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.

Quantitative evaluation framework and application for regional water sustainability under local energy transition

Quantitatively analysing the impacts on regional water sustainability under the energy transition is vital to regional water management and specific technology selection,which is also relevant to dealing with climate change.This study proposed a new multi-indicator evaluation framework for regional water sustainability under local energy transition to quantitatively evaluate the water withdrawal and water environment during the energy transition from a lifecycle perspective.An integrated regional energy-water evaluation model was also developed based on the Low Emissions Analysis Platform with a combination of lifecycle assessment and water footprint analysis.Shaanxi province in China was then taken as a case study,and the impacts of its energy transition on regional water environmental sustainability,including quantity and quality,were investigated under five scenarios.Results showed that the large-scale application of carbon capture,utilisation and storage technology and bio-energy equipped with carbon capture and storage technology could have additional advantages regarding CO_(2) emissions.However,such technologies exhibit a minimal effect on improving water environmental quality and reducing water demand for the first time due to the leakage of absorbents,CO_(2) and other risky substances during capture,transportation and storage from a lifecycle perspective.This finding drives the innovation of related breakthrough technologies with the promotion of water and end-treatment technologies in the future.

Influence of serum adiponectin level and SNP +45 polymorphism of adiponectin gene on myocardial fibrosis

Adiponectin plays an important role in the development of hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, but very little was known about the influence of serum adiponectin or the adiponectin gene polymorphism on myocardial fibrosis. Our study investigates the influence of the SNP +45 polymorphism of the adiponectin gene and serum levels of adiponectin on myocardial fibrosis in patients with essential hypertension. A case-control study was conducted on 165 hypertensive patients and 126 normotensive healthy controls. The genotypes of adiponectin gene polymorphisms were detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Serum concentrations of procollagen were measured by a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in all subjects. The integrated backscatter score (IBS) was measured in the left ventricular myocardium using echocardiography. The serum levels of adiponectin in hypertensive patients were significantly lower than those in the normal control group ((2.69±1.0) μg/ml vs. (4.21±2.89) μg/ml, respectively, P<0.001). The serum levels of type-I procollagen carboxyl end peptide (PICP) and type-III procollagen ammonia cardinal extremity peptide (PIIINP) in the hypertension group were significantly higher than those in the control group. In the hypertension group, serum levels of adiponectin were significantly and negatively related to the average acoustic intensity and corrected acoustic intensity of the myocardium (r=0.46 and 0.61, respectively, P<0.05 for both). The serum levels of PICP and PIIINP were significantly different among the three genotypes of SNP +45 (P<0.01). Logistic regression analyses showed that sex and genotype (GG+GT) were the major risk factors of myocardial fibrosis in hypertensive patients (OR=5.343 and 3.278, respectively, P<0.05). These data suggest that lower levels of adiponectin and SNP +45 polymorphism of the adiponectin gene are likely to play an important role in myocardial fibrosis in hypertensive patients.