Prevalence of thyroid nodules and influencing factors among employees of a company in Qingdao / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the prevalence of thyroid nodules and influencing factors among employees of a company in Qingdao.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Through questionnaires, physical examination, thyroid ultrasonography and urinary iodine test, personal health information and examinations of thyroid nodules of 9612 serving and retired employees in a company in 2010 who had lived in Qingdao for more than 5 years were collected to investigate the prevalence of thyroid nodules and its influencing factors.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The prevalence of thyroid nodules was 36.56% (3514/9612). The prevalence rates of single nodules and multiple nodules were 18.39% (1768/9612) and 18.16% (1746/9612) respectively. With increasing urinary iodine level, the prevalence of multiple thyroid nodules decreased from 25.51% (366/14350)(urinary iodine < or = 100 microg/L) to 12.99% (214/1648) (urinary iodine > 300 microg/L) showing a clear downward trend (chi2 = 67.11, P < 0.01). The prevalence rates of thyroid nodules among males and females were 31.28% (2283/7299) and 53.22% (1231/2313) (P < 0.01) respectively. With increasing age, the prevalence of thyroid nodules gradually increased from 7.95% (67/843) (19 - 29 years old) to 58.81% (267/454) ( >70 years old) among males and increased from 23.74% (33/139) (19 - 29 years old) to 80.38% (127/158) ( >70 years old) among females. The prevalence of thyroid nodules among males and females showed an increasing trend with age (male: chi2 = 434.12, P < 0.01; female: chi2 = 40.74, P < 0.01). The results of logistic regression showed that compared with males, females were more susceptible to thyroid nodules (OR = 2.809, 95% CI: 2.444 - 3.228). Smoking (OR = 1.394, 95% CI: 1.249 - 1.556), hypertension (OR = 1.155, 95% CI: 1.040 - 1.282), diabetes ( OR = 1.228, 95% CI: 1.039 - 1.452) and overweight (OR = 1.199, 95% CI: 1.078 - 1.333) might be risk factors for thyroid nodules after adjusting for age and gender.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of thyroid nodules was high among the employees. In order to reduce the thyroid nodules, smoking cessation and weight control should be promoted. Blood pressure and glucose level should be actively controlled for patients with hypertension and (or) diabetes.</p>

Preliminary establishment of transplanted human chronic myeloid leukemia model in nude mice / 中国实验血液学杂志

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a malignant clonal disease derived from hematopoietic stem cells. CML stem cells were thought to be the root which could lead disease development and ultimately rapid change. However, a stable animal model for studying the characteristics of CML stem cells is currently lacking. This study was aimed to establish a transplanted human CML nude-mice model to further explore the biological behavior of CML stem cells in vivo, and to enrich CML stem cells in nude mice by series transplantation. The 4 - 6 weeks old BALB/c nude mice pretreated by splenectomy (S), cytoxan intraperitoneal injection (C) and sublethal irradiation (I) were transplanted intravenously with (5 - 7) × 10(7) of bone marrow mononuclear cells from CML patients in chronic phase. Alternatively, 4 - 6 weeks old BALB/c nude mice pretreated by lethal irradiation were transplanted intravenously with 5 × 10(6) homologous bone marrow cells of BALB/c nude mice together with (5 - 7) × 10(7) of bone marrow mononuclear cells from CML patients in chronic phase simultaneously. The leukemic cells engrafted and infiltrated in organs and bone marrow of the mice were tracked by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), plastic-embedded biopsy and flow cytometry. The results of these two methods were compared. The results showed that human CML cells engrafted and infiltrating into the bone marrow of two nude mice pretreated with SCI could be detected. In spite of the low successful rate, results suggested the feasibility of this method by using BALB/c nude mice as a human CML animal model. In contrast, in nude mice pretreated by the lethal dose irradiation, CML cells in the bone marrow could not be found. It is concluded that human bone marrow CML cells can results in leukemia in nude mice pretreated by SCI. Thus this study provides a new strategy for establishment of CML animal models which deserves further elaboration.