As a low-and middle-income country, Cuba has successfully implementedUniversal Health Coverage ( UHC) in the true sense, of which the major health indicators and human development index are relatively high. Moreover, many aspects of Cuba's healthcare system are worth learning from, especially constructing family doctor system, integrating medicine policy into national economic and social development strategies, focusing on drug re-search and development, standardizing high-quality medical education, etc.

Objective:To investigate the nutritional risk and the incidence of malnutrition in children with recurrent abdominal Henoch Schonlein purpura(HSP), and observe the changes in the incidence of malnutrition after nutritional intervention.Methods:We retrospectively analyzed 90 children diagnosed with recurrent HSP in our hospital from 2017 to 2019.The cases were divided into two groups according to whether nutritional intervention was performed.The cases from January 2017 to May 2018 were chosen as the control group( n=42), and the cases from June 2018 to December 2019 were chosen as the experimental group( n=48). Based on the treatment of the primary disease, the high nutritional risk cases in experimental group were treated with extensively hydrolysed infant formula for nutritional intervention.The children were evaluated for nutritional risk with the STRONGkids nutrition tool.According to the score results, they were divided into high nutritional risk group and medium nutritional risk group.The Z score was used to evaluate malnutrition, and the degree of malnutrition was compared at admission and discharge. Results:Eighty-one children (90.0%) with recurrent abdominal allergic purpura had a high nutritional risk, 9 cases (10.0%)had a medium nutritional risk.There was no significant difference in the incidence of moderate and severe malnutrition between experimental group and control group at admission[39.6% (19/48) vs.40.5% (17/42), P>0.05]. The incidence of moderate and severe malnutrition in control group was higher than that in experimental group at discharge[66.7% (28/42) vs.22.9% (11/48), P<0.05]. Conclusion:In children with recurrent abdominal HSP, due to severe gastrointestinal symptoms and a high incidence of high nutritional risk, nutritional intervention with extensively hydrolysed infant formula can avoid the occurrence or aggravation of iatrogenic malnutrition during hospitalization.

Raman spectroscopy has generated many branches during the development for more than 90 years. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) improves SNR by using the interaction between tested materials and the surface of rough metal, as to quickly get higher sensitivity and precision spectroscopy without sample pretreatment. This article describes the characteristic and classification of SERS, and updates the theory and clinical application of SERS. It also summarizes the present status and progress of SERS in various disciplines and illustrates the necessity and urgency of its research, which provides rationale for the application for SERS in microbiology.
Microbiology ; Spectrum Analysis, Raman

A high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS) method was established for the separation and determination of acetyl-glutamine enantiomers (acetyl-L-glutamine and acetyl-D-glutamine) simultaneously. Baseline separation was achieved on Chiralpak AD-H column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). n-Hexane (containing 0.1% acetic acid) and ethanol (75:25, v/v) were used as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The detection was operated in the negative ion mode with an ESI source. [M-H]? m/z 187.0540 for enantiomers and [M-H]? m/z 179.0240 for aspirin (IS) were selected as detecting ions. The linear range of the calibration curve for each enantiomer was 0.05–40 μg/mL. The precision of this method at concentrations of 0.5–20 μg/mL was within 7.23%, and the accuracy was 99.81%–107.81%. The precision at LOQ (0.05 μg/mL) was between 16.28% and 17.56%, which was poor than that at QC levels. The average extraction recovery was higher than 85% for both enantiomers at QC levels. The pharmacokinetics of enantiomers was found to be stereoselective. There was not chiral inversion in vivo or in vitro between enantiomers.

A high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS) method was established for the separation and determination of acetyl-glutamine enantiomers (acetyl-L-glutamine and acetyl-D-glutamine) simultaneously. Baseline separation was achieved on Chiralpak AD-H column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). n-Hexane (containing 0.1% acetic acid) and ethanol (75:25, v/v) were used as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. The detection was operated in the negative ion mode with an ESI source. [M-H]? m/z 187.0540 for enantiomers and [M-H]? m/z 179.0240 for aspirin (IS) were selected as detecting ions. The linear range of the calibration curve for each enantiomer was 0.05–40 μg/mL. The precision of this method at concentrations of 0.5–20 μg/mL was within 7.23%, and the accuracy was 99.81%–107.81%. The precision at LOQ (0.05 μg/mL) was between 16.28% and 17.56%, which was poor than that at QC levels. The average extraction recovery was higher than 85% for both enantiomers at QC levels. The pharmacokinetics of enantiomers was found to be stereoselective. There was not chiral inversion in vivo or in vitro between enantiomers.

Objective To explore the association between Doppler echocardiography parameters and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) obtained by right heart catheterization (RHC) in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH).Methods RHC and a simultaneous echocardiography were performed in 86 PH patients.The correlation between the echocardiographic parameters and PCWP was analyzed.Results The early diastolic velocity(E) of mitral valve blood flow was significantly correlated with PCWP ( γ =0.36,P ＜0.01 ).Tissue Doppler imaging measured the diastolic velocity of mitral annulus on the lateral(E'L)and the septal (E'S) wall.Then the average E'M was calculated.The ratio of E to E'L,E'S and E'M showed a strong correlation with PCWP ( γ =0.62,0.34 and 0.47 respectively,P ＜ 0.01 ).E/E'L ＜ 6 accurately predicted 100％ PCWP≤ 15 mm Hg (1 mm Hg =0.133 kPa),and E/E'L ＞ 15 could predict PCWP ＞ 15 nun Hg with specificity of 98.5％.Conclusion There are positive correlation between E/E' and PCWP obtained by RHC in PH patients.

AIM:To explore the production and cytotoxicity of the reactive oxygen species(ROS)induced by diallyl trisulfide(DATS)in HL-60 cells.METHODS:HL-60 cells were either treated with various doses of DATS alone,or DATS combination with apocynin,a specific NADPH oxidase inhibitor,or with antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine(NAC)for 0,1,3,6,12 and 24 h,respectively.The intracellular ROS level was measured by flow cytometry.The activity of NADPH oxidase was evaluated by NBT reduction experiment.The content of both malondialdehyde(MDA)and the protein carbonyl were analyzed by spectrophotometer.RESULTS:The results from flow cytometry indicated that DATS significantly increased the intracellular ROS level in HL-60 cells(P

Objective To explore the potential role of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide(NT-proBNP) in the assessment of patients with connective tissuediseases(CTD) associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Methods Thirty patients with CTD associated PAH were evaluated by WHO function, echocardiography, right heart catheterization and blood biomarkers. All the clinical data was analyzed statistically. Results All patients [age (39.5 ± 11.6) yr]were female. Both NT-proBNP and BNP were significantly increased and significantly correlated ( all P ＜0. 05 ) respectively with mean pulmonary arterial pressure ( r = 0. 53 and r = 0. 40 ), right arterial pressure ( r = 0. 55 and r = 0. 42 ), pulmonary vascular resistance ( r = 0. 69 and r = 0. 61 ), cardiac index ( r = - 0. 58and r = - 0. 46), mixed venous blood oxygen saturation ( r = - 0. 62 and r = - 0. 54 ), pericardial effusion ( r = 0. 46 and r = 0. 43 ), right atrial sizes ( r = 0. 40 and 0. 53, and r = 0. 39 and 0. 45 ) and right ventricular size ( r = 0. 55 and r = 0. 37 ). Furthmore, NT-proBNP, but not BNP, significantly correlated with WHO function class ( r = 0. 55 ). Conclusion Blood NT-proBNP and BNP were elevated in patients with CTD associated PAH and paralleled the extent of function class, pulmonary hemodynamic changes and right ventricular remodeling.

Objective To detect the mutations in ATP2C1 gene of 5 sporadic patients with Hailey-Hailey disease (HHD).Methods Five sporadic patients with HHD collected from the outpatient clinic setting were recruited into this study with informed consent.Blood samples were taken from all patients and 100 unrelated human controls.and DNA was extracted from these samples.Mutation scanning was carried out for ATP2C1 gene by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing.Results The diagnosis of all cases was confirmed by typical clinical manifestation,cutaneous pathology and immunofluorescence pathology.Five novel mutations.including a deletion mutation (2025delG),three missence mutations (L269R,C348R,A651D) and a non-sense mutation (Q259X) were identified in these cases.No mutations were detected in any of the 100 controls.Conclusion Five novel mutations in ATP2C1 gene have been identified for Hailey-Hailey disease.

Objective To observe the effect of adenosine A1 receptor (A1AR) on the megalin defect in type 1 diabetic mice with early kidney disease.Methods 7-8 week-old,baseline body weight and fasting blood glucose matched wild type (WT) C57BL/6J mice were selected,and randomly divided into two groups:control group (n=6) and WT DM group (n=6).In the same way,male A1AR knock-out C57BL/6J mice were selected as A1AR-/-DM group (n=6).DM model was established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin.The blood glucose (BG),body weight (BW),kidney weight (KW),24 h proteinuria (24hUP) and albumin creatine ratio (ACR) were measured at 4 weeks.The renal pathological lesion was observed and the expression of megalin in proximal tubules was examined by immunohistochemistry.The expression of caspase-1,IL-18 and A1AR were detected by Western blotting.Results At 4th week,compared with WT control mice,the BG,BW,KW and 24hUP of WT DM mice were increased significantly (n=6,P ＜ 0.01),with the pathological glomerular enlargement,mesangial cell proliferation,extracellular matrix accumulation and renal tubule hypertrophy being observed.Immunohistochemistry revealed decreased expression of megalin,an important multiligand protein receptor on the brush border of proximal tubular epithelial cells in WT DM mice,which was correlated with 24hUP (r=-0.645,P ＜ 0.01).Compared with the control mice,the expressions of caspase-1,IL-18 and A1AR were significantly increased in WT DM mice (P ＜ 0.05).For A1AR-/-DM mice,more serious pathological lesion and megalin defect,together with increasing of casapase-1 and heavier proteinuria were observed than those in WT DM mice.Conclusion A1AR may play a protective role in megalin expression of diabetic mice with early kidney disease,in which the mechanism may be associated with caspase-1 related pyroptosis pathway.The details need further exploration.