Death ; Hematoma, Subdural/etiology* ; Humans ; Syphilis, Congenital/complications*

OBJECTIVES: To develop a new Chinese medicine (CM)-based drug and to evaluate its safety and effect for suppressing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: A putative ARDS-suppressing drug Keguan-1 was first developed and then evaluated by a randomized, controlled two-arm trial. The two arms of the trial consist of a control therapy (alpha interferon inhalation, 50 µg twice daily; and lopinavir/ritonavir, 400 and 100 mg twice daily, respectively) and a testing therapy (control therapy plus Keguan-1 19.4 g twice daily) by random number table at 1:1 ratio with 24 cases each group. After 2-week treatment, adverse events, time to fever resolution, ARDS development, and lung injury on newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients were assessed. RESULTS: An analysis of the data from the first 30 participants showed that the control arm and the testing arm did not exhibit any significant differences in terms of adverse events. Based on this result, the study was expanded to include a total of 48 participants (24 cases each arm). The results show that compared with the control arm, the testing arm exhibited a significant improvement in time to fever resolution (P=0.035), and a significant reduction in the development of ARDS (P=0.048). CONCLUSIONS Keguan-1-based integrative therapy was safe and superior to the standard therapy in suppressing the development of ARDS in COVID-19 patients. (Trial registration No. NCT04251871 at www.clinicaltrials.gov ).
Administration, Inhalation ; Adult ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Drug Administration Schedule ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; Interferon-alpha ; administration & dosage ; Lopinavir ; administration & dosage ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Risk Assessment ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Severity of Illness Index ; Survival Rate

Objective To discuss the application value of CT scanning technology in cause of death determination of medical dispute cases. Methods From July 2017 to December 2018, postmortem CT imaging data of 12 medical dispute cases were collected. CT imaging diagnosis results and anatomy findings as well as differences between antemortem and postmortem CT diagnosis were compared. The advantages and disadvantages of CT routine tests of the cadavers in terms of the diagnosis of disease and damage were analyzed. Results The comparison between CT imaging diagnosis and anatomical findings showed that CT scans had advantages in the diagnosis of disease and damage with large differences in density changes, such as atelectasis, pneumonia, calcification, fracture and hemorrhage, etc. The comparison of CT diagnosis in antemortem and postmortem examination showed that the cadavers of medical dispute cases were well preserved and that postmortem CT scan was meaningful for the diagnosis of antemortem diseases. Conclusion Virtual anatomy technology has a relatively high application value in postmortem examination of medical dispute cases. It can provide effective information for the appraisers before the autopsy and can also provide a reference for cause of death analysis when the anatomy cannot be performed.
Autopsy ; Cadaver ; Dissent and Disputes ; Humans ; Postmortem Changes ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Objective To evaluate the effect of Oncomelania hupensis snail control of cutting the beach group in the south of Shaobo Lake. Methods The general situation of the project of cutting the beach was surveyed, and the snail distribution was surveyed and the results were compared before and after cutting the beach in the beach group. Results The area of cutting beach was 928.33 hm², the cubic meter of earthwork was 1 717.00 m³, the area of dumping ground was 425.76 hm², the beach surface elevation was 3.2 m after cutting the beach, and the beach surface was fallen to 1.0 m under the ordinary water level. The area with snails was 44.69 hm² before cutting the beach in 2011 but the area with snails was 1.78 hm² after cutting the beach in 2018. The area with remaining snails was declined by 96.02% in 2018 as compared with that in 2011, and surviving snails were distributed on the uncut beach face. Conclusion In Shaobo Lake, the O. hupensis snail breeding environment is eliminated by raising or lowering the beach, so it is an effective measure of snail control in lake regions.

Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of comprehensive schistosomiasis control measures with focus on total removal of cattle and sheep in Juanshan District,Yueyang City.Methods The schistosome infection status of human,cat-tle,sheep and Oncomelania hupensis snails and costs of control measures were gathered during the period of 2006 to 2016.The costs for different periods and cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated.Results The prevalence of schistosome infection in resi-dents in the pilot villages decreased from 3.44% in 2006 to 0 in 2016.The annual costs of schistosomiasis prevention and control were 4 708 500 yuan from 2006 to 2008,5 094 700 yuan from 2009 to 2012 and 9 522 700 yuan from 2013 to 2016.The cost-ef-fectiveness analysis showed that the average annual cost of reduction in the residents'infection rate by 1% were 79 500 yuan from 2006 to 2008,101 200 yuan from 2009 to 2012,and 95 200 yuan from 2013 to 2016,respectively. Conclusion The comprehensive schistosomiasis control strategy with focus on cattle and sheep removal in Junshan District is cost effective, which could be extended to other lake and marshland schistosomiasis endemic areas.

Schistosomiasis is one of a few endemic and infectious diseases,which are controlled by the specific prevention and control institutions in China.Through the review of historical data,this paper describes the construction,continuation and changes of schistosomiasis prevention and control institutions in different historical periods and systems,and analyzes and evalu-ates its historical function,contribution and status.

BACKGROUND: Stent-assisted coil embolization has become an important technique for the treatment of intracranial complex aneurysms. However, there is no systematic analysis of complications and prevention strategies related to this technique. OBJECTIVE: To systematically analyze the complications related to stent-assisted coil embolization of intracranial aneurysms during perioperative and follow-up periods and to assess the safety of this method. METHODS: A retrospective study of 232 consecutive patients with 239 wide-necked aneurysms who underwent stent-assisted coil embolization at the Department of Neurosurgery, General Hospital of Shenyang Military Command from July 2003 to December 2009 was performed. Angiographic results and clinical outcomes were evaluated. A variety of complications were analyzed. The technical feasibility of the procedure, procedure-related complications, angiographic results, clinical outcomes and follow-up angiography were evaluated. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Stenting was successful in the 236 of 239 aneurysms. Procedure-related complications included thomboembolism (n=13), intraprocedural rupture (n=8), coil protrusions (n=5), new mass effect (n=3), vessel injury (n=3), and stent dislodgement (n=2). Procedure-related morbidity and mortality was 4.3% (10/232) and 1.3% (3/232), respectively. Nonprocedural complications attributable to subarachnoid hemorrhage in 129 patients with acute ruptured aneurysms were symptomatic vasospasm (18.6%, 24/129) and shunt-dependent hydrocephalus (7.0%, 9/129). Favorable clinical outcomes (mRS 0-2) were observed in 88.3% (205/232) of the patients, and no rehemorrhage of treated aneurysms occurred. Follow-up angiography was obtained in 155 patients (159 treated aneurysms). The overall recanalization rate was 14.5% (23/159). No stenting or coiling displacement occurred during the follow-up. Delayed complications included in-stent stenosis (n=2) and penetrating artery occlusion (n=2). In conclusion, our study indicates that stent-assisted coil embolization of intracranial aneurysm is a safe technique with low morbidity and mortality rates. Thromboembolism is the main cause of procedure-related disability and death. Nevertheless, further long-term follow-up is necessary to determine the durability of these promising results.

Objective To develop a BP neural network to differentiate between ventricular fibrillation( VF) and non-VF rhythms.Methods Eighteen metrics were extracted from the ECG signals.Each of these metrics respectively characterized each aspect of the signals, such as morphology, gaussianity, spectra, variability, and complexity.These metrics were regarded as the input vector of the BP neural network.After training, a classifier used for VF and non-VF rhythm classification was obtained.Results and Conclusion The constructed BP neural network was tested with the databases of VFDB and CUDB, and the accuracy was 98.61%and 95.37%, respectively.

OBJECTIVESTo analyze the clinical characteristics of the atlantoaxial dislocation (AAD) in craniovertebral junction (CVJ) abnormalities and to study the setup of its surgery strategy.

METHODSFrom April 2009 to November 2011, 56 patients of AAD and CVJ abnormalities including 22 male and 34 female patients who had received surgery were analyzed. There were 2 cases of reducible AAD and 54 cases of irreducible AAD. The age of the patients ranged from 9 to 56 years (mean 34 years). Among them, 14 cases achieved reduction/partial reduction via direct posterior fixation, 41 cases had transoral anterior deconpression and occipito-cervical/C₁-C₂ fusion and 1 case had the posterior odontoidectomy and spinal fusion.

RESULTSFifty-three cases had a follow-up between 6 months and 36 months (mean 20 months) and 3 cases lost follow-up (had improvement at discharge). Seven cases had complications as follows: 1 case had irreversible spinal cord injury and muscle weakness of extremities, 2 cases had cerebrospinal leak, 2 cases had pulmonary infection, 1 case had local granuloma hyperplasia and 1 case had delayed healing of the incision. The later 6 cases all got recovery after reasonable treatments. The grades of Nurick at last follow-up were as follows: 6 cases (11.3%) improved by 3 grades, 30 cases (56.6%) improved by 2 grades, 13 cases (24.5%) improved by 1 grade, 3 cases (5.7%) without change, 1 case (1.9%) get worse.

CONCLUSIONSReducible AAD could achieve direct reduction and fixation via posterior pathways. Irreducible AAD needs individualized treatment. To choose the direct reduction and fixation or transoral odontoidectomy and posterior fixation and fusion should consider the pathogenetic condition, the image data and personal clinical experience.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Atlanto-Axial Joint ; surgery ; Child ; Decompression, Surgical ; Female ; Humans ; Joint Dislocations ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postoperative Complications ; epidemiology ; Spinal Fusion ; methods ; Young Adult