Liver fibrosis evaluation by ARFI and APRI in chronic hepatitis C

AIM:To explore the value of liver fibrosis assessment by acoustic radiation force impulse(ARFI)and the AST/PLT ratio index(APRI)in chronic hepatitis C patients.METHODS:One hundred and twenty eight patients with chronic hepatitis C were examined using ARFI elastometry and APRI,calculated according to known formulae.The gold standard of liver biopsy was referred;ROC curve analysis was used to assess all ARFI and APRI values.The corresponding cut-off values,sensitivities,and specificities were calculated and compared.In addition,the correlation of liver fibrosis stages in chronic hepatitis C patients with ARFI measurements and APRI were also tested to evaluate significant data.RESULTS:The values of ARFI in S1-S4 were 1.23±0.34 m/s,1.48±0.43 m/s,2.06±0.45 m/s,and 2.30±0.87 m/s.The values of APRI in S1-S4 were 0.31±0.45 m/s,0.28±0.38 m/s,0.58±0.59 m/s and0.65±0.34 m/s.ARFI(r=0.649,P<0.05)showed a better correlation with liver fibrosis stages in chronic hepatitis C than APRI(r=0.478,P<0.05).The areas under the ROC curves for ARFI and APRI were 0.775and 0.721 for stages≥S2,0.901 and 0.787 for stages≥S3,and 0.792 and 0.780 for S=4,respectively.CONCLUSION:Both ARFI and APRI could evaluate liver fibrosis stages in chronic hepatitis C.ARFI is more accurate than the APRI index.

Rapid screening for Klinefelter syndrome with a simple high-resolution melting assay： a multicenter study

Klinefelter syndrome （KS） is the set of symptoms that result from the presence of an extra X chromosome in males. Postnatal population-based KS screening will enable timely diagnosis of this common chromosomal disease, providing the opportunity for early intervention and therapy at the time point when they are most effective and may prevent later symptoms or complications. Therefore, through this study, we introduced a simple high-resolution melting （HRM） assay for KS screening and evaluated its clinical sensitivity and specificity in three medical centers using 1373 clinical blood samples. The HRM assay utilized a single primer pair to simultaneously amplify specific regions in zinc finger protein, X-linked （ZFX） and zinc finger protein, Y-linked （ZFY）. In cases of KS, the ratios of ZFX/ZFYare altered compared to those in normal males. As a result, the specific melting profiles differ and can be differentiated during data analysis. This HRM assay displayed high analytical specificity over a wide range of template DNA amounts （5 ng-50 ng） and reproducibility, high resolution for detecting KS mosaicism, and high clinical sensitivity （100%） and specificity （98.1%）. Moreover, the HRM assay was rapid （2 h per run）, inexpensive （0.2 USD per sample）, easy to perform and automatic, and compatible with both whole blood samples and dried blood spots. Therefore, this HRM assay is an ideal postnatal population-based KS screening tool that can be used for different age groups.