Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently a global public health threat. Outside of China, Italy is one of the countries suffering the most with the COVID-19 epidemic. It is important to predict the epidemic trend of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy to help develop public health strategies. Methods: We used time-series data of COVID-19 from Jan 22 2020 to Apr 02 2020. An infectious disease dynamic extended susceptible-infected-removed (eSIR) model, which covers the effects of different intervention measures in dissimilar periods, was applied to estimate the epidemic trend in Italy. The basic reproductive number was estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and presented using the resulting posterior mean and 95% credible interval (CI). Hunan, with a similar total population number to Italy, was used as a comparative item. Results: In the eSIR model, we estimated that the mean of basic reproductive number for COVID-19 was 4.34 (95% CI, 3.04–6.00) in Italy and 3.16 (95% CI, 1.73–5.25) in Hunan. There would be a total of 182 051 infected cases (95%CI:116 114–274 378) under the current country blockade and the endpoint would be Aug 05 in Italy. Conclusion: Italy's current strict measures can efficaciously prevent the further spread of COVID-19 and should be maintained. Necessary strict public health measures should be implemented as soon as possible in other European countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases. The most effective strategy needs to be confirmed in further studies.

Background: Silicosis, as an important type of pneumoconiosis, leads to progressive and irreversible conditions from the beginning of inflammation and fibrosis. However, the data on the global burden of silicosis and long-term trends were limited. Methods: Derived from the Global Burden of Disease study 2019 (online publicly available: Global Health Data Exchange), data on both crude and age-standardized rates (ASR) per 100,00 people of mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to silicosis was collected and analyzed. The burden and trends of mortality and DALYs due to silicosis was assessed by 204 countries and territories, by 5-year interval of age group and by sex from 1990 to 2019. And all the regions were divided into 5 categories according to Sociodemographic Index (SDI). Temporal trends in mortality and DALY were evaluated only to ASR by the Joinpoint regression model. Results: More than 12.9 thousand [95% Uncertainty Intervals (UI): 10.9, 16.2] death cases occurred due to silicosis worldwide, and 655.7 thousand (95% UI: 519.3, 828.0) DALYs were attributed to silicosis in 2019. From 1990 to 2019, global number of mortality and DALYs in countries with high SDI quintile decreased by 0.35% (95% UI: − 0.45, − 0.17) and 0.32% (95% UI: − 0.45, − 0.01), respectively. There was a greater burden in low- and middle-income countries were estimated in 2019 according to ASRs. The global number of mortality and DALYs among males accounted for over 95% of all in 2019. Both age-sex-specific mortality and DALY rate were increasing with aging and reached their peak at 85–89 age group. During the past 30 years, ASR of mortality and DALYs showed a decreasing trend with average annual percentage change at -3.0% [95% Confidence Intervals (CI): − 3.2, − 2.9] and − 2.0 (95% CI: − 1.7, − 2.2), respectively. Conclusions: Silicosis remains an important health issue and causes a potentially serious burden worldwide. Attention should be paid to making preventable, affordable and effective measures in lower SDI regions.

Purpose: Programmed death-1 (PD-1) blockade monotherapy is effective in relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), but a subset of patients is recalcitrant to PD-1 inhibitors and only a minority of patients achieves durable remission. Effective treatment regimens for those with relapsed/progressive cHL after single-agent anti-PD-1 are urgently needed. Anti-PD-1 combination with the DNA-demethylating agent decitabine showed positive preliminary results in our test cohort patients who were resistant to anti-PD-1. Here, we assess the efficacy of decitabine plus anti-PD-1 therapy in an expansion cohort and after longer follow-up. Patients and Methods: We present the response and progression-free survival rates from patients with relapsed/refractory cHL who relapsed/progressed after prior anti-PD-1 monotherapy, and who received decitabine (10 mg/day, days 1–5) plus the anti-PD-1 camrelizumab (200 mg, day 8), every 3 weeks in a phase II trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02961101 and NCT03250962). Results: Overall, 51 patients (test cohort: 25, expansion cohort: 26) were treated and 50 evaluated for efficacy. The objective response rate was 52% [nine complete responses (CR); 36%] in the test cohort, and 68% (six CRs; 24%) in the expansion cohort. Median progression-free survival with decitabine plus camrelizumab was 20.0 and 21.6 months, respectively, which was significantly longer than that achieved with prior anti-PD-1 monotherapy. Durable response was observed in an estimated 78% of patients who achieved CR at 24 months. After decitabine plus camrelizumab, the ratio increase of circulating peripheral central memory T cells directly correlated with both clinical response and progression-free survival. Conclusions: Decitabine plus camrelizumab is associated with high response rates and long-term benefits in patients with relapsed/refractory cHL who failed PD-1 inhibitors.

To evaluate the association between SUA levels within a normal to high range and the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among community elderly. The present study was based on 2102 community elderly from a cross-sectional study conducted in a representative urban area of Beijing between 2009 and 2010. The mean age were 71.2 ± 6.6 years old, 59.7% were female. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive function by trained neurology doctors. The prevalence of hyperuricemia and MCI was 16.7% and 15.9% respectively. With the increase of SUA levels, the prevalence of MCI showed a strong decreasing linear trend. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed ORs for MCI were 1.01(95% CI: 0.69–1.48), 1.50(95% CI: 0.85–2.64), 1.65(95% CI: 1.12–2.43) and 1.53(95% CI: 1.00–2.33), 1.84(95% CI: 1.27–2.90), 1.92(95% CI: 1.02–3.35) for the second, third and highest quarters among men and women respectively (with the lowest quartile as the reference). Higher SUA levels, when in the normal range, were positively associated with cognitive function among Chinese community elderly, but this association was not robust among participants with hyperuricemia.

Purpose: To compare the detection rate of diabetic retinopathy (DR) lesions and the agreement of DR severity grading using the ultra-widefield color fundus photography (UWF CFP) combined with high-speed ultra-widefield swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (UWF SS-OCTA) or fluorescein angiography (FFA).Methods: This prospective, observational study recruited diabetic patients who had already taken the FFA examination from November 2021 to June 2022. These patients had either no DR or any stage of DR. All participants were imaged with a 200° UWF CFP and UWF SS-OCTA using a 24 × 20 mm scan model. Images were independently evaluated for the presence or absence of DR lesions including microaneurysms (MAs), intraretinal hemorrhage (IRH), non-perfusion areas (NPAs), intraretinal microvascular abnormalities (IRMAs), venous beading (VB), neovascularization elsewhere (NVE), neovascularization of the optic disc (NVD), and vitreous or preretinal hemorrhage (VH/PRH). Agreement of DR severity grading based on UWF CFP plus UWF SS-OCTA and UWF CFP plus FFA was compared. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS V.26.0.Results: One hundred and fifty-three eyes of 86 participants were enrolled in the study. The combination of UWF CFP with UWF SS-OCTA showed a similar detection rate compared with UWF CFP plus FFA for all the characteristic DR lesions (p>0.05), except NPAs (p = 0.039). Good agreement was shown for the identification of VB (κ = 0.635), and very good agreement for rest of the DR lesions between the two combination methods (κ-value ranged from 0.858 to 0.974). When comparing the grading of DR severity, very good agreement was achieved between UWF CFP plus UWF SS-OCTA and UWF CFP plusr FFA (κ = 0.869).Conclusion: UWF CFP plus UWF SS-OCTA had a very good agreement in detecting DR lesions and determining the severity of DR compared with UWF CFP plus FFA. This modality has the potential to be used as a fast, reliable, and non-invasive method for DR screening and monitoring in the future.