Anaesthesia and infection control in cesarean section of pregnant women with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in Wuhan, China, and soon caused an ongoing pandemic globally. In this study we conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia (CSEA) and infection control measures on perinatal care quality of 30 pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19. MethodsIndividual demographic data, clinical outcomes, laboratory investigations of pregnant women and their newborns were collected from electronic medical records of the Maternal and Children Health Hospital of Hubei Province, during January 24 to February 29, 2020. Anaesthesia and surgery results were compared between pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 infection. ResultsUsing CSEA in cesarean section was effective and safe for pregnant women with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 infection. Administration of dezocine and morphine was effective as postoperative analgesia, and well tolerated in COVID-19 patients. The assessment of surgery outcomes also showed similar results in both confirmed and suspected cases. No respiratory failure nor distress were found in the mothers with confirmed COVID-19 infection and their neonates. None of these patients experienced severe obstetric complications related to anaesthesia and surgeries. No COVID-19 infection was reported in the neonates born to the mothers with confirmed COVID-19 infection and healthcare workers in these operations. ConclusionsIn cesarean section for pregnant women with COVID-19 infection, CSEA was safe and efficient in achieving satisfactory obstetrical anaesthesia and postoperative analgesia. No cross-infection occurred in the HCWs working in these operations.

Maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia: a case-control study

BackgroundThe ongoing epidemics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have caused serious concerns about its potential adverse effects on pregnancy. There are limited data on maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia. MethodsWe conducted a case-control study to compare clinical characteristics, maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with and without COVID-19 pneumonia. ResultsDuring January 24 to February 29, 2020, there were sixteen pregnant women with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and eighteen suspected cases who were admitted to labor in the third trimester. Two had vaginal delivery and the rest took cesarean section. Few patients presented respiratory symptoms (fever and cough) on admission, but most had typical chest CT images of COVID-19 pneumonia. Compared to the controls, COVID-19 pneumonia patients had lower counts of white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils, C-reactive protein (CRP), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) on admission. Increased levels of WBC, neutrophils, eosinophils, and CRP were found in postpartum blood tests of pneumonia patients. There were three (18.8%) and two (10.5%) of the mothers with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 pneumonia had preterm delivery due to maternal complications, which were significantly higher than the control group. None experienced respiratory failure during hospital stay. COVID-19 infection was not found in the newborns and none developed severe neonatal complications. ConclusionSevere maternal and neonatal complications were not observed in pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia who had vaginal delivery or caesarean section. Mild respiratory symptoms of pregnant women with COVID-19 pneumonia highlight the need of effective screening on admission.

Clinical application value of soluble co-stimulatory molecule B7-H1 detection in colorectal cancer / 中华检验医学杂志

Objective To determine the level of soluble B7-H1 (sB7-H1) in serum of patients with colorectal cancer ( CRC) , and to investigate its clinical application value in CRC .Methods 152 cases of CRC, 57 cases of benign colorectal diseases and 59 healthy subjects were enrolled .ELISA was used to determine the sB7-H1 level in serum.The levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) and carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4) were determined by electrochemiluminescence. The level of carbohydrate antigen 50 (CA-50) was determined by chemiluminescence.ROC curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of sB 7-H1 alone or combined with other tumor markers in CRC .It also analyzed the correlation between serum sB 7-H1 level and some clinicopathological characteristics including tumor location , depth of invasion , lymph node metastasis status , distant metastasis status and tumor stages.Results (1)The differences of sB7-H1 level among CRC group, colorectal benign disease group and healthy control group ( compared with each other respectively ) were statistically significant ( P<0.001 ) . Levels of CEA, CA19-9, CA72-4 and CA-50 were significantly different between CRC group and benign colorectal disease group ( P<0.05 ) , while there was no significant difference between benign colorectal disease group and healthy control group (P>0.05).(2)The diagnosis ability of sB7-H1, CEA, CA19-9,CA72-4, and CA-50 were determined by the area under curve (AUC), which was 0.730, 0.772, 0.639, 0.663 and 0.635, respectively.The combination of sB7-H1 and CEA showed the best effect , and the AUC reached 0.831.(3)There was no significant correlation between the levels of sB 7-H1 and CEA, or CA19-9, CA72-4, CA-50.(4) Immunohistochemistry result showed that the positive rate of CRC group was 52％, while that of benign disease group was 6.3％.The difference of the positive rate between two groups was statistically significant (P<0.01).And there was a significant correlation between the positive rate of sB 7-H1 level in serum and tumor tissues of CRC patients ( P<0.05 ) .( 5 ) The serum sB7-H1 level in CRC patients was related to lymph node metastasis status (P<0.05).But there was no relationship between sB7-H1 level and other clinicopathological characteristics ( including tumor location , depth of invasion , distant metastasis status and tumor stage ) (P>0.05).Conclusion Serum sB7-H1 has a high clinical application value and could serve as a new tumor marker in CRC .

Study on objectively evaluating skin aging according to areas of skin texture / 生物医学工程学杂志

Skin aging principles play important roles in skin disease diagnosis, the evaluation of skin cosmetic effect, forensic identification and age identification in sports competition, etc. This paper proposes a new method to evaluate the skin aging objectively and quantitatively by skin texture area. Firstly, the enlarged skin image was acquired. Then, the skin texture image was segmented by using the iterative threshold method, and the skin ridge image was extracted according to the watershed algorithm. Finally, the skin ridge areas of the skin texture were extracted. The experiment data showed that the average areas of skin ridges, of both men and women, had a good correlation with age (the correlation coefficient r of male was 0.938, and the correlation coefficient r of female was 0.922), and skin texture area and age regression curve showed that the skin texture area increased with age. Therefore, it is effective to evaluate skin aging objectively by the new method presented in this paper.

Efffect of baicalin on antipyresis and influence on cytokine / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the antipyretic effect of baicalin in inhibiting yeast-induced fever in rats and the influence on inflammatory cytokine, then explore the possible mechanism of baicalin in inhibiting yeast-induced fever in rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Rat modles of pyrexia were established by subcutaneous injection of yeast (2 g x kg(-1)); the rats of were divided into the normal control, model, baicalin high, medium and low-dose group and the effect of baicalin on the changes of the rats' temperature were observed. Dual antibody ELISA method was used to test the changes of IL-6, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha contents in in serum , hypothalamus and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). Then analyze the correlation between the inhibition ratio of temperature heighten on three different dose of baicalin and the inhibition ratio of the contents heighten on IL-6, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The high dose of baicalin significantly inhibited the yeast-induced fever of rats, and decresesed IL-6, IL-1beta and TNF-alpha contents in serum, hypothalamus and CSF. The inhibition ratio of temperature heighten of baicalin had direct correlation with the inhibition ratio of the heighten on IL-1beta content in serum, hypothalamus and CSF (r = 0.873, P < 0.05), also dose TNF-alpha (r = 0.862, P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Baicalin may have obvious antipyretic effect by decreasing the increasing contents of IL-1beta and TNF-alpha in rats.</p>