ObjectiveTo explore value of preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) combined with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) in evaluating prognosis for patients with pancreatic head carcinoma.MethodsThe clinical data of patients with pancreatic head carcinoma underwent radical pancreaticoduodenectomy in the Lanzhou University Second Hospital from February 2011 to August 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. The preoperative serum albumin (ALB), CA19-9, NLR, carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), N stage, tumor differentiated degree, and other indicators were recorded and the patient’s overall survival was recorded. Linear correlation analysis was used to examine the association of NLR with serum CA19-9. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to calculate the cutoff values of NLR and CA19-9 corresponding to the overall survival rate of 2-year. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative CA19-9 and NLR.Results① A total of 121 patients were enrolled in this study. There was no significant correlation between the preoperative serum CA19-9 and NLR (r=0.100 05, P=0.272 9). ② Multivariate analysis showed that higher NLR, higher CA19-9 level, higher N stage, and lower tumor differentiation were the risk factors for overall survival of pancreatic head carcinoma (P<0.05). ③ The cutoff values of CA19-9 and NLR in evaluating the 2-year overall survival rate were 123.3 U/mL and 2.34 respectively by the ROC curve analysis, the area under ROC curve of CA19-9, NLR, and CA19-9 combined with NLR were 0.763, 0.686, and 0.823, respectively. ④ The proportions of patients with CEA≥5 μg/L and ≥N1 stage were higher in the patients with CA19-9≥123.3 U/mL as compared with patients with CA19-9<123.3 U/mL (P<0.05); The proportions of patients with preoperative serum ALB level <35 g/L and CEA≥5 μg/L, ≥N1 stage, and poor differentiation were higher in the patients with NLR≥2.34 as compared with the patients with NLR<2.34 (P<0.05). ⑤ Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with CA19-9≥123.3 U/mL and NLR≥2.34 had worse overall survival than those patients with CA19-9<123.3 U/mL and NLR<2.34 (HR=3.599, P<0.01; HR=2.506, P<0.01). The patients with CA19-9≥123.3 U/mL and NLR≥2.34 (n=42), CA19-9≥123.3 U/mL or NLR≥2.34 (n=48), CA19-9<123.3 U/mL and NLR<2.34 (n=31) had better overall survival in turn (overall and between groups, all P<0.01).ConclusionPreoperative serum CA19-9 combined with NLR has an important value in evaluating prognosis for patients with pancreatic head carcinoma.
ObjectiveTo investigate the application progress of peripheral blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in various treatment methods of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC), aiming to fully understand the value of NLR and PLR in various treatments of HCC.MethodRetrieved and reviewed domestic and foreign literatures related to peripheral blood NLR and PLR and HCC in recent years.ResultsThe treatment of HCC mainly included liver resection, liver transplantation, transarterial chemoembolization, radiofrequency ablation, and sorafenib. Peripheral blood NLR and PLR were related to the survival of HCC patients after treatment. High NLR and PLR often indicated poor prognosis for HCC patients.ConclusionNLR and PLR play a certain role in various treatment methods of HCC, and have a certain value in judging tumor prognosis, recurrence, and metastasis.
Objective To investigate the clinical value of peripheral serum cell-free DNA/neutrophil extracellular traps (cf-DNA/NETs) level in diagnosis and severity assessment of sepsis patients. Methods Forty patients with sepsis and 40 patients with non-infectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (nf-SIRS) were enrolled in this study. The cf-DNA/NETs level in serum of all subjects were measured. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic ability of the cf-DNA/NETs, white blood cell count (WBC), procalcitonin (PCT) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). The sepsis patients were stratified into a survival group and a death group according to the prognosis. Sequential organ failure (SOFA) score were recorded in the sepsis patients, and the correlations between SOFA and cf-DNA/NETs, PCT, WBC, IL-6 were analyzed. Results Compared with the nf-SIRS group, cf-DNA/NETs and PCT levels were significantly higher in the sepsis group (both P<0.05). WBC and IL-6 showed no significant differences between the two groups (bothP>0.05). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of cf-DNA/NETs was 0.884 for diagnosis of sepsis, and it was higher than the AUC of PCT (0.803). The cf-DNA/NETs showed better sensitivity (81.2% and 79.2%) and specificity (81.0% and 82.4%) than PCT. cf-DNA/NETs and PCT were significantly higher in the death group than those in the survival group. Bivariate collection analysis revealed positive correlations between SOFA score and the two biomarkers of cf-DNA/NETs and PCT (r1=0.573, r2=0.518; both P<0.01). Conclusions cf-DNA/NETs and PCT have certain value in early diagnosis of sepsis, and cf-DNA/NETs shows better diagnostic value in distinguishing sepsis from nf-SIRS than PCT. cf-DNA/NETs can be used as a routine monitoring index to help assess disease severity in sepsis.
ObjectiveTo investigate the predictive value of preoperative D-dimer, CA19-9, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. MethodsThe clinicopathologic data of patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic occupying lesions in the First and Fifth Affiliated Hospitals of Xinjiang Medical University from January 2016 to December 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. According to the pathological characteristics, the patients were divided into pancreatic cancer and pancreatic benign tumour. The gender, age, accompanying diseases, preoperative D-dimer, CA19-9, lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, NLR and so on were compared between them. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of preoperative D-dimer, CA19-9, and NLR for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer were draw. ResultsA total of 142 patients were collected, including 79 patients with pancreatic cancer and 63 patients with pancreatic benign tumour. Compared with the patients with pancreatic benign tumour, the age was older (P<0.05), the number of neutrophils was more (P<0.05), the number of lymphocytes was less (P<0.05), the preoperative levels of CA19-9 and D-dimer, and the preoperative NLR were higher (P<0.05) for the patients with pancreatic cancer. The multivariate analysis of logistic regression revealed that the preoperative higer CA19-9, D-dimer, and NLR increased the incidence of pancreatic cancer (P<0.05), then the optimal cut-off value of preoperative levels of CA19-9 and D-dimer, and preoperative NLR on diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was 108 U/mL, 306 μg/L and 3.2, respectively, the corresponding area under ROC curve was 0.900, 0.891, 0.768, respectively, and which of combination of preoperative CA19-9, D-dimer, and NLR was 0.931. For the pancreatic cancer patients with preoperative NLR, CA19-9, and D-dimer higher than the optimal cut-off value, the proportions of patients with pTNM stage Ⅲ and lymph node metastasis were higher than those for pancreatic cancer patients with below than optimal cut-off value (P<0.05). ConclusionFrom preliminary study results, preoperative CA19-9, D-dimer, and NLR values have certain values in diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and diagnostic value of combined detection of 3 indexes is higher than single index.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the most common cause of acute respiratory failure. Extensive researches have been conducted for the pathophysiology of this disease, but the mortality rate remains high. Previous studies have found that catecholamines play an important role in acute lung injury, and newly discover prompted that upregulation of phagocyte-derived catecholamines augmented the acute inflammatory response in acute lung injury which provides a new way of thinking. In the current review, we describe the mechanism of the phagocyte-derived catecholamines augmenting the acute lung injury.
ObjectiveTo study the effect of tumor associated neutrophil (TAN) releasing a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) on the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells in microenvironment.Methods① The expressions of APRIL in neutrophils (differentiated by HL-60 cell) and TAN cells were detected by use ELISA. ② The expressions of APRIL receptors B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) and trans-membrane activator and CAML interactor (TACI) in pancreatic cancer cell line PANC-1 were confirmed by use Western blotting. ③ Pancreatic cancer PANC-1 cells were co-cultured with TAN, and divided into a PANC-1 control group (referred to as the control group), a PANC-1+TAN treatment group (referred to as the PANC-1+TAN group), PANC-1+TAN+APRIL antibody treatment group (referred to as PANC-1+TAN+APRIL group), and PANC-1+rtificial recombinant APRIL protein (rAPRIL) treatment group (referred to as PANC-1+rAPRIL group). The CCK8 method was used to determine TAN release of APRIL on PANC-1 effect of cell proliferation activity.Results① The APRIL content in the culture medium of TAN cell group was higher than that of neutrophil group [(556.20±84.38) pg/mL vs. (377.17±57.07) pg/mL, P=0.038]. ② PANC-1 cells express the receptors BCMA and TACI of APRIL. ③ PANC-1 cell activity of PANC-1+TAN group and PANC-1+rAPRIL group [(126.80±1.42)%, (168.95±12.54)%] were significantly higher than the control group [(100 ± 0.00)%, P<0.05, P<0.001], the activity of PANC-1 cells in the PANC-1+TAN group was significantly higher than that in the PANC-1+TAN+APRIL group [(86.29 ± 12.20)%, P=0.003] and significantly lower than that of PANC-1+rAPRIL group (P=0.002), the activity of PANC-1 cells in PANC-1+rAPRIL group was significantly higher than that in PANC-1+TAN+APRIL antibody group (P<0.001).ConclusionIn the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer, the release of APRIL from TAN increases, which promotes the proliferative activity of PANC-1 in pancreatic cancer cells, which provides a new idea for the mechanism research and treatment of pancreatic cancer progression.
ObjectiveTo analyze dynamic characteristics of peripheral blood cells in patients with different types of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), so as to investigate the predictive value of peripheral blood cells and their dynamic changes for clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19.MethodsForty-eight patients with COVID-19 were collected and analyzed from East Hospital of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from February 2 to March 15, 2020. These patients were divided into general group (group A, 17 cases), severe survival group (group B, 21 cases), and severe death group (group C, 10 cases). Blood routine examination was done and analyzed before and after admission and among the three groups. The changes of neutrophils and lymphocytes were compared. The predictive power of neutrophils, lymphocytes, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for clinical outcomes was analyzed through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.ResultsIn group B, the lymphocyte count at discharge was significantly higher than at admission (P=0.002), and the neutrophil count, NLR and PLR were significantly lower than at admission (P values were 0.012, 0.001 and 0.007, respectively). The lymphocyte counts in the A, B, and C groups were ranked from high to low upon admission, and the differences among the three groups were statistically significant (P values were 0.020, <0.001 and 0.006 for the contrasts between groups A and B, groups A and C, groups B and C, respectively), the NLR were ranked from low to high, and the differences among the three groups were statistically significant (P values were 0.001, <0.001 and 0.026 for the contrasts between groups A and B, groups A and C, groups B and C, respectively). Before discharge or death, there was no significant difference in lymphocyte counts and NLR between A and B groups (P>0.05), and there were statistically significant differences between group C and groups A and B (all P values were<0.001). The proportions of “Neutrophils Lymphocytes Convergence” in groups A and B were 64.7% and 76.2%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in group C (10.0%). The proportions of “Neutrophils Lymphocytes Separation” in group C was 70.0%, which was significantly higher than those in groups A (0) and B (4.8%). The area under the curve of NLR predicting patients with severe disease (excluding death) was 0.843, with the sensitivity and specificity of ≥3.55 be 0.810 and 0.882; The area under the curve of lymphocyte count predicting death in severe patients was 0.845, with the sensitivity and specificity be 0.700 and 0.905, respectively.ConclusionsDynamic changes in the composition of peripheral blood cells are one of the clinical features of COVID-19, “Neutrophils Lymphocytes Convergence” and “Neutrophils Lymphocytes Separation” predict better and worse clinical outcomes, respectively. NLR and lymphocyte counts are effective indicators for predicting the severity and death of COVID-19.
In recent years, with the improvement and popularization of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) detection technology, more and more patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) have been tested positive for serum ANCA. The clinical value of ANCA is still unclear, and there is a lack of consensus on diagnosis and treatment strategies. This article reviews the clinical and pathological characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment features of IgAN patients with serum ANCA positivity through literature reading and analysis, aiming to provide a reference for standardized diagnosis and individualized management of this type of patient.