ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To study the features of unintentional injury in children under the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 2 526 children with unintentional injury in Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from July 2019 to June 2022. The study period was divided into 5 stages: before the epidemic (July to December, 2019), the Wuhan epidemic period (January to April, 2020), the epidemic remission period in China (May 2020 to February 2022), the Shanghai epidemic period (March to May, 2022), and the epidemic remission period in Shanghai (June 2022). The incidences of unintentional injury in children at different time stages and different ages were compared. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 107 children of the 2 526 children to explore the features of unintentional injury. RESULTS: There were significant differences in gender composition, age, age distribution and proportion of many types of unintentional injuries among the five time stages (P<0.05). There was a reduction in the number of children who attended the emergency department due to unintentional injury during the Wuhan epidemic and the Shanghai epidemic. The proportion of children with trauma-related unintentional injuries in each stage reached more than 50%, and the proportion of children with trauma-related unintentional injuries reached 63.9% and 82.0%, respectively during the Wuhan epidemic and the Shanghai epidemic. Most children suffering from unintentional injury were mainly school-aged and preschool children (1 823 children, 72.17%). Compared with the same period of Shanghai epidemic in 2021, the age of children with unintentional injury was younger (median 7 years vs 11 years), and the proportion of children with trauma-related unintentional injuries increased (97% vs 69%) during the Shanghai epidemic (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Under the COVID-19 epidemic, there is a reduction in the number of children with unintentional injury, while there is an increase in the proportion of children with trauma-related unintentional injuries. Unintentional injury is more common among school-aged and preschool children.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Epidemics , Wounds and Injuries , Child, Preschool , Humans , Child , COVID-19/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , China/epidemiology , Schools , Wounds and Injuries/epidemiology , Wounds and Injuries/etiologyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is characterized by a combination of symptoms including autonomic dysfunction, parkinsonism, cerebellar ataxia, and cortico-spinal disorders. The disease can have either predominant parkinsonism or cerebellar features (MSA-P and MSA-C, respectively). The measurement of the bulbocavernosus reflex (BCR) and pudendal nerve somatosensory-evoked potentials (PSEPs) was originally developed to diagnose diabetic cystopathy and other neuropathologic diseases that share similar symptoms with MSA. We investigated the relationship between abnormalities of neurophysiological parameters and MSA, and estimated the potential value of BCR. METHODS: Fifty-one MSA patients (28 and 23 MSA-P and 23 MSA-C patients, respectively) and 30 healthy controls who were seen at the Department of Neurology were included in the study. A Keypoint EMG/EP system was used to test BCR and PSEPs, and the latencies and amplitudes were recorded for statistical analyses. RESULTS: The BCR was elicited in 78.4% patients with MSA (22/28 MSA-P, 18/23 MSA-C). Prolonged BCR latencies were found in patients with MSA compared with healthy controls (p < 0.001). BCR amplitudes were significantly lower in the MSA group than the control group (p < 0.001). PSEP P41 amplitudes were not significantly different between the MSA and control groups in males (p = 0.608) or females (p = 0.897). There were no significant differences in PSEP latencies among the MSA-P, MSA-C, and control groups (p = 1.0, p = 0.263, and p = 0.060, respectively). DISCUSSION: MSA patients exhibit prolonged BCR latencies and lower amplitudes, which provides a rough anatomical localization of nervous system lesions in MSA patients.
