[Revelation of the list of occupational diseases and diagnostic criteria for occupational diseases].

The list of occupational diseases reflecting the latest advances in the identification and recognition of occupational diseases, and providing guidance on the protection of workers' health rights and interests and the prevention, recording, notification and compensation of related occupational diseases. Diagnostic criteria for occupational diseases are an important basis for making diagnoses attributable to occupational diseases, and provide a theoretical basis for health monitoring of occupational groups and occupational hygiene supervision. This thesis starts with the definition of the occupational disease elaborates in detail the development history of list of occupational diseases in International Labour Organization (ILO) , compares the list of occupational diseases in China (2013 version) with the list of occupational diseases in international (2010 version) , and then introduces in detail the latest diagnostic standards of the major occupational diseases. And finally, it puts forward relevant suggestions on the list and diagnostic level of China's occupational diseases, so as to provide certain insights for the further improvement of the list and diagnostic standards of occupational diseases.

A large-scale analysis study on the clinical and viral characteristics of hepatitis B infection with concurrence of hepatitis B surface or E antigens and their corresponding antibodies.

Concurrent detection of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HBs antibody or hepatitis B surface E antigen (HBeAg) and anti-HBe antibody in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection is well established. However, the clinical implications of these proteins remain largely unknown. In this study, demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from 124,865 patients with chronic CHB infection were analyzed. Viral genotypes were determined by nested polymerase chain reaction. A chemiluminescent assay was applied to measure HBsAg, HBsAb, HBeAg, HBeAb, and HBcAb in sera. Among 124,865 patients with CHB infection, 324 (0.3%) were concurrently positive for HBsAg and anti-HBs, and 206 (0.2%) were concurrently positive for HBeAg and anti-HBe. The HBeAg+/anti-HBe+ group was composed of younger patients (P < 0.05). Subgenotype B2 was prevalent in HBV patients concurrently positive for HBeAg and anti-HBe, while HBV patients positive for both HBsAg and anti-HBs exhibited the C2 subgenotype. Among 530 concurrent patients, 126 (39%) HBsAg+/anti-HBs+ patients were in the low-replication phase, and 62 (19%) were in the reactivation phase; 87 (42%) HBeAg+/anti-HBe+, and 19 (6%) HBsAg+/anti-HBs+ patients were in the immune clearance phase. In this large-scale analysis, the clinical and viral characteristics of HBV infections with concurrent HBs Ag/antibody or HBe Ag/antibody presentations have been examined, and the results may contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of CHB patients.

Association of the IFNAR1-17470 and IL-10-592 cytokine variants with susceptibility to chronic hepatitis B viral infections in a Chinese population.

An association between the sequence variants of cytokine genes and various clinical outcomes in subjects infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been demonstrated. However, the results are inconsistent and inconclusive. Further studies in other populations and the evaluation of a greater number of individuals may contribute to a better understanding of the influence of the cytokine genetic variants on the evolution of HBV infections. This study was performed to explore the relationships between the sequence variants of TNF-A-308, IFNAR1-17470, and IL-10-592 and the susceptibility to chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in a Chinese population. A total of 160 patients with CHB and 124 individuals who had spontaneously recovered (SR) from hepatitis B were enrolled in the present study. The variants at TNF-A-308, IFNAR1-17470, and IL-10-592 were determined by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and were confirmed by bidirectional DNA sequencing. Significant differences were found between the CHB and the SR groups in the frequency and distribution of the genotypes of both IFNAR1-17470 and IL-10-592 genes. In comparison with the CHB patients with the IFNAR1-17470 G/G variant, the odds ratio (OR) of the CHB patients with the IFNAR1-17470 C/C variant developing chronic hepatitis was 2.06 (95%CI = 1.03-4.14). In addition, the OR of the patients with CHB having the IL-10-592 C/C variant developing chronic hepatitis was 2.77 (95%CI = 1.13-4.57) when compared with that of the patients with the IL-10-592 A/A variant. In conclusion, sequence variants of both the IFNAR1-17470 and IL-10-592 genes were correlated with susceptibility to CHB.

First Report of a Group 16SrI Phytoplasma Associated with Amaranthus hypochondriacus Cladodes in China.

Amaranthus spp. are cultivated worldwide as leafy vegetable, cereal, and ornamentals. In China, stems and leaves of Amaranthus hypochondriacus L. are used as a vegetable (2). In July 2010, sporadic amaranth plants exhibiting symptoms of cladodes and spica proliferation were observed in a vegetable garden near Foshan, Guangdong, China. Stem samples were collected from two symptomatic and two asymptomatic plants. Total DNA was extracted with a modified cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method (1). Nested PCR with a combination of phytoplasma-specific universal primer pairs (P1/P7 and R16F2n/R16R2) amplified 16S rDNA sequences with the expected size of 1.2 kb from all samples of symptomatic amaranth plants, but not from the asymptomatic plants (3). Nested PCR products yielded identical AluI, HhaI, HpaII, HaeIII, KpnI, MseI, RsaI, Sau3AI, and TaqI restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profiles with chinaberry witches'-broom phytoplasma (16SrI-B subgroup), but different from peanut witches'-broom phytoplasma (16SrII group), jujube witches'-broom phytoplasma (16SrV group), and paulownia witches'-broom phytoplasma (16SrI-D subgroup). Nested PCR products were purified, cloned in pMD18-T Simple Vector (TaKaRa, Dalian, China), and sequenced. The 16S rDNA sequences were identical and deposited in GenBank (Accession No. JF323034). GenBank BLASTn analysis indicated that the amaranth extracts showed as high as 99% sequence identity with the members of 16SrI group phytoplasmas, including those associated with arecanut yellow leaf disease (FJ998269) and aster yellow AY-27 (HM467127). A polygenetic tree was constructed using MEGA 4.0 based on the 16S rDNA sequences of amaranth cladode phytoplasma and other phytoplasmas belonging to 16SrI phytoplasma group. In phylogenetic analysis, the sequences clustered on a single branch with members of 16SrI-B subgroup in the tree. Therefore, the phytoplasma was classified in subgroup 16SrI-B. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a subgroup 16SrI-B phytoplasma associated with diseased A. hypochondriacus in China. References: (1) E. Angelini et al. Vitis 40:79, 2001. (2) M. Costea et al. Econ. Bot. 57:646, 2003. (3) I. M. Lee et al. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 48:1153, 1998.

Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum, pleural and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid using DNA amplification of the MPB 64 protein coding gene and IS6110 insertion element.

Two gene sequences specific for Mycobacterium tuberculosis were evaluated for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculous (PTB) in pleural fluid (PF), bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) and sputum (Sp). The 240 bp sequence (nts 460-700) coding for the MPB 64 protein coding gene and the 123 bp IS6110 insertion element present in multiple copies in the mycobacterial genome were amplified using the polymerase chain reaction. Fifty-nine clinical specimens were studied. The diagnosis of PTB was confirmed by positive M. tuberculosis cultures in 14 specimens, and by the presence of characteristic histological features of granuloma and Langerhan's giant cells on pleural biopsy in 3 PF specimens through cultures for M. tuberculosis were negative. The remaining 42 specimens were obtained from patient's with non-tuberculosis pulmonary infections or malignancy, and these served as negative controls. Our results showed that the IS6110 insertion element and MPB 64 gene sequence were detected in all 14 culture positive PTB cases, although detection of the latter sequence required both DNA amplification and oligonucleotide hybridization. There was however one false positive specimen with the MPB 64 detection protocol. More importantly, both the MPB 64 sequence and IS6110 insertion element protocols were unable to detect M. tuberculosis DNA in the 3 PF samples diagnosed by histological characteristics on pleural biopsy and culture negative. We conclude that DNA amplification for M. tuberculosis-specific sequences is a useful method for rapid diagnosis of PTB in culture positive specimens. However, the false negative results with TB culture negative cases of tuberculosis pleurisy, limits its usefulness for the diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy.