Depression status of elderly patients with metabolic syndrome in three provinces of China / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To understand the depression status and its influencing factors in elderly patients with MS in China and to explore the correlation between various components of elderly MS and depression. Methods: This study is based on the "Prevention and Intervention of Key Diseases in Elderly" project. We used a multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method to complete 16 199 elderly aged 60 years and above in 16 counties (districts) in Liaoning, Henan, and Guangdong Provinces in 2019, excluding 1 001 missing variables. Finally, 15 198 valid samples were included for analysis. The respondents' MS disease was obtained through questionnaires and physical examinations, and the respondents' depression status within the past half month was assessed using the PHQ-9 Depression Screening Scale. The correlation between elderly MS and its components and depression and its influencing factors were analyzed by logistic regression. Results: A total of 15 198 elderly aged 60 years and above were included in this study, with the prevalence of MS at 10.84% and the detection rate of depressive symptoms in MS patients at 25.49%. The detection rates of depressive symptoms in patients with 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 MS abnormal group scores were 14.56%, 15.17%, 18.01%, 25.21%, and 26.65%, respectively. The number of abnormal components of MS was positively correlated with the detection rate of depressive symptoms, and the difference between groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). The risk of depression symptoms in patients with MS, overweight/obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia was 1.73 times (OR=1.73, 95%CI:1.51-1.97), 1.13 times (OR=1.13, 95%CI:1.03-1.24), 1.25 times (OR=1.25, 95%CI:1.14-1.38), 1.41 times (OR=1.41, 95%CI:1.24-1.60), 1.81 times (OR=1.81,95%CI:1.61-2.04), respectively, more than those without the disease. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the detection rate of depressive symptoms in patients with sleep disorders was higher than that with normal sleep (OR=4.89, 95%CI: 3.79-6.32). The detection rate of depressive symptoms in patients with cognitive dysfunction was 2.12 times higher than that in the average population (OR=2.12, 95%CI: 1.56-2.89). The detection rate of depressive symptoms in patients with impaired instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) was 2.31 times (OR=2.31, 95%CI: 1.64-3.26) higher than that in the average population. Tea drinking (OR=0.73, 95%CI: 0.54-0.98) and physical exercise (OR=0.67, 95%CI: 0.49-0.90) seemed to be protective factors for depression in elderly MS patients (P<0.05). Conclusions: Older patients with MS and its component abnormalities have a higher risk of depression than the average population. Sleep disorders, cognitive impairment, and IADL impairment are important influencing factors for depression in elderly MS patients, while tea drinking and physical exercise may help to reduce the risk of the disease.

Long-term efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam in different age groups of children with epilepsy: A 210 cases report / 解放军医学杂志

Objective To investigate the long-term efficacy and tolerability of levetiracetam (LEV) in mono-or increasing dosage for treatment of children in different age groups suffering from epilepsy. Methods Two hundred and ten outpatient children with epilepsy inhabiting in southwest of China were treated with mono-or increasing dosage of LEV. The children were divided into five different groups: infant group (n=58), nursery group (n=46), preschool age group (n=60), school age group (n=40) and adolescence group (n=6). The initial LEV dose was 10mg/(kg.d), twice a day, and then the dosage increased gradually reaching the target dose 60mg/(kg.d) during 3-4 weeks to achieve good effect and tolerability. The children were followed up for 4 years, the efficacy of LEV was evaluated based on the number of seizures before and after drug administration, and the side effects were observed. Results Five groups of children treated with LEV showed obviously decreased seizure frequency compared with that of baseline frequency (P0.05). Among infant group, nursery group, preschool age group, and school age group, the effective rate of LEV treatment was 70.0% (40/58), 76.1% (35/46), 58.3% (35/60), and 82.5% (33/40), respectively, and the complete remission rate was 41.8% (26/58), 58.7% (27/46), 41.7% (25/60) and 67.5% (27/40), respectively. The major side effects observed were somnolence, irritability, general fatigue, headache, abnormal behavior, learning disability, declined cognitive ability, anorexia, etc. The incidence of side effect in infants group, nursery group, preschool age group and school age group was 39.7%, 54.3%, 61.7% and 52.5%, respectively. Conclusions LEV may obviously decrease the seizure frequency of epilepsy in all the age groups of children, especially in school age group. LEV shows a short duration and low incidence of side effects, especially in the infant group.

Isolating sperm cells and preparing DNA from mixture sample / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To establish a method of preparing and analyzing DNA of sperm cells from sample mixtures.@*METHODS@#Sperm cells were captured by micromanipulation method, DNA template was prepared from these sperm cells, and then amplified by multiple displacement amplification (MDA).@*RESULTS@#High-yield of highly integrated DNA was produced by MDA from very small amount of DNA template of 20 sperm cells. The DNA could be amplified at least 30,000-fold, and the length of most the DNA segments were greater than 15 kb, providing sufficient amount of short tandem repeat (STR) products for DNA genotyping.@*CONCLUSION@#The micromanipulation method is efficient to isolate sperm cells from sample mixtures and multiple displacement amplification can provide sufficient amount of DNA products for STR genotyping. The method seems to be feasible in detecting DNA from rape cases.