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Background Prolactinoma is the major cause of hyperprolactinemia, and dopamine agonists (DAs) are generally the first-line treatment for them. Several studies have reviewed the recurrent rate of hyperprolactinemia after DAs withdrawal. However, few of them have concerned the recurrence risk of prolactinoma following the withdrawal of DAs. Methods Three medical databases, PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane library, were retrieved up to February, 14, 2021 to identify studies related to recurrence of prolactinoma and withdrawal of DAs. Statistical analyses including meta-analysis, sensitivity analysis, meta-regression, funnel plot and Egger test were performed through software R. Results A total of 3225 studies were retrieved from the three data bases, and 13 studies consisted of 616 patients and 19 arms were finally included in this systematic analysis. There was no significant heterogeneity among the included studies, and fixed effect model was thus used. The pooled recurrence proportion of prolactinoma after withdrawal of DA was 2% with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1–3%. Conclusion Our study showed a very low recurrent rate of prolactinomas after DAs withdrawal. Much more prospective studies with larger cases and longer follow-up period are encouraged to confirm our finding. Trial registration Registration numberCRD42021245888 (PROSPERO).

Purpose Headache is common among patients with pituitary adenomas undergone endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES), but was seldomly concerned before. The present study aims to investigate the incidence and profile of risk factors of headache after EES.Methods A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the occurrence proportions of postoperative headache in patients with pituitary adenomas. Then, a cohort of 101 patients undergone EES were enrolled for analyzing risk factors of headache. The Headache Impact Test (HIT-6) was used to score the headache preoperatively, 1 month and 3 months postoperatively. Results A total of 18 studies and 4442 participants were included for meta-analysis. The pooled occurrence proportion of postoperative headache was 29% (95% confidential interval: 20-38%). For the 101 patients enrolled in the present study, 26 (25.74%) of them had a HIT-6 scores of > 55 preoperatively, but decreased to 22 (21.78%) at 1 month, and 6 (5.94%) at 3 months, postoperatively. Multivariate analysis showed that pituitary apoplexy (OR=3.591, 95%CI 1.219-10.575, p=0.020) and Hardy's grade C-D (OR=21.06, 95%CI 2.25-197.02, p=0.008) were independently risk factors for preoperative headache. In contrast, postoperative sinusitis (OR=3.88, 95%CI 1.16-13.03, P=0.028) and Hardy's grade C-D (OR=10.53, 95%CI 1.02-109.19, P=0.049) independently predicted the presence of postoperative headache at 1 month. At 3 months postoperatively, the proportion of sinusitis tended to be higher in the headache group than the one in non-headache group (100% vs. 30.0%, p=0.070). Conclusion Headache is very common following EES for pituitary adenomas. Prophylactic management of postoperative sinusitis may help to alleviate postoperative headache.

Background and aims The decreasing Helicobacter pylori eradication rate and the increasing antibiotic resistance trend are of great concern. Therefore, new and effective therapies are needed for H. pylori infection. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of semisynthetic tetracycline regimens in H. pylori treatment. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library were searched. The outcome indicators were the eradication rate, risk ratio (RR, ie, the risk of the semisynthetic tetracycline regimen relative to the control), and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Controls were patients undergoing any other treatment without semisynthetic tetracycline. Results Twenty-three studies with 5240 participants were included. The eradication rates of triple regimens with semisynthetic tetracyclines in most studies were less than 70% in both the intention-to-treat (ITT) and the per-protocol (PP) analyses. The pooled eradication rates of quadruple therapies with doxycycline and controls were 95% and 84% in the PP analyses, respectively. The pooled RR associated with efficacy in the quadruple therapy with doxycycline group compared with the control group was 1.12 (95% CI: 1.04-1.20) in the PP analysis. The pooled RR of side effects in the quadruple therapy with doxycycline group compared with the control group was 1.01 (95% CI: 0.65-1.55). Conclusion Seven-day and ten-day quadruple therapy with doxycycline might be an optional first-line therapy. The safety of regimens containing semisynthetic tetracyclines was relatively satisfactory. However, the triple regimen is not recommended.

Background: Current lymph node (LN) staging is controversial in predicting the survival of ampullary cancer (AC). We aimed to develop an alternative LN-classification-based nomogram to individualize AC prognosis.Methods: Using the data of patients diagnosed with AC between 2004 and 2015 from the SEER database, we determined the cut-off values for the number of LNs examined via the K-adaptive partitioning algorithm. A nomogram predicting the survival of AC patients was performed, internally and externally validated, and evaluated by calibration plot, C-index, and decision curve analysis (DCA), and was compared to the 7th TNM stage.Results: We included 2341 patients with detailed information. The optimal cut-off for examined LN number was 12, while the cut-off value for positive LNs was 0 and 4. The C-index for the nomogram was higher than that of the 7th TNM staging (internal: 0.686; 95% CI, 0.584-0.773 vs. 0.616; 95% CI, 0.533-0.754, P < 0.001; external: 0.713; 95% CI, 0.651-0.784 vs. 0.647; 95% CI, 0.551-0.719, P < 0.001). Additionally, the nomogram showed good agreement between internal and external validation. DCA analysis showed no matter in the internal cohort or external cohort; the nomogram showed a greater benefit across the period of follow-up than did the 7th TNM stage.Conclusion: We found that examined LNs that were more than 12 were beneficial for prognosis of patients. We also modified the current N staging into three groups based on number of metastatic LNs: N0, no LN metastasis; N1, 1–4 metastatic LNs; N2, >=5 metastatic LNs. A nomogram with greater benefit for predicting the survival of patients with AC than TNM staging was constructed.

Background The occurrence of antibiotic-resistant strains has been rapidly increasing due to the wide use of antibiotics. To evaluate the current effects of antibiotic resistance on Helicobacter pylori eradication efficacy, we conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods Literature searches were conducted in the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA version 12.0 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA). Results A total of 120 studies, including 28 707 patients, were assessed. Only first-line therapy was considered. The pooled RR of eradication rate in patients with Helicobacter pylori strains sensitive versus resistant to clarithromycin was 0.682 (95% CI: 0.636-0.731). The pooled RR of eradication rate in patients with Helicobacter pylori strains sensitive versus resistant to metronidazole was 0.843 (95% CI: 0.810-0.877). The pooled RR of eradication rate in patients with Helicobacter pylori strains sensitive versus resistant to levofloxacin was 0.794 (95% CI: 0.669-0.941). The pooled RR of eradication rate in patients with Helicobacter pylori strains sensitive versus resistant to dual clarithromycin and metronidazole was 0.674 (95% CI: 0.590-0.770). Conclusion Antibiotic resistance causes a decrease in the eradication rate of H pylori today. Quadruple concomitant therapy may overcome the declining H pylori eradication rate caused by metronidazole-only resistance.

This paper presents an iterative method for solving a class of generalized quasi-variational-like inclusions with fuzzy mappings. The method employs step size controls that enable applications to problems where certain set-valued mappings do not always map to empty set. The algorithm also adopts the recently introduced (H,η)-monotone concept which unifies many known monotonicities. Thus generalized many existing results