BACKGROUND: Reports on the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) among Chinese patients with psoriasis are very limited. This study, conducted by rheumatologists, estimated the prevalence of PsA in a large number of Chinese patients with psoriasis. METHODS: Consecutive patients with a confirmed diagnosis of psoriasis attending nine dermatology clinics in five hospitals were recruited. All psoriasis patients were asked to complete a questionnaire comprising 16 questions to identify possible cases of PsA. All patients with one or more positive answers to the questionnaire were evaluated by two experienced rheumatologists. RESULTS: A total of 2434 psoriasis patients, including 1561 males and 873 females, were enrolled. Both the questionnaire and rheumatologists' examinations were completed in the dermatology clinics. The results identified 252 patients with PsA, comprising 168 males and 84 females. The overall prevalence of PsA among psoriasis patients was 10.4% (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 9.1%-11.7%). By sex, the prevalence was 10.8% (95% CI, 9.2%-12.5%) for males and 9.6% (95% CI, 7.7%-11.9%) for females and there was no significant sex difference in the prevalence of PsA (P = 0.38). Of the 252 PsA patients, 125 (49.6%, 95% CI, 41.3%-59.1%) were newly diagnosed by rheumatologists. Consequently, the prevalence of undiagnosed PsA among psoriasis patients was 5.2% (95% CI, 4.4%-6.2%). CONCLUSION The prevalence of PsA in the Chinese population with psoriasis is about 10.4%, which is almost double that of previous reports in the Chinese population, but lower than that in Caucasians.
Humans ; Female ; Male ; Arthritis, Psoriatic/epidemiology* ; Rheumatologists ; Prevalence ; East Asian People ; Psoriasis/epidemiology*

In recent years, ophthalmology, as one of the medical fields highly dependent on auxiliary imaging, has been at the forefront of the application of deep learning algorithm. The morphological changes of the choroid are closely related to the occurrence, development, treatment and prognosis of fundus diseases. The rapid development of optical coherence tomography has greatly promoted the accurate analysis of choroidal morphology and structure. Choroidal segmentation and related analysis are crucial for determining the pathogenesis and treatment strategies of eye diseases. However, currently, choroidal mainly relies on tedious, time-consuming, and low-reproducibility manual segmentation. To overcome these difficulties, deep learning methods for choroidal segmentation have been developed in recent years, greatly improving the accuracy and efficiency of choroidal segmentation. The purpose of this paper is to review the features of choroidal thickness in different eye diseases, explore the latest applications and advantages of deep learning models in measuring choroidal thickness, and focus on the challenges faced by deep learning models.

OBJECTIVES: To study the association between infliximab trough level (IFX-TL) prior to maintenance treatment and disease outcome in children with Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 35 children with CD who received induction therapy with infliximab (IFX) and the measurement of IFX-TL before maintenance treatment from August 2018 to November 2021. Clinical data and laboratory markers at baseline and before maintenance treatment were collected, and the association between outcome and IFX-TL was analyzed. RESULTS: The clinical remission group, endoscopic remission group, and combined remission group had a significantly higher IFX-TL level than the corresponding non-remission groups (P<0.05), and there was no significant difference in the IFX-TL level between the biological remission and non-biological remission groups (P>0.05). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that IFX-TL had an area under the ROC curve of 0.959 (95%CI: 0.894-1) in predicting clinical remission, with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 100% at the optimal cutoff value of 2.3 µg/mL (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Among children with CD receiving infliximab induction therapy, the children achieving clinical and endoscopic remission before maintenance treatment tend to have a higher level of IFX-TL. IFX-TL has a certain predictive value for clinical remission.
Child ; Humans ; Infliximab/therapeutic use* ; Crohn Disease/drug therapy* ; Gastrointestinal Agents/therapeutic use* ; Retrospective Studies ; C-Reactive Protein/analysis*

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA with the more than 200 nucleotides. Several lncRNAs have been identified as the potential targets for cancer therapy. LncRNA00067110 is one of the differentially expressed genes in the transcriptome profiles of melanoma B16-F10 cells compared to normal mice melanocytes. To investigate whether lncRNA00067110 regulates the proliferation, apoptosis and melanogenesis of B16-F10 cells, the calcium-binding tyrosine phosphorylation regulated protein (Cabyr) target gene was predicted by LncTar and verified by dual luciferase activities. The regulating function of lncRNA00067110 was investigated by the analysis of transcriptome profiles and to detect the proliferation, apoptosis and melanin production of B16-F10 cells transfected by the overexpression plasmids of lncRNA00067110. The results showed that the relationship of lncRNA00067110 targeting Cabyr, the mRNA and protein levels of proliferation (MEK/ERK/MNK/CREB) and melanogenesis-related genes (TYR family and CREB) were significantly down-regulated, while the mRNA and protein levels of apoptosis-related genes (AKT and Bcl-2) were up-regulated in B16-F10 cells with lncRNA00067110 overexpression. The transcriptome profile of B16-F10 cells with lncRNA00067110 overexpression showed that 17 genes were differentially expressed, among which Cabyr was up-regulated. Furthermore, the effect of lncRNA00067110 on the phenotypes of cell proliferation and apoptosis were verified. The results suggested that lncRNA00067110 might be a novel target for the treatment of melanoma by targeting Cabyr, which regulate the expression of related genes to inhibit the proliferation and melanogenesis, as well as to induce the apoptosis of B16-F10 cells.

Objective: To analyze the clinical epidemiological characteristics including composition of pathogens , clinical characteristics, and disease prognosis acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in Chinese children. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical and laboratory data of 1 610 children <15 years of age with ABM in 33 tertiary hospitals in China from January 2019 to December 2020. Patients were divided into different groups according to age,<28 days group, 28 days to <3 months group, 3 months to <1 year group, 1-<5 years of age group, 5-<15 years of age group; etiology confirmed group and clinically diagnosed group according to etiology diagnosis. Non-numeric variables were analyzed with the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, while non-normal distrituction numeric variables were compared with nonparametric test. Results: Among 1 610 children with ABM, 955 were male and 650 were female (5 cases were not provided with gender information), and the age of onset was 1.5 (0.5, 5.5) months. There were 588 cases age from <28 days, 462 cases age from 28 days to <3 months, 302 cases age from 3 months to <1 year of age group, 156 cases in the 1-<5 years of age and 101 cases in the 5-<15 years of age. The detection rates were 38.8% (95/245) and 31.5% (70/222) of Escherichia coli and 27.8% (68/245) and 35.1% (78/222) of Streptococcus agalactiae in infants younger than 28 days of age and 28 days to 3 months of age; the detection rates of Streptococcus pneumonia, Escherichia coli, and Streptococcus agalactiae were 34.3% (61/178), 14.0% (25/178) and 13.5% (24/178) in the 3 months of age to <1 year of age group; the dominant pathogens were Streptococcus pneumoniae and the detection rate were 67.9% (74/109) and 44.4% (16/36) in the 1-<5 years of age and 5-<15 years of age . There were 9.7% (19/195) strains of Escherichia coli producing ultra-broad-spectrum β-lactamases. The positive rates of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture and blood culture were 32.2% (515/1 598) and 25.0% (400/1 598), while 38.2% (126/330)and 25.3% (21/83) in CSF metagenomics next generation sequencing and Streptococcus pneumoniae antigen detection. There were 4.3% (32/790) cases of which CSF white blood cell counts were normal in etiology confirmed group. Among 1 610 children with ABM, main intracranial imaging complications were subdural effusion and (or) empyema in 349 cases (21.7%), hydrocephalus in 233 cases (14.5%), brain abscess in 178 cases (11.1%), and other cerebrovascular diseases, including encephalomalacia, cerebral infarction, and encephalatrophy, in 174 cases (10.8%). Among the 166 cases (10.3%) with unfavorable outcome, 32 cases (2.0%) died among whom 24 cases died before 1 year of age, and 37 cases (2.3%) had recurrence among whom 25 cases had recurrence within 3 weeks. The incidences of subdural effusion and (or) empyema, brain abscess and ependymitis in the etiology confirmed group were significantly higher than those in the clinically diagnosed group (26.2% (207/790) vs. 17.3% (142/820), 13.0% (103/790) vs. 9.1% (75/820), 4.6% (36/790) vs. 2.7% (22/820), χ²=18.71, 6.20, 4.07, all P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the unfavorable outcomes, mortility, and recurrence between these 2 groups (all P>0.05). Conclusions: The onset age of ABM in children is usually within 1 year of age, especially <3 months. The common pathogens in infants <3 months of age are Escherichia coli and Streptococcus agalactiae, and the dominant pathogen in infant ≥3 months is Streptococcus pneumoniae. Subdural effusion and (or) empyema and hydrocephalus are common complications. ABM should not be excluded even if CSF white blood cell counts is within normal range. Standardized bacteriological examination should be paid more attention to increase the pathogenic detection rate. Non-culture CSF detection methods may facilitate the pathogenic diagnosis.
Adolescent ; Brain Abscess ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Escherichia coli ; Female ; Humans ; Hydrocephalus ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Meningitis, Bacterial/epidemiology* ; Retrospective Studies ; Streptococcus agalactiae ; Streptococcus pneumoniae ; Subdural Effusion ; beta-Lactamases

OBJECTIVE：To investigate antitumor pharmaceutical care ability a nd the current status of direct to patient （DTP） pharmacy in China ，and to provide reference for building a quality evaluation system of DTP pharmacy which focuses on the pharmaceutical care. METHODS ：From Sept. to Dec. 2019， an electronic questionnaire survey was conducted amongpharmacists of all of 126 listed DTP pharmacies and involved wang_star@163.com education background ，professional knowledge sources andpharmaceutical care ability （such as prescription checking and E-mail：dujoan-88@163.com dispensing，medication consultation and guidance ，medication management，follow-up），pharmaceutical knowledge of antitumor medicine ，etc. DTP pharmacies in C hina were inspected on site ， and their pharmaceutical care management were evaluated ，and impression of on-site inspection were discribed with questionnaire survey. The current situation of oncology pharmaceutical care ability of DTP pharmacy in China was evaluated and corresponding suggestions were put forward. RESULTS ：A total of 400 questionnaires were sent out ，and 392 valid questionnaires were collected with recovery rate of 98.0％. The cancer pharmacists in DTP pharmacy were mainly from East China ，mainly in Jiangxi （73 persons，18.62％），Anhui（68 persons，17.35％）. The pharmacists were mainly junior college or below （229 persons，58.42％）， followed by undergraduate （158 persons，40.31％）. The working years were more than 5 years（241 persons，61.48％）. The majors were mostly pharmaceutics （123 persons，31.38％），followed by pharmacy （including pharmacology ）（81 persons， 20.66％）. The regular knowledge sources of pharmacists in DTP pharmacy included learning materials （302 person times ， 77.04％），textbooks（250 person times ，63.78％）and Wechat push （206 person times ，52.55％）；the latest knowledge sources included training courses （347 person times ，88.52％），Wechat push （211 person times ，56.38％）and academic conferences （162 person times ，41.33％）. The expected training methods included online video courses （344 person times ，87.76％）and offline courses（248 person times ，63.27％）. In terms of prescription checking and dispensing ，there were mainly problems such as incomplete medical documents and materials ；82.91％ and 64.54％ of pharmacists needed routine medical records and discharge summary，and 91.58％ of pharmacists took the doctor ’s handwritten prescription as the basis for dispensing new anti-tumor drugs ； pharmacists paid less attention to allergy history ，genetic history and ADR in the field of drug consultation and guidance. According to DTP pharmacists ，the difficulties in the process of drug treatment management included patient ’s ADR monitoring （239 person times，60.97％），evaluating the rationality of drug use （222 person times ，56.63％），making a complete drug use record （219 person times ，55.87％）. The main follow-up visits of pharmacists were telephone （334 person times ，85.20％）and dispensing site （313 person times ，79.85％）. And 333 pharmacists（84.95％）thought it was necessary to make an appointment for dispensing ；the score rates of professional knowledge examination of antitumor pharmacy for the respondents were 40.56％-84.69％. In the aspect of pharmaceutical care management ，the main points of deduction were drug evaluation ，content and process of drug treatment management，drug follow-up and record ，and the proportion of deduction was 93％，86％ and 64％ respectively. In the on-site inspection，it was found that the pharmacist had a single source of working knowledge ，did not fully grasp the contents of the evaluation forms such as ADR classification standard ，and prescription checking did not meet the requirements. CONCLUSIONS ： DTP pharmacy in China develops rapidly under the guidance of relevant policies ，but its pharmaceutical care is still in the basic stage，which is far behind the requirements of providing whole-course pharmaceutical care for patients. It is necessary to improve the professional service ability of DTP pharma

To study the reversal effect of docetaxel (DTX) and verapamil (VRP) liposome (DTX-VRP LP) on multidrug resistance of human breast cancer chemotherapy, DTX-VRP LP was prepared by thin film dispersion method. The particle size and zeta potential were measured by laser particle sizer. The drug loading, entrapment efficiency and the cumulative release rate of liposomes in phosphate buffer saline solution (PBS) with pH 7.4 and 6.8 were determined by ultrafiltration and dynamic dialysis, respectively. With DTX resistant human breast cancer cells (MCF-7/DTX) to study on the pharmacodynamics of liposomes in vitro and in vivo. The animal experiments were approved by the Animal Research Ethics Committee of School of Medicine of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (No. 2019-06-172). The average particle size and zeta potential of DTX-VRP LP were about 140.9 nm and -28.7 mV, respectively. The entrapment efficiency and drug loading of DTX and VRP in DTX-VRP LP were (81.7 ± 3.9)%, (2.9 ± 0.3)% and (59.6 ± 0.6)%, (1.6 ± 0.5)%, respectively. The cumulative release rate of the group of DTX-VRP LP was about 40% and 70% within 0-4 h in pH 7.4 and 6.8 PBS, respectively. It was slightly slower compared with other experimental groups. In vitro pharmacodynamics experiments, the value of IC₅₀ of DTX solution, DTX LP and DTX-VRP LP were 3.19 ± 0.6, 1.46 ± 0.48 and 1.12 ± 0.33 μmol·L^-1 on human breast cancer cells (MCF-7), respectively. The results showed the data was not much difference between the other groups and all experimental groups had strong cytotoxicity on MCF-7. However, on the MCF-7/DTX, the IC₅₀ values of the other groups were greater than 10 μmol·L^-1 while DTX-VRP LP group 7.4 ± 2.86 μmol·L^-1. The results showed DTX-VRP LP had obvious cytotoxicity with the concentration dependent reversal of multidrug resistance (MDR) of breast cancer MCF-7/DTX cells (P<0.05), the other experimental groups had no effect on MCF-7/DTX cells. The inhibitory effect of MCF-7/DTX in vivo is consistent with that in vitro. In conclusion, DTX-VRP LP could reverse the MDR of MCF-7/DTX cells.

Objective: Renal fibrosis is the most common manifestation of chronic kidney disease(CKD).Noting that existing treatments of renal fibrosis only slow disease progression but do not cure it,there is an urgent need to identify novel therapies.Hydrogen sulfide(H2S)is a newly discovered endogenous small gas signaling molecule exerting a wide range of biologic actions in our body.This review illustrates recent experimental findings on the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of H2S against renal fibrosis and highlights its potential in future clinical application.Data sources: Literature was collected from PubMed until February 2019,using the search terms including "Hydrogen sulfide,""Chronic kidney disease," "Renal interstitial fibrosis," "Kidney disease," "Inflammation factor," "Oxidative stress," "Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition," "H2S donor,""Hypertensive kidney dysfunction,""Myofibroblasts,""Vascuar remodeling,""transforming growth factor(TGF)-beta/Smads signaling,"and "Sulfate potassium channels."Study selection: Literature was mainly derived from English articles or articles that could be obtained with English abstracts.Article type was not limited.References were also identified from the bibliographies of identified articles and the authors' files.Results: The experimental data confirmed that H2S is widely involved in various renal pathologies by suppressing inflammation and oxidative stress,inhibiting the activation of fibrosis-related cells and their cytokine expression,ameliorating vascular remodeling and high blood pressure,stimulating tubular cell regeneration,as well as reducing apoptosis,autophagy,and hypertrophy.Therefore,H2S represents an alternative or additional therapeutic approach for renal fibrosis.Conclusions: We postulate that H2S may delay the occurrence and progress of renal fibrosis,thus protecting renal function.Further experiments are required to explore the precise role of H2S in renal fibrosis and its application in clinical treatment.

Objective:To investigate the effects of Hydroxychloroquine on cell apoptosis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of systemic lupus erythematosus and its mechanisms.Methods:The peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 30 active SLE patients and 15 healthy persons were separated for cell culture.There were four groups:control group,SLE group and HCQ 5 mg/L and HCQ 25 mg/L group.MTT was used to measure the inhibitory effect.Annexin V/PI flow cytometry was performed to analyze cell apoptosis.Western blot was used to evaluate the expressions of PI3 K,pAKt,mTOR,BCL-2,BAX and caspase-3.Besides,the PBMCs of SLE patients were treated with HCQ 25 mg/L and the PI3K/Akt pathway inhibitor LY294002 20 μmol/L and its cell growth inhibition and apoptosis were observed.Results:Compared with the control group,the cell growth inhibition and apoptosis rate of SLE patients group were significantly increased(P＜0.05);while the cell growth inhibition and apoptosis rate of HCQ 5 mg/L and 25 mg/L were increased significantly than the SLE patients group(P＜0.05).Compared with SLE patients group,the expression levels of PI3K,pAKt,mTOR and BCL-2 of HCQ group were significantly increased while the expression of BAX and caspase-3 decreased significantly (P＜ 0.05).The PI3K/Akt pathway inhibitor LY294002 could block the PBMCs apoptosis of SLE patients.Conclusion:Hydroxychloroquine can promote the PBMCs apoptosis of SLE patients by PI3K/Akt signaling pathways.