The prognostic impact of preoperative blood monocyte count in pathological T3N0M0 rectal cancer without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

It remains controversial whether adjuvant therapy should be delivered to pathological T3N0M0 rectal cancer without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Thus identification of patients at high risk is of particular importance. Herein, we aimed to evaluate whether the absolute peripheral blood monocyte count can stratify the pathological T3N0M0M0 rectal cancer patients in survival. A total of 270 pathological T3N0M0 rectal cancer patients with total mesorectal excision-principle radical resection were included. The optimal cut-off value of preoperative monocyte count was determined by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Overall survival and disease-free survival between low- and high-monocyte were estimated by Kaplan–Meier method and Cox regression model. The optimal cut-off value for monocyte count was 595 mm(3). In univariate analysis, patients with monocyte counts higher than 595/mm(3) had significantly inferior 5-year overall survival (79.2 vs 94.2 %, P = 0.006) and disease-free survival (67.8 vs 86.0 %, P < 0.001). With adjustment for the known covariates, monocyte count remained to be associated with poor overall survival (HR = 2.55, 95 % CI 1.27–5.10; P = 0.008) and disease-free survival (HR = 2.63, 95 % CI 1.48–4.69; P = 0.001). Additionally, the significant association of monocyte count with disease-free survival was hardly influenced in the subgroup analysis, whereas this correlation was restricted to the males and patients with normal carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level (<5 μg/L), tumor grade II, and with adjuvant therapy. High preoperative monocyte count is independently predictive of worse survival of pathological T3N0M0 rectal cancer patients without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Postoperative adjuvant therapy might be considered for patients with high-monocyte count

A simulation study on the measurement of D0-D0bar mixing parameter y at BES-III

We established a method on measuring the \dzdzb mixing parameter $y$ for BESIII experiment at the BEPCII $e^+e^-$ collider. In this method, the doubly tagged $\psi(3770) \to D^0 \overline{D^0}$ events, with one $D$ decays to CP-eigenstates and the other $D$ decays semileptonically, are used to reconstruct the signals. Since this analysis requires good $e/\pi$ separation, a likelihood approach, which combines the $dE/dx$, time of flight and the electromagnetic shower detectors information, is used for particle identification. We estimate the sensitivity of the measurement of $y$ to be 0.007 based on a $20fb^{-1}$ fully simulated MC sample.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

No Weight Catch-Up Growth of SGA Infants Is Associated with Impaired Insulin Sensitivity during the Early Postnatal Period

Objective. To investigate the relationship between weight catch-up growth and insulin sensitivity in small for gestational age (SGA) infants. Methods. Forty-four singleton SGA subjects met the inclusion criteria and finished-3-month followup. Body weight, length, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin (FI) levels were measured at 3 days and 3 months. Insulin sensitivity was evaluated by FI and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA). Results. According to the change of weight Z-score, forty-four subjects were divided into two groups: noncatch-up growth (NCUG) and catch-up growth (CUG). By 3 months of age, the body weight, body length and BMI of NCUG group were significantly lower than those of CUG group. The FI and HOMA were significantly higher in NCUG group. The change of weight Z-score during 3 months was inversely related to the HOMA at 3 months. Conclusion. Our data exemplified that no weight catch-up growth during the first 3 months was associated with impaired insulin sensitivity in SGA infants

Prediction of cancer progression in a group of 73 gastric cancer patients by circulating cell-free DNA

BACKGROUND: Circulating cell-free DNA (ccf-DNA) in plasma may contain both specific and non-specific of tumor markers. The concentration and integrity of ccf-DNA may be clinical useful for detecting and predicting cancer progression. METHODS: Plasma samples from 40 healthy controls and 73 patients with gastric cancers (two stage 0, 17 stage I, 11 stage II, 33 stage III, and 10 stage IV according to American Joint Committee on Cancer stage) were assessed respectively. qPCR targeting the Alu repeats was performed using two different sets of primers amplifying the long and short segments. DNA integrity was calculated as a ratio of the long to the short fragments of Alu repeats. RESULTS: Plasma DNA concentration was significantly higher in patients with stage III and IV gastric cancers than in healthy controls (p = 0.028 and 0.029 respectively). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for discriminating patients with stage III and IV gastric cancers from healthy controls had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.744 (95% CI, 0.64 to 0.85). Circulating cell-free DNA concentration increased within 21 days following surgery and dropped by 3 months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Concentration of ccf-DNA is a promising molecular marker for assessing gastric cancer progression. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ChiCTR-DDT-12002848, 8 October 2012. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-016-2977-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Progesterone elevation on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration adversely affects the outcome of IVF with transferred embryos at different developmental stages

BACKGROUND: The effect of progesterone elevation (PE) on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration on the pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) cycles is a matter of ongoing debate. The replacement of cleavage-stage embryos with blastocyst-stage embryos for transfer was proposed to avoid the possible impairment of PE in fresh cycles. This study aimed to assess the association between PE on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration and clinical pregnancy rates (CPRs) in IVF/ICSI cycles with embryos transferred at different developmental stages (cleavage and blastocyst). Moreover, a secondary aim was to determine the thresholds at which PE has a detrimental effect on CPRs. METHODS: This single-center retrospective cohort study included more than 10,000 patients undergoing day 3 cleavage-stage embryo transfer (ET) and 1146 patients undergoing day 5 blastocyst-stage embryo transfer (ET) using gonadotropin and GnRH agonist for controlled ovarian stimulation. RESULTS: Serum PE was inversely associated with CPRs in both cleavage- and blastocyst-stage ET cycles. In the day 3 ET cycles, CPRs (progesterone levels < 0.5 ng/ml, 49.2 %) significantly declined when the progesterone concentration reached 1.0 ng/ml (45.5 %) and decreased further when the progesterone concentration increased to 1.5 ng/ml (36.2 %). In the day 5 blastocyst-stage ET cycles, patients with serum progesterone levels ≥1.75 ng/ml had significantly lower CPRs (31.3 % VS. 41.4 %, p < 0.001) compared to patients with serum progesterone levels <1.75 ng/ml. The negative association of PE with CPRs was noted in both ET groups, even after adjusting for confounders. Furthermore, the developmental stage of the transferred embryos was not linked to the effect of PE on CPRs because the interaction between the developmental stage of the transferred embryos and PE was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: PE on the day of hCG administration is associated with decreased CPRs in GnRH agonist IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles regardless of the developmental stage of the transferred embryos (cleavage versus blastocyst stage)

Synthesis of monodisperse Iron oxide nanoparticles without surfactants

Monodisperse iron oxide nanoparticles could be successfully synthesized with two kinds of precipitants through a precipitation method. As-prepared nanoparticles in the size around 10 nm with regular spherical-like shape were achieved by adjusting pH values. NaOH and NH 3 ⋅H 2 O were used as two precipitants for comparison. The average size of nanoparticles with NH 3 ⋅H 2 O precipitant got smaller and represented better dispersibility, while nanoparticles with NaOH precipitant represented better magnetic property. This work provided a simple method without using any organic solvents, organic metal salts, or surfactants which could easily obtain monodisperse nanoparticles with tunable morphology

Increased brain iron in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy: a whole-brain analysis

BackgroundTo investigate the whole-brain iron deposition alternations in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).MethodsForty-eight patients with TAO and 33 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. All participants underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging scans and clinical scale assessments. QSM values were calculated and compared between TAO and HCs groups using a voxel-based analysis. A support vector machine (SVM) analysis was performed to evaluate the performance of QSM values in differentiating patients with TAO from HCs.ResultsCompared with HCs, patients with TAO showed significantly increased QSM values in the bilateral caudate nucleus (CN), left thalamus (TH), left cuneus, left precuneus, right insula and right middle frontal gyrus. In TAO group, QSM values in left TH were positively correlated with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores (r = 0.414, p = 0.005). The QSM values in right CN were negatively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores (r = -0.342, p = 0.021). Besides that, a nearly negative correlation was found between QSM values in left CN and MoCA scores (r = -0.286, p = 0.057). The SVM model showed a good performance in distinguishing patients with TAO from the HCs (area under the curve, 0.958; average accuracy, 90.1%).ConclusionPatients with TAO had significantly increased iron deposition in brain regions corresponding to known visual, emotional and cognitive deficits. QSM values could serve as potential neuroimaging markers of TAO