Abnormal localization of immature precursors (ALIP) detection for early prediction of acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) relapse.

Acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) is a relapsing and deadly disease. Thus, it is important to early predict leukemia relapse. Recent studies have demonstrated strong correlations of relapse with abnormal localization of immature precursors (ALIP). However, there is no related research on automated detection of ALIP so far. To this end, we have proposed an ALIP detection method to investigate the relevance with AML relapse. Kernelized fuzzy C-means clustering is applied first to separate the foreground (with cells) and background (without cells). Image repairing is then used to wipe out noises to mark region of interest. Then, image partition is introduced to separate the overlapping cells. After that, a set of features are extracted for the classification. Thereafter, support vector machine is applied to classify precursors. At last, filtering operations are applied to obtain the binary-precursor detection results. Thirty-seven patients with AML are examined. The results show that ALIP is efficiently detected in a high sensitivity and positive predictive value by our proposed method. The investigation also demonstrates the strong correlations of AML relapse with ALIP.

[Relationship between plasma protein expression profiles and states of Zang-Fu organs in patients with phlegm or blood stagnation syndromes due to hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the plasma biomarker proteins and the states of Zang-Fu organs in patients with phlegm or blood stagnation syndromes due to hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. METHODS: The states of Zang-Fu organs in 146 patients with hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis were diagnosed by syndrome differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine. The plasma proteins from these patients were separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Differential protein profiling was established by Image Master 6.0 software, and the differential proteins were analyzed by quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOF-MS). The association between the plasma biomarker proteins and the states of Zang-Fu organs was analyzed by graphical models. RESULTS: The biomarker proteins such as fibrinogen gamma chain, albumin and apolipoprotein AI (precursor) in discrimination of the patients with phlegm syndrome from phlegm accumulating with stagnation syndrome were correlated with the deficiency of kidney-qi, heart-qi and spleen-qi. Among the four biomarker proteins in discrimination of the patients with phlegm syndrome from blood stagnation syndrome, albumin, adrenomedullin binding protein (precursor) and haptoglobin (precursor) were correlated with the deficiency of kidney-qi and heart-qi, but complement component C4 was independent of the deficient Zang-Fu organs. The biomarker albumin was associated with the deficiency of kidney-qi, heart-qi and spleen-qi, and adrenomedullin binding protein (precursor) was correlated with the deficiency of spleen-qi in discrimination of the patients with blood stagnation syndrome from phlegm accumulating with stagnation syndrome. As the potential biomarker proteins in discrimination of the patients with non-phlegm and non-stagnation syndrome from phlegm accumulating with stagnation syndrome, the fibrinogen beta chain was related with the deficiency of kidney-qi, and apolipoprotein AI (precursor) was correlated with both the deficiency of kidney-qi and heart-qi. CONCLUSION: There exists inherent correlation between the states of Zang-Fu organs and the plasma probable biomarker proteins in the patients with different phlegm or blood stagnation syndromes due to hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis.

[Construction and utilization of the prognostic model of serous ovarian adenocarcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the related factors with prognosis in patients with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma and to set up a prognostic model of serous ovarian adenocarcinoma. METHODS: The clinical, pathological and follow-up data of 104 cases with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma were retrospectively analyzed. Kaplan-meier univariate analysis was used to screen the prognostic factors; COX univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine the risk coefficient of each factors and different layers in each factor. Pearson rank correlation was used to reject the influence of different factors with each other. And the prognostic model of serous ovarian adenocarcinoma was set up based on the result of the above study, which could be used to deduce the survival probability of patients with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma. RESULTS: International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (P = 0.0029), histological grade (P = 0.0054), residual disease (P = 0.0000), metastasis of lymph nodes (P = 0.0000) and chemotherapy (P = 0.0000) were the related factors of prognosis in patients with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma, of which FIGO stage was the most important one, followed sequentially by histological grade, metastasis of lymph node, residual disease and chemotherapy (the independent risk coefficient of each factor was 1.3392, 0.9206, 0.7071, 0.6004, 0.4985 in sequence). We set up a prognosis model according to the prognostic index of each factors. The effect of chemotherapy and residual disease on prognosis could be quantified by this model, and the higher the score, the lower the survival probability of patients. CONCLUSIONS: FIGO stage, histological grade, residual disease, metastasis of lymph nodes and chemotherapy are important prognostic factors of serous ovarian adenocarcinoma. This model can be used to estimate the prognosis of patients with serous ovarian adenocarcinoma, and the effect of both chemotherapy and residual disease on the prognosis could be quantified by the model.

[Applying matching matrix, factor analysis and clustering analysis to investigation of characteristics of syndromes of phlegm and blood stasis in patients with coronary heart disease].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristics of syndromes of phlegm and blood stasis in patients with coronary heart disease by multiple statistical methods of matching matrix, factor analysis and clustering analysis, and to provide some references for classification and normalization of diagnosis of syndromes of phlegm and blood stasis of coronary heart disease. METHODS: The correlations among 46 kinds of symptoms in syndrome of non-phlegm and non-blood stasis, syndrome of blood stasis, syndrome of phlegm and syndrome of phlegm-blood stasis blocking in 200 patients with coronary heart disease were analyzed by matching matrix, factor analysis and clustering analysis. RESULTS: The manifestations of tongue and pulse in syndromes of phlegm and blood stasis were significantly different from those in syndrome of non-phlegm and non-blood stasis. The pathogenesis of viscera in syndromes of phlegm and blood stasis lied in the heart and kidney, and the syndrome of deficiency of heart qi was the most common one while the syndrome of deficiency of kidney qi took the secondary place. The syndrome of phlegm was often accompanied by syndrome of deficiency of spleen qi. Only 15 ones of 46 clinical symptoms showed high frequency in concomitant appearance in syndrome of blood stasis, syndrome of phlegm and syndrome of phlegm-blood stasis blocking. Apart from having the common symptoms in syndrome of deficiency in origin, the syndrome of phlegm especially showed white and greasy fur and slippery pulse as well as distention and fullness of chest and abdominal distension; the syndrome of blood stasis showed purplish tongue and ecchymosis on tongue as well as fixed pain; and the syndrome of phlegm-blood stasis blocking showed the main symptoms of both syndrome of phlegm and syndrome of blood stasis. CONCLUSION: The statistical methods of matching matrix, factor analysis and clustering analysis are convenient, and can definitely indicate the clinical characteristics and syndrome differentiation of viscera of different syndromes of phlegm and blood stasis, which are beneficial to further research of diagnosis and differentiation of such syndromes of coronary heart disease.