Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Use of Serum Leucine-Rich Alpha-2 Glycoprotein to Assess Crohn's Disease Activity.

BACKGROUND: Although fecal calprotectin is the most widely used biomarker for assessing Crohn's disease activity, serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein has recently attracted attention, especially in Japan. Here we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein to obtain evidence for its accuracy in assessing Crohn's disease activity. METHODS: On February 1, 2023, we performed searches of PubMed, Web of Science, and CENTRAL. The Prospero number is CRD42023396034. The primary outcomes were the sensitivity and specificity of serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein for assessing Crohn's disease activity. We used a bivariate generalized linear mixed model, assuming a binomial distribution at the test level and a bivariate normal distribution at the between-test level. RESULTS: We selected 9 studies involving 797 individuals in our systematic review. Regarding the primary outcomes, the synthesized sensitivity and specificity of serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein were 77.0% (95% confidence interval, 67.8% to 84.2%) and 81.1% (95% confidence interval, 72.6% to 87.4%), respectively. The area under the curve was 0.86, and the partial area under the curve was 0.78. Regarding between-study heterogeneity, both the I2 value by Zhou and Dendukuri approach and the I2 value by Holling sample size-adjusted approaches were 0%. CONCLUSIONS: Our systematic review and meta-analysis of serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein demonstrated its accuracy in assessing Crohn's disease activity. Further studies are needed to demonstrate its clinical utility and clinical validity.

We conducted the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the ability of serum leucine-rich alpha-2 glycoprotein (LRG) to assess Crohn's disease activity and found that the synthesized sensitivity and specificity were 77.0% and 81.1%, respectively.

Control over Internal Structure of Liquid Crystal Polymer Nanofibers by Electrospinning.

Liquid crystal polymer nanofibers with a diameter ranging from 0.13 to 4.71 µm were prepared by electrospinning from a main-chain liquid crystalline polyester, BB-5(3-Me). WAXD measurements showed that the formation and orientation of the ordered structure in the electrospun fibers were controlled by the fiber diameter formed during electrospinning. For BB-5(3-Me), the SmA structure with two layer spacings was formed in the fiber during the electrospinning. Under optimal spinning conditions, the SmA structure is highly oriented in the fiber. In addition, annealing transformed the metastable SmA structure in the BB-5(3-Me) fiber into stable SmCA one.