[Diagnostic accuracy of MALDI-TOF mass spectrum in identification of oral Candidiasis isolates].

PURPOSE: To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in the identification of clinical oral Candida isolates. METHODS: In the first experiment, 170 suspected oral candidiasis patients were included. Unstimulated saliva was collected and cultured on solid plate (Sabouraud's agar) for 48 hours. Clinical isolates were analyzed by both PCR, which was used as golden standard, and MALDI-TOF MS. The diagnostic accuracy of MALDI-TOF MS for both C.albicans and non-C.albicans were investigated. In the second experiment, we tried to identify Candida isolates directly from positive liquid culture in a new cohort of 42 patients. MALDI-TOF MS identification of candida isolates were performed on positive liquid medium cultures directly. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 software package. RESULTS: Totally, 230 clinical Candida isolates were isolated from 212 oral candidiasis patients enrolled. Out of the 230 analyzed clinical isolates, C. albicans (65.65%, 151/230) was the most frequently isolated species, followed by C. glabrata (11.74%, 27/230), and other candida species. The sensitivity and specificity of MALDI-TOF in identification of C. albicans were 93.33% and 92.73% respectively, and those for non-C. albicans were 83.64% and 89.2% respectively. Oral rinse followed by culturing in Sabouraud's liquid medium for 24 hours yield the diagnostic accuracy of 78.42% in MALDI-TOF MS identification. CONCLUSIONS: C. albicans is the most frequent Candida spp. in oral candidiasis. MALDI-TOF MS is an effective and rapid method for identification of Candida spp. The on-plate based method generate much higher diagnostic accuracy than liquid culture based one.

Bismuth oxyfluoride/bismuth oxyiodide nanocomposites enhance visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity.

This is the first paper to report a series of bismuth oxyfluoride/bismuth oxyiodide (BiOpFq/BiOxIy) nanocomposites with different F/I molar ratios, pH values, and reaction temperatures that were synthesized through a template-free and controlled hydrothermal method. These nanocomposites were characterized through scanning electron microscope energy dispersive microscopy (SEM-EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). Under visible-light irradiation, the BiOpFq/BiOxIy composites exhibited excellent photocatalytic activities in the degradation of crystal violet (CV) and 2-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA). The order of rate constants was BiOF/BiOI > BiOI ≫ BiOF. The photocatalytic activity of BiOF/BiOI composites reached a maximum rate constant of 0.2305 h-1, 1.2 times higher than that of BiOI and 100 times higher than that of BiOF. Thus, the derived BiOF/BiOI is crucial for photocatalytic activity enhancement. After the removal of CV in the third cycle, no apparent deficits in photocatalytic activity were observed, and the observed deficit was 8.2% during the fifth run. Overall, the catalytic activity and stability observed for the proposed composites were determined to be adequate under visible-light irradiation. For various scavengers, the noted quenching effects demonstrated that reactive O2- has a notable role in the degradation of the applied CV.

[Validation of the American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for primary Sjogren's syndrome in Chinese patients].

OBJECTIVE: To validate the American College of Rheumatology Classification (ACR) Criteria (2012) for the diagnosis of primary Sjogren's syndrome in Chinese patients. METHODS: All patients involved in this study came from the Department of Oral Medicine Peking University Stomatology Hospital. They were devided into two groups of pSS and non-pSS according to the diagnoses made by two experts. Both groups of the patients had completed medical records kept in the hospital. RESULTS: A total of 239 pSS patients (160 with labial salivary gland biopsy, and 79 without biopsy) and 52 age-matched non-pSS patients [(55.17±14.295),and (55.90±13.38) years old, P>0.05] (9 with biopsy, and 43 without biopsy) were involved in this study. The sensitivity and specificity of ACR criteria in diagnosing pSS were 90.37 % and 88.46 % respectively. The positive and negative likelihood ratios were 7.83 and 0.109, respectively. The sensitivities of ACR criteria in diagnosing pSS patients with and without labial biopsy were 88.75% and 93.67 %, respectively, with specificities of 88.89% and 88.37%, respectively. The most sensitive item adopted in ACR criteria was the ocular staining score with a sensitivity of 85.77%, and the most specific item was the labial salivary gland biopsy, with a specificity of 88.89%. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity and specificity of ACR criteria in diagnosing Chinese pSS patients were relatively high, and may serve as the diagnosis criteria in research and clinical practice. However, the ACR criteria need to be validated and further revised in the future .