• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.22
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• pp.9927-9931
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• 2014

The objectives of this study were to examine serum periplakin expression in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder and in normal controls, and to examine relationships with clinicopathological findings. Detection of serum periplakin was performed in 50 patients and 30 normal controls with anti-periplakin antibodies using the automatic dot blot system, and a micro-dot blot array with a 256 solid-pin system. Levels in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder were significantly lower than those in normal controls (0.31 and 5.68, respectively; p<0.0001). The area under the receiver-operator curve level for urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder was 0.845. The sensitivity and specificity, using a cut-off point of 4.045, were 83.7% and 73.3%, respectively. In addition, serum periplakin levels were significantly higher in patients with muscle-invasive cancer than in those with nonmuscle-invasive cancer (P = 0.03). In multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, none of the clinicopathological factors was associated with an increased risk for progression and cancer-specific survival. Examination of the serum periplakin level may play a role as a non-invasive diagnostic modality to aid urine cytology and cystoscopy.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2009

Atopic dermatitis, caused by immune hyper-responsiveness, is wide spread in humans as well as in the dogs, especially in industrialized condition. Pet dogs are generally exposed to the same environment as their owners, and a significant portion of these animals are also known to suffer from this allergic disease. However, diagnosis and treatment methods of atopic dermatitis in animals have not been well established. We explored the possibility of using recently developed PG102 for the treatment of atopic dermatitis in the canine population. PG102 is a water soluble extract prepared from Actinidia arguta, and has been shown to produce significant therapeutic effect in variable allergy animal models. After oral administration of PG102 at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg daily for 4 weeks, severity of disease was greatly improved. IgE is one of representative members used to diagnose allergic diseases in humans. However, it is not well established whether there is any correlation between the serum level of IgE and atopic dermatitis. Our data indicated that dogs diagnosed to have atopic dermatitis contained higher level of serum IgE than the normal dogs and that treatment of dogs with PG102 significantly lowered the serum level of IgE. Taken together, this study demonstrated that PG102 treatment yielded significant amelioration of canine atopic dermatitis and down-regulation of serum IgE and that the serum level of IgE can be used as a convenient member for diagnosis of atopic dermatitis in dogs.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.361-364
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• 1997

The paper is to report a case of zinc-deficient parakeratotic hyperkeratosis in a dog. In this dermatosis, although an available diagnosis of zinc-deficient dermatosis is to analyse the serum or hair zinc Bevels, exact analysis of zinc is difficult and unreliable due to contamination of zinc by various environmental, physiologic and disease-related factors. Diagnosis may be performed by history, physical examination and blood chemical analysis. Laboratory evaluation revealed hypercholesterolemia and low activities of serum alkaline photophatase and total protein. The dog showed thick crusts at the elbows joint, stifle joint and testis. Zinc sulfate is administered per oral to patient with application of salicylic acid added vaseline ointment on hyperkaratic lesions. The dog is successfully cured.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.21
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• pp.9511-9515
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• 2014

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a cancer of the bile duct epithelial cells. The highest incidence rate of CCA with a poor prognosis and poor response to chemotherapy is found in Southeast Asian countries, especially in northeastern Thailand and Lao PDR. Cathepsin B is a lysosomal cysteine protease which is regulated by cysteine proteinase inhibitors such as cystatin C. Elevation of cathepsin B levels in biological fluid has been observed in patients with inflammatory diseases and many cancers. We aimed to investigate the serum cathepsin B and cystatin C levels of CCA patients to evaluate the feasibility of using cathepsin B and cystatin C as markers for the diagnosis of CCA. Fifty-six sera from CCA patients, 17 with benign biliary diseases (BBD) and 13 from controls were collected and the cathepsin B and cystatin C levels were determined. In addition, cathepsin B expression was investigated immunohistochemically for 9 matched-pairs of cancerous and adjacent tissues of CCA patients. Serum cathepsin B, but not cystatin C, was significantly higher in CCA and BBD patient groups compared to that in the control group. Consistently, all cancerous tissues strongly expressed cathepsin B while adjacent tissues were negative in 7 out of 9 cases. In contrast, serum cystatin C levels were comparable between CCA and control groups, although serum cystatin C levels in the BBD group was higher than that in the control or CCA groups. When the serum cathepsin B to cystatin C ratio was calculated, that of the CCA group was significantly higher than that of the control group, and, although statistically not significant, the ratio of CCA group showed a trend to be higher than that of the BBD group. Thus, the cathepsin B to cystatin C ratio might be used as an alternative marker for aiding diagnosis of CCA.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2887-2889
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• 2012

Malignant tumors have a capacity to degrade the extracellular matrix by controlled proteolysis. One system involved in these processes is the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) system. uPAR levels are elevated in tumors from several types of cancer. Our study was planned to investigate serum and urine levels of uPAR in breast cancer patients (n=180) and healthy controls (n=60) by ELISA. Serum (p<0.001) and urine (p<0.001) uPAR values in the patients were both significantly elevated. High serum and urine levels of uPAR can be used as diagnostic tools in lymph node positive patients.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.347-356
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• 1994

A simpled and sensitive microplate enzyme immunoassay(EIA) was developed for the determination of progesterone concentration in serum, based on progesterone monoclonal antibody as anti-progesterone, horseradish peroxidase(HRP) as enzyme-label and tetramethylbenzidine(TMB) as substrate. The assay has a sensitivity of 5 pg-120pg/well and intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation for progesterone standard curve (1.0ng~10.0ng/ml) were ranged 2.5~9.9% and 1.7.8.0%, respectively, determination coefficient of the regressio equation of our standard curve(R2=0.990$\pm$0.007) were high, and this is the same level as that of commercial kit(Hormonost Bio-Lab, Germany, R2=0.98~0.99). The progesterone concentration of serum determined by both kits (Work & Bio-Lab) were significantly correlated (r=0.95, P<0.01) although a little higher value were resulted in our kit than that of commercial kit. It generally is these results indicated that the microplate-EIA can be cused for the determination of progesterone in serum, as well as, for the determination of the early pregnancy diagnosis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.2003-2007
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• 2015

Background: Elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels in adults are considered abnormal. This parameter is used mostly in the diagnosis and follow-up of hepatocellular carcinomas and yolk sac tumors. Among the other rare tumors accompanied with elevated serum AFP levels, gastric cancer is the most common. In this study, we evaluated the follow-up and comparison of the treatment and marker response of patients with metastatic gastric cancer who had elevated serum AFP levels. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective study, including all consecutive patients with advanced gastric cancer, who received systemic chemotherapy with elevated AFP level. Results: Seventeen metastatic gastric cancer patients with elevated AFP levels at the time of diagnosis were evaluated. Fourteen (82.4%) were males and three (17.6%) were females. The primary tumor localization was the gastric body in 8 (76.4%), cardia in 7 (41.2%), and antrum in 2 (11.8%). Hepatic metastasis was observed in 13 (76.4%) at the time of diagnosis. When the relationship of AFP levels and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) response of the patients with their radiologic responses was evaluated, it was found that the radiologic response was compatible with AFP response in 16 (94.1%) patients and with CEA response in 12 (70.6%); however, in 5 (29.4%) patients no accordance was observed between radiological and CEA responses. Conclusions: Follow-up of AFP levels in metastatic gastric cancer patients with elevated AFP levels may allow prediction of early treatment response and could be more useful than the CEA marker for follow-up in response evaluation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.4671-4675
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• 2016

Background and aim: Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with an overall 5-year survival of <5% mainly due to presence of advanced disease at time of diagnosis. Therefore development of valid biomarkers to diagnose pancreatic cancer in early stages is an urgent need. This study concerned the sensitivity and specificity of serum ICAM 1 versus CA 19-9 in differentiation between pancreatic cancer and healthy subjects and acohort of patients with chronic pancreatitis with a focus on assessing validity in diagnosis of early stages of pancreatic cancer. Methods: A cohort of 50 patients with histologically diagnosed pancreatic tumors, 27 patients with chronic pancreatitis, and 35 healthy controls were enrolled. Serum samples for measurement of CA19-9 and I-CAM 1 were obtained from all groups and analyzed for significance regarding diagnosis and disease stage. Results: At a cut off value of (878.5 u/ml) I-CAM 1 had 82% and 82.26% sensitivity and specificity for differentiation between cancer and non-cancer cases, with higher sensitivity and specificity than CA19-9 at different cut offs (CA19-9 sensitivity and specificity ranged from 64-80% and 56.4 - 61.2% respectively). The AUC was 0.851 for I-CAM and 0.754 for CA19-9. Neither of the markers demonstrated significance for distinguishing between early and late cancer stages. Conclusion: ICAM 1 is a useful marker in differentiation between malignant and benign pancreatic conditions, and superior to CA19-9 in this regard. However, neither of the markers can be recommended for use in differentiation between early and late stage pancreatic cancers.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.48.1-48.12
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• 2024

Importance: Early diagnosis of canine pancreatitis is challenging due to non-specific clinical signs. Currently, abdominal ultrasonography and measurement of canine pancreatic lipase (cPL) have been employed for the diagnosis of pancreatitis. Objective: Many qualitative and quantitative commercial cPL tests have been developed and used in veterinary clinics. This study aimed to compare three different methodologies SNAP cPL, Spec cPL, and Vcheck cPL tests to assess the concordance of these assays. Methods: Fifty serum samples were collected from 36 dogs with or without pancreatitis and subjected to SNAP cPL, Spec cPL, and Vcheck cPL tests. Agreement and correlation coefficients were calculated between the test results, and correlations were determined during the management of the patients. Results: The results of the three cPL assays were strongly correlated in 47/50 serum samples (94%). Cohen's kappa analysis between the Spec cPL and Vcheck cPL showed near perfect agreement (κ = 0.960, p < 0.001), SNAP cPL and Vcheck cPL (κ = 0.920, p < 0.001), and Spec cPL and SNAP cPL (κ = 0.880, p < 0.001). The correlation coefficients (r) between data from Spec cPL and Vcheck cPL tests was calculated by Spearman's correlation test (r = 0.958, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the patterns of change in serum cPL concentrations determined using Spec cPL and Vcheck cPL were significantly consistent during the monitoring period in 11 patients. Conclusions and Relevance: Our data illustrated that Spec cPL and Vcheck cPL tests are compatible for clinical use in the diagnosis and monitoring of canine pancreatitis.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.150-155
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• 2011

It is a very important diagnosis and evalution of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Korea where hepatitis B-virus is endemic. Protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist II (PIVKA-II) appears to be a useful tumor marker. This study was purposed to investigate usefulness of PIVKA-II in the diagnosis and fallow-up after treatment of HCC. A total of 418 patients were included in 187 patients (44.7%) of HCC, 83 patients (19.9%) of liver cirrhosis, 74 patients (17.7%) of chronic hepatitis and 74 patients (17.7%) of other liver diseases with serum PIVKA-II levels by Hicatch PIVKA-II kit. PIVKA-II level were analysed for difference of groups and the comparison of treatment responses. The sensitivity and specificity of PIVKA-II in the diagnosis of HCC were 80.2%, 87.0% at the cut-off value of 40 mAU/mL. There were statistically significant difference between the HCC and other groups (p<0.001), before and after PIVKA-II levels after treatment in HCC (p<0.001). PIVKA-II can be used as a useful tumor marker for patients with HCC, especially early diagnosis in high risk groups, treatment response assesment and monitoring of recurrence.