Comparison between Serum HE4 and CA125 as Tumor Markers in Premenopausal Women with Benign Pelvic Mass.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of human epididymal secretory protein (HE4), cancer antigen 125 (CA125), and the Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) in diagnosing benign pelvic masses in premenopausal women. METHODS: Serum was collected from 391 premenopausal women with benign pelvic mass prior to surgery and from 45 healthy individuals. Serum HE4 and CA125 levels and ROMA scores were evaluated separately. RESULTS: Among the 391 women with benign pelvic mass, 2.3% (9/391) had elevated HE4 levels (> 70 pmol/L), while 37.1% (145/391) had elevated CA125 levels (> 35 U/mL) (p < 0001). Endometriosis provided false-positive results for CA125 levels in more than half of the cases but resulted in no significant change for HE4 level. In 13 gravid women with a mass, 30.8% (4/13) and 38.5% (5/13) had elevated HE4 and CA125 levels, respectively; however, the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). Moreover, serum levels and patient percentages for CA125 elevation significantly increased with increase in mass diameter, whereas those for HE4 did not. CONCLUSIONS: CA125 elevation showed random results for benign pelvic masses, while HE4 elevation showed a higher specificity. Thus, serum HE4 testing is a better approach than CA125 testing for diagnosing benign pelvic masses in premenopausal women.

Management of refined and personalized newborn blood specimen collection.

Background: Iatrogenic blood loss is an important cause of neonatal anemia. In this study, a spreadsheet tool was developed to reduce blood collection, providing a new idea for the prevention of iatrogenic blood loss in newborns. Methods: Based on hematocrit, minimum test volume and dead volume, a new tool was to calculate the minimum blood collection volume and the number of containers required for the test portfolio. We collected data from October 2022 to October 2023 from Xiamen Maternal and Child Health Hospital for analysis and validation. Results: During this year, there were 16,434 patients and 13,696 plasma/serological samples in the neonatology department. Among them, there were 8 test combinations of greater than 1%, and 9490 samples in total. According to the hospital manual, the recommended amount of blood collection is 27,534 ml and 9490 containers. Through the analysis of this tool, total blood collection was 8864.77 ml, marked qnantity of upward containers (closest level to the calculated blood collection volume) was 10301 ml, and the amount of containers was 8835, which decreased by 67.8%, 62.58% and 6.9% respectively. Besides, if the hematocrit information cannot be obtained in advance and the high hematocrit is calculated as 0.8, the recommended amount of blood collection is 14334.3 ml, and the marked amount of the upward container markering is 17340 ml, decreasing by 47.9% and 37.02% respectively. Conclusion: We have developed an auxiliary tool that can manage neonatal blood specimen collection in a fine and personalized way and can be applied among different laboratory instruments by parameters modification.