Objective:To optimize the laboratory methods for isolation, culture, and preservation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae ( N. gonorrhoeae) . Methods:Five quality control bacterial strains ( N. gonorrhoeae strain 1, N. gonorrhoeae strain 2, Neisseria mucosa strain 3, Enterococcus faecalis strain 4, and mixed bacterial strain 5) were separately cultured using a self-made gonococcal selective medium and 7 commercialized gonococcal selective media (gonococcal isolation plates, gonococcal T-M selective medium, gonococcal chocolate agar plates, gonococcal selective medium, modified Thayer-Martin [MTM] agar plates, disposable gonococcus [GC] agar medium, and gonococcal agar plates), and their cultivation performance was evaluated. Sixteen strains of N. gonorrhoeae were cultured both inside and outside a candle jar to screen for CO 2-dependent strains. The preservation performance of 4 self-made gonococcal preservation solutions, including calf serum with 10% dimethyl sulfoxide, calf serum with 10% glycerol, brain-heart infusion broth with 20% glycerol, and trypticase soy broth with 30% glycerol, was evaluated. The survival of N. gonorrhoeae in freeze-dried and non-freeze-dried states was observed. Results:The growth performance of the 5 quality control strains varied across different commercialized gonococcal culture media. Concretely, N. gonorrhoeae strain 1 formed large and numerous colonies on both the self-made culture medium and MTM agar plates, which outperformed the other 6 culture media; the growth performance of N. gonorrhoeae strain 2 on the 7 commercialized culture media was inferior to that on the self-made culture medium; all 7 commercialized culture media had inhibitory effects on the growth of Neisseria mucosa strain 3, among which the self-made culture medium, gonococcal chocolate agar plates, MTM agar plates, disposable GC agar medium, and gonococcal agar plates could completely inhibit its growth; the gonococcal T-M selective medium could completely inhibit the growth of Enterococcus faecalis strain 4; mixed bacterial strain 5 showed better separation performance on the self-made culture medium, gonococcal isolation plates, gonococcal T-M selective medium, gonococcal chocolate agar plates, MTM agar plates, and disposable GC agar medium. Under CO 2-enriched conditions, all 16 strains of N. gonorrhoeae exhibited good growth performance; however, the growth of 11 strains was markedly inhibited without CO 2. No significant differences were observed in the preservation performance of the 4 preservation solutions at -70°C, and confluent colonies could be observed in all preservation solutions after 12 months of strain preservation; at -20 ℃, the trypticase soy broth with 30% glycerol showed the best preservation performance, with a few viable strains remaining after 6 months, while the calf serum with 10% dimethyl sulfoxide performed worst, with partial strains remaining viable after 2 weeks. Non-freeze-dried N. gonorrhoeae survived for varying duration at different temperatures (4 ℃, -18 ℃, -29 ℃, -70 ℃, and liquid nitrogen) ; no N. gonorrhoeae strains survived by day 4 when stored at 4°C; freeze-dried N. gonorrhoeae remained viable with the presence of confluent colonies for 6 months at 4 ℃. Conclusion:The self-made gonococcal selective medium demonstrated superior cultivation and isolation performance compared to commercialized gonococcal selective media; a small amount of CO 2 could promote the growth of N. gonorrhoeae; ultralow temperature and freeze-drying preservation could increase the survival time of N. gonorrhoeae, with freeze-drying at 4 ℃ being the most cost-effective long-term preservation method.

Objective:To establish a three-dimensional U-shaped residual coordinated attention network (URCA-Net) based on enhanced CT images for small bowel polyp detection and analyze its application effectiveness in intelligent detection of small bowel polyps.Methods:Abdominal CT data of patients with small bowel polyps were collected from the Air Force Medical Center between June 2019 and July 2023. All patients underwent bowel preparation followed by thin-slice spiral CT scanning to obtain enhanced CT arterial phase images. The data were randomly divided into training, validation and test sets in an 8∶1∶1 ratio. The URCA-Net deep learning model was used for small bowel polyp segmentation. The training set was used for model parameter training, the validation set for hyperparameter adjustment and monitoring of model generalization performance and the test set for final unbiased evaluation of the model. An early intelligent detection model for small bowel polyps was constructed, and its performance was evaluated. Evaluation metrics included pixel-level metrics for the segmentation task [Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC)], as well as sensitivity and precision for polyp detection. A two-stage segmentation strategy was adopted: the first stage segmented the small bowel region to remove external interference, and the second stage performed polyp segmentation within the small bowel region.Results:A total of 78 subjects were included in the study, with an average age of (54±7) years. A total of 23 400 scan images were extracted, including 136 hyperplastic polyps, 298 hamartomatous polyps, 14 adenomatous polyps, and 4 cancerous polyps. On the test set, the average DSC for the first stage (small bowel segmentation) and the second stage (polyp segmentation) was 0.790 and 0.314, respectively. In the second stage task (polyp segmentation based on small bowel region), the polyp segmentation DSC increased to 0.701, with a precision of 0.836 (95% CI: 0.700-0.972) and a sensitivity of 0.759 (95% CI: 0.631-0.888) for polyp detection. Conclusion:The URCA-Net deep learning technique demonstrates good auxiliary diagnostic effectiveness in small bowel polyp detection and can provide a reference for screening and detection of small bowel polyps. The model is capable of generating high-quality segmentation results, which could facilitate evaluating polyp lesion morphology and provide support for downstream tasks such as preoperative navigation and risk prediction.

Objective:To investigate the characteristics and determinants of total scores of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and to analyze the factors associated with enlarged perivascular space (EPVS) grading in pilots.Methods:The physical examination data of 72 pilots who were hospitalized and diagnosed with CSVD by MRI in the Air Force Medical Center (General Hospital of Air Force) between 2019 and 2022 was retrospectively analyzed. The pilots were grouped by the total CSVD score (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 points), and the distribution of CSVD imaging biomarkers was compared across groups. The severity of EPVS was classified into 3 levels: none or mild (0-10), moderate (11-20), and severe (>20). The impact of vascular risk factors on the total CSVD score and EPVS grading was analyzed.Results:The results of the total CSVD score showed that there were 19 cases (26.39%) with a score of 0, 43 cases (59.72%) with a score of 1, 10 cases (13.89%) with a score of 2, and 0 case with scores of 3 or 4. Among those who scored 1, there were 2 cases (4.65%) of lacunar infarction (LA), 1 case (2.33%) of moderate to severe white matter hyperintensity (WMH), 2 cases (4.65%) of cerebral microbleed (CMB), and 38 cases (88.37%) of moderate and severe EPVS. Among those who scored 2, there were 7 cases (70.00%) of LA combined with EPVS, 2 cases (20.00%) of CMB combined with EPVS, and 1 case (10.00%) of WMH combined with EPVS. According to the CSVD imaging classification of these pilots, there were 9 cases (12.50%) of LA, 52 cases (72.22%) of WMH, 4 cases (5.60%) of CMB and 61 cases (84.72%) of EPVS. Multiple ordered Logistic regression analysis showed that systolic blood pressure ( OR=1.068, 95% CI: 1.016-1.122) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( OR=0.111, 95% CI: 0.015-0.843) made a difference in the total CSVD score. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( OR=0.166, 95% CI: 0.031-0.893) could affect the EPVS grading. Spearman′s correlation analysis showed that the systolic blood pressure level was positively correlated with the total CSVD score ( r=0.299, P=0.011), while the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was negatively correlated with the total CSVD score and EPVS grading ( r=-0.313, -0.263, P=0.041, 0.026). Conclusions:The total CSVD score of pilots is at a mild level with EPVS as the leading contributor. The systolic blood pressure and the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level are determinants for the total CSVD score, while the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level is a determinant for the EPVS grading of pilots. Blood pressure control and lipid regulation can go a long way towards preventing CSVD in pilots. The total CSVD score is of value for stratified evaluation and individual identification of pilots with CSVD.

Objective:To optimize the laboratory methods for isolation, culture, and preservation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae ( N. gonorrhoeae) . Methods:Five quality control bacterial strains ( N. gonorrhoeae strain 1, N. gonorrhoeae strain 2, Neisseria mucosa strain 3, Enterococcus faecalis strain 4, and mixed bacterial strain 5) were separately cultured using a self-made gonococcal selective medium and 7 commercialized gonococcal selective media (gonococcal isolation plates, gonococcal T-M selective medium, gonococcal chocolate agar plates, gonococcal selective medium, modified Thayer-Martin [MTM] agar plates, disposable gonococcus [GC] agar medium, and gonococcal agar plates), and their cultivation performance was evaluated. Sixteen strains of N. gonorrhoeae were cultured both inside and outside a candle jar to screen for CO 2-dependent strains. The preservation performance of 4 self-made gonococcal preservation solutions, including calf serum with 10% dimethyl sulfoxide, calf serum with 10% glycerol, brain-heart infusion broth with 20% glycerol, and trypticase soy broth with 30% glycerol, was evaluated. The survival of N. gonorrhoeae in freeze-dried and non-freeze-dried states was observed. Results:The growth performance of the 5 quality control strains varied across different commercialized gonococcal culture media. Concretely, N. gonorrhoeae strain 1 formed large and numerous colonies on both the self-made culture medium and MTM agar plates, which outperformed the other 6 culture media; the growth performance of N. gonorrhoeae strain 2 on the 7 commercialized culture media was inferior to that on the self-made culture medium; all 7 commercialized culture media had inhibitory effects on the growth of Neisseria mucosa strain 3, among which the self-made culture medium, gonococcal chocolate agar plates, MTM agar plates, disposable GC agar medium, and gonococcal agar plates could completely inhibit its growth; the gonococcal T-M selective medium could completely inhibit the growth of Enterococcus faecalis strain 4; mixed bacterial strain 5 showed better separation performance on the self-made culture medium, gonococcal isolation plates, gonococcal T-M selective medium, gonococcal chocolate agar plates, MTM agar plates, and disposable GC agar medium. Under CO 2-enriched conditions, all 16 strains of N. gonorrhoeae exhibited good growth performance; however, the growth of 11 strains was markedly inhibited without CO 2. No significant differences were observed in the preservation performance of the 4 preservation solutions at -70°C, and confluent colonies could be observed in all preservation solutions after 12 months of strain preservation; at -20 ℃, the trypticase soy broth with 30% glycerol showed the best preservation performance, with a few viable strains remaining after 6 months, while the calf serum with 10% dimethyl sulfoxide performed worst, with partial strains remaining viable after 2 weeks. Non-freeze-dried N. gonorrhoeae survived for varying duration at different temperatures (4 ℃, -18 ℃, -29 ℃, -70 ℃, and liquid nitrogen) ; no N. gonorrhoeae strains survived by day 4 when stored at 4°C; freeze-dried N. gonorrhoeae remained viable with the presence of confluent colonies for 6 months at 4 ℃. Conclusion:The self-made gonococcal selective medium demonstrated superior cultivation and isolation performance compared to commercialized gonococcal selective media; a small amount of CO 2 could promote the growth of N. gonorrhoeae; ultralow temperature and freeze-drying preservation could increase the survival time of N. gonorrhoeae, with freeze-drying at 4 ℃ being the most cost-effective long-term preservation method.

Objective:To establish a three-dimensional U-shaped residual coordinated attention network (URCA-Net) based on enhanced CT images for small bowel polyp detection and analyze its application effectiveness in intelligent detection of small bowel polyps.Methods:Abdominal CT data of patients with small bowel polyps were collected from the Air Force Medical Center between June 2019 and July 2023. All patients underwent bowel preparation followed by thin-slice spiral CT scanning to obtain enhanced CT arterial phase images. The data were randomly divided into training, validation and test sets in an 8∶1∶1 ratio. The URCA-Net deep learning model was used for small bowel polyp segmentation. The training set was used for model parameter training, the validation set for hyperparameter adjustment and monitoring of model generalization performance and the test set for final unbiased evaluation of the model. An early intelligent detection model for small bowel polyps was constructed, and its performance was evaluated. Evaluation metrics included pixel-level metrics for the segmentation task [Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC)], as well as sensitivity and precision for polyp detection. A two-stage segmentation strategy was adopted: the first stage segmented the small bowel region to remove external interference, and the second stage performed polyp segmentation within the small bowel region.Results:A total of 78 subjects were included in the study, with an average age of (54±7) years. A total of 23 400 scan images were extracted, including 136 hyperplastic polyps, 298 hamartomatous polyps, 14 adenomatous polyps, and 4 cancerous polyps. On the test set, the average DSC for the first stage (small bowel segmentation) and the second stage (polyp segmentation) was 0.790 and 0.314, respectively. In the second stage task (polyp segmentation based on small bowel region), the polyp segmentation DSC increased to 0.701, with a precision of 0.836 (95% CI: 0.700-0.972) and a sensitivity of 0.759 (95% CI: 0.631-0.888) for polyp detection. Conclusion:The URCA-Net deep learning technique demonstrates good auxiliary diagnostic effectiveness in small bowel polyp detection and can provide a reference for screening and detection of small bowel polyps. The model is capable of generating high-quality segmentation results, which could facilitate evaluating polyp lesion morphology and provide support for downstream tasks such as preoperative navigation and risk prediction.

Objective:To investigate the characteristics and determinants of total scores of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and to analyze the factors associated with enlarged perivascular space (EPVS) grading in pilots.Methods:The physical examination data of 72 pilots who were hospitalized and diagnosed with CSVD by MRI in the Air Force Medical Center (General Hospital of Air Force) between 2019 and 2022 was retrospectively analyzed. The pilots were grouped by the total CSVD score (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 points), and the distribution of CSVD imaging biomarkers was compared across groups. The severity of EPVS was classified into 3 levels: none or mild (0-10), moderate (11-20), and severe (>20). The impact of vascular risk factors on the total CSVD score and EPVS grading was analyzed.Results:The results of the total CSVD score showed that there were 19 cases (26.39%) with a score of 0, 43 cases (59.72%) with a score of 1, 10 cases (13.89%) with a score of 2, and 0 case with scores of 3 or 4. Among those who scored 1, there were 2 cases (4.65%) of lacunar infarction (LA), 1 case (2.33%) of moderate to severe white matter hyperintensity (WMH), 2 cases (4.65%) of cerebral microbleed (CMB), and 38 cases (88.37%) of moderate and severe EPVS. Among those who scored 2, there were 7 cases (70.00%) of LA combined with EPVS, 2 cases (20.00%) of CMB combined with EPVS, and 1 case (10.00%) of WMH combined with EPVS. According to the CSVD imaging classification of these pilots, there were 9 cases (12.50%) of LA, 52 cases (72.22%) of WMH, 4 cases (5.60%) of CMB and 61 cases (84.72%) of EPVS. Multiple ordered Logistic regression analysis showed that systolic blood pressure ( OR=1.068, 95% CI: 1.016-1.122) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( OR=0.111, 95% CI: 0.015-0.843) made a difference in the total CSVD score. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol ( OR=0.166, 95% CI: 0.031-0.893) could affect the EPVS grading. Spearman′s correlation analysis showed that the systolic blood pressure level was positively correlated with the total CSVD score ( r=0.299, P=0.011), while the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level was negatively correlated with the total CSVD score and EPVS grading ( r=-0.313, -0.263, P=0.041, 0.026). Conclusions:The total CSVD score of pilots is at a mild level with EPVS as the leading contributor. The systolic blood pressure and the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level are determinants for the total CSVD score, while the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level is a determinant for the EPVS grading of pilots. Blood pressure control and lipid regulation can go a long way towards preventing CSVD in pilots. The total CSVD score is of value for stratified evaluation and individual identification of pilots with CSVD.

Chronic skin diseases have complex pathogeneses and prolonged courses, and have long adverse impacts on the physical and mental health, as well as the normal life of patients. It is necessary to develop evidence-based strategies and measures for effective prevention and control of chronic skin diseases. However, related studies are limited in China. This article proposes a population medicine research plan for health promotion and equity, and disease prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and rehabilitation to establish a collaborative platform for strengthening research on the prevention and treatment of chronic skin diseases in China.

Laboratory testing is a vital chain in the prevention and control of genital chlamydia trachomatis infection. The prevalence of genital chlamydia trachomatis infection is high, but the detection rate of the infection is low in men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Self-sampling for genital chlamydia trachomatis detection by MSM is a new option to address this problem, which would play a significant role in expanding genital chlamydia trachomatis infection screening in this population. This paper summarizes the progress in research of self-sampling for the detection of genital chlamydia trachomatis and the related factors in MSM both at home and abroad to provide reference for the promotion of self-sampling for the detection of genital chlamydia trachomatis in this population.

Objective: To understand the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection and its associated factors among asymptomatic outpatients attending sexually transmitted disease (STD)-related clinics in Shenzhen and provide evidence for development of future interventions. Methods: From April 15 to May 16, 2018, a cross-sectional study was conducted and patients attending STD-related Clinics were recruited from 22 medical institutions in Nanshan, Luohu, Bao'an, Longgang, Yantian, and Longhua districts of Shenzhen. After the informed consent from each participant was obtained, social-demographic information was collected through a structured questionnaire and urine samples were collected for CT nucleic acid detection. In addition, logistic regression was used to explore associated factors of CT infection. Results: In asymptomatic outpatients, the prevalence of CT infection was 7.16% (250/3 492). Being single (aOR=2.29, 95%CI:1.65-3.16), without registered Shenzhen residency (aOR=1.49, 95%CI:1.04-2.13), and without previous CT testing in the past year (aOR=2.04, 95%CI:1.03-4.05) were the risk factors of CT infection in asymptomatic outpatients. Among participants without registered Shenzhen residency, 89.25% (2 176/2 438) were college-degree or below, and 51.29% (1 255/2 447) were aged ≤30 years, and the risk of CT infection among those ≤30 years old was 1.73 times higher than those >30 years old (95%CI:1.28-2.34). Conclusions: The prevalence of CT infection was high among asymptomatic outpatients attending STD-related clinics in Shenzhen. Routine CT screening should be carried out for this population, especially for those with sexually active age, being single, with low educational level, and without previous CT testing in the past year. Also, raising their awareness of knowledge and adverse outcomes of CT infection should be considered to promote routine CT screening and timely treatment.
Adult ; Chlamydia Infections/epidemiology* ; Chlamydia trachomatis ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Nucleic Acids ; Outpatients

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by monkeypox virus, and human cases infected with the virus have been reported in more than 100 countries. To respond to the potential of case importation and consequent spread of the infection in the country, it is urgent for China to strengthen its comprehensive surveillance efforts consisting of case detection through country-entering check, symptom screening, and investigation among priority populations, and to implement comprehensive strategies to control the source of infection, interrupt the transmission and protect the people at risk.