Effects of water improvement and defluoridation on fluorosis-endemic areas in China: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis systematically evaluated the effects of water improvement and defluoridation on fluorosis-endemic areas in North and South China. The study used PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang to retrieve relevant research studies published between January 2000 and October 2019. The data included water fluoride levels, dental fluorosis prevalence in children 8-15 years of age, urinary fluoride levels in children and adults, and skeletal fluorosis prevalence in adults. Fixed-effects and random-effects models were used in the meta-analysis. A total of 17 research articles met the inclusion criteria and had an average water improvement period of 15.8 years. With water improvement, water fluoride levels decreased from 2.72 mg/L to 0.54 mg/L (95% confidence intervals: -2.75, -1.58), which was below the standard for drinking water (1.5 mg/L). Additionally, after water improvement, the prevalence of dental fluorosis decreased from 54.5% to 36.2% (95% confidence intervals: 0.12, 0.31) in children, and the prevalence of skeletal fluorosis decreased from 13.7% to 4.2% (95% confidence intervals: 0.16, 0.40) in adults. Urinary fluoride levels decreased from 3.06 mg/L to 1.70 mg/L (OR = -2.03, 95% confidence intervals: -2.77, -1.30) in children and from 2.29 mg/L to 1.72 mg/L (OR = -0.57, 95% confidence intervals: 0.65, -0.49) in adults. The results showed that the prevalence of dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis and urinary fluoride levels were significantly reduced by water improvement. This study findings revealed that the effects of water improvement and defluoridation were greater in South China than in North China, and it is obviously related to the time of water improvement and reducing fluoride.

[Survey on Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Depressed Patients and Genotype Identification in Guizhou Province].

Objective: To survey on Toxoplasma gondii infection in depressed patients in Guizhou Province and identify the genotype of T. gondii. Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was applied to detect the T. gondii-specific antibodies IgG, IgM and circulating antigens (CAg) of T. gondii in 141 patients and 150 healthy subjects. The specific repeated DNA fragment (529 bp) of T. gondii was amplified by PCR. The genotype of T. gondii was determined by multiplex multilocus nested polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (Mn-PCR-RFLP). Results: ELISA showed that the positive rate of anti-T. gondii antibody in depressed patients and healthy subjects was 21.3%（30/141） and 7.3%（11/150）, respectively. The positive rate of IgG in depressed patients was 18.4% （26/141）, significantly higher than that in healthy subjects （7.3%, 11/150）（P<0.05）. The positive rate of IgM and CAg in depressed patients was both 1.4% （2/141）, while these were not found in healthy subjects. PCR revealed one patient positive for T. gondii, whose genotype was further identified to be Toxo DB #9（Chinese 1 type） by Mn-PCR-RFLP. Conclusion: The positive rate of T. gondii is higher in depressed patients than in the healthy subjects in Guizhou Province. The genotype of T. gondii detected in one depressed patient is the Chinese 1 type.

[Toxoplasma gondi Antibody Profile in Patients with Leukemia or Lymphoma].

Blood samples were collected from patients with leukemia (n = 150) or lymphoma (n = 150) in the Cancer Hospital from March to September 2014. The specific antibodies (IgG, IgM) to, and circulating antigens (CAg) of Toxoplasma gondii were determined by ELISA. A 529 bp specific sequence was amplified by PCR from the genomic DNA of T. gondii. T. gondii-specific IgG positive rate in patients with leukemia and lymphoma were 16.0% (24/150) and 20.0% (30/150), respectively, which were significantly higher than that of healthy persons (6.4%, 7/110) (P < 0.05). IgM positive rate of the leukemia patients, lymphoma patients, and healthy persons was 2.7% (4/150), 1.3% (2/150), and 0.9% (1/110) (P > 0.05), respectively. No significant difference was found in IgM and CAg positive rate among leukemia patients, lymphoma patients, and healthy persons (P > 0.05). No specific band (529 bp) was detected in all samples.