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The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term prognostic value of pentraxin-3 (PTX3) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). 377 patients were prospectively followed up for 3 years to determine cardiac events including cardiac death or rehospitalization for worsening heart failure. The plasma PTX3 levels were significantly higher in CHF patients than in healthy subjects (p<0.001), and they increased with advancing New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification (p<0.001). Plasma PTX3 levels in CHF patients with cardiac events were significantly higher than in event-free patients (p<0.001). We determined the normal upper limit of plasma PTX3 levels from the mean + 2 SD value of 64 control subjects (3.64 ng/mL). A Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with increased PTX3 (≥3.64 ng/mL) were at a higher risk for cardiac events than those without increased PTX3 (p<0.01). A multifactorial Cox proportional hazards model showed that increased PTX3 (≥3.64 ngImL) was an independent risk factor for cardiac events in CHF patients (hazard ratio (HR) = 4.224,p<0.01; 95% CI: 1.130–15.783). Plasma PTX3 levels are a long-term independent predictor of prognosis in patients with CHF.

Introduction. Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN) of the pancreas is a rare tumor of low malignant potential. The aim of this study was designed to evaluate the clinicopathologic feature, predictive factors of malignancy, and survival from experience of a single center. Methods. 53 consecutive patients who underwent surgery for a pathologically definitive SPN were retrospectively reviewed. Results. A total of 53 cases included 7 male cases and 46 female cases with the median age of 35.4 years (14–67). Abdominal pain and mass were the most common clinical presentations. The radiological presentations were consistent with solid and cystic pattern in 18 cases, solid pattern in 25 cases, and cystic pattern in 10 cases. The predominant location of tumor was pancreatic body and tail. The mean size of the tumors was 6.4 cm. Aggressive en bloc resection combined with organ-preserving should be indicated whenever feasible. Follow-up information was available for 48 patients with a median follow-up time of 48 months. The 5-year disease-specific survival was 95.7%. Incomplete capsule was not only the predictive factor of malignancy but also the significant predictor of disease-specific survival. Conclusion. Incomplete capsule may suggest a malignant SPN and a prognostic indicator of disease-specific survival. We recommend that surgeons consider a more radical resection with an incomplete capsule of tumor.

Recent studies have suggested that endogenous angiogenesis inhibitor endostatin/collagen XVIII might play an important role in the secondary brain injury following traumatic brain injury (TBI). In this study, we measured endostatin/collagen XVIII concentrations serially for 1 week after hospitalization by using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 30 patients with TBI and a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 8 or less on admission. There was a significant trend toward increased CSF levels of endostatin after TBI versus control from 72 h after injury. In patients with GCS score of 3–5, CSF endostatin concentration was substantially higher at 72 h after injury than that in patients with GCS score of 6–8 (P<0.05) and peaked rapidly at day 5 after injury, but decreased thereafter. The CSF endostatin concentration in 12 patients with an unfavorable outcome was significantly higher than that in 18 patients with a favorable outcome at day 5 (P=0.043) and day 7 (P=0.005) after trauma. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggested a reliable operating point for the 7-day CSF endostatin concentration predicting poor prognosis to be 67.29 pg/mL. Our preliminary findings provide new evidence that endostatin/collagen XVIII concentration in the CSF increases substantially in patients with sTBI. Its dynamic change may have some clinical significance on the judgment of brain injury severity and the assessment of prognosis. This trial is registered with the ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT01846546.