Alignment-free comparison is a recently developed method for sequence alignment, which has high computational efficiency and suitable to the low identical sequences. Alignment-free comparison was successfully applied in the DNA analysis. However, the accuracy of analysis is not high when it was applied in protein analysis because the complexity of protein is larger than DNA by consisting of 20 types of residues. Thus, residues are clustered into a few groups based on their similarity of physicochemical features. Using such simplified alphabets, the complexity of protein sequences is reduced and at the same time the key information encoded in the sequences remains. Therefore, the accuracy of alignment-free comparison is improved.

BACKGROUND:Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty has become mainstream operation for treatment of unicompartmental osteoarthritis of the knee, but unicompartmental knee arthroplastystil has some problems, such as excessive bleeding-induced postoperative blood transfusion, increased blood transfusion rate, hospitalization expense and complication of blood transfusion. As tranexamic acid for total knee arthroplasty has achieved good effects. It is significant to investigate whether local application of tranexamic acid can effectively reduce blood loss in unicompartmental arthroplasty.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the efficacy and safety of the intra-articular tranexamic acid injection in treating perioperative blood loss in patients undergoing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
METHODS:122 patients with knee osteoarthritis undergoing unicompartmental knee arthroplastyinthe Department of Orthopedics, the Second Affiliated Hospital ofDalian Medical University from January 2014 to August 2015wereenroled in this study. Al patients were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the tranexamic acid group were injected with 10 mL of tranexamic acid (containing 1000 mg) + 10 mL of sodium chloride injection in the articular cavity before loosening the tourniquet. Patients in the control group received 20 mL of sodium chloride injection in the articular cavity. In both groups, the drainage tube was clipped for 3 hours after injection.At 48 hours after replacement, the drainage tube was puled out. We compared and analyzed hemoglobin levels and hematocrit at 2 days and 1 month postoperatively, total blood loss and drainage volume at 2 days postoperatively, the number of patients receiving blood transfusion, Hospital for Special Surgery scores of knee function at 1 week and 1 month postoperatively, and thrombosis at 1 week postoperatively, and evaluated effects of tranexamic acid on blood loss after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1) Hemoglobin levels and hematocrit were significantly higher in the tranexamic acid group than in the control group at 2 days postoperatively (P< 0.05). No significant difference in hemoglobin levels and hematocrit was detected at 1 month postoperatively in both groups (P> 0.05). (2) Drainage volume and total blood loss were significantly less in the tranexamic acid group than in the control group at 2 days postoperatively (P< 0.05). (3) The number of patients receiving blood transfusion was significantly less in the tranexamic acid group (0 case) than in the control group (6 cases) (P< 0.05). (4) Scores of Hospital for Special Surgery were significantly higher in the tranexamic acid group than in the control group at 1 week postoperatively (P< 0.05). No significant difference in above socres was identified between the two groups at 1 month postoperatively. (5) No venous thrombosis was found at 1 week postoperatively in both groups. (6) These results confirm that during knee medial unicompartmental arthroplasty, intra-articular injection of tranexamic acid combined with 3 hours of blood occlusion can effectively reduce drainage volume, perioperative blood loss, blood transfusion, is beneficial to the early recovery of knee jointfunction after replacement, and does not increase the risk of lower extremity deep venous thrombosis.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the recovery rate of sudden sensorineural hearing loss in children, and explore the prognostic factors in order to guide the clinical diagnosis and treatment. METHOD: A retrospective review was conducted for the prognosis of children with sudden sensorineural hearing loss during the past 5 years (from November 2010 to May 2015) in Chinese PLA General Hospital. This paper have a complete clinical data of 101 patients (113 ears)with sudden hearing loss, ranging from 0 to 18 years old Patients were divided into four groups according to hearing recovery and eight putative prognostic factors were analyzed. RESULT: Among 101 patients (113 ears), the ratio of male and female was 60:53. Treatment was initiated from 1 to 183 days after disease onset, with an average of (18.5 ± 22.1) d. Bilateral and unilateral hearing loss were 24 ears and 89 ears, respectively. The proportion of mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss were 7.1%, 6.2%, 23.9% and 62.8%, respectively. Vertigo and tinnitus occurred in 54.9% and 77.9% of the patients, respectively. After the treatment, the complete recovery rate was 9.7% and the overall recovery rate was 36.3%. The degree of hearing loss, earlier treatment onset, sex and bilateral involvement were significantly associated with hearing recovery (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Sudden sensorineural hearing loss in children was generally identified as severe and profound hearing loss, but after positive and timely treatment, it can be improved or even cured. The mild hearing loss, earlier treatment onset, unilateral hearing loss and female were positive prognostic factors. The concurrence of tinnitus or vertigo, the results of ABR and DPOAE had no significant influence on prognosis.
Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; diagnosis ; Hearing Loss, Sudden ; diagnosis ; Hearing Loss, Unilateral ; diagnosis ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Tinnitus ; complications ; Vertigo ; complications

Composite lymphoma (CL) involving B-cell lymphoma and T-cell lymphoma is extremely rare. Herein, we report three such cases using immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and the next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify the pathological and molecular characteristics of CL. In the first case, the patient was admitted to hospital for generalized pruritic maculopapular rash over the whole body. An excisional biopsy of the skin lesions showed T-cell lymphoma. At the same time, the staging bone marrow (BM) biopsy revealed a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). After R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) therapies, the patient produced a good response with substantial dissipation of the rashes and relief of skin. The other two patients were admitted to hospital due to lymphadenopathy and were diagnosed with DLBCL and follicular lymphoma (FL) after core needle biopsy of lymph nodes, BM biopsy, BM aspiration, and flow cytometry. Following R-CHOP and R-COP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone) therapies, they achieved complete remission unconfirmed (CRu) and complete remission (CR). However, one or two years later, they suffered a relapse of lymphadenopathy. The shocking fact was that re-biopsy of lymphadenopathy revealed peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) and angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL). NGS findings identified DNA methyltransferase 3a (DNMT3a), isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 (IDH2), Ras homolog gene family, member A (RHOA), splicing factor 3B subunit 1 (SF3B1), and tumor protein p53 (TP53) mutations. After immunochemotherapy, these patients achieved CRu and CR again. Nevertheless, they suffered a second relapse of T-cell lymphoma. Finally, they died due to progression of disease. We found that the occurrence of CL is associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection and DNMT3a, IDH2, and TP53 mutations, and the prognosis of the disease is closely related to the T-cell lymphoma components.
Humans ; Rituximab/therapeutic use* ; Vincristine/therapeutic use* ; Prednisone/therapeutic use* ; Epstein-Barr Virus Infections/drug therapy* ; Herpesvirus 4, Human ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Lymphoma, T-Cell/drug therapy* ; Cyclophosphamide/therapeutic use* ; Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse/pathology* ; Doxorubicin/therapeutic use* ; Lymphadenopathy/drug therapy* ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use*