Search

Objective: To explore the efficacy and safety of intravenous tranexamic acid for reducing perioperative blood loss and allogeneic blood transfusions in revision surgery for Vancouver type B periprosthetic femoral fractures after total hip arthroplasty (THA). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 129 patients who underwent revision surgeries because of Vancouver type B periprosthetic femoral fractures from January 2008 to September 2018. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether they received intravenous tranexamic acid (n = 72) or not (n = 57). The two groups were compared in terms of estimated intraoperative blood loss, visible blood loss, hidden blood loss, the volume of allogeneic blood transfusion and the incidence of symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE). Patients were also compared depending on the Vancouver classification (Vancouver type B1, B2, and B3). Results: Regardless of the subtype of Vancouver classification, patients who received tranexamic acid showed significantly lower estimated intraoperative blood loss, visible blood loss, hidden blood loss, and allogeneic blood transfusion volume. Use of tranexamic acid was not associated with significant changes in the incidence of postoperative symptomatic VTE. Similar results were obtained with subgroups of patients who had the Vancouver type B1, B2, or B3 periprosthetic femoral fractures. Conclusions: The administration of intravenous tranexamic acid can safely and effectively reduce perioperative blood loss and allogeneic blood transfusions in revision surgery for Vancouver type B periprosthetic femoral fractures, without increasing the risk of symptomatic VTE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angiogenesis is a major pathologic characteristic of glioblastoma, which is one aggressive primary brain tumor. MicroRNA‐221/222 (miR‐221/222) cluster has been previously reported to function importantly in malignant glioma biological process. The current study aims at evaluating the effects of miR‐221/222 cluster on angiogenesis of glioblastoma cells. Microarray data were analyzed to select glioblastoma‐associated differentially expressed genes, and dual‐luciferase reporter assay was performed to assess targeting correlation between miR‐221/222 cluster and suppressor of cytokine signaling‐3 (SOCS3). Subsequently, the expression patterns of miR‐221 and miR‐222 in glioblastoma cells were identified. miR‐221 and miR‐222 were overexpressed or silenced in glioblastoma cells to identify the effect of miR‐221/222 cluster in cell invasion, migration, proliferation, and angiogenesis. To define downstream pathway of miR‐221/222 cluster or SOCS3 in glioblastoma, levels of Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) pathway‐related proteins were assessed. Additionally, the functions of miR‐221/222 on glioblastoma cell angiogenesis were measured in vivo with microvessel density assayed. miR‐221 and miR‐222 were expressed at a high level and SOCS3 was at a low level in glioblastoma. Downregulation of the miR‐221/222 cluster diminished the invasion, migration, proliferation, and angiogenesis with reduced protein levels of matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2), MMP‐9, and vascular endothelial growth factor in glioblastoma cells. Also, silencing miR‐221/222 cluster reduced p‐JAK2/JAK2 and p‐STAT3/STAT3. Consistently, the inhibitory role of silencing miR‐221/222 cluster on tumorigenesis of glioblastoma cells was confirmed in vivo. Collectively, the inhibition of miR‐221/222 cluster could attenuate the glioblastoma angiogenesis through inactivation of the JAK/STAT pathway by upregulating SOCS3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: PIWI-like protein 1 (PIWIL1) is an important member of the Argonaute protein family and is closely related to the malignant behaviors of tumor cells. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between PIWIL1 and gastric cancer (GC). Methods: We investigated PIWIL1 expression status in GC tissues as well as its association with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of GC patients. PIWIL1 siRNA was transfected into a GC cell line to elucidate its impact on malignant biological behavior. Results: The results showed that PIWIL1 was upregulated in GC tissues and correlated with tumor differentiation, lymph node status, and TNM stage. The high PIWIL1 expression was an independent predictor for the prognosis of patients with GC. Silencing of PIWIL1 expression in GC cell lines suppressed tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Conclusion: High PIWIL1 expression suggests a poor prognosis for GC patients and PIWIL1 can serve as an important molecular marker for predicting the prognosis of GC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coefficients of oil and water transfer resistance in porous media are the basis of numerical study on the migration of contamination in the pipeline, soil cleaning, oilfield water flooding, and oilfield water treatment. Based on the quartet structure generation set, the porous media with random distribution are constructed. The lattice Boltzmann method is used to simulate the mesoscopic migration of oil and water in porous media. Then the distribution law of oil and water velocity and pressure in porous media is analyzed, and the fitting equations of oil and water resistance coefficients are obtained under different porosity. The results show that when the oil and water migrate in porous media, the viscous resistance coefficient is larger than the inertia resistance factor, and the viscosity resistance coefficient of water is obviously higher than that of oil, while the coefficient of inertia resistance of oil and water is nearly same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cavities are important in clinical diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) play a vital role in the regulation of inflammation, the relation between plasma miRNA and pulmonary tuberculosis with cavity remains unknown. In this study, plasma samples were derived from 89 cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis (CP-TB) patients, 89 non-cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis (NCP-TB) patients and 95 healthy controls. Groups were matched for age and gender. In the screening phase, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to analyze miRNA profiles in plasma samples pooled from CP-TB patients, NCP-TB patients and healthy controls. During the training and verification phases, quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) was conducted to verify the differential expression of selected miRNAs among groups. Illumina high-throughput sequencing identified 29 differentially expressed plasma miRNAs in TB patients when compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis validated miR-769-5p, miR-320a and miR-22-3p as miRNAs that were differently present between TB patients and healthy controls. ROC curve analysis revealed that the potential of these 3 miRNAs to distinguish TB patients from healthy controls was high, with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) ranged from 0.692 to 0.970. Moreover, miR-320a levels were decreased in drug-resistant TB patients than pan-susceptible TB patients (AUC = 0.882). In conclusion, we identified miR-769-5p, miR-320a and miR-22-3p as potential blood-based biomarkers for TB. In addition, miR-320a may represent a biomarker for drug-resistant TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A neuroendocrine tumor (NET) is a special kind of epithelial tumor with predominant neuroendocrine differentiation, which arises throughout the body, including the lung. A subpopulation of lung cancer patients suffer from the mixed (combined) form of NET with components of non-neuroendocrine carcinoma. However, the clinical characteristics of the mixed form of NET are not well established. Methods: We analyzed 2501 consecutive cases of primary lung cancer from 2009 to 2011. The diagnosis, histology, therapy, and outcome were collected. Results: A total of 22 patientswere enrolled.The occurrence rate of lung cancer was 0.9%.Neither gender (1.2% and 0.3% for male and female, respectively,P = 0.35) nor age (0.6% and 1.3% for patients aged ⩽60 and >60, respectively, P = 0.13) was associated with the onset of this disease; however it has become more frequent in recent years (0.6% and 1.6% at the time ⩽ and >2010 respectively, P = 0.03). This cohort of 22 patients had a median survival of 60.0 months (95% confidence interval: 14.3- 105.6 months).Patientswith metastatic disease (60 months and not reached [NR],P = 0.18) or a small-cell lung cancer component tended to have a shorter survival (35 months and NR, P = 0.16). Patients who underwent surgery had a significantly longer survival period (NR and 17.0 months, P = 0.001). Conclusions: Amixed formof NETin the lung is a rare disease.While stage and histology might influence prognosis, surgery is the critical factor for long-termsurvival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of genetic variation from wild and cultivated Triticeae species has been a long-standing approach for wheat improvement. Dasypyrumbreviaristatum species harbor novel and agronomically important genes for resistance against multi-fungal diseases. The development of new wheat-D. breviaristatum introgression lines offers chances for the identification of stripe rust resistance gene(s). A wheat line, D11-5, was selected from a cross between wheat line MY11 and wheat-D. breviaristatum partial amphiploid TDH-2. It was characterized by FISH and PCR-based molecular markers. Chromosome counting revealed that the D11-5 line shows a hexaploid set of 2n = 6x = 42 chromosomes. FISH analysis using the Dasypyrum repetitive sequence pDb12H as a probe demonstrated that D11-5 contained a pair of D. breviaristatum chromosomes, while FISH with wheat D-genomic repetitive sequences revealed that the chromosome 2D was absent in D11-5. The functional molecular markers confirmed that the introduced D. breviaristatum chromosomes belong to the homoeologous group 2, indicating that D11-5 was a 2Vb (2D) disomic substitution line. Field resistance showed that the introduced D. breviaristatum chromosomes 2Vb were responsible for the stripe rust resistance at the adult plant stage. FISH, C-banding, and PCR-based molecular marker analysis indicated that the chromosome 2Vb of D. breviaristatum was completely different from the chromosome 2V of D. villosum. The identified wheat-D. breviaristatum chromosome substitution line D11-5 may be applied to produce agronomically desirable stripe rust resistance germplasm. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Great titParus majorwas sequenced used polymerase chain reaction (PCR), long-and-accurate PCR and directly sequencing by primer walking. The Genbank accession was KP137624. The entire mitochondrial genome ofP. majoris a circular molecule of 16,776 bp in length and the content of A, T, C and G were 29.68%, 22.63%, 33.56% and 14.13%, respectively. The complete mitochondrial genome ofP. majorcontains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, plus 1 control regions and was similar to most of the other Aves birds in gene arrangement and composition. The complete mitochondrial genome ofP. majorcould provide a useful data for resolving phylogenetic relationship problems related toParusandP. majorsubspecies complex. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: To translate and validate the Chinese version of the Quality Of Life Radiation Therapy Instrument and the Head & Neck Module (QOL-RTI/H&N), a disease-specific scale to measure quality of life (QOL) for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who received radiotherapy.Methods: The QOL-RTI/H&N was translated and validated according to the standard process: a translation and back-translation procedure, pilot testing and a validation study. HNC patients were enrolled from the Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University and assessed using the QOL-RTI/H&N, QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35. Reliability (internal consistency reliability, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability), validity (content validity, construct validity, criterion validity and discriminant validity), and responsiveness analysis were performed to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the QOL-RTI/H&N.Results: A total of 238 patients (99.2%) completed the questionnaire. Item RTI23 had 16.0% missing data. Other items had low percentages of missing data (0.4% or 0.8%) or no missing data. The average time to finish the scale was 9.8 minutes. Cronbach's alpha of the domains ranged from 0.41 to 0.77. The split-half reliability coefficients ranged from 0.43 to 0.77. All of the intra-class correlation coefficients were equal to or greater than 0.8. All of the item-own domain correlation coefficients were greater than those of the item-other domain. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that Comparative Fit Index, Normed Fit Index and Non-Normed Fit Index were equal to 1.00. Root Mean Square Error of Approximation was 0.01, with 90% CI (0.00, 0.10). The domain scores of the QOL-RTI/H&N were significantly correlated with those of the QLQ-C30 or QLQ-H&N3. All domain scores of patients in different radiotherapy stages were statistically significant (P < 0.05), apart from the speech domain.Conclusions: The Chinese version of the QOL-RTI/H&N is a valid, reliable and responsive scale to measure QOL in HNC patients and can be used to assess the effects of radiotherapy treatment on these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The PIWI-like protein 1 (PIWIL1) plays a crucial role in stem cell proliferation, embryogenesis, growth, and development, as well as differentiation and maturation in multiple organisms. The relationships between PIWIL1 expression and clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients were analyzed by us. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox’s proportional hazards model. The high expression rate of PIWIL1 in the cancer tissue was obviously higher than that in the corresponding adjacent tissue. The expression of PIWIL1 was closely related to the tumor differentiation degree, infiltration depth, lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage. The Kaplan-Meier survival model suggested that the survival time of CRC patients in the high PIWIL1 expression group was notably lower than that in the low PIWIL1 expression group. High PIWIL1 expression suggests a poor prognosis for CRC patients, and PIWIL1 can serve as an important molecular marker for predicting the prognosis of CRC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To understand the characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer in a specific geographical region., Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University, China, and comprised clinical and pathological data of patients with gastric cancer treated from 2007 to 2017. Data was analysed according to the patients' ethnicity, gender, age, tumour location, differentiation degree, Bormann classification, tumour-nodes-metastases staging and pathological type. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 22., Results: Of the 2,049 patients, 1619(79.01%) were males and 430(20.99%) were females. The overall mean age of the sample was 60.94±10.90 years. The incidence of gastric antrum was the highest, with 830(40.51%) cases. The proportion of gastric cancers was different in different age groups (p=0.001). Of the total, 922(45%) cases were poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. There were significant differences in the histological types of gastric cancer in different age groups (p=0.001). There were 130(6.3%) cases of Mongolian patients, and the composition ratio of each age group was not significantly different from that of Han ethnicity (p>0.05). However, location was different with 55(42.31%) cases involving oesophago-gastric junction., Conclusions: The diagnostic rate of gastric cancer in Western Inner Mongolia was relatively low. The incidence of gastric cancer among both Mongolian and Han patients was higher in elderly men. The incidence of gastric antrum was dominant in Han patients, followed by oesophago-gastric junction, while the reverse was true of Mongolian patients.

Gliomas are aggressive type of brain tumors and cause significant human mortality world over. The frequent relapses, development of drug resistance, the adverse effects of the chemotherapy and dearth of the therapeutic targets form the major hurdles in glioma treatment. Several studies suggest that microRNAs (miRs) are involved in the development and progression of different cancers. Herein, the therapeutic potential of miR-181 was explored in human glioma cells. The results showed that miR-181 is significantly downregulated in human glioma cells. Overexpression of miR-181 caused significant inhibition in the proliferation of U87 and U118 glioma cells. The miR-181 triggered growth inhibition was found to be mainly due to the induction of apoptosis which was concomitant with increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Additionally, miR-181 enhanced the chemosensitivity of the glioma cells to temozolomide and suppressed their invasion. Bioinformatic analysis showed that miR-181 exerts its effects by inhibiting the expression of Selenoprotein K (SELK). The expression of SELK was found to be significantly upregulated in glioma cells and silencing of SELK suppressed the proliferation of glioma cells. Nonetheless, overexpression of SELK could nullify the effects of miR-181 on the proliferation of the glioma cells. Taken together, miR-181 may exhibit therapeutic implications in the treatment of glioma., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2019.)

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of dihydroartemisinin on the proliferation of chemotherapy‑resistant C6 rat glioma cells. The results revealed that incubation of C6 glioma cells with a range of dihydroartemisinin concentrations for 48 h led to a significant (P<0.02) reduction in the cell number. There was a ‑0.8-fold reduction in the cell count following treatment with 20 µM dihydroartemisinin when compared with the control cultures. Analysis of DNA synthesis using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) staining demonstrated a reduction in the BrdU‑labeling index (LI) following treatment with 20 µM dihydroartemisinin. There was a 6‑fold reduction in the BrdU‑LI compared with the control cultures. Incubation of the C6 glioma cells with dihydroartemisinin led to a concentration dependent reduction in the level of cyclic adenosine 3',5'‑monophosphate following 48 h. The percentage of apoptotic cells in the cultures incubated with 20 µM dihydroartemisinin was 54.78% compared with 2.57% in the control cultures. Incubation of the C6 glioma cells with dihydroartemisinin for 48 h led to a reduction in the percentage of cells in G2/M phase with an increase in G0/G1 phase. The control cells exhibited spindle‑shaped morphology and were actively undergoing mitosis following 48 h of culture. The morphological characteristics of the cells treated with dihydroartemisinin were demonstrated to be round with small surface projections. Therefore, treatment of glioma cells with dihydroartemisinin exhibited an antitumor effect by the induction of apoptosis. Therefore, dihydroartemisinin should be evaluated further in the animal models for the treatment of glioma.

Background: Double outlet right ventricle (DORV) is a group of complex congenital heart abnormalities. Preoperative pulmonary hypertension (PH) is considered an important risk factor for early death during the surgical treatment of DORV. The aim of this study was to report our experience on surgical treatment of DORV complicated by PH., Methods: From June 2004 to November 2016, 61 patients (36 males and 25 females) aged 2 weeks to 26 years (median: 0.67 years and interquartile range: 0.42-1.67 years) with DORV (two great arteries overriding at least 50%) complicated by PH underwent surgical treatment in our center. All patients were categorized according to surgical age and lesion type, respectively. Pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP), pulmonary artery diastolic pressure (PADP), and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) were measured directly before cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) was established and after CPB was removed. An intracardiac channel procedure was performed in 37 patients, arterial switch procedure in 19 patients, Rastelli procedure in three patient, Senning procedure in one patients, and Mustard procedure in one patient. The Student's t-test and Chi-squared test were performed to evaluate clinical outcomes of the surgical timing and operation choice., Results: Fifty-five patients had uneventful recovery. PASP fell from 55.3 ± 11.2 mmHg to 34.7 ± 11.6 mmHg (t = 14.05, P < 0.001), PADP fell from 29.7 ± 12.5 mmHg to 18.6 ± 7.9 mmHg (t = 7.39, P < 0.001), and mPAP fell from 40.3 ± 10.6 mmHg to 25.7 ± 8.3 mmHg (t = 11.85, P < 0.001). Six (9.8%) patients died owing to complications including low cardiac output syndrome in two patients, respiratory failure in two, pulmonary hemorrhage in one, and sudden death in one patient. Pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) dropped significantly in infant and child patients. Mortality of both infants (13.9%) and adults (33.3%) was high., Conclusions: PAP of patients with DORV complicated by PH can be expected to fall significantly after surgery. An arterial switch procedure can achieve excellent results in patients with transposition of the great arteries type. Higher incidence of complications may occur in patients with ventricular septal defect (VSD) type before 1 year of age. For those with remote VSD type, VSD enlargement and right ventricle outflow tract reconstruction are usually required with acceptable results. The degree of aortic overriding does not influence surgical outcome.