Diagnostic accuracy of a three-protein signature in women with suspicious breast lesions: a multicenter prospective trial

Background Mammography screening has been proven to detect breast cancer at an early stage and reduce mortality; however, it has low accuracy in young women or women with dense breasts. Blood-based diagnostic tools may overcome the limitations of mammography. This study assessed the diagnostic performance of a three-protein signature in patients with suspicious breast lesions. Findings This trial (MAST; KCT0004847) was a prospective multicenter observational trial. Three-protein signature values were obtained using serum and plasma from women with suspicious lesions for breast malignancy before tumor biopsy. Additionally, blood samples from women who underwent clear or benign mammography were collected for the assays. Among 642 participants, the sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy values of the three-protein signature were 74.4%, 66.9%, and 70.6%, respectively, and the concordance index was 0.698 (95% CI 0.656, 0.739). The diagnostic performance was not affected by the demographic features, clinicopathologic characteristics, and co-morbidities of the participants. Conclusions The present trial showed an accuracy of 70.6% for the three-protein signature. Considering the value of blood-based biomarkers for the early detection of breast malignancies, further evaluation of this proteomic assay is warranted in larger, population-level trials. This Multi-protein Assessment using Serum to deTermine breast lesion malignancy (MAST) was registered at the Clinical Research Information Service of Korea with the identification number of KCT0004847 (https://cris.nih.go.kr).This study was supported by the Bertis Inc. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Behavior of steel fiber-reinforced cementitious composites under direct tension and flexure

The purpose of present study is to investigate effects of the properties and volume fraction of steel fibers on the mechanical behaviors of cementitious composites, subjected to compression, direct tension, and flexure. Hooked and straight steel fibers were blended with different volume ratios. Various mix designs were prepared and tested in two steps. In the 1st step, three mix designs with two types of steel fibers were prepared with two different fiber volume fractions of 1.0% and 1.5%, respectively. Mechanical tests were conducted to evaluate the modulus of elasticity, compressive stress-strain, direct tensile stress-strain, and flexural tensile stress-deflection responses

Effect of using polymer on the properties of concrete with recycled ballast aggregate

The bond strength between ballast aggregates and mortar is a critical factor to achieving the required performance in rapid-hardening track technology. To enhance this strength, the use of polymer is suggested in several studies. In this study, the effect on the properties of preplaced concrete using polymer is evaluated. For this purpose, polymer in different quantities is used to find out the optimal polymer content in concrete with different dry-washing levels of ballast aggregate. Moreover, compressive strength and flexural tests, and freezing-thawing tests are conducted to measure the effect of these variables on the properties of concrete

Strength and toughness of hybrid steel and glass fiber-reinforced sulfur polymer composites

In this study, we investigated the effects of microfibers on the compressive and flexural behaviors of modified sulfur composites. Dicyclopentadiene-modified sulfur was used as the binder in the sulfur composites. Fifteen mix cases were tested by varying the volumetric ratios of steel and electric chemical resistant glass fibers. Fly ash (35% by volume) was included to not only increase strength and workability, but also ensure fiber dispersibility in the matrix. A non-contact displacement measurement technique, digital image correlation, was used in flexure tests to monitor the development of high strain zones and microcracks. The effect of fiber dosage on the porosity of sulfur composites was analyzed by quantifying the pore volume and size distribution through mercury intrusion porosimetry. The test results confirmed that the hybrid use of steel and glass fibers with a volume ratio of up to 4% was effective in improving the flexural stress-deflection response. The post-peak toughness ratio in flexure increased as the volume of microfibers increased. In addition, the total volume of hybrid microfibers generally had a positive correlation with the flexural strength. In contrast, the compressive strength of hybrid fiber-reinforced sulfur composites was more dependent on the portion of steel fibers than glass fibers