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In this study, we investigated the potential for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and B2 (AFB2) production in rice grain by 127 strains of Aspergillus flavus isolated from rice grains collected from China. These strains were inoculated onto rice grains and incubated at 28 °C for 21 days. AFB1 and AFB2 were extracted and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection. Among the tested strains, 37% produced AFB1 and AFB2 with levels ranging from 175 to 124 101 μg kg(-1) for AFB1 and from not detected to 10 329 μg kg(-1) for AFB2. The mean yields of these isolates were 5884 μg kg(-1) for AFB1 and 1968 μg kg(-1) for AFB2. Overall, most of the aflatoxigenic strains produced higher levels of AFB1 than AFB2 in rice. The obtained information is useful for assessing the risk of aflatoxin contamination in rice samples.

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Background: Both noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and prenatal ultrasound are widely used in clinical settings due to their safety, noninvasiveness, and accuracy, showing high detection rates for fetal chromosomal aneuploidies and structural abnormalities. However, whether the combined application of these two techniques has higher clinical applicability remains to be demonstrated. Methods:The clinical and laboratory data of 3,050 pregnant women who underwent NIPT were collected.The clinical feasibility and health economics of NIPT were investigated by analyzing the accuracy, postnatal follow-up results, and population applicability of NIPT. In addition, an analysis ultrasonography, NIPT, and karyotyping results were performed to evaluate the combined application of ultrasonography and NIPT in screening fetal chromosomal abnormalities.Results: NIPT could accurately detect trisomies 21, 18, and 13, and was highly sensitive and specific in detecting other autosomal and sex chromosomal aneuploidies. The positive rates of chromosomal abnormalities in the presence of 1 or 2 or more ultrasound markers were 7.5% and 29.2%, respectively, indicating that ultrasonography combined with NIPT should be preferred for the detection of fetal chromosomal abnormalities.Conclusions: Health economic analysis revealed NIPT to be superior to conventional serologic screening in terms of accuracy and socioeconomics. Ultrasound and NIPT are complementary to each other and the combined techniques can improve the screening ability of fetal chromosomal abnormalities and provide clinicians with more diagnostic information.