PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Rui-Sheng Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Rui-Sheng Wang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Needlestick and sharps injuries among a cross-section of physicians in Mainland China.

BACKGROUND: Although needlestick and sharps injuries (NSI) represent a significant occupational hazard for physicians worldwide, their epidemiology has not been previously examined in Mainland China. This study describes the prevalence, distribution, and risk factors for NSI among a cross-section of Chinese physicians. METHODS: Data was obtained by an anonymous, self-reporting survey administered to all 361 physicians at a university teaching hospital, during 2004. RESULTS: Seventy-nine percent of the physicians responded. Among them, 64% had experienced an NSI in the previous 12 months, 50.3% of which involved contaminated devices. By device, 22.8% were caused by hollow-bore syringe needles, 19.1% by suture needles, and 12.1% by scalpel blades. Surgical procedures accounted for 27.9% of all injuries. Only 15.3% of physicians had officially reported their NSI to management, of which 10% went unreported because the individual felt they were not unlucky enough to get a disease. A statistically significant correlation was demonstrated between NSI and working in the intensive care unit (adjusted odds ratio: 5.3, 95% CI: 1.7-23.4). CONCLUSIONS: Although this study suggests that NSI are an important workplace hazard for Chinese physicians, future measures should consider the unique cultural beliefs of Chinese people and its effect on preventive behaviors. The concept of "luck," and its relationship with NSI reporting in particular, may also need to be addressed.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2006

Tobacco smoking habits among a cross-section of rural physicians in China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence and distribution of tobacco smoking among rural Chinese physicians. DESIGN: A self-reporting survey adapted from previous international studies. SETTING: A teaching hospital in Hebei Province, China. SUBJECTS: A complete cross-section of 361 physicians working in all hospital departments. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 79.2%, among whom 15.7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 12.0-20.4) were current smokers and 1.0% ex-smokers (95% CI 0.4-3.1). There were no female smokers when stratified by sex, although the prevalence rate among male physicians was 31.9% (95% CI 24.8-40.0). The prevalence of smoking varied widely by hospital department, ranging from zero in the obstetrics and gynaecology department, to 32.6% in the surgical unit. Smoking rates also varied by age, with physicians younger than 25 years having the lowest prevalence (6.3%). Although they only accounted for 7.1% of the entire group by number, the highest smoking prevalence was seen among physicians aged 50-54 years (31.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Although our study suggests that smoking is an important health issue for rural Chinese physicians, the distribution of risk is not uniform. Future preventive measures will, therefore, need to consider the individual situation of physicians who smoke, particularly those in the older age groups.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Needlestick and sharps injuries among nurses in a tropical Australian hospital.

Although needlestick and sharps injuries (NSI) represent a major hazard in nursing practice, most studies rely on officially reported data and none have yet been undertaken in tropical environments. Therefore, we conducted a cross-sectional NSI survey targeting all nurses within a tropical Australian hospital, regardless of whether they had experienced an NSI or not. Our overall response rate was 76.7%. A total of 39 nurses reported 43 NSI events in the previous 12 months. The most common causative device was a normal syringe needle, followed by insulin syringe needles, i.v. needles or kits and blood collection needles. Half of the nurses' NSI events occurred beside the patient's bed: drawing up medication was the most common reason. Nurses working in the maternity/neonatal wards were only 0.3 times as likely to have experienced an NSI as their counterparts in the medical or surgical wards. Overall, our study has shown that NSI events represent an important workplace issue for tropical Australian nurses. Their actual rate might also be higher than official reports suggest.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2006

Effects of perinatal exposure to bisphenol A on brain neurotransmitters in female rat offspring.

Pregnant Sprague-Dawley (CD IGS) rats were orally administered doses of bisphenol A (BPA) at 4, 40, and 400 mg/kg, from gestation days 6 to postnatal day 20. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5HT) were extracted from the brains of dams and female offspring, and measured using liquid chromatography. BPA at 400 mg/kg was toxic and dosed rats died. At 3 wk after birth, brain levels of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC, a DA metabolite), homovanillic acid (HVA, a DA metabolite), 5HT, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA, a 5HT metabolite) in female offspring were increased and the HVA/DA ratio was high in some brain areas of BPA-treated groups as compared with controls. At the age of 6 wk, levels of choline (Ch) in BPA-treated groups at 4 and 40 mg/kg were higher than control in all of eight brain areas. No changes were observed in acetylcholine (ACh) contents. In 9-wk-old offspring, changes in monoamines and metabolites were scattered and not great. At 3 wk after delivery, levels of 5HIAA in some brain areas of dams treated with BPA were higher than in control dams. Dose dependent increases in HVA and the HVA/DA ratio of the occipital cortex, and in the HVA/DA ratio of the frontal cortex were observed. The turnover of DA and 5HT was accelerated in 3-wk-old offspring and dams. BPA possesses very weak estrogenic activity. Changes in cerebral neurotransmitters observed in offspring and dams in this study may have been related to the estrogenic activity of BPA. However, further investigation is needed to examine the contribution of hormonal activity to such neurotransmitter changes.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed2006

Effects of in utero and lactational exposure to di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate on somatic and physical development in rat offspring.

Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) has been reported to act as an antiandrogen and to affect the reproductive organs and accessory genital glands. Thus, to assess the reproductive toxicity of DEHP it is important to examine both its adverse effects on the development of offspring following maternal exposure and its effects on sexual function and fertility. In the present study, we examined whether in utero and lactational exposure to DEHP affects postnatal somatic growth of offspring in the rat. Pregnant females were orally administered various doses of DEHP (0, 25, 100 or 400 mg/kg body weight/day) from gestational day (GD) 6 through postnatal day (PND) 20. There were no significant changes in body weight, body length, tail length, or the weight of individual organs between the control and DEHP-treated groups. Somatic hormonal parameters were the same for all DEHP doses. These findings suggest that in utero and lactational exposure to various concentrations of DEHP has very little effect on postnatal development or endocrine and physical status of male and female rat offspring under the experimental conditions of the present study.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Inhibitory effect of ethylene glycol monoethyl ether on rat sperm motion.

Ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGEE) is known to have testicular toxicity. To elucidate whether EGEE has any effect on sperm motion, especially in the case of short time exposure, we conducted a series of in vivo experiments with rats, as well as an in vitro study with rat sperm. Sperm from cauda epididymides and spermaducts was analyzed for the change in motion with a Hamilton-Thorne Sperm analyzer. Administration of EGEE at 600 mg/kg/d for five weeks significantly decreased total and progressive motility of sperm to 15-30% of controls, in both the cauda epididymis and the spermaduct. The time-course experiment using a single dose of 1,000 mg/kg showed that damage to sperm motion was evident at 12-24 h after EGEE administration. Addition of EGEE to the medium of sperm had no effect on its motion, but the metabolite ethoxyacetic acid showed a significant inhibitory effect. These results suggest that besides its toxicity to spermatogenesis, the metabolite of EGEE may also directly affect the motion of mature sperm.

Acetates↗
PubMed2005

Haplotype reconstruction from SNP fragments by minimum error correction.

MOTIVATION: Haplotype reconstruction based on aligned single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) fragments is to infer a pair of haplotypes from localized polymorphism data gathered through short genome fragment assembly. An important computational model of this problem is the minimum error correction (MEC) model, which has been mentioned in several literatures. The model retrieves a pair of haplotypes by correcting minimum number of SNPs in given genome fragments coming from an individual's DNA. RESULTS: In the first part of this paper, an exact algorithm for the MEC model is presented. Owing to the NP-hardness of the MEC model, we also design a genetic algorithm (GA). The designed GA is intended to solve large size problems and has very good performance. The strength and weakness of the MEC model are shown using experimental results on real data and simulation data. In the second part of this paper, to improve the MEC model for haplotype reconstruction, a new computational model is proposed, which simultaneously employs genotype information of an individual in the process of SNP correction, and is called MEC with genotype information (shortly, MEC/GI). Computational results on extensive datasets show that the new model has much higher accuracy in haplotype reconstruction than the pure MEC model.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2005

Haplotype assembly from aligned weighted SNP fragments.

Given an assembled genome of a diploid organism the haplotype assembly problem can be formulated as retrieval of a pair of haplotypes from a set of aligned weighted SNP fragments. Known computational formulations (models) of this problem are minimum letter flips (MLF) and the weighted minimum letter flips (WMLF; Greenberg et al. (INFORMS J. Comput. 2004, 14, 211-213)). In this paper we show that the general WMLF model is NP-hard even for the gapless case. However the algorithmic solutions for selected variants of WMFL can exist and we propose a heuristic algorithm based on a dynamic clustering technique. We also introduce a new formulation of the haplotype assembly problem that we call COMPLETE WMLF (CWMLF). This model and algorithms for its implementation take into account a simultaneous presence of multiple kinds of data errors. Extensive computational experiments indicate that the algorithmic implementations of the CWMLF model achieve higher accuracy of haplotype reconstruction than the WMLF-based algorithms, which in turn appear to be more accurate than those based on MLF.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2005

Hand dermatitis among nurses in a newly developing region of Mainland China.

Although hand dermatitis (HD) is a common occupational problem for nurses worldwide; few, if any, epidemiological studies of this disease have been conducted in Mainland China. Therefore, we administered a previously validated questionnaire to 306 nurses from a large teaching hospital in Shijiazhuang city, Hebei province. A total of 282 replies were received (92.2%). The 12-month period-prevalence of HD across hospital departments ranged from 14.3% to 23.8%, with an overall rate of 17.7%. Nurses with pre-existing atopic dermatitis were 5.3 times more likely to suffer from HD when compared to nurses without this condition (OR 5.3, 95% CI 2.0-14.2, P = 0.0009). Overall, our study suggests that HD is less common among Chinese hospital nurses when compared to their counterparts around the world. The identification of atopic dermatitis as a significant HD risk factor was, however, consistent with previous research.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Effects of pregnancy, age and sex in the metabolism of styrene in rat liver in relation to the regulation of cytochrome P450 enzymes.

To elucidate the effect of maternal styrene exposure, which is due to various postnatal changes in the development and behavior of offspring, we investigated pregnancy-induced changes in the metabolism of styrene in rat liver in relation to the regulation of cytochrome P450 enzymes. We also examined age and sex-induced changes in the metabolism of styrene. Pregnancy appeared to exert a negative effect on cytochrome P450 content at the late stage, whereas microsomal protein content showed little change during pregnancy. Pregnancy significantly decreased the rate of formation of styrene glycol at the late stage. The percentage of remaining activity in microsomes exposed to anti-CYP2E1 was lower than that exposed to anti-CYP2C11/6 in pregnant and non-pregnant female rats and immature male rats, indicating that CYP2E1 contributes to the metabolism of styrene more than CYP2C11/6 in these rats. Although pregnancy seemed to decrease styrene metabolism, the contribution of CYP2E1 seemed to be slightly increasing. In conclusion, pregnancy clearly influences the metabolism of styrene as well as other characteristic factors such as age and sex. It is very important to elucidate the changes in specific P450 isozyme composition related to their characteristic modification and in their affinity for chemicals.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2005

A review of hazardous chemical toxicity studies utilizing genetically-modified animals--their applications for risk assessment.

Studies on the mechanisms of chemical toxicity carried out using knockout mice lacking genes of enzymes for drug metabolism or nuclear receptor proteins were reviewed, and the studies were compared with the respective conventional mechanistic studies. While the toxicity of many hazardous chemicals was observed only in wild-type or knockout mice, which clearly showed that their toxicity was involved in the enzyme or receptor, some chemicals exhibited the same degree of toxicity in two genotypes, i.e., in both the wild strain and knockout mice, demonstrating that the enzymes or receptors are not involved in their toxicity. The use of genetically-modified animals presents not only the advantage of simultaneous evaluation of toxicity endpoints and mechanisms, but also suggests significant benefits over conventional methods using several chemicals to elucidate toxicity mechanisms. Elucidation of the mechanism of toxicity will provide useful information for risk assessment, and the use of genetically-modified animals for this purpose will lead to the advancement of this assessment.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Effects of in utero and lactational exposure to bisphenol A on thyroid status in F1 rat offspring.

Bisphenol A (BPA), a xenoestrogen, has been reported to mimic the actions of estrogen or to affect the endocrine glands in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we examined whether in utero and lactational exposure to BPA alters thyroid status in rat F1 offspring. Dams were orally administered various doses of BPA (0, 4 or 40 mg/kg body weight per day) from gestation day (GD) 6 through postnatal day (PND) 20. The BPA and control groups did not differ significantly with respect to plasma thyroxine (T4) concentration. The thyroid glands from the BPA groups had normal T4 responses to exogenous thyroid-stimulating hormone in vivo. These results suggest that in utero and lactational exposure (indirect exposure) to BPA (4-40 mg/kg/day, GD 6 - PND 20) does not affect thyroid functions in the F1 generation of male and female rats.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Musculoskeletal disorders among Chinese medical students.

We investigated the prevalence and distribution of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) among Chinese medical students, by means of a questionnaire survey. A total of 207 questionnaires were successfully returned, giving a high response rate of 92.4%. The MSD period-prevalence at any body site was 67.6% in the previous year and 46.9% in the previous week. Almost one-third of them (31.9%), reported an ongoing MSD. By individual body site, the most commonly affected region was the lower back (40.1% in the last year), followed by the neck (33.8%) and shoulders (21.7%). The 7 day period-prevalence also followed a similar descending pattern, being reported by 20.8% at the lower back and 12.1% at both the neck and knees. MSD affected the daily life of students for an average period of 53.8 days, with an average of 6.6 sick days taken from school. Students reporting high mental pressure were 2.9 times more likely to suffer low back pain in the previous 12 months (OR 2.9, 95%CI 1.4-5.9, P=0.0030). Overall, our study suggests that Chinese medical students are at reasonable MSD risk, although it is probably lower than for working physicians. Further investigations are now recommended to elucidate the MSD mechanisms and contributory factors among medical students in China, as elsewhere. A longitudinal study of MSD among a complete group of medical students would be very useful in this regard.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Contemporary smoking habits among nurses in Mainland China.

Although China is the world's largest consumer of tobacco and tobacco-related products, the epidemiology of smoking has not been well studied among nurses. Given this serious gap in the literature, we considered it necessary to investigate tobacco smoking habits among a large cross-section of contemporary Chinese nurses, by means of a questionnaire survey. A total of 509 replies were obtained from 520 nurses (response rate: 97.9%). The overall prevalence of smoking was 2.6% (95%CI 1.5 - 4.3). When stratified by gender, the prevalence rate among male nurses was 52.2% (33.0 - 70.8). Of those who smoked, the median number was 11 smokes per day for a period of 25.0 years. When categorized by severity, 15.4% were light smokers, 69.2% moderate smokers and 15.4% heavy smokers. When stratified by age there were no smokers under 25 years, with the prevalence between 25 and 34 years similarly low, at 1.1%. The highest smoking rate was seen among nurses aged 45 to 50 years (10.1%), even though they only comprised 9.8% of the total workforce. Although our study suggests that tobacco usage is relatively uncommon among Chinese nurses overall, the rate among male nurses was alarmingly high. The distribution of smoking by age was not uniform however, with a high proportion being concentrated in the older age ranges. As such, future preventive measures will need to consider the individual situation of Chinese nurses who smoke, particularly those who occupy the older age groups.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Musculoskeletal complaints and psychosocial risk factors among Chinese hospital nurses.

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal complaints represent a common occupational problem for health care workers throughout the world. Despite their sizeable numbers, however, few epidemiological studies have investigated musculoskeletal complaints among Chinese hospital nurses. Objective To assess the prevalence of, and risk factors for, musculoskeletal complaints among hospital nurses in mainland China. METHODS: A total of 282 female, registered nurses were surveyed (92% response rate) using a modified Chinese-language version of the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire. Body sites were divided into the neck, shoulder, upper back and lower back regions. RESULTS: The 12 month period-prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints at any of the four regions was 70%. The lower back was the most commonly reported body site (56%), followed by the neck (45%), shoulder (40%) and upper back (37%). High mental pressure, boring or tedious tasks and limited work support were identified as significant risk factors (adjusted odds ratios: 1.79-2.52). No correlations were found between manual handling or perceived physical exertion and increased reporting of musculoskeletal complaints. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that musculoskeletal complaints are prevalent among Chinese hospital nurses. The correlation with various psychosocial factors is also consistent with evidence from other countries.

Adult↗