OBJECTIVE:To find out potential financial risk in the listed Chinese pharmaceutical companies and to provide rec-ommendations. METHODS:The Z-score established with Altman E was adopted to classiy and analyzed empirically 143 listed phar-maceutical companies in China during 1998-2013 by sub-sectors(medical devices,pharmaceutical commercial,biological products chemical raw medicine,traditional TCM). The effects of some data in annual reports on Z-score were validated by using stepwise regression. RESULTS:The result showed that the average Z-score values percentage of the best 3 companies were 90.95%,47.96%and 41.25%,respectively,from 1998-2013;while for the worst 3 companies,the values were 0.80%,1.14%and 1.21%,respective-ly. At the same time,the financial situations of chemical raw medicine companies were the worst among 5 sub-sectors,of which dur-ing 2004-2006,the constituent ratios of companies in“Distress”zones went over 50.00%,which were 60.00%,55.20% and 53.60%,respectively. If counted by calendar year,the market value per share of 10 years and float of 9 years significantly affected the Z-score values(P<0.05);if counted by listed year,the market value per share of 15 years significantly affected the Z-score val-ues. CONCLUSIONS:Although major pharmaceutical companies have good financial status,financial crisis still exists in some companies. Especially,the financial situations of chemical raw medicine companies should not be neglected. The government should pay more attention to share price in order to prevent financial crisis which was induced by stock bubbles;at the same time,supervi-sion system should be established to evaluate the financial situation of listed pharmaceutical companies,even for all listed companies.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by long course, poor prognosis, multiple complications and high cost of treatment, thus it has become a major public health problem. Based on review of publications pertaining to the epidemiological study of CKD from February 2002 to March 2023, this article summarizes the epidemiological characteristics, risk factors, prevention and control strategies of CKD. It is found that China has the largest number of adult patients with CKD in Asia, and the prevalence of CKD is higher among females and elderly people. The influencing factors for CKD include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension and coronavirus disease 2019. Henceforth, it is of vital importance to emphasize three levels of prevention and optimize the CKD management, so as to support for prevention and control of CKD.

Objective:To investigate the risk factors of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) and lateral neck lymph node me-tastasis in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) patients, and to analyze the importance of high resolution ultrasonography in the diagnosis of lateral neck lymph node metastasis in PTMC patients. Methods:A retrospective protocol was applied, and a total of 1 037 PTMC patients were reviewed. These patients underwent central lymph node dissection or thyroidectomy with lateral neck lymph node dissection between January and November in 2013 in the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital. Clinicopathological factors, namely, age, sex, primary tumor size, multifocality, bilateralism, thyroid capsular invasion, and local invasion, were analyzed. Results: CLNMs were found in 332 of 1037 patients (32.0%), and 71 out of 1037 patients had lateral neck lymph node metastasis (6.85%). In the univariate analysis, patients with the following risk factors were at high risk of CLNM (P<0.05):male, aged≤45 years old, with primary tumor size of>5 mm, multifocality, bilateralism, thyroid capsular invasion, and local invasion. Male patients with cen-tral lymph node metastasis positively showed high lateral neck lymph node metastasis rate (P<0.05) according to high-resolution ultra-sonography diagnosis. The rate of lateral neck lymph node metastasis increased with increasing number of central lymph node metasta-ses. The sensitivity and specificity of high resolution ultrasonography for lateral neck lymph node metastasis were 92.96%and 81.48%in PTMC patients.Conclusion:Prophylactic central compartment lymph node dissection needs to be performed in patients with CLNM risk factors (i.e., male, aged≤45 years old, primary tumor size of>5 mm, multifocality, bilateralism, thyroid capsular invasion, and lo-cal invasion). The importance of high-resolution ultrasonography in diagnosing lateral neck lymph node metastasis was revealed by the results. Thus, this method should be widely popularized. Radical neck dissection should be performed in male patients who received a positive diagnosis via ultrasonography or those with PTMC who had more than three positive nodes in the central lymph node metasta-sis. However, given the high occurrence rate of PTMC, a prospective study needs to be conducted in the future.