Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science

The indoleamine hormone melatonin is synthesized by the pineal gland, controls circadian rhythm, and is dependent upon adenosyl methionine for enzymatic synthesis of melatonin from N-acetyl serotonin. Pineal melatonin secretion declines dramatically with aging and dementia. Elevated plasma homocysteine is a risk factor for atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, and the marked decline in adenosyl methionine with aging leads to dysregulation of methionine metabolism and hyperhomocysteinemia. Thioretinaco ozonide is a disulfonium complex formed from thioretinamide, cobalamin, and ozone, which binds the alpha and gamma-phosphate groups of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and oxygen in the process of oxidative phosphorylation within mitochondria...

High-dose chemotherapy combined with autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) is the first-line treatment for multiple myeloma. Yet, some patients will relapse. Testicular plasmacytoma which rarely happens can be isolated or associated with progressive multiple myeloma. Here, we report a case of multiple myeloma (MM) undergoing ASCT when the patient obtained complete remission. He developed painless right testicular swelling after nearly 3 years since the ASCT. After radical orchiectomy, histopathology showed diffuse abnormal plasma cells infiltration of the testicular tissue...

Mullerian duct anomalies (MDAs) are congenital defects of the female genital system that arise from abnormal embryological development of the Mullerian ducts. Septate uterus is the most common, resulting from incomplete resorption of the medial septum after fusion of the Mullerian ducts. Two main types of septate uterus exist, including septa that extend completely or partially from the uterine fundus to the cervical os. The combination of a uterine septum with a double cervix has been previously described; however, in most cases the septum was complete...

Perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa) is an uncommon tumor which presents with epithelioid and spindled cell morphology and is immunoreactive for myogenic and melanocytic markers. Recently, a subset of PEComas has been reported to harbor TFE3 gene rearrangement.In this case report, we describe a TFE3 -expressing primary bladder PEComa in a 27-year-old male patient with acute myeloid leukaemia in remission. The tumor displayed epithelioid morphology with surrounding delicate blood vessels and was devoid of a prominent spindle cell component...

Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) is a developmental disorder which is characterized by typical facial features, upper extremity malformations, and growth and cognitive delays. The genes involved in CdLS encode the cohesin complex and its associated proteins; and NIPBL mutations, which account for half of the cases, result in severe CdLS phenotypes. We describe a girl with CdLS, presenting with typical facial dysmorphism, cleft palate, hypertrichosis, upper limb hypertonicity, flexion contracture of elbows, micromelia, bilateral hearing loss, gastroesophageal reflux, and severe pyloric stenosis...

BACKGROUND: Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB) is an inherited skin disorder with variable severity and heterogeneous genetic involvement. Recessive DEB (RDEB) is a rare heritable blistering skin condition caused by loss-of-function mutations in the COL7A1 gene. AIM: This study aimed to determine the genetic basis of three Chinese RDEB patients from different families and identify correlations between phenotype and genotype. METHODS: All three patients were diagnosed with RDEB based on typical phenotype...

Mammary analogue secretory carcinoma (MASC) is a rare salivary gland tumor that recapitulates the cytomorphology, immunophenotype, and genetics of an equally rare malignancy of the breast, secretory carcinoma (SC). Here we present two cases of MASC of minor salivary glands from a single institutional experience.

Assessing the risk of malignancy in patients with a pelvic mass helps triage women suspected of ovarian cancer to specialized gynecologic oncologists to improve treatment outcomes. To this end, several algorithms have been proposed; most notably, the Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) based on CA125, HE4, and menopausal status. However, appropriate decision cut-points for the ROMA score depends on the choice of analytical assays used. This study validates the use of the Roche Elecsys CA125 and HE4 assays for ROMA calculation in a cohort of 207 women who presented to Mayo Clinic with a pelvic mass...

OBJECTIVES: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children is one of the most important causes of mortality and morbidity in developing countries. Therefore, it is very important for clinicians to detect the presence and severity of pneumonia. Proadrenomedullin (Pro-ADM) and Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) are thought to have potential for CAP evaluation in children. We sought to investigate the value of Pro-ADM and IL-1β levels for severity assessment and outcome prediction in children with CAP...

Protein induced by vitamin K absence (PIVKA) is measured using various assays and is used to help diagnose hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study evaluated the analytical and clinical performances of the recently released Abbott Architect PIVKA assay. Precision, linearity, and correlation tests were performed in accordance with the Clinical Laboratory Standardization Institute guidelines. Sample type suitability was assessed using serum and plasma samples from the same patients, and the reference interval was established using sera from 204 healthy individuals...

Ofloxacin (OFX) resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates have been increasingly observed worldwide, complicating tuberculosis control. This study investigated the performance of sequencing which could predict OFX resistance in MTB isolates from positive Bactec MGIT 960 cultures. A total of 214 Bactec MGIT 960 positive cultures were identified by p-nitrobenzoic-acid and thiophene-2-carboxylic hydrazide. Drug susceptibility testing was performed using the proportion method and sequencing. The sequence results were compared with the results of the proportion method to analyze the consistency between the results...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the serum level of Myeloid-Related Protein 8/14 complex (MRP8/14) and to predict and monitor the response to biologic treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS: Each patient underwent clinical examination and blood sampling for assessment of serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), rheumatoid factors (RF), anti-cyclic citrullinated protein antibodies (anti-CCP), and serum concentrations of MRP8/14 protein complexes (myeloid-related proteins, MRP8/14) were measured at baseline, and weeks 4 and 12 (after initiation of treatment)...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to screen 3 mRNA markers (i.e., PAEP, LAPR3, and HOXA10) with diverse expression in different body fluids and to develop a method for the identification of menstrual blood using these mRNA markers. METHODS: Body fluid (i.e., venous blood, menstrual blood, semen, and saliva) samples were collected and prepared under differing environmental conditions (temperature, humidity and time), and RNA was extracted and reverse transcribed...

BACKGROUND: The clinical significance of aspirin resistance (AR) in patients with symptomatic cerebrovascular disease is not well known. The aim of this single-center, prospective study was to examine the prevalence, risk factors and prognostic significance of AR in patients with different clinical manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) over 24-month follow-up. METHODS: We studied 104 patients with MRI confirmed CSVD, including those with recent lacunar stroke (LS, n=49), vascular parkinsonism (VaP, n=16) and dementia (VaD, n=39)...

BACKGROUND: Among all kinds of breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive, with the poorest prognosis and highest mortality rates. Thus, novel biomarkers that personalize the therapeutic regimen and evaluate prognosis for TNBC patients should be determined. METHODS: We analyzed the cystatin E/M (CST6) expression profiles of 161 TNBC tissues and 14 noncancerous tissues through multiple statistical analyses. We also investigated the relationship of CST6 expression with clinical parameters and evaluated the prognostic value of CST6 in 161 TNBC patients...

Numerous studies have identified Nucleophosmin 1 ( NPM1 ) and Fms -like tyrosine kinase 3 ( FLT3 ) as the most frequently mutated genes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients. Mutations occurring in these genes, including NPM1+4 (tetranucleotide insertions), FLT3-ITD (internal tandem duplications), and FLT3-TKD (tyrosine kinase domain point mutations) account for approximately 80% of all mutations found in normal karyotype AML (AML-NK) cases. Different methods have been established to detect the three listed mutations, in which, PCR-based techniques are the most widely used due to their efficiency...

BACKGROUND: Recent studies indicated that Derlin-1 has an important function in cancer progression. However, its expression pattern and relationships with clinicopathologic characteristics in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have not been completely found. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of Derlin-1 in NSCLC. METHODS: Cancer tissues and paracancer tissues were collected from 168 patients with NSCLC. The expression of Derlin-1 was detected by RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry...

BACKGROUND: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was reported to have an important effect on malignant metastasis; however, it remained largely unknown if EMT marker expression of neoplastic tissue had predictive value for prognosis of prostate cancer. METHODS: We searched for published studies which measured EMT marker expression and analyzed its association with clinical outcomes of patients after Radical Prostatectomy (RP). We reviewed and pooled-analyzed the association of EMT marker expression and biochemical recurrence-free survival (BFS), as well as the difference in strong or weak expression of EMT markers in tumors of high Gleason score (≥8)...

The value of routine blood tests in malignant soft tissue tumors remains uncertain. To determine if these tests can be used for screening, the routine pretreatment blood test findings were retrospectively investigated in 359 patients with benign and malignant soft tissue tumors. Additionally, the prognostic potential of pretreatment blood abnormalities was evaluated in patients with soft tissue sarcomas. We compared clinical factors and blood tests findings between patients with benign and malignant soft tissue tumors using univariate and multivariate analysis...

OBJECTIVE: RASGRF1 is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor, which promotes the release of GDP from inactive Ras and stabilizes the apoprotein. In this study, the methylation status of RASGRF1 promoter and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters were evaluated in colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Methylation-specific PCR and bisulfate-sequencing PCR were carried out to investigate the promoter methylation status of the RASGRF1 gene in tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues of 68 CRC patients...