[Construction and effect evaluation of tuberculosis information platform in Ningxia]

Objective: To explore the value of information technology in management of tuberculosis patients. Methods: The data comes from the case reports of Ningxia tuberculosis patients in the national tuberculosis special report system from March to December 2019 and the data of Ningxia tuberculosis information management platform. Using the computer Information and communication technologies and the Internet platform, unified data collection and data interface standards,Hospital Information System(HIS) of 18 (90%)TB specific Hospitals in Ningxia 22 counties are linked together, forming a closed loop management System, to realize Information interconnection, compare the patients' diagnostic rate before and after the application, and standardize treatment differences. Results: The system automatically collected and uploaded valid data for 2 918 times, and the consistency rate of uploaded data was 94.8%.The clinical diagnostic rate was 18.23% (1 154/6 332) before and 39.1% (914/2 335) after using the AI imaging screening subsystem (χ²=235.56, P<0.001).The regular medication rate of patients after system use was 86.89% (510/587), which was higher than that before [73.72% (544/738)] (χ²=3.94, P<0.05).The cure rate of etiologically positive tuberculosis patients (2019) was 86.03% (788/916), which was higher than that of 83.45% (1 008/1 208) before the use of the system (2018) (χ²=435.43, P<0.001). Conclusion: The tuberculosis information management platform in Ningxia has achieved tuberculosis information interconnection, significantly improving the standard diagnosis, treatment and management level of tuberculosis.

[Quantitative study on the development of fetal ventricles and cisterna magna in second and third trimesters with MRI]

Objective: To analyze the changes of growth and development of normal fetal ventricles and cisterna magna with gestational age(GA) and the correlation with fetal gender in the second and third trimester,and establish the MR prenatal diagnosis reference standards. Methods: A total of 633 fetuses (mean GA (27.0±4.1) weeks (18.9-40.6 weeks))without central nervous system abnormalities were retrospectively collected from the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University from June 2012 to August 2017. The lateral ventricle trigonometric width (LVTW), third ventricle width (TVW), fourth ventricle width (FVW), anterior-posterior diameter of the fourth ventricle(APDFV), cavum septum pellucidum width (CSPW) and cisterna magna width (CMW) were obtained in the standard measure planes on MR image.The correlation between the biometrics and GA and the correlation between the biometrics and fetal gender were analyzed respectively, and the normal reference values of the biometrics were calculated. Spearman correlation analysis, Pearson correlation analysis,linear regression analysis, independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test were used for statistic analysis. Results: (1)Fetal LLVTW,RLVTW,TVW,CSPW and CMW in second and third trimesters were correlated with GA at medium and low levels(the correlation coefficient r were 0.311, 0.277, 0.207, 0.226, 0.295, respectively, all P<0.01). FVW and APDFV were statistically correlated with GA, and the linear regression equations were as follows: y=0.022×GA-0.043 (adjusted R(2)=0.642); y=0.018×GA-0.159 (adjusted R(2)=0.690). (2)Fetal LLVTW,RLVTW,FVW,APDFV and CSPW were not correlated with fetal gender in second and third trimesters(r=-0.078,-0.057,-0.087,-0.004 and 0.024, P=0.124,0.258,0.085,0.931 and 0.618, all P>0.05). TVW and CMW were statistically correlated with fetal gender(r=-0.310, -0.180, P=0.000, 0.006, all P<0.05). (3) The mean values of LLVTW and RLVTW were (0.71±0.13) cm and (0.68±0.13) cm, respectively, and significant difference was found between them(t=3.180, P=0.002). The mean value of CSPW was (0.59±0.15) cm. And the mean values of male and female fetuses for TVW and CMW were (0.17±0.05) cm, (0.16±0.06) cm and (0.68±0.15) cm, (0.58±0.15) cm, respectively. The corresponding prenatal MRI diagnostic criteria were as follows: LLVTW 1.1 cm, RLVTW 1.0 cm, CSPW 1.0 cm, TVW 0.3 cm, CMW (male 1.1 cm, female 1.0 cm). Conclusions: The normal fetal ventricles and cisterna magna are increased with the GA in the second and third trimesters. TVW and CMW are related to fetal gender. The establishment of normal reference values of fetal ventricles and cisterna magna based on GA and fetal gender are conducive to enhance the accuracy of MRI prenatal diagnosis.

Nanodiamonds as pH-switchable oxidation and reduction catalysts with enzyme-like activities for immunoassay and antioxidant applications

Nanodiamonds (NDs) have recently become a focus of interest from the viewpoints of both science and technology. Their intriguing properties make them suitable as biologically active substrates, in biosensor applications as well as diagnostic and therapeutic biomedical imaging probes. Here, we demonstrate that NDs, as oxidation and reduction catalysts, possess intrinsic enzyme mimetic properties of oxidase, peroxidase and catalase, and these behaviors can be switched by modulating the pH value. NDs not only catalyze the reduction of oxygen (O₂) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) at acidic pH, but also catalyze the dismutation decomposition of H₂O₂ to produce O₂ at alkaline pH. It was proposed that the molecular mechanism of their peroxidase-like activity is electron-transfer acceleration, the source of which is likely derived from oxygen containing functional groups on their surface. Based on the color reaction, a nanodiamond-based enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was established for the detection of immunoglobulin G (IgG). Surprisingly, NDs display an excellent antioxidant activity due to the protective effect against H₂O₂-induced cellular oxidative damage. These findings make NDs a promising enzyme mimetic candidate and expand their applications in biocatalysis, bioassays and nano-biomedicine.

Biochemical and morphological studies of steady state and lipopolysaccaride treated bovine articular cartilage explant cultures

Explants of bovine articular cartilage were cultured for up to 50 days in 20% fetal calf serum in the presence or absence of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS); or in various protocols involving different treatment times with LPS followed by recovery times in the absence of LPS. Cultures were measured in terms of rates of proteoglycan synthesis (incorporation of [35S]sulfate), proteoglycan contents and collagen contents. Histological sections were prepared for both light and electron microscopy. In fetal calf serum, the rates of synthesis and contents of proteoglycans per collagen remained constant, while for LPS treated cultures both parameters decreased. For recovery groups, the rates of proteoglycan synthesis increased during the time of recovery if the LPS treatment times were relatively short (2 weeks or less) and if the tissue was obtained from younger animals; net increase in proteoglycan contents occurred infrequently if at all during recovery protocols. Histological examinations revealed that chondrocytes in cultures maintained in fetal calf serum appeared normal with large stores of glycogen. In LPS treated cultures, chondrocytes were depleted of glycogen stores and contained numerous lipid droplets. In recovery cultures, chondrocytes replenished their glycogen contents, but the lipid droplets remained. For both LPS treated and recovery groups the extracellular matrix was depleted of proteoglycans with time in culture. The results provide further evidence for the ability of this explant culture system to maintain steady state metabolic parameters for proteoglycan metabolism over long time periods and for its utility to study reagents which regulate or perturb these parameters.