Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of pneumococcal meningitis(PM),and drug sensitivity of Streptococcus pneumoniae(SP)isolates in Chinese children.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical information,laboratory data,and microbiological data of 160 hospitalized children under 15 years old with PM from January 2019 to December 2020 in 33 tertiary hospitals across the country.Results Among the 160 children with PM,there were 103 males and 57 females.The age ranged from 15 days to 15 years,with 109 cases(68.1% )aged 3 months to under 3 years.SP strains were isolated from 95 cases(59.4% )in cerebrospinal fluid cultures and from 57 cases(35.6% )in blood cultures.The positive rates of SP detection by cerebrospinal fluid metagenomic next-generation sequencing and cerebrospinal fluid SP antigen testing were 40% (35/87)and 27% (21/78),respectively.Fifty-five cases(34.4% )had one or more risk factors for purulent meningitis,113 cases(70.6% )had one or more extra-cranial infectious foci,and 18 cases(11.3% )had underlying diseases.The most common clinical symptoms were fever(147 cases,91.9% ),followed by lethargy(98 cases,61.3% )and vomiting(61 cases,38.1% ).Sixty-nine cases(43.1% )experienced intracranial complications during hospitalization,with subdural effusion and/or empyema being the most common complication[43 cases(26.9% )],followed by hydrocephalus in 24 cases(15.0% ),brain abscess in 23 cases(14.4% ),and cerebral hemorrhage in 8 cases(5.0% ).Subdural effusion and/or empyema and hydrocephalus mainly occurred in children under 1 year old,with rates of 91% (39/43)and 83% (20/24),respectively.SP strains exhibited complete sensitivity to vancomycin(100% ,75/75),linezolid(100% ,56/56),and meropenem(100% ,6/6).High sensitivity rates were also observed for levofloxacin(81% ,22/27),moxifloxacin(82% ,14/17),rifampicin(96% ,25/26),and chloramphenicol(91% ,21/23).However,low sensitivity rates were found for penicillin(16% ,11/68)and clindamycin(6% ,1/17),and SP strains were completely resistant to erythromycin(100% ,31/31).The rates of discharge with cure and improvement were 22.5% (36/160)and 66.2% (106/160),respectively,while 18 cases(11.3% )had adverse outcomes.Conclusions Pediatric PM is more common in children aged 3 months to under 3 years.Intracranial complications are more frequently observed in children under 1 year old.Fever is the most common clinical manifestation of PM,and subdural effusion/emphysema and hydrocephalus are the most frequent complications.Non-culture detection methods for cerebrospinal fluid can improve pathogen detection rates.Adverse outcomes can be noted in more than 10% of PM cases.SP strains are high sensitivity to vancomycin,linezolid,meropenem,levofloxacin,moxifloxacin,rifampicin,and chloramphenicol.[Chinese Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics,2024,26(2):131-138]

Objective To monitor the susceptibility of clinical isolates to antimicrobial agents in tertiary hospitals in major regions of China in 2022.Methods Clinical isolates from 58 hospitals in China were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using a unified protocol based on disc diffusion method or automated testing systems.Results were interpreted using the 2022 Clinical &Laboratory Standards Institute(CLSI)breakpoints.Results A total of 318 013 clinical isolates were collected from January 1,2022 to December 31,2022,of which 29.5％were gram-positive and 70.5％were gram-negative.The prevalence of methicillin-resistant strains in Staphylococcus aureus,Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species(excluding Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and Staphylococcus schleiferi)was 28.3％,76.7％and 77.9％,respectively.Overall,94.0％of MRSA strains were susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 90.8％of MRSE strains were susceptible to rifampicin.No vancomycin-resistant strains were found.Enterococcus faecalis showed significantly lower resistance rates to most antimicrobial agents tested than Enterococcus faecium.A few vancomycin-resistant strains were identified in both E.faecalis and E.faecium.The prevalence of penicillin-susceptible Streptococcus pneumoniae was 94.2％in the isolates from children and 95.7％in the isolates from adults.The resistance rate to carbapenems was lower than 13.1％in most Enterobacterales species except for Klebsiella,21.7％-23.1％of which were resistant to carbapenems.Most Enterobacterales isolates were highly susceptible to tigecycline,colistin and polymyxin B,with resistance rates ranging from 0.1％to 13.3％.The prevalence of meropenem-resistant strains decreased from 23.5％in 2019 to 18.0％in 2022 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa,and decreased from 79.0％in 2019 to 72.5％in 2022 in Acinetobacter baumannii.Conclusions The resistance of clinical isolates to the commonly used antimicrobial agents is still increasing in tertiary hospitals.However,the prevalence of important carbapenem-resistant organisms such as carbapenem-resistant K.pneumoniae,P.aeruginosa,and A.baumannii showed a downward trend in recent years.This finding suggests that the strategy of combining antimicrobial resistance surveillance with multidisciplinary concerted action works well in curbing the spread of resistant bacteria.

ObjectiveTo reveal the molecular pathogenesis of Hunter syndrome in three families in southern China and to clarify the correlation between phenotype and genotype， so as to lay a foundation for future prenatal or preimplantation genetic diagnosis. MethodsOn the basis of initial clinical diagnosis and pedigree analysis， qualitative detection of glycosaminoglycans in urine was performed first， and then anticoagulant blood samples were collected from the children and their relatives. DNA was extracted and the IDS gene sequence was analyzed by PCR and Sanger sequencing. Various methods such as RT-PCR and bioinformatics analysis were used to identify the pathogenicity of the new variants. ResultsThe urine test results of the patients in the three families were all strongly positive（++）. Probands were all male， with hemizygous mutations in IDS gene from their mothers， and the mutation sites were c.615_622delCATACAGT， c.847_848delGT and IVS7 ds+1 G>A， respectively. The cross-species conservation analysis showed that the amino acid of IDS gene mutation site was highly conserved during species evolution. Compared with the normal protein， mutant proteins exhibited significant differences in the predicted results of advanced structure. The variants identified in the three families were classified as pathogenic by ACMG criteria. ConclusionsThe three probands were diagnosed with Hunter syndrome. The c.615_622del（p.Il206Valfs*18）， c.847_848del（p.Val283Alafs*57） and IVS7 ds+1 G>A （p.G336Dfs*12） of IDS gene are all novel pathogenic mutations， which are the underlying causes of morbidity in children. This study has further enriched the mutation spectrum of IDS gene.

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics and risk factors of malignant vasovagal syncope (VVS) in children. Methods: This was a case-control study. The data of 368 VVS patients who were treated in the Department of Cardiology, Children's Hospital, Capital Institute of Pediatrics from June 2017 to December 2021 was collected and analyzed. They were divided into malignant VVS group and non-malignant VVS group according to the presence of sinus arrest, and then their demographic characteristics were compared. The children with malignant VVS and complete clinical information were recruited into the case group and were matched by age and sex (1∶4 ratio) with non-malignant VVS patients during the same period.Their clinical characteristics and lab tests were compared. Independent sample t test, Mann Whitney U or χ² test was used for comparison between groups.Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for malignant VVS in children. Results: Eleven malignant VVS and 342 non-malignant VVS met the inclusion and exclusion critera. Eleven malignant VVS and 44 non-malignant children were recruited in the case-control study. Ten patients of the 11 malignant VVS had a cardiac arrest occurring at 35 (28, 35) minutes of the head-up tilt test, and the duration of sinus arrest was (9±5) s. One patient had syncope occurring while waiting for drawing blood, and the duration of sinus arrest was 3.4 s. The children with malignant vasovagal syncope were younger than non-malignant VVS patients (9 (7, 10) vs. 12 (10, 14) years old, P<0.05), and had higher mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and standard deviation of the mean cardiac cycle over 5-minute period within 24 hours ((347±9) vs. (340±8) g/L, (124±9) vs. (113±28) ms, both P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that MCHC was an independent risk factor for malignant VVS in pediatric patients (OR=1.13, 95%CI 1.02-1.26, P=0.024). Conclusions: The onset age of malignant VVS was younger, with no other special clinical manifestations. MCHC was an independent risk factor for malignant VVS.
Humans ; Child ; Adolescent ; Syncope, Vasovagal/etiology* ; Case-Control Studies ; Syncope ; Risk Factors

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

Obtaining high-quality embryos is one of the key factors to improve the clinical pregnancy rate of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). So far, the clinical evaluation of embryo quality depends on embryo morphology. However, the clinical pregnancy rate is still low. Therefore, new indicators are needed to further improve the evaluation of embryo quality. Several studies have shown that the decrease of sperm-specific protein actin-like 7A (ACTL7A) leaded to low fertilization rate, poor embryo development, and even infertility. The aim of this study was to study whether the different expression levels of ACTL7A on sperm can be used as a biomarker for predicting embryo quality. In this study, excluding the factors of severe female infertility, a total of 281 sperm samples were collected to compare the ACTL7A expression levels of sperms with high and low effective embryo rates and analyze the correlation between protein levels and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratory outcomes. Our results indicated that the ACTL7A levels were significantly reduced in sperm samples presenting poor embryo quality. Furthermore, the protein levels showed a significant correlation with fertilization outcomes of ART. ACTL7A has the potential to be a biomarker for predicting success rate of fertilization and effective embryo and the possibility of embryo arrest. In conclusion, sperm-specific protein ACTL7A has a strong correlation with IVF laboratory outcomes and plays important roles in fertilization and embryo development.
Biomarkers/metabolism* ; Female ; Fertilization ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Humans ; Male ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy Rate ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted ; Spermatozoa/metabolism*

Objective: To construct a prediction model of pathologic complete response (pCR) in locally advanced rectal cancer patients who received programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) antibody and total neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy by using radiomics based on MR imaging data and to investigate its predictive value. Methods: A clinical diagnostic test study was carried out. Clinicopathalogical and radiological data of 38 patients with middle-low rectal cancer who received PD-1 antibody combined with total neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and underwent TME surgery from January 2019 to September 2021 in our hospital were retrospectively collected. Among 38 patients, 23 were males and 15 were females with a median age of 68 (47-79) years and 13 (34.2%) a chieved pCR. These 38 patients were stratified and randomly divided into the training group (n=26) and test group (n=12) for modeling. All the patients underwent rectal MRI before treatment. The clinical, imaging and radiomics features of all the patients were collected, and the clinical feature model and radiomics model were constructed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of each model were drawn, and the constructed model was evaluated through the area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. Results: There were no significant differences in age, gender, primary location of tumor and postoperative pathology between the two groups (all P>0.05). Forty-one features were extracted from region of interest in each modality, including 9 first-order features, 24 gray level co-occurrence matrix features and 8 shape features. From 38 patients, 41 features were extracted from each imaging modality of baseline and preoperative DWI and T2WI images, totally 164 features. Only 4 features were preserved after correlation analysis between each pair of features and t-test between pCR and non-pCR subjects. After LASSO cross validation, only the first-order skewness of the baseline DWI image before treatment and the volume in the baseline T2WI image before treatment were retained. The area under the curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the prediction model established by applying these two features in the training group and the test group were 0.856 and 0.844, 77.8% and 100.0%, 88.2% and 75.0%, 77.8% and 66.7%, 88.2% and 100.0%, respectively. The decision curve analysis of the radiomics model showed that the strategy of this model in predicting pCR was better than that in treating all the patients as pCR and that in treating all the patients as non-pCR. Conclusion: The pCR prediction model for rectal cancer patients receiving PD-1 antibody combined with total neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy based on MRI radiomics has the potential to be used in clinical screening or rectal cancer patients who can be spared from radical surgery.
Aged ; Antibodies/therapeutic use* ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoadjuvant Therapy/methods* ; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor ; Rectal Neoplasms/therapy* ; Retrospective Studies

Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of hepatitis A in Guangxi from 2010 to 2020, and to provide a scientific basis for formulating effective prevention and control strategies. Methods Descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze the incidence data of hepatitis A in Guangxi from 2010 to 2020. Results From 2010 to 2020, a total of 8,742 cases of hepatitis A were reported in Guangxi, with an average annual incidence rate of 1.66 /100,000. There were 5 298 male cases (60.60%), and 3,444 female cases (39.40%). The incidence rate decreased from 2.73/100 000 in 2010 to 1.38/100 000 in 2020. The onset seasonality was strong in 2010, but there was no obvious seasonality in other years. A total of 5 891 cases (67.39%) were aged from 25 to 64 years. Farmers accounted for 59.79% of the cases. A total of 7 hepatitis A outbreaks were reported during 2010-2020, including 273 cases，accounting for 3.12% of the total cases．The incidence rates of hepatitis A in Hezhou (3.97/100 000), Wuzhou (2.98/100 000), Hechi (2.44/100 000), Guigang (2.00/100 000) and Beihai (1.79/100 000) were relatively higher than other places. Conclusion The number of reported hepatitis A cases in Guangxi has been declining year by year, and the prevention and control measures of hepatitis A vaccine prevention are effective. The surveillance of hepatitis A should be strengthened, and prevention and control strategies should be formulated for high-risk areas and key populations.

Objective: To examine the association of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with frailty among oldest-old adults in China. Methods: A total of 7 987 people aged 80 years and older (oldest-old) who participated in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) in 2017-2018 were included. Information on demographic characteristics, behavior pattern, diet, activities of daily living, cognitive function, health status, disease condition were collected by questionnaire and physical examination. Generalized linear mixed model and restricted cubic splines (RCS) were used to analyze the association of BMI and WC with frailty. Results: The mean age of all participants was 91.7 years, and their mean BMI and WC were (21.3±3.5) kg/m² and (82.9±10.5) cm, respectively. The proportion of male was 42.3% (3 377/7 987), and the proportion of people with frailty was 33.7% (2 664/7 987). After controlling confounding factors, compared with T₂ (19.1-22.1 kg/m²) of BMI, the OR (95%CI) of the female T₁ (<19.1 kg/m²) and T₃ (≥22.2 kg/m²) group was 1.39 (1.17-1.65) and 1.27 (1.07-1.52), respectively. Compared with T₂ (77-85 cm) of WC, the OR (95%CI) of female T₁ (<77 cm) and T₃ (≥86 cm) group was 1.20 (1.01-1.42) and 1.10 (0.93-1.31), respectively. The results of multiple linear regression model with restrictive cubic spline showed that there was a non-linear association of BMI and WC with frailty in female. Conclusion: There is a U-shaped association of BMI and WC with frailty in female participants.
Adult ; Male ; Female ; Humans ; Aged, 80 and over ; Waist Circumference ; Body Mass Index ; Frailty/epidemiology* ; Activities of Daily Living ; China/epidemiology* ; Risk Factors