Leukoreduction in blood units could prevent patients undergoing transfusions from transfusion-associated adverse reactions (TAARs) such as febrile nonhemolytic transfusion reactions (FNHTRs). However, the effect of prestorage and poststorage leukoreduction on TAARs and its underlying mechanisms in stored blood components remains to be determined. Therefore, we investigated the impact of prestorage leukocyte-reduced (pre-LR) and poststorage leukocyte-reduced (post-LR) blood products, including red blood cells (RBCs) and apheresis platelets (PHs), on the incidence of FNHTRs and other TAARs in patients who received transfusions from 2009 to 2014 in a tertiary care center. We also investigated the difference of leukocyte-related bioactive mediators between pre- and post-LR blood components. The results indicated that prevalence of TAARs was significantly reduced in the transfusions of pre-LR blood components. Particularly, the prevalence of FNHTRs was significantly reduced in the pre-LR RBC transfusions and the prevalence of allergy reactions was markedly reduced in the pre-LR PH transfusions. Furthermore, in vitro evaluation of cytokines in the pre- and post-LR blood components revealed that IL-1β, IL-8 and RANTES levels were significantly elevated in the post-LR RBCs during the storage. In contrast, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8 levels were significantly elevated in the post-LR PHs during the storage. These findings suggested that prestorage leukoreduction had a diminishing effect on the development of TAARs, which could be associated with less accumulation of cytokines in the stored blood components.

The methyl-directed DNA repair efficiency of a set of M13mp18 heteroduplexes containing 1-8 or 22 unpaired bases was determined by using an in vitro DNA mismatch repair assay. The unpaired bases of each heteroduplex residing at overlapping recognition sites of two restriction endonucleases allow independent assay of repair on either DNA strand. Our results showed that the repair of small nucleotide heterologies in Escherichia coli extracts was very similar to base-base mismatch repair, being strand-specific and highly biased to the unmethylated strand. The in vitro activity was also dependent on products of mutH, mutL, mutS, and uvrD loci and was equally efficient on nucleotide insertions and deletions. The repair levels of small heterologies were affected by base composition of the heterologies. However, the extent of repair of heteroduplexes containing small heterologous sequences was found to decrease with an increase in the number of unpaired bases. Heteroduplexes containing an extra nucleotide of 22 bases provoked very low level of methyl-directed repair.

Background: For the determination of creatine kinase (CK)-MB, the immunoinhibition method is utilized most commonly. However, the estimated CK-MB activity may be influenced by the presence of CK isoenzymes in some conditions like cancer. Thus, a CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio more than 1.0 could be found in such a situation. The study aimed to explore the relationship of cancer to high CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio. Materials and Methods: From January 2011 to December 2014, laboratory data on all CK-MB and total CK test requests were extracted at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (88,415 requests). Patients with a CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio more than 1.0 were registered in this study. Clinical data including tumor location, tumor TNM stage and metastatic status were also collected. Results: A total of 846 patients were identified with a CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio more than 1.0. Of these, 339 (40.1%) were diagnosed with malignancies. The mean CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio was significantly higher in malignancy than in non-malignancy (1.35±0.28 vs 1.25±0.23, p<0.001) groups. The most frequent malignancy with a CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio more than 1.0 was colorectal cancer (1.42±0.28, 16.5%, n=56), followed by lung cancer (1.38±0.24, 15.9%, n=54) and hepatocellular carcinoma (14.5%, n=49). Higher CK-MB-to-total-CK ratios in hematological malignancies (1.44±0.41)were also noted. Additionally, the CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio was markedly higher in advanced stage malignancy than in early stage (1.37±0.26 vs. 1.29±0.31, p=0.014) and significantly higher in liver metastasis than in non-liver metastasis (1.48±0.30 vs. 1.30±0.21, p<0.001). Conclusions: The CK-MB-to-total-CK ratio is an easily available indicator and could be clinically utilized as a primary screening tool for cancer. Higher ratio of CK-MB-to-total-CK was specifically associated with certain malignancies, like colorectal cancer, lung cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as some cancer-associated status factors such as advanced stage and liver metastasis.

Objectives To disclose the link between the composition of urolithiasis, especially that of uric acid calculi, and obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Materials and MethodsPatients who had urinary calculi and underwent surgical treatment were registered in the study. The composition of urinary calculi was analyzed and correlated with clinical features and biomedical profiles of the patients before surgical intervention. Results A total of 666 patients with urolithiasis who underwent surgical management were registered and analyzed. In those who had uric acid calculi, there was a significant association with prediabetic (OR: 20.11, 95% CI: 7.40–54.63, P < 0.001) and diabetic states (OR: 11.55, 95% CI: 4.41–29.97, P < 0.001). It also seemed that uric acid calculi were related to obesity but there was no statistical significance (OR: 2.45, 95% CI: 0.91–6.62, P = 0.078). There was no association of uric acid calculi with hypertension (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 0.54–2.17, P = 0.822) and concurrent urinary tract infection (OR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.44–1.96, P = 0.841). Conclusion There was a remarkable association of uric acid calculi with prediabetic and diabetic states. The uric acid calculi were also seemingly associated with obesity in patients with urolithiasis undergoing surgical management.

Background: Potential disadvantages of blood transfusion during curative gastrectomy for gastric cancer have been reported, and the role of peri-operative transfusions remains to be ascertained. Thus, the aim of our study was to survey its impact in patients with gastric cancer undergoinging gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: Clinical data of patients receiving curative gastrectomy at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital were obtained. Findings for pre-operative anemia states, pre-, peri-and post-operative transfusion of red blood cell (RBC) products as well as post-operative complication events were collected for univariate analysis. Results: A total of 116 patients with gastric cancer received gastrectomy at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital from 2011 to 2014. Both pre-operative and intra-and post-operative transfusion of RBC products were markedly associated with post-operative infectious events (OR: 3.70, 95% CI: 1.43-9.58, P=0.002; OR: 8.20, 95% CI: 3.11-22.62, P<0.001, respectively). In addition, peri-and post-operative RBC transfusion was significantly associated with prolonged hospital stay from admission to discharge (OR: 8.66, 95% CI: 1.73-83.00, P=0.002) and post-operative acute renal failure (OR: 19.69, 95% CI: 2.66-854.56, P<0.001). Also, the overall survival was seemingly decreased by peri-operative RBC transfusion in our gastric cancer cases (P=0.078). Conclusions: Our survey indicated that peri-operative RBC transfusion could increase the risk of infectious events and acute renal failure post curative gastrectomy as well as worsen the overall survival in gastric cancer cases. Hence, unnecessary blood transfusion before, during and after curative gastrectomy should be avoided in patients with gastric cancer.