To study the correlation between the level of Bordetella pertussis nucleic acid and clinical features of the disease in infants and young children and to investigate the risk factors for the development of severe pertussis. Using retrospective research methods, children aged 1 month-3 years who came to Hunan Children′s Hospital from August 2023 to February 2024 and were diagnosed with pertussis for analysis. According to the logarithmic value of BP-DNA (log 10 copies/ml), 35 cases were divided into the low load group, 78 cases were divided into the medium load group and 94 cases were divided into the high load group; 54 cases were divided into the severe whooping cough group and 153 cases were divided into the general group according to the severity of the disease; the clinical characteristics and laboratory data of the groups were compared, and the risk factors for the occurrence of severe whooping cough were analyzed at the same time. The ROC was used to evaluate the predictive efficacy of BP-DNA and WBC count for the development of severe pertussis. The results showed that in the high-dose group, the WBC count(22.59×10 9/L), L/N ratio(3.31), and hospitalization days(9.0 d) were significantly higher than those in the medium-dose group and low-dose group ( F=6.309, 2.825, 15.149, all P<0.05). The hospitalization rate (100%), combined infection rate (64.96%), incidence of severe whooping cough (31.9%), pyrexia rate (29.8%), and corticosteroid use rate (57.4%) were also significantly higher than the other two groups ( χ2=25.977, 9.163, 9.371, 8.299, 20.332, all P<0.05), and the complete immunity rate (9.6%) was significantly lower than the other two groups ( χ2=11.632, P<0.05). Compared with the group of common whooping cough, the proportion of children under 1 year old (100%, χ2=9.581), the BP-DNA load (6.56 log 10 copies/ml, Z=4.004), the WBC count(31.34×10 9/L, t=7.513), the PCT level(0.07 ng/ml, Z=2.626), the IL-6 level (6.65 ng/ml, Z=4.336), the combined infection rate (88.9%, χ2=36.536), the incidence of wheezing or dyspnea (55.6%, χ2=42.972), the rate of no improvement of symptoms with macrolides prior to the visit (77.8%, χ2=26.266), and the incidence of fever (55.6%, χ2=42.972) were all significantly higher;the complete immunity rate was significantly lower (5.6%, χ2=9.581) in the severe whooping cough group, the differences were all statistically significant(all P<0.05).The result of logistic regression analysis showed severe elevation of BP-DNA, high leukocyte count, co-infection, wheezing or shortness of breath, pyrexia and no improvement of symptoms with macrolides before the treatment were the risk factors for the development of severe pertussis and the logistic regressive model predicts a sensitivity and specificity of 0.83 and 0.90 for severe whooping cough, respectively. The sensitivity of BP-DNA>1.91×10 6 copies/ml, WBC count >19.97×10 9/L and the binominal combined test to predict the occurrence of severe pertussis were 0.87, 0.61 and 0.80, and the specificity were 0.43, 0.86 and 0.73, respectively. In conclusion, nucleic acid load in infants with pertussis correlated with clinical characteristics such as the active immunity status, fever, co-infections and hospitalisation and days in hospital. Children with high nucleic acid load, high white blood cell counts, co-infections, fever and no improvement of symptoms with macrolides prior to seeing a doctor were more likely to develop the severe pertussis. When BP-DNA >1.91×10 6 copies/ml or WBC counts>19.97×10 9/L, they have the highest predictive efficacy for severe pertussis respectively, and combined detection is better.

To study the correlation between the level of Bordetella pertussis nucleic acid and clinical features of the disease in infants and young children and to investigate the risk factors for the development of severe pertussis. Using retrospective research methods, children aged 1 month-3 years who came to Hunan Children′s Hospital from August 2023 to February 2024 and were diagnosed with pertussis for analysis. According to the logarithmic value of BP-DNA (log 10 copies/ml), 35 cases were divided into the low load group, 78 cases were divided into the medium load group and 94 cases were divided into the high load group; 54 cases were divided into the severe whooping cough group and 153 cases were divided into the general group according to the severity of the disease; the clinical characteristics and laboratory data of the groups were compared, and the risk factors for the occurrence of severe whooping cough were analyzed at the same time. The ROC was used to evaluate the predictive efficacy of BP-DNA and WBC count for the development of severe pertussis. The results showed that in the high-dose group, the WBC count(22.59×10 9/L), L/N ratio(3.31), and hospitalization days(9.0 d) were significantly higher than those in the medium-dose group and low-dose group ( F=6.309, 2.825, 15.149, all P<0.05). The hospitalization rate (100%), combined infection rate (64.96%), incidence of severe whooping cough (31.9%), pyrexia rate (29.8%), and corticosteroid use rate (57.4%) were also significantly higher than the other two groups ( χ2=25.977, 9.163, 9.371, 8.299, 20.332, all P<0.05), and the complete immunity rate (9.6%) was significantly lower than the other two groups ( χ2=11.632, P<0.05). Compared with the group of common whooping cough, the proportion of children under 1 year old (100%, χ2=9.581), the BP-DNA load (6.56 log 10 copies/ml, Z=4.004), the WBC count(31.34×10 9/L, t=7.513), the PCT level(0.07 ng/ml, Z=2.626), the IL-6 level (6.65 ng/ml, Z=4.336), the combined infection rate (88.9%, χ2=36.536), the incidence of wheezing or dyspnea (55.6%, χ2=42.972), the rate of no improvement of symptoms with macrolides prior to the visit (77.8%, χ2=26.266), and the incidence of fever (55.6%, χ2=42.972) were all significantly higher;the complete immunity rate was significantly lower (5.6%, χ2=9.581) in the severe whooping cough group, the differences were all statistically significant(all P<0.05).The result of logistic regression analysis showed severe elevation of BP-DNA, high leukocyte count, co-infection, wheezing or shortness of breath, pyrexia and no improvement of symptoms with macrolides before the treatment were the risk factors for the development of severe pertussis and the logistic regressive model predicts a sensitivity and specificity of 0.83 and 0.90 for severe whooping cough, respectively. The sensitivity of BP-DNA>1.91×10 6 copies/ml, WBC count >19.97×10 9/L and the binominal combined test to predict the occurrence of severe pertussis were 0.87, 0.61 and 0.80, and the specificity were 0.43, 0.86 and 0.73, respectively. In conclusion, nucleic acid load in infants with pertussis correlated with clinical characteristics such as the active immunity status, fever, co-infections and hospitalisation and days in hospital. Children with high nucleic acid load, high white blood cell counts, co-infections, fever and no improvement of symptoms with macrolides prior to seeing a doctor were more likely to develop the severe pertussis. When BP-DNA >1.91×10 6 copies/ml or WBC counts>19.97×10 9/L, they have the highest predictive efficacy for severe pertussis respectively, and combined detection is better.

Objective:To explore the performance of the commonly used whole blood C-reactive protein (CRP) detection systems and give related recommendation on the performance requirements of detection systems.Methods:A total of 7 540 venous blood samples from 26 maternal, child and children′s hospitals were collected to conduct this multi-center study on the analytical performance of 5 commonly used whole blood CRP detection systems from March to April in 2019. The blank check, carryover, repeatability, intermediate precision, linearity, sample stability, influence of hematocrit/triglyceride/bilirubin, comparison with SIEMENS specific protein analyzer and trueness were evaluated. The 5 systems included BC-5390CRP autohematology analyzer, AstepPLUS specific protein analyzer, Ottoman-1000 Automated Specific Protein POCT Workstation, i-CHROMA Immunofluorometer equipment Reader and Orion QuikRead go detecting instrument. The 5 systems were labeled as a, b, c, d and e randomly.Results:Within the 5 systems, all values of blank check were less than 1.00 mg/L, the carryovers were lower than 1.00%. The repeatability of different ranges of CRP concentrations including 3.00-10.00, 10.00-30.00 and>30.00 mg/L were less than 10.00%, 6.00% and 5.00%, respectively, and the intermediate precision was less than 10.00%. The linearity correlation coefficients of the 5 systems were all above 0.975, while the slope was within 0.950-1.050. Whole blood samples were stable within 72 hours both at room temperature (18-25 ℃) and refrigerated temperature (2-8 ℃). The CRP results were rarely influenced by high triglyceride or bilirubin, except for the immmunoturbidimetric test based on microparticles coated with anti-human CRP F(ab) 2 fragments. When triglyceride was less than 15.46 mmol/L, the deviation of CRP was less than 10.00%. When bilirubin was less than 345.47 μmol/L, the deviation of CRP was less than 10.00%. CRP was more susceptible to Hct on the systems without Hct correction. The deviation of CRP between different Hct dilution concentration and 40% dilution concentration can reach as high as 67.48%. The correlation coefficients ( r) of 5 systems were all more than 0.975 in the range of 0-300.00 mg/L compared with Siemens specific protein analyzer. All systems passed the trueness verification using the samples with specified values of 12.89 and 30.60 mg/L. Conclusion:The performance of 5 systems can basically meet the clinical needs, but it is suggested that the whole blood CRP detection system without automatic Hct correction should be modified manually.

Objective:To examine the infection of the enterovirus and human herpes virus in children with suspected encephalitis.Methods:A total number of 365 suspected encephalitis cases were included in this study from August 2017 to December 2019 in Hunan Children′s Hospital. The clinical samples, the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum, sputum, stool and urine were collected and preserved at-80 ℃condition. The enterovirus (EV) and human herpesvirus (HHV) were examined by a one-step nested reverse transcription PCR(RT-PCR) and a real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qPCR), respectively. The positive rate of the two viruses in clinical specimens of children with suspected encephalitis was examined. Among all cases, 132 cases were diagnosed with EV encephalitis or HHV encephalitis.Results:the EV encephalitis were identified in 20.5% (75/365) children with suspected viral encephalitis; whereas HHV encephalitis infection was identified as 15.6% (57/365). Among the 75 cases of EV encephalitis, echo 6 was the main sub-type of these diseases 52.0% (39/75) and others were EV71 (30.7%, 23/75), echo11 (6.7%, 5/75), Coxsackie virus A group 6(CA6, 4.0%, 3/75), echo30 (1.3%, 1/75), echo9 (1.3%, 1/75), echo4 (1.3%, 1/75),Coxsackie virus B group 1(CB1, 1.3%, 1/75))and poliovirus(1.3%, 1/75).Human herpes virus type 6 (HHV6) was the most common pathogen in 57 cases of HHV encephalitis, accounting for 35.1% (20/57).The other pathogens were Cytomegalovirus (CMV, 31.6%, 18/57), Epstein-Barr virus (8.8%, 7/57), Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1, 10.5%, 6/57), HSV2 (8.8%, 5/57), and Varicella zoster virus (VZV, 1.8%, 1/57) .The virus in CSF detected significantly earlier than that in serum after onset. Virus could be detected in CSF 2-7 days after onset,but 7-26 days in serum. Conclusions:This study uses nested PCR and qPCR to detect pathogens in clinical specimens of children. This not only expands our understanding of the clinical examination and diagnosis of viral encephalitis in children, but also promotes the method of this study to benefit more children.

The process of sex development in children is complex and sequential. The diseases and etiologies associated with sex development are various, and laboratory indexes evaluating the diseases are scarce, which lead to the difficulty in diagnosis. Anti-Müllerian hormone(AMH) is a kind of reproductive hormone closely related to sex development. At present, AMH is widely used to evaluate ovarian reserve and to assist in the field of reproduction. AMH takes part in the process of sex development regulated by hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, and the change of AMH level may indicate the occurrence of diseases associated with sex development in children. This review will focus on the clinical application of AMH in precocious puberty, delayed puberty and disorders of sex development.

TORCH, which is considered as a series of pathogens, including the Toxoplasma gondii, Rubella virus, Cytomegalovirus or Herpes simplex virus, often infects the pregnant women to induce the the fetus or newborn infection by transplacental infection or exposure to contaminated genital tract secretions at delivery. Increasing evidence have been confirmed that the infection of TORCH may cause the miscarriage, premature birth, malformed fetus, stillbirth, intrauterine growth retardation, neonatal multiple organ dysfunction and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. For most TORCH-infections cases may lacking the effective treatments during pregnancy, and it is important to achieve the effacing monitoring of TORCH infections before and during pregnancy. The laboratory testing of TORCH has the great significance. However, the consensus opinions still need to improve the the standardization of TORCH testing process and the correct interpretation. Based on the characteristics of the TORCH detection method, this article gives a consensus opinion on the standardized detection and clinical application of TORCH from the laboratory perspective according to the characteristics and types of infection of different pathogens.

Objective:To compare anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) , sex hormone and inhibitor B (Inhibin B, INH-B) levels in children with different karyotypes, ages, and gender disorders of sex developmemt (DSD).Methods:A total of 101 patients with suspected gonadal dysplasia in children who underwent serological examination at the Children′s Hospital of Hunan Province from January 2019 to June 2019 were finally diagnosed by pathological biopsy. With reference to previous studies of the same type, the 101 patients included in this study were divided into 4 levels (<1 year old, 1-2 years old, 2-4 years old, >4 years old), and the social gender was divided into two levels: male and female. At the same time, 89 cases of normal gonadal development children without endocrine abnormality were selected as control. Serum levels of AMH, INH-B, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), prolactin (PRL) and testosterone (T) were measured by chemiluminescence method.Results:Among the 101 cases, 62 were male and 39 were female; aged 23 days to 12 years, with a median age of 3.3 years; karyotype: 52 cases were 46, XX; 21 cases were 46, XY; 12 cases were 45, X; 7 cases were 46X, del (Xq); 5 cases were 46X, i (Xq); 2 cases were 45X, inv9; 2 cases were 45X / 46XX. There were 65 cases of partial gonadal dysplasia, 25 cases of disappearing testicular syndrome, and 11 cases of mixed gonadal dysplasia. One patient had a family history of infertility. Among the causes of children′s consultation, the most common were abnormal appearance of the external genitalia (54 cases, 53.47%), followed by small penile development and / or scrotal emptiness (25 cases, 24.75%). Other reasons included primary amenorrhea, double lateral groin mass, hypertension, clitoral hypertrophy, and labia minora adhesions. The levels of serum AMH, INH-B, and T in the gonadal dysplasia group were significantly higher than those in the normal gonadal development group, while the levels of LH, FSH, E2, and PRL were significantly lower than those in the normal gonadal development group ( P<0.05). The INH-B level of children with gonadal dysplasia in different age groups was statistically significant ( P<0.05), in which the INH-B level was the highest in <1-year-old children with gonadal dysplasia, and the lowest in 2-4-year-old children with gonadal dysplasia; the LH, FSH, E2, PRL, T levels of 46, XX and other karyotypes were statistically significant ( P<0.05); Compared with other age groups, the levels of LH, FSH, E2, and PRL were relatively higher in >4 year-old children with gonadal dysplasia, while the level of T was relatively lower; There were significant differences in E2, PRL and T levels in children with gonadal dysplasia in different age groups of 46, XY karyotype ( P<0.05). Compared with other age groups, E2, PRL and T levels of children with gonadal dysplasia >4 year-old old were relatively higher and T levels were relatively lower. The levels of AMH, LH, FSH, E2 and PRL in boys with glandular dysplasia were lower than those in girls ( P<0.05), while the levels of INH-B and T were higher in boys than those in girls ( P<0.05). Conclusions:The levels of anti-mullerian hormones, inhibin B, and sex hormones in children with gonadal dysplasia are different from the normal population, and may be related to the age, chromosome karyotype, and gender distribution of the child, but there are some confounding factors (such as etiology, treatment Scheme), so more samples are needed to verify it.

Objective: To explore the clinical value of determining heparin-binding protein(HBP) of cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) in the diagnosis and prognostic prediction in children with purulent meningitis(PM). Methods: 76 children with PM, 55 children with viral encephalitis(VE) and 40 control children with non-infectious diseases, all admitted to Hunan Children′ Hospital from August 2018 to January 2019, were enrolled in this retrospective study. Children with PM were divided into favorable prognosis group and poor prognosis group according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale on discharge. CSF HBP, white blood cell count(WBC), percentage of neutrophilic granulocyte(N%), glucose(Glu), total protein(TP), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and serum procalcitonin(PCT) were analyzed on the first day of admission(DAY1) in PM group, VE group and control group, and on the seventh day of admission(DAY7) in PM group. Nonparametric tests were used to detect the differences of the laboratory indexes and Spearman rank correlation test was utilized to analyze the correlation between HBP and other markers. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC curves) were established to evaluate the values of the detection indexes in the diagnosis and prognosis of PM. Results: The differences of CSF HBP[63.09(18.10-272.19)ng/mL, 5.90(5.90-6.40)ng/mL and 5.90(5.90-5.90)ng/mL], WBC[365.00(20.00-1285.00)×10⁶/L, 21.00(8.00-30.00)×10⁶/L and 13.50(7.25-21.00)×10⁶/L], N%[0.65(0.50-0.79), 0.19(0.10-0.25) and 0.21(0.15-0.27)], Glu[1.97(1.07-3.08)mmol/L, 2.89(2.66-3.42)mmol/L and 3.04(2.68-3.42)mmol/L], TP[1.43(0.63-1.88)g/L, 0.23(0.16-0.32)g/L and 0.13(0.10-0.31)g/L], LDH[152.00(46.50-461.50)IU/L, 16.00(13.20-22.00)IU/L and 16.00(10.25-19.75) IU/L] and serum PCT[1.35(0.19-9.33)ng/mL, 0.06(0.03-0.11)ng/mL and 0.08(0.05-0.14)ng/mL] levels on DAY1 were statistically significant among PM group, VE group and control group(H_HBP=138.62, H_WBC=69.72, H_N%=106.67, H_Glu=34.08, H_TP=68.00, H_LDH=85.11, H_PCT=79.20, P<0.001). HBP had the largest area under curve(AUC=0.997) for the diagnosis of PM, and had excellent sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value (98.70%, 97.90%, 97.40%, 98.94%, respectively) at the optimal cut-off value (11.84 ng/mL). Compared with DAY1,CSF HBP, WBC, N%, TP, LDH and serum PCT levels on DAY7 were statistically lower in favorable prognosis group(P<0.05). The differences for all the indexes between DAY1 and DAY7 in poor prognosis group were not statistically significant, however. It was not significant for all the indexes on DAY1 to predict poor prognosis(P>0.05). But the indexes on DAY7 for predicting poor prognosis were significant (P<0.05) and HBP still had the largest AUC (0.976) for predicting the poor prognosis with good sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value (100.0%, 93.8%, 76.3%, 100.0%, respectively) at the optimal cut-off value(128.84 ng/mL). CSF HBP was positively correlated to CSF WBC, N%, TP, LDH, serum PCT level(r_WBC=0.670, r_N%=0.802, r_TP=0.562, r_LDH=0.524, r_PCT=0.436, P<0.001) and negatively correlated to CSF Glu level(r=-0.469, P<0.001). Conclusions CSF HBP is valuable in the diagnosis and prognostic prediction in children with purulent meningitis.

Intracranial infection is a common central nervous system disease that seriously endangers children′s health. Early diagnosis and reasonable treatment in time are of great significance to improve the long-term prognosis of children. This paper describes the improvement of routine laboratory methods for intracranial infection, and discusses the role of common infection markers including C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and heparin binding protein in the differential diagnosis of intracranial infection.

Objective To investigate the reference interval of neonatal nutrition assessment biochemical factor,including total protein (TP),serum albumin (ALB),serum prealbumin (PA) and serum retinol binding protein (RBP).Methods From December 2016 to August 2017,403 serum specimens were collected from health neonates in Hunan Children's Hospital and the serum concentration of TP,ALB,RBP and PA was detected.The results of each item were grouped according to sex and age,and then the reference interval of each item was established.Results When data was separated by gender of each item,there was no statistical significance between each group of each item (P ＞ 0.05).For the TP,ALB and RBP,separating the data of each item by weeks,there were also no statistical significance between each group (P ＞ 0.05).But there was statistical difference between one week old group and the rest groups in the data of PA (P ＜ 0.05).The normal reference interval of neonatal serum total protein,albumin,retinol binding protein and pre-albumin are as follow:(40.69-65.72) g/L,(28.77-42.3) g/L,(12.13-33.19) mg/L,(42.26-161.52) mg/L (no more than 7 days old) and (59.05-170.23) mg/L (range from 8 to 28 days old).Conclusions We can establish the reference interval of TP,ALB and RBP without differentiating gender and weeks.But for the PA,the reference interval of one-week-old neonate needs to differentiate from other neonates.