Ratio of hemoglobin to mean corpuscular volume: A new index for discriminating between iron deficiency anemia and thalassemia trait.

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and thalassemia trait (TT) are the most common microcytic and hypochromic anemias. Differentiation between mild TT and early IDA is still a clinical challenge. AIM: To develop and validate a new index for discriminating between IDA and TT. METHODS: Blood count data from 126 patients, consisting of 43 TT patients and 83 IDA patients, was retrospectively analyzed to develop a new index formula. This formula was further validated in another 61 patients, consisting of 48 TT patients and 13 IDA patients. RESULTS: The new index is the ratio of hemoglobin to mean corpuscular volume. Its sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, Youden's Index, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and Kappa coefficient in discriminating between IDA and TT were 93.5%, 78.4%, 83.3%, 0.72, 0.97, and 0.65, respectively. CONCLUSION: This new index has good diagnostic performance in discriminating between mild TT and early IDA. It requires only two results of complete blood count, which can be a very desirable feature in under-resourced scenarios.

The novel HLA-DPB1*02:02:07 allele identified by Sanger dideoxy nucleotide sequencing in a Chinese individual.

HLA-DPB1*02:02:07 differs from HLA-DPB1*02:02:01:01 by one nucleotide in exon 2.

[Silence potentiates chemosensitivity of K562 cells to SAHA].

Ribosomal protein S27a (RPS27a) can perform extra-ribosomal functions besides imparting a role in ribosome biogenesis and post-translational modifications of proteins. The RPS27a gene has been reported to be over-expressed in breast fibroadenomas, colorectal and renal cancers, advanced-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and acute leukemia (AL) patients. This study was purposed to explore the function of RPS27a in CML-erythroleukemia cell line K562 cells. RPS27a was silenced by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) in K562 cells. Furthermore, the proliferation changes of K562 cells was detected by MTT method after silencing the RPS27a with suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), then the IC50 of K562-sh1/sh2 and K562-scr cells to SAHA was measured. The results indicated that compared with K562-scr cells, the IC50 of K562-sh1/sh2 to SAHA at 24 h and 48 h decreased (P < 0.01); RPS27a silence significantly increased the percentage of apoptotic K562-sh1/sh2 cells after incubation with 1 µmol/L, 2 µmol/L and 5 µmol/L SAHA for 24 h and 48 h as compared with that of K562-scr cells (P < 0.01). K562-sh1, K562-sh2 and K562-scr cells after incubation with or without 2 µmol/L SAHA for 48 h presented apoptosis features: i. e. chromatin condensation, nucleic fragmentation and apoptotic body formation. It is concluded that RPS27a can inhibit the apoptosis of K562 cells and RPS27a silence can potentiate sensitivity of K562 cells to SAHA.

[The immunocyte subsets and their clinical significance in the peripheral blood of 35 patients with immune thrombocytopenic purpura].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical significance of immunocyte subsets before and after immunosuppressive therapy in the peripheral blood of patients with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). METHODS: The percentages of immunocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of 35 patients with ITP and 20 healthy controls were detected by flow cytometry, including CD(3)(+), CD(4)(+), CD(8)(+), CD(+)(56), CD(19)(+) lymphocytes and CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+). RESULTS: The percentages of CD(3)(+) T lymphocyte (61.58 ± 6.45)%, CD(4)(+) T lymphocyte (28.38 ± 4.89)% and the ratio of CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+) 0.99 ± 0.22 in patients with ITP were lower than those in healthy controls [(67.85 ± 4.68)%, (38.00 ± 3.37)%, 1.54 ± 0.13, all P < 0.05]. After immunosuppressive therapy, the percentages of CD(3)(+)T lymphocyte (69.41 ± 5.03)%, CD(4)(+)T lymphocyte (38.17 ± 3.18)% and the ratio of CD(4)(+)/CD(8)(+) 1.60 ± 0.15 recovered to control levels. The percentages of CD(8)(+)T lymphocyte (29.20 ± 4.50)% and CD(19)(+)B lymphocyte (17.74 ± 4.14)% were higher than those in healthy controls [(24.82 ± 2.93)% and (12.09 ± 3.51)%, all P < 0.05]. After the immunosuppressive therapy, the percentages of CD(8)(+)T lymphocyte (24.06 ± 3.02)% and CD(19)(+)B lymphocyte (10.90 ± 3.55)% recovered to control levels. There were no significant difference of the percentage of CD(56)(+) lymphocyte among ITP patients (15.80 ± 2.85)%, ITP patients after immunosuppressive therapy (15.16 ± 2.77)% and healthy controls (16.36 ± 2.75)%. CONCLUSION: The aberrant immunocyte subsets are involved in the pathogenesis of ITP, and detection of immunocyte subsets might be helpful for the diagnosis and determination of therapeutic outcome of ITP.