Psychosocial characteristics of patients with bronchial asthma and coronary disease: similarities and differences

The authors compare two groups of subjects: patients with bronchial asthma and those with coronary disease, with regard to some social characteristics, abilities and perception of factors which they conceive are important in the etiology of their disease. Data were obtained by means of a questionnaire based on a known calibrated scale. A group of 100 patients with bronchial asthma and a group of 102 patients with coronary disease were examined. The significance of the difference was tested by chi 2, t-test, Wilcoxon's test and multivariate discriminative analysis. The results showed statistically significant differences between the patients with bronchial asthma and those with coronary disease in some social and psychological characteristics and also with regard to perception of potential etiological factors of their disease. However, no difference was found in life style and habits between the coronary and asthmatic patients.     

Age-related changes in saccadic eye movements in healthy subjects and patients with Parkinson's disease

Age-related changes in characteristics of saccadic eye movements (latency, duration and percentage of multistep saccades) in healthy subjects and patients with Parkinson's disease were evaluated. Healthy volunteers were divided into 6 age groups (17-20 years, 21-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-50 years, 51-60 years, 61-75 years), parkinsonian patients into 3 age groups (41-50 years, 51-60 years, 61-75 years). According to our data, saccade characteristics depend upon age in both healthy subjects and parkinsonian patients. In healthy volunteers the percentage of multistep saccades and the mean saccade latency increase significantly after the age of 60. Values of these characteristics in patients with Parkinson's disease significantly exceed the values in the corresponding age groups of healthy subjects. The "disease" factor (MANOVA) has a greater influence on saccade latency and percentage of multistep saccades then the "age" factor. The duration of single saccades depends on age to a smaller extent and does not change in patients with Parkinson's disease. The peculiarities of neurodegenerative processes during normal aging and aging with Parkinson's disease are discussed.     

Systematic Classification of Disease Severity for Evaluation of Expanded Carrier Screening Panels

Professional guidelines dictate that disease severity is a key criterion for carrier screening. Expanded carrier screening, which tests for hundreds to thousands of mutations simultaneously, requires an objective, systematic means of describing a given disease''s severity to build screening panels. We hypothesized that diseases with characteristics deemed to be of highest impact would likewise be rated as most severe, and diseases with characteristics of lower impact would be rated as less severe. We describe a pilot test of this hypothesis in which we surveyed 192 health care professionals to determine the impact of specific disease phenotypic characteristics on perceived severity, and asked the same group to rate the severity of selected inherited diseases. The results support the hypothesis: we identified four “Tiers” of disease characteristics (1–4). Based on these responses, we developed an algorithm that, based on the combination of characteristics normally seen in an affected individual, classifies the disease as Profound, Severe, Moderate, or Mild. This algorithm allows simple classification of disease severity that is replicable and not labor intensive.     

豆类炭疽病病原物种类及其发生研究进展

炭疽病是重要的世界性植物病害,造成大豆、绿豆等品质变劣,产量损失严重。本文综述了国内外大豆炭疽病的发生情况、炭疽菌种类及其特征,为了解该病的流行病学和科学防治提供理论依据。     

Isolation and cultivation of Lyme disease spirochetes.

The successful isolation and cultivation of Lyme disease spirochetes traces its lineage to early attempts at cultivating relapsing fever borreliae. Observations on the growth of Lyme disease spirochetes under different in vitro conditions may yield important clues to both the metabolic characteristics of these newly discovered organisms and the pathogenesis of Lyme disease.     

我国四株埃可病毒6型全基因组序列及重组特征分析

埃可病毒6型(Echovirus 6,ECHO6)作为肠道病毒B组(Enterovirus B,EV-B)的一员,在临床上常导致无菌性脑膜炎(Aseptic meningitis,AM)、急性弛缓性麻痹(Acute flaccid paralysis,AFP)、手足口病(Hand,foot,and mouth disease,HFMD)等多种疾病。本文挑选四株中国大陆地区不同年份、地区及疾病严重程度的代表毒株进行全基因组测定分析,与GenBank上ECHO6全长代表株及EV-B组原型株比对分析,了解其进化特征,并筛选BLAST结果的EV-B组流行株,探究我国流行的ECHO6与其他血清型的基因重组特征。结果提示,本研究四株ECHO6毒株在非结构蛋白区与EV-B其他血清型均发生重组,其中死亡病例标本重组模式更为复杂,可能与疾病严重程度有关。通过本研究分析,可进一步揭示ECHO6的遗传特征,为肠道病毒血清型研究提供基础数据,对了解其进化变异及临床致病力影响具有重要意义。     

82 例成人手足口病的临床特点分析

目的:总结82例成人手足口病的临床表现,实验室检查和流行病学特点,有利于做好手足口病的预防治疗.方法:对82例成人手足口病的临床表现和流行病学特点进行回顾性分析.结果:成人手足口病临床症状轻,预后好,但成人手足口病患者作为传染源,在临床中对手足口病的传播很有意义.结论:做好成人手足口病的诊断治疗和隔离,对预防控制手足口病有重要意义.     

The ecological interdependence of diet and disease in tribal societies.

Observations among nomads suggest there is a strong ecological interdependence of diet and disease in tribal societies which favors survival of man. This relationship may be disrupted by changes in diet to conform to the highly productive technology of the West. Such changes may result in intensification of indigenous disease and in the transfer of disease characteristics of Western societies. To prevent these consequences, relief feeding and long-term attempts to upgrade nutrition should be carried out with traditional foods wherever possible.     

辣椒疫霉菌果胶裂解酶PL101基因的克隆及生物信息学分析

【背景】辣椒疫病是一种世界性土传病害,严重影响世界各国辣椒生产,并带来巨大经济损失。果胶裂解酶(pectate lyase,PL)作为一类重要的细胞壁降解酶类是该病的重要致病因子。【目的】对果胶裂解酶基因进行克隆,并对其生物信息学特性进行相关分析,进一步阐明该酶的作用机制。【方法】根据辣椒疫霉菌全基因组序列,以高致病菌株SD33为模板扩增PL101基因的全长cDNA序列,并对其理化性质、跨膜区、亲疏水性、结构域等生物学特性进行分析。【结果】除获得PL101相关生物学特性信息外,还对PL101进行三维结构建模,获得可信度较高的蛋白结构,并确定PL101可能的催化位点为Asp183、Arg212、Arg272三个氨基酸。【结论】对PL101基因的克隆及相关生物学特性的分析为进一步阐明PL功能特性提供参考。     

Persistent Chlamydiae and chronic arthritis

Urogenital infection with Chlamydia trachomatis can lead to development of an acute inflammatory arthritis, and this acute disease becomes chronic in some individuals. Research indicates that the organism is present in synovial tissue of patients with chronic disease in a persistent, rather than an actively growing, form. Importantly, metabolic and other characteristics of persistent Chlamydia differ from those of actively growing bacteria. Other studies suggest that Chlamydia pneumoniae can be found in a persistent state in the synovium and that it too may be involved in joint pathogenesis. These and other observations suggest a more complex role for the Chlamydiae in joint disease than previously recognized. This realization should engender a realignment of thinking among clinicians and researchers concerning both mechanisms of chlamydial pathogenesis in the synovium and design of new treatments for the disease.     

烟草青枯病的病原特性及流行预警

烟草青枯病是当前烟草生产中发生面积大、危害严重、防控困难的土传病害,也是烟草病虫害绿色防控最为关键的流行性病害.作为一种典型的维管束细菌性病害,植株感病属于系统性侵染,条件合适时会突然暴发危害,因此,监测预警十分重要.本文总结了烟草青枯病病原特性、发病症状及病害侵染循环的特点,介绍了影响青枯病发生的关键因子,提出了青枯病的调查与监测预警方法,旨在为烟草青枯病的基础理论研究及有效推进绿色防控提供有力支撑.     

Cellular and humoral immunity and nonspecific resistance factors in chronic opisthorchiasis patients during dispensary observation

In 116 patients with opisthorchiasis running a cholecystocholangitic variant of the disease course, the characteristics of nonspecific resistance (complement, lysozyme, properdin), cell-mediated and humoral immunity (T- and B-lymphocytes, T gamma-, T mu-, O-, D-, A-cells and auto-rosette-forming cells, IgG, IgA and IgM) have been studied. Essential changes in these characteristics before and after treatment, as well as at the remote periods of dispensary observation, have been established.     

宠物与外来动物病

宠物伴随人类文明已有数千年的历史。当今宠物日益受到大众青睐,给人们带来精神上享受,但宠物是外来动物疾病一个潜在载体,对人们身体健康和畜牧生产造成影响。本文概括了我国宠物外来动物疾病的现状及潜在的威胁,简要分析了几种外来动物疾病的特点,对防止宠物引入外来动物疾病给出了意见和建议。     

北京市2010年手足口病死亡病例流行病学及临床特征分析

目的:通过描述2010年北京市手足口病死亡病例的流行病学特点和临床特点,分析手足口病重症病例发生死亡的危险因素,为防制手足口病,减少手足口病的死亡提供科学依据。方法:采用现况描述及病例对照研究的方法,对2010年北京市手足口病死亡病例的特点进行分析。结果:2010年北京市共报告18例手足口病死亡病例,88.9%分布在5-8月份;死亡病例的男女比例为3.5:1;年龄均小于4岁;流动人口聚集区的死亡病例较多;散居儿童及外地户籍儿童比例高,分别为83.3%和94.4%。死亡病例均出现出疹、发热及神经精神系统症状,整体精神状况,呼吸功能指标以及循环系统受累明显。与重症痊愈病例相比,感染EV71型病毒是发生死亡的危险因素(x2=4.774,P=0.029)。结论:手足口病死亡病例分布与重症病例分布基本一致。应对流动人口聚集地区的4岁以下婴幼儿重症病例进行重点防控。     

Evolutionary conservation and selection of human disease gene orthologs in the rat and mouse genomes

Background

Model organisms have contributed substantially to our understanding of the etiology of human disease as well as having assisted with the development of new treatment modalities. The availability of the human, mouse and, most recently, the rat genome sequences now permit the comprehensive investigation of the rodent orthologs of genes associated with human disease. Here, we investigate whether human disease genes differ significantly from their rodent orthologs with respect to their overall levels of conservation and their rates of evolutionary change.

Results

Human disease genes are unevenly distributed among human chromosomes and are highly represented (99.5%) among human-rodent ortholog sets. Differences are revealed in evolutionary conservation and selection between different categories of human disease genes. Although selection appears not to have greatly discriminated between disease and non-disease genes, synonymous substitution rates are significantly higher for disease genes. In neurological and malformation syndrome disease systems, associated genes have evolved slowly whereas genes of the immune, hematological and pulmonary disease systems have changed more rapidly. Amino-acid substitutions associated with human inherited disease occur at sites that are more highly conserved than the average; nevertheless, 15 substituting amino acids associated with human disease were identified as wild-type amino acids in the rat. Rodent orthologs of human trinucleotide repeat-expansion disease genes were found to contain substantially fewer of such repeats. Six human genes that share the same characteristics as triplet repeat-expansion disease-associated genes were identified; although four of these genes are expressed in the brain, none is currently known to be associated with disease.

Conclusions

Most human disease genes have been retained in rodent genomes. Synonymous nucleotide substitutions occur at a higher rate in disease genes, a finding that may reflect increased mutation rates in the chromosomal regions in which disease genes are found. Rodent orthologs associated with neurological function exhibit the greatest evolutionary conservation; this suggests that rodent models of human neurological disease are likely to most faithfully represent human disease processes. However, with regard to neurological triplet repeat expansion-associated human disease genes, the contraction, relative to human, of rodent trinucleotide repeats suggests that rodent loci may not achieve a 'critical repeat threshold' necessary to undergo spontaneous pathological repeat expansions. The identification of six genes in this study that have multiple characteristics associated with repeat expansion-disease genes raises the possibility that not all human loci capable of facilitating neurological disease by repeat expansion have as yet been identified.     

L-428 Reed-Sternberg cells and mononuclear Hodgkin's cells arise from a single cloned mononuclear cell

The L-428 cell line derived from nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease was verified to be a human female cell line with surface marker and morphologic characteristics similar to native Hodgkin's cells. Single cells were cloned and subcloned twice to determine the characteristics of the clonogenic L-428 Hodgkin's cell (resulting in a 10% cloning efficiency). Both mononuclear L-428 cells and classical Reed-Sternberg cells arose from solitary cells. The clonogenic cell was the mononuclear Hodgkin's cell, although small abortive colonies sometimes arose from classical binucleate Reed-Sternberg cells. Cytogenetic and phenotypic analysis supported the clonality of three subclones and indicated, among many findings, consistent abnormalities of the long arm of chromosome 7 (beta-chain of the T cell receptor) and 14q32 (Ig heavy chain). Distinctive abnormalities of cytogenetics, phenotyping and transforming growth factor-beta production were exhibited for each clone as well. These observations demonstrate the relationship of the continuum of malignant mononuclear and multinuclear Reed-Sternberg cells in this cell culture from nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease and suggest that a similar relationship exists in native Hodgkin's disease tissue. These observations also support the theory of clonality in Hodgkin's disease and suggest that in vivo contiguous metastasis in the L-428 Hodgkin's disease patient was most likely accomplished by a Ki-1 positive small mononuclear cell.     

Global disease spread: statistics and estimation of arrival times

We study metapopulation models for the spread of epidemics in which different subpopulations (cities) are connected by fluxes of individuals (travelers). This framework allows one to describe the spread of a disease on a large scale and we focus here on the computation of the arrival time of a disease as a function of the properties of the seed of the epidemics and of the characteristics of the network connecting the various subpopulations. Using analytical and numerical arguments, we introduce an easily computable quantity which approximates this average arrival time. We show on the example of a disease spread on the world-wide airport network that this quantity predicts with a good accuracy the order of arrival of the disease in the various subpopulations in each realization of epidemic scenario, and not only for an average over realizations. Finally, this quantity might be useful in the identification of the dominant paths of the disease spread.     

鸡传染性法氏囊病上海超强毒株NH99的分离与鉴定

通过对上海近郊某鸡场数群 10日龄左右的病鸡的临床症状、病理变化、病毒分离、纯化、动物回归、血清学检测及病毒核酸纯化、VP2基因序列的测定与分析 ,确认上海地区以发病日龄早 ,发病率、死亡率高为特征的鸡传染病为超强毒型鸡传染性法氏囊病 ,病原具有鸡传染性法氏囊病病毒超强毒 (vvIBDV)的分子特征 ,为vvIBDV。     

Immunologic indices in a varying course of lepromatous leprosy

The study of the proliferative and regulatory functions of lymphocytes in patients with lepra of the lepromatous type has shown that at the active stage of the disease both the response of lymphocytes to mitogens and their suppressor functions are decreased. During the regression of the disease these characteristics are restored to the normal level only in patients with the relapse-free course of the disease, while patients with relapses in their medical history retain the low level of such characteristics. It is expedient to use these cell-mediated immunity characteristics as signs permitting the formation of risk groups of patients who may expect the relapse of the disease.