Purposes: To evaluate the diagnostic value of tumor-educated platelets (TEP) lncRNA ROR for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR was used to determine the expression level of TEP lncRNA ROR in NPC patients (n = 50) as compared to normal subjects (n = 33). The ROC curve analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic value of TEP lncRNA ROR for NPC. Correlations between TEP lncRNA ROR and clinical parameters were further analyzed. Results: The median of TEP lncRNA ROR was significantly lower in NPC patients than that in normal subjects (0.0209 vs 0.0610, p = 0.0019), while no significant difference was found in plasma lncRNA ROR. ROC analysis showed that TEP lncRNA ROR had a sensitivity of 60%, specificity of 70%, and accuracy of 63.9% in diagnosing NPC, and the area under ROC curve (AUC) was 0.70. The expression level of TEP lncRNA ROR in NPC showed no significant difference among different TNM stages. However, low level of TEP lncRNA ROR correlated well with positive Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) DNA (kappa value = 0.314, p = 0.06), TEP lncRNA ROR and EBV DNA had similar diagnostic positive rate (58.3%) for NPC, and the combination of TEP lncRNA ROR and EBV DNA increased the positive rate to 74%. Conclusion: The expression level of TEP lncRNA ROR was down-regulated in NPC and the diagnostic value of TEP lncRNA ROR was similar to EBV DNA. Our study indicated that TEP lncRNA ROR might serve as a novel type of liquid biopsy biomarker in diagnosis of NPC patients.

Differential diagnosis between benign ascites and malignant ascites remains challenging in clinical practice, the aim of our study is to determine the differential value of the ratio of ascitic-serum tumor markers between benign ascites and malignant ascites. 418 patients with new-onset ascites were retrospectively enrolled in this study. The pertinent data of patients enrolled were collected; diagnostic value of tumor markers, ascites-serum tumor marker ratio, and diagnostic algorithm based on ascitic tumor markers and ascites-serum tumor marker ratio in patients with ascites were investigated. 81.25.% of the patients with benign ascites had low (<1) ratio of ascites-serum tumor markers (Max [A/S CEA, A/S CA15-3, A/S CA19-9]); and 91.88% of patients with benign ascites had the ratio of ascites-serum tumor marker less than 1.5. On the other hand, 94.96% of the patients with malignant ascites had high (≥1) ratio of ascites-serum tumor markers; and 97.29% of patients with malignant ascites had the ratio of ascites-serum tumor markers more than 0.67. Finally, diagnostic algorithm based on ascitic tumor markers and ascites-serum tumor marker ratio showed 96.37% of the sensitivity, and 94.37% of the accuracy in the diagnosis of malignant ascites, while ascitic tumor markers with a sensitivity of 78.29%, and an accuracy of 84.93%. Diagnostic algorithm based on ascitic tumor markers and ascites-serum tumor marker ratio exhibited an excellent performance in distinguishing benign and malignant ascites, which should be recommended in patients with new-onset ascites in clinical practice.

COVID-19 patients develop hypolipidemia. However, it is unknown whether lipid levels have improved in recovered patients. In this study, a 3–6 month follow-up study was performed to examine serum levels of laboratory values in 107 discharged COVID-19 patients (mild = 59; severe/critical = 48; diagnoses on admission). 61 patients had a revisit chest CT scan. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyze changes in laboratory values. LDL-c and HDL-c levels were significantly higher at follow-up than at admission in severe/critical cases ( p < 0.05). LDL-c levels were significantly higher at follow-up than at admission in mild cases ( p < 0.05). With adjustment of the factor of traditional Chinese medicine, LDL-c and HDL-c levels were significantly improved at follow-up than at admission in severe/critical cases ( p < 0.05). Increases in HDL-c significantly correlated with increases in numbers of white blood cells ( p <0.001) and decreases in levels of C-reactive protein ( p < 0.05) during patients’ recovery. Residue lesions were observed in CT images in 69% (42 of 61) of follow-up patients. We concluded that improvements of LDL-c, HDL-c and incomplete absorption of lung lesions were observed at follow-up for recovered patients, indicating that a long-term recovery process could be required.