Chapter 220 - 152: Subversion
"Dr. Jiang." The sample bank administrator saw the special approval form and immediately stood up.
"I'm here to retrieve the cryopreserved serum samples left by the SIRS research group from '03 to '08," Jiang He said, handing over the form.
"The director already called ahead. Please, follow me." The administrator put on a pair of cryogenic gloves and pushed open the door to the cold storage.
「Ten minutes later.」
Jiang He walked briskly out of Affiliated Hospital No. 1, carrying a portable cooler filled with dry ice and hundreds of sample tubes.
「The laboratory.」
Chen Hao, Cheng Xiyao, and the others were hunched over their computers, frantically entering data.
"Old Jiang, did you get the samples?"
"Yeah. How much of the medical record entry is done?"
"We're working on it as fast as we can."
"Good. I'll go run the serum first."
Jiang He opened the cooler, took out the rows of cryotubes, and placed them in a box of crushed ice, allowing the serum to thaw slowly at a low temperature to prevent protein denaturation.
Once they were thawed, he picked up a pipette gun.
He aspirated the serum, dispensed it into the bottom of the wells, added the standards, applied a sealing film to the plate, and placed it in an incubator.
"Set a timer. In two hours, wash the plate, add the antibody, then develop the color and take the readings."
Jiang He took off his gloves, washed his hands, and sat down at a computer. "I'll help you guys. Let's enter the data together."
「3:00 a.m.」
Jiang He added the stop solution. The once-colorless liquid turned into varying shades of yellow.
He slid the 96-well plate into the microplate reader.
BEEP—
The instrument began reading the optical density values.
Chen Hao and Cheng Xiyao gathered around.
On the screen, precise concentration values quickly generated in rows.
Sample ID 03-014: Deceased. PCT extremely high, IL-6 extremely high.
Sample ID 04-052: Recovered. PCT normal, IL-6 normal.
The data was a perfect match.
"Xiangwan, copy the CRP and BUN data you've entered over to me," Jiang He said, turning his head immediately.
He imported all the data into SPSS and ran a multivariate logistic regression analysis.
He clicked the mouse. A second later, the results were displayed.
Model Prediction Accuracy (AUC value): 0.92.
Extremely high specificity and sensitivity.
Chen Hao couldn't understand the charts, so he could only watch Jiang He's expression. He asked tentatively, "Old Jiang... did it work?"
Jiang He replied, "Preliminarily, the data fully supports the conclusion. Next, we finish entering all the remaining medical records for a larger sample size, drive the P-value down for good, finalize everything by Monday, and submit it for publication!"
In the lab, the others looked at each other in stunned silence.
'No way... Did we actually pull it off? Who would believe this if we told them?!'
In truth, everyone was still a bit dazed.
For the undergraduates present, the concept of an "AUC value of 0.92" was something that had only existed in their textbooks until now.
They knew it represented a high degree of accuracy.
But they had no concrete understanding of just how high it was, or what kind of storm it could stir up in the real world.
Chen Hao asked:
"Old Jiang... give it to me straight. This 0.92 predictive model we've created, what level of achievement are we talking about here? Can we get it published in a core journal with a decent impact factor? Will this be enough to get my foot in the door for a permanent position at the Affiliated Hospital No. 1's emergency department after I graduate?"
Hearing this question, Lu Xiaolin turned around and couldn't help but laugh.
"Haozi, you have a serious misconception about what we've accomplished tonight."
At his words, everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Lu Xiaolin.
Lu Xiaolin pulled over a chair and sat down.
He wouldn't tell them he was sitting because his legs felt a little weak.
"You all know about the four top-tier journals, right?" Lu Xiaolin asked.
Cheng Xiyao nodded. "The *New England Journal of Medicine* (NEJM), *The Lancet*, the *Journal of the American Medical Association* (JAMA), and the *British Medical Journal* (BMJ). Among them, the *New England Journal of Medicine* has the highest prestige. I dream of publishing an article in it."
"Right," Lu Xiaolin said. "Let's take the most representative one, the *New England Journal of Medicine*, as an example. In the nearly two hundred years since its founding, how many original research articles do you think have been published with a scholar from mainland China as the lead or corresponding author?"
Yi Xiangwan thought for a moment. "A few hundred? After all, the country has so many top-tier Grade A hospitals, so many academicians, and Yangtze River Scholars."
Lu Xiaolin shook his head. "If you include the Hong Kong and Taiwan Region, maybe a few dozen. But for original research led purely by mainland scholars, the number is minuscule. In fact, you could count them on two hands."
As soon as he said this, everyone was stunned.
"As for our Southern Medical University..." Lu Xiaolin gave a self-deprecating smile. "Let's not even go there. In short, if this paper actually gets published, forget just our university—it will cause an earthquake throughout the entire medical community of the South China Region."
Tang Pei, usually the calmest of the group, now looked slightly nervous. "Senior Brother, are you saying... the paper Junior Brother Jiang is writing right now is intended for one of the big four journals?"
Lu Xiaolin looked at Jiang He. "Junior Brother, if I'm not mistaken, you're planning to submit to the *New England* or *The Lancet*, aren't you?"
Jiang He said, "First choice is the *New England Journal of Medicine*. If their review process is too slow, I'll pivot to *The Lancet*."
Chen Hao felt like his brain couldn't keep up. "But... just based on these five indicators from blood tests and imaging? You calculate a score? Is this thing really that amazing?"
Jiang He explained, "You should know how terrifying severe acute pancreatitis is. When a patient is first brought into the ER, it often just looks like a common stomach ache."
"At that point, following current guidelines and the doctor's experience, the usual course is to give some anti-inflammatories, replenish fluids, and restrict food. Then, after a day or two, the patient suddenly develops a high fever, goes into shock, experiences respiratory failure, and starts bleeding massively in the abdominal cavity... Only then do the doctors realize: oh, this is severe pancreatitis."
"By that time, their organs have already started to fail. The mortality rate for SAP is as high as thirty percent, precisely because we are always one step behind."
"But as long as we check a patient's five indicators and then calculate them using our weighted formula..."