Molecular Targets for the Testing of COVID‐19

The pandemic outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), spread all over the world in a short period of time. Efficient identification of the infection by SARS‐CoV‐2 has been one of the most important tasks to facilitate all the following counter measurements in dealing with the infectious disease. In Taiwan, a COVID‐19 Open Science Platform adheres to the spirit of open science: sharing sources, data, and methods to promote progress in academic research while corroborating findings from various disciplines has established in mid‐February 2020, for collaborative research in support of the development of detection methods, therapeutics, and a vaccine for COVID‐19. Research priorities include infection control, epidemiology, clinical characterization and management, detection methods (including viral RNA detection, viral antigen detection, and serum antibody detection), therapeutics (neutralizing antibody and small molecule drugs), vaccines, and SARS‐CoV‐2 pathogenesis. In addition, research on social ethics and the law are included to take full account of the impact of the COVID‐19 virus.     

岷江上游4个栽培树种细根功能性状垂直分布的差异性

细根(直径≤2 mm)功能性状及垂直分布格局是反映植物对土壤资源吸收策略和影响森林地下生态过程的关键。本研究以岷江上游4个人工林树种连香树(Cercidiphyllum japonicum)、白桦(Betula platyphylla)、华山松(Pinus armandii)和油松(P.tabuliformis)为对象,调查不同海拔树木细根功能性状及其在不同土层间的垂直分布格局,并分析细根功能性状分布与构型之间的相关关系。结果表明:阔叶树种比针叶树种有更大的根长密度、生物量、比根长和比表面积,而直径反之;4个树种细根集中在0~20 cm土层,根长密度和生物量在较高海拔地段均显著大于较低海拔,且均随土壤深度增加而减少,但比根长、比表面积和直径无显著的海拔差异,随土层加深也无明显的垂直变化规律;针阔树种间的细根构型差异显著,但不受海拔差异的影响,阔叶树的细根分支强度与一级根数量显著大于针叶树种;一级根数和根尖密度与比根长以及分根比与根长密度和生物量均呈显著正相关,而分叉与几个细根功能参数均呈负相关;随着土层深度增加,细根总生长量明显减少,但细根资源利用效率和策略不变;5个细根功能性状的垂直分布格局差异明显,且受树种特性影响显著,细根分支构型对其垂直分布及资源获取策略具有显著影响。     

Repeated measures random forests (RMRF): Identifying factors associated with nocturnal hypoglycemia

Nocturnal hypoglycemia is a common phenomenon among patients with diabetes and can lead to a broad range of adverse events and complications. Identifying factors associated with hypoglycemia can improve glucose control and patient care. We propose a repeated measures random forest (RMRF) algorithm that can handle nonlinear relationships and interactions and the correlated responses from patients evaluated over several nights. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm captures the informative variable more often than naïvely assuming independence. RMRF also outperforms standard random forest and extremely randomized trees algorithms. We demonstrate scenarios where RMRF attains greater prediction accuracy than generalized linear models. We apply the RMRF algorithm to analyze a diabetes study with 2524 nights from 127 patients with type 1 diabetes. We find that nocturnal hypoglycemia is associated with HbA1c, bedtime blood glucose (BG), insulin on board, time system activated, exercise intensity, and daytime hypoglycemia. The RMRF can accurately classify nights at high risk of nocturnal hypoglycemia.     

儿童重症监护病房医院感染暴发白色念珠菌血流感染4例分析

摘要 目的：探讨儿童重症监护病房白色念珠菌血流感染暴发的临床表现、危险因素、控制措施等,为预防和控制院内白色念珠菌血流感染暴发提供科学依据。方法：以2018年7月我院儿童重症监护病房发生的4例白色念珠菌血流感染暴发患儿为研究对象,分析患儿临床情况、临床特征、危险因素、暴发原因以及采取的预防控制措施。结果：4例医院感染暴发白色念珠菌血流感染患儿均存在基础疾病、有机械通气史、存在中心静脉或动脉置管、静脉或动脉置管前后均使用碘伏消毒、曾使用广谱抗生素、输血制品,白色念珠菌血流感染后最突出的临床表现均是发热。药敏方面,医院感染暴发的4例白色念珠菌感染患儿对唑类及5-氟胞嘧啶均耐药,但对两性霉素B均敏感。经拔除血管置管、减少或者避免广谱抗菌药的应用,根据药敏使用卡泊芬净及两性霉素B抗真菌等积极治疗,1例患儿放弃治疗后死亡,3例患儿顺利出院。通过Fisher确切概率法分析可知,留置中心静脉或动脉置管是儿童重症监护病房发生医院感染暴发白色念珠菌血流感染的危险因素（P<0.05）。结论：留置中心静脉或动脉置管是儿童重症监护病房发生医院感染暴发白色念珠菌血流感染的危险因素,医院感染暴发白色念珠菌血流感染患儿最突出的临床表现是发热,唑类及5-氟胞嘧啶耐药的患儿使用卡泊芬净及两性霉素B可能获得较好的治疗效果。     

News from the BSC No. 8

Abstract

In the 8th and following issues of News from the Biological Stain Commission (BSC), under the heading of Regulatory affairs, the BSC's International Affairs Committee will present information from a meeting held in Ghent, Belgium on 15–18 June 2009 concerning the progress achieved by the International Standards Organization Committee ISO/TC 212 Clinical Laboratory Testing and in Vitro Diagnostic Test Systems since the last meeting held in Vancouver, Canada in 2008. A note on the meaning and significance of E numbers found on the labels of foodstuffs and beverages sold for human consumption concludes this edition of News from the Biological Stain Commission.     

Standardization in Biological Staining. The Influence of Dye Manufacturing

The purpose of biological staining is to obtain specimens of biological material that can be assessed in the microscope. These specimens are influenced by all processes from removal from the intact organism to mounting on the microscopic slide. To achieve comparable results with various techniques for biological staining, standardization of all procedures and reagents is mandatory. In this paper, I focus particularly on dyes and consider the possibilities for obtaining standardized dyes. In general practice, most biological staining takes place with available commercial dyes. These dyes may or may not have been subjected to quality assessment either internally by the producer or vendor or externally by independent investigators or organizations such as the Biological Stain Commission. Concerted attempts at standardization in Europe are discussed. The latest results of this work, the European standard EN 12376, is presented. This standard is concerned with information supplied by the manufacturer with in vitro diagnostic reagents for biological staining. The standard has been prepared by a Working Group on Staining in Biology under Technical Committee 140, In Vitro Medical Devices, of the European committee for standardization, CEN.     

Diagnostic Tests for Primary Renal Hypouricemia

Primary renal hypouricemia is a genetic disorder characterized by defective renal uric acid (UA) reabsorption with complications such as nephrolithiasis and exercise-induced acute renal failure. The known causes are: defects in the SLC22A12 gene, encoding the human urate transporter 1 (hURAT1), and also impairment of voltage urate transporter (URATv1), encoded by SLC2A9 (GLUT9) gene. Diagnosis is based on hypouricemia (<119 μmol/L) and increased fractional excretion of UA (>10%). To date, the cases with mutations in hURAT1 gene have been reported in East Asia only. More than 100 Japanese patients have been described. Hypouricemia is sometimes overlooked; therefore, we have set up the flowchart for this disorder. The patients were selected for molecular analysis from 620 Czech hypouricemic patients. Secondary causes of hyperuricosuric hypouricemia were excluded. The estimations of (1) serum UA, (2) excretion fraction of UA, and (3) analysis of hURAT1 and URATv1 genes follow. Three transitions and one deletion (four times) in SLC22A12 gene and one nucleotide insertion in SLC2A9 gene in seven Czech patients were found. Three patients had acute renal failure and urate nephrolithiasis. In addition, five nonsynonymous sequence variants and three nonsynonymous sequence variants in SLC2A9 gene were found in two UK patients suffering from acute renal failure. Our finding of the defects in SLC22A12 and SLC2A9 genes gives further evidence of the causative genes of primary renal hypouricemia and supports their important role in regulation of serum urate levels in humans.     

Diagnostic value of exercise-induced changes in circulating high sensitive troponin T in stable chest pain patients

Abstract

Objective: We investigated the diagnostic value of exercise-induced increase in cardiac Troponin T (cTnT) in stable chest pain subjects.

Methods: CTnT was measured before and 20?h after an exercise test in 157 subjects suspected of coronary artery disease (CAD).

Results: CAD subjects (n?=?41) had higher baseline cTnT levels compared to non-CAD subjects (n?=?116), 6.39?ng/l and 3.00?ng/l, respectively, p?<?0.0001, and were more likely to increase in cTnT (70.7% versus 27.6%, p?<?0.0001). Net Reclassification Index for the combined variable was 19%, p?=?0.02.

Conclusions: Exercise-induced increase in cTnT was found to be associated with CAD and cTnT measurements improved the diagnostic evaluation.