BACKGROUND:Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is currently the most effective method for the radical treatment of thalassemia major,but only half of patients can find compatible bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.Sib-derived umbilical cord blood stem cells have different characteristics from bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells,and are a potential alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation in patients with thalassemia major.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the therapeutic effect of human leukocyte antigen matched sibling fresh umbilical cord blood transplantation in the treatment of β-thalassemia major in children.METHODS:Forty-eight children with β-thalassemia major,including 28 males and 20 females,with a median age of 4 years old,were selected from Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University from June 2010 to June 2020.All of them received fresh cord blood transplantation from human leukocyte antigen matched sibling.Transplantation conditioning adopted a myeloablative regiment without anti-thymocyte globulin.A combination of cyclosporine A and mycophenolate mofetil with or without short-range methotrexate was administered for graft-versus-host disease.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The median infused doses of total nucleated cells and CD34+cells were 8.17×107/kg and 2.40×105/kg,respectively in 48 children.The median follow-up time after cord blood transplantation was 98 months,and 44 cases were successfully engrafted.The median time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment was 28 and 31 days,respectively.Among them,37 cases were found to be donor-type complete chimerism detected as evidence of implantation after transplantation,7 cases were found to be stable mixed chimerism.(2)Among the 44 children with successful implantation,four patients developed acute graft-versus-host disease,and were scored as grade Ⅰ(n=2)and grade Ⅱ(n=2).All the affected organs were skin,and no chronic graft-versus-host disease occurred.(3)After umbilical cord blood transplantation,cytomegalovirus infection and activation occurred in 5 of the 48 cases,sepsis in 12 cases,invasive fungal disease in 3 cases,stomatitis in 21 cases,hemorrhagic cystitis in 8 cases,and hepatic vein occlusion in 1 case.(4)Among 48 children,47 patients survived;1 died of severe pneumonia combined with acute heart failure 28 days after transplantation;43 survived without disease;3 had primary implantation failure,and 1 had pancytopenia after transplantation.The 5-year probabilities of overall survival and disease-free survival were 98％and 89％,respectively.The cumulative incidence of transplant-related deaths at 1 year was 2.1％.(5)The above results indicate that human leukocyte antigen matched sibling fresh umbilical cord blood transplantation is effective in the treatment of β-thalassemia major in children with a low incidence of graft-versus-host disease.

Objective:To investigate the methodological differences in the detection, the inflammatory markers and the pathogenic epidemiological characteristics of influenza A virus in clinical laboratories, in order to provide more diagnostic and epidemiological data for diagnosis and prevention for children with influenza A.Methods:A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to collect 96 731 patients with suspected influenza A from January 2016 to October 2024 in Nanyang City Center Hospital from the Clinical Laboratory Testing Information System, including 5 731 patients with confirmed influenza A, aged 5.2 (2.8, 43.7) years old. We analyzed the distribution of influenza A patients from age and mixed infections, the relationship between patient age and positive detection rate by restricted cubic spline (RCS), analyzed differences in testing methods used Kappa consistency testing and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, established a model of inflammatory markers by logistic regression, as well as developed a prediction model and also the mutation of the hemagglutinin (HA) sequence of the influenza A subtype H3N2 virus using evolutionary tree analysis.Results:RCS analysis showed an inverted 'S' shaped non-linear relationship between the positive detection rate of influenza A and the age groups of the patients. Among the mixed infections, 1.43%(1 352/94 867) of the cases were combined with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection. The Kappa values of reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and serological indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for detecting influenza A in nasopharyngeal swabs and alveolar lavage fluid in clinical laboratories were 0.632 and 0.809, respectively, and those of magnetic particle chemiluminescence assay were 0.614 and 0.668, respectively, and the area under curves in ROC curve of IFA and RT-PCR were 0.869 and 0.792, respectively. The inflammatory indexes were usually elevated in severe children compared with mild children. By binary logistic regression model analysis, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, D-dimer/fibrinogen and prognosis nutrition index were the risk factors and serum amyloid A/C reactive protein ratio was the protective factor for severe children with influenza A, and the OR values of the above factors were 1.760, 7.076, 1.045, and 0.719, respectively, and P<0.01. By the Bayesian Interdiction Criterion, the optimal seasonal autoregressive moving average mixed model for influenza A epidemics was ARIMA (1, 1, 1) (2, 1, 2) 12 with the highest prediction accuracy of 98.63%. The seven strains of H3N2 all belonged to the same isoforms, with nucleotide similarity of the HA gene ranging from 99.5% to 99.9%, and the glycosylation site, receptor-binding site, and the conserved amino acid residue Glycosylation sites, receptor binding sites and conserved amino acid residues remained unchanged. HA sequence analysis showed that the prevalent strains in Nanyang had undergone mutation to different degree compared with the vaccine strains. Conclusion:Scientific and rational testing and characteristic inflammatory markers in the clinical laboratory are of great clinical value in the diagnosis of children with severe influenza A. At the same time, the epidemiological monitoring of influenza A variants should be strengthened.

Objective:To explore the clinical application value of artificial intelligence（AI）-assisted training in enhancing the accuracy of nuchal translucency（NT）identification，standardization of measurement，and diagnostic efficacy for abnormalities among ultrasound residents.Methods:A retrospective collection of 300 standard fetal NT ultrasound images was conducted at the Center for Medical Ultrasound，Suzhou Hospital Affiliated of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2024. The AI model performed NT measurements and diagnoses once. Four sonographers of different seniority levels（including two resident physicians）independently conducted NT measurements and diagnoses twice. Prior to the experiment，the middle-age and resident sonographers had uniformly completed traditional theory training. Following the first independent measurements，the two resident sonographers received additional AI-assisted training，after which all 4 sonographers performed the second independent measurements. A fetal medicine expert evaluated blindly all the results and compared the differences in NT recognition accuracy，measurement standard rate and diagnosis accuracy between the middle-age sonographer（traditional training only）and two resident sonographers（traditional + AI-assisted training）.Results:For the middle-aged sonographer who only received traditional lecture-based training，the accuracy of NT recognition，standardization rate of measurement，or diagnostic accuracy were not significantly improved befroe and after the training，and the diffrence was not statistically significant（ χ2=0.189，1.887，0.326；all P>0.05）. In contrast，the second-year resident（Resident 2）and first-year resident（Resident 1），who received both traditional lecture-based training and AI training，demonstrated some improvements in the accuracy of NT measurement site recognition，though the differences were not statistically significant（ χ2=1.301，2.418；all P>0.05）. However，both residents did significant improvements in the standardization rate of NT measurement（ χ2=25.768，17.035；all P<0.05）. In terms of diagnostic accuracy，Resident 1 did significant improvement（ χ2=10.180， P<0.05），while Resident 2 also did some improvement，though the difference was not statistically significant（ χ2=2.573， P>0.05）. Conclusions:The AI-assisted training system enhances the ability of ultrasound resident sonographers to recognize，measure，and diagnose NT，providing a novel and efficient training model for standardized residency training in ultrasound specialties.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of fetal cardiac ultrasound view visualization in the first trimester for congenital heart disease（CHD）.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 13 323 singleton fetuses who underwent first-trimester（11-13 +6 weeks）ultrasound screening at the Ultrasound Medicine Center，the Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2024. Cardiac views including the four-chamber view（4CV），left ventricular outflow tract view（LVOT），and Results:The study group showed significantly higher rates of "poorly visualized" 4CV，LVOT，and 3VT than the control group（2.70% vs. 0.14%， P=0.005；36.49% vs. 4.76%， P<0.001；36.49% vs.2.46%， P<0.001）. The efficacies of combination 1（any view abnormal）and combination 2（any view "poorly visualized" or "abnormal"）were comparable，with AUCs of 0.86 and 0.85（ P=0.424）. The AUCs of combination 3（3VT "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"）and combination 4（4CV "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"）were 0.88 and 0.86（ P=0.424），all significantly higher than combination 5（LVOT "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"，AUC=0.84，all P<0.05）. Conclusions:"Poorly visualized" cardiac views in the first trimester demonstrate good diagnostic efficacy for CHD，particularly when 3VT or 4CV are affected，warranting heightened clinical vigilance for fetal cardiac anomalies.

Objective To explore the feasibility of endovascular intervention technology for constructing canine models of hepatic vein(HV)obstruction type Budd-Chiari syndrome(BCS).Methods HV obstruction type BCS models were established through double approaches including external jugular vein and percutaneous transhepatic vein puncture,blocking the main HV with double balloon and injecting anhydrous ethanol using 10 Beagle dogs.Laboratory indexes before and after modeling were compared.Liver ultrasound was performed 2,4 and 8 weeks after modeling,respectively,while intravascular ultrasound(IVUS)and digital subtracting angiography(DSA)were performed after the last time ultrasound to observe the obstruction degree,lumen and blood flow of left hepatic vein(LHV).The stenosis rate of LHV was evaluated based on DSA findings,and successful establishment of HV obstruction type BCS canine model was regarded as stenosis rate＞30%and incomplete occlusion of LHV,then the success rate of modeling was recorded.Results No significant difference of laboratory indexes was found before and after modeling(all P＞0.05).Ultrasound,IVUS and DSA showed that after modeling,different degrees of LHV stenosis complicated with intrahepatic collateral circulation were found in 9 dogs,while complete occlusion of LHV was noticed in 1 dog.The success rate of modeling was 90.00%(9/10).Pathological results showed the target HV lumen narrow with thickened endovascular wall,and the latter mainly composed of fibroblast and collagen fiber proliferation.Conclusion Endovascular intervention technology was feasible for constructing canine models of HV obstruction type BCS.

Objective To explore the feasibility of endovascular intervention technology for constructing canine models of hepatic vein(HV)obstruction type Budd-Chiari syndrome(BCS).Methods HV obstruction type BCS models were established through double approaches including external jugular vein and percutaneous transhepatic vein puncture,blocking the main HV with double balloon and injecting anhydrous ethanol using 10 Beagle dogs.Laboratory indexes before and after modeling were compared.Liver ultrasound was performed 2,4 and 8 weeks after modeling,respectively,while intravascular ultrasound(IVUS)and digital subtracting angiography(DSA)were performed after the last time ultrasound to observe the obstruction degree,lumen and blood flow of left hepatic vein(LHV).The stenosis rate of LHV was evaluated based on DSA findings,and successful establishment of HV obstruction type BCS canine model was regarded as stenosis rate＞30%and incomplete occlusion of LHV,then the success rate of modeling was recorded.Results No significant difference of laboratory indexes was found before and after modeling(all P＞0.05).Ultrasound,IVUS and DSA showed that after modeling,different degrees of LHV stenosis complicated with intrahepatic collateral circulation were found in 9 dogs,while complete occlusion of LHV was noticed in 1 dog.The success rate of modeling was 90.00%(9/10).Pathological results showed the target HV lumen narrow with thickened endovascular wall,and the latter mainly composed of fibroblast and collagen fiber proliferation.Conclusion Endovascular intervention technology was feasible for constructing canine models of HV obstruction type BCS.

BACKGROUND:Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is currently the most effective method for the radical treatment of thalassemia major,but only half of patients can find compatible bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells.Sib-derived umbilical cord blood stem cells have different characteristics from bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells,and are a potential alternative source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation in patients with thalassemia major.OBJECTIVE:To investigate the therapeutic effect of human leukocyte antigen matched sibling fresh umbilical cord blood transplantation in the treatment of β-thalassemia major in children.METHODS:Forty-eight children with β-thalassemia major,including 28 males and 20 females,with a median age of 4 years old,were selected from Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University from June 2010 to June 2020.All of them received fresh cord blood transplantation from human leukocyte antigen matched sibling.Transplantation conditioning adopted a myeloablative regiment without anti-thymocyte globulin.A combination of cyclosporine A and mycophenolate mofetil with or without short-range methotrexate was administered for graft-versus-host disease.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)The median infused doses of total nucleated cells and CD34+cells were 8.17×107/kg and 2.40×105/kg,respectively in 48 children.The median follow-up time after cord blood transplantation was 98 months,and 44 cases were successfully engrafted.The median time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment was 28 and 31 days,respectively.Among them,37 cases were found to be donor-type complete chimerism detected as evidence of implantation after transplantation,7 cases were found to be stable mixed chimerism.(2)Among the 44 children with successful implantation,four patients developed acute graft-versus-host disease,and were scored as grade Ⅰ(n=2)and grade Ⅱ(n=2).All the affected organs were skin,and no chronic graft-versus-host disease occurred.(3)After umbilical cord blood transplantation,cytomegalovirus infection and activation occurred in 5 of the 48 cases,sepsis in 12 cases,invasive fungal disease in 3 cases,stomatitis in 21 cases,hemorrhagic cystitis in 8 cases,and hepatic vein occlusion in 1 case.(4)Among 48 children,47 patients survived;1 died of severe pneumonia combined with acute heart failure 28 days after transplantation;43 survived without disease;3 had primary implantation failure,and 1 had pancytopenia after transplantation.The 5-year probabilities of overall survival and disease-free survival were 98％and 89％,respectively.The cumulative incidence of transplant-related deaths at 1 year was 2.1％.(5)The above results indicate that human leukocyte antigen matched sibling fresh umbilical cord blood transplantation is effective in the treatment of β-thalassemia major in children with a low incidence of graft-versus-host disease.

Objective:To investigate the methodological differences in the detection, the inflammatory markers and the pathogenic epidemiological characteristics of influenza A virus in clinical laboratories, in order to provide more diagnostic and epidemiological data for diagnosis and prevention for children with influenza A.Methods:A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to collect 96 731 patients with suspected influenza A from January 2016 to October 2024 in Nanyang City Center Hospital from the Clinical Laboratory Testing Information System, including 5 731 patients with confirmed influenza A, aged 5.2 (2.8, 43.7) years old. We analyzed the distribution of influenza A patients from age and mixed infections, the relationship between patient age and positive detection rate by restricted cubic spline (RCS), analyzed differences in testing methods used Kappa consistency testing and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, established a model of inflammatory markers by logistic regression, as well as developed a prediction model and also the mutation of the hemagglutinin (HA) sequence of the influenza A subtype H3N2 virus using evolutionary tree analysis.Results:RCS analysis showed an inverted 'S' shaped non-linear relationship between the positive detection rate of influenza A and the age groups of the patients. Among the mixed infections, 1.43%(1 352/94 867) of the cases were combined with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection. The Kappa values of reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and serological indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for detecting influenza A in nasopharyngeal swabs and alveolar lavage fluid in clinical laboratories were 0.632 and 0.809, respectively, and those of magnetic particle chemiluminescence assay were 0.614 and 0.668, respectively, and the area under curves in ROC curve of IFA and RT-PCR were 0.869 and 0.792, respectively. The inflammatory indexes were usually elevated in severe children compared with mild children. By binary logistic regression model analysis, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, D-dimer/fibrinogen and prognosis nutrition index were the risk factors and serum amyloid A/C reactive protein ratio was the protective factor for severe children with influenza A, and the OR values of the above factors were 1.760, 7.076, 1.045, and 0.719, respectively, and P<0.01. By the Bayesian Interdiction Criterion, the optimal seasonal autoregressive moving average mixed model for influenza A epidemics was ARIMA (1, 1, 1) (2, 1, 2) 12 with the highest prediction accuracy of 98.63%. The seven strains of H3N2 all belonged to the same isoforms, with nucleotide similarity of the HA gene ranging from 99.5% to 99.9%, and the glycosylation site, receptor-binding site, and the conserved amino acid residue Glycosylation sites, receptor binding sites and conserved amino acid residues remained unchanged. HA sequence analysis showed that the prevalent strains in Nanyang had undergone mutation to different degree compared with the vaccine strains. Conclusion:Scientific and rational testing and characteristic inflammatory markers in the clinical laboratory are of great clinical value in the diagnosis of children with severe influenza A. At the same time, the epidemiological monitoring of influenza A variants should be strengthened.

Objective:To explore the clinical application value of artificial intelligence（AI）-assisted training in enhancing the accuracy of nuchal translucency（NT）identification，standardization of measurement，and diagnostic efficacy for abnormalities among ultrasound residents.Methods:A retrospective collection of 300 standard fetal NT ultrasound images was conducted at the Center for Medical Ultrasound，Suzhou Hospital Affiliated of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2024. The AI model performed NT measurements and diagnoses once. Four sonographers of different seniority levels（including two resident physicians）independently conducted NT measurements and diagnoses twice. Prior to the experiment，the middle-age and resident sonographers had uniformly completed traditional theory training. Following the first independent measurements，the two resident sonographers received additional AI-assisted training，after which all 4 sonographers performed the second independent measurements. A fetal medicine expert evaluated blindly all the results and compared the differences in NT recognition accuracy，measurement standard rate and diagnosis accuracy between the middle-age sonographer（traditional training only）and two resident sonographers（traditional + AI-assisted training）.Results:For the middle-aged sonographer who only received traditional lecture-based training，the accuracy of NT recognition，standardization rate of measurement，or diagnostic accuracy were not significantly improved befroe and after the training，and the diffrence was not statistically significant（ χ2=0.189，1.887，0.326；all P>0.05）. In contrast，the second-year resident（Resident 2）and first-year resident（Resident 1），who received both traditional lecture-based training and AI training，demonstrated some improvements in the accuracy of NT measurement site recognition，though the differences were not statistically significant（ χ2=1.301，2.418；all P>0.05）. However，both residents did significant improvements in the standardization rate of NT measurement（ χ2=25.768，17.035；all P<0.05）. In terms of diagnostic accuracy，Resident 1 did significant improvement（ χ2=10.180， P<0.05），while Resident 2 also did some improvement，though the difference was not statistically significant（ χ2=2.573， P>0.05）. Conclusions:The AI-assisted training system enhances the ability of ultrasound resident sonographers to recognize，measure，and diagnose NT，providing a novel and efficient training model for standardized residency training in ultrasound specialties.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of fetal cardiac ultrasound view visualization in the first trimester for congenital heart disease（CHD）.Methods:A retrospective analysis was performed on 13 323 singleton fetuses who underwent first-trimester（11-13 +6 weeks）ultrasound screening at the Ultrasound Medicine Center，the Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2024. Cardiac views including the four-chamber view（4CV），left ventricular outflow tract view（LVOT），and Results:The study group showed significantly higher rates of "poorly visualized" 4CV，LVOT，and 3VT than the control group（2.70% vs. 0.14%， P=0.005；36.49% vs. 4.76%， P<0.001；36.49% vs.2.46%， P<0.001）. The efficacies of combination 1（any view abnormal）and combination 2（any view "poorly visualized" or "abnormal"）were comparable，with AUCs of 0.86 and 0.85（ P=0.424）. The AUCs of combination 3（3VT "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"）and combination 4（4CV "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"）were 0.88 and 0.86（ P=0.424），all significantly higher than combination 5（LVOT "poorly visualized" or any view "abnormal"，AUC=0.84，all P<0.05）. Conclusions:"Poorly visualized" cardiac views in the first trimester demonstrate good diagnostic efficacy for CHD，particularly when 3VT or 4CV are affected，warranting heightened clinical vigilance for fetal cardiac anomalies.