[Clinical characteristics of 638 patients infected with hepatitis C virus by post blood transfusion, in Shanghai].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical-epidemiologic characteristics of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by post blood transfusion. METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to detect HCV RNA and anti-HCV, respectively. Analysis was performed on patients' age distribution, cause of primary diseases, years of exposure, ingredient and amount of transfusion, incubation period, disorder on liver function and changes on abdominal ultrasound image, etc. RESULTS: HCV RNA levels were higher than 3.0 log(10) copy/ml in 90.8% infected patients with a median as 6.10 log(10) copy/ml. 19.2% of the patients showed viral load 3.0 to 4.0 log(10) copy/ml, and 66.1% of them showed 5.0 to 6.0 log(10) copy/ml. Only 14.7% of the infected persons had HCV RNA levels higher than 7.0 log(10) copy/ml. Eighty-one point five percent (44/54) of the infected persons were confirmed as HCV RNA positive by HCV RNA qualitative analysis with HCV genotype as primarily type 1. 99.8% (636/637) of the patients were detected as anti-HCV positive by serological test. The sensitivity of serological test was higher than both quantitative and qualitative HCV RNA assays (P = 0.000, P = 0.000, respectively). HCV infection post blood transfusion was more seen in common people at 40 to 60 years old. Most cases (85.7%) had their first exposure during 1990 to 1994. More than 10% of the cases had primary diseases as obstetrics, orthopedics or gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage. 79.9% of the patients received whole blood product transfusion. The mean interval between transfusion and clinical diagnosis was 8.5 ± 5.5 years. 90.1% of the infected patients had liver function damage, while most of them showed elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) no more than 5 upper limits of normal (ULN), whereas Serum total bilirubin (TBIL), ALT and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ≥ 5 × ULN level were showing more clinical manifestations (P = 0.000, P = 0.001, P = 0.009, respectively). Abdominal ultrasound among 8.9% of the infected persons showed changes in cirrhosis, and most of them were older than 50 years of age. CONCLUSION: Most of the post transfusion HCV infected cases happened in adulthood, and were mainly exposed during 1990 to 1994. Infected patients usually had their liver function damaged with elevated ALT no more than 5 × ULN and with medium HCV RNA levels. HCV genotype was mainly for type 1. Patients who were of older age showed higher incidence of cirrhosis. If a patients' infection period was longer than 5 years, he/she would show higher incidence of cirrhosis.

[Frequency of the CD4+CD25nt/hiCD127lo regulatory T lymphocytes from the peripheral blood in Chinese healthy individuals].

AIM: To determine the frequency of the CD4(+)CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) regulatory T lymphocytes from the peripheral blood in the Chinese healthy individuals and provide some useful evidence for clinical research of correlative diseases. METHODS: From the CD4(+)CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) regulatory T lymphocytes of peripheral blood in 312 Chinese healthy male and female individuals aged from 8 to 60(five age groups were collected) The expression of transcription factor Foxp3 was detected by triplex immuno fluorescence and the frequency of CD4(+)CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) regulatory T lymphocytes was determined by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The frequency of CD4(+)CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) regulatory T lymphocytes in Chinese healthy individuals was (6.55+/-0.11)%, and the frequency differed among age groups(P=0.015) and sex groups(P<0.05). CD4(+)CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) regulatory T lymphocytes specifically express transcription factor Foxp3. CONCLUSION: The frequency of the CD4(+)CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) regulatory T lymphocytes from the peripheral blood in the Chinese healthy individuals has been preliminarily determined which lays the foundation for further clinical research of regulatory T lymphocytes. As a specific cell surface marker, CD25(nt/hi)CD127(lo) can helpful obtain pure CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T lymphocytes and suppress the interference of other cells during cell separation.

[Study on using the multiplier method in estimating the size of men who have sex with men population in Shanghai].

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the size of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Shanghai. METHODS: Multiplier method was used in the study and two popular Shanghai-based MSM websites were selected as targeted institutions. The number of MSM (r) who visited website during a given period was investigated by a web-based questionnaire. Meanwhile, a survey was conducted among MSM living in Shanghai to obtain the proportion of MSM who had visited the websites during the given period, the reciprocal number of this proportion was the multiplier (m), therefore, population size can be estimated by r multiplied by m. RESULTS: The MSM population was estimated as 398 433 when website A was selected as target institution and 370 755 was estimated when website B was selected. The estimated population of MSM accounted for 7.1% and 6.6% of male population aged 15 to 49 years old in Shanghai, respectively. CONCLUSION: It was feasible to use multiplier method which selecting MSM website as target institution to estimate the size of MSM population, however, the representativeness of this study sample should be considered seriously.