Abstract Objectives To evaluate the extent of agreement between two blood collection methods for electrolytes, central venous blood sampling by the push-pull technique versus venipuncture, and to mitigate errors in blood sampling by a potassium-based quality control procedure. Methods A comparative within-subject study was carried out for adult patients in the intensive care unit. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to estimate concordance, and Bland–Altman analysis and clinically acceptable limits were used to compare the equivalence of the two methods. An in-house checklist was designed to identify errors made by nurses throughout central venous blood sampling by the push-pull technique, the corrective training and quality control procedure were conducted, and the rate of errors, incidence of hemolysis and distribution of potassium concentrations were comparatively analyzed for the quality of central venous blood sampling before and after the quality control procedure. Results All the ICCs of 220 paired blood samples displayed excellent reliability, except for potassium. Most of the electrolyte variables were within the clinically acceptable limits, and the results showed that the potassium concentrations did not seem to sufficiently affect clinical decision-making. A total of 30 nurses accepted 90 observations before and after the quality control procedure, and the results showed that blood exposure and repeated disconnections of the line in the push-pull technique were always the main problems throughout the process of central venous blood sampling. In addition, after improvement, the number of patients with hypokalemia or hyperkalemia tended to decrease, but the difference was not statistically significant. For all of the blood samples, only three push-pull paired samples received hemolysis notice. Conclusions Central venous blood sampling by the push-pull technique could be an acceptable substitute for most electrolytes via venipuncture, but caution should be exercised for potassium-based quality control procedures.
Abstract Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancers globally. Because of the high frequency of tumor recurrence, or metastasis, after surgical resection, the prognosis of patients with GC is poor. Therefore, exploring the mechanisms underlying GC is of great importance. Recently, accumulating evidence has begun to show that dysregulated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in the progression of GC via several typical signaling pathways, such as the AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. Moreover, the interactions between lncRNAs and microRNAs appear to represent a novel mechanism in the pathogenesis of GC. This review provides a synopsis of the latest research relating to lncRNAs and associated signaling pathways in GC.
The receptor for advanced-glycation end products (RAGE) is upregulated in various cancers and has been associated with tumor progression, but little is known about its expression and regulation by microRNAs (miRNAs) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Here, we describe miR-185, which represses RAGE expression, and investigate the biological role of miR-185 in ESCC. In this study, we found that the high level of RAGE expression in 29 pairs of paraffin-embedded ESCC tissues was correlated positively with the depth of invasion by immunohistochemistry, suggesting that RAGE was involved in ESCC. We used bioinformatics searches and luciferase reporter assays to investigate the prediction that RAGE was regulated directly by miR-185. Besides, overexpression of miR-185 in ESCC cells was accompanied by 27% (TE-11) and 49% (Eca-109) reduced RAGE expression. The effect was further confirmed in RAGE protein by immunofluorescence in both cell lines. The effects were reversed following cotransfection with miR-185 and high-level expression of the RAGE vector. Furthermore, the biological role of miR-185 in ESCC cell lines was investigated using assays of cell viability, Ki-67 staining, and cell migration and invasion, as well as in a xenograft model. We found that overexpression of miR-185 inhibited migration and invasion by ESCC cells in vitro and reduced their capacity to develop distal pulmonary metastases in vivo partly through the RAGE/heat shock protein 27 pathway. Interestingly, in clinical specimens, the level of plasma miR-185 expression was decreased significantly (P = 0.002) in patients with ESCC [0.500; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.248-1.676] compared with healthy controls (2.410; 95% CI 0.612-5.671). The value of the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve was 0.73 (95% CI 0.604-0.855). In conclusion, our findings shed novel light on the role of miR-185/RAGE in ESCC metastasis, and plasma miR-185 has potential as a novel diagnostic biomarker in ESCC.
Abstract Background: Homocysteine (Hcy) is considered to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. No study has evaluated the distribution of Hcy on a large-scale health examination. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the level and distribution of Hcy in the healthy physical examination population and the correlation with other biomarkers, and analyzed for cardiovascular and other diseases. The prevention provides an important scientific basis. Methods: From February 2017 to April 2020, 8063 medical examination populations were selected for analysis. Determination of serum Hcy, TC, TG, LDL-c, HDL-c, ALT, ALP, γ-GT, TBIL, GLU, urea, Cr, UA and related metabolic risk factors. According to the multivariate regression model of age, gender, smoking, drinking, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), the relationship between Hcy and other biochemical indicators was evaluated. Results: Among 8063 cases, the age, BMI, SBP and DBP of the high-Hcy group were higher than those of the low-Hcy group, the difference was statistically significant ( P <0.05), and the proportion of males, smoking and drinking were higher than the low In the Hcy group, the difference was statistically significant ( P <0.05); the ALT, ALP, γ-GT, TBIL, Urea, Cr, UA, and TG in the high Hcy group were higher than those in the low Hcy group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P <0.05 ); HDL-c in the high-Hcy group was lower than that in the low-Hcy group, and the difference was statistically significant ( P <0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in TC, LDL-c, and GLU between the high- and low-Hcy groups ( P >0.05). In multivariate analysis, lnHDL-C was negatively correlated with lnHcy (β=-0.038, SE=0.016, P <0.05), lnCr was positively correlated with lnHcy (β=0.055, SE=0.016, P <0.05), lnUA and lnHcy were positive correlation (β=0.043, SE=0.019, P <0.05). Conclusion: Hcy is closely related to HDL-c, Cr and UA, which indicates that Hcy may affect the metabolism of HDL-c and UA, and can also be used as an auxiliary diagnostic index for kidney injury.
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