[Advances in clinical studies of chronic cough].

Chronic cough is a common complaint in respiratory specialist clinics, with a significant impact on cough-specific quality of life and psychophysiological health. The diagnosis, treatment and management of chronic cough remains a major challenge. We summarized a series of recent advances from clinical studies in the epidemiology, diagnosis and management of chronic cough over the past year.

Emergence of spatio-temporal variations in chemotherapeutic drug efficacy: in-vitro and in-Silico 3D tumour spheroid studies.

BACKGROUND: The mechanisms of action and efficacy of cisplatin and paclitaxel at cell population level are well studied and documented, however the localized spatio-temporal effects of the drugs are less well understood. We explore the emergence of spatially preferential drug efficacy resulting from variations in mechanisms of cell-drug interactions. METHODS: 3D spheroids of HeLa-C3 cells were treated with drugs, cisplatin and paclitaxel. This was followed by sectioning and staining of the spheroids to track the spatio-temporal apoptotic effects of the drugs. A mechanistic drug-cell interaction model was developed and simulated to analyse the localized efficacy of these drugs. RESULTS: The outcomes of drug actions on a local cell population was dependant on the interactions between cell repair probability, intracellular drug concentration and cell's mitosis phase. In spheroids treated with cisplatin, drug induced apoptosis is found to be scattered throughout the volume of the spheroids. In contrast, effect of paclitaxel is found to be preferentially localized along the periphery of the spheroids. Combinatorial treatments of cisplatin and paclitaxel result in varying levels of cell apoptosis based on the scheduling strategy. CONCLUSIONS: The preferential action of paclitaxel can be attributed to the cell characteristics of the peripheral population. The model simulations and experimental data show that treatments initiated with paclitaxel are more efficacious due to the cascading of spatial effects of the drugs.

Evaluation of the effect of nickel clusters on the formation of incipient soot particles from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons via ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations.

In the present study, the ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics simulation method was applied to investigate the effect of a small nickel cluster (Ni13) on the formation of nascent soot from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) precursors. A series of NVT simulations was performed for systems of a Ni13 cluster and various PAH monomers, namely, naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene, coronene, ovalene, and circumcoronene, at temperatures from 400 to 2500 K. At low temperatures, the PAHs form soot particles via binding and stacking around nickel clusters. Larger soot particles are formed due to the early initiation of clustering provided by nickel compared to those observed in homogenous PAH systems. At 1200-1600 K, the PAH monomers show a chemisorption tendency onto the nickel surface, which results in incipient soot particles. Chemical nucleation was observed at 2000 K where nickel-assisted dehydrogenation and chemisorption of PAH led to the growth of stable soot particles, which did not occur in the absence of Ni-clusters. At a high temperature (2500 K), nickel significantly accelerates the ring-opening and graphitization of PAH molecules and increases the size of the fullerene-type soot as compared to that of homogenous systems.

Chewing lice from high-altitude and migrating birds in Yunnan, China, with descriptions of two new species of Guimaraesiella.

In total, 366 birds representing 55 species in 24 families and eight orders, were examined for chewing lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera) in two high-altitude localities in Yunnan Province, China. In Ailaoshan, almost all of the birds examined were resident passeriforms, of which 36% were parasitized by chewing lice. In Jinshanyakou, most birds were on migration, and included both passerine and non-passerine birds. Of the passerine birds caught in Jinshanyakou, only one bird (0.7%) was parasitized by chewing lice. The prevalence of Myrsidea and Brueelia-complex lice on birds caught in Ailaoshan was higher than in previous reports. Of the chewing lice identifiable to species level, three represent new records for China: Actornithophilus hoplopteri (Mjöberg, 1910), Maculinirmus ljosalfar Gustafsson & Bush, 2017 and Quadraceps sinensis Timmermann, 1954. In total, 17 new host records are included, of which we describe two as new species in the Brueelia-complex: Guimaraesiella (Cicchinella) ailaoshanensis sp. nov. ex Schoeniparus dubius dubius (Hume, 1874) and G. (C.) montisodalis sp. nov. ex Fulvetta manipurensis tonkinensis Delacour & Jabouille, 1930. This published work has been registered in ZooBank, http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9FC3D8EE-2CED-4DBE-A1DB-471B71260D27.

Tuning the electrical and optical anisotropy of a monolayer black phosphorus magnetic superlattice.

We investigate theoretically the effects of modulated periodic perpendicular magnetic fields on the electronic states and optical absorption spectrum in monolayer black phosphorus (phosphorene). We demonstrate that different phosphorene magnetic superlattice (PMS) orientations can give rise to distinct energy spectra, i.e. tuning the intrinsic electronic anisotropy. Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) develops a spin-splitting energy dispersion in this phosphorene magnetic superlattice. Anisotropic momentum-dependent carrier distributions along/perpendicular to the magnetic strips are demonstrated. The manipulations of these exotic electronic properties by tuning superlattice geometry, magnetic field and the RSOC term are addressed systematically. Accordingly, we find bright-to-dark transitions in the ground-state electron-hole pair transition rate spectrum and the PMS orientation-dependent anisotropic optical absorption spectrum. This feature offers us a practical way of modulating the electronic anisotropy in phosphorene by magnetic superlattice configurations and detecting this modulation capability by using an optical technique.

Effect of Empagliflozin on Tacrolimus-Induced Pancreas Islet Dysfunction and Renal Injury.

An inhibitor of sodium glucose co-transporter type 2 (SGLT-2) is recommended in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) but its use is still undetermined in tacrolimus (TAC)-induced DM. We evaluated the effect of empagliflozin (Em) on TAC-induced pancreatic islet dysfunction and renal injury in an experimental model of TAC-induced DM and in vitro. TAC induced a twofold increase in SGLT-2 expression, while Em decreased SGLT-2 expression and further increased urinary glucose excretion compared to the TAC group. Em reduced hyperglycemia and increased plasma insulin level, pancreatic islet size, and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion compared to the TAC group. In kidney, Em alleviated TAC-induced renal dysfunction and decreased albumin excretion and histological injury compared with the TAC group. Increased oxidative stress and apoptotic cell death by TAC was remarkably decreased with Em in serum and pancreatic and renal tissues. In in vitro study, TAC decreased cell viability and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in both insulin-secreting beta-cell derived (INS-1) and human kidney-2 (HK-2) cell lines. Addition of Em increased cell viability and decreased ROS production in HK-2 but not in INS-1 cell lines. This suggests that Em is effective in controlling TAC-induced hyperglycemia and has direct protective effect on TAC-induced renal injury.

Targeted sequencing of maternal plasma for haplotype-based non-invasive prenatal testing of spinal muscular atrophy.

Five pregnant women with a child affected by spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) were recruited between November 2014 and March 2015. Deletion of exons 7 and/or 8 in the SMN1 gene were identified by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA), the current standard diagnostic test for SMA. Parental and fetal haplotypes of the SMN1 gene were determined in each family from haplotype-based non-invasive testing of blood samples and maternal plasma, respectively. Fetal haplotype was compared with the results of MLPA of fetal DNA obtained from amniotic fluid or chorionic villi. Parental haplotypes were constructed successfully in the five families. Assisted by the information on parental haplotype, non-invasive testing of maternal plasma identified one fetus with homozygous deletion of exons 7 and 8, two fetuses with heterozygous deletion of exons 7 and 8 and two normal fetuses. These results were consistent with the diagnosis by MLPA. Copyright © 2016 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Dynamics and kinetics of reversible homo-molecular dimerization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Physical dimerization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been investigated via molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with the ReaxFF reactive force field that is developed to bridge the gap between the quantum mechanism and classical MD. Dynamics and kinetics of homo-molecular PAH collision under different temperatures, impact parameters, and orientations are studied at an atomic level, which is of great value to understand and model the PAH dimerization. In the collision process, the enhancement factors of homo-molecular dimerizations are quantified and found to be larger at lower temperatures or with smaller PAH instead of size independent. Within the capture radius, the lifetime of the formed PAH dimer decreases as the impact parameter increases. Temperature and PAH characteristic dependent forward and reverse rate constants of homo-molecular PAH dimerization are derived from MD simulations, on the basis of which a reversible model is developed. This model can predict the tendency of PAH dimerization as validated by pyrene dimerization experiments [H. Sabbah et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 1(19), 2962 (2010)]. Results from this study indicate that the physical dimerization cannot be an important source under the typical flame temperatures and PAH concentrations, which implies a more significant role played by the chemical route.

Prognostic value of preoperative platelet-lymphocyte and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients undergoing surgery for esophageal squamous cell cancer.

Increasing evidence has suggested that the host inflammatory status is associated with prognosis of several solid tumors. Preoperative platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), both acquired from routine blood tests, can reflect the status of systematic inflammation. However, whether they are correlated with clinical outcomes of esophageal carcinoma is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic value of preoperative PLR and NLR in patients with resected esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Preoperative PLR and NLR were evaluated in 317 eligible ESCC patients from September 2008 to December 2010. Receiver operating characteristic curves were applied to establish optimal cutoff points. The prognostic values of PLR and NLR were determined by both univariate and multivariate analyses. The optimal cutoff value of preoperative PLR and NLR were 103.0 and 2.1, respectively. One hundred and ninety-seven (62.1%) patients showed high level of preoperative PLR, while 148 (46.7%) patients showed high level of preoperative NLR. Both elevated PLR (P < 0.001) and NLR (P = 0.009) were correlated with poor disease-specific survival in univariate analysis. However, only preoperative PLR (P = 0.003) had a significant correlation with prognosis in multivariate analysis. In subgroup analyses, the predictive value of PLR was significant for stage I (P = 0.008) and stage II (P = 0.044) patients, but not for stage III patients (P = 0.100). Preoperative PLR is easily obtained from a routine blood test and may provide additional prognostic information for ESCC patients, especially in the early stage.

Association between positive murine double minute 2 expression and clinicopathological characteristics of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis.

The correlations of murine double minute 2 (MDM2) T309G and esophageal cancer were elucidated because the association between MDM2 expression states and clinicopathological parameters of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis on studies screened from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Databases that were published before October 2014. All studies describing the association between MDM2 and ESCC were traced. Meta-analysis was performed using the STATA software (Stata Corp., College Station, TX, USA). A total of 9 studies with 707 cases and 324 controls were included. MDM2 expression was higher in ESCC than in normal esophageal epithelium (odds ratio [OR] 10.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 6.42-16.78, P < 0.001). High MDM2 expression was associated with early primary tumor stage (T1/T2 vs. T3/T4, OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.38-0.92, P = 0.018) and increased risk of regional lymph node metastasis (N0 vs. N1, OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.03-2.67, P = 0.039). However, no relationship was observed between MDM2 expression and the risk of distant metastasis (OR = 2.09, 95% CI 1.00-4.36, P = 0.050), and MDM2 was not significantly correlated with TP53 expression (OR 1.22, 95% CI 0.53-2.77, P = 0.643). Our analysis suggests that MDM2 acts as a potent marker of early primary tumor stage but higher risk of regional lymph node metastasis in ESCC. However, because of the limited number of studies included, the result should be further clarified by well-designed prospective studies.

[Review of numerical simulation study of Stanford type B thoracic aortic dissection].

According to the previous studies, some key indicators such as the hemodynamic parameters (pressure, flow rate, shear stress, etc.) as well as the geometry and the location of tear are closely related to the development of aortic dissection but are hard to measure in vivo. With the help of computational fluid dynamic method, a promising way is just shown to investigate the mechanisms and treatment of aortic dissection from the perspective of hemodynamics by constructing a three-dimensional model to simulate blood flow. This paper presents a systematic review of the development of aortic dissection research and the major research progress of computational fluid dynamics applied to the analysis of aortic dissection.

Prognostic significance of gamma-glutamyltransferase in patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is a membrane-bound enzyme involved in the glutathione metabolism. Studies suggested that GGT was a marker of apoptotic balance and modulated tumor progression, invasion and drug resistance. Recently, GGT was shown to be associated with the progression of high-grade esophageal epithelial dysplasia to invasive carcinoma. This study was conducted to investigate the value of pre-therapeutic serum GGT levels as prognostic parameter in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Six hundred thirty-nine resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients were recruited in this study and were stratified into two GGT risk groups. The association of pre-therapeutic serum GGT levels and clinical-pathological parameters was examined. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were performed. GGT serum levels were associated with gender, smoking status, TNM stage and lymph node involvement. Higher pre-therapeutic serum GGT was found in males, smoker, advanced TNM stage and lymph node positive patients. Patients assigned to the low-risk group had higher 5-year overall survival rate (53.1% vs. 33.0%, P < 0.01) and disease-free survival rate (45.2% vs. 23.4%, P < 0.01) than the high-risk group. Patients with high-risk group of GGT had 1.568 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.259 ∼ 1.952) times the risk of death and 1.582 (95% CI, 1.286 ∼ 1.946) times the risk of disease recurrence contrast with those with low-risk group of GGT. The pre-therapeutic serum GGT is a novel independent prognostic parameter for disease-free survival and overall survival in resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Gene expression analysis of pretreatment biopsies predicts the pathological response of esophageal squamous cell carcinomas to neo-chemoradiotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (neo-CRT) followed by surgery has been shown to improve esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients' survival compared with surgery alone. However, the outcomes of CRT are heterogeneous, and no clinical or pathological method can currently predict CRT response. In this study, we aim to identify mRNA markers useful for ESCC CRT-response prediction. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Gene expression analyses were carried out on pretreated cancer biopsies from 28 ESCCs who received neo-CRT and surgery. Surgical specimens were assessed for pathological response to CRT. The differentially expressed genes identified by expression profiling were validated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and a classifying model was built from qPCR data using Fisher's linear discriminant analysis. The predictive power of this model was further assessed in a second set of 32 ESCCs. RESULTS: The profiling of the 28 ESCCs identified 10 differentially expressed genes with more than a twofold change between patients with pathological complete response (pCR) and less than pCR (

Adjuvant chemotherapy versus surgery alone for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and nonrandomized studies.

The effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on survival of patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinomas is still controversial, and the subgroup of patients who will most likely benefit from the adjuvant chemotherapy on long-term survival has not yet been identified clearly. Studies published from 1995 to May 2012 were searched in Medline, Embase, PubMed, Cancerlit, the Cochrane Library, CNKI and major scientific meetings. Randomized controlled trials and nonrandomized studies comparing surgery plus adjuvant chemotherapy with surgery alone in patients with resectable thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinomas were included. Eleven studies with a total of 2047 patients were identified, consisting of the adjuvant chemotherapy arm (n = 887) and surgery-alone arm (n = 1160). There was not statistically significant benefit on 3-year overall survival for adjuvant chemotherapy (risk ratio [RR] = 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 1.09; P = 0.25). Adjuvant chemotherapy could significantly prolong the 1-year disease-free survival (DFS) (RR = 0.68, 95%CI, 0.51 to 0.89; P = 0.006), but not 3-year DFS (RR = 0.97, 95%CI, 0.73 to 1.29; P = 0.84). Further analysis showed that patients with stage III-IV diseases could benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy on 3-year overall survival (RR = 0.43, 95%CI, 0.31 to 0.61; P = 0.00001), but not in the case of patients with stageI-IIdiseases (RR = 1.12, 95%CI, 0.65 to 1.93; P = 0.68). Additionally, patients with positive lymph node could benefit on 5-year DFS from adjuvant chemotherapy (RR = 0.79, 95%CI, 0.64 to 0.99; P = 0.04). The modality treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of thoracic esophagus might be determined according to pathological stage or the status of lymph node metastasis.

Protein kinase D1 mRNA level may predict cancer-specific survival in heavy smokers with esophageal squamous cell cancers.

Protein kinase D1 (PRKD1) is a kinase that regulates various pathways, which involve in cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell adhesion and invasion. Although PRKD1 expression has been observed in many cancers, its role in esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) has not been well reported. As its dysregulation in cancers is organ specific, we sought to investigate the potential role of PRKD1 in the progression of ESCC. Samples were collected from 178 patients with completely resected ESCCs at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, including 47 pairs of tumorous and non-tumorous tissues. PRKD1 mRNA expression was investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to search for a feasible cut-off point of PRKD1 mRNA levels for predicting cancer-specific survival. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to assess the prognostic value of PRKD1 mRNA level in ESCC patients. In result, upregulation of PRKD1 mRNA was detected in 55.3% (26/47) of ESCC tissues compared with paired non-tumorous ones (P = 0.011). ROC analysis indicated 3.28 as a cut-off point, and thus 72 and 106 tumors with low and high PRKD1 mRNA expression were categorized. High-PRKD1 mRNA expression in tumors appeared with more frequency in heavy smokers (P = 0.002) and patients with advanced pathological T category (P = 0.034). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients with low-PRKD1 mRNA had a longer cancer-specific survival than the ones with high-PRKD1 level (P = 0.044). Multivariate analysis showed that tumorous PRKD1 mRNA expression was an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio: 1.538, 95% confidence interval: 1.018-2.323, P = 0.041) in resected ESCC. Subgroup analysis revealed that the discernibility of PRKD1 mRNA level on ESCC outcomes was only pronounced in heavy smokers (P = 0.002), but not in non-heavy smokers (P = 0.870). PRKD1 might play a potential oncogenic role in ESCC. It might be an independent biomarker to predict prognosis in heavy smokers with ESCC.

Separation properties of aluminium-plastic laminates in post-consumer Tetra Pak with mixed organic solvent.

The separation properties of the aluminium-plastic laminates in postconsumer Tetra Pak structure were studied in this present work. The organic solvent blend of benzene-ethyl alcohol-water was used as the separation reagent. Then triangle coordinate figure analysis was taken to optimize the volume proportion of various components in the separating agent and separation process. And the separation temperature of aluminium-plastic laminates was determined by the separation time, efficiency, and total mass loss of products. The results show that cost-efficient separations perform best with low usage of solvents at certain temperatures, for certain times, and within a certain range of volume proportions of the three components in the solvent agent. It is also found that similar solubility parameters of solvents and polyethylene adhesives (range 26.06-34.85) are a key factor for the separation of the aluminium-plastic laminates. Such multisolvent processes based on the combined-system concept will be vital to applications in the recycling industry.

The impact of body mass index on complication and survival in resected oesophageal cancer: a clinical-based cohort and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Body mass index (BMI) has been associated with the risk of oesophageal cancer. But the influence of BMI on postoperative complication and prognosis has always been controversial. METHODS: In total, 2031 consecutive patients who underwent oesophagectomy between 1998 and 2008 were classified according to Asian-specific BMI (kg m(-2)) cutoff values. The impact of BMI on overall survival (OS) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard models. We performed a meta-analysis to examine the association of BMI with OS and postoperative complication. RESULTS: Patients with higher BMI had more postoperative complication (P=0.002), such as anastomotic leakage (P=0.016) and cardiovascular diseases (P<0.001), but less incidence of chylous leakage (P=0.010). Logistic regression analysis showed that BMI (P=0.005) was a confounding factor associated with postoperative complication. Multivariate analysis showed that overweight and obese patients had a more favourable survival than normal weight patients (HR (hazard ratio) = 0.80, 95% CI (confidence interval): 0.70-0.92, P=0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that the association with higher BMI and increased OS was observed in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) (P<0.001), oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) (P=0.034), never-smoking (P=0.035), ever-smoking (P=0.035), never alcohol consumption (P=0.005), weight loss (P=0.003) and advanced pathological stage (P<0.001). The meta-analysis further corroborated that higher BMI was associated with increased complication of anastomotic leakage (RR (risk ratio)=1.04, 95% CI: 1.02-1.06, P=0.001), wound infection (RR=1.03, 95% CI: 1.00-1.05, P=0.031) and cardiovascular diseases (RR=1.02, 95% CI: 1.00-1.05, P=0.039), but decreased incidence of chylous leakage (RR=0.98, 95% CI: 0.96-0.99, P<0.001). In addition, high BMI could significantly improved OS (HR=0.78, 95% CI: 0.71-0.85, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Preoperative BMI was an independent prognostic factor for survival, and strongly associated with postoperative complications in oesophageal cancer.

Single-nucleotide polymorphism microarray-based preimplantation genetic diagnosis is likely to improve the clinical outcome for translocation carriers.

STUDY QUESTION: Is preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for translocation carriers more effective when done with a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array using trophectoderm (TE) biopsy and frozen embryo transfer (FET) compared with traditional PGD based on fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH-PGD) using blastomere biopsy and fresh embryo transfer? SUMMARY ANSWER: The procedure using the SNP array combined with TE biopsy and FET significantly improves the clinical pregnancy rate for translocation carriers. The miscarriage rate also slightly decreases. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: FISH-PGD has been widely used in translocation carriers but the clinical outcomes have not been ideal. SNP arrays can detect both chromosome segmental imbalances and aneuploidy, and may overcome the limitations of FISH in PGD for translocation carriers. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE AND DURATION: This was a retrospective study of 575 couples with chromosomal translocations, including 169 couples treated by SNP-PGD between October 2011 and August 2012, and 406 couples treated by FISH-PGD between January 2005 and October 2011. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: The study was set in an IVF center at the Reproductive and Genetic Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya, China. In total, 169 couples underwent SNP analysis, including 52 Robertsonian translocation carriers and 117 carriers of reciprocal translocations. Blastocysts (n = 773) were biopsied and FET was carried out on the balanced embryos. Four hundred and six couples underwent FISH-PGD, including 149 Robertsonian translocation carriers and 257 reciprocal translocation carriers. In total, 3968 embryos were biopsied and balanced embryos were transferred fresh. The SNP-PGD results and clinical outcomes were compared with those of FISH-PGD. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Reliable SNP-PGD results were obtained for 717 out of 773 (92.8%) biopsied blastocysts. The proportions of normal/balanced embryos, embryos with translocation-related and translocation-unrelated abnormalities, the median number of embryos per patient, the ongoing pregnancy rate per embryo transfer and the miscarriage rate were 58, 23, 19, 2, 69 and 12%, respectively, for Robertsonian translocation carriers and 36, 52, 12, 1, 74 and 11%, respectively, in reciprocal translocation carriers. Reliable FISH-PGD results were obtained for 3452 out of 3968 (87.0%) biopsied embryos. The proportions of normal/balanced embryos, unbalanced embryos, the median number of embryos per patient, the ongoing pregnancy rate per transfer and the miscarriage were 36, 64, 3, 38 and 17%, respectively, for Robertsonian translocation carriers and 20, 80, 1, 39 and 16%, respectively, for reciprocal translocation carriers. Thus, SNP-PGD achieved a higher pregnancy rate but a lower miscarriage rate than FISH-PGD. There were no significant differences in maternal age, basal endocrine level and the average number of retrieved oocytes and good-quality D3 embryos in the SNP-PGD group compared with the FISH-PGD group. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: This was a retrospective study with the two groups treated in different periods; therefore, there is a chance of sample bias and a possibility that the results were influenced by other factors that changed over time. Furthermore, the two treatment protocols differ in several respects and we cannot say which makes the greatest contribution to the difference in success. Complete pregnancy outcomes of SNP-PGD have not been obtained as some embryos have not been transferred yet. We cannot exclude differences between the final data and the data in the present manuscript. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: The adoption of SNP-PGD combined with TE biopsy and FET may significantly improve the clinical pregnancy rate, and decrease the miscarriage rate after PGD for translocation carriers.