Comparison of Acoustic Structure Quantification,Transient Elastography (FibroScan) and Histology in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B and without Moderate to Severe Hepatic Steatosis

The purpose of this study was to compare acoustic structure quantification (ASQ) with transient elastography for staging liver fibrosis. One hundred eighty-two patients with chronic hepatitis B and without moderate to severe hepatic steatosis scheduled for liver biopsy underwent ASQ and transient elastography examinations. All ASQ parameters, including total mode, total average, red mode, red average, red standard deviation, blue mode, blue average, blue standard deviation and focal disturbance (FD) ratio and liver stiffness obtained via transient elastography were found to correlate with fibrosis stage (Spearman's r?=?0.783, 0.791, 0.750, 0.771, 0.544, 0.718, 0.691, 0.439, 0.815 and 0.814, respectively; all p values < 0.001). Among the ASQ parameters, the FD ratio had the highest correlation with the stage of fibrosis. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of FD ratio and liver stiffness were 0.911 and 0.906 for F ≥ F1, 0.918 and 0.882 for F ≥ F2, 0.911 and 0.914 for F ≥ F3 and 0.926 and 0.978 for F?=?F4, respectively. There was no significant difference in AUCs between FD ratio and liver stiffness in predicting different stages of fibrosis (p?=?0.062–0.912). ASQ is a promising technique for assessing liver fibrosis in the absence of moderate to severe hepatic steatosis.     

Identification of the medial femoral safe zone for drilling during dynamic hip screw side plate fixation: A CT angiogram tracing of the profunda femoris artery

Objectives

Iatrogenic injury of the Profunda Femoris Artery (PFA) at time of hip fixation surgery can increase morbidity and mortality and prolong the hospital stay. This is an injury that tends to pass unnoticed as a cause of postoperative deterioration despite being frequently reported in the literature. Our study aims to describe the anatomy of the PFA in relation to the medial femoral cortex with specific emphasis on its orientation relative to the position of a sliding hip screw side plate construct. By doing so we are able to present clear guidance to orthopaedic surgeons on how to avoid iatrogenic PFA injury at the time of hip fracture fixation.

CRISPR-Pass: Gene Rescue of Nonsense Mutations Using Adenine Base Editors

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Interleukin-34 drives macrophage polarization to the M2 phenotype in autoimmune hepatitis

BackgroundAutoimmune hepatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease, the abnormal immunological function is the main pathogenesis. Interleukin-34 is a newly identified cytokine that shares the same receptor as colony stimulating factor-1.MethodsWe used interleukin-34 knockout and wild-type mice in a Con A-induced hepatitis model and cocultured RAW264.7 macrophage cells with interleukin-34. We then detected associated inflammatory cytokine and chemokine levels to elucidate the role of interleukin-34.ResultsIn this study, we found that the loss of interleukin-34 resulted in higher sensitivity to Con A-induced hepatitis. RAW264.7 macrophage cells were able to differentiate to the M2 phenotype upon interleukin-34 stimulation.ConclusionsWe conclude that interleukin-34 may protect the liver from Con A-mediated hepatitis by driving M2 macrophage polarization and suppressing inflammation.     

Utility of Basal Regional Oximetry as an Early Predictor of Graft Failure After Liver Transplant

Introduction

Adequate perfusion and oxygenation to liver graft after transplantation is essential for its viability. Hepatic oximetry (hepatic tissue oxygenation [LSrO₂]) through near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can help by showing real time oxygen content of the graft.

Rapid and sensitive HPLC-MS/MS method for quantitative determination of isochlorogenic acid B in rat plasma and its application in pharmacokinetic study

Asensitive LC-ESI-MS/MS method for determination of isochlorogenic acid B in rat plasma was developed and validated in the present study. Plasma samples were prepared by a simple protein precipitation with methanol containing resveratrol as internal standard (IS). The chromatographic separation was performed on a Zorbax SB-C₁₈ column (3.5 μm, 2.1 mm×100 mm, Agilent, USA) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min using methanol/water containing 0.1% formic acid (v/v) as mobile phase. The detectionwas performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer equipped with Electronic Spray Ion by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) of the transitions at m/z 515.3→352.9 for isochlorogenic acid B and m/z 227.1→143.1 for IS, respectively. The calibration curve of the method was linear over the range of 5–2500 ng/mL (r² = 0.9982). The intra- and inter-day precisions (R.S.D.%) were less than 12.46%, and the accuracy (R.E.%) was within ±5.80%. Isochlorogenic acid B was sufficiently stable under all relevant analytical conditions. The validated method was successfully applied to the plasma pharmacokinetic studies of isochlorogenic acid B in rats. It was found that isochlorogenic acid B had non-linear pharmacokinetic characteristics in rats within the dosage ranges from 5 to 20 mg/kg.