PurposeLimb-bud and heart (LBH) levels are correlated with adverse survival in several malignancies; however, their significance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the association between LBH status and clinical outcomes.MethodsWe selected 226 patients with HCC who were treated surgically between 2003 and 2010 at a single academic center. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect the protein expression of LBH in HCC samples. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, Spearman’s rank correlation, Kaplan–Meier plots, and the Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze the data.ResultsA high expression of LBH was detected in 20 (8.8%) of 226 HCC samples. Correlation analysis demonstrated that LBH in HCC was significantly correlated with aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and clinical stages (P<0.05). In the Kaplan–Meier analysis, the mean survival time of patients with low levels of LBH was longer than that for those with high levels of LBH (P<0.05). The 3-year overall survival rate was 20% for patients with HCC and high levels of LBH versus 67% for patients with HCC and low levels of LBH. In the multivariate analysis, AST/ALT level, clinical stage, tumor relapse, and the level of LBH were the independent prognostic factors for overall survival (P<0.05).ConclusionOverexpression of LBH might contribute to the development and progression of HCC. LBH could be a novel prognostic marker for HCC.

Background: Acid-fast staining for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a high false negative-rate, partly due to it is hard to get a good positive control tissue of acid-fast staining. We aimed to design a simple and convenient method for making positive quality controls for acid-fast staining in paraffin-embedded sections.Methods: Three methods were used to get more tuberculous bacteria, which involving centrifugation, mixing, and culture of tubercle bacilli in pleural fluid, prior to the preparation of paraffin-embedded sections.Results: Culturing tubercle bacilli in pleural fluid proved to be, by far, the best of the three methods, with sufficient bacteria, convenient observation, clear staining, and potential for upscaled production.Conclusions: The application of this method should improve the detection rate of tuberculous bacteria, thus facilitating clinical treatment.