Comparison of severity index and plasma paraquat concentration for predicting survival after paraquat poisoning: A meta-analysis.

Background: Severity index and plasma paraquat (PQ) concentration can predict the prognosis of patients with PQ poisoning. However, the better parameter is yet to be systematically investigated and determined. Thus, we conduct this systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the prognostic value of severity index and plasma PQ concentration in patients with PQ poisoning.

Procalcitonin for predicting catheter-associated bloodstream infection: A meta-analysis.

Objective: The predictive accuracies of procalcitonin (PCT) in the diagnosis of catheter-associated bloodstream infection (CABSI) vary widely. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the predictive value of PCT for CABSI.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and studies published up to 10 March 2019.

Base excess in predicting the prognosis of patients with paraquat poisoning: A meta-analysis.

Background: Although the prognostic significance of base excess (BE) in patients with paraquat (PQ) poisoning has been investigated for several years, the results remain controversial. Thus, we performed for the first time a comprehensive meta-analysis to explore the value of BE in predicting the prognosis of patients with PQ poisoning.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure to identify all relevant papers that were published up to August 2018.

A thermostable leucine aminopeptidase from Bacillus kaustophilus CCRC 11223.

Two degenerate primers established from the consensus sequences of bacterial leucine aminopeptidases (LAP) were used to amplify a 360-bp gene fragment from the chromosomal DNA of thermophilic Bacillus kaustophilus CCRC 11223 and the amplified fragment was successfully used as a probe to clone a leucine aminopeptidase ( lap) gene from a genomic library of the strain. The gene consists of an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,494 bp and encodes a protein of 497 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 53.7 kDa.