Background and Purpose-The purpose of this study was to investigate whether thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies were associated with the risk of moyamoya disease in pediatric subjects. Methods-Thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies were evaluated in patients with moyamoya disease and control subjects, and their associations with moyamoya disease were estimated using multivariate analysis. Results-We included 114 pediatric patients and 114 healthy control subjects. The patients displayed higher prevalence of increased thyroid function and elevated thyroid autoantibodies in comparison with control subjects. These remained significant after multivariate adjustment; the ORs (95% CI) for increased thyroid function and evaluated thyroid autoantibodies were evaluated as 12.47 (1.55 to 100.51) and 4.33 (1.29 to 14.59), respectively. Conclusions-Increased thyroid function and elevated thyroid autoantibodies are associated with moyamoya disease and therefore monitoring of thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies in patients with moyamoya disease is suggested, which might help to guide subsequent clinical management.

Abstract. Cytokines are a group of peptides which form a sophisticated network to modulate multiple cellular events. Within such a network, and through complex feedback mechanisms, cytokine functions are largely interdependent and closely associated with a number of pathological processes. In the present study, the EVIDENCE 180 system was used to study the effects of storage temperature and repeated freeze/thaw cycles on the concentration of 12 cytokines in various sample types. Samples were collected from 9 healthy volunteers and stored by 3 methods: gel, glass and lithium heparin (LH) tubes. Immediately following collection, the concentration of each cytokine in the samples was measured. Cytokine concentrations of the 3 sample types that did not undergo repeated freeze/thaw cycles were compared with those subjected to 1-10 freeze/thaw cycles. In addition, the dynamic changes of 6 sample types which were stored at 4˚C for 6 h to 6 days was analyzed. In addition, the withinand between-run precision of 12 cytokines on the biochip array was evaluated. Interleukin (IL)-8, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) concentrations were lower in plasma compared with serum. Cytokine levels in serum and plasma were affected by several freeze/thaw cycles with IL-1β, -4 and -10 increasing significantly following 1 freeze/thaw cycle and remaining at stable increased levels for the duration of the additional 9 cycles. In separated serum samples in gel and glass tubes stored at 4˚C for 6 days, no difference in concentration of the 12 cytokines was identified. In the other 4 sample types, IL-8, VEGF, tumor necrosis factor α and EGF levels were altered when stored at 4˚C. Results indicate that the EVIDENCE 180 system is stable and plasma was observed as the best sample type to determine concentration of the 12 cytokines using this biochip array. Repeated freeze/thaw cycles and storage at 4˚C was identified to affect the concentration of the 12 cytokines.The current study demonstrates that repeated freeze/thaw cycles of samples must be avoid. In addition, results indicate that plasma or serum must be separated immediately following centrifugation and sample concentration should be measured as soon as possible.

Background Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) technology has been applied to the exploration of biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis, but more effort is required to identify a single sensitive and specific biomarker. For early diagnosis, a proteomic profile is the gold standard, but inconvenient for clinical use since the profile peaks are quantitative. It would therefore be helpful to find a minimized profile, comprising fewer peaks than the original using an existing algorithm and compare it with other traditional statistical methods. Methods In the present study, principal component analysis (PCA) in the ClinProt-Tools of MALDI-TOF MS was used to establish a mini-optimized proteomic profile from gastric cancer patients and healthy controls, and the result was compared with t-test and Flexanalysis software. Results Eight peaks were selected as the mini-optimized proteomic profile to help differentiate between gastric cancer patients and healthy controls. The peaks at m/z 4212 were regarded as the most important peak by the PCA algorithm. The peaks at m/z 1866 and 2863 were identified as deriving from complement component C3 and apolipoprotein A1, respectively. Conclusions PCA enabled us to identify a mini-optimized profile consisting of significantly differentiating peaks and offered the clue for further research.

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