[Study on the safety and immunogenicity of MF59-adjuvanted influenza subunit vaccine in Chinese elderly]

OBJECTIVE

To compare the safety and immunogenicity between a MF59-adjuvanted influenza subunit vaccine and a conventional non-adjuvanted influenza subunit vaccine.

METHODS

A randomized, blind-designed controlled study was carried out, with 600 subjects (> or = 60 years of age) received MF59-adjuvanted influenza subunit vaccine (FLUAD, n = 400) or conventional non-adjuvanted influenza subunit vaccine (Agrippal, n = 200) respectively. The local and systemic reactions were observed on 0-7 days after vaccination. Haemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers of pre-and post-vaccination were detected by the HI assay. Seroconversion (4-fold increase) rate of subjects was calculated using baseline data when it was under naive level, and the protection rate when HI titer achieving the level of protection (> or = 1:40) after vaccination. Geometric mean titer (GMT) and its increasing folds were calculated. Differences between safety and immunogenicity were also calculated.

RESULTS

The local and systemic reaction rates were similar between both groups, but the duration in injection site was frequent for Agrippal (P < 0.05), while mild pain and fever in injection site were frequent for FLUAD. On immunogenicity test, for those subjects whose baseline was under naive level while the seroconversion rate against A/H3N2 viral strain after vaccination--FLUAD was significantly higher than Agrippal (P < 0.001). Aside from A/H1N1 viral strain, the rate of protection on both groups were significantly higher than those from baseline data, but for A/H3N2 viral strain, FLUAD was significantly higher than Agrippal (P < 0.001). GMT was higher than baseline (P < 0.001) after both groups being vaccinated but FLUAD group was significantly higher than Agrippal group.

CONCLUSION

FLUAD was well tolerated by Chinese elderly and its immunogenicity level induced by FLUAD was higher than that of Agrippal, showing that it would benefit the elderly with hypoimmunity.

Long-term immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a live attenuated hepatitis A vaccine (LA-1 strain)

AIM

To evaluate the long-term protective efficacy following a large scale immunization with a live attenuated hepatitis A vaccine (the LA-1 strain) and immune persistence of the vaccine with different immunization schedules.

METHODS

A randomized controlled double-blind study was conducted in 212 985 children between 1.5 and 10 years of age from 8 counties in Guangxi province (10 0735 in vaccine group and 112 250 in control group). Vaccine group was received one dose of HAV vaccine of 10^6.75 TCID₅₀ (LA-1 strain, China). Surveillance of the incidence of hepatitis A in the two groups was started 1 month after vaccination. To evaluate the persistence of antibodies, 156 children of 6-9 years old with hepatitis A antibody negative were divided into 3 groups with equalities in age and sex. Group A was given one dose of the vaccine, Group B and C were immunized according to 0, 6 and 0, 12 schedules respectively. During follow-up of every individual, the blood specimens were collected at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after immunization in Group A and 12, 24 and 36 months after first dose and 1 month after second dose in Group B and C. Anti-HAV levels were expressed as GMTs in mIU/ml by serial immunoglobulin dilutions (WHO standard) and HAVAB-Imx kit (Abbott Lab, USA).

RESULTS

During a follow-up for 36 months, 71 cases of symptomatic HAV infection were found in the control and 2 in the vaccine group (63.25/10⁶vs 1.99/10⁶ respectively). The protective efficacy was estimated at 96.85% with 95% lower confidence limit of 92.4%. The antibody positive rate in Group A after 6-24 months was 88.6-91.4%, the GMT was 105-106 mIU/ml, but each of those decreased to 80.0% and 99.20 mIU/ml after 36 months. GMT reached to the top in Group B and C1 month after the second dose, 1024.63 mIU/ml and 3 463.21 mIU/ml respectively. But during the time from top GMT to 24th month, the GMT of Group B and C decreased rapidly to about 59.4% and 83% respectively, and it continually declined slowly at 36^th month to 459.68 mIU/ml and 506.23 mIU/ml, which were 6% and 15% lower than that at 24^th month. It showed that the antibody level in Group B and C after 2 doses were significantly higher than that in Group A from beginning to end, at 36th month the GMT of Group B and C were 4.6 times and 5.1 times to that of Group A, and the antibody positive rate (97%) was higher than that of Group A (80%) at the same time.

CONCLUSION

A single dose of live attenuated hepatitis A vaccine can come into being high and persistent protection against hepatitis A. Booster dose induces an immune response which persists for at least three years in 97% of the subjects. The high GMT still present at month 36 predicts a long-term persistence of antibody.

Is preoperative selection of patients with cystic adnexal masses essential for laparoscopic treatment?

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To analyze indications for preoperative selection of patients with cystic adnexal masses to be treated by laparoscopic surgery.

DESIGN

Retrospective analysis (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).

SETTING

University and military hospitals.

PATIENTS

Three hundred sixteen women with adnexal masses.

INTERVENTION

Before laparoscopy, 214 patients underwent evaluation (size of adnexal mass, ultrasonographic image, CA 125, suspicious clinical diagnosis); in 102 women laparoscopies were performed without taking these factors into account.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

In the first center 99% of women were treated by laparoscopic surgery. One (0.4%) tumor of low malignant potential detected by deferred biopsy was operated on. In the second center 98% of cases were performed laparoscopically. In 3.9% of women carcinomas were detected intraoperatively and were treated by laparotomy (p = 0.04).

CONCLUSION

Laparoscopy is appropriate management of cystic adnexal masses, with a very low risk of unintentionally operating an ovarian carcinoma if a thorough preoperative evaluation is conducted. Only in centers where surgeons have enough training to cope with ovarian cancer may this evaluation be deferred, since conversion to laparotomy should be considered a second therapeutic step, and not an incorrect indication for laparoscopy. In centers where surgeons have no such training, strict preoperative selection of patients is mandatory

Diving pattern and work schedule of construction well divers in Taiwan

Construction well divers in Taiwan reportedly suffer a high prevalence of dysbaric osteonecrosis. We studied five divers working at the same construction site. We recorded their diving methods, diving depths, bottom times, work patterns, water temperatures, and heart rates. We also monitored gas bubbles in the subclavian vein in selected dives. A crude but effective hot-water system protected divers against hypothermia and allowed them to work in 24 degrees-27 degrees C water. Divers worked approximately 6.6 h a day and progressed approximately 3.0 m a day while excavating an average of 148 buckets of sand and rock each weighing 49.5 kg. The divers sustained a heart rate increase of 49%. Sixty percent of their equivalent single dive bottom times exceeded the U.S. Navy's no-decompression limits. Two cases of venous bubbles were detected, and one of these divers showed symptoms of decompression sickness. The prolonged bottom time and lack of a decompression schedule probably contributed to a risk of decompression sickness and dysbaric osteonecrosis.

Comments on "Approximation capability in C(R(n)) by multilayer feedforward networks and related problems"

In the above paper Chen et al. investigated the capability of uniformly approximating functions in C(Rn) by standard feedforward neural networks. They found that the boundedness condition on the sigmoidal function plays an essential role in the approximation, and conjectured that the boundedness of the sigmoidal function is a necessary and sufficient condition for the validity of the approximation theorem. However, we find that the conjecture is not correct, that is, the boundedness condition is not sufficient or necessary in C(Rn). Instead, boundedness and unequal limits at infinities conditions on the activation functions are sufficient, but not necessary in C(Rn).