Trends of case detection and other indicators of leprosy in China during 1985-2002 / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the trends of case detection and other indicators of leprosy in China during 1985-2002.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Data reported by each province were collected by China National Leprosy Database in Nanjing P.R. China. All data about registered cases were put into computer for analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>From 1985 to 2002, a total of 49,477 new leprosy cases had been detected. Among them, 69.5% were multibacillary cases and 25.4% had grade 2 disability. The child cases aged below 15 years accounted for 3.74% of total cases. Totally, 5824 cases and 303 cases relapsed after dapsone (DDS) mono-therapy and multidrug therapy (MDT), respectively. Case detection showed a marked reduction from 0.47/100,000 in 1985 to 0.18/100,000 in 1993 although there were several spurts due to operational factors. From 1994, case detection showed no significant decline. The grade 2 disability among new patients decreased from 31.4% in 1985 to 23.4% in 2002. The child case detection rate among new cases fluctuated between 2.70%-3.56% from 1999 to 2002. The incidence of relapse declined after the introduction of DDS mono-therapy. However, it increased after the introduction of MDT.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>China experiences in leprosy control show that it will take a long time with continuing present leprosy control activities to bring down the case detection and other indicators to a very low level even after reaching the elimination goal of leprosy.</p>

Polymorphisms within the interferon-Gamma receptor associated with systemic lupus erythematosus / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the association between polymorphisms within the interferon-Gamma receptor gene(IFN-GammaR) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Chinese people.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The IFN-GammaR genotypes of 94 SLE patients and 80 healthy subjects were examined by the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) method, RT-PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method and DNA sequencing.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was no statistically significant difference in the IFN-GammaR genotype frequencies between the two groups. The IFN-Gamma R2 Arg64/Arg64 genotype decreased the risk of SLE (OR = 2.481, 95% CI 0.992 - 6.203, P = 0.047). The decreased risk of the development of SLE was detected in the individuals who had the combination of IFN-GammaR2 Arg64/Arg64 genotype and IFN-GammaR1 Val14/Val14 genotype (OR = 2.481, 95% CI 0.992 - 6.203, P = 0.047).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The IFN-GammaR2 Arg64/Arg64 genotype does not determine susceptibility to SLE in Chinese people, and the combination of IFN-Gamma R2 Arg64/Arg64 genotype and IFN-Gamma R1 Val14/Val14 genotype does not, either.</p>