New logarithm-based discrimination formula for differentiating thalassemia trait from iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: Thalassemia trait (TT) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are the most common conditions of microcytic hypochromic anemia (MHA) in pregnant women. Accurate discrimination between TT and IDA is an important issue, and better methods are urgently needed. Although considerable RBC formulas and indices have been developed since 1973, distinguishing between IDA and TT is still a challenging problem due to the diversity of various anemic populations. To address this problem, we assessed the diagnostic function of 43 different differential formulas in patients with microcytic anemia by using accuracy measures and recommending a new log-based differential formula. METHODS: The data of 430 pregnant women (229 with TT and 201 with IDA) were enrolled, and 44 formula performances were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. RESULTS: The newly introduced logarithm-based formula XS-1 performs better than the general discriminant index with sensitivity and specificity of 82.10 and 89.05, which are better than other formulas. In the pregnant population, the Shine and Lal and Roth..SVM. formulas have shown excellent performance, while other formulas showed poorer discriminative abilities in our study than in the original authors. CONCLUSION: The logarithm-based formula XS-1 can be used to screen thalassemia and iron deficiency anemia during the first trimester. Considering the particularity of pregnancy, medical personnel in different regions should choose a screening formula similar to that of the local region and population when identifying thalassemia in pregnancy. Any formula should be independently verified locally before use. For the convenience of the health care team and experimental scientists, a web-based tool has been established at http://yyy.yiyiy.top/XS-1/ by which users can easily get their desired screening test result without going through the underlying mathematical and computational details.

Value of serum miR-196a-5p and miR-105-5p in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules / 国际肿瘤学杂志

Objective:To investigate the differences in the expression levels of miR-196a-5p and miR-105-5p in serum of patients with benign and malignant pulmonary nodules and their diagnostic value of malignant pulmonary nodules.Methods:The expression levels of miRNAs in cancer tissues of lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma and paracancerous tissues in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were analyzed, and the miRNAs with significantly different expression levels in cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues were selected as target miRNAs. A total of 72 patients with pulmonary nodules admitted to Weifang People′s Hospital of Shandong Province from June 2019 to July 2020 were selected. The expression levels of target miRNAs in serum of patients with pulmonary nodules were detected by qRT-PCR. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to compare the diagnostic value of target miRNAs with tumor markers Cyfra21-1, NSE and CEA in malignant pulmonary nodules.Results:After screening, the target miRNAs were identified as miR-196a-5p and miR-105-5p. Twenty-six patients in the benign pulmonary nodules group and 46 patients in the malignant pulmonary nodules group were included. The levels of serum miR-196a-5p [ M ( P25, P75)] in the benign and malignant nodules group were 0.63 (0.09, 2.15) and 1.93(0.93, 4.97) respectively, and the levels of miR-105-5p in the two groups were 2.03 (0.54, 7.95) and 10.65 (5.94, 18.39) respectively. Compared with the benign pulmonary nodules group, the levels of serum miR-196a-5p and miR-105-5p in the malignant pulmonary nodules group were increased, and there were statistically significant differences ( Z=-3.083, P=0.002; Z=-4.092, P<0.001). The levels of serum Cyfra21-1 in the benign and malignant pulmonary nodules group were 2.48 (1.84, 3.78) and 2.20 (1.47, 3.32) μg/L respectively, the levels of serum NSE in the two groups were 15.58 (12.45, 18.95) and 14.43 (12.07, 17.87) μg/L respectively, and the levels of serum CEA in the two groups were 1.16 (0.55, 2.11) and 1.17 (0.61, 1.68) μg/L respectively. There were no significant differences in serum Cyfra21-1, NSE and CEA between the benign and malignant pulmonary nodules group ( Z=-1.161, P=0.246; Z=-0.305, P=0.761; Z=-0.271, P=0.786). The area under the curve (AUC) of the combination of miR-196a-5p and miR-105-5p for the diagnosis of malignant pulmonary nodules was 0.762 (sensitivity 89.1%, specificity 61.5%), which was higher than the value of the combination of Cyfra21-1, NSE and CEA for the diagnosis of malignant pulmonary nodules (AUC=0.591, sensitivity 58.7%, specificity 64.5%). Conclusion:The combination of serum miR-196a-5p and miR-105-5p can assist in the diagnosis of malignant pulmonary nodules and has higher diagnostic value.

18F-FDG PET/CT imaging in temporal lobe epilepsy and extratemporal lobe epilepsy caused by focal cortical dysplasia / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

Objective:To analyze the differences in 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT imaging and preoperative localization between patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and extratemporal epilepsy (ETLE) caused by focal cortical dysplasia (FCD). Methods:From April 2015 to August 2018, a total of 71 patients (45 males, 26 females, age (24.3±9.1) years) with refractory epilepsy who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging before surgery and confirmed as FCD by pathology in Xuanwu Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into TLE and ETLE groups based on pathological results. 18F-FDG PET/CT images were analyzed qualitatively and compared with the operation result, then region of interest (ROI) was used to calculate the asymmetry index (AI), and evaluated the hypometabolism of every cerebral region by |AI| semi-quantitatively. Engle classification were followed-up after surgery. Independent-sample t test and χ2 test were used to analyze data. Results:Of 71 FCD patients, 35 were TLE and 36 were ETLE. The onset age of ETLE patients were younger than TLE patients ((10.1±6.5) vs (14.9±9.7) years; t=2.48, P=0.02). In TLE group, 54.29%(19/35) were completely consistent with the operation results, and 42.86%(15/35) showed hypometabolized brain regions in extratemporal lobe. In ETLE group, 27.78%(10/36) were completely consistent with the operation results, and 47.22%(17/36) showed hypometabolized brain regions in temporal lobe. There were significant differences in the lateral accuracy and positioning accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT between TLE and ETLE patients (97.14%(34/35) vs 75.00%(27/36), 54.29%(19/35) vs 27.78%(10/36); χ2 values: 7.19, 6.27, both P<0.05). There was no significant difference in |AI| values between the brain regions of TLE and ETLE patients ( z values: from -1.25 to -0.06, all P>0.05). Conclusion:The lateral accuracy and positioning accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in TLE patients are better than that in ETLE patients.

Low frequency-based non-uniform sampling strategy to improve Chinese recognition in cochlear implant / 生物医学工程学杂志

To enhance speech recognition, as well as Mandarin tone recognition in noice, we proposed a speech coding strategy called zero-crossing of fine structure in low frequency (LFFS) for cochlear implant based on low frequency non-uniform sampling (LFFS for short). In the range of frequency perceived boundary of human ear, we used zero-crossing time of the fine structure to generate the stimulus pulse sequences based on the frequency selection rule. Acoustic simulation results showed that although on quiet background the performance of LFFS was similar to continuous interleaved sampling (CIS), on the noise background the performance of LFFS in Chinese tones, words and sentences were significantly better than CIS. In addition to this, we also got better Mandarin recognition factors distribution by using the improved index distribution model. LFFS contains more tonal information which was able to effectively improve Mandarin recognition of the cochlear implant.

Influences of shRNA on survivin gene expression and sensitivity of A549 cells to paclitaxel / 中国药理学通报

Aim To construct the eukaryotic expression vectors of short hairpin RNA targeting survivin and observe its effect on biologic behavior of A549 cells and sensitivity of A549 cells to paclitaxel.Methods The DNA fragment targeting human survivin was inserted into the plasmid,and the recombinant plasmid was constructed.The recombinant plasmids cells were transfected into A549 cells by FuGENE transfection reagent.The expression levels of survivin gene were detected with RT-PCR and Western blot before and after transfection,respectively.Cell apoptosis was detected by TUNEL method.The sensitivity of A549 cells to paclitaxel was detected by MTT after transfection.Results The recombinant plasmid was successfully constructed.RNAi group cells showed lower expression of survivin than control group.The apoptosis rate of A549 cells increased after transfection.The IC50 of paclitaxel inhibiting A549 cells was 11.9 fold before transfection compared with those after transfection.There was significant difference between the two groups(P