Abstract: Cardiac transplantation is an effective therapeutic method for terminalstage heart diseases. The immunosuppressive treatment based on calcineurin inhibitors (CsA and FK506) is most commonly used, monoclonal antibodies are also used in some recipients as induction therapy before and/or after transplantation. Some new immunosuppressive drugs, such as Rapamycin and Everolimus, can not only inhibit the acute transplant rejection but also prevent cardiac vasculopathy. The application of some relatively nontraumatic tests, such as immunological indexes, cardiac markers and other serological parameters, are helpful for diagnosis and preventing postcardiac transplant rejection at early stage and improving the result of cardiac transplantation.
Objective To investigate the perioperative changes of serum brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentrations in patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement. Methods There were 20 patients admitted to the study, the serum BNP concentrations were measured before cardiac surgery, 24 hours, 7days, 14 days, and 30 days after operation. The preoperative NYHA cardiac function and the left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) were measured by echocardiogram. Results The preoperative BNP level was the baseline, it elevated markedly and acutely to a peak value 24 hours after operation ( P =0.003), then the BNP decreased 7 days later, but was still higher than the concentration before operation ( P =0.015), 14 days later it reached to the concentration before operation, 30 days later it was mild lower than preoperative BNP level, but there was no significant difference. There was a positive correlation between NYHA and BNP ( r =0.69, P lt;0.05), but no correlation between LVEF and BNP( r =0.29, P gt;0 05). Conclusion The preoperative serum BNP concentration can reflect the preoperative cardiac function in patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement, the high BNP level indicates the poor cardiac function. The BNP sharply elevated in the early time after operation, then gradually decreased in the late phase postoperation.
OBJECTIVE L-arginine is a semiessential dibasic amino acid for humans and animals. This paper aims to investigate the therapeutic effect of L-arginine supplementation on partial-thickness burned patients. METHODS A randomized controlled clinical trial was designed to evaluate the cellular immune function (T cell count, ratio of CD4/CD8, natural killer cell activity and IL-2 level) and protein metabolism (transferrin, prealbium and nitrogen balance) of patients in the experimental group which daily given 15 g arginine and the control group which daily given 25 g glycine. RESULTS The natural killer cell activity and IL-2 production in the experimental group were higher than that of the control group. The suppression of transferrin and prealbium was alleviated and the nitrogen balance was improved in the experimental group. CONCLUSION It suggests that exogenous arginine supplementation is beneficial for recovery of cellular immunity function and protein anabolism in partial-thickness burned patients.
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of anti-nucleosome antibody (AnuA) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMbase and The Cochrane Library to identify studies on the diagnostic value of AnuA in patients with SLE. The searching time was from 1990 to 2005. The quality of included studies was evaluated and the data were extracted. The Cochrane Collaboration’s RevMan software was used to analyze heterogeneity, and MetaDisc was used to perform meta-analyses and draw summary receiver operator characteristic curve (SROC). Results Twenty-five studies involving 7 289 patients (2 459 SLE and 5 030 non-SLE patients were diagnosed by gold standard) were included, most of which were poor in quality. The heterogeneity among studies was high (Plt;0.000 01, I2=87.2%). The pooled sensitivity was 64.9%, 95% CI 63.0 to 66.85, and the pooled specificity was 92.6%, 95% CI 91.8% to 93.3%. Area under the SROC was 0.918, SE0.0212. These data suggested that AnuA had a relatively high false negative rate (35.1%) and a relatively low false positive rate (7.4%). Conclusions AnuA has some value in diagnosing SLE and could possibly be used as one of the diagnostic tests for SLE.
With the development of clinical medicine, laboratory personals are required to participate in the analysis and explanation of clinical laboratory tests, and the cultivation of compound senior medical laboratory professionals becomes an urgent clinical need. This article describes the post-graduation education process and content of senior laboratory technicians training in West China Hospital of Sichuan University since 2004, and assesses their comprehensive capabilities of clinical service, teaching and research on the trainees who have graduated for more than 5 years. It is believed that the training mode of senior laboratory technicians could improve the comprehensive quality and personal ability of trainees, make our setting goal come true, and cultivate practical senior laboratory professionals who can fulfill social demands.
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of N terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) for heart failure (HF) and the relationship between NT-proBNP and HF. Methods Applying electrochemiluminescence immunoassay on Elecsys 2 010 quantitatively detects NT-proBNP in HF patients with varing heart damage. Results ① Using 155 pg/ml as the cutoff for diagnosis of HF, the sensitivity and specificity are both 80 %, positive likelihood ratio (PLR) is more than 4.0; when NT-proBNP is more than 350 pg/ml, PLR is more than 14. ② NT-proBNP significantly increases in HF patients，and has significant difference compared with disease control group, Plt;0.05. In dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) NT-proBNP is the highest, in coronary heart disease (CHD) and hypertension it’s the smallest. With rising NYHA classes, NT-proBNP increases exponentially. The correlation between NT-proBNP and heart function is good, rs=0.859 (Plt;0.01). Conclusions NT-proBNP for diagnosing HF has a high sensitivity and specificity and can effectively evaluate heart function. With worsening of heart damage, NT-proBNP shows exponential or linear increase.
Objective To explore the relationship between the level of serum ferritin (SF) and liver damage in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods The concentration of serum ferritin of 98 patients with CHB from July to October 2014 was measured, and then correlation analysis was performed to analyze the correlation between SF and such indexes as serum tumor marker α-fetoprotein, biochemical markers [alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST), total protein (TP), albumin and total bilirubin (TBIL)], and hepatitis B serum markers (hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis B surface antibody, hepatitis B e antigen, hepatitis B e antibody, and hepatitis B core antigen). Serum hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV-DNA) viral load was also tested, and then the discrepancy of SF levels in the high and low viral load groups was analyzed. Results The average concentration of the abnormally elevated SF was (878.69±837.98) ng/mL. The SF mean difference between low-load HBV-DNA and high-load HBV-DNA was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Serum ferritin levels were independently and positively correlated with ALT, AST, and TBIL (P < 0.01) and inversely correlated with TP and albumin (P < 0.01). Conclusion The rise of SF is associated with liver damage, which can reflect the state of inflammation of patients with CHB.
Objectives To systematically review the association between TM6SF2 (transmembrane six superfamily member 2- rs58592426) polymorphism and liver lesion and the severity of liver fibrosis. Methods We electronically searched databases including PubMed, CNKI, WanFang Data and CBM from inception to January 27, 2016, to collect cross-sectional studies about the association between the TM6SF2 polymorphism and the liver lesion and the severity of liver fibrosis. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the methodological quality included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using Stata 12.0 software. Results A total of 23 studies including 96 594 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: TM6SF2 polymorphism was associated with increased risk of the severity of liver fibrosis, the levels of TG, TC and LDL-C (all P values < 0.05). Carriers of the T allele showed lower levels of TG, TC, and LDL-C. Carriers of the T allele revealed higher levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) when compared with homozygous EE. Conclusion TM6SF2 polymorphism is associated with lipid traits in different population, the variants shows lower levels of lipid traits in blood serum and increases the risk of the severity of liver fibrosis and liver lesion.