Role of Presepsin for the Assessment of Acute Cholangitis Severity.

BACKGROUND: Presepsin is a new emerging inflammatory biomarker. The primary purpose of this study was to elucidate the predictive usability of presepsin for severity assessment in patients with acute cholangitis (AC). METHODS: A total of 119 treatment-naive patients with AC (64 males, 55 females) were enrolled in this study. Patients were classified with Grade I (mild), Grade II (moderate), or Grade III (severe) AC based on severity assessment guidelines. Presepsin concentrations were measured on admission. RESULTS: The median presepsin concentrations were 297 pg/mL (interquartile range (IQR) 234 - 386 pg/mL), 590 pg/mL (IQR 559 - 619 pg/mL), and 857 pg/mL (IQR 740 - 960 pg/mL) in patients with mild, moderate, and severe AC, respectively. Presepsin concentrations were significantly higher in patients with severe AC than in patients with moderate AC (p < 0.01), and in patients with moderate AC than in patients with mild AC (p < 0.01). With the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the areas under the curves (AUCs) for presepsin to discriminate patients with moderate and severe AC were 0.935 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.877 to 0.993, p < 0.001) and 0.942 (95% CI 0.885 to 0.998, p < 0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with other conventional biochemical indicators such as WBC, CRP, and PCT, presepsin may be a useful parameter for the severity assessment of AC.

[Dynamic assessment of grassland degradation in Naqu of northern Tibet].

Based on the past years vegetation cover, annual maximal grass yield and June-September mean modified soil-adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI) that were inversely deduced from the 10-day composite data of NOAA/AVHRR channels 1 and 2 and NDVI in 1982-2000, this paper analyzed the recent 20 years dynamics of grassland desertification in Naqu of northern Tibet. The results showed that in recent 20 years, the area of degraded grassland in Naqu was averagely 43.1% of the total land area. It was decreased in the former ten years while increased in the latter ten years, but overall, had a decreasing trend. The degraded area was larger in west part of Naqu than in its other regions. Among the eight climatic factors including temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, vapor pressure, wind velocity, sunshine hour, ratio of precipitation to evapotranspiration, and ratio of temperature to precipitation, the most remarkable factor affecting the dynamic of grassland degradation was the potential evapotranspiration.