The analysis of clinical character in different age patients suffered from A-H1N1 / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe the feature of different age patients with A-H1N1.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Cross-sectional study was performed in 95 patients who were confirmed to be infected with A-H1N1 from May, 2009 to July, 2009, in according to their age.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The average age of patients with A-H1N1 infection was 23.44 +/- 14.73. Accumulative prevalence in children and young adult reached 74.7% of total patients. There was a trend that the subclinical infection rate raised gradually from 0-15 years group to over 45 years group. The percent of lymphocyte in 0-15 years group was significantly higher than other age groups, P = 0.039. The average time of virus shedding were 6.5 +/- 2.10 days (from 2 days to 12 days) , and there were no significant difference in diverse age groups, P = 0.272. 13 out of 95 (13.7%) patients presented complications related with A-H1N1 infection, and 4 of 6 patients complicated with pneumonia were in the 0-15 years group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The distribution of age in A-H1N1 infection is markedly different from seasonal influenza, with more cases in school children and young adults and fewer cases in older adults. Flu-like symptoms in children were apparent and pneumonia was the major complication in children.</p>

Detection of antigen-epitope-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in patients with hepatitis B virus infection by enzyme linked immunospot assay / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the ability of secreting interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) of the peripheral blood monocular cells (PBMC) stimulated by hepatitis B virus (HBV)-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes peptides and to analyze the difference of CTL immune response in patients with HBV infection.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Four HLA-A2-restricted HBV cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes [Tp: HBV polymerase 575-583 (FLLSLGIHL), Te1: envelope 28-39 (IPQSLDSWWTSL), Te2: envelope 183-191 (FLLTRILTI) and Tc: core 18-27 (FLPSDFFPSV)] were synthesized. Human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-A2 typing was detected by Flow cytometry. PBMCs which were isolated from patients with chronic hepatitis B(CHB), patients with chronic severe hepatitis B(CSH), subjects with past HBV infection(N1) and healthy blood donors (N2) were stimulated by the four HLA-A2-restricted HBV CTLs epitopes. Enzyme linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay was used to detect the frequency of secreting IFN-gamma CTL in each group.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) HLA-A2 typing: 20 of 44 patients with CHB (45.5%) were HLA-A2 positive, 10/18 (55.6%) in CSH and 6/10 (60%) in group N1 were HLA-A2 positive.10 healthy blood donors' HLA-typing was detected in the early study.(2) ELISPOT results: (1) The total responses to the four epitopes in CHB, CSH, N1 and N2 groups were 50% (10/20), 10% (1/10), 83.3% (5/6) and 10% (1/10), respectively. The response in N1 group was significantly higher than that in CSH group (chi(2) = 9.000, P = 0.008) and N2 group (chi(2) = 9.000, P = 0.008). (2) The CTL average magnitude response to Tp epitope, Te1 epitope, Te2 epitope and Tc epitope was also significantly higher in past HBV infection group (77 SFC/10(6) PBMC, 59 SFC/10(6) PBMC, 100 SFC/10(6) PBMC and 57 SFC/10(6) PBMC, respectively) than that of CSH group (10 SFC/10(6) PBMC, 0 SFC/10(6) PBMC, 0 SFC/10(6) PBMC and 20 SFC/10(6) PBMC respectively, all P < 0.01) and N2 group (15 SFC/10(6) PBMC, 0 SFC/10(6) PBMC, 22 SFC/10(6) PBMC and 30 SFC/10(6) PBMC respectively, all P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>This study indicates that the T cell immune response to HBV-specific epitopes might be detected either in patient with chronic HBV infection or with previous HBV infection. This response should be much higher in patients with past HBV infection, even the virus had been cleared for long time. These results demonstrate that HBV-specific CTL might play an important role in the clearance of the virus.</p>

The etiology and clinical manifestations of 70 patients with hand-foot-mouth disease / 中华预防医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the etiology and clinical manifestations of 70 patients with hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The viral RNA from the pharynx swab samples were extracted and collected from 70 HFMD patients (of which, 60 cases were under 5 years old) to detect the 5'-UTR gene of EV, the Vp3-Vp1 genes of EV71 and Cox-A16 by utilizing the technique of RT-PCR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of 70 HFMD patients, 30 cases (42.8%, 30/70) were positive in enterovirus nucleic acid, including EV71 and Cox-A16, pharynx swab sample testing. While, of the enteroviral pathogen RNA-positive 30 cases, EV71 accounted for 66.7% (20/30). The proportion of etiological positive of 39 samples collected within 4 days after onset was 66.7% (26/39), but the probability of 31 samples collected after more than 5 days after onset was 12.9% (4/31), the difference was significantly (chi(2) = 20.4, P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>HFMD patients were mainly infants and young children between 0-5 years old, but adults could also be attacked. The enterovirus detected was mainly EV71, and the pharynx swab samples should be collected within 4 days after onset to increase the related viral nucleic acid positive detection probability.</p>

The significance of anti-soluble liver antigen/liver-pancreas in diagnosing and typing autoimmune hepatitis / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the significance of anti-soluble liver antigen/liver-pancreas (anti-SLA/LP) in diagnosing and typing autoimmune hepatitis (AIH).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Six thousand patients with abnormal liver functions, who had their autoantibodies checked by immunofluorescent assay (IFA) and immune blotting assay, were reviewed retrospectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of these 6000 patients with liver diseases, 84 were diagnosed AIH. Eighteen patients, 0.3% of the 6000, patients with abnormal liver functions, were SLA/LP antibody positive, of which 17 were with AIH-III [2/17 with AIH /primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) overlap syndrome], and 1 with chronic hepatitis B. Sensitivity and specificity of SLA/LP antibody in diagnosing AIH were 20.2% and 99.7% respectively, and the positive prediction value was 94.44%. The antinuclear antibody (ANA) titer in the AIH-III group was significantly lower than that of the AIH-I group (P < 0.05). The age of patients with anti-SLA/LP was higher (58.8% were over 50 years old) than those without this antibody (52.2% were 30 to 50 years old). There were no significant differences between the type III and type I AIH regarding gender, age, abnormal degree of liver function, PTA, IgG, liver cirrhosis rates and response to immunosuppressive therapy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Anti-SLA/LP is highly specific for diagnosing AIH. Comparing the clinical data of type III and type I AIH, we did not find significant differences between the two groups.</p>

Immunological characteristics of primary biliary cirrhosis patients / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the clinical significance of the immunological characteristics in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>3000 patients with abnormal liver functions were examined for anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-mitochondrial antibodies (AMA), anti-smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) and anti-liver kidney microsomal antibody (LKM) using immunofluorescent assays (IFA). LKM-1, liver cytosolic-1 (LC-1), soluble liver antigen (SLA)/liver- pancreas antigen (LP) and subtype of AMA (M2, M4, M9) as well as ANA profile were detected by an immune blotting assay and an enzyme-linked immune absorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Cytokines were tested by flow cytometry.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 3000 patients with liver diseases, 52 (1.7%) were diagnosed with PBC. All the PBC cases were positive for AMA and M2. 94% of them showed high titer of AMA (> or = 1:320), and in 79% of them M2 was >200 RU/L, and 78% of them were ANA positive. Three main fluorescent patterns of ANA seen were nuclear membrane, nuclear dots and centromere patterns. Sjogren's Syndrome A/B (SS-A/B), homogenous, nucleolar or nuclear granular patterns were seen in only a few patients. IgM, ALP and GGT in PBC patients were significantly higher than those in hepatitis B related liver cirrhosis patients. The levels of IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma in PBC patients were higher than in the normal controls. Among the 52 PBC patients, 5 had autoimmune liver disease overlap syndromes. Two of them were SLA/LP positive, indicated as AIH type III and PBC overlapping, and 1 was LKM-1 positive showing AIH type II overlapping PBC, and 2 had ANA positive and were identified as AIH and PBC by liver biopsy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The percentage of PBC in Chinese liver disease patients is about 1% to 2%. Most of the PBC patients have high levels of AMA and AMA-M2, IgM, ALP, GGT and several cytokines, indicating that abnormality of humeral and cellular immunity may be associated with the pathogenesis of PBC.</p>

Clinical and laboratory characteristics of anti-soluble liver antigen/liver-pancreas (SLA/LP) autoantibody positive liver disease patients / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the clinical and laboratory features of anti-soluble liver antigen/liver-pancreas (SLA/LP) autoantibody positive patients with abnormal liver functions.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>From July 1999 to August 2004, 4928 serum samples from patients with abnormal liver functions (ALT >40 U/L) were collected. A series of autoantibody examinations were carried out. Clinical manifestations and laboratory findings of 8 patients with anti-SLA/LP autoantibody positive were reviewed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the 5500 serum samples, 8 cases (6 females and 2 males) with positive anti-SLA/LP autoantibodies were found with complete clinical information. The age of the patients was (27-76) years old. The case histories were from 2 years to 10 years. Of the 8 patients, 6 cases had liver cirrhosis and HBsAg-negative and anti-HCV-negative, active, 1 case had liver cirrhosis with HBsAg-positive, but HBVDNA negative; 1 case had liver cirrhosis and anti-HCV positive, but HCV RNA negative. The 8 cases were all ANA positive with titers of 31:320. Four cases were AMA positive and 2 among these 4 cases were M2 positive. The most frequent symptoms were fatigue, anorexia, nausea, jaundice, abdominal distention and edema of lower limbs. All patients had high hypergammaglobulinemia.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Anti-SLA/LP autoantibody was at a low detection rate in the study with females in preponderance, Clinical and laboratory characteristics of the 8 cases were consistent with those of the autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). Testing for anti-SLA autoantibodies helps in the diagnosis of AIH in many patients who may otherwise be misdiagnosed.</p>