Sepsis constitutes a predominant cause of mortality in critically ill patients,and early determination of the type of infection is crucial for influencing patient management and forecasting outcomes.Currently,blood culture serves as the gold standard for diagnosing sepsis.Yet,its limitations,such as a lengthy culture period and low positivity rate,hinder its ability to provide a microbiological basis for early initiation of antimicrobial therapy in clinical practice.Serological markers have engendered significant interest due to their convenience and rapid detection in vitro,emerging as indispensable laboratory indices for early inference of infection.In recent years,with extensive research on sepsis across diverse academic domains,numerous novel serological markers exhibit promise in diagnosing sepsis.Therefore,this review explores the characteristics and applicatron value of new serological markers for early diagnosis of sepsis,and reviews them in combination with relevant predictive models,bringing new ideas for early clinical diagnosis of sepsis.

Objective:To explore the value of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology in the pathogenetic diagnosis of sepsis patients, and to provide a reference basis for the early diagnosis of sepsis.Methods:A retrospective analysis was used to collect the clinical data of 53 patients with suspected sepsis admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from February to August 2023, and the blood was collected for blood culture, ddPCR and NGS detection simultaneously.Results:After excluding viral infections, the blood culture positive rate was 18.87%(10/53), the ddPCR positive rate was 47.17% (25/53), and the NGS positive rate was 41.51%(22/53). When using the ddPCR detection range as a reference, the ddPCR positivity rate was 98.11% (52/53), while the NGS positivity rate was 84.91%(45/53). There was a statistically significant difference in the positivity rate between the two groups ( P<0.05). Using blood culture as a reference, the sensitivity (60.00% vs 70.00%) and specificity (65.11% vs 69.77%) of ddPCR and NGS were in good agreement. In terms of pathogen detection, NGS had a wider detection range than ddPCR (34 species vs 21 species), and the difference was statistically significant (χ 2=55.000, P<0.001). In terms of time-consumption, blood culture took 66.93 h on average, while ddPCR was faster than NGS (about 4 h vs 20 h ). In terms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene detection, five resistant strains were detected by both ddPCR and NGS, ddPCR detected two AMR genes, namely blaKPC and mecA, while NGS detected five AMR genes. Among them, except for blaKPC which was detected outside the target range in ddPCR, the other four AMR genes were also detected by ddPCR. Conclusions:Compared with blood culture, ddPCR and NGS have good application value in the etiological diagnosis of sepsis. Specifically, ddPCR has a higher detection rate of pathogens and takes less time. On the other hand, NGS has a wider detection range, especially for the discovery of some rare bacteria or pathogens that are difficult to be cultured routinely.

AIM:To analyze the association between mobile phone addiction and high myopia among college students.METHODS:We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in December 2022 on all students of a university in Shaanxi Province, and the questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, mobile phone addiction, high myopia, and lifestyle. Binary Logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between mobile phone addiction and high myopia among college students.RESULTS:A total of 19 952 college students were included. The prevalence of high myopia was 7.31%. The rate of mobile phone addiction was 25.68%, and the mobile phone addiction score was 37.59±13.38. The incidence of high myopia among college students with mobile phone addiction was higher than non-mobile phone addiction(P<0.001). After adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics and lifestyle, the risk of high myopia among college students with mobile phone addiction was 1.274 times(95%CI:1.131-1.434)higher than non-mobile phone addiction. For each point increase of total mobile phone addiction score, withdrawal symptoms score, salience score, social comfort score, and mood changes score, the risk of high myopia among college students increased by 0.9%(95%CI:1.005-1.013), 2.0%(95%CI:1.010-1.030), 2.6%(95%CI:1.010-1.043), 4.8%(95%CI:1.030-1.066), and 3.3%(95%CI:1.014-1.052), respectively.CONCLUSION:Mobile phone addiction is significantly associated with the increased risk of high myopia among college students, and early intervention of mobile phone use may reduce the risk of high myopia among college students.

Sepsis constitutes a predominant cause of mortality in critically ill patients,and early determination of the type of infection is crucial for influencing patient management and forecasting outcomes.Currently,blood culture serves as the gold standard for diagnosing sepsis.Yet,its limitations,such as a lengthy culture period and low positivity rate,hinder its ability to provide a microbiological basis for early initiation of antimicrobial therapy in clinical practice.Serological markers have engendered significant interest due to their convenience and rapid detection in vitro,emerging as indispensable laboratory indices for early inference of infection.In recent years,with extensive research on sepsis across diverse academic domains,numerous novel serological markers exhibit promise in diagnosing sepsis.Therefore,this review explores the characteristics and applicatron value of new serological markers for early diagnosis of sepsis,and reviews them in combination with relevant predictive models,bringing new ideas for early clinical diagnosis of sepsis.

Objective:To explore the value of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology in the pathogenetic diagnosis of sepsis patients, and to provide a reference basis for the early diagnosis of sepsis.Methods:A retrospective analysis was used to collect the clinical data of 53 patients with suspected sepsis admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from February to August 2023, and the blood was collected for blood culture, ddPCR and NGS detection simultaneously.Results:After excluding viral infections, the blood culture positive rate was 18.87%(10/53), the ddPCR positive rate was 47.17% (25/53), and the NGS positive rate was 41.51%(22/53). When using the ddPCR detection range as a reference, the ddPCR positivity rate was 98.11% (52/53), while the NGS positivity rate was 84.91%(45/53). There was a statistically significant difference in the positivity rate between the two groups ( P<0.05). Using blood culture as a reference, the sensitivity (60.00% vs 70.00%) and specificity (65.11% vs 69.77%) of ddPCR and NGS were in good agreement. In terms of pathogen detection, NGS had a wider detection range than ddPCR (34 species vs 21 species), and the difference was statistically significant (χ 2=55.000, P<0.001). In terms of time-consumption, blood culture took 66.93 h on average, while ddPCR was faster than NGS (about 4 h vs 20 h ). In terms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene detection, five resistant strains were detected by both ddPCR and NGS, ddPCR detected two AMR genes, namely blaKPC and mecA, while NGS detected five AMR genes. Among them, except for blaKPC which was detected outside the target range in ddPCR, the other four AMR genes were also detected by ddPCR. Conclusions:Compared with blood culture, ddPCR and NGS have good application value in the etiological diagnosis of sepsis. Specifically, ddPCR has a higher detection rate of pathogens and takes less time. On the other hand, NGS has a wider detection range, especially for the discovery of some rare bacteria or pathogens that are difficult to be cultured routinely.

Objective To monitor the susceptibility of clinical isolates to antimicrobial agents in healthcare facilities in major regions of China in 2023.Methods Clinical isolates collected from 73 hospitals across China were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using a unified protocol based on disc diffusion method or automated testing systems.Results were interpreted using the 2023 Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) breakpoints.Results A total of 445199 clinical isolates were collected in 2023,of which 29.0％ were gram-positive and 71.0％ were gram-negative.The prevalence of methicillin-resistant strains in Staphylococcus aureus,Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species (excluding Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and Staphylococcus schleiferi) (MRSA,MRSE and MRCNS) was 29.6％,81.9％ and 78.5％,respectively.Methicillin-resistant strains showed significantly higher resistance rates to most antimicrobial agents than methicillin-susceptible strains (MSSA,MSSE and MSCNS).Overall,92.9％ of MRSA strains were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 91.4％ of MRSE strains were susceptible to rifampicin.No vancomycin-resistant strains were found.Enterococcus faecalis had significantly lower resistance rates to most antimicrobial agents tested than Enterococcus faecium.A few vancomycin-resistant strains were identified in both E.faecalis and E.faecium.The prevalence of penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae was 93.1％ in the isolates from children and and 95.9％ in the isolates from adults.The resistance rate to carbapenems was lower than 15.0％ for most Enterobacterales species except for Klebsiella,22.5％ and 23.6％ of which were resistant to imipenem and meropenem,respectively .Most Enterobacterales isolates were highly susceptible to tigecycline,colistin and polymyxin B,with resistance rates ranging from 0.6％ to 10.0％.The resistance rate to imipenem and meropenem was 21.9％ and 17.4％ for Pseudomonas aeruginosa,respectively,and 67.5％ and 68.1％ for Acinetobacter baumannii,respectively.Conclusions Increasing resistance to the commonly used antimicrobial agents is still observed in clinical bacterial isolates.However,the prevalence of important crabapenem-resistant organisms such as crabapenem-resistant K.pneumoniae,P.aeruginosa,and A.baumannii showed a slightly decreasing trend.This finding suggests that strengthening bacterial resistance surveillance and multidisciplinary linkage are important for preventing the occurrence and development of bacterial resistance.

Objective To understand the distribution and drug resistance profiles of common clinical isolates in the intensive care unit(ICU)of a hospital in Xi'an.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the antimicrobial susceptibility test results of clinical bacterial isolates in ICU of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University from January 1,2020 to December 31,2022.Results A total of 3 649 clinical isolates were isolated from the ICU,including 1 344(36.8％)strains of Gram-positive bacteria and 2 305(63.2％)strains of Gram-negative bacteria.The most common bacterial species were Klebsiella spp.(14.8％,540/3 649),Enterococcus spp.(14.3％,522/3 649),coagulase-negative Staphylococcus(12.3％,448/3 649),Acinetobacter spp.(12.0％,438/3 649),and Escherichia coli(11.6％,424/3 649).The prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRS A),methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis(MRSE),and methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus(MRCNS)was 76.1％,82.4％,and 69.9％,respectively.MRSA,MRSE,and MRCNS strains showed significantly higher antimicrobial resistance rates than MSSA,MSSE,and MSCNS except for trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.No Staphylococcus strains were found resistant to vancomycin or linezolid.Enterococcus faecium demonstrated higher antimicrobial resistance rates than Enterococcus faecalis.No Enterococcus isolates were found resistant to vancomycin.Two strains of linezolid-resistant E.faecalis were identified.Klebsiella pneumoniae showed high resistance rates to imipenem and meropenem(38.4％and 40.2％,respectively).Less than 2.0％of the Escherichia coli strains were resistant to imipenem and meropenem,while more than 10.0％of the Enterobacter cloacae were resistant to imipenem and meropenem.About 27.1％and 19.6％of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were resistant to imipenem and meropenem,respectively.Acinetobacter baumannii showed high resistance rates to imipenem and meropenem(86.0％and 86.7％,respectively).Conclusions K.pneumoniae and A.baumannii strains isolated from the intensive care unit showed high resistance rates to carbapenems.Other species of Enterobacterales are still susceptible to carbapenems at a low resistance rate.Linezolid-resistant strain was identified in Enterococcus spp.No cross resistance to vancomycin was found in Enterococcus isolates.Therefore,it is necessary to strengthen the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and use antibiotics reasonably for controlling hospital infections.

Objective To monitor the susceptibility of clinical isolates to antimicrobial agents in healthcare facilities in major regions of China in 2023.Methods Clinical isolates collected from 73 hospitals across China were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using a unified protocol based on disc diffusion method or automated testing systems.Results were interpreted using the 2023 Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) breakpoints.Results A total of 445199 clinical isolates were collected in 2023,of which 29.0％ were gram-positive and 71.0％ were gram-negative.The prevalence of methicillin-resistant strains in Staphylococcus aureus,Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species (excluding Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and Staphylococcus schleiferi) (MRSA,MRSE and MRCNS) was 29.6％,81.9％ and 78.5％,respectively.Methicillin-resistant strains showed significantly higher resistance rates to most antimicrobial agents than methicillin-susceptible strains (MSSA,MSSE and MSCNS).Overall,92.9％ of MRSA strains were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 91.4％ of MRSE strains were susceptible to rifampicin.No vancomycin-resistant strains were found.Enterococcus faecalis had significantly lower resistance rates to most antimicrobial agents tested than Enterococcus faecium.A few vancomycin-resistant strains were identified in both E.faecalis and E.faecium.The prevalence of penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae was 93.1％ in the isolates from children and and 95.9％ in the isolates from adults.The resistance rate to carbapenems was lower than 15.0％ for most Enterobacterales species except for Klebsiella,22.5％ and 23.6％ of which were resistant to imipenem and meropenem,respectively .Most Enterobacterales isolates were highly susceptible to tigecycline,colistin and polymyxin B,with resistance rates ranging from 0.6％ to 10.0％.The resistance rate to imipenem and meropenem was 21.9％ and 17.4％ for Pseudomonas aeruginosa,respectively,and 67.5％ and 68.1％ for Acinetobacter baumannii,respectively.Conclusions Increasing resistance to the commonly used antimicrobial agents is still observed in clinical bacterial isolates.However,the prevalence of important crabapenem-resistant organisms such as crabapenem-resistant K.pneumoniae,P.aeruginosa,and A.baumannii showed a slightly decreasing trend.This finding suggests that strengthening bacterial resistance surveillance and multidisciplinary linkage are important for preventing the occurrence and development of bacterial resistance.

In order to improve the laboratory identification ability of Lodderomyces elongisporus, we analyzed the main biological characteristics of Lodderomyces elongisporus isolated from peripheral venous blood and catheter blood of a brain stem infarction patient with a body temperature of 38.4 ℃, observed the colony color of the strain on CHROMagar Candida medium and the ascospores on Mcclary agar, identified the isolates with Vitek 2 compact, MALDI-TOF MS and sequence analysis, and tested the MICs with borth microdilution. The MICs of antifungal agents against Lodderomyces elongisporus are well below the normal values of these drugs. The central venous catheter was removed and antifungal drugs were used until two weeks after the last positive blood culture. During the medication perios, the blood culture was repeatedly negative, the patient had no fever and the infection index decreased to normal, which can be used for clinical reference.

Objective To explore the correlation between serum hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA level with cholinesterase (CHE), albumin (ALB) and prealbumin (PA) in patients with hepatitis C, and provide the references for the early diagnosis and the prognosis monitoring of hepatitis C. Methods Four hundred and fifty-five patients with hepatitis C were selected. The serum level of HCV-RNA was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR), and serum levels of CHE, ALB and PA were detected using the automatic biochemistry analyzer. The patients were divided into 6 group according to the result of HCV-RNA level:HCV-RNA<103 kU/L group (group A, 52 cases), 103 kU/L≤HCV-RNA<104 kU/L group (group B, 77 cases), 104 kU/L≤HCV-RNA<105 kU/L group (group C, 81 cases), 105 kU/L≤HCV-RNA<106 kU/L group (group D, 92 cases), 106 kU/L≤HCV-RNA<107 kU/L group (group E, 87 cases) and HCV-RNA≥107 kU/L group (group F, 66 cases). Moreover, the patients were divided into 3 groups according to the result of serum CHE: CHE normal group (> 5000 U/L, 321 cases), CHE mild abnormal group (4000- 5000 U/L, 56 cases) and CHE abnormal group (<4000 U/L, 78 cases). Results With the rising level of serum HCV-RNA from group A to group F, the serum levels of CHE, ALB and PA were all gradually decreased in hepatitis C patients, CHE: (7288 ± 2817), (6316 ± 2341), (6103 ± 2596), (5208 ± 2222), (4282 ± 2173) and (3905 ± 1378) U/L; ALB: (46.3 ± 9.9), (44.0 ± 8.4), (43.1 ± 7.6), (42.6 ± 7.1), (41.1 ± 5.4) and (39.3 ±5.1) g/L;PA:(212.1 ± 67.8), (179.9 ± 72.8), (163.4 ± 57.5), (137.4 ± 60.3), (120.6 ± 45.0) and (112.5 ± 42.0) mg/L, and there were statistical differences (F=21.08, 6.08 and 27.54;P<0.01). With the decreasing level of serum CHE, the serum levels of ALB and PA were all gradually decreased, ALB:(45.4 ± 10.1), (33.1 ± 4.2) and (31.5 ± 8.8) g/L;PA:(209.3 ± 56.4), (108.4 ± 44.1) and (81.5 ± 49.6) mg/L, and there were statistical differences (F = 70.23 and 152.57, P<0.01). The bivariate Spearman correlation analysis result showed that the serum HCV-RNA level was negatively correlated with serum CHE, ALB and PA (r =-0.357, -0.326 and-0.471; P<0.05), and the serum CHE was positively correlated with serum ALB and PA (r=0.726 and 0.807, P<0.05). Conclusions The serum HCV-RNA level is closely related to liver function indices. Performing simultaneous detection of serum HCV-RNA level and serum PA is helpful in the early diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis C.