Similarities and Differences of Early Pulmonary CT Features of Pneumonia Caused by SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV: Comparison Based on a Systemic Review / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

Objective To compare the similarities and differences of early CT manifestations of three types of viral pneumonia induced by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), SARS-CoV (SARS) and MERS-CoV (MERS) using a systemic review. Methods Electronic database were searched to identify all original articles and case reports presenting chest CT features for adult patients with COVID-19, SARS and MERS pneumonia respectively. Quality of literature and completeness of presented data were evaluated by consensus reached by three radiologists. Vote-counting method was employed to include cases of each group. Data of patients' manifestations in early chest CT including lesion patterns, distribution of lesions and specific imaging signs for the three groups were extracted and recorded. Data were compared and analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Results A total of 24 studies were included, composing of 10 studies of COVID-19, 5 studies of MERS and 9 studies of SARS. The included CT exams were 147, 40, and 122 respectively. For the early CT features of the 3 pneumonias, the basic lesion pattern with respect to "mixed ground glass opacity (GGO) and consolidation, GGO mainly, or consolidation mainly" was similar among the 3 groups (=7.966, >0.05). There were no significant differences on the lesion distribution (=13.053, >0.05) and predominate involvement of the subpleural area of bilateral lower lobes (=4.809, >0.05) among the 3 groups. The lesions appeared more focal in COVID-19 pneumonia at early phase (=23.509, <0.05). The proportions of crazy-paving pattern (=23.037, <0.001), organizing pneumonia pattern (<0.05) and pleural effusions (<0.001) in COVID-19 pneumonia were significantly lower than the other two. Although rarely shown in the early CT findings of all three viral pneumonias, the fibrotic changes were more frequent in SARS than COVID-19 and MERS (=6.275, <0.05). For other imaging signs, only the MERS pneumonia demonstrated tree-in-buds, cavitation, and its incidence rate of interlobular or intralobular septal thickening presented significantly increased as compared to the other two pneumonia (=22.412, <0.05). No pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum and lymphadenopathy was present for each group. Conclusions Imaging findings on early stage of these three coronavirus pneumonias showed similar basic lesion patterns, including GGO and consolidation, bilateral distribution, and predominant involvement of the subpleural area and the lower lobes. Early signs of COVID-19 pneumonia showed less severity of inflammation. Early fibrotic changes appeared in SARS only. MERS had more severe inflammatory changes including cavitation and pleural effusion. The differences may indicate the specific pathophysiological processes for each coronavirus pneumonia.

Subjects with impaired glucose tolerance returned to normal glucose status for six years had lower long-term risk of diabetes: 20 years follow up of Daqing diabetes prevention study / 中华内科杂志

Objective To explore the influence of lifestyle intervention on long-term diabetes in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) returned to normal glucose tolerance (NGT) within 6 years.Methods A total of 577 subjects (aged 25-74 years old) with IGT in Daqing were enrolled and randomly assigned to control,and diet,exercise and diet plus exercise groups in a six-year intervention trial in 1986.Subjects who were non-diabetic at the end of the intervention were followed up for additional 14 years.Results Among all the subjects,41.38％ of them who had returned to NGT from IGT within 6 years maintained NGT status after 20 years,and had a lower incidence of diabetes than subjects maintained IGT status (46.55％ vs.75.25％).Of note,in the intervention group,the percentage of participants developed diabetes in the NGT subjects was significantly lower than that in the IGT group (43.71％ vs.76.25％) after 20 years.There was high long-term risk for diabetes in the IGT subjects after the adjustment of age,sex and baseline glucose (HR=1.81,95％CI 1.27-2.58,P=0.001),whereas in the non-intervention group,no significant difference could be viewed in long-term diabetic risk between subjects maintained IGT status and those returned to NGT (71.43％ vs.65.22％) after adjusting of the same confounders (HR=1.03,95％CI 0.45-2.35,P=0.94).Conclusions IGT subjects who had returned to NGT in early years had lower risk for future diabetes than those who remained IGT.However,this beneficial effect could only be viewed in the intervention group,but not in the non-intervention group.

Effect of drought stress on growth of Glycyrrhiza uralensis / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effect of drought stress on the growth of Glycyrrhiza uralensis and its drought resistance characteristic.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The growth in dicators of G. uralensis including leaf, stem, root and biomass were measured when two-years-old G. uralensis had lived in drought stress soil for 60 days.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The growth of all organs of G. uralensis was restrained because of drought stress, especially to up ground organs.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>It is obvious that the restraining effect of drought stress on G. uralensis possesses organ speciality. Both yield and quality of G. uralensis will be satisfied when it grows in the soil with relative water content of 50%.</p>