Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry
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Nutrition and coagulation play important roles in cancer progression. This study was aimed to investigate the value of the albumin/fibrinogen ratio (AFR) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, through a propensity score matching (PSM) method. ⋯ Pre-resection AFR can be considered as an independent prognostic factor in NSCLC patients, and higher AFR may enhance OS and DFS of NSCLC patients.
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Hydrops fetalis is a life-threatening fetal condition, and 85% of all cases are classified as nonimmune hydrops fetalis (NIHF). Up to 15% of NIHF cases may be due to inborn errors of metabolism (IEM), but a large proportion of cases linked to metabolic disorders remains undiagnosed. This lack of diagnosis may be related to the limitations of conventional biological procedures, which involve sequential investigations and require multiple samples and steps. In addition, this approach is time consuming. We have developed a next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel to investigate metabolic causes of NIHF, ascites, and polyhydramnios associated to another fetal abnormality. ⋯ NGS combined with robust bioinformatics analyses is a useful tool for identifying the causative variants of NIHF. Subsequent functional characterization of the protein encoded by the altered gene and morphological studies may confirm the diagnosis. This paradigm shift allows a significant improvement of IEM diagnosis in NIHF.
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Pentraxins are a group of highly conserved acute-phase reactant proteins and play crucial role as modulators of inflammatory processes. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is primarily produced and released by vascular cell wall, hence, we attempt to establish the role of PTX3 as a biomarker for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) compared to CRP. ⋯ PTX3 found to be sensitive non-invasive indicator of clinical arthritic activity in RA patients when compared to traditional markers like CRP. Combination of PTX3 and CRP could serve as better differential diagnostic markers for RA after validation in larger patient cohort.
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Muscular dystrophy is an inherited muscle disease, characterized by progressive muscle wasting and weakness of variable distribution and severity. ⋯ The data of presented study may be used as supporting information for existing methods of the diagnosis for patients with muscular dystrophy.
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Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) in china is a critical clinical syndrome with a high short-term mortality. This study aimed to construct and validate a model for neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR)-based nomogram for 3-month mortality estimation for patients with ACLF. ⋯ The proposed nomogram with NLR resulted in more accurate prognostic prediction for patients with HBV-related ACLF.