Objective To analyze the blood arsenic concentration and the safety of compound Qinghuang powder(compound QHP)in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome(MDS).Methods A total of 45 MDS patients received treatment with compound QHP (the treatment group, n=45). The concentration of blood arsenic in different time was determined by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The clinical safety of compound QHP was evaluated by analyzing the symptoms of adverse reaction and organ function. The comparison were MDS patients with Qinghuang powder (QHP group, n=47) and healthy people. Results There was no significant difference of the blood arsenic concentration between the treatment group and the healthy control group (P=0.450),while after the treatment for 1 month those concentrations significantly increased (P=0.000). There were no significant difference between the blood arsenic concentration after treatment for 1, 3, and 6 months (P=0.240). The incidence of adverse reaction in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in QHP group(χ2=4.720, P=0.030). The incidence of adverse reactions in the digestive tract was significantly lower in the treatment group than that in QHP group (χ2=4.650, P=0.034). The blood arsenic concentration of patients with abdominal pain diarrhea was significantly lower than those without abdominal pain diarrhea (P=0.020). Before treatment in the compound QHP group, there were 21 cases with increased myocardial enzymes, 10 cases with abnormal liver function and 4 cases with renal dysfunction, respectively. After treatment at 6th month, these indicators returned to normal with 7 cases of myocardial enzymes, 6 cases of liver function and 1 case of renal function, respectively. There was no new case with abnormal myocardial enzymes, liver function and renal dysfunction, respectively. Conclusions Arsenic could be absorbed in the digestive tract into blood in MDS patients after treatment with arsenic-containing compound QHP, and the blood arsenic concentration remained stable during the course of treatment. The adverse reactions were mainly mild gastrointestinal symptoms, but no heart, liver or renal function damage was observed. The incidence of abdominal pain diarrhea in patients treated with compound QHP was significantly lower than that with QHP.

Objective: To analyze the gene mutations in the patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Methods: Forty-seven patients with MDS newly diagnosed in Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences from January 2016 to July 2017 were enrolled. NGS 127-gene panel was used to detect the gene mutations, and the relationship between the gene mutations and the clinicopathological features was also analyzed. Results: Thirty-one (66.0 %) cases had gene mutations in 47 patients with MDS, and 23 gene mutations were detected with clinical significances. There were 7 mutant genes with a mutation frequency over 5 % in the population, including U2AF1 (23.4 %), SF3B1 (12.8 %), ASXL1 (10.6 %), TET2 (8.5 %), BCOR (8.5 %), TP53 (8.5 %) and DNMT3A (6.4 %) in turn. Among 31 patients with gene mutations, 16 (51.6 %) patients had ≥ 2 synergistic mutations, and 12 cases had synergistic mutations in different genetic functional groups, which was higher than that in same genetic functional groups (4 cases). There was a tendency of coexistence in IDH2-KRAS, IDH2-SRSF2, IDH2-STAG2, KRAS-SRSF2, KRAS-STAG2, RUNX1-PHF6, EZH2-ASXL1, EZH2-ZRSR2, and NPM1-NRAS (all P < 0.05). The variant allele frequency (VAF) of signaling pathway related genes including JAK2, KRAS, NRAS, SH2B3 was low in general and in a sub-clone status. JAK2 gene mutation was observed in 1 case with MDS-U. SH2B3 gene mutation was observed in a patient with very poor prognosis of karyotype. SETPB1 and EZH1 gene mutations were observed in two patients with high-risk revised international prognostic scoring system (IPSS-R). Conclusions The common mutated genes include U2AF1, SF3B1, ASXL1 and TET2. The genes in different genetic functional groups tend to synergistic mutations. Gene mutations can be used to predict the prognosis of diseases and become the target in the treatment of MDS.