Volume 04 · Issue 03 · 2021

Medical data mining and sharing is an important process in E-Health applications. However, because these data consist of a large amount of personal private information of patients, there is the risk of privacy disclosure when sharing and mining. Therefore, ensuring the security of medical big data in the process of publishing, sharing, and mining has become the focus of current research. The objective of our study is to design a framework based on a differential privacy protection mechanism to ensure the secure sharing of medical data. We developed a privacy protection query language (PQL) that integrates multiple data mining methods and provides a secure sharing function.

This study is mainly performed in Xuzhou Medical University, China and designs three sub-modules: a parsing module, mining module, and noising module. Each module encapsulates different computing methods, such as a composite parser and a noise theory. In the PQL framework, we apply the differential privacy theory to the results of the computing between modules to guarantee the security of various mining algorithms. These computing devices operate independently, but the mining results depend on their cooperation. In addition, PQL is encapsulated in MNSSp3 that is a data mining and security sharing platform and the data comes from public data sets, such as UCBI. The public data set (NCBI database) was used as the experimental data, and the data collection time was January 2020.

We designed and developed a query language that provides functions for medical data mining, sharing, and privacy preservation. We theoretically proved the performance of the PQL framework. The experimental results show that the PQL framework can ensure the security of each mining result and the availability of the output results is above 97%.

Our framework enables medical data providers to securely share health data or treatment data and develops a usable query language, based on a differential privacy mechanism, that enables researchers to mine information securely using data mining algorithms.

The impact of dairy fat on inflammatory bowel disease remained inconclusive. We aimed to compare the effects of whole-milk and skimmed-milk consumption on the risk of inflammatory bowel disease using a Mendelian randomization analysis.

We conducted a genome-wide association study of the preference for whole versus skimmed milk using data for 20,200 whole-milk consumers and 67,847 skimmed-milk consumers from the UK Biobank. The lead single nucleotide polymorphisms in the associated loci were identified at the genome-wide significance level, and were further employed as instrumental variables for whole-milk preference. We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis with whole-milk preference as the exposure and inflammatory bowel disease as the outcome. The pleiotropic effects and heterogeneity of the instrumental variables were estimated using Mendelian randomization-Egger regression and Cochran Q test, respectively. This study was conducted using the UKB resources under the application "53536" . The UK Biobank was approved by the North West Multi-center Research Ethics Committee, the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care in England and Wales, and the Community Health Index Advisory Group in Scotland.

The genome-wide association study identified five lead nucleotide polymorphisms associated with whole-milk preference. Mendelian randomization indicated that whole-milk preference significantly decreased the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (β=-1.735, P=0.048). Of the two subtypes, whole-milk preference was associated with a lower risk of Crohn disease (β=-2.549, P=0.032), but had no significant effect on the risk of ulcerative colitis (β=-1.002, P=0.44).

Consumption of whole-milk fat may protect against Crohn disease, compared with skimmed milk. This conclusion was based on causal inference in a cohort study, and further validation in randomized controlled trials is warranted.

Pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection can trigger cellular and humoral innate immune responses, which may cause death of the pathogen and or host cells/tissue. We aimed to determine the cytotoxic response of phagocytes in patients with pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection based on plasma tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), malondialdehyde (MDA), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels.

In this observational study, patients newly infected with pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis (n=31; age 37-62 years) and age-matched uninfected volunteers (n=50) were recruited as test and control volunteers, respectively in Owo, Nigeria. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Research and Ethics Committee of the Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Achievers University, Owo, Nigeria (AUO/MLS/VII/2009/212). Anti-hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus antigen/antibody, hepatitis B virus surface antigen, and plasma TNF-α were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, SOD, and MDA were determined by colorimetry, Plasmodium by Giemsa thick blood film staining, and acid-fast bacilli in sputum were detected by Ziehl-Neelsen staining.

All participants had normal blood glucose levels and tested negative for human immunodeficiency virus antigen/antibody, anti-hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus surface antigen, and Plasmodium spp., and had no medical history of cancer. Infected patients had significantly higher plasma MDA and TNF-α levels and significantly lower SOD levels compared with control subjects (all P<0.05).

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection elicited a cytotoxic response by phagocytes, evidenced by significant increases in MDA and TNF-α and a significant decrease in SOD levels.

Venlafaxine is a common antidepressant and its therapeutic effect varies among people with different genetic backgrounds. The aim of this study was to investigate whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SLC17A7 gene are associated with the treatment outcome of venlafaxine in a Chinese Han population with major depressive disorder.

This prospective pharmacogenetic case-control study that involved genotyping of four SNPs of SLC17A7 was conducted on 175 major depressive disorder patients of Chinese Han origin, aged 18 to 65 years, participated in the study from April 2005 to September 2006. Comparisons of allele and genotype frequencies of all SNPs were performed between the responder/remission group and the nonresponder/nonremission group. This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Sichuan University (approval No. 20151112-265).

The allele and genotype frequencies of the four candidate SNPs in SCL17A7 showed no significant difference between responders and nonresponders. Meanwhile, no significant difference was detected in the four investigated SLC17A7 SNPs between patients who did and did not exhibit remission. Although one of the investigated SLC17A7 variants (rs1578944) demonstrated a significant association (P=0.022) with a response to venlafaxine after 6 weeks of treatment in the survival analysis, the association was unclear after a Bonferroni multiple comparisons test was conducted.

No significant association exists between the four candidate SNPs (rs1043558, rs1320301, rs1578944, and rs74174284) in SLC17A7 and venlafaxine treatment in the Chinese Han population.

Chinese rhubarb is a promising Chinese medicine for the promotion of gastrointestinal function. This study was conducted to investigate the safety and efficacy of Chinese rhubarb administered via ultrasound delivery in promoting the early recovery of gastrointestinal function after gastrectomy.

In this prospective randomized controlled study, 100 patients who were scheduled to undergo total or subtotal gastrectomy in Changzhi People’s Hospital or Subei People’s Hospital from August 2017 to January 2018 were recruited. These patients were randomly assigned into two equal groups before surgery: 50 in the experimental (Chinese rhubarb) group, and 50 in the control (routine nursing) group. After surgery, time to flatus, bowel movement, clear liquid diet, and removal of nasogastric tube were recorded and analyzed. In addition, postoperative pain, postoperative bowel movement-related complications, and postoperative hospital stay duration were also recorded and analyzed. The study was approved by The protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Changzhi People’s Hospital and Subei People’s Hospital on July 1, 2017 and registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on December 17, 2018 (registration number: ChiCTR1800020143).

Time to flatus (control group 85.68±22.00 hours vs experimental group 73.06±23.42 hours; P=0.007), bowel movement (5.52±1.56 vs 4.40±1.21 days; P<0.001), clear liquid diet (6.72±1.16 vs 6.22±1.28 days; P=0.044), and removal of nasogastric tube (6.30±1.52 vs 5.65±1.58 days; P=0.044) were significantly shorter in the experimental group compared with the control group, as was the postoperative hospital stay duration (14.30±3.46 vs 12.86±1.36 days; P=0.006). In addition, better pain relief (P=0.003) and a lower incidence of postoperative bowel movement-related complications (6 vs 21; P=0.001) were noted in the experimental group.

Ultrasound delivery of Chinese rhubarb is useful to promote the early recovery of gastrointestinal function after gastrectomy.