Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome caused by infection, with high fatality rate and complex pathogenesis. Early and accurate diagnosis is essential to improving the prognosis of patients with sepsis. This review briefly describes the basic pathogenesis of sepsis, and summarizes the current new technologies for detecting sepsis from two aspects: pathogen detection and host immune status detection, such as digital polymerase chain reaction, biosensors, fluorescent probes, single-cell RNA sequencing, and enzyme-linked immunospot assay. By comprehensively analyzing and applying these new techniques, it is helpful to improve the efficiency and accuracy of early diagnosis of sepsis and improve the clinical treatment effect of patients.
Objective To assess value and limitations of non-invasive methods in assessing liver fibrosis．Methods By summarized current situation and advancement of serum fibrotic markers, ultrasound, CT and MRI in assessing liver fibrosis, we investigated their value and limitations. Results In addition to diagnosis, non-invasive methods of assessing liver fibrosis assess severity of liver fibrosis. For liver fibrosis, however, non-invasive methods can not monitor effectively reaction to therapy and progression. Conclusion Non-invasive methods play important roles in diagnosis and assessing severity of liver fibrosis, and reduce the need of liver biopsy.
ObjectiveTo explore the clinical significance of plasma biomarkers of prethrombotic state in lung cancer patients.
Methods90 patients with lung cancer (lung cancer group) and 90 normal controls (control group) of Han population in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital from June 2010 to June 2012 were recruited in the study. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the plasma levels of von willebrand factor(vWF),P-selectin,and thrombin-antithrombine complex (TAT). Coagulation indicators were detected by ACLTOP full automatic coagulation analyzer. Solidification method was used to detect the plasma levels of prothrombin time (PT),activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and fibrinogen (FIB). Turbidimetric immunoassay was used to detect D-dimer concentration,and chemiluminescence substrate was used to assay antithrombin Ⅲ (AT-Ⅲ).
ResultsIn the lung cancer group,the plasma levels of vWF,P-selectin,TAT,D-dimer and FIB were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05),and the plasma levels of APTT and AT-Ⅲ were lower than those in the control group(P<0.05),while there was no significant difference in plasma PT level(P>0.05). In stage Ⅳ lung cancer subgroup,the plasma levels of vWF,P-selectin,TAT,D-dimer and FIB were significantly higher than those in the stage Ⅲ subgroup or the stage Ⅰ+Ⅱ subgroup (P<0.05). And the plasma levels of PT and APTT were significantly lower than those in the stage Ⅲ subgroup or the stage Ⅰ+Ⅱ subgroup (P<0.05).
ConclusionThe patients with lung cancer exist obvious prethrombotic state. AT-Ⅲ,vWF, D-dimer, FIB,TAT,P-selectin and APTT can be used as reliable hematol markers in early diagnosis of prethrombotic state. vWF,P-selectin,TAT and D-dimer have higher sensitivity and specificity.
Objective To review the research progress of C terminal propeptide of collagen type II (CTX-II), a osteoarthritis (OA) biomarker. Methods Domestic and international l iterature about CTX-II was reviewed extensively and summarized. Results CTX-II is investigated broadly and has the best performance of all currently available biomarkers. CTX-II is a truly useful biomarker for early diagnosis, prognosis, and measurement of treatment response in OA. Conclusion Single CTX-II may be not sufficient for early diagnosis and prognosis of OA, so a combination of CTX-II and other biomarkers or diagnosis methods is needed.
Delirium is an acute cognitive disorder caused by a variety of factors which lead to cerebral cortical dysfunction. At present the studies on the pathophysiology of delirium is still very few. But studies on serum biomarker of delirium can help to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanism of delirium, and the studies are significant for delirium diagnosis, severity classification and prediction of long-term outcome. This review examines three major groups of delirium related serum biomarkers: ① risk markers: those that are present or elevated prior to disease onset, including serum chemistries, genetic markers and so on; ② disease markers: those markers elevate with delirium onset and fall when delirium recovery, including acetylcholine and serum anticholinergic activity, serotonin, serum amino acids, and melatonin, interleukin, C-reactive protein; and ③ end products: those that rise in proportion to the consequences of disease, including S-100? and neuron specific enolase. The three markers mentioned above are helpful to further investigate the mechanism of delirium.
Objective
The aim of this study is to review the relationship between microRNA (miR)-200a and the proliferation, metastasis, and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on the previous relevant studies.
Methods
A systematic literature search was performed to identify the related studies. We summarized the expression level of miR-200a in HCC, its roles and mechanisms in proliferation, metastasis, and prognosis of HCC.
Results
The expressions of miR-200a were down-regulated in HCC tissue, cell, and patients’ serum. The normal expression or the overexpression of miR-200a could significantly inhibite the proliferation, invision, and metastasis of HCC. Moreover, the differentially expressed miR-200a in the tumor tissue or the patient’ serum was potentially valuable for the early diagnosis and prognostic predicting of HCC. Although there had been many advances on miR-200a in HCC, only a few biological functions had been identified. The underlying regulating mechanisms and more targeted genes of miR-200a still needed to be further studied.
Conclusion
miR-200a not only has an inhibitory effect on the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of HCC, but also has a certain clinical application value in the early diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.
Mucin antigen 4 (MUC4) is a molecular marker for some malignant tumors for early tumor diagnosis, prognosis and targeted therapy. It provides a new research direction in tumor diagnosis and treatment that will have a wide application prospect. In recent years, there has been a large number of research reports on the basic and clinical studies about MUC4, but the molecular imaging study about MUC4 is seldom reported. In this paper the recent research about MUC4 on basic and clinical studies is briefly reviewed, and it is expected to promote the development of tumor molecular imaging.
The nucleic acid adapters of tumor serum markers are oligonucleotide molecules with high specificity and high affinity with tumor serum markers obtained by in vitro screening with systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). Researchers take the advantage of the nucleic acid adapter to explore new tumor serum markers that have more diagnostic value for tumor diagnosis. Recently, some achievements have been achieved in the research of liver cancer and stomach cancer. This paper has reviewed nucleic acid adapter and its research in the serum tumor marker screening, and discussed the value of the nucleic acid adapter of serum tumor markers in the diagnosis, as well as current problems existing in the research. This paper is very useful to help people better understand the screening of nucleic acid adapters of tumor serum markers, and to provide help in discovering new tumor serum markers.
ObjectiveTo investigate the association between the imaging markers of ischemic cerebral small vessel disease and the occurrence of large hemispheric infarction (LHI).MethodsWe consecutively enrolled the patients with cerebral infarction in the middle cerebral artery blood supply area who admitted to the Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University between January 1st, 2015 and March 30th, 2016, and underwent head CT/MRI scans within one month of onset. LHI was defined as: the hypodensity was larger than 1/2 of the blood supply area of middle cerebral artery or more than 1/3 of the cerebral hemisphere within 6 hours on head CT at admission, or the infarction area was larger than 2/3 of the ipsilateral hemisphere on head MRI at admission. The basic clinical data and imaging data were collected, and the independent predictors of LHI and its independent correlation with ischemic cerebrovascular disease were explored by univariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsA total of 503 patients were included, 111 (22.1%) with LHI and 392 (77.9%) with non-LHI. Compared with the non-LHI patients, the LHI patients had a lower prevalence of white matter lesions, a lower Fazekas score, a lower prevalence of Fazekas score > 1, a lower prevalence of lacunae, a lower proportion of diabetes mellitus, a higher atrial fibrillation proportion of history, a shorter time from onset to treatment, a higher National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score at admission, and a lower Glasgow Coma scale score; the distributions of TOAST types and locations of vascular stenosis were different (P<0.05). Multivariate analyses showed that white matter lesions [odds ratio (OR)=0.182, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.050, 0.660), P=0.010], higher Fazekas score [OR=0.770, 95% CI (0.611, 0.970), P=0.027], and Fakazes score > 1 [OR=0.490, 95%CI (0.259, 0.928), P=0.029] were independent protective factors of LHI, while lacunae was not an independent factor of LHI [OR=0.583, 95% CI (0.265, 1.279), P=0.178]. Higher NIHSS score and history of atrial fibrillation were independent risk factors for LHI (P<0.001).ConclusionsThe occurrence and severity of white matter lesions (higher Fazekas score and Fazekas score > 1) are more in non-LHI group, and are independently related to the occurrence of LHI. The results suggest that ischemic preconditioning may have a protective effect on brain.
ObjectiveTo explore the expression of senescence marker protein-30 (SMP-30) in human lung tissues and the significance in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
MethodsLung tissue specimens ( > 5 cm away from cancerous tissues) obtained by surgery resection in 20 subjects with solitary peripheral carcinoma in Jiangsu Province Hospital were investagted. The subjects were divided into three groups according to lung function and smoking history, ie. a COPD group (6 cases), a healthy smoking group (7 cases) and a healthy control group (7 cases). Immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to determine the distribution and expression of SMP-30 in human lung tissues.
ResultsSMP-30 protein mainly expressed in the cytoplasm of alveolar macrophages (AM). The numbers of AM and SMP-30-positive AM were significantly increased in the COPD group. Western blot analysis confirmed a significant increase in SMP-30 expression in the healthy smokers compared with the non-smokers (2.16±0.23 vs. 1.10±0.14, P < 0.01) and further enhanced in the patients with COPD compared with the healthy smoking subjects (4.62±0.97 vs. 2.16±0.23, P < 0.05). The levels of the protein in different groups were: COPD group > smoking group > control group with significant difference.
ConclusionThese results suggest that SMP-30 expression may be involved in the mechanism of prolonged survival and the increase in number of AM and may be involved in the pathogenesis of COPD.
