Objective To investigate the clinical value of peripheral serum cell-free DNA/neutrophil extracellular traps (cf-DNA/NETs) level in diagnosis and severity assessment of sepsis patients. Methods Forty patients with sepsis and 40 patients with non-infectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (nf-SIRS) were enrolled in this study. The cf-DNA/NETs level in serum of all subjects were measured. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic ability of the cf-DNA/NETs, white blood cell count (WBC), procalcitonin (PCT) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The sepsis patients were stratified into a survival group and a death group according to the prognosis. Sequential organ failure (SOFA) score were recorded in the sepsis patients, and the correlations between SOFA and cf-DNA/NETs, PCT, WBC, IL-6 were analyzed. Results Compared with the nf-SIRS group, cf-DNA/NETs and PCT levels were significantly higher in the sepsis group (both P<0.05). WBC and IL-6 showed no significant differences between the two groups (bothP>0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of cf-DNA/NETs was 0.884 for diagnosis of sepsis, and it was higher than the AUC of PCT (0.803). The cf-DNA/NETs showed better sensitivity (81.2% and 79.2%) and specificity (81.0% and 82.4%) than PCT. cf-DNA/NETs and PCT were significantly higher in the death group than those in the survival group. Bivariate collection analysis revealed positive correlations between SOFA score and the two biomarkers of cf-DNA/NETs and PCT (r1=0.573, r2=0.518; both P<0.01). Conclusions cf-DNA/NETs and PCT have certain value in early diagnosis of sepsis, and cf-DNA/NETs shows better diagnostic value in distinguishing sepsis from nf-SIRS than PCT. cf-DNA/NETs can be used as a routine monitoring index to help assess disease severity in sepsis.
Objective To explore the feasibility of pre-implantation of high-intensity suture into tendon grafts to prevent postoperative graft relaxation and creep in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Methods Thirty-six specimens of ACL reconstruction graft were made using adult swine’s Achilles tendon. All the specimens were randomly divided into experimental group (groups A and C) and control group (groups B and D), 9 specimens each group. One double-strand Ultrabraid No.2 high-intensity suture was pre-implanted into the grafts of groups A and C. Groups A and B underwent a 1 000-cycles load test while groups C and D underwent a 3 000-cycles load test. Then a pull-out test was performed until failure. The displacements at different cycles (100, 500, 1 000, 2 000, and 3 000) in all groups and yield loads of groups C and D were measured and analyzed. Results The displacement of group A was significantly smaller than that of group B at the cycles of 100, 500, and 1 000 (P<0.05); the displacement of group C was significantly smaller than that of group D at every cycle (P<0.05). Additionally, the yield load of group C was significantly higher than that of group D (t=4.816,P=0.001). Conclusion Pre-implantation of high-intensity suture into tendon grafts play an important role in the prevention of postoperative graft creep and relaxation in ACL reconstruction.