OBJECTIVE: To explore the characteristics of tongue color in patients with primary liver cancer (PLC). METHODS: Tongue color and its RGB value were analyzed quantitatively for PLC patients in different clinical periods and other cancer patients by analysis system for comprehensive information of tongue diagnosis. RESULTS: The rate of blue and purple tongue was higher (P<0.05) and all the values of RGB were lower (P<0.01) in PLC patients compared with other cancer patients. In different clinical periods, the rate of blue and purple tongue in stage III was the highest (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The blue and purple tongue is one of the most important tongue characteristics of PLC patients.

OBJECTIVE: To find out some microscopically visible morphological differences in normal tongue manifestation between patients with primary liver cancer and healthy adults, and provide some beneficial evidences for microcosmic syndrome differentiation of tongue inspection. METHODS: Microcirculations of the tongue tip, which represented the macroscopical normal tongue manifestation, were observed under an optical microscope in patients with primary liver cancer and healthy adults. Exfoliated cells from tongue coating were examined by hematoxylin-eosin staining. RESULTS: The proportion of normal tongue manifestation was larger in healthy adults (38.89%) than that in patients with primary liver cancer (2.32%). The total score of microcirculation of tongue tip and the maturation index of exfoliated cells from tongue coating were both higher in patients with primary liver cancer than those in healthy adults with normal tongue manifestation (P<0.01, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Normal tongue manifestation, which is macroscopically visible, can be observed in both patients with primary liver cancer and healthy adults, but there exists obvious difference in microcosmic view.

Objective By a sequencing panel consisting of 50 targeted genes, aiming at depicting the molecular landscape of ET, PV, and PMF, which are three major subtypes of MPN, to provide valuable information in the diagnosis and prognosis of MPN.Methods A retrospective study was conducted of 53 patients from Huashan hospital and Changhai hospital. All patients were diagnosed in accordance with the 2016 WHO diagnostic criteria for MPN, including 31 cases of ET(11 males, 20 females, median age 55 years), 17 cases of PV(12 males, 5 females, median age 65 years), and 5 cases of PMF(4 males, 1 females, median age 67 years), and underwent next-generation of DNA sequencing of their bone marrow or blood samples. The genetic analyses were performed on bone marrow or peripheral blood. Referring to COSMIC, dbSNP, Clinvar and other public databases, we analyzed the sequencing data, and elucidated the mutation profile of MPN patients, combining with their clinic information. Results In addition to the typical JAK2, CALR, and MPL mutations, pathogenic mutations in other 11 genes were detected, as well as 4 SNPs that confer individual susceptibility to MPNs (rs4858647, rs9376092, rs58270997, rs621940). The average rate of mutated genes was 2.3 genes per patient. In all patients (53 cases), the mutated genes detected were TET2, EZH2, ASXL1, MIR662, SF3B1, BARD1, DNMT3A, KIT, RUNX1, TP53, NRAS according to their mutational frequency. Conclusions Applying next-generation sequencing technology, multi-gene sequencing of a bunch of typical BCR-ABL-negative MPN patients can be performed at one time within 2 working days, and pathogenic mutations other than JAK2, CALR, MPL can be found, which has a bright prospection in clinic.