Background: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical performance of low serum calcium and phosphorus in discriminative diagnosis of the severity of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). We conducted a single‐center hospital‐based study and consecutively recruited 122 suspected and 104 confirmed patients with COVID‐19 during January 24 to April 25, 2020. Clinical risk factors of COVID‐19 were identified. The discriminative power of low calcium and phosphorus regarding the disease severity was evaluated. Low calcium and low phosphorus are more prevalent in severe or critical COVID‐19 patients than moderate COVID‐19 patients (odds ratio [OR], 15.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.59–143.18 for calcium; OR, 6.90; 95% CI, 2.43–19.64 for phosphorus). The specificity in detecting the severe or critical patients among COVID‐19 patients reached 98.5% (95% CI, 92.0%–99.7%) and 84.8% (95% CI, 74.3%–91.6%) by low calcium and low phosphorus, respectively, albeit with suboptimal sensitivity. Calcium and phosphorus combined with lymphocyte count could obtain the best discriminative performance for the severe COVID‐19 patients (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.80), and combined with oxygenation index was promising (AUC = 0.71). Similar discriminative performances of low calcium and low phosphorus were found between suspected and confirmed COVID‐19 patient. Low calcium and low phosphorus could indicate the severity of COVID‐19 patients, and may be utilized as promising clinical biomarkers for discriminative diagnosis.

Exosomes are biologically active lipid-bilayer membrane vesicles with size ranging from 30 to 150 nm in diameter and ubiquitous in most of the body fluids including blood and urine.1 Exosomes relea...

Achieving equity in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has high priority. In this nationwide registry-based study, we aimed to investigate sociodemographic correlates of HPV vaccine uptake among women who were vaccinated opportunistically at their own initiative and cost during October 2006–June 2018, and among women who were vaccinated free-of-charge in a catch-up vaccination program during November 2016–June 2018. For 840,328 female residents born in Norway between 1975 and 1996, we retrieved HPV vaccination and sociodemographic data from national registries. We used separate models to analyze the sociodemographic correlates of the initiation and completion of HPV vaccination in opportunistic and catch-up vaccination settings. Overall initiation rate for opportunistic HPV vaccination was 2.2%. Uptake increased consistently with birth year, maternal education level, and household income. Having two immigrant parents or a mother working in a lower prestige occupation was strongly associated with low opportunistic vaccination uptake. Similar but weaker inequities were observed in catch-up HPV vaccination. Initiation rate during the first 20 months of the catch-up program was 46.2%. Completion rate was 72.1% and 73.0% for opportunistic or catch-up vaccination, respectively, with small inequities. In conclusion, HPV vaccine uptake was strongly associated with sociodemographic background both in opportunistic and catch-up vaccination settings, with particularly low uptake associated with having two immigrant parents and low household income.

Polymorphisms in the ASAP1 and SP110 Genes and Its Association with the Susceptibility to Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Mongolian Population: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world. Previous genome-wide association studies suggested that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in some genes could indicate the susceptibility to TB in some populations. Herein, we studied the association of SNPs in the immunity-related genes, i.e., ASAP1 and SP110 genes with the susceptibility to TB in a Mongolian population in China. A case–control study was performed with 197 TB patients and 217 healthy controls. Six SNPs in ASAP1 and six SNPs in SP110 were selected for genotyping test by second-generation sequencing technique. A SNP in SP110 gene (rs722555) was identified to be associated with susceptibility to TB in the Mongolian population ( ). The T allele of rs722555 in SP110 gene was associated with a 36% increase of risk at TB (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.03–1.81), and the CT+TT genotype of rs722555 was associated with a 74% increase of risk at TB (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.16–2.60) in the dominant genetic model. None of SNPs in ASAP1 gene tested in this study were significantly associated with TB susceptibility, while some individuals with SNPs (rs10956514, rs4733781, rs2033059, rs12680942, rs1017281, rs1469288, and rs17285138) in the ASAP1 gene tended to have a reduced risk at TB. In conclusion, this study suggested that the rs722555 SNP in SP110 gene might be a risk factor for TB in a Mongolian population.