National Health and Family Planning Commission

About: National Health and Family Planning Commission is a government organization based out in Beijing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Kashin–Beck disease. The organization has 2379 authors who have published 1440 publications receiving 20078 citations. The organization is also known as: Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China.

Research and control of advanced schistosomiasis japonica in China

Abstract: Among the three main schistosomes (Schistosoma japonicum, Schistosoma mansoni, and Schistosoma haematobium) known to infect humans, S. japonicum causes the most serious pathological lesions. In China, only schistosomiasis japonica is transmitted. From the 1950s, massive epidemiological investigations and active control measures for schistosomiasis japonica have been carried out. At the early stage of schistosomiasis control program, there were about 12 million schistosomiasis patients, and about 5% of schistosomiasis patients belong to advanced patients, which was 600,000. After more than a half century of active schistosomiasis control work, the schistosomiasis situation has been reduced markedly. The nearest epidemiological investigation showed that, by the end of 2012, there were still 240,000 schistosomiasis patients with the descent rate of 98% and 30,000 advanced patients with the descent rate of 95%. This paper reviews the rich experiences of advanced schistosomiasis research and control in China, including that the epidemiology researches confirm there is a family aggregation of advanced schistosomiasis and advanced schistosomiasis patients have no significance to the schistosomiasis transmission in transmission-interrupted areas but still are an infection source in endemic areas; pathogenic mechanism researches verify that genetic factors and immunoregulation play important roles in the disease developing process; ultrasound image examinations are used not only in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of advanced schistosomiasis but also in the guidance of treatment and evaluation of therapeutic effects and, furthermore, in the risk predictions of portal hypertension and upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage; clinical practices demonstrate that praziquantel can be used in most of advanced schistosomiasis patients, and the therapy not only can interrupt the schistosomiasis transmission somewhat but also is favorable for liver fibrosis improvement; the ascetic fluid concentration afflux is used in the therapy for obstinate ascites, and endoscopic varices ligation is used in the treatment of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and both have good effects; hundreds and thousands of severe splenomegaly advanced schistosomiasis patients received splenectomy, and the long-term survival rate is more than 90%, most of them are basically cured from the disease and their labor force recovers, some dwarf patients begin growing and developing again, and some sterile women became fertile; the researches of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of liver fibrosis have made progress, such as Cordyceps sinensis showing some anti-fibrosis effect in the animal experiments and primary clinical trials; the animal experiments and epidemiological investigations indicate that schistosome infection is one of the carcinogenesis risk factors, especially for liver cancer. In conclusion, these experiences and lessons are plentiful and worth sharing with the peers of other endemic countries for reference.

PET/MRI in the Diagnosis of Hormone-Producing Pituitary Microadenoma: A Prospective Pilot Study.

Abstract: This study was designed to evaluate the ability of PET/MRI, using 18F-FDG and 68Ga-DOTATATE as tracers, to detect hormone-producing pituitary microadenoma when diagnosis is difficult using MRI alone. Methods: We recruited 37 patients with elevated hormone levels, including 19 with undiagnosable primary pituitary adenoma and 18 with suspected recurrent pituitary adenoma. 18F-FDG PET/MRI and 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/MRI were performed within 1 wk of each other in all patients. Within 2 wk afterward, 27 of the 37 patients underwent transsphenoidal adenomectomy, 3 underwent sella region radiotherapy, 1 underwent somatostatin therapy, and 6 had only clinical follow-up. The image characteristics and uptake levels were correlated with the surgical findings and pathologic results. Receiver-operating-characteristic curves were analyzed to determine the optimal cutoff to differentiate adenoma from normal pituitary tissue. The area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve was calculated to compare diagnostic performance. Results: The PET/MR images were of diagnostic quality and without obvious image artifacts. The high contrast of the PET images provided complementary information to the fine anatomic display of the MR images. Increased 18F-FDG uptake was clearly observed in all patients. MRI enhanced using a 0.05 mmol/kg dose of gadopentetate dimeglumine showed suggestive findings in only 47% of the patients with primary adenoma and 39% of those with recurrent adenoma; when a 0.1 mmol/kg dose was used, the respective percentages were 37% and 50%. The 18F-FDG SUVmax of the 16 primary adenomas that underwent transsphenoidal adenomectomy (6.8 ± 3.7) was significantly higher than that of normal pituitary tissue (3.2 ± 1.1, P < 0.01). The adenomas showed moderate 68Ga-DOTATATE uptake (SUVmax, 3.8 ± 2.6), but the 68Ga-DOTATATE uptake was generally lower than that of normal pituitary tissue (SUVmax, 6.2 ± 3.2, P < 0.05). In the 11 suspected recurrent pituitary adenomas that underwent transsphenoidal adenomectomy, the 18F-FDG SUVmax was 6.1 ± 3.5, significantly higher than that of normal pituitary tissue (2.5 ± 1.1, P < 0.01), and the 68Ga-DOTATATE SUVmax was 3.0 ± 1.1, significantly lower than that of normal pituitary tissue (5.5 ± 1.7, P < 0.01). The 18F-FDG/68Ga-DOTATATE SUVmax ratio of the adenomas (2.3 ± 1.5) was significantly higher than that of normal pituitary tissue (0.6 ± 0.3, P < 0.05). When the 18F-FDG SUVmax alone and the 18F-FDG/68Ga-DOTATATE SUVmax ratio were used as criteria to discriminate between adenoma and pituitary tissue, the best analysis came from the ratio, and that from 18F-FDG SUVmax alone was slightly less, with optimal diagnostic cutoffs of 1.04 and 3.88, respectively. Conclusion: PET/MRI provides an ideal tool for the detection of hormone-producing pituitary microadenoma. Dual-tracer 18F-FDG and 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/MRI was useful for distinguishing pituitary microadenoma from normal pituitary tissue.

Distribution of ABO/Rh blood groups and their association with hepatitis B virus infection in 3.8 million Chinese adults: A population-based cross-sectional study.

Abstract: ABO and Rh blood groups play a vital role in blood transfusion safety and clinical practice and are thought to be linked with disease susceptibility. The results from previous studies that focused on the association between blood groups and HBV infection remain controversial. China has the world's largest burden of HBV infection. We assessed the distribution of ABO/Rh blood groups in Chinese adults and examined the association between these groups and HBV infection. We did a nationwide cross-sectional study using data from a physical check-up programme from 31 provinces examined between 2010 and 2012. ELISA was used to test for HBsAg in serologic samples. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate aOR of the association between ABO and Rh blood groups and HBV infection. Among 3 827 125 participants, the proportion of participants with blood group A was highest (30.54%), followed by O (30.37%), B (29.42%) and AB (9.66%). A total of 38 907 (1.02%) were Rh-D negative. The prevalence of HBsAg in blood groups O, A, B and AB were 6.34%, 5.55%, 5.18% and 5.06%, respectively. HBsAg prevalence was 5.65% in Rh-D-positive and 3.96% in Rh-D-negative participants. After controlling for other potential risk factors, multivariate models showed that participants with blood group O (adjusted OR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.20-1.25) were at higher risk of HBV infection compared with group AB. Rh-D-positive participants (adjusted OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.37-1.52) were at higher risk of HBV infection than Rh-D-negative participants. The associations between ABO/Rh blood groups and HBV infection were similar in subgroup analysis. The proportions of O, A, B and AB blood groups were approximately 3:3:3:1, and nearly 1 in 100 people was Rh-D negative among Chinese adults. Blood group O and Rh-D positivity were both associated with increased HBV infection. The risk of HBV infection and blood safety should be taken into consideration in clinical practice, especially when transfusing those with blood group O. Awareness and prevention of HBV infection is of particular importance for individuals with blood group O.

Characterization of the Transcriptomes of Lgr5+ Hair Cell Progenitors and Lgr5- Supporting Cells in the Mouse Cochlea.

Abstract: Cochlear supporting cells (SCs) have been shown to be a promising resource for hair cell (HC) regeneration in the neonatal mouse cochlea. Previous studies have reported that Lgr5+ SCs can regenerate HCs both in vitro and in vivo and thus are considered to be inner ear progenitor cells. Lgr5+ progenitors are able to regenerate more HCs than Lgr5− SCs, and it is important to understand the mechanism behind the proliferation and HC regeneration of these progenitors. Here, we isolated Lgr5+ progenitors and Lgr5− SCs from Lgr5-EGFP-CreERT2/Sox2-CreERT2/Rosa26-tdTomato mice via flow cytometry. As expected, we found that Lgr5+ progenitors had significantly higher proliferation and HC regeneration ability than Lgr5− SCs. Next, we performed RNA-Seq to determine the gene expression profiles of Lgr5+ progenitors and Lgr5− SCs. We analyzed the genes that were enriched and differentially expressed in Lgr5+ progenitors and Lgr5− SCs, and we found 8 cell cycle genes, 9 transcription factors, and 24 cell signaling pathway genes that were uniquely expressed in one population but not the other. Last, we made a protein-protein interaction network to further analyze the role of these differentially expressed genes. In conclusion, we present a set of genes that might regulate the proliferation and HC regeneration ability of Lgr5+ progenitors, and these might serve as potential new therapeutic targets for HC regeneration.