5was positively associated with the increase of mortality of cardio-cerebrovascular disease.

OBJECTIVETo describe the epidemiology of neural tube defects (NTDs) in high- and low-prevalence areas of China.

METHODSBirth defects surveillance data, collected from 1992 through 1994 was analyzed. These data were collected as part of the Sino-American cooperative project on NTDs prevention. We classified NTDs as anencephaly, encephalocele, high-level and low-level spina bifida (SB) according to location of the lesion (high vs low) and whether the defect was isolated or occurred in association with other birth defects. Rates were compared in the high-prevalence (North) region and the low-prevalence (South) region, after adjusted for classification, urban and rural, season and sex, and calculated the adjusted rate of NTDs.

RESULTSAmong seven hundred and eighty-four NTDs cases in 326 874 recorded births (include in livebirth, stillbirth and fetal death with a gestational age of at least 20 weeks), the overall NTDs prevalence in the North was 5.57/1,000 births, and in the South was 0.88/1 000. There were also significant differences in the prevalence of anencephaly, encephalocele, high-level and low-level SB between North (0.97, 0.49, 2.75 and 1.11/1,000 birth) and South (0.36, 0.15, 0.21 and 0.14/1,000 birth) (P < 0.01), with adjusted prevalences in the North 3 - 7 times higher than those in the South. There were significant difference between urban (2.04) and rural areas (6.57/1,000 birth) in the North (P < 0.01), urban (0.52) and rural areas (0.95/1,000 birth) in the South (P < 0.05). Adjusted prevalence rates in the rural were 3 - 4 times higher than those of urban in the North and 1.6 - 1.9 times higher than in the South; The seasonal rate of high-level SB increased between September and November in the North (3.44/1,000 birth), while the seasonal rate of anencephaly decreased between September and November (0.18/1,000 birth) in the South. However there were no seasonal changes in other classified NTDs both in the South and North.

CONCLUSIONSThe birth prevalence of NTDs in the North of China was the highest in the world. There were significant differences between the North and the South, urban and rural. There was seasonal change in high-level SB in the North, which was in accordance to the phenotype of NTDs. It was suggested that there might exist etiological heterogeneity among anecephalus, low- and high-level SB.

China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Neural Tube Defects ; epidemiology ; Seasons

Cardiomyocytes can resist ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury through ischemic postconditioning (IPoC) which is repetitive ischemia induced during the onset of reperfusion. Myocardial ischemic preconditioning up-regulated protein 2 (MIP2) is a member of the WD-40 family proteins, we previously showed that MIP2 was up-regulated during ischemic preconditioning (IPC). As IPC and IPoC engaged similar molecular mechanisms in cardioprotection, this study aimed to elucidate whether MIP2 was up-regulated during IPoC and contributed to IPoC-mediated protection against I/R injury. The experiment was conducted on two models, an in vivo open chest rat coronary artery occlusion model and an in vitro model with H9c2 myogenic cells. In both models, 3 groups were constituted and randomly designated as the sham, I/R and IPoC/hypoxia postconditioning (HPoC) groups. In the IPoC group, after 45 min of ischemia, hearts were allowed three cycles of reperfusion/ischemia phases (each of 30 s duration) followed by reperfusion. In the HPoC group, after 6 h of hypoxia, H9c2 cells were subjected to three cycles of 10 minute reoxygenation and 10 minute hypoxia followed by reoxygenation. IPoC significantly reduced the infarct size, plasma level of Lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase MB in rats. 12 h after the reperfusion, MIP2 mRNA levels in the IPoC group were 10 folds that of the sham group and 1.4 folds that of the I/R group. Increased expression of MIP2 mRNA and attenuation of apoptosis were similarly observed in the HPoC group in the in vitro model. These effects were blunted by transfection with MIP2 siRNA in the H9c2 cells. This study demonstrated that IPoC induced protection was associated with increased expression of MIP2. Both MIP2 overexpression and MIP2 suppression can influence the IPoC induced protection.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Cell Hypoxia/genetics/physiology ; Cell Line ; Cell Survival/genetics/physiology ; Flow Cytometry ; Ischemic Preconditioning, Myocardial/*methods ; Male ; Myocytes, Cardiac/*metabolism/*pathology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Reperfusion Injury/*metabolism/*prevention & control

OBJECTIVETo describe the epidemiological characters of pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) in Jiaxing areas of Zhejiang province of China between 1995 and 2000.

METHODSWe analyzed the perinatal health surveillance data that was collected as part of the Sino-American cooperative project on neural tube defects prevention established in 1992. The study population consisted of 136 070 pregnant women with at least 20 weeks of gestational age. National diagnostic criteria were used to identify the cases which were divided into three subgroups: mild, moderate and severe.

RESULTS15 127 cases were identified and the overall incidence rate of PIH was 11.1% (95% CI : 11.0% - 11.3%). Among all the cases, mild, moderate and severe PIH were accounted for 71.4%, 22.3% and 6.3%, respectively. The proportions of PIH cases that occurred in the second trimester, third trimester and during delivery appeared to be 4.2%, 34.4% and 61.4%, respectively. There was a significant fall in the trend of PIH occurrence every year, which dropped from 10.7% in 1995 to 8.6% in 2000 by 19.6%. More risk of PIH seemed to be related to those mothers living in the urban areas with age under 20 or above 35, being peasants and having little educational, having had multiple gestations, conceiving in spring/summer or delivering in winter or spring etc. Compared with the results of national survey in 1988, the incidence rate of PIH was higher by 18.1%, while the proportion of severe PIH was much lower by 68.8%. Although the incidence rates of PIH in urban and rural areas were somehow similar, the proportion of severe PIH in rural areas was much higher than that in urban areas.

CONCLUSIONOverall incidence rate and distribution of PIH were reported. Compared with the results in 1988, incidence rate of PIH was much higher, particularly for mild cases.

Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced ; epidemiology ; Incidence ; Maternal Age ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Multiple ; Risk Factors ; Rural Health ; trends ; Severity of Illness Index ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Urban Health ; trends ; Young Adult

Objective: To explore current vitamin D status and influential factors of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among children under 7 years of age in 11 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities of China. Methods: According to the "province-city-hospital" sampling technical route, a total of 1 531 healthy children under 7 years of age were sampled from 11 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities in China by the cluster random sampling method from November 2020 to November 2021. The demographic information, family conditions, behavior and living habits and feeding behaviors were collected using unified questionnaire. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D(25(OH)D) levels were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Serum 25(OH)D<30 nmol/L was considered deficient and 30-50 nmol/L was considered insufficient. With 25(OH)D≤50 nmol/L as the dependent variable, multivariate Logistic regression was applied to analyze the association between vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency and potential influential factors. Results: The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among children under 7 years of age in 11 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities of China was 14.0% (215/1 531), 3.8% (25/664) and 21.9% (190/867) in 0-<3 and 3-<7 of age years, respectively. Compared to children aged 0-<3 years, children aged 3-<7 years had a 2.6-fold increased risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency (OR=3.60, 95%CI 1.93-6.72, P<0.001). Frequent sunlight exposure (OR=0.46, 95%CI 0.29-0.73, P=0.001), vitamin D supplementation (sometimes, OR=0.33, 95%CI 0.21-0.51, P<0.001; daily, OR=0.20, 95%CI 0.11-0.36, P<0.001) and infant formula intake(4-7 times per weeks, OR=0.43, 95%CI 0.28-0.68, P<0.001) were protective factors for vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are common among children under 7 years of age in 11 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities of China, which is affected by age, sunlight exposure, vitamin D supplementation and infant formula intake.
Child ; China/epidemiology* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Infant ; Vitamin D ; Vitamin D Deficiency/epidemiology* ; Vitamins

Objective: To clarify the prevalence, clinical features and molecular characteristics of germline GATA2 mutations in pediatric primary myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) . Methods: Next-generation sequencing technology was used to detect mutations in GATA2 and other myeloid malignancy genes in 129 children with primary MDS from Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2018. The relationship between genotypes and phenotypes was analyzed. Results: Germline GATA2 mutations accounted for 8.5% (11/129) of all primary MDS cases, and 14.0% (11/50) of MDS with excess blasts (MDS-EB) and acute myeloid leukaemia with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC) . Compared with GATA2 wild-type patients, GATA2 mutated patients were older at diagnosis[8 (1-16) years old vs 6 years old (range: 1 month old-18 years old) , P=0.035]and higher risk of monosomy 7 (72.7%vs 5.2%, P<0.001) and classified into MDS-EB and AML-MRC compared with refractory cytopenia of childhood (RCC) (63.6%vs 36.4%, P=0.111) . The multivariate analysis showed SETBP1 mutation (P=0.041, OR=9.003, 95%CI 1.098-73.787) and isolated monosomy 7 (P=0.002, OR=24.835, 95%CI 3.305-186.620) were significantly associated with germline mutated GATA2. Overall survival (OS) and outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were not influenced by GATA2 mutational status. Conclusions: Our data identify germline GATA2 mutations have a high prevalence in older pediatric patients with monosomy 7, and high risk of progression into advanced MDS subtypes. GATA2 mutation status does not affect OS in pediatric primary MDS.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; GATA2 Transcription Factor/genetics* ; Germ-Line Mutation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Infant ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes/genetics*