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The overexpression of soluble human leukocyte antigen-G is associated with malignant tumours. The purpose of our study was to detect soluble human leukocyte antigen-G concentrations in ascites and to evaluate the value of ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G for the diagnosis of malignant ascites. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect soluble human leukocyte antigen-G levels in 64 patients with malignant ascites and 30 patients with benign ascites. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G for the detection of malignant ascites. Ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G levels were significantly higher in the malignant ascites group than in the benign ascites group (20.718 ± 3.215 versus 12.467 ± 3.678 µg/L, t = 7.425, p < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G was 0.957 (95% confidence interval, 0.872-0.992). At a cut-off value of 19.60 µg/L, the sensitivity and specificity of ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G were 87.5% (95% confidence interval, 71.0%-96.5%) and 100% (95% confidence interval, 88.4%-100%), respectively. With respect to area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity and specificity, ascitic carcinoembryonic antigen (0.810, 68.75% and 83.33%, respectively) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (0.710, 65.63% and 70%, respectively) significantly differed (all p < 0.05). In malignant ascites that were cytology-negative and biopsy-positive, the rate of positivity for ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G was 75%, which was higher than the corresponding rates for ascitic carcinoembryonic antigen (31.25%) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (6.25%; both p < 0.05). In conclusion, The detection of ascitic soluble human leukocyte antigen-G exhibited good performance for diagnosing malignant ascites, and particularly those that were cytology-negative and biopsy-positive.

Blastocystis hominis (B. h) is a kind of intestinal parasitic protozoa with the characteristic of worldwide distribution, morphology diversity, and diarrhea induced, etc. The traditional morphological classify was difficult to distinguish the genetic difference of B. h in different population and different geological strains. Recently, based on the small subunit ribosomal DNA sequence of B. h, the sequenced-tagged site (STS) primers was design, and successfully and widely applied to the distinguish the genotype of B. h, and however several B. h strains did not distinguish. To address it, the elongation factor-1 alpha (EF-1α) gene of B. h was screened due to its conservation here, and its specific primers were designed to distinguish the genotype of B. h. After epidemiological survey, the infection rate of B. h in boys was 14.74%, and that of girls was 15.05%, and the total infection rate of B. h was 14.93%. In total of 53 infection students, with the using of 7 pairs STS primers, 31 strains was validated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), including 4 strains of Type 1, 17 strains of Type 3, 4 strains of Type 4, 1 strains of Type 6, and 5 strains of Type 7, and did not found the Type 2, Type 5 and mixture genotype. In the 23 unknown genotype strains of B. h, 15 strains were identified by PCR using EF-1α primers, and had a higher homology in the DNA sequence (70%), and was evolutionarily closer to the EF-1α sequence of S and H strains of B. h. This study indicated that STS primers could identify the genotype of B. h, and EF-1α primers as a novel diagnosis primers could auxiliary identify the unknown genotype strain of B. h, and exhibited a wide application on the identification of the genotype strain of B. h, and provided a significant reference on the study of B. h in clinic., Competing Interests: None., (IJCEP Copyright © 2017.)