OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of single-balloon and double-balloon enteroscopy in diagnosing pediatric small bowel diseases and assess the diagnostic efficacy of computed tomography enterography (CTE) for small bowel diseases using enteroscopy as the reference standard. METHODS: Clinical data from 576 children who underwent enteroscopy at Hunan Children's Hospital between January 2017 and December 2023 were retrospectively collected. The children were categorized based on enteroscopy type into the single-balloon enteroscopy (SBE) group (n=457) and double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) group (n=119), and the clinical data were compared between the two groups. The sensitivity and specificity of CTE for diagnosing small bowel diseases were evaluated using enteroscopy results as the standard. RESULTS: Among the 576 children, small bowel lesions were detected by enteroscopy in 274 children (47.6%).There was no significant difference in lesion detection rates or complication rates between the SBE and DBE groups (P>0.05), but the DBE group had deeper insertion, longer procedure time, and higher complete small bowel examination rate (P<0.05). The complication rate during enteroscopy was 4.3% (25/576), with 18 cases (3.1%) of mild complications and 7 cases (1.2%) of severe complications, which improved with symptomatic treatment, surgical, or endoscopic intervention. Among the 412 children who underwent CTE, the sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing small bowel diseases were 44.4% and 71.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS SBE and DBE have similar diagnostic efficacy for pediatric small bowel diseases, but DBE is preferred for suspected deep small bowel lesions and comprehensive small bowel examination. Enteroscopy in children demonstrates relatively good overall safety. CTE demonstrates relatively low sensitivity but comparatively high specificity for diagnosing small bowel diseases.
Retrospective Studies ; Treatment Outcome ; Double-Balloon Enteroscopy/statistics & numerical data* ; Single-Balloon Enteroscopy/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Child ; Operative Time ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/statistics & numerical data* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Intestine, Small/surgery* ; Intestinal Diseases/surgery*

Pogostemon cablin is a famous southern medicine.As the important raw material for modern medicine and industry,Pogostemon cablin becomes required with a large marketing demand.However,due to the serious continuous cropping obstacles in the growth process of Pogostemon cablin,the aggravation of diseases of Pogostemon cablin and the degradation of its quality arose.This paper outlined the ecological factors such as climate factors,soil factors and topographic factors suitable for the growth of Pogostemon cablin,analyzed the continuous cropping obstacles and diseases arising in the cultivation,reviewed the current ecological planting mode of Pogostemon cablin such as crop rotation,intercropping,relay-cropping and under-forest planting,and also made a comprehensive evaluation of the economic benefits,ecological benefits and social benefits of the ecological planting mode of Pogostemon cablin,aiming to provide a theoretical basis and a reference for the promotion of the ecological planting mode of Pogostemon cablin.

Objective　To explore the molecular epidemiological characteristics of local Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Chongqing, China using genotyping methods and establish a suitable genotyping system tuberculosis genotyping in the region. Methods A total of 268 isolates collected from the sputum of tuberculosis patients at two national drug resistance monitoring sites in Chongqing from 2019 to 2021. The DNA of these isolates was extracted, and genotyping of the isolates was performed using VTNR 24 locus typing method. Epidemiological investigations were conducted on clustered isolates, and the clustering rates of isolates from the two surveillance sites were compared to analyze their transmission differences. Results In the two regions, the Hunter-Gaston discriminatory index (HGI) in Fengjie County ranged from 0 to 0.85, with 10 loci having an HGI above 0.6, 11 loci with an HGI between 0.3 and 0.6, and 3 loci with an HGI below 0.3; the highest resolution site was MIRU31, while the lowest resolution site was MIRU24. The HGI index in Fengdu County ranged from 0 to 0.81, with 12 loci having an HGI above 0.6, 9 loci with an HGI between 0.3 and 0.6, and 3 loci with an HGI below 0.3; the highest resolution site was MIRU26, while the lowest resolution site was MIRU23. In the clustering analysis, among the 140 isolates from Fengdu County, 10 samples clustered into 4 clusters, with the largest cluster consisting of 4 samples, resulting in a clustering rate of 4.1%. Among the 128 isolates in Fengjie County, 10 samples clustered into 5 clusters, with a clustering rate of 4.2%. Conclusion In Fengdu County and Fengjie County of Chongqing, the main population of the disease show independent genotypes, indicating a low recent transmission rate. The incidence of patients is mainly endogenous recurrence, that is, latent infection develops into active tuberculosis. While conducting standardized management of tuberculosis patients, prevention and control agencies should also increase the screening of latent infection at two monitoring points and carry out preventive treatment of latent infection, which is the key to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis in the two places.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whether cytokine profiles and virological markers might add value in monitoring the effects of peginterferon (PEG-IFN) therapy for hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods: HBeAg positive patients with CHB were treated with PEG-IFN for 48 weeks. Clinical biochemical, and HBV serological indexes, as well as cytokines, were detected at baseline and every 12 weeks. Results: A total of 116 patients with CHB were enrolled in this study; 100 patients completed the 48-week treatment and follow-up, of whom 38 achieved serum HBeAg disappearance, 25 achieved HBeAg seroconversion, 37 showed HBsAg decreases ≥ 1 log ₁₀ IU/mL, 9 showed HBsAg disappearance, and 8 became HBsAb positive. The cytokine levels at baseline and during treatment were similar between the HBeAg disappearance group and non-disappearance group. The disappearance of HBeAg was independently associated with HBeAg levels at weeks 12 and 24, and with the HBeAg decline at week 24 ( P < 0.05). The HBsAg response was independently associated with HBsAg, the HBsAg decline, HBeAg, the HBeAg decline at week 12, and HBsAg at week 24 ( P< 0.05). Conclusion There was no significant correlation between the response to interferon (IFN) and cytokines during PEG-IFN treatment. The changes in virological markers predicted the response to IFN after 48 weeks.
Biomarkers ; Cytokines ; DNA, Viral ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens ; Hepatitis B e Antigens ; Hepatitis B, Chronic/drug therapy* ; Humans ; Interferon-alpha/therapeutic use* ; Polyethylene Glycols/therapeutic use*

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by 2019-nCoV. Due to the physiological change in pregnancy, pregnant women are susceptible to COVID-19 and are at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, especially in the context of spread of novel variants. At present, less evidences have been obtained from randomized controlled trials on the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccine use in pregnant women, and the recommendations of COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women vary with countries, posing challenge to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in pregnant women. This paper summarizes the progress in major research of 2019-nCoV infection in pregnancy conducted both at home and abroad, describes the harm of COVID-19 in pregnancy to pregnant women, fetuses and infants and introduces the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy revealed by real world studies in order to provide reference for the related research and development of COVID-19 prevention and control strategies in pregnant women.
COVID-19/prevention & control* ; COVID-19 Vaccines/adverse effects* ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious/prevention & control* ; Pregnancy Outcome ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Vaccination

OBJECTIVES: To study the clinical features of intestinal polyps and the risk factors for secondary intussusception in children. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed for the medical data of 2 669 children with intestinal polyps. According to the presence or absence of secondary intussusception, they were divided into two groups: intussusception (n=346) and non-intussusception (n=2 323). Related medical data were compared between the two groups. The multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors for secondary intussusception. RESULTS: Among the children with intestinal polyps, 62.42% were preschool children, and the male/female ratio was 2.08∶1; 92.66% had hematochezia as disease onset, and 94.34% had left colonic polyps and rectal polyps. There were 346 cases of secondary intussusception, with an incidence rate of 12.96% (346/2 669). Large polyps (OR=1.644, P<0.001), multiple polyps (≥2) (OR=6.034, P<0.001), and lobulated polyps (OR=93.801, P<0.001) were the risk factors for secondary intussusception. CONCLUSIONS Intestinal polyps in children often occur in preschool age, mostly in boys, and most of the children have hematochezia as disease onset, with the predilection sites of the left colon and the rectum. Larger polyps, multiple polyps, and lobulated polyps may increase the risk of secondary intussusception, and endoscopic intervention is needed as early as possible to improve prognosis.
Child, Preschool ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Intestinal Polyps/complications* ; Intussusception/complications* ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors

Objective Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) circularized without a 3' polyadenylation [poly-(A)] tail or a 5' cap, resulting in a covalently closed loop structure. circRNAs were first discovered in RNA viruses in the 1970s, but only a small number of circRNAs were discovered at that time due to limitations in traditional polyadenylated transcriptome analyses. With the development of specific biochemical and computational methods, recent studies have shown the presence of abundant circRNAs in eukaryotic transcriptomes. circRNAs play vital roles in many physiological and pathological processes, such as acting as miRNA sponges, binding to RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), acting as transcriptional regulatory factors, and even serving as translation templates. Current evidence has shown that circRNAs can be potentially used as excellent biomarkers for diagnosis, therapeutic effect evaluation, and prognostic assessment of a variety of diseases, and they may also provide effective therapeutic targets due to their stability and tissue and development-stage specificity. This review focuses on the properties of circRNAs and their immune relationship to disease, and explores the role of circRNAs in immune-related diseases and the directions of future research.
Biomarkers ; MicroRNAs/genetics* ; RNA, Circular ; Transcriptome

Excess acetaminophen(APAP) can be converted by the cytochrome P450 system to the toxic metabolite N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine(NAPQI), which consumes glutathione(GSH). When GSH is depleted, NAPQI covalently binds with proteins, inducing mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress and thereby leading to hepatotoxicity. Schisandrin C(SinC) is a dibenzocyclooctadiene derivative isolated from Schisandra chinensis. Although there is some evidence showing that SinC has hepatoprotective activity, its protective effect and mechanism on APAP-induced liver injury remain unclear. In this paper, an acute liver injury mouse model was established by intraperitoneal injection of APAP at a dose of 400 mg·kg~(-1) to evaluate the effect of SinC administration on the APAP-induced liver injury and its mechanism through an animal experiment. At the same time, a potential candidate drug was provi-ded for traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) prevention and treatment of overdose APAP-induced liver injury. In the APAP-induced liver injury mouse model, we found that SinC can relieve hepatic histopathological lesions and significantly reduce the activities of alanine aminotransferase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST) and alkaline phosphatase(ALP). It was also capable of increasing the content of GSH and superoxide dismutase(SOD) and decreasing the levels of total bilirubin(TBIL), direct bilirubin(DBIL), malondialdehyde(MDA), interleukin-6(IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α). Further analysis showed that SinC decreased the content of CYP2 E1 in liver tissues at protein and mRNA levels and increased nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2(Nrf2) and the expression of its downstream targets(including HO-1, NQO1 and GCLC). Taken together, the above results indicate that SinC can alleviate APAP-induced liver injury by reducing the expression of CYP2 E1, suppressing apoptosis, improving inflammatory response and activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway to inhibit oxidative stress.
Mice ; Animals ; Acetaminophen/toxicity* ; NF-E2-Related Factor 2/metabolism* ; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury/pathology* ; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury, Chronic/pathology* ; Liver ; Signal Transduction ; Oxidative Stress ; Bilirubin/metabolism*

OBJECTIVE: To describe the distribution and trend of infantile epilepsy among infants under 36 months in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. METHODS: Using the birth cohort design, we retrospectively collected the local born infants in Ningbo national health information platform from 2015 to 2019, and took the first visit of epilepsy in the electronic medical record of the platform as the new case. The incidence density and 95% confidence interval (CI) of epilepsy were estimated by Poisson distribution. RESULTS: From 2015 to 2019, a total of 294 900 children were born in Ningbo, with male accounting for 51.92%. The total person-years of observation were 595 300, while the median follow-up person-years was 2.31 [interquartile range (IQR): 1.90]. There were 575 new onset epilepsy patients during the whole observation period. The total number of visits was 2 599, with an average of 4.52. The total incidence density was 96.59/100 000 person-years (95%CI: 88.85-104.82). The median age of onset was 13 months (IQR: 15), 0-12 months old infants had the highest incidence density (102.18/100 000 person-years), 25-36 months old infants had the lowest incidence density (89.68/100 000 person-years), and the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). The incidence density of male was 97.58/100 000 person-years, female was 95.53/100 000 person-years, and the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Fenghua was the highest (130.54/100 000 person-years, 95%CI: 94.47-175.83) and Ninghai was the lowest (66.44/100 000 person-years, 95%CI: 47.02-91. 19), with significant difference (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence density in different birth years (P>0.05). There was significant difference in the incidence density between 0-12 months old infants in different calendar years (P_trend < 0.05). In this age group, the incidence density was the lowest in 2015 (69.41/100 000 person-years, 95%CI: 41.79-108.39), and the highest in 2019 (225.61/100 000 person-years, 95%CI: 186.10-271.03). There was no significant difference in the incidence density between 13-24 and 25-36 months old infants in different calendar years (P>0.05). CONCLUSION The incidence density of epilepsy in 0-36 months old infants in Ningbo City from 2015 to 2019 was low as a whole, and there was no difference in age group, gender, and year of birth. The incidence density of 0-12 months old infants increased with the year.
Child, Preschool ; Cities ; Epilepsy/epidemiology* ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Retrospective Studies