Objective To systematically analyze the characteristics of the disease burden of hypertensive heart disease (HHD) in the elderly (≥60 years) globally and in China from 1990 to 2021, and to predict its future trends from 2022 to 2040, with the aim of providing data support for optimizing comprehensive prevention and control strategies for HHD. Methods Based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 database, the number of prevalent cases and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of HHD in the elderly were extracted for the world, China, and five regions categorized by sociodemographic index (SDI). Joinpoint regression was used to analyze the temporal trends of age-standardized prevalence rate and age-standardized DALYs rate of HHD in the elderly. A three-factor decomposition method was applied to evaluate the relative contributions of aging, population growth, and epidemiological changes to the variations in the elderly HHD burden. Additionally, a Bayesian age-period-cohort model was used to predict the elderly HHD burden from 2022 to 2040. Results In 2021, the number of prevalent elderly HHD cases reached 10 283 000 globally and 3 412 400 in China, representing increases of 179.20% and 159.20% respectively, compared with 1990. The DALYs of elderly HHD were 18 812 700 person-years globally and 4 731 400 person-years in China, rising by 76.08% and 29.45% respectively from 1990. Meanwhile, the growth rates of the number of prevalent cases and DALYs of elderly HHD varied across different SDI regions. From 1990 to 2021, the age-standardized prevalence rate of elderly HHD in China, as well as the age-standardized DALYs rate of elderly HHD both globally and in China, showed significant downward trends (all average annual percentage changes<0, all P<0.001). In 2021, the 70-74 years age group accounted for the highest proportion of prevalent cases and DALYs of elderly HHD, both globally and in China. Decomposition analysis revealed that population growth was the dominant factor driving the increase in the elderly HHD burden across all regions. The prediction model results indicated that the number of prevalent cases and DALYs of elderly HHD would continue to rise globally and in China from 2022 to 2040, with the growth rate of the elderly HHD burden in China between 2021 and 2040 expected to exceed the global average. Conclusion Over the past 32 years, although the age-standardized disease rates of elderly HHD have mainly shown a downward trend globally and in China, the absolute number of the disease burden has increased substantially. The projection model indicates a continued upward trajectory, with the growth rate in China higher than the global average. Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement precise prevention and control strategies to effectively mitigate the disease burden of elderly HHD.

From June 2002 to December 2023, there were 5 patients with criss-cross hearts admitted to the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, including 3 males and 2 females, aged 1.5 to 25 years, and weighing 13-49 kg. There were 5 patients of atrioventricular position, 3 patients of right ventricular loop, 2 patients of left ventricular loop, 3 patients of normal atrioventricular connection, and 2 patients of inconsistent connection. Combined intracardiac malformations: 1 patient of simple ventricular septal defect combined with pulmonary hypertension, 1 patient of corrected transposition of the great arteries combined with ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, and pulmonary artery stenosis, 1 patient of corrected transposition of the great arteries combined with ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, and left atrioventricular valve insufficiency, and 2 patients of right ventricular double outlet combined with ventricular septal defect and pulmonary artery stenosis. The surgical methods included 2 patients of intracardiac anatomical correction, 1 patient of bidirectional vena cava pulmonary artery anastomosis, and 2 patients of total extracardiac ductal cava pulmonary artery anastomosis. All 5 patients were discharged smoothly.

Objective:To study the mid- and long-term outcomes of the cryopreserved homograft conduits used in the Rastelli operation and to identify the risk factors for the homograft conduit degeneration and reintervention.Methods:52 patients were followed up from 7 to 18 years, who accepted the Rastelli operation with cryopreserved homograft conduits between April 2002 and December 2013. There were 36 male and 16 female with age ranged 3 to 14 years old(median age 4 years old)and weight ranged 10 to 36 kg(median weight 14 kg). The homografts included aortic homografts implanted in 30 cases and pulmonary homografts implanted in 22 cases.The homograft conduits were divided into three groups by conduit diameter: groupⅠ(16 mm)22 cases, groupⅡ(16-20 mm)22 cases and group Ⅲ(≥20 mm)8 cases. The pathological characteristics of homografts were studied in the period of follow-up.Results:52 patinets were followed up from 7 to 18 years( median time 12 years). Over the follow up period, all homograft conduits had structural valve degeneration.The predominant pathological characteristics was stenosis of conduits. 37 patinets had received the reoperation because of the homograft degeneration. The interval between the first and reoperation is ranged 9 to 18 years( median time 12 years). Univariate analysis demonstrated young operation age(<5 years old)( P<0.001), diameter of the homograft conduit( P<0.001), high right ventricular pressure(RV/Ao P>0.5) after Rastelli operation( P=0.002)were independent risk factors for the homograft conduit degeneration. Univariate analysis demonstrated only young operation age(<5 years old)( P=0.03)was independent risk factor for the reoperation. Conclusion:In young patients, oversize homograft conduit and enlarge incision with Gore-Tex conduit may improve durability and decay the time of reintervention.

Objective:To study the drug resistance patterns of Bordetella pertussis in vitro, and to know the clinical characteristics of pediatric pertussis and evaluation the treatment outcomes, which may provide references for experiential diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Methods:Nasopharyngeal swabs of the hospitalized children with suspected pertussis in Children′s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine in 2017 were collected for culture. And the clinical data of the children were collected. The strains were identified by pertussis-specific antiserum agglutination and finally confirmed by mass spectrometry. The drug sensitivity test was performed using the E-test method. The efficacy of therapy with antibiotic was evaluated after two weeks of treatment. Statistical analysis was performed with Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test. Results:Of 1 029 children, 211 (20.5%) nasopharyngeal swabs were positive for Bordetella pertussis culture, and the isolation rate of the specimens was highest (31.2%, 45/144) in July. Of the 211 pertussis patients, 105 (49.8%) were male and the age were 3.8 (2.2, 6.9) months, 114 (54.0%) were not vaccinated with pertussis diphtheria tetanus mixed vaccine and 192 (91.0%) were prescribed with previous antibiotics. There were 142 (67.3%) children from families with two or more than two children, and 136 (95.8%) of which were the youngest siblings. One hundred and fifty-nine (75.4%) patients had paroxysmal cough and 61 (28.9%) had whooping. The white blood cell counts were higher than 20×10 9/L in 94 (44.5%) patients, and the lymphocyte counts were higher than 10×10 9/L in 97 (46.0%) of patients. The drug susceptibility results showed that 138 (65.4%) strains were against erythromycin, azithromycin and clindamycin with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)>256.000 mg/L. The MIC 90 of the isolates to ampicillin, ceftriaxone, cefoperazone/sulbactam, meropenem and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole were 0.190 mg/L, 0.190 mg/L, 0.094 mg/L, 0.094 mg/L and 0.750 mg/L, respectively. All strains had a MIC of <0.016 mg/L for piperacillin/tazobactam. After treatment, symptoms were improved in 195(92.4%) patients when they were discharged from hospital. Seventy-six (57.1%) children whose symptoms did not improve after seven-day treatment with macrolides, were prescribed with other antibiotics or other antibiotic with macrolides in combination. Compared with the patients treated with macrolides, more patients treated with cefoperazone/sulbactam or piperacillin/tazobactam had negative nasopharyngeal culture results after two weeks of therapy (46/48(95.8%) vs 46/57(80.7%)), or on day seven (45/46(97.8%) vs 39/47(83.0%)) and on day 14 (45/45(100.0%) vs 41/47(87.2%)) since discharged. The differences were all statistically significant ( χ2=5.50, 5.86 and 6.15, respectively, P=0.019, 0.015 and 0.013, respectively). Conclusions:The majority of children with pertussis do not have whooping, and the resistant rate of Bordetella pertussis to macrolides is high. Further study is needed to evaluate the feasibility and reasonability of cefoperazone/sulbactam and piperacillin/tazobactam in treating pediatric pertussis caused by macrolides-resistant Bordetella pertussis.

Objective:To analyse the clinical outcomes in patients after systemic-pulmonary shunt in order to improve the early and interim outcome and decrease the operative complications.Methods:Between June 2009 and December 2017, 92 patients with age from 3 months to 40 years, and weight from 3.5 to 60.0 kg, underwent a systemic-pulmonary shunt. Indications for surgical palliation were tetralogy of Fallot(TOF) in 31 patients, pulmonary atresia(PA)with ventricular septal defect with in 29 patients, PA with intact ventricular in 3 patients, functional single ventricle(SV)with pulmonary stenosis(PS) in 8 patients, double outlet right ventricle(DORV) with PS in 8 patients, transposition of the great arteries(TGA) with PS in 5 patients, TGA with PA in 3 patients, corrective transposition of the great arteries(ccTGA) with PA in 2 patients, the others in 3 patients. 30 patients were with PDA. The surgical procedure included modified Blalock-Taussig(B-T) shunt in 55 patients, central aortopulmonary shunt(Waterston)in 31 patients, and Melbourne shunt in 6 patients.Results:There were 7 early operative deaths, the early mortality was 7.6%. There were 9 patients with acute shunt blockage within the first 24 h, including TOF(2 patients), PA/VSD(4 patients), DORV/PS(1 patient), cCTGA/PA(1 patinet) and TA/PS(1 patinet). There was only 1 patient with acute shunt blockage after 2015. Overall , 48(48/85, 56.5%) patients were bridged to the comlpete repair or the second stage of Fontan operation. 7 patients were received the second shunt operations. 30 patients were still waiting for the next therapy.Conclusion:Systemic-pulmonary shunt is not a so-simple palliative procedure, the good early and interim outcome is associated with the choice of shunt method and perioperative treatment of complications.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a global pandemic. All people including children are generally susceptible to COVID-19, but the condition is relatively mild for children. The diagnosis of COVID-19 is largely based on the epidemiological evidence and clinical manifestations, and confirmed by positive detection of virus nucleic acid in respiratory samples. The main symptoms of COVID-19 in children are fever and cough; the total number of white blood cell count is usually normal or decreased; the chest imaging is characterized by interstitial pneumonia, which is similar to other respiratory virus infections and infections. Early identification, early isolation, early diagnosis and early treatment are important for clinical management. The treatment of mild or moderate type of child COVID-19 is mainly symptomatic. For severe and critical ill cases, the oxygen therapy, antiviral drugs, antibacterial drugs, glucocorticoids, mechanical ventilation or even extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) may be adopted, and the treatment plan should be adjusted timely through multi-disciplinary cooperation.
Betacoronavirus ; isolation & purification ; Child ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; pathology ; therapy ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; diagnostic imaging ; etiology ; pathology ; therapy

Betacoronavirus ; isolation & purification ; Child ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; therapy ; Humans ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; therapy

Objective To investigate the distribution and drug resistance of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae ( CRE) isolated from children in China. Methods CRE strains were collected in 10 ter-tiary children's hospitals of China from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017. Antimicrobial susceptibility of the clinical strains was detected with disk diffusion method ( KB method) and automated method. The re-sults were analyzed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute ( CLSI) Standards published in 2017. WHONET 5. 6 software was used to retrospectively analyze the distribution characteristics and drug resistance of these strains. Results A total of 3065 CRE clinical strains were isolated from children with an overall prevalence of 7. 7％ and among them, 13. 5％ were isolated in neonatal group and 5. 8％ in non-neo-natal group. The detection rate of CRE in 2017 was higher than that in 2016 (9. 7％ vs 5. 7％). Among the 3065 CRE strains, there were 1912 strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae (62. 0％), 667 strains of Escherichia coli (22. 0％), 206 strains of Enterobacter cloacae (7. 0％), 56 strains of Klebsiella aerogenes (1. 8％) and 47 strains of Serratia marcescens (1. 5％). Most of the strains were isolate in neonatology departments including neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and intensive care units (ICU), accounting for 44. 8％ and 19. 7％, respectively. Respiratory tract (61. 8％), urine (19. 4％) and blood (5. 7％) specimens were the main sources of CRE isolates. Results of antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that the CRE strains were highly resistant to carbapenem antibiotics such as imipenem, meropenem and ertapenem, as well as penicillins and most cephalosporins (79. 6％-100％), especially those isolated in the neonatal group (P<0. 05). Children had relatively low resistance rates to aminoglycosides such as amikacin (19. 7％) and fos-fomycin (11. 9％), fluoroquinolones such as levofloxacin (37. 7％) and ciprofloxacin (43. 3％), and tige-cycline (3. 8％). Currently, no polymyxin B-resistant strains were isolated. Conclusions The prevalence of common CRE strains in children in 2017 was higher than that in 2016, especially in newborns. Drug re-sistance in CRE strains isolated from neonates to common antibiotics was more severe, suggesting that great attention should be paid to it and timely measures should also be taken.

Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of invasive Haemophilus influenzae (HI) infection in children. Methods: The clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations and treatment outcomes of 84 children with HI infection confirmed by bacterial culture in 7 tertiary children′s hospitals from 2014 to 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Among the 84 cases, 50 were males. The age was 1.54 years (ranged from 5 days to 13 years).Twenty cases (24%) had underlying diseases and 48 cases (57%) had not received antibiotics before collecting specimens. Eighty-two cases (98%) had fever and 75 cases (89%) had clear infection foci, among which 31 cases (37%) had meningitis and 27 cases (32%) had pneumonia. Blood culture was positive in 62 cases (74%), cerebrospinal fluid culture was positive in 10 cases (12%), blood culture and cerebrospinal fluid culture were both positive in 11 cases (13%). Antibiotics susceptibility test showed that 27% (22/82) of all HI strains produced β-lactamases and 48% (37/77) strains were resistant to ampicillin. The drug resistance rates to cefuroxime, ampicillin-sulbactam, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and azithromycin were 25% (20/80) , 20% (9/45) , 71% (44/62) and 19%(11/58), respectively. All strains were sensitive to meropenem, levofloxacin and ceftriaxone. After sensitive antibiotic therapy, 83% (70/84) of all patients were cured and improved, the mortality rate and loss of follow-up rate were 13% (11/84) and 4% (3/84) respectively. Conclusions Meningitis and pneumonia are common presentation of invasive HI infections in children. Mortality in HI meningitis children is high and the third generation of cephalosporins, such as ceftriaxone can be used as the first choice for the treatment of invasive HI infection.

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of invasive Haemophilus influenzae (HI) infection in children. Methods The clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations and treatment outcomes of 84 children with HI infection confirmed by bacterial culture in 7 tertiary children′s hospitals from 2014 to 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. Results Among the 84 cases, 50 were males. The age was 1.54 years (ranged from 5 days to 13 years).Twenty cases (24%) had underlying diseases and 48 cases (57%) had not received antibiotics before collecting specimens. Eighty‐two cases (98%) had fever and 75 cases (89%) had clear infection foci, among which 31 cases (37%) had meningitis and 27 cases (32%) had pneumonia. Blood culture was positive in 62 cases (74%), cerebrospinal fluid culture was positive in 10 cases (12%), blood culture and cerebrospinal fluid culture were both positive in 11 cases (13%). Antibiotics susceptibility test showed that 27% (22/82) of all HI strains produced β‐lactamases and 48% (37/77) strains were resistant to ampicillin. The drug resistance rates to cefuroxime, ampicillin‐sulbactam, trimethoprim‐sulfamethoxazole and azithromycin were 25% (20/80), 20% (9/45), 71%(44/62) and 19% (11/58), respectively. All strains were sensitive to meropenem, levofloxacin and ceftriaxone. After sensitive antibiotic therapy, 83% (70/84) of all patients were cured and improved, the mortality rate and loss of follow‐up rate were 13% (11/84) and 4% (3/84) respectively. Conclusions Meningitis and pneumonia are common presentation of invasive HI infections in children. Mortality in HI meningitis children is high and the third generation of cephalosporins, such as ceftriaxone can be used as the first choice for the treatment of invasive HI infection.