A clinical study of drug-related toxicities of CCLG-ALL 08 protocol for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The Chinese Children's Leukemia Group (CCLG)-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) 08 protocol for childhood ALL was established in 2008. This study aims to evaluate the drug-related toxicities of CCLG-ALL 08 protocol in the treatment of childhood ALL.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 114 children with newly diagnosed ALL were treated with the CCLG-ALL 08 protocol. The protocol was divided into five phases: remission induction (VDLD), early reinforcement (CAM), consolidation therapy, delayed reinforcement (DIa & DIb) and maintenance treatment. Drug-related toxicities in each phase were evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4.0.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Toxicities were more frequent in phase VDLD than other treatment phases, including hepatotoxicity (87.7%), dental ulcer (20.2%), hyperglycemia (20.2%), prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (21.1%) and decreased fibrinogen (34.2%), with the incidence rates of severe adverse events at 7%, 0, 1.3%, 0.8% and 2.7% respectively. The incidence of allergic reaction to L-ASP was significantly higher in phase DIa than in phase VDLD (28.0% vs 7.9%; P<0.01), and there were no longer any allergic reactions in 15 patients who received continuing treatment with pegaspargase instead. There was no severe arrhythmia, myocardial ischemia, decreased left ventricular function, osteonecrosis, myopathy, organ failure or treatment-related mortality.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The drug-related toxicities of CCLG-ALL 08 protocol are common in phase VDLD, but they are mild and reversible. There is no treatment-related mortality. The CCLG-ALL 08 protocol for childhood ALL is safe.</p>

Clinical features and outcome analysis of 83 childhood Epstein-Barr virus-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis with HLH-2004 protocol / 中华血液学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the clinical features of Epstein-Barr virus-related hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (EBV-HLH), to analysis the outcome of HLH-2004 protocol, and to explore the prognostic factors in EBV-HLH patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The clinical features at onset and outcome of HLH-2004 protocol from 83 pediatric patients with EBV-HLH enrolled from January 2006 to December 2009 in our hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Univariate and multivariate COX regression analysis were used to identify statistically significant prognostic factors.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(1) Among the 83 patients, 45 were males and 38 were females. The age of onset ranged from 6 months to 14 years 4 months. 44 patients were treated with HLH-2004, and 3-year overall survival (OS) was (55.8 ± 7.9)%. (2) The most common clinical features of EBV-HLH included high fever, cytopenia, hepatosplenomegaly, and coagulopathy; The respiratory symptoms, angina phlogistic, skin rashes, neurologic abnormality were rare. 97.3% of patients showed an elevation of serum ferritin, liver dysfunction and lipid metabolism disorders was found in most of EBV-HLH patients. 89.0% of patient had hemophagocytosis in bone marrow at diagnosis of EBV-HLH. (3) COX regression analysis revealed that anemia degree, serum albumin < 30 g/L, CD4:CD8 abnormity, NK cell < 3%, treatment protocol were related with the prognosis significantly (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>EBV-HLH in pediatric patients has severe clinical feature and poor prognosis. HLH-2004 protocol is an effective treatment for patients with EBV-HLH. Symptomatic treatment can't rescue the patients of EBV-HLH.</p>

Analysis of thirteen cases with secondary coagulation disorder caused by raticide exposure / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To summarize the clinical characteristics of secondary coagulation disorders caused by exposure to poison (raticide) in children and to investigate the diagnosis and corresponding treatment.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The process of diagnosis, clinical characteristics, response to treatment and the prognosis were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The main clinical manifestation was mucosal bleeding (66.6%), including epistaxis, gingival bleeding, hematomas and so on. All these children were previously well and had no history of bleeding. Activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) were prolonged, factor II was undetectable and the levels of factors VII, IX, and X were lower. The fibrinogen was normal. A raticide was detected in blood and urine of 13 children although 12 of the patients had no definite history of raticide ingestion. Prothrombin complex, fresh frozen plasma and vitamin K(1) were effective in these cases. However, 2 - 3 weeks later, 6 patients presented with recurrent bleeding.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>For children with secondary coagulation disorders of unknown cause, intoxication of raticide should be considered. The administration of blood coagulation factors and vitamin K(1) are effective in early treatment, and the treatment period should be more than 2 months. The PT and APTT should be followed up. Vitamin K(1) should be stopped when PT and APTT are normal.</p>

Clinical study on childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosed and treated with 04 Protocol in Chongqing, China / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the clinical and laboratory data from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients and the results of treatment using 04 Protocol (suggested by the Pediatric Hematology Group of Chinese Medical Association in 2004).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>This study included 88 children with ALL below the age of 18 years during the period from October 1, 2004 to June 30, 2007. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and clinical risk classification were done and the new chemotherapy regimen was used according to the protocol. Patients were stratified into low-risk (LR), medium-risk (MR), and high-risk (HR) groups. Life table method was used to estimate survival rate and statistical analysis was done by using software SPSS for Windows.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>From October 2004 to June 2007, 88 childhood ALL patients were treated with the 04 Protocol. Sixty-three (91.30%) patients attained complete remission (CR) and 17 patients lost to follow up. The overall 4-year-event-free survival (EFS) rate (+/- SE) was (59.73 +/- 7.22)%. EFS was (75.60 +/- 9.71)% in the LR (n = 30), (65.50 +/- 11.69)% in the MR (n = 20) and (44.03 +/- 12.36)% in the HR. Relapse occurred in 18.18% of patients. Seven (7.95%) of 88 patients with ALL died during he induction therapy. Infection was the most common cause of death.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The outcome of patients treated with the 04 Protocol was favorable. Clinical risk classification and the leukemia cells of D19 are independent predictors of prognosis of ALL. High dose methotrexate played an important role in prevention and treatment of central nervous system leukemia. The mortality rate of this chemotherapeutic protocol during induction therapy was high.</p>

Successful treatment of a patient with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome using hematopoietic stem cell transplantation--case report and literature review / 中华儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is a primary immunodeficiency diseases. The patients with classical WAS have poor prognosis. The hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the most effective method to cure WAS at present. In this report, a patient with WAS was cured with HLA identical sibling bone marrow transplantation (BMT).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) was detected using flow cytometry and WASP were analyzed for the diagnosis. The bone marrow was collected from the elder sister who was the HLA identical sibling donor. A total of 4.38x10(8)/kg mononuclear cell (MNC) and 3.78x10(6)/kg CD34+ cells were collected and transfused into the patient after the conditioning regimen with busulfan/cyclophosphamide. Cyclosporine only was used for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis. WASP and short tandem repeats (STR) were detected as the evidence of engraftment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The diagnosis was WAS: WASP (-IVS9+2T>C, WASP-negative). The patient received busulfan/cyclophosphamide 9 days before the transplantation. WBC decreased to 0.1x10(9)/L in d+4; The absolute number of neutrophils (ANC) was 0.8x10(9)/L in d+13, and exceeded 1.0x10(9)/L later on. From d(-9)-d+14 the patient was dependent on platelet transfusion. From d+15 the patient's PLT>50x10(9)/L and returned to normal after d+30. In d+9-d+10 mild GVHD (I degree) occurred but subsided after the steroid treatment. From d+50, WASP was detected positive and STR showed full donor DNA chimera. Follow-up for 510 d post-transplant, the patient suffered only from mild cold twice, no eczema, no bleeding occurred. The PLT is normal and no chronic GVHD occurred. The levels of IgG, IgM and IgA of the patient were approximately normal.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The HLA-identical sibling's BMT seems to be the periorit treatment of choice for the WAS patient.</p>

Hematopoiesis support of mesenchymal stem cells in children with aplastic anemia / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The abnormality of hemopoietic inductive microenvironment (HIM) is involved in the pathophysiology of aplastic anemia (AA). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are main source of bone marrow stromal cells which constitute the bone marrow HIM. Thus, the bone marrow failure in AA may be related to the function of MSC. The aim of the study was to investigate the hematopoiesis support function of MSC in children with AA in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Bone marrow samples were collected from 24 children with AA at diagnosis and 19 children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), infectious mononucleosis or lymphadenitis (controls). MSCs from bone marrow samples were isolated, cultured and expanded. Morphology, proliferation activity and colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) were measured. The ability of bone marrow MSC to adhere hemopoietic cells was assayed by MTT. The concentration of stem cell factor (SCF) released from MSC was tested using ELISA. Mononuclear cells (MNC) of bone marrow were plated onto a feeder layer formed by MSC. Cells count and BFU-E, CFU-GM, CFU-GMME productions were measured.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The first and third passage time of MSC in children with AA was longer than that in the controls. The number of CFU-F in children with AA (15.70+/-5.78) was less than that in the controls (21.73+/-5.74) (P<0.05). The concentration of SCF in MSC supernatants in children with AA (30.69+/-16.82 pg/mL) was significantly lower than the controls (50.74+/-14.83 pg/mL) (P<0.01). The total MNC count and the number of BFU-E, CFU-GM and CFU-GMME colonies in the support of MSC in children with AA were significantly lower than those in the controls (P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The hematopoiesis support function of MSC was significantly reduced in children with AA in vitro. The decreased hematopoiesis support function of MSC may be related its decreased proliferation capacity and SCF release activity.</p>

Vitamin E inhibits homocysteine-mediated smooth muscle cell proliferation / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the effect of vitamin E on proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) induced by homocysteine.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>DNA synthesis in the VSMCs cells was measured using [3H]-thymidine incorporation assay, and the cell number determined by trypan blue method. The level of ROS in the cells was determined using DCF-DA as the fluorescence probe.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Homocysteine promoted VSMC DNA synthesis, proliferation, and ROS production. Cysteine resulted in increased ROS production in VSMCs, but had no significant effect on DNA synthesis and cell proliferation. Catalase significantly inhibited ROS production induced by homocysteine, but did not significantly inhibited homocysteine-mediated proliferation of VSMCs. While alpha-tocopherol and beta-tocopherol both suppressed increased ROS production induced by homocysteine in VSMCs, only alpha-tocopherol significantly inhibited homocysteine-mediated VSMC proliferation.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ROS is not associated with VSMC proliferation, and vitamin E-induced suppression of VSMC proliferation is probably related to protein kinase C inhibition.</p>

How to Cultivate the Pediatrics Interns' Clinical Work Ability / 中华医学教育探索杂志

The internship is the transition period of a medico becoming a doctor,the cultivation of clinical work ability of interns is a comprehensive ability cultivation which includes the foundation theories' consolidation and use,the practical operative train- ing,the cultivation of clinical thought ability and communication between doctors and patients,etc.To educate pediatrics intern has its characteristics.

Expression and Clinical Significance of Cyclin Kinase Inhibitor P21~(WAF1) and P27~(KIP1) in Children with Acute Leukemia / 实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To investigate the expression of cyclin kinase inhibitor P21~(WAF1) and P27~(KIP1)in children with acute leukemia and its clinical significance.Methods A total of 32 hospitalized children with acute leukemia(AL) were included in this study.Their bone marrow samples were collected before chemotherapy and individual patient was detected after complete remission(CR).The method of immunocytochemistry was used to estimate the expression of P21~(WAF1) and P27~(KIP1).Both positive percentage and intensity of the cells were counted.Results Findings showed that the positive ratios of P21~(WAF1) and P27~(KIP1) in total samples,ALL samples and AML samples were lower than the control group(P