Objective To investigate the feasibility of collecting exhaled breath condensate ( EBC)fromartificially ventilated patients with modified EcoScreen condenser. Methods ①In vitro test with lung simulator: the modified EcoScreen condenser was connected to lung simulator and mechanically ventilated for 60 min through three different types of connected tube as follows: dry ventilator pipe disconnected to humidifier, connected to the unheated humidifier, and connected to heated humidifier.Meanwhile, the changes of the peak pressure of inspiration ( PI) and tidal volume ( VT ) were observed. The volume of condensate was measured at last. ②In vivo test from artificially ventilated patients: 10 patients were artificially ventilated and their EBCs were collected with the modified EcoScreen condenser through dry pipe disconnected to humidifier for 20 min. The changes of PI, VT , respiratory frequency( f) , heart rate( HR) , mean arterial blood pressure ( MAP) , and blood oxygen saturation ( SpO2 ) were observed. Results ①In vitro test with lung simulator: At the end of the ventilating through the dry pipe disconnected to humidifier for 60 min,2. 2 mL condensate wascollected. Neither the change of PI or VT nor the obstruction of the collecting tube by iced condensate were observed. The ventilating through dry pipe connected to unheated humidifier had to stop at 50 min as the obstruction of the collecting tube caused by ice. 5 mL condensate was collected. It was observed that VTdecreased and PI increased. After ventilation through dry pipe connected to heated humidifier for 60 min,10. 5 mL condensate was collected while PI slightly increased and VT decreased. ② In vivo test from artificially ventilated patients: After ventilation through dry pipe disconnected to humidifier for 20 min, 2 mL EBC was collected without significance changes in PI, VT, f, HR, MAP, and SpO2 . Conclusions The modified EcoScreen condenser can be favourably applied to artificially ventilated patients for collecting EBC.It is recommended to performfor 20 min through the pipe disconnected to humidifier to obtain sufficient EBC without condensate dilution and airway obstruction. It is warranted more attention to the clinical and mechanical monitoring in this procedure.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the risk of bias and reliability of conclusions of systematic reviews (SRs) of lung cancer screening.
MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2016), Web of Knowledge, CBM, WanFang Data and CNKI to collect SRs of lung cancer screening from inception to February 29th, 2016. The ROBIS tool was applied to assess the risk of bias of included SRs, and then GRADE system was used for evidence quality assessment of outcomes of SRs.
ResultsA total of 11 SRs involving 5 outcomes (mortality, detection rate, survival rate, over-diagnosis and potential benefits and harms) were included. The results of risk of bias assessment by ROBIS tool showed:Two studies completely matched the 4 questions of phase 1. In the phase 2, 6 studies were low risk of bias in the including criteria field; 8 studies were low risk of bias in the literature search and screening field; 3 studies were low risk of bias in the data abstraction and quality assessment field; and 5 studies were low risk of bias in the data synthesis field. In the phase 3 of comprehensive risk of bias results, 5 studies were low risk. The results of evidence quality assessment by GRADE system showed:three studies had A level evidence on the outcome of mortality; 1 study had A level evidence on detection; 1 study had A level evidence on survival rate; 3 studies on over-diagnosis had C level evidence; and 2 studies on potential benefits and harms had B level evidence.
ConclusionThe risk of bias of SRs of lung cancer screening is totally modest; however, the evidence quality of outcomes of these SRs is totally low. Clinicians should cautiously use these evidence to make decision based on local situation.
Place cell with location tuning characteristics play an important role in brain spatial cognition and navigation, but there is relatively little research on place cell screening and its influencing factors. Taking pigeons as model animals, the screening process of pigeon place cell was given by using the spike signal in pigeon hippocampus under free activity. The effects of grid number and filter kernel size on the place field of place cells during the screening process were analyzed. The results from the real and simulation data showed that the proposed place cell screening method presented in this study could effectively screen out place cell, and the research found that the size of place field was basically inversely proportional to the number of grids divided, and was basically proportional to the size of Gaussian filter kernel in the overall trend. This result will not only help to determine the appropriate parameters in the place cell screening process, but also promote the research on the neural mechanism of spatial cognition and navigation of birds such as pigeons.
Diabetes mellitus patients are usually at high risk of developing tuberculosis, the immune dysfunction caused by long-term high blood sugar, which can increase the susceptibility to tuberculosis. Severe tuberculosis could accelerate the course of diabetes mellitus and pose great difficulty to the clinical treatment. Therefore, early detection of potential tuberculosis patients in diabetes mellitus patients through tuberculosis screening and implementation of “three early” treatment can greatly improve the quality life of patients. This review summarizes the feasibility of tuberculosis screening in patients with diabetes mellitus, and to provide reference for the prevention and control of diabetes mellitus combined with tuberculosis.
Objective To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of three LTBI screening strategies: the tuberculin skin test (TST), the T-SPOT.TB and the combination of TST and T-SPOT (TST+T.SPOT), to provide economic evidence for T.SPOT application in China. Methods A decision analysis model evaluated three strategies among a cohort of 1000 tuberculosis (TB) close contacts, using incremental cost-effectiveness of prevention a active TB patient (1 year post contact). Meta analyses were conducted to calculate the key parameters of T.SPOT and TST. The official data or literature was searched and the unaccessible data was to specify other parameters, such as cost, LTBI prevalence, etc. The one-way sensitivity analysis was performed, varying key parameters over a wide range of reasonable values to evaluate the impact of data uncertainties and to determine the robustness of our overall conclusion. Results a) As for the total cost, the TST+T.SPOT strategy (?212 213.81 per 1 000 contacts) cost the least, while the single T.SPOT strategy cost the most; b) Subsequently, the TST+T.SPOT strategy required less contacts to be treated to prevent an active case of TB (8.31) than the single TST strategy (25.67); c) the TST+T.SPOT strategy shared the most cost-effectiveness (?3 063.50 per active TB case prevented) than the single TST or T.SPOT strategy; and d) The results of one-way sensitivity analyses showed that cost-effectiveness values were sensitive to changes in LTBI prevalence (gt;60%), Sen and Spn of TST test (gt;70%), with the single TST being superior to the single T.SPOT. Conclusion The Single T.SPOT strategy enjoys the most cases prevented from active TB, while the TST+S.SPOT strategy is the most cost-effective. The conclusion is sensitive to a few parameters, such as LTBI prevalence, but the TST+T.SPOT strategy is always the best.
Health technology assessment (HTA) is becoming more and more popular recently. For populations in China that share at least half of the global disease burden of liver cancer, it is extremely vital to give rise to an efficient secondary prevention strategy. The China central government launched liver cancer screening program in rural areas in 2005, and then extended to populations in urban in 2012. The studies of health technology assessment of liver cancer screening are based on available evidence, from an HTA perspective, aims to evaluate performance of liver screening, economic burden and cost-effectiveness and some other issues, in order to raise suggestions for possible directions in research and public health program related to liver cancer screening in China.
During the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019, West China Hospital of Sichuan University urgently set up 4 medical tents to conduct centralized screening of fever patients, effectively avoiding cross-infection, and at the same time alleviating the pressure on the Department of Emergency Medicine and improving the efficiency of medical treatment for patients with fever. Later, in order to actively respond to China’s severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 nucleic acid detection policy, 5 tents were adjusted to carry out the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 nucleic acid detection. This article introduces the function setting, personnel arrangement and protective measures of medical tents in West China Hospital of Sichuan University during the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019. It aims to share the experience of urgently setting up medical tents in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019, with a view to provide a reference for the construction of medical tents in other medical institutions.
ObjectivesThis study aimed to study the economic effect of five kinds of detection systems for nucleic acid, which were based on five kinds of working electrodes: gold electrode, glassy carbon electrode, carbon paste electrode, screen printing electrode, and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass electrode.MethodsThe cost of completing a single test was taken as the cost of economic analysis. The Youden index was used to represent the effect of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). Meanwhile, the cost-utility analysis (CUA) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were used for the economic analysis of the corresponding system.ResultsThe cost of five detection systems based on gold electrode, glass carbon electrode, carbon paste electrode, screen printing electrode, and ITO glass electrode was 3.70 yuan/unit, 4.20 yuan/unit, 5.25 yuan/unit, 33.98 yuan/unit and 5.01 yuan/unit, respectively. The Youden indexes of all five systems were 1. The cost effectiveness (C/E) were 3.70, 4.20, 5.25, 33.98, and 5.01, respectively. The cost utility (C/U) were 6.61, 6.89, 9.91, 62.93, and 9.45, respectively. The C'/E and C'/U of the gold electrode detection system were the minimum (2.96 and 5.29). Compared with the system applying the gold electrode, the system using the glassy carbon electrode had ΔC >0 and ?E0 >0; When carbon paste electrode, screen printing electrode, and ITO glass electrode system were used, ?C was >0 and ?E0 was <0.ConclusionsFrom the perspective of CEA and CUA, the system using the gold electrode has the best economic effect. The sensitivity analysis proved the reliability of CEA and CUA results. According to the ICER, gold electrode or glassy carbon electrode can be used in clinical practice with the choice depending on the user.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the diagnostic performance of different screening tools for sarcopenia in the community for the elderly with sarcopenia, and to provide evidence-based support for the accurate screening of elderly patients with sarcopenia. MethodsThe PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL, VIP, CBM, and WanFang Data databases were searched by computer, and the relevant research on the diagnosis of sarcopenia in the elderly by publicly published risk screening tools was found. The retrieval time was from inception to June 2023. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and evaluated the quality of the included studies, and then data analysis was performed by using Stata 15.1 and Meta Disc 1.4 software. ResultsA total of 24 studies were included, including 10 961 patients, involving 8 risk screening tools for sarcopenia in the elderly: leg circumference, MSRA-5, MSRA-7, upper arm circumference, ring test, Ishii score, SARC-CalF and SARC-F. Meta-analysis showed that the combined sensitivities of eight screening tools were 0.84 (95% CI 0.61 to 1.15), 0.82 (95% CI 0.48 to 1.38), 0.80 (95% CI 0.47 to 1.36) and 0.72 (95%CI 0.33 to 1.55), 0.67 (95%CI 0.37 to 1.21), 0.63 (95%CI 0.33 to 1.19), 0.49 (95%CI 0.38 to 0.63), 0.24 (95%CI 0.18 to 0.30), and the combined specificities were 0.39 (95%CI 0.18 to 0.82)、0.52 (95%CI 0.29 to 0.93)、0.54 (95%CI 0.29 to 1.03)、0.62 (95%CI 0.49 to 0.79)、0.63 (95%CI 0.50 to 0.78).The results of reticular meta-analysis showed that the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) of the eight screening tools ranked from high to low according to the cumulative sensitivity: calf circumference (67.4%) > MSRA-5 (65.3%) > MSRA-7 (64.1%) > upper arm circumference (54.5%) > ring test (46.5%) > Ishii score. The values of specificity SUCRA from highest to lowest were as follows: SARC-F (72.2%) > SARC-CALF (71.3%) > Ishii score (60.2%) > ring test (57.1%) > upper arm circumference (40.1%) > lower leg circumference (36.2%) > MSRA-5. ConclusionThe simple screening tool for common sarcopenia has high sensitivity and high specificity, so medical staff can give priority to the combination of the two screening tools, namely SARC-CalF. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusion.
Prostate cancer is a common disease in the USA and Europe, with a gradually increasing incidence in China, and presents a significant health burden for older men. The lack of modifiable risk factors has made early detection as a strategy to reduce mortality. Current methods of screening involve the measurement of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and digital rectal examination followed by biopsy. With PSA screening evidence of level I absent, the evidence on the use of PSA as a screening test is still highly controversial. Furthermore, there is controversy over whether screen-detected lesions will become clinically significant. There are three major treatment options for localized disease: radical prostatectomy, radical radiotherapy and monitoring with treatment if required. There is no evidence of randomized controlled trial (RCT) to suggest a survival advantage of any of these treatments. Opinions about the related benefits and risks of screening vary widely. In the absence of RCT of benefit for screening, many now suggest “informed consensus” screening, which encourages a discussion between the patient and his physician with both sides informed of all of the issues.
