HIV抗体快速检测试剂的临床评估

目的:通过对HIV抗体快速检测试剂的临床评估,为HIV检测试剂的临床应用提供参考.方法:对快速试剂的使用性能进行比较,并采用美国输血协会(AABB)血清盘、临床样品血清盘、特性血清盘(阳性样品盘)、稀释系列血清盘评估快速试剂的敏感性和特异性.结果:三种快速试剂在检测AABB血清盘时,敏感性分别是86.4%、86.4%、100%,特异性皆为100%;三种快速试剂在检测临床样品血清盘时,敏感性分别是88.6%、91.4%、97.1%,特异性皆为100%.快速试剂具有很高的阳性预期值,对于低危人群(感染率很低人群)也具有很高的阴性预期值.快速试剂检测弱阳性的样品(酶联试剂s/co比值小于6～8的样品)存在漏检.快速试剂与ELISA参考试剂在分析灵敏度方面相差3个以上倍比稀释度.结论:快速试剂具有较好的使用特性,非常适用于样本量较少的实验室及对低危人群的HIV筛查,在对高危人群筛查时,可能有弱阳性样品漏检,同时快速试剂在分析灵敏度方面有待提高.     

济南市HIV感染状况及防治对策

艾滋病流行已成为一个严重的社会公共卫生问题。济南市自 1998年在回国劳工中发现首例艾滋病病毒感染者以来 ,截止到目前 ,共发现 8例 HIV感染者 /艾滋病病人 ,现将有关情况报告如下。1　 HIV抗体阳性者和艾滋病病人的基本情况1.1　人群分布　男性 6例 ,女性 2例 ,男女之比为 3∶ 1;全部为青少年 ,年龄最大者 3 2岁 ,最小者 13岁。1.2　时间分布　 1998年 1例 ,2 0 0 0年 2例 ,2 0 0 2年 5例 ,合计 8例 ,其中艾滋病病人 5例 ,HIV感染者 3例。1.3　地理分布　 8例患者中有 4例来自济南市 ,主要分布在农村 ,其余 4例为外地来济就诊者。1.4…     

Fifteen-year follow-up of 92 hospitalized adults with Down's syndrome: incidence of cognitive decline, its relationship to age and neuropathology

Background The clinical and neuropathological features associated with dementia in Down’s syndrome (DS) are not well established. Aims To examine clinico‐pathological correlations and the incidence of cognitive decline in a cohort of adults with DS. Method A total of 92 hospitalized persons with DS were followed up from 1985 to December 2000. At outset, 87 participants were dementia‐free, with a median age of 38 years. Assessments included the Prudhoe Cognitive Function Test (PCFT) and the Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS), to measure cognitive and behavioural deterioration. Dementia was diagnosed from case records and caregivers’ reports. Results Eighteen (21%) patients developed dementia during follow‐up, with a median age of onset 55.5 years (range 45–74). The PCFT demonstrated cognitive decline among those with a less severe intellectual disability (mild and moderate) but not among the profoundly disabled people (severe and profound). Clinical dementia was associated with neuropathological features of Alzheimer’s disease, and correlated with neocortical neurofibrillary tangle densities. At the age of 60 years and above, a little more than 50% of patients still alive had clinical evidence of dementia. Conclusions Clinical dementia associated with measurable cognitive and functional decline is frequent in people with DS after middle age, and can be readily diagnosed among less severely intellectually disabled persons using measures of cognitive function such as the PCFT and behavioural scales such as the ABS. In the more profoundly disabled people, the diagnosis of dementia is facilitated by the use of behavioural and neurological criteria. In this study, the largest prospective DS series including neuropathology on deceased patients, the density of neurofibrillary tangles related more closely to the dementia of DS than senile plaques. In people with DS surviving to middle and old age, the development of dementia of Alzheimer type is frequent but not inevitable, and some people with DS reach old age without clinical features of dementia.     

Brain tissue microarrays in dementia research: White matter microvascular pathology in Alzheimer's disease

Tissue microarrays (TMA) consist of up to 1000 cylindrical tissue cores from different donor paraffin blocks relocated into one recipient block, allowing for efficient histopathological studies by fluorescence in situ hybridization, RNA in situ hybridization or immunohistochemistry. On the background of the increasing interest of the TMA technique in cancer research and the suggestion of its application also in studies of non‐neoplastic intracranial disorders, the technique was applied to pathologic white matter in AD brains. Eight cases with AD and concomitant white matter pathology were neuropathologically diagnosed on whole brain coronal slides. The TMA technique was used to grade severity of white matter pathology and to quantify small vessels with traditional staining and immunohistochemical markers. These measurements were compared with the whole brain neuropathological assessment. The technique produced good results with preserved tissue structures as confirmed by the whole brain evaluation. Severity of white matter pathology evaluated on the TMA cores correlated negatively with small vessel quantities, and statistically significant differences in vessel quantities paralleled different grades of white matter pathology. It is concluded that the TMA technique could be further utilized in studies of dementing disorders, and may have its advantages in large, clinically well‐characterized materials (e.g. in quantitative mapping of white matter changes).     

The natural history of dementia in ageing people with intellectual disability

In a retrospective follow-up study over 11 years, the incidence and natural history of dementia was assessed in an institutionalized group of 144 people, aged 60 years and over, with mild to profound intellectual disability resulting from causes other than Down's syndrome. Age-related incidences, age at onset, duration and symptoms of dementia were comparable to those in the general population. The frequent and invalidating physical comorbidity (11 /11) hampered the diagnostic process in this group. The high prevalence of episodes of delirium (9/11) and depressive symptoms (8/11) as the first manifestations of dementia and/or during dementia might reflect increased vulnerability as compared to other ageing people.     

Going, going, gone . . . ? Implicit and explicit tests of conceptual knowledge in a longitudinal study of semantic dementia

Patients suffering from semantic dementia provide important constraints on theories of the structure and organisation of semantic memory. In this article we report one such patient, AM, whose progressive deterioration of semantics enables us to address the much-debated issue of whether conceptual structure is hierarchically organised. The hierarchical account predicts that brain damage should impair lower levels of the hierarchy (property information) before affecting higher level (category) information (Warrington and Shallice, Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 1975, 27, 635–657). We evaluate this prediction by repeated testing of AM in two studies—a semantic priming task and a verification task—over an 18 month period, contrasting the progressive deterioration of properties (functional and perceptual) and category relations (category co-ordinates and category labels). Properties were preserved longer than category information, arguing against a hierarchical account of semantic memory. In addition, functional properties were most robust to brain damage, supporting our claim that functional information plays a special role in semantic representations (Durrant-Peatfield et al., Proc. 19th Ann. Conf. of the Cognitive Science Society. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, 1997, pp. 193–198. Tyler et al., Cognitive Neuropsychol. 1997, 14, 511–545).     

Quality of life assessment and HIV infection: A review

In the last few years, survival of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been improved because of a decreased incidence of some opportunistic complications attributable to prophylactic treatments and antiretroviral drugs. The impact of these agents should also be reflected in the quality of life (QoL) of patients. We have reviewed this topic with an emphasis on different types of measurements such as Q-TWIST, MOS and the Spitzer score which seem to be most appropriate for this patient population. We do not think that a special type of assessment should be designed for HIV-infected persons. It would be less time-consuming to improve already existing validated scores focusing on HIV infection. QoL in intravenous drug users with HIV should be evaluated more often.     

Aggressive behaviour in elderly psychiatric inpatients.

We describe the types of aggressive behaviour and determine their prevalence in a sample of hospitalized elderly psychiatric patients. Data were obtained by nurse ratings of aggressive behaviour using the recently developed Rating Scale for Aggressive Behaviour in the Elderly; 90 patients were rated over a 3-d period. Nearly half the sample were at least mildly aggressive; the frequencies of some specific types of aggressive behaviour were high. In contrast, the frequency of injuries and the use of restraints and medication for aggressive behaviour were low. Some correlates of the aggressive behaviour were also analysed.