Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics of 130 children with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in Yunnan province after the relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions, and analyze the risk factors for mortality.Methods:This study is a retrospective case summary that analyzed the demographic data, underlying diseases, clinical diagnoses, disease outcomes, and laboratory results of 130 children with severe COVID-19 infections admitted to nine top-tier hospitals in Yunnan Province from December 2022 to March 2023. According to the prognosis, the patients were divided into survival group and death group. The clinical and laboratory data between the two groups were compared, and the risk factors of death were evaluated. The χ2 test and Mann-Whitney U test were employed to compare between groups, while Spearman correlation test and multiple Logistic regression were used to analyze the risk factors for death. The predictive value of independent risk factors was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve. Results:The 130 severe patients included 80 males and 50 females with an onset age of 28.0 (4.5, 79.5) months. There were 97 cases in the survival group and 33 cases in the death group with no significant differences in gender and age between the two groups ( P>0.05). Twenty-five cases (19.2%) out of the 130 patients had underlying diseases, and the number with underlying diseases was significantly higher in death group than in survival group (36.4% (12/33) vs. 13.4%(13/97), χ2=8.36, P=0.004). The vaccination rate in the survival group was significantly higher than that in the death group (86.1% (31/36) vs. 7/17, χ2=9.38, P=0.002). A total of 42 cases (32.3%) of the 130 patients were detected to be infected with other pathogens, but there was no significant difference in the incidence of co-infection between the death group and the survival group (39.3%(13/33) vs. 29.9% (29/97), χ2=1.02, P>0.05). Among the 130 cases, severe respiratory cases were the most common 66 cases (50.8%), followed by neurological severe illnesses 34 cases (26.2%) and circulatory severe 13 cases (10%). Compared to the survival group, patients in the death group had a significantly higher levels of neutrophil, ferritin, procalcitonin, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase isoenzyme, B-type natriuretic peptide, interleukin-6 and 10 (6.7 (4.0, 14.0) vs. 3.0 (1.6, 7.0)×10 9/L, 479 (298, 594) vs. 268 (124, 424) μg/L, 4.8 (1.7, 10.6) vs. 2.0 (1.1, 3.1) μg/L, 66 (20, 258) vs. 23 (15, 49) U/L, 464 (311, 815) vs. 304 (252, 388) g/L, 71(52, 110) vs. 24(15, 48) U/L, 484 (160, 804) vs. 154 (26, 440) ng/L, 43 (23, 102) vs. 19 (13, 27) ng/L, 216 (114, 318) vs. 86 (45, 128) ng/L, Z=-4.21, -3.67, -3.76, -3.31, -3.75, -5.74, -3.55, -4.65, -5.86, all P<0.05). The correlated indexes were performed by multivariate Logistic regression and the results showed that vaccination was a protective factor from death in severe cases ( OR=0.01, 95% CI 0-0.97, P=0.049) while pediatric sequential organ failure assessment (PSOFA) ( OR=3.31, 95% CI 1.47-7.47, P=0.004), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) ( OR=1.56, 95% CI 1.05-2.32, P=0.029) and D dimer ( OR=1.49, 95% CI 1.00-1.02, P=0.033) were independent risk factors for death (all P<0.05). The area under the curve of the three independent risk factors for predicting death were 0.86 (95% CI 0.79-0.94), 0.89 (95% CI 0.84-0.95) and 0.87 (95% CI 0.80-0.94), all P<0.001, and the cut-off values were 4.50, 3.66 and 4.69 mg/L, respectively. Conclusions:Severe SARS-CoV-2 infection can occur in children of all ages, primarily affecting the respiratory system, but can also infect the nervous system, circulatory system or other systems. Children who died had more severe inflammation, tissue damage and coagulation disorders. The elevations of PSOFA, NLR and D dimer were independent risk factors for death in severe children.

Objective:To comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of preventive measures for acute kidney injury (AKI) in children and identify the effective strategies.Methods:Databases were systematically searched including CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, China Biology Medicine National Knowledge Infrastructure, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library databases, and the reference lists of relevant papers for randomized controlled trials on preventing pediatric AKI up to December 2023. Literature screening was conducted based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, followed by data extraction and quality assessment of included studies. Traditional and network meta-analyses were performed, along with trial sequential analysis (TSA).Results:A total of 21 studies involving 3 483 children were included. Traditional and network meta-analysis showed that dexmedetomidine was effective in preventing AKI in children undergoing cardiac surgery or cardiac angiography ( OR=0.26, 0.27; 95% CI 0.11-0.64, 0.13-0.58). Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) was effective in preventing AKI in children after cardiac surgery ( OR=0.43, 0.44; 95% CI 0.24-0.79, 0.23-0.83). Traditional and network meta-analysis specific to children with sepsis or septic shock showed that balanced solution was effective in preventing pediatric AKI ( OR=0.58, 0.52; 95% CI 0.42-0.79, 0.37-0.73). TSA indicated that the total sample sizes of dexmedetomidine (348 cases) and RIPC (666 cases) both reached the required information size (320 and 534 cases); additionally, the Z-curve for balanced solution (cumulative Z=3.38) crossed the TSA monitoring boundary ( Z=3.29). Conclusion:Dexmedetomidine reduces the risk of AKI in children undergoing cardiac surgery or cardiac angiography, RIPC decreases the risk of AKI in children after cardiac surgery, and balanced solution lowers the risk of AKI in children with sepsis or septic shock.

The incidence of osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral fracture (OTLVF) in the elderly is gradually increasing. The kyphotic deformity caused by various factors has become an important characteristic of OTLVF and has received increasing attention. Its clinical manifestations include pain, delayed nerve damage, sagittal imbalance, etc. Currently, the definition and diagnosis of OTLVF with kyphotic deformity in the elderly are still unclear. Although there are many treatment options, they are controversial. Existing guidelines or consensuses pay little attention to this type of fracture with kyphotic deformity. To this end, the Lumbar Education Working Group of the Spine Branch of the Chinese Medicine Education Association and Editorial Committee of Chinese Journal of Trauma organized the experts in the relevant fields to jointly develop Clinical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of osteoporotic thoracolumbar vertebral fractures with kyphotic deformity in the elderly ( version 2024), based on evidence-based medical advancements and the principles of scientificity, practicality, and advanced nature, which provided 18 recommendations to standardize the clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture in the elderly will seriously reduce their quality of life and life expectancy. For osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture in the elderly, spinal reconstruction is necessary, which should comprehensively consider factors such as the physical condition, fracture type, clinical characteristics and osteoporosis degree. While there lacks relevant clinical norms or guidelines on selection of spinal reconstruction strategies. In order to standardize the concept of spinal reconstruction for osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture in the elderly, based on the principles of scientificity, practicality and progressiveness, the authors formulated the Clinical guideline for spinal reconstruction of osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture in elderly patients ( version 2022), in which suggestions based on evidence of evidence-based medicine were put forward upon 10 important issues related to the fracture classification, non-operative treatment strategies and surgical treatment strategies in spinal reconstruction after osteoporosis thoracolumbar fracture in the elderly, hoping to provide a reference for clinical treatment.

Objective:To preliminarily evaluate the efficacy and safety of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for pulmonary oligometastatic tumors from head and neck carcinoma.Methods:Clinical data of 24 patients with pulmonary oligometastasis from head and neck carcinoma undergoing SBRT in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from January 2014 to May 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan- Meier method. Results:Among the 24 patients, 12 cases were diagnosed with nasopharyngeal origin and 12 cases of non-nasopharyngeal origin. A total of 34 pulmonary metastatic lesions were treated with SBRT. The median follow-up time was 19.5 months. Thirteen cases developed new lesions after SBRT, and 9 of them occurred within 1 year after SBRT treatment. The actual 1-year local control rate was 95%. The median progression-free survival was 15.2 months, and the 1-and 2-year progression-free survival were 59% and 46%, respectively. The 2-and 3-years overall survival rate at were 71% and 51% fter lung metastasis, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that the patients with primary lesions located in nasopharynx and disease-free interval of more than 1 year had survival advantage. No more than grade 3 radiation-induced injury was observed in the whole cohort after SBRT, and the incidence of mild radiation-induced injury was 13%.Conclusions:SBRT is safe and effective in the treatment of pulmonary oligometastatsis from head and neck carcinoma, and it may be more effective for patients with primary tumors located in nasopharynx.

Objective:To explore the early predictive value of urinary nephrin in acute kidney injury (AKI) for critically ill neonates.Methods:A prospective study was conducted to neonates who were admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Children′s Hospital of Soochow University, from July to October 2016.According to whether AKI occurred during the NICU′s hospitalization, neonates were divided into AKI group and non-AKI group.Urinary nephrin levels were detected at the first 24 h of NICU, and the score for neonatal acute physiology (SNAP) was assessed within 24 hours of NICU.Multivariate linear analyses were applied to analyze potential variables that were asso-ciated with urinary nephrin level.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was adopted to evaluate the relationship between urinary nephrin and AKI after adjusting for confounding factors.A receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) were calculated to assess the early predictive value of urinary nephrin for neonatal AKI. Results:Among the 156 neonates enrolled in the study, 16 cases(10.2%) developed AKI.The median of urinary nephrin, urinary albumin and SNAP scores were 0.27 μg/mg uCr, 0.48 g/g uCr and 9 scores with AKI group, while the median of urinary nephrin, urinary albumin and SNAP scores were 0.16 μg/mg uCr, 0.16 g/g uCr and 7 scores with non-AKI group.When compared with non-AKI neonates, urinary nephrin ( Z=-3.201, P=0.001), urinary albumin ( Z=-2.652, P=0.008) and SNAP score ( Z=-2.611, P=0.009) were significantly higher in AKI neonates.Multiple linear regression analysis proved that urinary nephrin levels were significantly correlated with urinary albumin ( B=0.488, SE=0.117, P<0.001). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that urinary nephrin remained significantly associated with AKI ( P=0.018) after adjusting for confounding factors, including gestational age, birth weight, gender, SNAP score, mechanical ventilation and apnea.Urinary nephrin achieved AUC of 0.746 (95% CI: 0.606-0.886, P=0.001). Conclusions:As a biomarker of glomerular injury, urinary nephrin is significantly related to the occurrence of AKI and has early predictive value for AKI in critically ill neonates.

Objective: To evaluate the value of two oral mucosal contouring methods for predicting acute radiation-induced oral mucositis (A-ROM) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Methods: A total of 150 AJCC 7^th stage Ⅱ-IVB NPCs receiving radical tomotherapy (TOMO) in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from 2017 to 2019 were included in this prospective observational study. Oral cavity contour (OCC) and mucosal surface contour (MSC) were applied to delineate the oral mucosal structure. A-ROM grade was prospectively assessed and recorded weekly according to RTOG scoring criteria. The prediction value of two methods for A-ROM was statistically compared. Results: The incidence rate of ≥3 grade A-ROM was 33.3%. In univariate analysis, V₅, V₁₀, V₁₅, V₄₅, V₅₀, V₅₅, V₆₀, V₆₅ and V₇₀ of OCC and V₅, V₁₀, V₅₀, V₅₅, V₆₀, V₆₅, V₇₀ and D_mean of MSC were significantly correlated with the risk of ≥3 grade A-ROM (all P<0.05). In binary logistic regression analysis, gender and smoking were significantly associated with the incidence of ≥3 grade A-ROM by using OCC (male vs. female: OR=0.141, 95%CI=0.037-0.538, P=0.004; smoking vs.non-smoking: OR=5.109, 95%CI=1.413-18.470, P=0.013). For MSC, gender, smoking, N stage and MSC- V₅₅ were the independent predictors (male vs. female: OR=0.129, 95%CI=0.032-0.519, P=0.004; smoking vs.non-smoking: OR=4.448, 95%CI=1.224-16.164, P=0.023; N stage: OR=2.291, 95%CI=1.268-4.137, P=0.006; MSC-V₅₅: OR=1.432, 95%CI=1.008-2.033, P=0.045). The cutoff value of MSC-V₅₅ was 7.70%, the area under ROC curve was 0.754, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.680 and 0.740, retrospectively (all P<0.001). Conclusions Compared with OCC, MSC yields a higher prediction accuracy for the severity of A-ROM in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients receiving TOMO treatment.