Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics and Differential Diagnosis between Secondary Hemophagocytic Syndrome and Sepsis

Background. Secondary hemophagocytic syndrome (SHPS) and sepsis, although very similar in their clinical manifestations and laboratory parameters, essentially differ in terms of methods of their treatment. SHPS therapy is aimed at immunosuppression, whereas in sepsis anti-infectious treatment is required. To choose the correct therapy a rapid differential diagnosis is necessary. Aim. Search and analysis of criteria of differential diagnosis between SHPS and sepsis. Materials & Methods. The data of 102 patients were analyzed: 55 SHPS patients (median age 60 and range 18–81 years) and 47 sepsis patients (median age 60 and range 18–89 years). SHPS was diagnosed on the basis of HLH-2004 and H-Score criteria. Sepsis was confirmed by documented inflammatory lesions and systemic inflammatory reactions. Microbiologically confirmed sepsis was reported in 10 (21 %) patients. In all sepsis patients multiple organ failure was identified. Results. The study of SHPS and sepsis groups revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) in the levels of C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, creatinine, albumin, and sodium. It was also found out that splenomegaly rate and the levels of triglycerides, ferritin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in SHPS were significantly higher than in sepsis, but the levels of glycosylated ferritin (%GF), fibrinogen, leukocytes, neutrophils, and thrombocytes were lower. The following medians (quartiles 1–3) were reported in SHPS and sepsis, respectively: triglycerides (mmol/L) were 3.1 (2.3–3.8) and 1.5 (0.8–2.7), total ferritin (ng/mL) was 7,170 (3,159.2–12,551.0) and 1,274 (559.0–3,041.5), %GF was 26.5 (16.7–37.3) and 54.5 (37.7–71.8), fibrinogen (g/L) was 2.8 (1.4–4.4) and 5.3 (2.8–6.8), ALT (IU/L) was 50 (20–102) and 30 (15.3–55.5), AST (IU/L) was 66 (40.0–105.6) and 36 (24.6–78.0), leukocytes (×109/L) were 3.7 (2.1–5.5) and 8.9 (6.5–14.5), thrombocytes (×109/L) were 56 (25.2–93.5) and 157 (97–308). According to ROC analysis the areas under the curve were as follows: 0.88 for neutrophil level, 0.85 for total ferritin, %GF, leukocytes, and thrombocytes, 0.74 for triglycerides, 0.71 for fibrinogen, 0.65 for sodium, and 0.61 for ALT and AST. Conclusion. In differential diagnosis between SHPS and sepsis most important are the levels of total ferritin, its glycosylated fraction, and triglycerides; less important are fibrinogen, neutrophils, thrombocytes and spleen size. As diagnosis and differential diagnosis between SHPS and sepsis are based on the sum total of clinical and laboratory markers, none of the specified characteristics can serve as a reliable parameter if taken separately

Evolutional and clinical implications of the epigenetic regulation of protein glycosylation

Protein N glycosylation is an ancient posttranslational modification that enriches protein structure and function. The addition of one or more complex oligosaccharides (glycans) to the backbones of the majority of eukaryotic proteins makes the glycoproteome several orders of magnitude more complex than the proteome itself. Contrary to polypeptides, which are defined by a sequence of nucleotides in the corresponding genes, glycan parts of glycoproteins are synthesized by the activity of hundreds of factors forming a complex dynamic network. These are defined by both the DNA sequence and the modes of regulating gene expression levels of all the genes involved in N glycosylation. Due to the absence of a direct genetic template, glycans are particularly versatile and apparently a large part of human variation derives from differences in protein glycosylation. However, composition of the individual glycome is temporally very constant, indicating the existence of stable regulatory mechanisms. Studies of epigenetic mechanisms involved in protein glycosylation are still scarce, but the results suggest that they might not only be important for the maintenance of a particular glycophenotype through cell division and potentially across generations but also for the introduction of changes during the adaptive evolution

The Electrochemical Performance and Applications of Several Popular Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles - A Review

The Lithium-ion battery is one of the most common batteries used in Electric Vehicles (EVs) due to the specific features of high energy density, power density, long life span and environment friendly. With the development of lithium-ion battery technology, different materials have been adopted in the design of the cathodes and anodes in order to gain a better performance. $LiMn_{2}O_{4}$ , $LiNiMnCoO_{2}$ , $LiNiCoAlO_{2}$ , $LiFePO_{4}$ and $Li_{4}Ti_{5}O_{12}$ are five common lithium-ion batteries adopted in commercial EVs nowadays. The characteristics of these five lithium-ion batteries are reviewed and compared in the aspects of electrochemical performance and their practical applications

Relaxation of two-temperature plasma

The relaxation process of a space uniform plasma composed of electrons and one species of ions is considered. For the varied initial electron and ion temperatures, the asymptotic behavior of the solutions, under m(e)/m(i) much less than 1, are studied. Special attention has been paid to the deviation of relaxation from the classical picture, the latter being characterized by a weakly nonisothermic situation T-e much greater than (m(e)/m(i))T-1/3(i). An approach is developed for the detailed description of the relaxation. The perturbation of the electron distribution function, which has the character of a boundary layer for the cold electrons, is studied. The field of applicability of the well-known formulas for temperatures is extended and their corrections are obtained. The relaxation process of the two-temperature plasma is also considered numerically. A comparison of the results of the calculation with those of the asymptotic approach is made. The analytical results are confirmed by the numerical simulation results.5622081209