[Efficacy of mini nutritional assessment short-form in predicting the risk of acute exacerbation in old chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients]

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of Mini Nutritional Assessment Short-form (MNA-SF) in predicting acute exacerbation of old chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Methods: The clinical data and Nutritional assessment of 202 outpatients who were given treatment in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from January 2017 to May 2019 were analyzed. According to the frequency of acute exacerbation in the last year, patients were divided into high-risk group and low-risk group. The dependent variable was the risk of the acute exacerbation of COPD while the predicting model was established by using multivariate Logistic regression. Finally, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the model was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Among the 202 COPD patients, 131 patients (64.9%) were brought into the high-risk group and 71 patients (35.1%) were brought into the low-risk group. MNA-SF scores in high-risk group were significant lower than those in low-risk group [(9.4±2.1) vs (11.6±1.9), P<0.001]. The logistic regression analysis showed that MNA-SF score [OR=0.556(95%CI: 0.445-0.695), P<0.05] was an independent factor of acute exacerbation. The obtained model was Logit(P)=4.413-0.586×MNA-SF scores. The accuracy of model for the risk of the acute exacerbation of COPD was 77.4%, with a sensitivity of 79.7%, a specificity of 72.1%. Conclusion: MNA-SF is qualified for predicting the acute exacerbation of COPD patients in stable stage.

Isolation and identification of pathogenic Aeromonas veronii from a dead Yangtze finless porpoise

Diseases caused by Aeromonas veronii in freshwater fish have been widely reported, but other species such as aquatic mammals have probably been overlooked. Here, we identified one isolate of A. veronii from a Yangtze finless porpoise Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis exhibiting disease and mortality, and subsequently confirmed its virulence in artificial infection of BALB/c mice. The bacterial isolate was identified as A. veronii based on physiological, biochemical, and phenotypic features, and homology of the 16S rRNA, cpn60, rpoB, dnaJ and gyrB genes. Our results expand the known host spectrum of A. veronii, which is of great importance for the etiology of porpoise, dolphin, and other cetacean diseases.

[Clinical and experimental study of shuangcao tuihuang granule-1 in treating severe jaundice of acute icterohepatitis]

OBJECTIVE

To observe the effect of Shuangcao Tuihuang Granule-1 (SCTH-1) in treating severe jaundice of acute icterohepatitis and to study its mechanism.

METHODS

Thirty-four patients with severe jaundice of acute icterohepatitis were treated with SCTH-1, their therapeutic effects were analyzed. In the experimental studies, the influences of SCTH-1 on acute liver injury, liver superoxide dismutase (SOD) and serum ALT and AST were monitored.

RESULTS

The markedly effective rate and effective rate of the treated group were 73.5% and 23.5% respectively. The markedly effective rate of the treated group was obviously higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Experimental study revealed that SCTH-1 could reduce the level of serum transaminase and inflammation of liver tissue in mice with acute liver damage. In addition, SCTH-1 could raise the activity of liver SOD (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

SCTH-1 could accelerate the jaundice subsidence, improve the liver function and ameliorate the liver injury, its mechanism was possibly correlated with raising SOD activity, scavenging the oxygen free radicals.