Red cell distribution width-to-lymphocyte ratio: A novel predictor for HBV-related liver cirrhosis.

To evaluate the diagnostic power of red cell distribution width-to-lymphocyte ratio (RLR) for HBV-related liver cirrhosis via a retrospective cohort study.Seven hundred fifty healthy controls, 327 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients, and 410 patients with HBV-related liver cirrhosis (HBV-LC) were enrolled in this study. RLR, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), red cell distribution width (RDW), AST to platelet ratio index (APRI), and fibrosis index based on the 4 factors (FIB-4) were compared between the 3 groups. The predictive powers of RLR and RDW for HBV-related liver cirrhosis and patient prognosis were evaluated using AUROC.Patients with HBV-related liver cirrhosis had higher RLR, FIB-4, NLR, RDW, APRI, and lower LMR compared with the control and CHB groups. RLR in the HBV-LC group was significantly higher than both CHB and control groups (both P < .05). While RLR in the CHB group was also higher than the control group, the difference was not statistically significant (P > .05). The AUROC of RLR for predicting HBV-related liver cirrhosis was 0.87, and was superior to RDW (0.81), FIB-4 (0.79), and APRI (0.60). With an optimized cut-off value (10.87), RLR had the highest sensitivity (0.88) and specificity (0.72), and was superior to RDW (0.86, 0.64), FIB-4 (0.80, 0.65), and APRI (0.85, 0.48) as a biomarker. For all 3 groups, RLR was negatively correlated (all P < .05) with serum platelet (PLT) and was positively correlated (all P < .05) with FIB-4 and APRI. There was no significant statistical difference in RLR for patients in HBV-LC group who had different prognosis (P > .05).The RLR, a routinely available, inexpensive, and easily calculated measure, can be used as a predictor of HBV-related liver cirrhosis, but not as a predictor of prognosis for patients with liver cirrhosis. Use of RLR may reduce the need for frequent liver biopsies in CHB patients.

Prognostic significance of low expression of B-cell translocation gene 1 (BTG 1) in skin squamous cell carcinoma.

Although the B-cell translocation gene 1 (BTG1) plays an important role in apoptosis and negatively regulates cell proliferation, BTG1 expression in skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) has not been reported. In this study, we wanted to investigate the significance of BTG1 expression in SCC and adjacent tissues. The expression of BTG1 protein and mRNA in SCC tissues and adjacent tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry technique (IHC), Western blot and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). IHC staining showed that the positive expression rate of BTG1 protein in SCC tissues was 54.00%; and the positive rate was 90.50% in the adjacent tissues. Western blot showed that the expression of BTG1 protein in SCC tissues was significantly lower than that in the adjacent tissues (P less than 0.05). RT-PCR showed that the positive rate of BTG1 mRNA in SCC was 50.50%, which was significantly lower than that in adjacent tissues 89.00% (P less than 0.05). Both BTG1 mRNA and protein expression are related to tumor diameter, stage, tumor metastasis and the degree of tumor differentiation in SCC. Patients exhibiting lower BTG1 protein expression in the SCC tissues had a significantly shorter disease-specific survival rate. BTG1 protein expression, tumor diameter, tumors site and stage were independent factors affecting the overall survival of postoperative patients. Further, BTG1 overexpression inhibited A431 cell proliferation ability, while BTG silencing enhanced A431 cell proliferation ability. The lower expression of BTG1 in SCC may be associated with the occurrence, development and prognosis of SCC.