Value of prognostic nutritional index in predicting the prognosis of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in predicting the prognosis of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 242 patients who were admitted to Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Qinghai University Affiliated Hospital, from January 2015 to December 2018 and underwent surgical treatment of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis. The results of routine blood test and liver function were collected at 1 week before surgery, and PNI was calculated. X-Tile software was used to determine the cut-off value of PNI, and according to this cut-off value, the patients were divided into high PNI group with 216 patients and low PNI group with 26 patients. The chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups; the Kaplan-Meier method was used to plot survival curves, and the log-rank test was used for comparison between groups; the Cox regression model was used to perform univariate and multivariate analyses, and hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. ResultsPNI was associated with treatment modality, intraoperative blood loss, stage of echinococcosis, number of lesions, Child-Pugh class, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin, albumin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), prothrombin time (PT), and lymphocyte count (all P＜0.05). The low PNI group had 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of 92.1%, 30.5%, and 20.3%, respectively, after surgery, while the high PNI group had 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of 957%, 79.5%, and 56.9%, respectively. The mean survival time was 33.783 (95% CI: 26.450-51.355) months in the low PNI group and 51.355 (95% CI: 49.044-53.666) months in the high PNI group, and there was a significant difference between the two groups (χ2=24.626, P＜0.001). The univariate Cox regression analysis showed that PNI, surgical procedure, intraoperative blood loss, stage of echinococcosis, Child-Pugh class, complication, ALP, PT, neutrophils, and platelets were associated with the prognosis of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (all P＜0.05), and the multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that treatment modality (HR=1.461, 95%CI: 1.132-1.890, P=0.004), intraoperative blood loss (HR=6.078, 95%CI: 3.412-10.826, P＜0001), PNI(HR=0.367, 95%CI: 0.192-0.701, P=0.002), complications (HR=2.007, 95%CI: 1.204-3.346, P=0.008), and neutrophils (HR=2.772, 95%CI: 1.304-5.891, P=0.008) were independent risk factors for the prognosis of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis. ConclusionPNI can be used to predict the prognosis of patients with hepatic alveolar echinococcosis. The higher the peripheral blood PNI before surgery, the better the prognosis of patients.

Analysis on the current situation of insufficient sleep and its association with physical exercise among Chinese Han students aged 9-18 years, in 2014 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To describe the situation of insufficient sleep and the association between insufficient sleep and physical exercise, among Chinese Han students aged 9-18 years. Methods: We selected 172 197 Chinese Han students aged 9-18 years from the project 2014 Chinese National Survey on Students Constitution and Health. The average sleep duration per day of less than 9 h for children aged 9-12 years and of less than 8 h for adolescents aged 13-18 years, were defined as insufficient sleep. We described the distribution of sleep duration and the prevalence rates of insufficient sleep for each subgroup. Logistic regression models were established to assess the association between insufficient sleep and physical exercise. Results: In 2014, 6.6%, 30.8%, 26.3%, 20.8%, 13.8% and 1.8% of the Chinese Han students self-reported sleep duration were <6, 6-, 7-, 8- and ≥10 h, respectively. The overall prevalence rate of insufficient sleep was 77.2%, with 75.8% for boys and 78.6% for girls. No gender disparity was found at each 9-11 age groups. However, in the 12-18 age groups, the prevalence rates for girls were significantly higher than that for boys. The prevalence rates of insufficient sleep for primary school, middle school and high school students were66.6%, 74.1% and 93.8%, respectively. Rates were increasing with age for children aged 9-12 years and adolescents aged 13-18 years respectively. The three provinces with the lowest prevalence rates of insufficient sleep were Zhejiang (68.8%), Jiangsu (66.7%) and Shaanxi (65.2%). Data from the logistic regression models revealed that, when comparing to those students with only exercise of <0.5 h per day, the exercise hours of 0.5-1 h (OR=0.72, 95%CI: 0.69-0.74) or ≥1 h (OR=0.46, 95%CI: 0.44-0.47) per day seemed as protective factors for insufficient sleep. When compared with physical exercise frequency <2 times per week, the 2 times (OR=0.82, 95%CI: 0.78-0.86) or >2 times (OR=0.65, 95%CI: 0.62-0.68) frequencies also appeared as protective. Conclusions: The prevalence rate of insufficient sleep prevailing among students aged 9-18 years was high, in China. Our data called for setting up effective measures to deal with this situation.

Recent transmission of pulmonary tuberculosis and its influencing factors in Jing'an district, Shanghai, 2010-2015 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To understand the recent transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), and to identify the influencing factors of recent transmission among pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients in Jing'an district, Shanghai. Methods: The genotypes and drug resistances of MTB isolated from TB patients registered in the TB designated hospitals in Jing'an district during 2010-2015 were analyzed through 12-loci Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR)(QUB11b, QUB18, Mtub21, Miru26, QUB26, Mtub04, Miru31, Miru40, VNTR2372, VNTR3820, 3232, 4120), and tested for drug susceptibility as well. With the results of field epidemiological investigation, univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to analyze the distribution of the clusters and influencing factors on recent transmission. Results: This study enrolled 80 TB patients, 23 (28.75%) had a resistance to at least one anti-TB drug, and the prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) was 16.25%. A total of 65 genotypes were identified with 58 (72.50%, 58/80) being unique and 7 clusters with 2-10 isolated in each cluster. The proportion of clustering was 27.50% (22/80). Results from the multivariate analysis revealed that multidrug- resistance (OR=35.799, 95%CI: 4.239-302.346) and having comorbidity with TB (OR=7.695, 95%CI: 1.421-41.658) were independently associated with the clustering, which suggesting a recent transmission. The field investigation to the clustered cases proved that the patients in two clusters had epidemiological links, one was between family members, and the other contained 10 MDR-TB patients with 9 knowing each other which have a definite connection and 1 having the possible connection with them. Conclusion: Recent transmission of tuberculosis happened among TB patients in Jing'an district, with high risks among the MDR-TB patients.