Gut microbiota of newborn piglets with intrauterine growth restriction have lower diversity and different taxonomic abundances

Aim

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is a prevalent problem in mammals. The present study was conducted to unveil the alterations in intestinal microbiota in IUGR piglets.

Methods and Results

We identified the alterations of small intestinal microbiota in IUGR piglets on 7, 21 and 28 days of age using 16S rRNA sequencing. The results showed that IUGR piglets had a decreased alpha diversity of jejunum microbiota at 7 and 21 days of age; had lower abundances of Bacteroidetes and Bacteroides in the jejunum at 7, 21 and 28 days of age, Oscillibacter in the jejunum at 21 days of age, and Firmicutes in the ileum at 21 days of age; whereas they had higher abundances of Proteobacteria and Pasteurella in the ileum at 21 days of age and Escherichia–Shigella in the jejunum at 28 days of age. Correlation analysis showed that Bacteroides, Oscillibacter and Ruminococcaceae_UCG‐002 compositions were positively associated with the body weight (BW) of IUGR piglets, nevertheless Proteobacteria and Escherichia–Shigella relative abundances were negatively correlated with the BW of IUGR piglets. Gene function prediction analysis indicated that microbiota‐associated carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism, glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism were downregulated in the IUGR piglets compared to control piglets.

Conclusions

The present study profiled the intestinal microbiota of newborn piglets with IUGR and the newborn IUGR piglets have lower diversity and different taxonomic abundances. Alterations in the abundances of Bacteroidetes, Bacteroides, Proteobacteria Escherichia–Shigella and Pasteurella may be involved in nutrient digestion and absorption, as well as the potential mechanisms connecting to the growth and development of IUGR in mammals.

Significance and Impact of the Study

The small intestinal microbiota were highly shaped in the IUGR piglets, which might further mediate the growth and development of IUGR piglets; and the gut microbiota could serve as a potential target for IUGR treatment.

[China Hainan Centenarian Cohort Study: study design and preliminary results]

Objective: To investigate the health status, functional ability, mental psychology, health care and other longevity-related characteristics of individuals aged ≥100 years as well as risk factors in Hainan province, China. Methods: China Hainan Centenarian Cohort Study (CHCCS) is a community-based, prospective cohort study to establish multi-dimensional database consisting of questionnaire findings, anthropometric parameters and biological specimens as well as imaging features. With the household registration information provided by the Department of Civil Affairs of Hainan province, a baseline survey was conducted in centenarians in 18 counties in Hainan with the oldest old in 5 counties as controls between 2014 and 2017. The survey included face to face interview, physical examination and biological specimen collection. After the baseline survey, the participants of CHCCS were followed up at an interval of 2 years to collect the information about their living status, disease status or major death causes. Results: According to the information provided by the Department of Civil Affairs of Hainan province in 2014, the survey found that 1 473 centenarians were still living. By December 2016, 1 002 of them had agreed to be surveyed. The average age of 722 centenarians with complete information in the baseline survey was (102.7±2.7) years, the majority of them were females (83.0%), widows (88.8%), in Han ethnic group (84.5%), lived with family members (87.8%), illiterates (89.7%) and farmers (81.0%). Conclusion: CHCCS has provided longevity-related information of the large longevity population and collected the valuable and rare biological specimens with great urgency to establish an interdisciplinary platform and base for longevity, senility and healthy aging research.

[A qualitative study on high risk behaviors and related factors of reported HIV/AIDS cases aged 60 years and above in some areas of Henan province]

Objective: To understand the major high risk behaviors and related factors among reported HIV/AIDS cases aged ≥60 years in some areas of Henan province. Methods: In Dengzhou, Xunxian county of Hebi and Xiangcheng county of Xuchang, where the reported number and proportion of HIV/AIDS cases aged ≥60 years were high, a face to face interview was conducted among the cases aged ≥60 years during July-August in 2016. The information about the high risk behaviors before HIV infection confirmation were collected by using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: A total of 33 HIV/AIDS cases aged ≥60 years were interviewed, including 28 males and 5 females. Their average age was 67.4 years. The infection route was sexual contact. The main findings revealed that the main factor for HIV infection in elder males was commercial heterosexual behavior with local female sex workers. The condom use rate was low. The poor awareness of the knowledge about AIDS prevention could explain why the elderly could not recognize the risk of HIV infection. There were also homosexual and bisexual behaviors in elder male HIV/AIDS patients. Late detection of HIV transmission among couples was the main cause of HIV infection in elder women. Conclusions: The major epidemiological related factors for HIV infection in the elderly in some areas of Henan were unsafe sex behavior and the poor awareness of knowledge about AIDS prevention. A targeted strategy should be taken to control the spread of HIV in the elderly.

Abstract P2-14-30: Survival outcomes of breast conserving surgery versus mastectomy for ultrasound detected non-palpable breast cancer in hospital-based screening among Chinese women

Background: Some population-base studies have reported similar or improved survival for breast-conserving surgery (BCS) plus radiotherapy compared with mastectomy (Mx) in early breast cancer [PMID: 22373563, 27344114]. Among the screening detected early breast cancer, ultrasound (US) could detect more invasive non-palpable breast cancer (NPBC) with positive lymph nodes in hospital-based asymptomatic Chinese women, who could achieve comparable 10-year DFS and OS as mammography (MG)-detected NPBC [2016 SABCS P5-02-05, PMID: 27689334]. However, there is little data about the surgical outcomes of BCS verse Mx in the low-risk screening detected NPBC with US as the initial imaging test.

Methods: From 2001 to 2017, 6,423 consecutive asymptomatic women underwent mammography or ultrasound guided biopsy in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Among them, 1130 NPBC including 914 US-detected and 216 MG-detected NPBC were diagnosed and treated. There were 349 (30.9%) patients underwent BCS including 286 (25.3%) patients received radiation therapy and 63 (5.6%) elderly patients (>70 years) who did not. The clinicopathological features, treatment choice, 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between breast conservingsurgery (BCS) versus mastectomy(Mx) in all NPBC and between the US-detected and MG-detected NPBC.

Result: Compared to those who received BCS, the 781 (69.1%) patients who underwent Mx had more cancers with relatively higher histologic grade (p=0.003), positive lymph node (18.8% vs 12.0%, p=0.005), ER-negative (22.5% vs 11.5%, p<0.001), PR-negative (29.6% vs 16.3, p<0.001), Her2-positive (16.3% vs 8.9%, p=0.001), and received chemotherapy (37.6% vs 28.7%, p=0.003). The breast conserving rates of US-NPBCwere higher than that of MG-NPBC (32.6% vs 23.6%, p=0.010), but the breast conserving rates were similar between ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive cancers. The 10-year DFS and OS were similar among BCS with radiation therapy, BCS without radiation therapy and Mx as well as among US-NPBC with BCS, US-NPBC with Mx, MG-NPBC with BCS and MG-NPBC with Mx. However, MG-NPBC with Mx had favorable 10-year DFS than that of MG-NPBC with BCS (p=0.041).

Table 1.Kaplan-Meier estimated 10-year DFS and OS of all NPBC§Patients (No.)NPBC GroupNumber (%)10-year DFS (%)P value10-year OSP valueAll NPBC (1130)BCS without Radiotherapy63 (5.6)85.00.10592.30.722 BCS with Radiotherapy286 (25.3)92.7 99.5  Mastectomy781 (69.1)93.2 98.7        All NPBC (1130)US+BCS298 (26.4)90.40.24896.30.542 US+Mx616 (64.5)92.4 98.4  MG+BCS51 (4.5)90.3 100.0  MG+Mx165 (14.6)96.1 100.0 § Kaplan-Meier survival curves would be displayed in the poster.

Conclusion: The 10-year DFS and OS of breast conserving surgery versus mastectomy were similar among all NPBC patients. As the current initial imaging test, US-detected NPBC patients would receive significantly more BCS compared to MG. There was no significant difference in surgical outcomes among BCS and Mx in US-detected NPBC. However, among MG-detected NPBC, patients with Mx reached a better DFS but a similar OS than those with BCS. The radiation therapy could be safely omitted in the elderly patients (>70 years) with NPBC.

Citation Format: Yao R, Pan B, Xu Y, Zhou Y, Zhu Q, Zhang J, Wu H, Mao F, Lin Y, Shen S, Sun Q. Survival outcomes of breast conserving surgery versus mastectomy for ultrasound detected non-palpable breast cancer in hospital-based screening among Chinese women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-14-30.

Abstract P1-02-02: Is ultrasound screening justified for non-palpable breast cancer in asymptomatic Chinese women: A real-world study based on long-term survival of consecutive cohort (2001-2017)

Background: Ultrasound (US) is an effective initial screening test for breast cancer both in Caucasian and Chinese women [PMID: 26712110, 26715161, and 25668012]. The real-world modality of breast cancer screening in the China is hospital-based screening among asymptomatic self-referred women. In our previous study, we showed that US and mammography (MG) detected non-palpable breast cancer (NPBC) had similar long-term survival and that US detected more invasive NPBC with positive lymph node [2016 SABCS P5-02-05, PMID: 27689334]. This study was to investigate whether these findings would be still true with more NPBC cases included and longer follow-up in the consecutive hospital cohort.

Methods: From 2001 to 2017, 5,264 asymptomatic women with positive (BI-RADS 4 and 5) initial screening US underwent biopsies in PUMC Hospital, and 914 US-NPBC in 883 women were diagnosed. Meanwhile, women without dense breasts (defined as BI-RADS category C and D) also received screening MG after physical examination and US. There were 1,159 patients with positive (BI-RADS 4 and 5) MG and normal US (BI-RADS 1, 2 and 3) underwent MG-guided biopsies and 216 MG-NPBC were diagnosed in 214 women. The clinicopathological characteristics and 10-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were reviewed and compared between the US-NPBC and MG-NPBC. Prognostic factors of NPBC were identified by univariate and multivariate Cox analysis.

Result: Compared to MG, US could detect more invasive (81.2% vs 48.6%, p<0.001), lymph node positive (18.3% vs 10.2%, p<0.001), stage II+III (21.7% vs 12.5%, p<0.001) and low grade cancer (p=0.001).Between invasive US-NPBC and MG-NPBC, no significant difference was identified for lymph node status, TNM stage or subtype.US-NPBC received more breast conserving surgery (32.6% vs 24.1%, p<0.001) and chemotherapy (37.5% vs 23.6%, p<0.001). There was no significant difference in DFS or OS between US- vs MG-NPBC among ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), invasive and all NPBC. For the US-NPBC, the DFS factors included TNM stage and Hormone receptor status whereas OS-predictors were pN and subtype.

Table 1.Kaplan-Meier estimates of DFS and OS between US-NPBC and MG-NPBC§Patients (No.) 10-year DFS (%)P value10-year OS (%)P valueAllUS-NPBC (914)92.40.57098.20.143 MG-NPBC (216)94.7 100.0 DCISUS-NPBC (172)97.70.170100.0- MG-NBPC (111)95.3 100.0 InvasiveUS-NPBC (742)91.20.45897.90.251 MG-NPBC (105)94.4 100.0 § Kaplan-Meier survival curves between each two subgroups would be displayed in the poster.

Conclusion: Overall, US could detect more invasive NPBC patients with positive lymph node and advanced stage compared to MG, and screen invasive NPBC at similar TNM stage and subtype distribution as MG. US-NPBC patients received more breast conserving surgery and chemotherapy, and could achieve comparable 10-year DFS and OS as MG-detected NPBC. Hence US is justified in the real-world as the initial imaging modality in hospital-based screening Chinese women.

Citation Format: Yao R, Pan B, Xu Y, Zhou Y, Zhu Q, Zhang J, Wu H, Mao F, Lin Y, Shen S, Sun Q. Is ultrasound screening justified for non-palpable breast cancer in asymptomatic Chinese women: A real-world study based on long-term survival of consecutive cohort (2001-2017) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-02-02.

[A multicenter, retrospective study of pathogenic bacteria distribution and drug resistance in febrile neutropenic patients with hematological diseases in Shanghai]

目的

了解上海地区中性粒细胞缺乏（粒缺）伴发热血液病患者致病细菌的分布及耐药情况。

方法

回顾性分析2012年1月至2014年12月上海市12家医院血液科粒缺伴发热住院患者的临床分离菌株，用纸片扩散法进行药敏试验，WHONET 5.6软件分析病原菌分布及药敏数据。

结果

从上海地区粒缺伴发热患者中共分离出1 260株细菌，其中革兰阳性菌420株（33.3%），革兰阴性菌840株（66.7%）。排在前七位的分别是肺炎克雷伯菌158株（12.5%）、嗜麦芽窄食单胞菌120株（9.5%）、大肠埃希菌115株（9.1%）、铜绿假单胞菌109株（8.7%）、鲍曼不动杆菌83株（6.6%）、金黄色葡萄球菌70株（5.6%）和屎肠球菌63株（5.0%）。呼吸道分泌物标本中，非发酵菌占56.2%（350/623）。其中嗜麦芽窄食单胞菌占15.3%（95/623）。血液标本中，肠杆菌科细菌占42.3%（104/246），凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌占34.6%（85/246）。脓液标本中肠杆菌科细菌占39.4%（76/193），肠球菌属细菌占28.5%（55/193）。耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌葡萄球菌（MRSA）和耐甲氧西林凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌（MRCNS）的检出率分别为54.3%和82.5%，未发现耐利奈唑胺、万古霉素、替考拉宁葡萄球菌属菌株，耐万古霉素屎肠球菌的检出率为8.9%，肠球菌属未检出耐利奈唑胺的菌株。肠杆菌科细菌对碳青霉烯类药物高度敏感。铜绿假单胞菌对亚胺培南和美罗培南的耐药率已分别达34.1%和15.8%。嗜麦芽窄食单胞菌对米诺环素、左氧氟沙星、复方磺胺甲恶唑等药物敏感。鲍曼不动杆菌仅对头孢哌酮/舒巴坦的耐药率低于10.0%。肺炎克雷伯菌、嗜麦芽窄食单胞菌、铜绿假单胞菌、鲍曼不动杆菌等革兰阴性菌对大多常用抗菌药物的耐药率低于CHINET监测的数据。

结论

粒缺伴感染患者常见感染部位致病菌株分布有其特点，细菌耐药率整体低于CHINET全国医院大样本监测。

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement in atypical valve anatomy using the Lotus valve : A Chinese single-center experience

BACKGROUND

In the West, the safety and efficacy of the Lotus valve have been demonstrated; however, data in the Chinese population are still lacking. Few studies have compared the clinical outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the Lotus valve in patients with bicuspid or tricuspid aortic valve stenosis. Our aim was to assess TAVR outcomes with the Lotus aortic valve in a Chinese patient cohort.

METHODS

In total, 23 symptomatic, high-surgical risk patients with severe aortic valve stenosis were enrolled. Among them, nine patients (39%) had bicuspid aortic valves, and three patients had a large annulus dimension. The Lotus valve was successfully implanted in all patients. To facilitate accurate positioning, partial re-sheathing was attempted in ten patients (43.5%), while one patient had a full retrieval. One-year clinical follow-up was completed in all patients.

RESULTS

There were no deaths, strokes, or major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events in 22 of the 23 patients at 30 days; the all-cause mortality rate at 1 year was 4.4% (1 of 23 patients). The mean aortic valve gradient decreased from 51.5 ± 8.8 mm Hg at baseline to 13.4 ± 4.9 mm Hg (p < 0.001) and the valve area increased from 0.6 ± 0.2 cm² to 1.5 ± 0.4 cm² (p < 0.001) at 30 days. Paravalvular leakage was absent or mild (22%), and no patient had severe paravalvular leakage. Six patients (26.1%) required a postprocedural pacemaker. There was no difference regarding the procedural and the 1‑year outcomes between patients with bicuspid and tricuspid aortic valve stenosis.

CONCLUSION

Our single-center experience demonstrated that the Lotus valve is feasible and effective for Chinese patients with aortic valve stenosis, including atypical cases with bicuspid aortic valves or large aortic annulus size.

Trace Element Levels in the Elders over 80 from the Hainan Province of China

Trace elements are key regulators of metabolism and physiological pathways, and their levels change during aging. Hair, as a biological sample, has attracted much attention due to its ease of collection and slow substance metabolism. Also, trace elements in hair can reveal the distribution of essential nutrients and toxic elements in the body pools. Therefore, we investigated the lifestyle and dietary status by questionnaire and measured 8 trace elements in hair and 6 elements in blood of a sample of elders over 80 residing in Hainan province of China. Our data showed that the concentration of Se, Fe and Pb dropped as people grow older, but Mn rose. Changes in trace elements may affect enzyme activity and biological pathways, and are associated with many diseases, including cancer and chronic diseases. In addition, association between age-related diseases and trace elements are increasingly being reported, suggesting that approaches of combining nutrition with longevity studies in the further study will help us to identify the mechanisms whereby trace elements affect the aging process.

Incorporating reference guided priors into calibrationless parallel imaging reconstruction

PURPOSE

To propose and evaluate a new calibrationless parallel imaging method aimed at further improving the reconstruction accuracy of the accelerated multi-channel MR images.

METHOD

We introduce a new calibrationless parallel imaging method. On top of exploiting joint sparsity cross channels of the target image to be reconstructed, it incorporates similar priors on the grey-level intensity and edge orientation, which both come from a high-spatial resolution reference image that can be easily obtained in many clinical MRI scenarios. The mixed l₂-l₁ norm is used to enforce joint sparsity and a multi-scale gradient operator is applied to extract fine edges from the reference image. Additionally, this optimization problem can be solved via a non-linear conjugate gradient algorithm with line search in this work.

RESULTS

The proposed method is compared with the existing state-of-the-art auto-calibration and calibrationless parallel imaging techniques. The experiments on different in-vivo brain MR datasets show that the proposed method has the superior performance in terms of both artifact suppression and detail preservation.

CONCLUSION

The reference guided calibrationless parallel imaging method can significantly improve the performance of joint reconstruction of target channel images. Even when the reduction factor is high, it can keep edge structures well.

Sex, Residence and Fish Intake Predict Vitamin D Status in Chinese Centenarians

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Chinese centenarians and to identify the factors associated with vitamin D deficiency.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional population-based study.

SETTING

Hainan province in the south of China.

PARTICIPANTS

943 subjects aged 100 years old and older.

METHODS

Details on sociodemographics and lifestyle characteristics were collected using a structured questionnaire. Anthropometrics and blood samples were obtained. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration < 20ng/mL (50nmol/L).

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among these 943 centenarians was 39.9% (376 subjects) and the mean serum vitamin D concentrations were 22.7±9.5 (ng/mL). Female centenarians had higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency than male (44.0% vs. 21.7%, P <0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that being female, urban residency, lower body mass index, higher serum parathyroid hormone levels, no fish consumption, and less sun exposure time were all significant and independent determinants of vitamin D deficiency. No significant associations of vitamin D deficiency with ethnic, education, geographic location, tea drinking, alcohol use, or smoking were found in this study.

CONCLUSION

Vitamin D deficiency was common in Chinese centenarians, especially in women. Given that vitamin D deficiency is linked to numerous adverse health outcomes, dietary, outdoor activities and other intervention measures are needed to correct vitamin D deficiency in this population.

Cesarean section and risks of overweight and obesity in school-aged children: a population-based study

BACKGROUND

Obesity puts a great health burden in the world. Previous studies suggest that caesarean section (CS) may increase the risk of obesity in children, but it is still uncertain whether this association is causal or due to residual confounding by medical indication.

AIM

To assess the association between CS, CS without medical indications in particular and the risk of overweight and obesity in school-aged children.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

METHODS

The 2014 Shanghai Child Health, Education and Lifestyle Evaluation was a large population-based survey with cluster random probability sampling in 26 primary schools in Shanghai, China, in 2014. The mode of delivery was reported by parents. The height, weight and waist circumference of the children were measured. Logistic regression models with SURVEYLOGISTIC procedure were used to estimate the risk of childhood obesity. Pupils delivered vaginally were served as the reference group.

RESULTS

A total of 17 571 pupils completed this survey, and 13 724 of them who were singleton, born term and between 5 and 13 years old were included in our analysis. CS was associated with increased risks of overweight and obesity (BMI: adjusted OR = 1.28 [95%CI 1.13-1.45] and 1.44 [1.26-1.66], respectively; weight for height ratio [WHtR] >0.46: 1.33 [1.20-1.48]). Similar results were found in CS without medical indication (BMI: overweight = 1.24 [1.05-1.47], obesity = 1.43 [1.19-1.72]; WHtR > 0.46: 1.30 [1.13-1.50]).

CONCLUSIONS

CS overall and CS without medical indications were associated with increased risks of overweight and obesity in primary school children.

Sex-specific aortic root anatomy in patients with bicuspid aortic valve undergoing TAVR in a Chinese cohort

Objectives

The aim of this study is to investigate the sex-specific aortic root anatomy in patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV).

Patients and methods

This retrospective study includes 73 consecutive patients with BAV who underwent CT evaluation before transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) between July 2013 and April 2017 in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University.

Result

The size of the annulus, diameter and height of the sinotubular junction (STJ), height of the coronary artery ostia, and dimension of the aorta were measured. Women had significantly smaller annulus parameters (mean diameter: 23.4 ± 1.8 vs. 26.1 ± 2.1 mm; area: 425.3 ± 59.4 vs. 527.4 ± 84.6 mm²; perimeter: 74.3 ± 5.2 vs. 83.2 ± 6.4 mm), and STJ diameter (29.7 ± 3.1 vs. 32.6 ± 4.5 mm) than men (p < 0.01 for all), even after adjustment for their smaller body surface area (BSA). Dimension of aorta and height of right coronary artery were also significantly smaller in women, although not when indexing for the BSA. The left ventricular ejection fraction of women is significantly higher than that of men before discharge (60.2 ± 9.7% vs. 53.7 ± 13.6%, p = 0.01). There were no differences between women and men in the all-cause 30-day and 1‑year mortality.

Conclusion

Women with BAV had smaller annulus and STJ diameter after indexing for BSA, reflecting a sex-specific difference. There were no differences in 30-day and 1‑year mortality between the two groups.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s00059-018-4740-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.