Surgical treatment is the most effective method to improve the prognosis of type A acute aortic dissection (TAAAD) patients. Thus, this investigation aimed to evaluate the value of postoperative platelet to mean platelet volume ratio (PMR) in predicting in-hospital mortality in postoperative TAAAD patients and to compare it with preoperative PMR.A retrospective study (171 postoperative patients) was conducted in the hospital from January 2017 to December 2019. Clinical (age, gender, and outcome of the patients' in-hospital mortality), preoperative PMR, and postoperative laboratory results were gathered. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and logistic regression were employed.Preoperative and postoperative PMR levels were higher in the survivors than in the nonsurvivors (13.44 ± 7.15 versus 9.15 ± 4.05, P = 0.002; 12.02 ± 6.79 versus 6.85 ± 2.42, P < 0.001; respectively). Multivariate logistic regression indicated that postoperative PMR was an independent factor even adjusted with different variables. Moreover, postoperative PMR had the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) (AUC: 0.778, 95% CI: 0.708-0.838, P < 0.001), with the best prognostic accuracy, followed by preoperative PMR (AUC: 0.721, 95% CI: 0.648-0.787, P < 0.001). The best cutoff value for postoperative PMR was 9.9206, with a high sensitivity (90.3%) and specificity (55.7%).Postoperative PMR should serve as an independent index to predict in-hospital mortality in TAAAD patients. In addition, postoperative PMR are superior to preoperative PMR to recognize high-risk patients.
Early and rapid diagnosis is crucial in HIV preventing and treatment. However, the false-positive rate (FPR) by 4-th generation detection assays was high in low-HIV-prevalence regions.To analyze the relation between sample-to-cutoff index (COI) and HIV confirmatory results, and to explore a new COI threshold in our own laboratory to predict HIV infection.We retrospectively analyzed primarily reactive results by Elecsys® HIV combi PT assays and their confirmatory results by western blot (WB) at Nanjing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The mean COI values of true positive (TP), false positive (FP), and indeterminate groups were compared, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was performed to determine the optimal COI value for predicting HIV infection.Totally 150,980 HIV serological results were reviewed, and 305 (0.2%) were primarily reactive. There are 82 (26.89%) true positives, 210 (71.92%) false positives, and 11 indeterminate samples confirmed by WB tests, and another 2 patients rejected WB tests. Mean COI values of TP (643.5) were greatly higher than that of FP (3.174) (P < 0.0001), but there is no significant difference between FP and indeterminate groups. Combining the requirement of HIV diagnosis and ROC analysis, 9.87 was established as the optimal threshold to predict the infection, with 100% sensitivity and 99.99% specificity.By adjusting the COI threshold, the FP samples can be reduced and the efficiency of screening assays can be increased, which can save much additional reagent and staff costs and much time for delivery of HIV test results.
Background: The aim of this study is to establish a clinical diagnosis model as a new evaluation indicator for the differentiation of adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) and other fever of unknown origin disease (FUO).
Background. Infective endocarditis (IE) has a high rate of mortality and the prognosis of IE was poor. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the value of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)/lymphocyte and compare it with LDH/lymphocyte percentage (L-LWR) in predicting the in-hospital mortality in IE patients. Methods. The investigation cohort contained 147 IE patients between January 2017 and December 2019. We retrospectively went over the medical records and selected admission indexes. Results. Compared with IE patients with adverse events, significantly higher levels of LDH/lymphocyte and significantly lower levels of L-LWR were discovered in IE patients without adverse events. After adjustments, L-LWR (odds ratio (OR): 4.558, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.362-15.256, ) still maintained its significant independence. In addition, L-LWR had the highest area under curve (AUC) (0.780, 0.704-0.844, ) with good sensitivity (81.89%) and specificity (65.00%) when 34 was selected as the best cutoff value. Conclusions. L-LWR is a reliable, low-priced, easily applicable, and independent prognostic parameter for in-hospital death with good performance in patients with IE.
To explore and compare the safety depths of perpendicular and oblique acupuncture at Yamen (GV 15) in patients with atlantoaxial dislocation (AAD) and healthy volunteers.One bundred and seventy-seven patients with atlantoaxial dislocation were selected as an AAD group, and 207 patients without atlantoaxial dislocation and with normal anatomical structure were selected as a normal group. All participants were moderately sized. The MRI scanning of the cervical vertebra was performed, and the safety depth of perpendicular and oblique acupuncture at Yamen (GV 15) was calculated on the sagittal image.In the AAD group, the safety depth of men was (45.33±5.17) mm for perpendicular acupuncture and (48.58±4.41) mm for oblique acupuncture; the safety depth of women was (44.17±7.80) mm for perpendicular acupuncture and (47.49±7.32) mm for oblique acupuncture. In the normal group, the safety depth of men was (47.72±5.06) mm for perpendicular acupuncture and (42.69±5.53) mm for oblique acupuncture; the safety depth of women was (44.63±5.85) mm for perpendicular acupuncture and (39.88±6.18) mm for oblique acupuncture. The safety depth of men and women for oblique acupuncture was longer than that for perpendicular acupuncture in the AAD group (P<0.01); the safety depth of men and women for oblique acupuncture was shorter than that for perpendicular acupuncture in the normal group (P<0.01). The safety depth of perpendicular and oblique acupuncture between men and women was not significant in the AAD group (P>0.05); the safety depth of perpendicular and oblique acupuncture for men was longer than that for women in the normal group (P<0.01). For men, the safety depth of perpendicular acupuncture in the AAD group was shorter than that in the normal group (P<0.01), while the safety depth of oblique acupuncture in the AAD group was longer than that in the normal group (P<0.01). For women, the safety depth of perpendicular acupuncture in the AAD group was similar with that in the normal group (P>0.05), while the safety depth of oblique acupuncture in the AAD group was longer than that in the normal group (P<0.01).The safe depth of acupuncture at Yamen (GV 15) has significantly changed under AAD, so during the clinical acupuncture the needle insertion should be less than its safe depth.
Abstract Tyrosinase (TYR) is a key enzyme of melanin biosynthesis. Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was applied to detect the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the upstream regulating region from -641 to -2125 bp of the TYR gene. Three SNPs were found in this region. Correlations were obtained between genotypes of the SNP sites and pigment traits in chicken parental and F 2 generations of the Chinese Agricultural University (CAU) resource population. The chi-square test indicated that these mutations were significantly related to shank and body skin colours.
Objective This study investigates the predictive value of CK-MB in treating acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with urokinase combined with low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) calcium.
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