Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inconsistency by Immunohistochemistry Method Using Different Monoclonal Antibodies in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: Targeted therapy is typically used to treat colorectal cancer (CRC). The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was recognized as a potential therapeutic target. Does the EGFR protein express consistently using different monoclonal antibodies in clinics? METHODS: One hundred and sixty-four patients (mean age 61.80 ± 12.78 years) who suffered from CRC were selected at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taiwan. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue sections from all patients were tested simultaneously using two commercial antibodies, Dako-EGFR (mouse monoclonal anti-EGFR clone 2-18C9, pharmDx) and NCL-EGFR (NCL-EGFR-384, Novocastra) monoclonal antibodies, to study the commutability or equality of the qualities of EGFR expression by standard immunohistochemistry (IHC) procedures. RESULTS: The EGFR expressions that were obtained by IHC staining using different monoclonal antibodies with Dako-EGFR (46.95%) and NCL-EGFR (32.32%) were fairly concordant. CONCLUSIONS: Although IHC is a convenient and feasible method for detecting the expression of EGFR, it yields controversial staining results concerning EGFR expression using various commercial antibodies in a CRC tumor section.

High prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in hepatitis C virus-infected hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the seroprevalence of mycoplasma pneumonia (M. pneumoniae) in patients with hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection undergoing hemodialysis (HD). METHODS: One hundred and nine HD patients were randomly selected from a medical center in Taiwan. Among the subjects, 42 patients (aged 60.93 +/- 13.94 years) had HCV infection and 67 patients (aged 64.87 +/- 13.02 years) did not have HCV infection. All subjects were analyzed for serum antibodies to HCV and M. pneumonia. Biochemical testing of liver function included aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase, and gamma-glutamyl transferase. RESULTS: Seroprevalence of M. pneumoniae (p = 0.023) and levels of AST (p = 0.006) and ALT (p < 0.001) were significantly higher for HCV seropositive HD patients than for HCV seronegative HD patients. HCV seropositive HD patients had a significantly increased risk of infection with M. pneumoniae (ORs, 2.475; 95% CIs, 1.099 - 5.571) and high ALT level (HAL) (ORs, 5.020; 95% CIs, 1.250 - 20.164, p = 0.018). The serum AST and ALT levels of HD patients with HCV and M. pneumoniae infection were significantly higher than those of non-HCV and non-M. pneumoniae infected HD patients (p = 0.017 and p = 0.001, respectively). HAL were observed significantly in HCV infection and M. pneumoniae co-infection HD patients (p = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that high M. pneumoniae infection in HCV-infected HD patients and that it was a factor exacerbating liver dysfunction.

Cigarette smoking exacerbates health problems in young men.

PURPOSE: To examines the hypothesis that smoking exacerbates health problems in young male smokers (age range, 18.6-22.8 yr; mean, 19.4 yr). METHODS: 1169 subjects were recruited, 25.41 % were smokers (2-15 cigarettes daily). All subjects were examined for body mass index, blood pressure, exhaled carbon monoxide content (carboxyl hemoglobin), blood hematology and biochemistry. RESULTS: Data for WBC (P < 0.001), hemoglobin (P=0.001), hematocrit (P=0.004), MCV (P=0.001), MCH (P=0.003), COHB% (P < 0.001), albumin/globulin (P < 0.001) and triglyceride (P < 0.001) were higher for smokers than non-smokers, while total-bilirubin (P < 0.001), total protein (P < 0.001) and globulin (P < 0.001) were markedly lower. The results of WBC (r=0.164, P < 0.004), COHB% (r=0.958, P < 0.001), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (r=0.159, P=0.006), alkaline-phosphatase (r=-0.154, P=0.008) and triglyceride (r=0.144, P < 0.001) were closely correlated with number of cigarettes smoked daily. Investigation of associations with illness revealed that young smokers had an increased risk of hypertriglyceridemia to young non-smokers (adjusted ORs, 2.124; 95% CIs, 1.414-3.190), hyperglycemia (adjusted ORs, 1.980; 95% CIs, 0.803-4.901), neutrophilia (adjusted ORs, 1.947; 95% CIs, 1.248-3.037), RBC macrocytosis (adjusted ORs, 1.929; 95% CIs, 1.137-3.275), hyperchromia (adjusted ORs, 1.844; 95% CIs, 1.412-2.407) and polycythemia (adjusted ORs, 1.314; 95% CIs, 0.805-2.145) (all P < 0.05 for linear trends). CONCLUSION: The findings emphasize the importance of increasing surveillance of diseases exacerbated by smoking and reducing smoking in the young to prevent cardiovascular illnesses, metabolite disorders and other clinical diseases.

Evaluation of enterovirus recovery in surface water by different adsorption and elution procedures.

The performance of six concentration method combinations and two quantitative analysis techniques were evaluated in terms of enterovirus recovery efficiencies by adjusting the pH and salt concentration of water samples. Of the six concentration method combinations, adsorption on nitrocellulose membranes followed by an acid rinse elution consistently gave the highest recovery efficiencies. In theory, an electropositive membrane should be the most appropriate technique for adsorption of electronegative viruses in pure water. However, it displayed the greatest loss in natural waters. For adsorption and elution procedures, both the electronegative membrane, accompanied by an acid rinse step, and the electropositive membrane, accompanied by a glycine rinse step, provided higher recovery efficiencies. MPN-RT-PCR, a statistically quantitative analysis method, performed more efficiently, in economic terms, but had a similar enterovirus recovery trend to real-time RT-PCR, which is the authoritative quantitative analysis method for nucleic acid.

Seroprevalence of Mycobacterium pneumoniae in healthy adolescents in Taiwan.

This study was designed to understand the seroprevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in healthy Taiwanese adolescents. The study included 2,233 college freshmen (female:male = 1.29:1; mean age, 19.7 years). The percentages of subjects residing in northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan were 66.91, 15.89, 9.0, and 8.2%, respectively. All enrolled subjects underwent a serologic agglutination test to detect serum concentrations of antibodies to M. pneumoniae. The test results showed that 19.84% of the subjects were infected and, of those, 6.0% were estimated to have subsequently acquired a current or acute infection during this study period. Moreover, the percentage of seropositive females (22.77%) was significantly higher than that of seropositive males (16.07%) (odds ratio, 1.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.241-1.911). Subjects residing in eastern counties were more likely to contract M. pneumoniae than those residing in other areas of Taiwan.

The potential of at-home prediction of the formation of urolithiasis by simple multi-frequency electrical conductivity of the urine and the comparison of its performance with urine ion-related indices, color and specific gravity.

It is important to control daily diet, water intake and life style as well as monitor the quality of urine for urolithiasis prevention. For decades, many ion-related indices have been developed for predicting the formation of urinary stones or urolithiasis, such as EQUILs, relative supersaturation (RSS), Tiselius indices (TI), Robertson risk factor algorithms (RRFA) and more recently, the Bonn risk index. However, they mostly demand robust laboratory analysis, are work-intensive, and even require complex computational programs to get the concentration patterns of several urine analytes. A simple and fast platform for measuring multi-frequency electrical conductivity (MFEC) of morning spot urine (random urine) to predict the onset of urolithiasis was implemented in this study. The performance thereof was compared to ion-related indices, urine color and specific gravity. The concentrations of relevant ions, color, specific gravity (SG) and MFEC (MFEC tested at 1, 10, 100, 5001 KHz and 1 MHz) of 80 random urine samples were examined after collection. Then, the urine samples were stored at 4 °C for 24 h to determine whether sedimentation would occur or not. Ion-activity product index of calcium oxalate (AP(CaOx) EQ2) was calculated. The correlation between AP(CaOx) EQ2, urine color, SG and MFEC were analyzed. AP(CaOx) EQ2, urine color and MFEC (at 5 frequencies) all demonstrated good prediction (p = 0.01, 0.01, 0.01, respectively) for stone formation. The positive correlation between AP(CaOx) EQ2 and MFEC is also significant (p = 0.01). MFEC provides a good metric for predicting the onset of urolithiasis, which is comparable to conventional ion-related indices and urine color. This technology can be implemented with much ease for objectively monitoring the quality of urine at points-of-care or at home.

Efficacy of the nationwide hepatitis B infant vaccination program in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Taiwan launched a nationwide infant vaccination program for hepatitis B (HB) in 1984. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the incidence of high alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level among young adults prior to, during, and since the introduction of the nationwide HBV vaccination program. STUDY DESIGN: Researchers recruited 101,584 freshmen (male:female=1.114:1; mean age, 18.5±0.5 years) from 21 universities between 1995 and 2009 (birth cohorts 1977-1991) in Taiwan, testing for serum hepatitis B surface antigens (HBsAg), hepatitis e antigens (HBeAg), antibodies against HBsAg (anti-HBs), and liver function tests, including ALT and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). RESULTS: The results showed that the prevalence of HBsAg decreased significantly from 14.3% in 1995 to 1.1% in 2009 and the seroprevalence of HBeAg decreased significantly from 5.9% in 1995 to 0.3% in 2009. Seroconversion to anti-HBs maintained a steady rate above 50% between 1995 and 2007, but declined considerably to 36.6% and 36.4% in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Subject with HBeAg seropositivity was in 43.94% of HBV carriers. Double seronegativity for HBsAg and anti-HBs was observed in 2007 (47.8%), 2008 (62.3%), and 2009 (62.5%). High ALT level was observed in 5.74% of the subjects, particular among HBV-carriers (16.5% of HBV carrier vs. 5.0% of non-HBV carrier; ORs, 3.733; 95% CIs, 3.463-4.023, p<0.0001). Subjects with high ALT level were significantly positively associated with HBeAg (10.5% of HBeAg seropositive vs. 1.9% of HBeAg seronegative; ORs, 6.195; 95%CI, 5.629-6.818; p<0.0001). Male subjects were more easily infected by HBV than female subjects were (HBsAg, ORs, 1.355, 95% CI, 1.283-1.431; HBeAg, ORs, 1.324, 95% CI, 1.218-1.439, p<0.0001), and significantly more male subjects had high ALT levels than female subjects did (ORs, 4.087; 95% CI, 3.819-4.375, p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The mass vaccination program successfully reduced the HBV carrier rate and prevalence of chronic hepatitis B in Taiwan. However, the low percentage of anti-HBV in 2008 and 2009 remains unresolved.

Erythrocyte fragility increases with level of glycosylated hemoglobin in type 2 diabetic patients.

BACKGROUND: This study examines that erythrocyte was fragility-susceptible in diabetes. METHODS: Forty-five outpatients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (aged 46 +/- 13 years) and 20 healthy individuals with no history of diabetes disorders (aged 43 +/- 7 years) were randomly selected in this study. All subjects were analysis for blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin and erythrocyte osmotic fragility tests. RESULTS: The data for blood glucose (p<0.001), glycosylated hemoglobin (p<0.001), start hemolysis of erythrocyte (p<0.001), medium corpuscle hemolysis (p<0.001) and complete hemolysis (p=0.001) were significantly higher for diabetes than that of non-diabetes. The erythrocyte osmotic fragility in start hemolysis (r=0.479, p<0.001), medium corpuscle hemolysis (r=0.454, p<0.001) and complete hemolysis (r=0.277, p=0.025) were closely correlated with red blood cell glycosylated hemoglobin. Investigation of associations with red cell fragility-susceptible, diabetic patients had significantly increased risks of cell hemolysis on start hemolysis (ORs, 32.67; 95% CIs, 7.201-148.19), medium corpuscle hemolysis (ORs, 2.53; 95% CIs, 0.831-7.695) and complete hemolysis (ORs, 4.28; 95% CIs, 1.386-13.202) (all p<0.05 for linear trends) of erythrocyte to non-diabetes controls. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that osmotic fragility of erythrocyte was greater in type 2 diabetic subjects compared to non-diabetic controls and red blood cell fragility was positively correlated with glycosylated hemoglobin. Hence, it is necessary to emphasize increasing investigations of pathogenic mechanisms exacerbated by red cell fragility to prevent complications of diabetes mellitus.

Differences in replication capacity between enterovirus 71 isolates obtained from patients with encephalitis and those obtained from patients with herpangina in Taiwan.

The cellular-tropism and biological characteristics of enterovirus 71 (EV71) isolates in Taiwan (TW) were studied. Growth curve experiments were conducted using cell lines that were possibly exhibited pathogenesis, and RT-PCR and sequencing tests were undertaken to amplify the 5' non-coding region (5'-NCR). The encephalitis isolate EV71 TW98NTU2078 was PBMC-tropic, temperature-resistant (Tr) at 40 degrees C, and easier to replicate in HTB-14 (astrocytoma) than the herpangina isolate EV71 TW98NTU1186 (The viral yields were 100-fold higher than those of the herpangina isolate EV71 TW98NTU1186 at 96 hr post infection.). The herpangina isolate EV71 TW98NTU1186 was non-PBMC-tropic, and temperature-sensitive (Ts) at 40 degrees C. The replication of EV71 TW98NTU1186 in HTB-14 was lower. No EV71 isolate infected HTB-37 (human colon adenocarcinoma cells). The encephalitis EV71 isolate exhibited better replication and transmission in PBMCs and astrocytes than did the EV71 isolate without CNS involvement.

Using the flow cytometry to quantify the Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts in water samples.

The flow cytometry (FC) has been used to detect Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts quantitatively and instantaneously in this study. The experimental results showed that FC is potential to become a more precise method for the detection of Giardia and Cryptosporidium in water. This study also evaluated the staining efficiencies for three commercial antibodies. After staining Cryptosporidium oocysts with direct immunofluorescent antibodies in water samples, two populations were detected in the scatter-plots (FL1 versus SSC) of the FC. The Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts are significantly separated from other particles while stained with direct immunofluorescent antibodies produced by Meridian Diagnostics and Waterborne Inc.