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Spatiotemporal legislation and jobs of reproductive : phasiRNAs throughout plants.
PURPOSE Few studies reported about the potential of unphosphorylated heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) and phosphorylated heat shock protein 27 (pHSP27) as a predictor for survival and gemcitabine resistance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In this study, we analysed the expression patterns of pHSP27 and HSP27 in a patient population after surgery and correlated the immunohistochemical results with clinicopathological data and long-term outcome of the patients. METHODS HSP27 and pHSP27 (Ser-15, Ser-78 and Ser-82) protein expression were analysed by immunohistochemistry using the immunoreactive score (IRS) from paraffin-embedded tissue of 106 patients with PDAC who underwent surgery. Immunohistochemical results were correlated with clinicopathological data, disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS). RESULTS HSP27 expression was significantly lower in patients with a shorter OS (p = 0.006) and DFS (p  less then  0.0001). A higher HSP27 expression was associated with a better response to gemcitabine in the resected, non-metastasised patients group (p = 0.001). Furthermore, HSP27 was downregulated in patients suffering from metastases at time of surgery (p  less then  0.001) and in undifferentiated tumours (p = 0.007). In contrast, pHSP27-Ser15, -Ser78 and -Ser82 were not associated with any survival data of the study population. CONCLUSION HSP27 seems to be a strong indicator for the prediction of OS and DFS. Moreover, HSP27 could play a role in the formation and migration of liver metastases of PDAC.PURPOSE Although it is well known that acromegaly causes enlargement in the extremities, studies investigating the effects of acromegaly on tendons, muscles and soft tissue are limited. The aims of our study were to investigate tendons, the presence of enthesitis, soft tissue, muscle groups in terms of thickness and pennation angle (PA) which is an indicator of microstructure and strength of the muscle, of the lower extremities. METHODS Thirty-nine patients with acromegaly and thirty-nine healthy control subjects similar for age, sex and body mass index were enrolled. Lower extremity tendons, skin, muscle groups were evaluated by ultrasound. RESULTS The thicknesses of heel skin, heel pad, plantar fascia and Achilles tendon were higher in acromegaly than the control group (p  0.05). PA values of the right and left vastus medialis and the right vastus lateralis were found to be decreased in the acromegaly group (p  less then  0.05). Myostatin levels were lower in acromegaly group (p  less then  0.05). CONCLUSIONS Acromegaly may cause to an increase in tendon and soft tissue thickness, enthesitis formation, decrease in the thickness of some muscles, and deterioration in microstructures in lower extremity.BACKGROUND Hartman's reversal remains challenging and is associated with a widely variable success rate. In a previous study, we reported that laparoscopy may lower the mortality and morbidity rates of the procedure. The aim of the current study was to assess the operative results of single-port laparoscopic Hartmann's reversal (SP-HR) as compared to the more standard, multi-port laparoscopic variant (MP-HR). METHODS We performed a retrospective, non-randomized, case-controlled study of 44 consecutive patients who had SP-HR (Group A) compared to 44 patients who had MP-HR (Group B). The study was conducted in a high-volume colorectal unit in a 1200-bed university affiliated hospital, The Poissy-Saint Germain Medical Complex, France. RESULTS Preoperative patients' characteristics (sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists status, prior surgery, comorbidities, colonic disease) were comparable in both groups. The conversion rate was 13.6% and 4.5% in Group A and in Group B, respectively (p = 0.084) and consisted of placement of any additional ports. Conversion to open surgery did not occur in any patient in either group (p = 1). Mean operative time was shorter in Group A than in in Group B, (105 vs. 155 min; p = 0.0133). The mortality rate was 2.2% in Group A and 0% in Group B (p = 0.3145). The overall morbidity rate was 11.4% in Group A and 18.2% in Group B (p = 0.5344). The median length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in Group than in Group B (4.8 vs. 6.8 days; p = 0.0102). CONCLUSIONS The SP-HR technique was found to be safe and efficient. It compares favorably with MP-HR. Moreover, indirect cost savings could be induced by the reduction in the length of hospital stay.PURPOSE To evaluate the relationship between renal elasticity which was determined with shear wave elastography (SWE) and hemorrhage in patients who undergone percutaneous renal parenchyma biopsy (PRB). MATERIALS AND METHODS In total, 60 patients who were performed ultrasound-guided PRB after the B-mode ultrasonography and SWE assessment were recruited in this study. All patients' serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen and coagulation tests before PRB were obtained from medical records. The patients were divided into two groups who did and did not develop hemorrhage after PRB. We investigated whether there was any statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of laboratory findings, B-mode ultrasonographic measurements and SWE measurements. RESULTS Of the 60 patients, 23 (38.3%) had post-procedure hemorrhage and 37 (61.7%) had not. Mean hemorrhage size was 17.04 mm (7-50 mm). The mean value of renal cortical shear wave velocity of all patients was 1.91 m/s (0.96-3.57 m/sn). Patients with post-procedure hemorrhage had significantly lower mean shear wave velocity compared with patients with no hemorrhage (p  less then  0.05). ROC curve analysis suggested that the optimum SWV cutoff point for hemorrhage presence was 1.21 m/sn, with 39.1% sensitivity and 97.3% specificity. There was no other statistically significant demographic, ultrasonographic or laboratory value differences between two groups. CONCLUSION Although shear wave velocities have low sensitivity for hemorrhage after renal biopsy, high specificity and statistically significant difference in hemorrhage and non-hemorrhage group suggest that patients who have lower renal cortical shear wave velocity have a tendency to hemorrhage after PRB.PURPOSE To test the technical reproducibility of acquisition and scanners of CT image-based radiomics model for early recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS We included primary HCC patient undergone curative therapies, using early recurrence as endpoint. Four datasets were constructed 109 images from hospital #1 for training (set 1 1-mm image slice thickness), 47 images from hospital #1 for internal validation (sets 2 and 3 1-mm and 10-mm image slice thicknesses, respectively), and 47 images from hospital #2 for external validation (set 4 vastly different from training dataset). A radiomics model was constructed. Radiomics technical reproducibility was measured by overfitting and calibration deviation in external validation dataset. The influence of slice thickness on reproducibility was evaluated in two internal validation datasets. RESULTS Compared with set 1, the model in set 2 indicated favorable prediction efficiency (the area under the curve 0.79 vs. 0.80, P = 0.47) and good calibration (unreliability statistic U P = 0.33). However, in set 4, significant overfitting (0.63 vs. 0.80, P  less then  0.01) and calibration deviation (U P  less then  0.01) were observed. Similar poor performance was also observed in set 3 (0.56 vs. 0.80, P = 0.02; U P  less then  0.01). CONCLUSIONS CT-based radiomics has poor reproducibility between centers. Image heterogeneity, such as slice thickness, can be a significant influencing factor.PURPOSE OF REVIEW Diverse musculoskeletal disorders and neuropathic symptoms of the face pose significant diagnostic challenges. In particular, temporal tendinosis is generally overlooked in the medical and dental literature and is therefore a poorly understood topic and often problematic cause of chronic orofacial pain. In this article, we explore temporal tendinosis as a cause of unresolved orofacial pain by reviewing the complex anatomy of the temporalis muscle, common presentations of temporal tendinosis, possible etiologies for injury and place a strong emphasis on required diagnostic evaluation and clinical management. RECENT FINDINGS Temporal tendinosis remains under diagnosed due to a combination of anatomical complexity and incomplete description in the majority of general anatomy medical textbooks. The two main presentations are unilateral facial pain with or without temporal headache and pain radiating from the distal temporalis tendon to the temporalis muscle. Diagnosis should be made with a combination of focused history, physical examination and specialised imaging, preferably with ultrasound but with MRI an alternate option. While many management options are available, optimal treatment remains unclear. Temporal tendinosis is an under-recognised and under-treated condition. Despite the fact that orofacial pain is one of the single most common complaints of patients presenting to physicians or dentists, it is widely acknowledged that training for diagnosis and manage of temporal tendinopathy among primary care physicians in both medical and dental professions is inadequate. Pitstop 2 manufacturer This may result in extensive workups, leading to suboptimal management and chronic pain syndromes.Breast cancer has the second highest frequency of death rate among women worldwide. Early-stage prevention becomes complex due to reasons unknown. However, some typical signatures like masses and micro-calcifications upon investigating mammograms can help diagnose women better. Manual diagnosis is a hard task the radiologists carry out frequently. For their assistance, many computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) approaches have been developed. To improve upon the state of the art, we proposed a deep ensemble transfer learning and neural network classifier for automatic feature extraction and classification. In computer-assisted mammography, deep learning-based architectures are generally not trained on mammogram images directly. Instead, the images are pre-processed beforehand, and then they are adopted to be given as input to the ensemble model proposed. The robust features extracted from the ensemble model are optimized into a feature vector which are further classified using the neural network (nntraintool). The network was trained and tested to separate out benign and malignant tumors, thus achieving an accuracy of 0.88 with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.88. The attained results show that the proposed methodology is a promising and robust CADx system for breast cancer classification. Graphical Abstract Flow diagram of the proposed approach. Figure depicts the deep ensemble extracting the robust features with the final classification using neural networks.The pro-apoptotic Bax isoform Bax∆2 was originally discovered in cancer patients with a microsatellite guanine deletion (G8 to G7). This deletion leads to an early stop codon; however, when combined with the alternative splicing of exon 2, the reading frame is restored allowing production of a full-length protein (Bax∆2). Unlike the parental Baxα, Bax∆2 triggers apoptosis through a non-mitochondrial pathway and the expression in human tissues was unknown. Here, we analyzed over 1000 tissue microarray samples from 13 different organs using immunohistochemistry. Bax∆2-positive cells were detected in all examined organs at low rates (1-5%) and mainly scattered throughout the connective tissues. Surprisingly, over 70% of normal colon samples scored high for BaxΔ2-positive staining. Only 7% of malignant colon samples scored high, with most high-grade tumors being negative. A similar pattern was observed in most organs examined. We also showed that both Baxα and Bax∆2 can co-exist in the same cells. Genotyping showed that the majority of Bax∆2-positive normal tissues contain no G7 mutation, but an unexpected high rate of G9 was observed.
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