Sensitizing breast cancers to immune checkpoint inhibitors through CD27 agonism and vaccination against tumor-associated antigen

Project objective: Despite the recent revolution in immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), only modest improvement in overall survival and likely caused by not enough potent cellular immunity among BC patients. Our lab has been focus on inducing cellular immunity against HER2+ BC through vaccination against the tumor-associated antigen HER2. Approximately 20 years ago, we performed an experimental pilot study by administrating HER2 peptide and recombinant protein pulsed dendritic cells (DC vaccine) to six patients with refractory HER2+ advanced or metastatic (stage II (>= 6 +LN), III, or stage IV) BC. We followed the patients on 2019 found that all of the six patients were still alive, 18 years after vaccination. Their blood sample were analyzed with cytometry by time-offlight (CyTOF) and found there is a significantly increased presence of CD27 expressing memory T cells in response to HER2 peptide stimulation. Recent report on the SARS-CoV2 mRNA vaccine also suggested that CD27 expressing memory T cells plays a critical role in long-lasting cellular immunity against SARS-CoV2 infection. Therefore, we hypothesized that CD27 plays a critical role in cellular immunity against BC, and the stimulation of CD27 expressing T cells with mAb targeting CD27 significantly increase the cellular immunity triggered by vaccination against tumor-associated antigen. Result(s): We recapitulate the rise of CD27+ antigen specific T cells among the vaccinated patients using a transgenic mouse model expressing human CD27. When combined the adenoviral-vector based HER2 (Ad-HER2) vaccination with a single dose of human aCD27 antibody (Varlilumab), we found there is a robust increase in the HER2 specific T cells compared to vaccination alone, especially CD27+CD44+ memory CD4 T cells, even after 120 days post vaccination. Using an ICIinsensitive syngeneic HER2+ BC models, we found 50% of mice in the combination group of aCD27 antibody plus Ad-HER2 showed total tumor regression by the end of study. When combined with anti-PD1 antibody, the combination of AdHER2 and Varlilumab leads to total tumor regression in 90% of tumor bearing mice with syngeneic HER2+ BC, indicating that the vaccination against tumor associated antigen HER2 plus anti-CD27 antibody sensitized ICI-insensitive HER2+ BC toward ICI. Conclusion(s): Our data demonstrates that the administration of anti-CD27 antibody significantly increase the long term presence of CD27+ antigen specific memory T cells after vaccination against tumor associated antigen HER2. As consequence, combination of anti-CD27 with HER2 sensitized the immune unresponsive breast cancer toward anti-PD1 antibody. Our study suggests that the vaccination against tumor-associated antigen with mAb targeting CD27 leads to the robust cellular immunity, which is required for successful ICIs against breast cancer.

[Clinical characteristics and short-term prognosis of 22 cases with SARS-CoV-2 infection associated acute encephalopathy].

Objective: To investigate the clinical features and short-term prognosis of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection associated acute encephalopathy (AE). Methods: Retrospective cohort study. The clinical data, radiological features and short-term follow-up of 22 cases diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection associated AE in the Department of Neurology, Beijing Children's Hospital from December 2022 to January 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into cytokine storm group, excitotoxic brain damage group and unclassified encephalopathy group according to the the clinicopathological features and the imaging features. The clinical characteristics of each group were analyzed descriptively. Patients were divided into good prognosis group (≤2 scores) and poor prognosis group (>2 scores) based on the modified Rankin scale (mRS) score of the last follow-up. Fisher exact test or Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the two groups. Results: A total of 22 cases (12 females, 10 males) were included. The age of onset was 3.3 (1.7, 8.6) years. There were 11 cases (50%) with abnormal medical history, and 4 cases with abnormal family history. All the enrolled patients had fever as the initial clinical symptom, and 21 cases (95%) developed neurological symptoms within 24 hours after fever. The onset of neurological symptoms included convulsions (17 cases) and disturbance of consciousness (5 cases). There were 22 cases of encephalopathy, 20 cases of convulsions, 14 cases of speech disorders, 8 cases of involuntary movements and 3 cases of ataxia during the course of the disease. Clinical classification included 3 cases in the cytokine storm group, all with acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE); 9 cases in the excitotoxicity group, 8 cases with acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD) and 1 case with hemiconvulsion-hemiplegia syndrome; and 10 cases of unclassified encephalopathy. Laboratory studies revealed elevated glutathione transaminase in 9 cases, elevated glutamic alanine transaminase in 4 cases, elevated blood glucose in 3 cases, and elevated D-dimer in 3 cases. Serum ferritin was elevated in 3 of 5 cases, serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light chain protein was elevated in 5 of 9 cases, serum cytokines were elevated in 7 of 18 cases, and CSF cytokines were elevated in 7 of 8 cases. Cranial imaging abnormalities were noted in 18 cases, including bilateral symmetric lesions in 3 ANE cases and "bright tree appearance" in 8 AESD cases. All 22 cases received symptomatic treatment and immunotherapy (intravenous immunoglobulin or glucocorticosteroids), and 1 ANE patient received tocilizumab. The follow-up time was 50 (43, 53) d, and 10 patients had a good prognosis and 12 patients had a poor prognosis. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of epidemiology, clinical manifestations, biochemical indices, and duration of illness to initiate immunotherapy (all P>0.05). Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection is also a major cause of AE. AESD and ANE are the common AE syndromes. Therefore, it is crucial to identify AE patients with fever, convulsions, and impaired consciousness, and apply aggressive therapy as early as possible.

[Performance of screening of contacts of COVID-19 cases in same flight].

Objective: To understand the performance of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid detection in screening of contacts of COVID-19 cases in same flights and provide evidence for the effective screening of persons at high risk for the infection in domestic flights. Methods: The information of passengers who took same domestic flights with COVID-19 cases in China from April 1, 2020 to April 30, 2022 were retrospectively collected,and χ2 test was used to analyze positive nucleic acid detection rates in the passengers in different times before the onsets of the index cases, in different seat rows and in epidemic periods of different 2019-nCoV variants. Results: During the study period, a total of 433 index cases were identified among 23 548 passengers in 370 flights. Subsequently, 72 positive cases of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid were detected in the passengers, in whom 57 were accompanying persons of the index cases. Further analysis of the another 15 passengers who tested positive for the nucleic acid showed that 86.67% of them had onsets or positive detections within 3 days after the diagnosis of the index cases, and the boarding times were all within 4 days before the onsets of the index cases. The positive detection rate in the passengers who seated in first three rows before and after the index cases was 0.15% (95%CI: 0.08%-0.27%), significantly higher than in the passengers in other rows (0.04%, 95%CI: 0.02%-0.10%, P=0.007),and there was no significant difference in the positive detection rate among the passengers in each of the 3 rows before and after the index cases (P=0.577). No significant differences were found in the positive detection rate in the passengers, except the accompanying persons, among the epidemics caused by different 2019-nCoV variants (P=0.565). During the Omicron epidemic period, all the positive detections in the passengers, except the accompanying persons, were within 3 days before the onset of the index cases. Conclusions: The screening test of 2019-nCoV nucleic acid can be conducted in the passengers took the same flights within 4 days before the onsets of the index cases on board. Passengers who seated within 3 rows from the index cases can considered as the close contacts at high risk for 2019-nCoV, for whom screening should be conducted first and special managements are needed. The passengers in other rows can be classified as general risk persons for screening and management.

Clinical characteristics of 654 patients with COVID-19 in Dongxihu Shelter Hospital in Wuhan

Objective To analyze the clinical features of patients with coronavirus disease 2019COVID-19in Wuhan, and we provide reference for further prevention and control of the disease. Methods We collected the clinical data of patients with COVID-19 in Dongxihu Shelter Hospital of Wuhan from February 7 to March 6, 2020. The main symptoms, blood test results, lung CT results, and nucleic acid negative conversion were analyzed. Results A total of 654 patients were included, 17526.76%were mild, and 47973.24%were general. There were 344 males (52.60%), and 310 females (47.40%). The patients were with a mean age of49.36+/-10.30years, and 97 patients (14.83%) with a history of hypertension, 51 patients (7.80%) had a history of diabetes. The main clinical symptoms were fever with 547(83.64%) patients, 186 cases (28.44%) had chills, 15 cases (2.29%) had shiver, 342(52.29%) had fatigue symptoms, 413(63.15%) had cough, 137(20.95%) had chest tightness, and 109(16.67%) had diarrhea during the course of the disease. Blood routine tests of 395 patients, the white blood cell count (WBC) was (4.12+/-1.46)x109/L. The total white blood cell count was normal in 378 cases(95.70%), increased in 7(1.77%), and decreased in 10(2.53%). The lymphocyte percentage was (23.10+/-10.02)%, lymphocyte1.06+/-0.37x109/L. The percentage and count of lymphocyte were low. All the 654 cases were examined by CT, 175 cases (26.76%) showed normal lung CT, 422 cases (64.52%) showed patchy or segmental ground-glass opacity, and 57 cases (8.72%) showed multilobar consolidation, ground-glass shadow coexisted with consolidation or streak shadow. The interval between positive nucleic acid test before admission and negative test after admission was as short as 5 days and as long as 24 days, the average was (12.35+/-3.73) days. Conclusion Fever, coughing, and fatigue are the main symptoms in patients with COVID-19. The typical lung CT findings can be used as the basis for clinical diagnosis and disease evaluation. Patients with mild and common type had better prognosis.Copyright © 2021 Editorial Office of Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control. All rights reserved.

Residential Segregation as a Barrier to Covid-19 Booster Coverage in Deep South

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been a stronger hit in Deep South compared with other developed regions in the United States, and vaccination remains a top priority for all eligible individuals. However, there are limited data regarding the progress of booster coverage in the Deep South and how the coverage varies by county and age group, which is of critical importance for future vaccine planning. Racial/ethnic disparities were found in the COVID-19 vaccination, but the vast majority of evidence was generated from studies at the individual level. There is an urgent need for evidence at the population level to reveal and evaluate the booster coverage in racial/ethnic minority communities, which could identify vulnerable communities and inform future healthcare policymaking and resource allocation. We evaluated county-level COVID-19 booster coverage by age group in the Deep South and examined its relationship with residential segregation. Method(s): We conducted an ecological study at the population level by integrating COVID-19 vaccine surveillance data, residential segregation index, and county-level factors across the 418 counties of five Deep South states from December 15, 2021 to October 19, 2022. We analyzed the cumulative percentages of county-level COVID-19 booster coverage by age group (e.g., 12 to 17 years old, 18 to 64 years old, and at least 65 years old) by the end of the study period. We examined the longitudinal relationships between residential segregation, interaction of time and residential segregation, and COVID-19 booster coverage using the Poisson mixed model. Result(s): As of October 19, 2022, among the 418 counties, the median percentage of booster coverage was 40% (interquartile range [IQR]: 37.8-43.0%). Compared with elders, youth and adults had lower percentages of booster uptake. There was geospatial heterogeneity in the COVID-19 booster coverage. Results of the Poisson mixed model found that as time increased, higher segregated counties had lower percentages of booster coverage. Such relationships were consistent across the age groups. Conclusion(s): The progress of county-level COVID-19 booster coverage in the Deep South was slow and varied by age group. Residential segregation precluded the county-level COVID-19 booster coverage across age groups. Future efforts regarding vaccine planning should focus on youth and adults. Healthcare facilities and resources are needed in racial/ethnic minority communities. Residential segregation and COVID-19 booster coverage by age group in the 418 counties across the five Deep South states from December 15, 2021 to October 19, 2022.

The impact of COVID-19 on access to mental health services and the use of teletherapy as an alternative form of treatment

The aim of this research study is to determine the impact of COVID-19 on access related to mental health services and also explain the use of teletherapy as an alternative form of treatment. This research study is based on secondary research data analysis to determine the research study data collected from websites related to the ratios of COVID-19 also that mental health services. Determine the research study used E-views software, and the generated result included descriptive statistics, correlations, the dickey fuller test analysis, the histogram, and state, also that explain the variance and test of equality between them. The overall result shows COVID-19 shows a direct impact on mental health services;teletherapy directly links with mental health services. Benefits make teletherapy the best online therapy session for overcoming various types of depression and mental illness in patients. Also, teletherapy is an alternative form of mental health service that is mostly provided to people affected due to the pandemic conditions of the coronavirus.Copyright © 2022, Universidade de Sao Paulo. Museu de Zoologia. All rights reserved.

Validation and Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Modis 1 Km Aerosol Product over China during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 1 km aerosol product based on the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm has great potential in understanding the interaction between human activities and the atmospheric environment. In this paper, the MODIS 1 km aerosol product over China during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was validated against with the ground measured data collected from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). The result shows a good agreement between the two datasets. The spatiotemporal analyses of three selected regions, which are Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Hubei and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on human activities and aerosol loadings.

Impact of COVID-19 on the quantity of visitation to leisure tourism facilities in China: cases of Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao

Based on mobile positioning big data, this study analyzes the quantity of visitation changes of leisure tourism facilities under the impact of COVID-19, which is a direct way to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the leisure tourism industry. The quantity of visitation to the four types of leisure facilities (scenic spots, shopping services, sports services, science and cultural education services) in the three Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao) decreased by 63.06% and 44.74% respectively on the Tomb Sweeping Day and the Labor Day in 2020 compared with 2019. The biggest decreasing was in science and cultural education services, followed by scenic spots and sports services, and finally shopping services. The curve of hourly visitations to leisure facilities in 2020 shows a smooth feature, indicating that the public has reduced the risk of pandemic through peak shifting leisure. The analysis of influencing factors shows that the influence of the floor area on visitation is different in different phases. From Tomb Sweeping Day to Labour Day in 2020, the influence of area on leisure behaviour changes from negative to positive. This paper provides a technical framework for assessing the impact of crisis event, and expands the protection motivation theory. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The Impacts of Lockdown on Open Source Software Contributions during the COVID-19 Outbreak

We leverage the lockdown of Wuhan, China in January 2020 in response to COVID-19 as a natural experiment to study its impacts on individuals' contributions to open source software (OSS) on GitHub - the world's largest OSS platform. We find that Wuhan developers' contributions decreased by 10.2% relative to those in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (HMT) regions in the five weeks after the lockdown. Moreover, the contributions of Wuhan developers who interacted more with local developers on GitHub were reduced more after the lockdown. We conjecture that the lack of face-to-face (F2F) collaboration for Wuhan developers is the main driver of their reduced contributions, providing important insights for OSS platforms and stakeholders. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Encountering pandas and their valleys in precarious times: A tourism assemblage perspective

This paper analyses the precarity of tourism in viral pandemic times through an analysis of animal-human relations in China's panda and valley tourism at Dajiuzhai. Drawing on a tour to Dajiuzhai to see giant pandas and the valleys of Jiuzhai, which was disrupted midway by increased viral infections, we trace ethnographically how disruptions in tourism emerge in the micro-setting of a single viral-hit tour and highlight the roles of natural agents, pandas, valleys and virus play, alongside humans in tourism's fluid assemblages. Desire/wish to encounter pandas motivated the formation of a fluid constellation of tourism objects, species and humans, which was aligned towards the goal of a stable tourism experience but persistently disturbed. Animal-human relation-based tourism assemblage at Dajiuzhai was found to be a fluid spatiality that coped with Covid-19 disruptions through responses at attractions involving health checks and declarations but remained precarious despite its transformational potentialities. © The Author(s) 2023.

Recent progress in microfluidic biosensors with different driving forces

Microfluidic biosensors integrating fluid control, target recognition, as well as signal transduction and output, have been widely used in the field of disease diagnosis, drug screening, food safety and environmental monitoring in the past two decades. As the central part and technical characteristics of microfluidic biosensors, the fluid control is not only associated with accuracy and convenience of the sensors, but also affects the material selection and working mode of the sensors. This review summarizes the fluid driving forces for microfluidic biosensors, including gravity, capillary force, centrifugal force, pressure, light, sound, electrical, and magnetic forces. Then, the recent advances in microfluidic biosensors for the detection of viruses, cells, nucleic acids, proteins and small molecules are discussed. Finally, we propose the current challenges and future perspectives of microfluidic biosensors. We hope this review can provide readers with a new perspective to understand the technical characteristics and application potential of microfluidic biosensors.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

User Sentiment Analysis of COVID-19 via Adversarial Training Based on the BERT-FGM-BiGRU Model

With the rapid development of social network platforms, Sina Weibo has become the main carrier for modern netizens to express public views and emotions. How to obtain the tendency of public opinion and analyze the text's emotion more accurately and reasonably has become one of the main challenges for the government to monitor public opinion in the future. Due to the sparseness of Weibo text data and the complex semantics of Chinese, this paper proposes an emotion analysis model based on the Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers pre-training model (BERT), Fast Gradient Method (FGM) and the bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (BiGRU), namely BERT-FGM-BiGRU model. Aiming to solve the problem of text polysemy and improve the extraction effect and classification ability of text features, this paper adopts the BERT pre-training model for word vector representation and BiGRU for text feature extraction. In order to improve the generalization ability of the model, this paper uses the FGM adversarial training algorithm to perturb the data. Therefore, a BERT-FGM-BiGRU model is constructed with the goal of sentiment analysis. This paper takes the Chinese text data from the Sina Weibo platform during COVID-19 as the research object. By comparing the BERT-FGM-BiGRU model with the traditional model, and combining the temporal and spatial characteristics, it further studies the changing trend of user sentiment. Finally, the results show that the BERT-FGM-BiGRU model has the best classification effect and the highest accuracy compared with other models, which provides a scientific method for government departments to supervise public opinion. Based on the classification results of this model and combined with the temporal and spatial characteristics, it can be found that public sentiment is spatially closely related to the severity of the pandemic. Due to the imbalance of information sources, the public showed negative emotions of fear and worry in the early and middle stages, while in the later stage, the public sentiment gradually changed from negative to positive and hopeful with the improvement of the epidemic situation. © 2023 by the authors.

Methodology, efficacy and safety of fecal microbiota transplantation in treating inflammatory bowel disease

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), as an emerging therapy, can be used to treat microbiota related diseases. Progresses in donor screening, washed microbiota preparation, microbiota delivery routes, clinical administrative strategies, and long-term safety are moving FMT forward. Increasing clinical studies, especially those randomized controlled trials about ulcerative colitis and pilot real-word studies about serious inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), have been conducted. This review presents the latest findings about the efficacy, safety and methodology of FMT in treating IBD.Copyright © 2020 The Authors

Expert consensus on diagnosing & treating pediatric surgical diseases during the epidemic period of COVID -19.

Ever since late December 2019, corona virus disease 2019 (COVID -19) has been reported in China. It presents a general trend of a global pandemic. By consulting the relevant Chinese government regulations and the latest publications of COVID -19, more than 20 pediatric surgical specialists from China formulated the Expert Consensus of COVID -19 Prevention and Control Protocol. Suitable for clinical practices, it provides recommendations for children's hospitals and pediatric surgical institutions at domestic and abroad.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Overall management strategies for liver cancer patients during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) that occurred December of 2019 has a wide range of impacts, and its epidemic situation is grim. China has a large population of liver cancer, accounting for 50% of new cases of liver cancer worldwide. How to ensure the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of liver cancer patients while preventing and controlling the epidemic situation is an issue that urgently need specialists pay attention to. The authors propose an overall management model for patients with liver cancer, combined with their own experience, in order to guide specialists to safely and effectively carry out clinical diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer during the prevention and control of epidemics, and to help liver cancer patients receive treatment.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

COVID-19 Pandemic Reveals Distinct Impact of Aerosols on Surface Solar Radiation in China

With the abrupt and significant drop of PM2.5 concentrations during the lockdown in 2020, hourly direct radiation (Rdir) at surface substantially increased in East China, such as Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Baoshan, with the maximum enhancement of 86% at Wuhan. Most of these stations had decreased diffuse radiation (Rdif) except Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou had both enhanced Rdir and Rdif, as well as reduced but still high PM2.5 concentrations, indicating atmospheric particles were more scattering in this region. At Beijing and Harbin in North and Northeast China, intensification of aerosol pollution led to hourly Rdir (Rdif) falling (rising) up to −28% (59%) and −23% (40%), respectively. By contrast, surface solar radiation (SSR) in West China was also greatly influenced by the elevated dust/smoke layers, revealed by aerosol layer vertical distribution and the reduction of SSR and PM2.5 concentrations. This study highlighted the importance of aerosol optical properties and vertical structures in aerosol–radiation interactions. © 2023. The Authors.

Optimization of CNN for Diagnosis on Lung Disease by Lung Segmentation and Rib Suppression

The discrimination of lung diseases by chest X- ray images is a clinically important tool. How to use artificial intelligence to accurately and quickly help doctors to diagnose different lung diseases is very important in the context of the current COVID-19 global pandemic. In this paper, we propose a model structure, including two U-Net, which implement lung segmentation and rib suppression for chest X-ray images respectively, image enhancement techniques such as histogram equalization, which enhances images contrast, and a Xception- based CNN, which classifies the processed images finally. The model can effectively avoid the interference of regions outside the lung to CNN for feature recognition and the influence of environmental factors such as X-ray machines on the quality of X-ray images and thus on the classification. The experimental results show that the classification accuracy of the model is higher than that of the direct use of the Xception model for classification. © 2022 IEEE.

Investigation and analysis on the infection control and radiation safety of radiodiagnostic workplace for COVID-19.

Objective: To survey and supervise the risk of infection control and radiation safety in the radiological diagnostic workplace for COVID-19, and provide data support for the safety protection of radiographers and related staff. Method(s): 4 emergency hospitals for COVID-19 including 2 makeshift hospitals, module hospital and brick pattern hospital in Hubei province were performed for testing and evaluation of imaging performance and radiological protection for the 8 new installed CT scanners and places according to the national standards of WS 519-2019 and GBZ 130-2013. The infection control safety factors such as the layout of the equipment room were monitored and investigated. Two COVID-19 designated hospitals including general hospital and infectious disease specialized hospital were selected to carry out field investigation and sampling of environmental biological samples for 4 CT rooms. Then the samples were detected for the nucleic acid of novel coronavirus. The results of radiodiagnostic workplace overall arrangement, infection prevention and the nucleic acid testing were analyzed, and the biological safety reliability and risk point were evaluated. Result(s): The indicators of imaging performance and radiation protection for 8 CT scanners in emergency hospitals could meet the requirements of national standards.Each of 2 makeshift hospitals had 3 CT rooms with the area of 38.8 m2 and 4 mm Pb equivalent thickness of protective shielding. The CT rooms in module hospital and brick pattern hospital were 20.0 m2, and 35.8 m2 in areas, with 4 mm Pb equivalent and 3 mm Pb equivalent thickness of protection shielding, respectively. The 8 radiological diagnostic workplaces of the emergency hospitals were designed and constructed based on " three zones with two passage ways". The result of the nucleic acid test indicated that the positive samples were found at the multiple sites such as scanning bed, internal of gantry and ground touched by patients in CT scanning room. The areas such as console panel and ground were risked of pollution by the virus infected hands and feet of radiographers. In addition, the similar positive samples were found in the areas in scanning room with no touch of patients, such as observation window and air outlet. Conclusion(s): 8 CT scanners and rooms in 4 emergency hospitals basically meet the requirements of imaging performance and radiation protection. The disinfection of COVID-19 radiodiagnostic workplace should be standardized.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.

Clinical Characteristics and Blood Test Results in COVID-19 Patients

Objective. An outbreak of pneumonia named COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus in Wuhan is rapidly spreading worldwide. The objective of the present study was to clarify further the clinical characteristics and blood parameters in COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods. Twenty-three suspected patients and 64 patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-Cov-2 infection were admitted to a designated hospital. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data were collected and analyzed. Results. Of the 64 patients studied, 47 (73.4%) had been exposed to a confirmed source of COVID-19 transmission. On admission, the most common symptoms were fever (75%) and cough (76.6%). Twenty-eight (43.8%) COVID-19 patients showed leukopenia, 10 (15.6%) showed lymphopenia, 47 (73.4%) and 41 (64.1%) had elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), respectively, and 30 (46.9%) had increased fibrinogen concentration. After the treatment, the counts of white blood cells and platelets, and the level of prealbumin increased significantly, while aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and hsCRP decreased. COVID-19 patients with the hospital stay longer than 12 days had higher body mass index (BMI) and increased levels of AST, LDH, fibrinogen, hsCRP, and ESR. Conclusions. Results of blood tests have potential clinical value in COVID-19 patients.Copyright © 2020 by the Association of Clinical Scientists, Inc.

Expert guidance on overall management of liver cancer during the COVID-19.

The pandemic of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues, which shows the concentrated or sporadic cases in multiple places. Current COVID situation is still complex. During the COVID-19, routine diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer patients has been affected in different degrees. Under the premise of following the treatment guidelines, how to reduce the risk of infection of patients and medical staff, utilize limited medical resources to maximally ensure anti-tumor treatment and related emergency treatment, and help patients get through the epidemic period is a problem for liver oncologists. Thus, experts of liver cancer treatment related disciplines of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University have written the Expert guidance on overall management of liver cancer during the COVID-19, which aims to provide references for liver oncologists to conduct clinical work safely and effectively under the epidemic prevention and control, and to help patients fight against the epidemic smoothly.Copyright © 2022 Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co.Ltd. All rights reserved.