A 12-month prospective survey of perinatal outcome of liveborn neonates in Julu County, China.

BACKGROUND: Population based epidemiologic study on the main diseases and birth status of liveborn neonates remains scarce in China, especially in rural areas where a large number of neonates are born. The aim of this study was to establish an epidemiological basis of live births in Julu County, a representative of the northern and mid-western parts of China in terms of demography, disease pattern and women and children's health care infrastructure. METHODS: The perinatal data of all live births were prospectively collected in three participating county-level hospitals from September 1, 2007 to August 30, 2008. RESULTS: There were 5822 live births in these hospitals. Among all live births, 53.7% were male and 4.5% were born prematurely. Mean (SD) birth weight (BW) was (3348 ± 503) g. The low (< 2500 g) and very low BW (< 1500 g) infants accounted for 3.8% and 0.5% of the total births, with 6.5% as small for gestational age and 2.8% as multi-births. Cesarean section rate was 30.2%, of which 68.6% were elective. There were 745 infants (12.8% of the live births) admitted to local neonatal wards within 7 days of postnatal life, in which 48.3% and 19.3% were due to perinatal asphyxia and prematurity, respectively. The incidences of perinatal aspiration syndrome, transient tachypnea and respiratory distress syndrome were 4.9%, 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. Neonatal mortality was 7.6‰ (44/5822), with 16 in delivery room and 28 in neonatal ward before discharge. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a population-based perinatal data of live births and neonatal mortality in a northern China county with limited resources. Neonatal disorders related to perinatal asphyxia remain a serious clinical problem, which calls for sustained education of advanced neonatal resuscitation and improvement in the quality of perinatal-neonatal care.

In vitro drug release behavior from a novel thermosensitive composite hydrogel based on Pluronic f127 and poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(epsilon-caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymer.

BACKGROUND: Most conventional methods for delivering chemotherapeutic agents fail to achieve therapeutic concentrations of drugs, despite reaching toxic systemic levels. Novel controlled drug delivery systems are designed to deliver drugs at predetermined rates for predefined periods at the target organ and overcome the shortcomings of conventional drug formulations therefore could diminish the side effects and improve the life quality of the patients. Thus, a suitable controlled drug delivery system is extremely important for chemotherapy. RESULTS: A novel biodegradable thermosensitive composite hydrogel, based on poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(epsilon-caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-PCL-PEG, PECE) and Pluronic F127 copolymer, was successfully prepared in this work, which underwent thermosensitive sol-gel-sol transition. And it was flowing sol at ambient temperature but became non-flowing gel at body temperature. By varying the composition, sol-gel-sol transition and in vitro drug release behavior of the composite hydrogel could be adjusted. Cytotoxicity of the composite hydrogel was conducted by cell viability assay using human HEK293 cells. The 293 cell viability of composite hydrogel copolymers were yet higher than 71.4%, even when the input copolymers were 500 microg per well. Vitamin B12 (VB12), honokiol (HK), and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were used as model drugs to investigate the in vitro release behavior of hydrophilic small molecular drug, hydrophobic small molecular drug, and protein drug from the composite hydrogel respectively. All the above-mentioned drugs in this work could be released slowly from composite hydrogel in an extended period. Chemical composition of composite hydrogel, initial drug loading, and hydrogel concentration substantially affected the drug release behavior. The higher Pluronic F127 content, lower initial drug loading amount, or lower hydrogel concentration resulted in higher cumulative release rate. CONCLUSION: The results showed that composite hydrogel prepared in this paper were biocompatible with low cell cytotoxicity, and the drugs in this work could be released slowly from composite hydrogel in an extended period, which suggested that the composite hydrogel might have great potential applications in biomedical fields.