Clinical Features of Adult/Adolescent Atopic Dermatitis and Chinese Criteria for Atopic Dermatitis / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Atopic dermatitis (AD) is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by chronic recurrent dermatitis with profound itching. Most patients have personal and/or family history of atopic diseases. Several criteria have been proposed for the diagnosis of AD. Although the clinical features of childhood AD have been widely studied, there has been less large-scale study on adult/adolescent AD. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical features of adult/adolescent patients with chronic symmetrical eczema/AD and to propose Chinese diagnostic criteria for adult/adolescent AD.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A hospital-based study was performed. Forty-two dermatological centers participated in this study. Adult and adolescent patients (12 years and over) with chronic symmetrical eczema or AD were included in this study. Questionnaires were completed by both patients and investigators. The valid questionnaires were analyzed using EpiData 3.1 and SPSS 17.0 software.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 2662 valid questionnaires were collected (1369 male and 1293 female). Of all 2662 patients, 2062 (77.5%) patients had the disease after 12 years old, while only 600 (22.5%) patients had the disease before 12 years old, suggesting late-onset eczema/AD is common. Two thousand one hundred and thirty-nine (80.4%) patients had the disease for more than 6 months. One thousand one hundred and forty-four (43.0%) patients had a personal and/or family history of atopic diseases. One thousand five hundred and forty-eight (58.2%) patients had an elevated total serum IgE and/or eosinophilia and/or positive allergen-specific IgE. Based on these clinical and laboratory features, we proposed Chinese criteria for adult/adolescent AD. Of all 2662 patients, 60.3% were satisfied with our criteria, while only 48.2% satisfied with Hanifin Rajka criteria and 32.7% satisfied with Williams criteria, suggesting a good sensitivity of our criteria in adult/adolescent AD patients.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Late-onset of eczema or AD is common. The clinical manifestations of AD are heterogeneous. We have proposed Chinese diagnostic criteria for adolescent and adult AD, which are simple and sensitive for diagnosis of adult/adolescent AD.</p>

Managing non-response rates for the National Child Safety Seat Survey in Canada.

BACKGROUND: Canada has a Road Safety Vision of having the safest roads in the world, yet vehicle crashes have remained the leading cause of death of Canadian children for a number of years. OBJECTIVES: Determine the influence of high rates of non-participation on the estimates for correct use of safety seats for child occupants in vehicles. Examine the impact of three different criteria for determining correct safety seat use on the estimates of correct use of safety seats for children in Canada. METHODS: A national child seat safety survey was conducted in 200 randomly selected sites across Canada that included both naturalistic observation of child seat safety use at intersections and a detailed vehicle inspection in nearby parking lots. Non-participation in the detailed parking lot study was high. This study reports on statistical methods for managing high rates of non-response and compared estimates of correct use using three different criteria. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results revealed that high non-participation rates introduced bias into the raw estimates of correct safety seat use. Correct use estimates also varied substantially depending on which criterion (more stringent or less stringent) for correct use was applied in the analysis. When child age was the only criterion for correct use, estimates were higher than when more stringent criteria of child height and weight were applied to estimate rates of correct use. This study identifies the importance of managing high rates of non-response in safety seat observation studies using statistical techniques. Stringent criteria for correct use may provide more accurate estimates of the correct use of safety seats. Studies of child seat use in vehicles (using voluntary participation) may benefit from the use of naturalistic observation to capture non-participants' use of child occupant restraints, as it may more accurately estimate the rates of correct use in populations.

Effect of physical stimulus on periosteal chondroplasia / 中华创伤骨科杂志

Objective To study the impact of physical stimulus on periosteal chondroplasia with an in- tention of reconstructing cartilage tissue that has a biomechanical function and can be created either entirely in vivo or in vitro and subsequently implanted into the patient.Methods A series of biomechanical test methods were designed in order to investigate the mechanical properties of engineered cartilage under a variety of mechanical stress stimulations.The periosteal explants were harvested from proximal medial tibias of New Zealand rabbits and secured onto poly-?-caprolactone(PCL)scaffolds.The composites(periosteum/PCL)were suspended in the spinner flask bioreactor and the spinner flask was located on the stirring machine.The stem cells were stimulated by fluid shear stress under magnetic bar stirring.Results In gross observation,the thickness and length of neo-cartilage with shear force stimulation were significantly greater than those without shear force.The direction of elongation was parallel with fluid flow direction,regardless of composite orientation.Secondary,two different zones based on various cell morphology and distribution were clearly observed.The thickness of the superficial zone was greater in samples exposed to high shear force compared with low shear force.The superficial zone protein and lubricant were found in the engineered cartilage under shear stress stimulation.Conclusion The results reveal that shear stress can not only influence proliferation and differentiation of stem cells,but also change chondrocyte morphology and increase extracellular matrix production.