Evaluation on birth defects surveillance system in four counties of Shanxi province, China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the reliability of the birth defects surveillance system in four counties with high prevalence of birth defects (Pingding, Xiyang, Taigu and Zezhou counties) in Shanxi province, China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One township was selected from each county as study site. The health workers chosen from township or village level were trained to visit families on the outcomes of each pregnancy who gave birth during year 2003 in the study site. The number of births and cases collected in the study were compared with that from the surveillance system. The number of births reported by surveillance system in four counties was also compared with the data from the local government. The criteria of evaluation were: 1) number of the missing report of births should < or = 5%, 2) the number of missing report on major external birth defects cases should < or = 10%. Researchers from the Peking University were responsible for examining the quality of surveillance in some terminal units of surveillance system.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The numbers of births reported in the study and from the surveillance system for four-township were 1043 and 997, respectively. 46 births were missing and the rate of misreporting for births was 4.4%. The numbers of birth defects cases reported in the study and from the surveillance system were 30 and 29, respectively. 1 case of birth defect as missed, and rate of misreporting for birth defects cases was 3.3%. The total number of births reported from surveillance was similar to that in the study in four counties, with a difference of 1.2%. Birth registry data was rather readable and special health workers responsible for surveillance work were present in all the terminal units of the surveillance system.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The misreporting of births and cases existed in the birth defects surveillance system of the four counties in Shanxi province, but were lower than the allowable criteria. The surveillance units had better registration, reporting and administration of births and birth defect cases. Hence, the quality of the data from the surveillance system in these four counties was reliable.</p>

Metabolism, Distribution and Excretion of Recombinant Human Thrombopoietin in Mice / 中国实验血液学杂志

The metabolism, distribution and excretion profiles of recombinant human thrombopoietin (rhTPO) in mice were studied by means of (125)I-labeled rhTPO ((125)I-rhTPO) combined with size exclusive high performance liquid chromatography (SHPLC) or trichloroacetic acid (TCA) precipitation analysis. (125)I-rhTPO was prepared by iodogen method. Purification was performed on Sephacryl S-200 HR gel. Radioactive-purity of (125)I-rhTPO identified by SHPLC was (96.9 +/- 1.5)% (n = 3). The proliferation effect of TPO dependent cell line (TD-3) and the increase of peripheral platelet counts in mouse by (125)I-rhTPO demonstrated that (125)I-labeled protein maintained the biological activities of TPO both in vitro and in vivo. SHPLC analysis of serum and urine samples taken after sc 1 micro g/mouse (345 kBq/mouse) of (125)I-rhTPO revealed that there were two lower molecular weight (125)I-degradation metabolites ((125)I-MI and (125)I-MII) other than parent molecule. (125)I-MI was mainly found in urine, and (125)I-MII was detected both in serum and in urine. The maximal concentration of (125)I-rhTPO was reached at 2 hours after injection. The terminal half-life was 10.8 hours, which was much longer than those of other peptides. TCA precipitable radioactivity in tissue showed that the radioactivity in bone marrow was rather high. The highest level was found in urinary system. Levels in adrenals, lymph nodes, and fat were near to that in serum. Lowest was found in brain. The main excretion route was urinary system and (98 +/- 5.6)% of (125)I-rhTPO was excreted within 72 hours after dosing.