Cobas 8000 system

The following patient characteristics were obtained from clinical charts: sex, gestational age, birthweight, postnatal age at moment of blood culture withdrawal. Serum IL-6, PCT (both measured with E801, cobas® 8000 system, Roche Diagnostics, Rotkreuz, Switzerland), and CRP (measured with C502, cobas® 8000 system, Roche Diagnostics, Rotkreuz, Switzerland) levels at moment of sepsis suspicion were queried from the laboratory information system.

Plasma clinical chemistries were analyzed as previously described [3 ]. Iron, TIBC, and ferritin were analyzed at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory by colorimetric analysis on the Roche Cobas Mira (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250) per the manufacturer’s protocol. Plasma clinical chemistries were directly measured using the Roche Cobas 8000 system (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250) per the manufacturers’ protocol. Total insulin was analyzed at ARUP Laboratories by ultrafiltration/quantitative chemiluminescent immunoassay on the Siemens ADVIA Centaur Immunoassay system (Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Malvern, Pennsylvania 19355). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was measured through a technique correlating directly with the Westergren method using the Fisher Healthcare^™ Dispette^™ 2 and reservoirs pre-filled with 0.25mL of 0.9% saline (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Low hemoglobin, the standard definition of anemia, was defined in our study population as animals with hemoglobin at or below the 25^th percentile (< 12.5 g/dl) among all animals at baseline. Low-normal hemoglobin was defined as animals greater than the 25^th and equal to or lower than the 50^th percentile (12.6–13.5 g/dl). These values are consistent with definitions for anemia in humans (< 12–14 g/dl) [19 ].

Patients’ clinicopathological data were hand-retrieved from the electronic medical records system of SYSUCC. The peripheric blood samples collected at the time of diagnosis and before the initiation of any anti-cancer treatment were obtained from the tumor resource library of SYSUCC. The serum copper level of the participants was measured using the Copper Assay Kit (PAESA chromogenic method) of the Roche cobas 8,000 system (BSBE, Beijing, China).

We collected 4 ml of venous blood during the insertion of intravenous catheters before the anesthesia and surgery in all participants to measure preoperative plasma concentrations of homocysteine. The blood sample was collected in anticoagulant tubes and was immediately centrifuged to collect the supernatant plasma. The plasma was stored in a −80°C freezer until measurement. Preoperative plasma concentration of homocysteine was determined by using the Roche Cobas 8000 system (Roche Diagnostic, Rotkreuz, Switzerland) with the enzyme cycling method.
Postoperative measurement of blood CRP was part of the clinical care of the patients. Thus, we obtained the postoperative blood CRP concentrations by checking the participants’ medical records. If participants had several postoperative CRP measurements, the concentration of the first postoperative measurement of plasm CRP was used for the final data analysis in the present study. Since the postoperative CRP measurement was part of the routine postoperative clinical care, the time of the postoperative blood collection (i.e., postoperative day) was not fixed on a particular day. Notably, in the clinical laboratory, the postoperative plasma concentrations of CRP were measured using an immunonephelometric method on a Nephelometer BNII (Siemens Healthcare, Germany), measuring a range from 3–200 mg/L.