CT manifestation for excavated-type of rhomboid fossa of the clavicle / 中国骨伤

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the manifestation of CT for excavated-type of rhomboid fossa of the clavicle.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Nine cases with rhomboid fossaes of the clavicle of 8 patients accepted CT and 1 case added MRI together;all 8 patients were male who aged from 17 to 70 years old with mean age of 42.5 years old;three dimensional reconstruction of all CTs were made, the distance between focus and inside end of clavicle and the size of all focus were measured respectively, then the position, shape, margin of focus were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>All focuses located near the inside end of clavicle and the distances between focus and inside end of clavicle were lower than 2 cm and the mean value was 1.3 cm, the size of all focuses was from 1.05 to 3.45 cm and the mean value was 2.18 cm. All 9 focuses of 8 patients located in the posterior and nether edge of inside end of clavicle, 5 cases located in right and 4 cases located in left side(both right and left side occurred in 1 patient. Seven focuses showed "fishhook sign" and the rest 2 focuses were small and without fishhook shape;the cortex of clavicle of all 9 cases showed local minus and nearly marrow showed integrated sclerotic margin. Regular soft tissue as strip can be seen in 7 focuses and the rest small focuses without the symptom.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>CT could show certain characteristics for excavated-type of rhomboid fossa of the clavicle and certain value for its diagnosis and identification.</p>

Evaluation of immunization protection efficacy of plague subunit vaccine / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the protective efficacy of plague subunit vaccine, BALB/c mice, guinea pigs and rabbits were used in this study.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Groups of mice (10 per group), guinea pigs (14 per group) and rabbits (6 per group) were immunized with F1 + rV270 vaccine, EV76 vaccine and alum adjuvant by intramuscular route, respectively. Serum antibody titres of mice, guinea pigs and rabbits were determined by ELISA and the immunized animals were challenged with 10(6) CFU of Y. pestis strain 141 at the 8th week after the primary immunization.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The immunized mice, guinea pigs or rabbits with subunit vaccine developed anti-F1 IgG titre of 41 587.3 +/- 2.1, 11 543.7 +/- 2.1 or 522.4 +/- 22.4 and elicited statistical anti-F1 IgG titre difference among them (F = 17.58, P < 0.01). The immunized mice, guinea pigs or rabbits with subunit vaccine had anti-rV270 IgG titre of 15 748.7 +/- 1.6, 12.6 +/- 1.4 or 1648.0 +/- 5.0 and induced statistical anti-rV270 IgG titre difference among them (F value was 16.34, P < 0.01). There was significant anti-F1 IgG titre difference among mice, guinea pigs and rabbits immunized with EV76 vaccine that developed anti-F1 IgG titre of 913.4 +/- 4.5, 937.0 +/- 2.0 or 342.0 +/- 12.0 (F = 23.67, P < 0.01), whereas the immunized mice, guinea pigs and rabbits with EV76 vaccine developed anti-rV270 IgG titre of 12.0 +/- 1.0, 447.0 +/- 10.0, 40.0 +/- 11.0 and there was no anti-rV270 IgG titre difference between them (F = 2.20, P = 0.1314). The immunized mice with subunit vaccine developed significantly higher anti-F1 IgG titres than immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q value was 30.57 and 19.04, respectively, P < 0.01), and there were no anti-F1 IgG titre differences between the immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q = 0.04, P = 0.8485). The immunized mice with subunit vaccine developed significantly higher anti-rV270 IgG titres than immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q value was 27.10 and 19.49, respectively, P < 0.01), and there were no anti-rV270 IgG titre differences between the immunized guinea pigs and rabbits with the subunit vaccine (q = 0.25, P = 0.6187). The immunized mice with EV76 elicited higher anti-F1 IgG titres than immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q value was 40.67 and 29.10, respectively, P < 0.01), whereas there was no difference of F1 IgG titer between immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q = 0.06, P = 0.8098). The immunized mice, guinea pigs and rabbits with subunit vaccine provided 100% (10/10), 86% (12/14) and 100% (5/5) protection against 10(6) CFU Y. pestis of challenge, respectively. The immunized mice, guinea pigs and rabbits with EV76 vaccine gave 100% (6/6), 93% (13/14) and 100% (6/6) protection against 10(6) CFU Y. pestis of challenge respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>BALB/c mice is the best small animal model for valuation of protective efficacy of plague subunit vaccine. The guinea pigs showed a high individual variation for this purpose. The rabbits can be used as an alternative model for evaluating plague subunit vaccine.</p>

A sero-epidemiologic survey on human plague in source of three rivers area Qinghai from 2005 to 2007 / 中国地方病学杂志

Objective To explore the characteristics of human plague using a sero-epidemiologic method in the source of the three rivers area in Qinghai for possible plague control strategies. Methods Investigate human plague sero-epidemiologically in the source of 4 counties in the three rivers area in Qinghai. The human serum would be tested to confirm the sew-positive rate for plague F1 antibody using indirect hemagglutination assay(IHA). Results A total of 2508 local participants were tested in 4 counties, the overall plague sero-positive rate was 2.31%(58/2508). This represents a statistically significant difference with 4 counties(X2=19.30,P<0.01). The sew-positive rate for males and females were 2.54% (32/1261) and 2.09% (26/1247), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between males and females(X2= 0.65,P 0.05). The sero-positive rate in herdsman, cadre, Tibetan, Hart nationalities were 3.54% (44/1243), 6.47% (11 / 170), 2.40% (56/2335) and 1.47% (2/136), respectively. The sero- positive rate increased with age. The highest titre for human plague serum antibody was 1 : 640. Conclusion There were occult infections of plague in the population on source of three rivers area in Qinghai. Sero-epidemiologic data revealed that the human plague sero-positive rate was closely correlated with the local animal plague.