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Objectives: The systemic inflammatory response is strongly involved in the progression of malignant tumors, and it is useful for predicting survival time and determining therapeutic effects. The inflammatory biomarkers, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are used to assess post-treatment survival and recurrence in various malignant tumors.(Walsh et al., 2005; Burt et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2009) 1 , 2 , 3 These indicators may be effective as predictive markers for head and neck malignancies., Methods: The participants were 125 glottic laryngeal and supraglottic cancer cases who received primary treatment in our department from 2010 to 2016. The NLR, LMR, and PLR for each patient were calculated in addition to the association with overall survival (OS) rate, disease-specific survival (DSS) rate, and laryngeal preservation rate for tumor location, T and N classification, TNM stage classification, treatment, and smoking. We investigated whether inflammatory biomarkers are useful for predicting prognosis., Results: The cutoff values for NLR, LMR, and PLR on the ROC curve were 1.88, 5.57, and 108, respectively. Multivariate analysis with LMR 5.57 as the cutoff value showed significant differences in OS, DSS, and laryngeal preservation. However, setting the cutoff values for NLR 1.88 and PLR 108 showed significant differences only in OS and laryngeal preservation., Conclusion: LMR may be a total survival predictor of laryngeal cancer, including OS, DSS, and laryngeal preservation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Asian Surgical Association and Taiwan Society of Coloproctology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A generalized sequential four-step phase-shifting color digital holography is proposed. As an arbitrary phase-shift quantity is independent from wavelengths, it can be used for four-step phase-shifting color digital holography. Furthermore, no constraint on the phase-shifting quantities or statistical property on the hologram is required in the proposed method. Experimental results using a reflective object are shown to confirm the proposed phase-shifting digital holography.

Urinary proteins of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) were analyzed using cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis, to determine the clinical usefulness of fraction patterns of the proteins in detecting the group at high risk for diabetic nephropathy. We divided the protein patterns into 5 groups. Four groups (I, II, III, IV) were found in the healthy group and a newly classified group was termed group 0 and was characterized by a prominent albumin peak with a negligible or small globulin peak. The incidence of groups 0, I, II, III, and IV, was 36.6%, 13.3%, 18.7%, 10.7% and 22.7%, respectively. This distribution was clearly different from that of healthy subjects and the most characteristic feature of diabetics was that group 0 accounted for 36.6% of the total cases. Characteristic features of each group were examined from the aspect of laboratory and clinical findings. Urinary protein patterns were concluded to be useful not only to predict the high risk group for diabetic nephropathy in the preclinical stage but also to discriminate nephropathic types of glomerular or tubular origin. It is useful for clinicians to know the risk stage and prognosis for diabetic nephropathy.

In order to establish a rapid staining method sensitive enough to stain the protein bands on cellulose acetate membrane and suitable for the analysis of urinary proteins in healthy subjects, we conducted a detailed examination of Kovarik's method designed for the analysis of proteins in cerebrospinal fluid in detail. For purpose, of our study, we changed the pH of the staining solution used in Kovarik's method to pH 4.4 by adding acetic acid. With this solution, our staining method revealed a degree of sensitivity about three times higher than that of the original method, but specific sensitivity for albumin and gamma-globulin remained almost unchanged. The solution preparation we used was much more simple and the reagent much more stable than in the original method. Our method also showed better reproducibility and linearity than the original method. These results point to the suitability of this method for the analysis of low-concentration proteins, such as urinary proteins, in healthy subjects.

We fractionated normal urinary proteins obtained from 40 healthy subjects using cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis and stained them with Acid Violet 17. The electrophoretic patterns were classified into four groups. Each of groups I, II, III, IV had an albumin peak and 1, 2, 3, and 4 additional globulin peaks, respectively. Within-day variation study showed that the pattern was fundamentally specific to the individual, although some intermediate cases were observed. We were unable to determine which type was standard for normal subjects. However, the concentration of Tamm-Horsfall protein was speculated to be an important factor in determining the patterns. Group III showed significantly higher values than group I in urine albumin, total protein, and beta-N-acetyl-D-glucosaminidase and this group was believed to include subjects in the subclinical stage of a glomerular disease. All specimens belonging to group IV showed an obvious fraction of alpha 1 globulin which is often found in urine specimens of patients with renal diseases of tubular origin or other pathological conditions.