Progress in evidence-based medicine for the treatment of optic neuritis / 中华实验眼科杂志

Optic neuritis is a common optic neuropathy,which typically presents with sudden loss of vision.Visual deficit of optic neuritis varies in severity and generally can be improved spontaneously over several-month duration.The most convincing eight evidences from level Ⅰ and Ⅱ evidence of evidence-based medicine( EBM ) about the treatment of all the optic neuritis were collected by searching theCochrane Controlled TrialsRegister (CENTRAL),MEDLINE,EMBASE and reference lists of identified trial reports since the last decade.At present,the latest findings showed that there is no conclusive evidence of benefit in terms of recovery to normal visual acuity,visual field or contrast sensitivity with either intravenous or oral corticosteroids at the doses evaluated in trials included in this review.Either no treatment or intravenous corticosteroid therapy followed by oral corticosteroids is appropriate,and intravenous corticosteroid may benefit the patient in terms of faster recovery to normal vision.There may be of different treatment of optic neuritis in China compared to Western countries due to geographical,racial and genetic background that may cause different etiology and clinical features of optic neuritis.Therefore,in China,it is imperative to carry out a large randomized control trial(RCT) of optic neuritis as soon as possible to get the best evidence for the management of optic neuritis patients.

A time series analysis of outdoor air pollution and preterm birth in Shanghai, China / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the relation between air pollution exposure and preterm birth in Shanghai, China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We examined the effect of ambient air pollution on preterm birth using time-series approach in Shanghai in 2004. This method can eliminate potential confounding by individual risk factors that do not change over a short period of time. Daily numbers of preterm births were obtained from the live birth database maintained by Shanghai Municipal Center of Disease Control and Prevention. We used the generalized additive model (GAM) with penalized splines to analyze the relation between preterm birth, air pollution, and covariates.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>We observed a significant effect of outdoor air pollution only with 8-week exposure before preterm births. An increase of 10 microg/m3 of 8-week average PM10, SO2, NO2, and O3 corresponded to 4.42% (95%CI 1.60%, 7.25%), 11.89% (95%CI 6.69%, 17.09%), 5.43% (95%CI 1.78%, 9.08%), and 4.63% (95%CI 0.35%, 8.91%) increase of preterm birth. We did not find any significant acute effect of outdoor air pollution on preterm birth in the week before birth.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Ambient air pollution may contribute to the risk of preterm birth in Shanghai. Our analyses also strengthen the rationale for further limiting air pollution level in the city.</p>

Interaction between ambient particles and ozone and its effect on daily mortality / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To examine the effect of particulate matter (PM) less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10) and ozone (O3) on daily mortality in Shanghai, China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A generalized additive model with penalized spline function was used to observe the acute effect of PM10 and O3 on daily mortality.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Higher PM10 significantly increased the effect of O3 on total mortality, and O3 also increased the effect of PM10 although the estimated increment was statistically insignificant.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our findings provide further evidence for the effect of PM10 and O3 on daily mortality.</p>

Application of DALYs in measuring health effect of ambient air pollution: a case study in Shanghai, China / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of ambient air pollution on human health and the subsequent disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost in Shanghai.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We used epidemiology-based exposure-response functions to calculate the attributable number of cases due to air pollution in Shanghai in 2000, and then we estimated the corresponding DALYs lost in Shanghai based on unit DALYs values of the health consequences.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Ambient air pollution caused 103,064 DALYs lost in Shanghai in 2000. Among all the health endpoints, premature deaths and chronic bronchitis predominated in the value of total DALYs lost.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The air pollution levels have an adverse effect on the general population health and strengthen the rationale for limiting the levels of air pollution in outdoor air in Shanghai.</p>