Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science

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Following the discovery that caloric restriction extends the lifespan of many species of animals, the free radical theory of aging attributes the occurrence of oxidized nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids to reactive oxygen radical species originating from the metabolism of foods and the diminished efficacy of oxidative metabolism. Because of the decline of many critical neuro-hormones in aging, the neuroendocrine theory of aging attributes these changes to reduced feedback control of hormone production by the hypothalamus...

Pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is in the differential diagnosis for children presenting with chronic diarrhea. During evaluation, stool studies are typically obtained to evaluate for an infectious source, and stool culture has been the conventional testing modality for bacterial pathogens. Recently, there has been increased utilization of molecular testing for enteric pathogens, including multiplex PCR. While these tests are highly sensitive for the detection of diverse pathogens, the clinical significance of positive results may not always be clear...

We describe a case of bone marrow necrosis (BMN) with subsequent fat embolism precipitated by high altitudes in a young healthy man with previously undiagnosed sickle cell-beta thalassemia. This case report adds to the growing literature on the complexity of diagnosing bone marrow necrosis given that the clinical and laboratory features mimic thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. This BMN with fat embolism syndrome (FES) is novel in that it was precipitated by high altitudes and the patient was treated successfully with a series of therapeutic plasma exchanges and red blood cell transfusions alone, without any adverse long-term complications to the patient...

Recent molecular genetic studies have revealed that Schimmelpenning-Feuerstein-Mims syndrome (SFMS), which presents as sebaceous nevi, is a mosaic RASopathy caused by postzygotic somatic activating mutations in HRAS , NRAS , or KRAS Some patients with SFMS also have hypophosphatemic rickets, called cutaneous skeletal hypophosphatemia syndrome (CSHS). We here report a pediatric case of biopsy-proven CSHS with mosaic mutation in the HRAS gene. A girl who showed extensive nevus sebaceous since birth had suffered progressive lower extremity deformity since the age of 5 years...

Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is a highly malignant tumor in the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses. Morphoproteomics has defined its biology to some degree, allowing the identification of targeted therapeutic options with clinical efficacy [1]. This study's objective was to identify putative SNUC pathways that are known to pose a block in differentiation both in early embryogenesis and in tumorigenesis or that might promote metastasis and recurrent disease. DESIGN: Morphoproteomic analysis of SNUC from a case study of this patient included immunohistochemical probes to detect c-Myc, EZH2, Sirt1 and CXCR4 protein analytes...

Helicobacter pylori is responsible for gastric inflammation and for an increased risk of cancer development in humans. Several bacterial antigens contribute to stimulate the immune system, but their relative role has not yet been defined. H. pylori (strain CCUG) type II L-asparaginase (L-ASNase) induces an immune response in mice. To verify if an immune response could also be detected in humans, sera positive (n=11) or negative (n=11), respectively, to H. pylori according to a commercial test were assayed for their reactivity towards purified H...

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the analytical and practical performance of MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of clinical uncommon or difficult-to-identify bacteria. A total of 180 clinical isolates collected from January 2014 to December 2016, were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and Vitek2 Compact using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis as the gold method. For MALDI-TOF MS, 152(84.4%) isolates were correctly identified to the species level, 23(12.8%) isolates were identified to the genus level only, 3(1...

BACKGROUND: Mean platelet volume (MPV) is an inexpensive, routinely measured clinical parameter, and its elevation shows an increase in the size and activity of platelets. It has been shown that MPV can be used as a prognostic biomarker in certain chronic diseases. In the present study, MPV in patients with hepatitis B virus-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi) was investigated to evaluate whether MPV may have utility as a new predictive marker for mortality in HBV-DeCi patients...

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the effects of preoperative autologous blood donation (PABD) using apheresis in patients who underwent elective surgical procedures, and investigate its clinical usefulness. METHODS: Data from 109 patients who underwent general and orthopedics elective surgery were analyzed in this study. Patients were divided into three groups: control group, patients who did not donate autologous blood; whole blood (WB) PABD group, patients who underwent preoperative autologous WB donation; autologous apheresis group, patients who donated autologous blood using erythrocytapheresis...

Urinary N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) is an early marker for kidney injury. To explore the utility of urinary NAG in assessing kidney damage associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS), we investigated associations between urinary NAG levels and MetS factors. The study included 95 healthy controls, 51 hypertension (HTN) outpatients, 96 with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), and 80 with comorbidity of HTN and DM. We measured the NAG/creatinine (Cr), albumin/Cr, and protein/Cr ratios in urine, and collected data for MetS factors from the medical records...

OBJECTIVES: Our medical center laboratory receives frozen clinical chemistry samples from outlying hospitals for which assays for critical enzyme activities are requested. Our objective is to determine the effects of freezing (-20°C) on these enzyme activities in samples over a one month period. METHODS: Enzyme activities for ALP, AST, ALT, CK and LD for 30 patient's sera were stored at-20°C and were assayed on a Beckman-Coulter AU5800 analyzer at 0, 15 and 30 days after collection...

Biotin at elevated concentration interferes with immunoassays that utilize biotin in assay design. We earlier reported interference of biotin in the luminescent oxygen channeling assay (LOCI) digoxin assay which utilizes biotinylated antibody against digoxin. However, the ADVIA Centaur digoxin assay, also manufactured by Siemens Diagnostics, does not utilize biotin in assay design. We hypothesized that if the LOCI and the ADVIA Centaur digoxin assay are harmonized, then interference of biotin in the LOCI digoxin assay could be eliminated by using the ADVIA Centaur digoxin assay...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the role of potential factors explaining variability of serum uric acid (SUA) levels in patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) not receiving xanthine oxidase inhibitors and acetylsalicylic acid, with multivariate adaptive regression splines and fuzzy c -regression models. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between 1998 and 2010, we prospectively enrolled 294 patients (44 females, 250 males; mean age 43...

BACKGROUND: To reveal the status of TLR7 and TLR9 SNPs among children and identify correlations between TLR7/TLR9 and asthma susceptibility and phenotypes. METHOD: Genomes were isolated from the blood samples of 100 asthmatic and 104 healthy children. To determine the status of TLR7 (rsl79009 and rs5935436) and TLR9 (rsl87084 and rs5743836) SNPs, DNA was amplified by PCR and subjected to Sanger sequencing. T and C polymorphisms at nucleotide position -1486 (TLR9 rsl87084) was discovered in both groups...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to explore the role of catechin on the expression of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27), nuclear factor-kappa beta (NF-κB) and inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic retinopathy (DR) rats. METHODS: A total of 150 rats were selected and randomly assigned to five groups: control group, STZ group, and three groups with different concentrations of catechin (low, middle and high concentrations)...

BACKGROUND: Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism analysis could help in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of some pathologies, since it has been associated with the development of cardiovascular diseases, defects in neural tube formation, psychiatric disorders, and cancer. Polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) is the most commonly used technique to analyze this polymorphism. Usually, RFLP products are evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE) or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE)...

Despite the molecular mechanisms of meningioma having been elucidated, the curative effects of current treatments for invasive and malignant meningiomas have been unsatisfactory. Our previous study found that HER2 protein was overexpressed in human meningiomas. However, only a few studies regarding the correlation between meningiomas and HER2 have been reported. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of silencing the Her2 gene on the proliferation and angiogenesis of human malignant meningioma cells...

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death due to malignant tumors in female reproductive organs. However, the lack of understanding regarding its pathogenesis brings difficulties to study it. In this study, we analyze the differently expressed genes in both GSE54388 (ovarian cancer vs. normal ovarian tissues) and GSE51373 (chemotherapy-resistant vs. chemotherapy-sensitive tissues). By intersecting the differently expressed genes, 79 genes were identified. Then, further function enrichment analysis, including GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway analysis, was performed...

A major problem in neuroendocrine pathology is the identification and separation of aggressive low-grade neuroendocrine tumors (LGNETs) from those with a benign or more indolent behavior. Presently there are no known morphologic or molecular parameters which can predict how localized LGNETs will behave. The phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) gene negatively regulates the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway and inhibits neoplastic cell survival and proliferation and has recently been identified as a neuroendocrine tumor differentiation marker...