Severe lumbar spinal stenosis combined with Guillain-Barré syndrome: A case report

BACKGROUNDGuillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare disorder that typically presents with ascending weakness, pain, paraesthesias, and numbness, which mimic the findings in lumbar spinal stenosis. Here, we report a case of severe lumbar spinal stenosis combined with GBS.CASE SUMMARYA 70-year-old man with a history of lumbar spinal stenosis presented to our emergency department with severe lower back pain and lower extremity numbness. Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the diagnosis of severe lumbar spinal stenosis. However, his symptoms did not improve postoperatively and he developed dysphagia and upper extremity numbness. An electromyogram was performed. Based on his symptoms, physical examination, and electromyogram, he was diagnosed with GBS. After 5 d of intravenous immunoglobulin (0.4 g/kg/d for 5 d) therapy, he gained 4/5 of strength in his upper and lower extremities and denied paraesthesias. He had regained 5/5 of strength in his extremities when he was discharged and had no symptoms during follow-up.CONCLUSIONGBS should be considered in the differential diagnosis of spinal disorder, even though magnetic resonance imaging shows severe lumbar spinal stenosis. This case highlights the importance of a careful diagnosis when a patient has a history of a disease and comes to the hospital with the same or similar symptoms.     

Exposure to ambient air pollution and the incidence of lung cancer and breast cancer in the Ontario Population Health and Environment Cohort

Lung and female breast cancers are highly prevalent worldwide. Although the association between exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and lung cancer has been recognized, there is less evidence for associations with other common air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and ozone (O₃). Even less is known about potential associations between these pollutants and breast cancer. We conducted a population-based cohort study to investigate the associations of chronic exposure to PM_2.5, NO₂, O₃ and redox-weighted average of NO₂ and O₃ (O_x) with incident lung and breast cancer, using the Ontario Population Health and Environment Cohort (ONPHEC), which includes all long-term residents aged 35–85 years who lived in Ontario, Canada, 2001–2015. Incident lung and breast cancers were ascertained using the Ontario Cancer Registry. Annual estimates of exposures were assigned to the residential postal codes of subjects for each year during follow-up. We used Cox proportional-hazards models adjusting for personal- and neighborhood-level covariates. Our cohorts for lung and breast cancer analyses included ~4.9 million individuals and ~2.5 million women, respectively. During follow-up, 100,146 incident cases of lung cancer and 91,146 incident cases of breast cancer were diagnosed. The fully adjusted analyses showed positive associations of lung cancer incidence with PM_2.5 (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.02 [95% CI: 1.01–1.05] per 5.3 μg/m³) and NO₂ (HR = 1.05 [95% CI: 1.03–1.07] per 14 ppb). No associations with lung cancer were observed for O₃ or O_x. Relationships between PM_2.5 and NO₂ with lung cancer exhibited a sublinear shape. We did not find compelling evidence linking air pollution to breast cancer.     

门诊和病房电脑鼠标细菌污染情况调查

目的调查门诊和普通病房电脑鼠标不同时段的细菌污染情况。方法随机抽取某院门诊及普通病房的各16个电脑鼠标，分别于8∶00、10∶30、13∶00、15∶30进行采样，样本接种培养后对菌落计数并筛查多重耐药菌。结果32个鼠标共计采样128次，最高菌落数达121 CFU/cm2，平均菌落数为23.9 CFU/cm2。随着时间的推移，同一鼠标的细菌计数逐渐增多。不同时段门诊和病房的电脑鼠标菌落数比较，在10∶30、13∶00、15∶30三个时间点，病房鼠标的菌落数均高于门诊（均P≤0.05）。64个病房电脑鼠标标本中检出耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）和耐碳青霉烯类鲍曼不动杆菌（CRAB）各1株。结论加强鼠标日常清洁消毒及监测工作非常重要，应增加清洁消毒频率或更换长效消毒剂，加强病房环境的清洁消毒。     

Myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) key genes analysis in rat anti-CD28-induced immune tolerance kidney transplantation

BackgroundIn the field of transplantation, inducing immune tolerance in recipients is of great importance. Blocking co-stimulatory molecule using anti-CD28 antibody could induce tolerance in a rat kidney transplantation model. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) reveals strong immune suppressive abilities in kidney transplantation. Here we analyzed key genes of MDSCs leading to transplant tolerance in this model.MethodsMicroarray data of rat gene expression profiles under accession number {"type":"entrez-geo","attrs":{"text":"GSE28545","term_id":"28545"}}GSE28545 in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were analyzed. Running the LIMMA package in R language, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found. Enrichment analysis of the DEGs was conducted in the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) database to explore gene ontology (GO) annotation and their Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. Their protein-protein interactions (PPIs) were provided by STRING database and was visualized in Cytoscape. Hub genes were carried out by CytoHubba.ResultsThree hundred and thirty-eight DEGs were exported, including 27 upregulated and 311 downregulated genes. The functions and KEGG pathways of the DEGs were assessed and the PPI network was constructed based on the string interactions of the DEGs. The network was visualized in Cytoscape; the entire PPI network consisted of 192 nodes and 469 edges. Zap70, Cdc42, Stat1, Stat4, Ccl5 and Cxcr3 were among the hub genes.ConclusionsThese key genes, corresponding proteins and their functions may provide valuable background for both basic and clinical research and could be the direction of future studies in immune tolerance, especially those examining immunocyte-induced tolerance.     

吉林辽宁两省18年来的目标设置对突发公共卫生事件应急工作落实情况的关联研究

目的本研究立足于项目组前期研究的成果上，积极探索吉林辽宁两省目标设置水平的差异，并进一步探究受目标设置影响下的工作落实结果情况，探讨产生差异的原因。 方法以系统穷尽的方式收集吉林辽宁两省2000至2017年有关目标与工作落实情况的指标，利用Spearman相关和线性回归分析吉林辽宁两省目标设置对于突发应急工作落实情况的影响。 结果吉林辽宁两省突发应急领域的目标设置水平与工作落实情况总体均呈现上升趋势，截至2017年，吉林目标设置水平与工作落实情况分别为46%与60%，辽宁为60%与53.3%，且目标设置水平与工作落实呈正相关。 结论有公众需要为依据且定量可考的目标设置对于工作落实、推进、完善具有积极的正反馈作用，建立科学量化的突发应急目标设置评价体系是适宜可行的。