Early albumin level and mortality in hemodialysis patients: a retrospective study.

Background: Hypoalbuminemia is a significant risk factor of cardiovascular disease and all-cause death in patients undergoing conventional hemodialysis (HD). However, the albumin (ALB) level of these dialysis patients runs through the whole process of dialysis, and the prognostic value of serum ALB in the early stage of HD and the relationship between the early ALB value and death in HD patients has not been reported.

Methods: The data of 447 patients with HD were retrospectively analyzed.

A novel lateral flow assay based on GoldMag nanoparticles and its clinical applications for genotyping of MTHFR C677T polymorphisms.

Current techniques for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection require tedious experimental procedures and expensive and sophisticated instruments. In this study, a visual genotyping method has been successfully established via combining ARMS-PCR with gold magnetic nanoparticle (GoldMag)-based lateral flow assay (LFA) and applied to the genotyping of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T. C677T substitution of the gene MTHFR leads to an increased risk of diseases.