An Investigation on Open-RAN Specifications:Use Cases,Security Threats,Requirements,Discussions

The emergence of various technologies such as terahertz communications,Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces(RIS),and AI-powered communication services will burden network operators with rising infrastructure costs.Recently,the Open Radio Access Network(O-RAN)has been introduced as a solution for growing financial and operational burdens in Beyond 5G(B5G)and 6G networks.O-RAN promotes openness and intelligence to overcome the limitations of traditional RANs.By disaggregating conventional Base Band Units(BBUs)into O-RAN Distributed Units(O-DU)and O-RAN Centralized Units(O-CU),O-RAN offers greater flexibility for upgrades and network automation.However,this openness introduces new security challenges compared to traditional RANs.Many existing studies overlook these security requirements of the O-RAN networks.To gain deeper insights into the O-RAN system and security,this paper first provides an overview of the general O-RAN architecture and its diverse use cases relevant to B5G and 6G applications.We then delve into specifications of O-RAN security threats and requirements,aiming to mitigate security vulnerabilities effectively.By providing a comprehensive understanding of O-RAN architecture,use cases,and security considerations,thisworkserves as a valuable resource for future research in O-RAN and its security.

Clinical Thoughts and Cases of Jianpi Yishen Sechang Decoction Combined with Acupuncture in the Treatment of Functional Diarrhea

Functional diarrhea(FDr)accounts for a relatively high proportion of digestive diseases.It is an infection that is not accompanied by abdominal pain and shows negative results in laboratory tests for bacteria and viruses.The main symptoms are persistent or recurrent discharge of watery and soft stools.The course of the disease is prolonged and recurring,and the treatment cost is higher and greatly affects the patient’s daily life.The incidence rate has a gradual increase in the trend.Its pathogenesis is complex where Western medicine is mostly used in symptomatic drug treatment.The treatment can be fast-acting and effective in relieving diarrhea.However,the long-term use of Western medicine poses a high risk in terms of side effects and a high chance of recurring upon stopping medication.At the same time,some diarrhea patients show the existence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria,and the overall efficacy of the drug is limited.Chinese medicine is mild and able to provide excellent treatment of diarrhea.With its lower price and cost,most families can afford it.Fengliang Tian,director of traditional Chinese medicine,implemented the“needle and medicine”method,which combines medicine and acupuncture,involving the usage of Jianpi Yishen Sechang Decoction and acupuncture in the treatment of functional diarrhea.The method has a low price,fewer side effects,is easy to accept,and can significantly reduce the recurrence rate with high efficacy.The study would like to share the clinical thinking and cases as follows to provide ideas and methods for the treatment of functional diarrhea by traditional Chinese medicine.

C-CORE:Clustering by Code Representation to Prioritize Test Cases in Compiler Testing

Edge devices,due to their limited computational and storage resources,often require the use of compilers for program optimization.Therefore,ensuring the security and reliability of these compilers is of paramount importance in the emerging field of edge AI.One widely used testing method for this purpose is fuzz testing,which detects bugs by inputting random test cases into the target program.However,this process consumes significant time and resources.To improve the efficiency of compiler fuzz testing,it is common practice to utilize test case prioritization techniques.Some researchers use machine learning to predict the code coverage of test cases,aiming to maximize the test capability for the target compiler by increasing the overall predicted coverage of the test cases.Nevertheless,these methods can only forecast the code coverage of the compiler at a specific optimization level,potentially missing many optimization-related bugs.In this paper,we introduce C-CORE(short for Clustering by Code Representation),the first framework to prioritize test cases according to their code representations,which are derived directly from the source codes.This approach avoids being limited to specific compiler states and extends to a broader range of compiler bugs.Specifically,we first train a scaled pre-trained programming language model to capture as many common features as possible from the test cases generated by a fuzzer.Using this pre-trained model,we then train two downstream models:one for predicting the likelihood of triggering a bug and another for identifying code representations associated with bugs.Subsequently,we cluster the test cases according to their code representations and select the highest-scoring test case from each cluster as the high-quality test case.This reduction in redundant testing cases leads to time savings.Comprehensive evaluation results reveal that code representations are better at distinguishing test capabilities,and C-CORE significantly enhances testing efficiency.Across four datasets,C-CORE increases the average of the percentage of faults detected(APFD)value by 0.16 to 0.31 and reduces test time by over 50% in 46% of cases.When compared to the best results from approaches using predicted code coverage,C-CORE improves the APFD value by 1.1% to 12.3% and achieves an overall time-saving of 159.1%.

Using clinical cases to guide healthcare

Evidence-based practice(EBP)has been the gold standard in healthcare for nearly three centuries and aims to assist physicians in providing the safest and most effective healthcare for their patients.The well-established hierarchy of evidence lists systematic reviews and meta-analyses at the top however these methodologies are not always appropriate or possible and in these instances case-control studies,case series and case reports are utilised to support EBP.Case-control studies allow simultaneous study of multiple risk factors and can be performed rapidly and relatively cheaply.A recent example was during the Coronavirus pandemic where case-control studies were used to assess the efficacy of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.Case series and case reports also play a role in EBP and are particularly useful to study rare diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease in transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.They are also vital in generating and disseminating early signals and encouraging further research.Whilst these methodologies have weaknesses,particularly with regards to bias and loss of patient confidentiality for rare pathologies,they have an important part to play in EBP and when appropriately utilised can significantly impact upon clinical practice.

Changes in macrophage infiltration and podocyte injury in lupus nephritis patients with repeated renal biopsy: Report of three cases

BACKGROUND In this study,we retrospectively analysed macrophage infiltration and podocyte injury in three patients with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis(LN)who un-derwent repeated renal biopsy.CASE SUMMARY Clinical data of three diffuse proliferative LN patients with different pathological characteristics(case 1 was LN IV-G(A),case 2 was LN IV-G(A)+V,and case 3 was LN IV-G(A)+thrombotic microangiopathy)were reviewed.All patients underwent repeated renal biopsies 6 mo later,and renal biopsy specimens were studied.Macrophage infiltration was assessed by CD68 expression detected by immunohistochemical staining,and an immunofluorescence assay was used to detect podocin expression to assess podocyte damage.After treatment,Case 1 changed to LN III-(A),Case 2 remained as type V LN lesions,and Case 3,which changed to LN IV-S(A),had the worst prognosis.We observed reduced macro-phage infiltration after therapy.However,two of the patients with active lesions after treatment still showed macrophage infiltration in the renal interstitium.Before treatment,the three patients showed discontinuous expression of podocin.Notably,the integrity of podocin was restored after treatment in Case 1.CONCLUSION It may be possible to reverse podocyte damage and decrease the infiltrating ma-crophages in LN patients through effective treatment.

Successful management of severe hypoglycemia induced by total parenteral nutrition in patients with hepatocellular injury: Three cases reports

BACKGROUND Glucose imbalance is common in total parenteral nutrition(TPN).Hypoglycemia seems to be less frequent than hyperglycemia,but it influences the clinical outcome to a greater extent.Therefore,it should be effectively prevented and treated.However,there is no relevant report on how to treat hypoglycemia caused by TPN in patients with liver cell injury.CASE SUMMARY We present three patients with liver cell injury who developed severe hypo-glycemia during or after TPN infusion.The causes of severe hypoglycemia and glucose-raising strategies were discussed.According to the physiological charac-teristics of the hepatocellular injury,the ratio of nutrition components prescribed in TPN was appropriately adjusted for the three cases.We simultaneously reduced the dose of insulin and fat emulsion,and increased the dose of glucose in TPN.The blood glucose level was restored to normal range and clinical symptoms were eliminated.CONCLUSION When hypoglycemia occurs during or after TPN in patients with hepatocellular injury,physicians need to simultaneously reduce insulin and fat emulsion,and increase glucose,and correct severe hypoglycemia in time to reduce its adverse consequences.

Gestational diabetes mellitus combined with fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus, four cases of double diabetes: A case report

BACKGROUND Fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus(FT1DM)that occurs during pregnancy or the perinatal period is known as pregnancy-related FT1DM(PF),always without history of abnormal glucose metabolism.Here,we present four patients who developed FT1DM during treatment but were first diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM).CASE SUMMARY The clinical data of four patients with GDM combined with FT1DM admitted to our hospital between July 2018 and April 2021 were collected,and the patients and their infants were followed up.All patients were diagnosed with GDM during the second trimester and were treated.The blood glucose level elevated suddenly during the third trimester and then were diagnosed with FT1DM.Two patients had an insulin allergy,and two had symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection before onset.One patient developed ketoacidosis,and three developed ketosis.Two patients had cesarean section deliveries,and two had vaginal deliveries.The growth and development of the infants were normal.C-peptide levels were lower than those at onset,suggesting progressive impairment of islet function.The frequencies of the DRB109:01,DQB103:03,DQA103:02,DPA101:03,DPA102:02,DPB105:01,DRB401:03,G 01:01,and G 01:04 human leukocyte antigen(HLA)-G alleles were high in the present study.CONCLUSION In comparison with pregnancy-associated FT1DM(PF),patients with GDM combined with FT1DM had an older age of onset,higher body mass index,slower onset,fewer prodromal symptoms,and less acidosis.The pathogenesis may be due to various factors affecting the already fragileβ-cells of GDM patients with genetically susceptible class II HLA genotypes.We speculate that GDM combined with FT1DM during pregnancy,referred to as“double diabetes,”is a subtype of PF with its own unique characteristics that should be investigated further.

Two cases of refractory methicillin-susceptible staphylococcus aureus endocarditis responsive to ertapenem

Persistent methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus(MSSA)bacteremia is usually defined as persistent bacteremia despite 7 days of appropriate antibiotic therapy.While nafcillin,cefazolin,or oxacillin are excellent antimicrobial options,persistent MSSA is a commonly encountered phenomenon in clinical practice for which further guidelines on appropriate management are necessitated.Here we highlight two cases of MSSA bacteremia requiring salvage therapy with ertapenem.

Association between the extent of public health measures and other respiratory infectious diseases cases amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand

Public health strategies have resulted in declines in some respiratory infectious viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic[1],while the way to assess the extent of public health measures and their impacts on respiratory infectious diseases varies[2-4].During the pandemic,Thailand has implemented a strong and rapid governmental response according to its incidence rate[3],and we attempted to investigate the association between the extent of public health measures and other respiratory infectious diseases cases amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand.In this way,the level of public health measures and their impacts on other kinds of non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infections will help the government formulate more efficient policies.

Rethinking Yi’an(Medical Cases)as a Tool for Narrative Medicine in China

When narrative medicine(NM)was introduced into China,traditional Chinese medicine scholars found that the core concepts advocated by NM are manifested in Chinese yi’an.But why NM echoes with ancient Chinese yi’an?How can we better integrate NM into Chinese medical practices?To answer those questions,this article first investigates how NM establishes itself as a remedy to biomedicine by taking traditional healing models including TCM as its ideal Other.Then,the narrative traditions of both case histories and yi’an are examined respectively.This article argues that NM is searching for a lost tradition of narrative case histories,but yi’an functions as a living tradition of TCM.The Parallel Chart in NM,designed as a complement to the dehumanized hospital chart,is still based on a dichotomy of science and art and a conflictual doctor-patient model.But yi’an exemplifies the holistic and humane healthcare that NM hopes to achieve.A comparison of both genres also inspired us to rethink the genre of yi’an in NM.Thus,it is concluded that yi’an should be viewed as an epistemic genre integrating individualization and generalization,a bridge linking medicine and literature.And narrative yi’an can well serve as a tool for NM in China.It is also proposed that a thick description of yi’an be encouraged to further promote a pluralistic NM in China.

Two cases of persistent shallow anterior chamber after cataract surgery combined with goniosynechialysis

Dear Editor,Two cases of primary angle-closure glaucoma(PACG)with persistent shallow anterior chamber after phacoemulsification,intraocular lens(IOL)implantation and goniosynechialysis(GSL)were presented.PACG,which mainly presents with mechanical obstruction of the trabecular meshwork,is clinically characterized by elevated intraocular pressure(IOP)secondary to the apposition of peripheral iris or a synechial closure of the angle[1].A previous study reported that angle-closure glaucoma eyes experienced widening and deepening of anterior chamber angles following cataract extraction and IOL implantation,which could probably normalize the IOP[2].A randomized controlled trial demonstrated that in comparison with laser peripheral iridotomy(LPI),clear-lens extraction showed greater advantages in efficacy and cost-effectiveness and could be proposed as the first-line initial treatment for PACG[3].

Research and Design of Consistent Project Cases for the Software Engineering Course Group

In order to enhance the abilities of practical innovation and solving complex engineering problems of students in the engineering context,we design a course cluster teaching model based on a unified enterprise-level project case.The program divides the knowledge points required by the project into the corresponding courses,and divides their realization into the practical teaching cases,so as to realize the design of teaching practice cases embodied in the unified project framework.This model allows students to practice projects based on the unified project background while learning knowledge from different courses.It not only allows students to learn abstract,fragmented,and difficult-to-understand knowledge systems thoroughly,but also integrates the knowledge into the practice of the enterprise-level project development,helping students experience the value of knowledge in complex engineering projects and thus improving their ability to solve complex engineering problems while learning theoretical knowledge.

Temporal pattern of humoral immune response in mild cases of COVID-19

BACKGROUND Understanding the humoral response pattern of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)is one of the essential factors to better characterize the immune memory of patients,which allows understanding the temporality of reinfection,provides answers about the efficacy and durability of protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2),and consequently helps in global public health and vaccination strategy.Among the patients who became infected with SARS-CoV-2,the majority who did not progress to death were those who developed the mild COVID-19,so understanding the pattern and temporality of the antibody response of these patients is certainly relevant.AIM To investigate the temporal pattern of humoral response of specific immunoglobulin G(IgG)in mild cases of COVID-19.METHODS Blood samples from 191 COVID-19 real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR)-positive volunteers from the municipality of Toledo/Paraná/Brazil,underwent two distinct serological tests,enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay,and detection of anti-nucleocapsid IgG.Blood samples and clinicoepidemiological data of the volunteers were collected between November 2020 and February 2021.All assays were performed in duplicate and the manufacturers'recommendations were strictly followed.The data were statistically analyzed using multiple logistic regression;the variables were selected by applying the P<0.05 criterion.RESULTS Serological tests to detect specific IgG were performed on serum samples from volunteers who were diagnosed as being positive by RT-qPCR for COVID-19 or had disease onset in the time interval from less than 1 mo to 7 mo.The time periods when the highest number of participants with detectable IgG was observed were 1,2 and 3 mo.It was observed that 9.42%of participants no longer had detectable IgG antibodies 1 mo only after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 and 1.57%were also IgG negative at less than 1 mo.At 5 mo,3.14%of volunteers were IgG negative,and at 6 or 7 mo,1 volunteer(0.52%)had no detectable IgG.During the period between diagnosis by RT-qPCR/symptoms onset and the date of collection for the study,no statistical significance was observed for any association analyzed.Moreover,considering the age category between 31 and 59 years as the exposed group,the P value was 0.11 for the category 31 to 59 years and 0.32 for the category 60 years or older,showing that in both age categories there was no association between the pair of variables analyzed.Regarding chronic disease,the exposure group consisted of the participants without any comorbidity,so the P value of 0.07 for the category of those with at least one chronic disease showed no association between the two variables.CONCLUSION A temporal pattern of IgG response was not observed,but it is suggested that immunological memory is weak and there is no association between IgG production and age or chronic disease in mild COVID-19.

Motor cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation to reduce intractable postherpetic neuralgia with poor response to other threapies:Report of two cases

BACKGROUND Postherpetic neuralgia(PHN)is a typical neuropathic pain condition that appears in the lesioned skin regions following the healing of shingles.The pain condition tends to persist,which is often accompanied by negative emotions(e.g.,anxiety and depression)and substantially reduces the quality of life.In addition to analgesia(e.g.,pregabalin and gabapentin),nerve radiofrequency technology is an effective treatment for intractable PHN.However,there is still a significant portion of patients who do not benefit from this treatment.As a non-invasive form of brain stimulation,repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation(rTMS)targeting the motor cortex is able to reduce neuropathic pain with grade A evidence.CASE SUMMARY Here we report two cases in which motor cortex rTMS was used to treat intractable PHN that did not respond to initial drug and radiofrequency therapies.Moreover,we specifically investigated rTMS efficacy at 3 mo following treatment.CONCLUSION Motor cortex rTMS can treat intractable PHN that did not respond to initial drug and radiofrequency therapies.

Discrepancy among microsatellite instability detection methodologies in non-colorectal cancer:Report of 3 cases

BACKGROUND Microsatellite instability(MSI)is a predictive biomarker for cancer immunotherapy.The tumor-agnostic nature of MSI makes it a denominator for immunotherapy in several solid tumors.It can be assessed using next-generation sequencing(NGS),fluorescent multiplex PCR,and immunohistochemistry(IHC).CASE SUMMARY Here,we report 3 cases with discordant MSI results detected using different methods.A cholangiocellular carcinoma case revealed proficient mismatch repair(MMR)by IHC but high MSI(MSI-H)by liquid NGS.A cervical cancer case revealed deficient MMR by IHC,microsatellite stable by PCR,and MSI-H by NGS.Lastly,an endometrial cancer case revealed proficient MMR by IHC but MSI-H by NGS.CONCLUSION IHC for MMR status is the first choice due to several advantages.However,in cases of indeterminate IHC results,molecular testing by MSI-PCR is preferred.Recently,NGS-based MSI assays are being widely used to detect MSI-H tumors.All three methods have high accuracy;however,the inconsistencies between them may lead to misdiagnosis.

Hyperthyroidism and severe bradycardia:Report of three cases and review of the literature

BACKGROUND Hyperthyroidism often leads to tachycardia,but there are also sporadic reports of hyperthyroidism with severe bradycardia,such as sick sinus syndrome(SSS)and atrioventricular block.These disorders are a challenge for clinicians.CASE SUMMARY We describe three cases of hyperthyroidism with SSS and found 31 similar cases in a PubMed literature search.Through the analysis of these 34 cases,we found 21 cases of atrioventricular block and 13 cases of SSS,with 67.6%of the patients experiencing bradycardia symptoms.After drug treatment,temporary pacemaker implantation,or anti-hyperthyroidism treatment,the bradycardia of 27 patients(79.4%)was relieved,and the median recovery time was 5.5(2-8)d.Only 7 cases(20.6%)needed permanent pacemaker implantation.CONCLUSION Patients with hyperthyroidism should be aware of the risk of severe bradycardia.In most cases,drug treatment or temporary pacemaker placement is recommended for initial treatment.If the bradycardia does not improve after 1 wk,a permanent pacemaker should be implanted.

SMINER:Detecting Unrestricted and Misimplemented Behaviors of Software Systems Based on Unit Test Cases

Despite the advances in automated vulnerability detection approaches,security vulnerabilities caused by design flaws in software systems are continuously appearing in real-world systems.Such security design flaws can bring unrestricted and misimplemented behaviors of a system and can lead to fatal vulnerabilities such as remote code execution or sensitive data leakage.Therefore,it is an essential task to discover unrestricted and misimplemented behaviors of a system.However,it is a daunting task for security experts to discover such vulnerabilities in advance because it is timeconsuming and error-prone to analyze the whole code in detail.Also,most of the existing vulnerability detection approaches still focus on detecting memory corruption bugs because these bugs are the dominant root cause of software vulnerabilities.This paper proposes SMINER,a novel approach that discovers vulnerabilities caused by unrestricted and misimplemented behaviors.SMINER first collects unit test cases for the target system from the official repository.Next,preprocess the collected code fragments.SMINER uses pre-processed data to show the security policies that can occur on the target system and creates a test case for security policy testing.To demonstrate the effectiveness of SMINER,this paper evaluates SMINER against Robot Operating System(ROS),a real-world system used for intelligent robots in Amazon and controlling satellites in National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA).From the evaluation,we discovered two real-world vulnerabilities in ROS.

Three cases of jejunal tumors detected by standard upper gastrointestinal endoscopy:A case series

BACKGROUND In patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding,re-examination with standard upper endoscopes by experienced physicians will identify culprit lesions in a substantial proportion of patients.A common practice is to insert an adult-sized forward-viewing endoscope into the second part of the duodenum.When the endoscope tip enters after the papilla,which is a marker for the descending part of the duodenum,it is difficult to endoscopically judge how far the duodenum has been traversed beyond the second part.CASE SUMMARY We experienced three cases of proximal jejunal masses that were diagnosed by standard upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and confirmed with surgery.The patients visited the hospital with a history of melena;during the initial upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and colonoscopy,the bleeding site was not confirmed.Upper gastrointestinal bleeding was suspected;thus,according to guidelines,upper endoscopy was performed again.A hemorrhagic mass was discovered in the small intestine.The lesion of the first patient was thought to be located in the duodenum when considering the general insertion depth of a typical upper gastrointestinal endoscope;however,during surgery,it was confirmed that it was in the jejunum.After the first case,lesions in the second and third patients were detected at the jejunum by inserting the standard upper endoscope as deep as possible.CONCLUSION The deep insertion of standard endoscopes is useful for the diagnosis of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding.

Solitary acral persistent papular mucinosis nodule:A case report and summary of eight Korean cases

BACKGROUND Acral persistent papular mucinosis(APPM)is a rare idiopathic subtype of localized lichen myxedematosus.To date,there have been 40 APPM cases reported worldwide;however,only 7 cases have been reported in the Korean literature.CASE SUMMARY A 70-year-old man was referred to our hospital with a solitary pinkish nodule on the dorsum of his right hand.Despite the absence of symptoms,the patient wanted to know the exact diagnosis;thus,a biopsy was performed.Histopathological examination of a biopsy specimen obtained from the nodule on the dorsum of his hand revealed orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis with patchy parakeratosis,prominent hypergranulosis,and diffuse dissecting mucinous deposition between collagen bundles,along with some bland-looking spindle cells throughout the dermis.The nodule was histologically diagnosed as an APPM,and an intralesional triamcinolone injection(2.5 mg/mL)was started every 2 wk.After three sessions of treatment,the patient showed marked improvements.CONCLUSION To the best of our knowledge,this is the first case of a Korean APPM presenting as a solitary nodule that showed a marked response to triamcinolone intralesional injection.Since it is a rare disease,we report this case to contribute to future research on the pathogenesis and treatment of APPM.

Elastic fiber degradation in the development of pediatric granuloma annulare:Report of 39 cases

BACKGROUND Granuloma annulare(GA)has diverse clinical manifestations,multiple subtypes,and unknown etiology and pathogenesis.Existing studies regarding GA in children are scarce.AIM To examine the correlation between clinical manifestation and histopathology of pediatric GA.METHODS A total of 39 patients under 18 years of age with both a clinical and pathological diagnosis of GA at Kunming Children's Hospital from 2017 to 2022 were retrieved.Their medical records were consulted,and clinical data of the children were recorded and summarized,including gender,age,disease site,etc.Existing wax blocks of skin lesion specimens of children and pathological films were retrieved for further study and relevant histology,including hematoxylin-eosin,Alcian blue,elastic fiber(Victoria blue-Lichon red method),and antacid staining.Finally,the children’s clinical manifestations,histopathological results,and special staining characteristics were analyzed.RESULTS The clinical manifestations of granuloma annulare in children were diverse:11 cases presented with a single lesion,25 with multiple lesions,and 3 with generalized lesions.The pathological typing comprised histiocytic infiltration,palisading granuloma,epithelioid nodular,and mixed types in 4,11,9,and 15 cases,respectively.Thirty-nine cases were negative for antacid staining.The positive rate of Alcian blue staining was 92.3%,and that of elastic fiber staining was 100%.The degree of elastic fiber dissolution and granuloma annulare histopathological typing were positively correlated(r=0.432,P<0.05).No correlation was found between clinical presentation and histopathological typing of the granuloma annulare in children.In the pathological diagnosis of granuloma annulare,the positive elastic fiber staining rate was higher than that of Alcian blue staining.A correlation was found between elastic fiber dissolution degree and histopathological staging.However,the differences in pathological staging may have been related to the pathological manifestation of granuloma annulare at different periods.CONCLUSION Elastic fiber degradation may be a critical step in the pathogenesis of pediatric granuloma annulare.This is also one of the first studies focused on granuloma annulare in children.