Clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 in children aged <18 years in Jiangxi, China: an analysis of 23 cases / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children aged <18 years.@*METHODS@#A retrospective analysis was performed from the medical data of 23 children, aged from 3 months to 17 years and 8 months, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Jiangxi, China from January 21 to February 29, 2020.@*RESULTS@#Of the 23 children with COVID-19, 17 had family aggregation. Three children (13%) had asymptomatic infection, 6 (26%) had mild type, and 14 (61%) had common type. Among these 23 children, 16 (70%) had fever, 11 (48%) had cough, 8 (35%) had fever and cough, and 8 (35%) had wet rales in the lungs. The period from disease onset or the first nucleic acid-positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 to the virus nucleic acid negative conversion was 6-24 days (median 12 days). Of the 23 children, 3 had a reduction in total leukocyte count, 2 had a reduction in lymphocytes, 2 had an increase in C-reactive protein, and 2 had an increase in D-dimer. Abnormal pulmonary CT findings were observed in 12 children, among whom 9 had patchy ground-glass opacities in both lungs. All 23 children received antiviral therapy and were recovered.@*CONCLUSIONS@#COVID-19 in children aged <18 years often occurs with family aggregation, with no specific clinical manifestation and laboratory examination results. Most of these children have mild symptoms and a good prognosis. Epidemiological history is of particular importance in the diagnosis of COVID-19 in children aged <18 years.

DNA repair gene XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and susceptibility to cardia and non-cardia gastric cancer: a case-control study / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the association between genetic polymorphisms of XRCC3 Thr241Met gene and susceptibility to gastric cardia and/non-cardia gastric cancer, and to investigate the combined effect between genes and surrounding environment.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A case-control study with respective control group was conducted. Genotypes were investigated by PCR-RFLP. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odd ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals(95% CI).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequency of XRCC3 CC, CT and TT genotypes were 43.2%, 46.5% and 10.3%, respectively in cardia cancer cases and 53.2%, 40.9% and 5.8% respectively in non-cardia gastric cancer cases while 59.6%, 35.1%, 5.3%, respectively in control group. Variated genotypes (CT and TT) increased the risk of cardia cancer after adjusting for potential confounders (OR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.07-2.90). On cardia cancer risks, there seemed combined effects between variated genotype and high rate of alcohol drinking, low intake of fresh vegetables and having chronic gastritis. Combined effects between variated genotype and smoking, having chronic gastritis were observed in non-gastric cancer group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>XRCC3 variated genotype was one of the risk factors of cardia cancer while different risks of factors might exsit between cardia and non-cardia gastric cancer.</p>