OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic etiology of a Chinese pedigree with recurrent Joubert syndrome with negative results by whole-exome sequencing in the prior proband. METHODS: Chinese pedigree which opted elective abortion at the Women and Children's Hospital Affiliated to Chongqing Medical University in December 2024 was selected as the study subject. Whole-genome sequencing was carried out on fetal tissue after termination of pregnancy. Candidate variants were validated by Sanger sequencing and interpreted, while non-coding variant was analyzed using in silico prediction tools. RNA sequencing and cDNA sequencing were conducted on fetal brain tissue. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Hospital (Ethics No.2024YL045-02). RESULTS: Both the fetus and the affected child were found to harbor compound heterozygous variants of the CEP290 gene, namely c.7341dup (p.Leu2448fs*8) (pathogenic, maternally inherited) and c.1523-408G>A (likely pathogenic, paternally inherited). Both in silico analysis and fetal brain RNA sequencing confirmed aberrant RNA splicing caused by the intronic variant. CONCLUSION This case has highlighted the value of combining whole-genome sequencing with RNA functional validation. Above results not only enriched the spectrum of CEP290 gene mutations but also underscored its diagnostic value in resolving complex prenatal cases, providing critical clues for the prenatal diagnosis and recurrence risk assessment in genetic counseling.
Female ; Humans ; Pregnancy ; Abnormalities, Multiple/genetics* ; Antigens, Neoplasm/genetics* ; Cell Cycle Proteins/genetics* ; Cerebellum/abnormalities* ; Cytoskeletal Proteins/genetics* ; Eye Abnormalities/genetics* ; Introns/genetics* ; Kidney Diseases, Cystic/diagnosis* ; Pedigree ; Retina/abnormalities* ; Sequence Analysis, RNA/methods* ; Whole Genome Sequencing/methods* ; Child

OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic basis for a woman with oocyte maturation disorder during assisted reproductive treatment (ART), and to verify the source of the variant and its impact on oocyte maturation through family verification. METHODS: A 35-year-old infertile woman presented at the Reproductive Medicine Center of Gansu Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital on 20 October 2023 for a 10-year history of infertility despite unprotected intercourse was selected as study subject. Peripheral venous blood sample was collected from the proband. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to detect the potential variant. Candidate variants were validated within her family by Sanger sequencing, and their deleteriousness was assessed with comprehensive bioinformatic analyses to elucidate their origin and impact on oocyte maturation. According to the Standards and Guidelines for the Interpretation of Sequence Variants (hereinafter referred to as ACMG Guidelines) formulated by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), the pathogenicity of the candidate variant was rated. This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Gansu Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital (Ethics No.: 2023GSFYLS78). RESULTS: The proband underwent three controlled ovarian-stimulation cycles as part of assisted reproductive technology, yielding a total of 29 oocytes, among which only three were mature, whilst the remainders exhibited maturation arrest. Targeted sequencing of peripheral-blood DNA revealed a heterozygous c.728C>T (p.P243L) missense variant of the TUBB8 gene. While the same variant was detected in the proband's father. Based on the ACMG guidelines, the variant was classified to be likely pathogenic (PS4_Supporting+PM2_Supporting+PP2+PP3+PP4). CONCLUSION The heterozygous c.728C>T (p.P243L) missense variant of the TUBB8 gene probably underlay the oocyte maturation disorder in the proband, which may be either autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive. For probands with oocyte maturation disorders caused by the heterozygous c.728C>T variant of the TUBB8 gene, oocyte donation may be considered.
Humans ; Female ; Adult ; Mutation, Missense ; Oocytes/metabolism* ; Heterozygote ; Tubulin/genetics* ; Infertility, Female/genetics* ; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing ; Pedigree

Objective:To analyze the effect of birth parity on life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) among rural women.Method:A total of 15 304 women aged 40 to 79 years who participated in baseline and follow-up surveys were selected from a rural cohort in Henan province. The LE and HLE of women with different birth parity were calculated by using multi-state life table.Results:There were 1 195 (7.8%), 7 782 (50.8%), 3 867 (25.3%) and 2 460 (16.1%) women with 1, 2, 3 and 4 birth parities, respectively, and the M ( Q1 and Q3) of age were 50.3 (47.3, 53.4) and 53.3 (48.8, 60.7), 62.6 (55.4, 66.9) and 69.5 (64.7, 73.4) years old, respectively. LE at 40 years old was 44.5, 44.8, 45.1 and 45.4 years old, and HLE was 17.7, 18.3, 18.8 and 19.3 years old, respectively. LE at age 40 increased by 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 years in women with 2, 3, and 4 birth parities or more and HLE increased by 0.5, 1.1, and 1.6 years, respectively, compared with women with 1 birth parity. For women with higher and lower socioeconomic status who had 4 birth parities or more, the LE at age 40 was 47.1 and 43.9 years, respectively, an increase of 0.2 and 0.1 years over women with 1 birth parity, respectively; and the HLE was 20.4 and 18.7 years, respectively, an increase of 1.4 and 1.3 years over women with 1 birth parity, respectively. Conclusion:LE and HLE show an upward trend with the increase of birth parity among rural women.

Objective:To study the survival and prognostic factors for the recurrent extracranial malignant germ cell tumors (MGCTs) in children, and to explore feasible salvage treatment.Methods:A retrospective study.Pediatric patients with recurrent extracranial MGCTs diagnosed in Shanghai Children′s Medical Center between January 2010 and January 2020 were retrospectively recruited.Comprehensive treatment regimens included surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression model were employed to analyze the survival and prognostic factors for children with recurrent extracranial MGCTs.Results:A total of 172 children with extracranial MGCTs were treated, including 21 (12.2%) recurrent cases.The median time of MGCT recurrence after the end of the first treatment was 11 months.Finally, 19 patients were recruited after excluding 2 non-eligible cases, including 10 boys and 9 girls with the age at recurrence of 26 (8-170) months.The follow-up time was 57 (13-122) months.Salvage chemotherapy, complete resection and radiotherapy were performed in 16, 14 and 4 patients, respectively.The 4-year overall survival (4yr-OS) rate was (82.5±9.2)%(19 cases). The 4yr-OS rate was significantly higher in patients managed with surgery but without adjuvant chemotherapy at the initial treatment (13 cases) than those managed with chemotherapy at the initial treatment (6 cases)[(92.3±7.4)% vs.(60.0%±21.9)%, P=0.002]. Univariant and Cox multivariant regression analyses showed that failure to achieve the normal range of alpha fetoprotein after 3 cycles of chemotherapy significantly influenced the survival of recurrent extracranial MGCTs. Conclusions:For patients with recurrent extracranial MGCTs, comprehensive treatment approaches like complete surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy offer a favorable survival rate.Specifically, recurrent and re-treated patients who initially received surgery alone without adjuvant chemotherapy have a higher survival rate compared to those who received chemotherapy during the initial treatment.

【Objective】 To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of platelet-rich plasma(PRP) in acute achilles tendon injury by meta-analysis. 【Methods】 Literature on clinical randomized controlled trial of PRP in the treatment of acute achilles tendon injury from Wanfang database, CNKI, VIP database, The Chinese Biological Literature Database, The Chinese Clinical Trials Registry, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane and The US Clinical Trials Registry as of August 2023 were retrieved. The control group received conventional treatment for acute achilles tendon injury, while PRP treatment group received additional PRP treatment. The primary outcome measure was visual analogue pain scale, and the secondary outcome measures were the achilles tendon fracture score, maximum heel rise height, calf circumference and ankle range of motion. The quality of the literature was assessed using the Cochrane manual, and a meta-analysis of qualified literature was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. 【Results】 Seven articles were finally included, involving 421 patients with acute achilles tendon injury, including 212 patients in the PRP treatment group, and 209 patients in the conventional treatment group. The results of meta-analysis showed that there was no difference between the conventional treatment group and the PRP treatment group in terms of the visual analogue pain scale(SMD=-0.44, 95%CI: -0.94~0.06, P>0.05), calf circumference (MD=1.14, 95% CI: -1.56-3.84, P>0.05), ankle joint toe flexion range of motion (SMD=1.85, 95%CI: -1.38-5.09, P>0.05), ankle dorsiflexion range of motion(SMD=2.61, 95%CI: -0.95-6.17, P>0.05), achilles tendon fracture score (MD=-5.60, 95%CI: -15.36-4.16, P>0.05) and the maximum heel rise height (MD=-2.48, 95%CI: -5.30-0.33, P>0.05). And there was no difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (X²=2. 455, P>0.05). 【Conclusion】 PRP injection for acute achilles tendon injury does not improve the biomechanical and clinical outcomes of patients, and the use of PRP does not increase the occurrence of adverse reactions.

Reducing the mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B virus(HBV)is crucial for achieving HBV elimination.Launched in July 2015 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing,China,the"Zero Hepatitis B Mother-to-Child Transmission Project"(Shield Project)is a public welfare initiative integrating scientific prevention and applied research and aims to perform standardized management of pregnant women with hepatitis B using the mobile application of"Shield Project",in order to further reduce or eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HBV.At present,the Shield Project has expanded nationwide,offering detailed implementation strategies,successful practices,and reliable data to support the global effort to eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HBV.This article introduces the implementation strategies and outcomes of the Shield Project in four representative cases,in order to provide strong evidence for further understanding and preventing the mother-to-child transmission of HBV.

Bowel sounds can reflect the movement and health status of the gastrointestinal tract.However,the traditional manual auscultation method has subjective deviation and is time-consuming and labor-intensive.In order to better assist doctors in diagnosing bowel sounds and improve the reliability and efficiency of bowel sound detection,this study proposed a deep neural network model that combines a residual neural network(ResNet),a bidirectional long short-term memory network(BiLSTM),and an attention mechanism.Firstly,a large number of labeled clinical data was collected using the self-developed multi-channel bowel sound acquisition system,and the multi-scale wavelet decomposition and reconstruction method was used to preprocess the bowel sounds.Then,log Mel spectrogram features were extracted and sent to the network for training.Finally,the performance and effectiveness of the model were evaluated and verified by 10-fold cross-validation and an ablation experiment.The experimental results showed that the precision,recall,and F1 score of the model reached 83%,76%,and 79%,respectively,and it could effectively detect bowel sound segments and locate their start and end times,performing better than previous algorithms.This algorithm can not only provide auxiliary information for doctors in clinical practice but also offer technical support for further analysis and research of bowel sounds.

Objective To explore the changes of the thickness of myometrium(MT),apparent diffusion coefficient value of myometrium(ADCM),thickness of junctional zone(JZT)and apparent diffusion coefficient value of junctional zone(ADCJz)in patients with endometrial fibrosis.Methods A total of 59 patients with endometrial fibrosis and 34 healthy women(volunteer)of childbearing age were prospectively included.The JZT,ADCJz,MT and ADCM were measured.Independent samples t-test was used to compare the differences in JZT,ADCJZ,MT,and ADCM between the two groups.A combined prediction model was established using binary logistic regression analysis(combining mean JZT,mean ADCJZ,and mean MT).The efficiency of each parameter's mean value and the combined prediction model in diagnosing endometrial fibrosis was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve.Results JZT(anterior wall,posterior wall,fundus and mean;P=0.007,0.035,0.001 and＜0.001,respectively),ADCJZ(anterior wall,posterior wall,fundus and mean;all P＜0.001)and MT(anterior wall,posterior wall and mean;P=0.003,＜0.001 and 0.003,respectively)were significantly larger in patients with endometrial fibrosis compared to volunteer.Mean ADCJZ[area under the curve(AUC)=0.872]and the combined prediction model(AUC=0.953)had high value for diagnosing endometrial fibrosis.Conclusion MRI can be used for noninvasively assessing the changes of myometrium and JZ in patients with endometrial fibrosis.

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of respiratory trainer in the patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) undergoing non-invasive positive pressure ven-tilation.Methods A total of 85 patients with COPD undergoing non-invasive positive pressure ventilation ad-mitted and treated in the Affiliated Minda Hospital of Hubei Nationalities University during 2019-2023 were selected as the study subjects and divided into the experiment group and the control group through random number table method.The control group adopted the symptomatic and supportive treatment such as routine non-invasive positive pressure ventilation,anti-infection,preparation aspiration for spasmolysis and eliminating phlegm,while on the base of the control group,the experiment group adopted respiratory trainer (K5) for re-spiratory training each once in the morning and at night.The differences in the related indexes were compared between the two groups.Results The percentage of forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1％),forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced lung capacity (FEV1/FVC),COPD assessment test (CAT) score,modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC) score,6-min walking distance (6MWD),SGRQ score,maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP),maximum expiratory pressure (MEP),partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) and PaO2 on 3,7 d after treatment in both groups had statistically significant differ-ence compared with before treatment (P<0.05),and the improvement of the above indicators in the experi-ment group was more significant compared with the control group (P<0.05).Conclusion Respiratory train-er could improve the clinical effect and pulmonary ventilation function in the patients with acute exacerbation of COPD undergoing non-invasive positive pressure ventilation.

Objective To investigate the clinical value of extracellular volume(ECV)based on CT delayed phase in combination with pathologic indicators in predicting early recurrence of gastric mesenchymal tumors after surgery.Methods A retrospective case-control trial was conducted on the imaging,clinical and pathological data of 110 patients with gastric mesenchymal tumors who were surgically resected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from January 2011 to August 2022.They were 60 males and 50 females,at a mean age of 58±10 years.All of them received preoperative multiphase dynamic CT enhancement examination of the abdomen,and ECV value was calculated with the formula:ECV=(1-hematocrit)×(△HU tumor/△HU aorta).According to the postoperative recurrence within 24 months after surgery,they were divided into early recurrence group and non early recurrence group.Statistical indexes:① Consistency analysis.② The factors affecting early recurrence after resection of gastric mesenchymal stromal tumors were analyzed and a prediction model was conducted.Delong test was used to assess the predictive value of the model.Then a nomogram was plotted based on the combines model,and calibration curves were drawn to assess the efficacy of the column charts,and decision curve analysis(DCA)was adopted to assess the value of the model for clinical application.Results ① Consistency analysis.After 2 radiologists outlined the region of interest and obtained ECV value according to the above formula,The intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC)was 0.806.② For the 110 subjected patients,21 cases of them had early recurrence,and 89 one did not.Multivariate analysis showed that ECV value,risk degree,and tumor length were independent influencing factors for predicting early recurrence.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve(AUC)value of ECV,hazard degree,and tumor length diameter in predicting early recurrence was 0.838(95％CI 0.758～0.918),0.774(95％CI 0.656～0.892),and 0.700(95％CI 0.589～0.810),respectively,and the value of their combined model was 0.899(95％CI 0.811～0.987),which was higher than that of each independent model.The sensitivity and specificity of the combined model was 85.71％and 86.52％,respectively,and the optimal cutoff value was 0.19.Delong test revealed that there was statistical difference between the combined model and the clinical model established by the hazard level(Z=6.548,P＜0.001,95％CI 0.140～0.259).Calibration curve analysis suggested that the combined model had a better fit,and DCA displayed that the combined model had a better net benefit.Conclusion The model established by ECV combined with pathological indicators has good predictive performance and can be used as a more effective predictor of early recurrence of gastric mesenchymal tumors after surgery.