A brief history and revelation of etiological studies on Keshan disease / 中华地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Keshan disease (KD),an endemic cardiomyopathy liable to affect preschool children and young women with high disability and mortality,occurs in some rural areas of mainland China.However,the cause of KD remains unclear except for a number of plausible hypotheses proposed,which have puzzled scientists for nearly a hundred years since 1935.In this paper,we systematically reviewed KD etiological studies in@@literature,and classified them into five key historical times as followspreliminary investigation stage (from Manchuria to the early days of new China),blossom research stage the 20th century (from the late 1950s through the 1960s),broad collaboration stage (from the 1970s through the mid-1980s),key research stage for selenium compounding factors (from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s),and radical innovation research stage (since the late 1990s).In the past century,several risk factors including unbalanced diet,selenium deficiency,enterovirus infection and mildew cereals,have been proved to be closely related to KD occurrence and development,but their etiological necessity and relationship are yet to be clarified.We highly recommend that the lack of study subjects could be overcome by referring to the major clues identified in literature,by using experimental animal models,and by establishing a core biological specimen bank of KD patients as well.