Clinical significance of serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptor in biliary disease and carcinoma

AIM: To investigate the clinical significance of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and soluble VEGF receptor-1 (VEGFR1/Flt-1) (sVEGFR1) levels in biliary diseases.METHODS: We analyzed the serum levels of these proteins in patients with acute cholangitis (group 1), biliary malignancies (group 2), and primary biliary cirrhosis or primary sclerosing cholangitis (group 3), and in healthy donors (group 4). The influence of inflammation was also analyzed. Serum VEGF levels were expressed as VEGF per platelet (VEGF/PLT, pg/106) in order to exclude the influence of platelet counts.RESULTS: sVEGFR1 levels were significantly higher in groups 1 and 2 than in the control group, but did not correlate with inflammatory markers. VEGF/PLT levels were generally higher in patients with active inflammation than in those with carcinoma. C-reactive protein strongly correlated with the levels of serum VEGF independently of platelet and leukocyte counts, even in cancer patients. In cancer patients, VEGF/PLT and sVEGFR1 levels might be indicators for evaluating the effect of medical treatment or the disease progression.CONCLUSION: Serum VEGF and VEGFR1 might be useful markers for gauging the clinical effect of various treatments on patients.

火山岩油藏：复杂压力体系综合相分布模拟和历史拟合

日本有一个万亿立方英尺的气田已持续生产了数十年。储积层由海下喷发的流纹熔岩叠加穹丘组成。每个穹丘发育孔隙网络,碎玻质熔岩遇海水迅速冷却并在穹丘上沉积。虽然该油田的碎玻质熔岩也是多孔隙的,但由于有泥质矿物及不渗透玄武薄层和泥岩层,其渗透率大幅下降。压力体系中的每个相都有其特定的作用。地层对比最初可识别多储积层。几乎毫不例外都是从最大的气田采气的,但经过10～20年的生产,人们发现未开发储积层的压力呈现出不同速度的递减,而且局部呈现出不同寻常的特征。地震资料是否可提供大量信息无以为证,因而,决定专门利用压力资料对整套体系进行重新模拟。采用多点地质统计和概率扰动理论相结合的方法。这个方法,在利用历史拟合阐述压力数据、进一步解释真实油田的非平稳性时,可成功捕获叠加熔岩穹丘弯曲相的边界。一般来说,多点法的一个难点是建立适宜的训练图形。针对火山岩油藏建立训练图形会遇到许多特殊的问题,文中,通过反复调整模型、获得有大量合理扰动并令人满意的历史拟合实现了图形的建立。通过植入预先确定的模型空间,用产层和非产层的象素可随机描绘油藏的模糊边界。模拟结果不仅精细模拟了测得的压力变化曲线,显示相分布和油藏边界的真实情况,表明相连通的弯流通道造成了不同单元间的不均匀压降,而且,还解释了观察到的小范围的压力异常变化。最终获得的训练图形表明相的空间变化比先前判定的更强。20个等概率值估算的原始气地质储量(OGIP)分散范围不超过平均值的±15%。经评估钻一口扩边井的采收率增量要比安装一台增压器的增量变化要大,这可对地质相关的风险性进行量化。