Pancreatic transplant imaging

Forty-four clinical episodes of suspected (pancreas) transplant rejection in 17 pancreatic transplantation patients were reviewed retrospectively. The clinical impression of acute graft rejection, chronic rejection, or nonrejection in each episode was correlated with the results of 19 nuclear medicine, 12 ultrasound (US), and 44 magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies. US was found to be a moderately sensitive (82%) method of detecting graft rejection. US also was effective in identifying intra- and peripancreatic fluid accumulations. Nuclear medicine imaging was also a sensitive technique (86%) and the only modality that provided physiologic information regarding graft perfusion. MR imaging allowed correct prediction of the presence or absence of graft rejection in 39 of 44 cases (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 76%) and was an effective means of detecting pathologic fluid collections. Nuclear medicine, US, and MR imaging are all believed to be sensitive methods of detecting graft rejection and are complementary adjuncts to the clinical evaluation of pancreatic transplants.     

Laparoscopic management of early primary peritoneal pregnancy: a case report

Peritoneal pregnancy is an implantation in the peritoneal cavity exclusive of tubal, ovarian, or intra-ligamentary implantations. This is a rare obstetric complication with high maternal mortality and even higher perinatal mortality, and secondary type was most common. Risk factors for peritoneal pregnancy are previous history of extrauterine pregnancy or tubal surgery pelvic post-inflammatory status or presence of an intra-uterine device. As it is a life-threatening condition, expectant management carries a risk of sudden life-threatening intra-abdominal bleeding and a generally poor fetal prognosis. So, when it is recognized, immediate termination of pregnancy is usually recommended. Early diagnosis of peritoneal pregnancy is difficult, but is important by their life threatening progress course to patients. Recently, we experienced primary peritoneal pregnancy which meets both the original and modified criteria. In this paper, we reported the case of early diagnosed and successfully treated peritoneal pregnancy despite of their diagnosis was incidentally.     

抗高血压药物与罹患癌症的风险:324168例参与随机临床试验病人的荟萃分析和试验序贯分析

长期以来,一直存在抗高血压药物是否有致癌作用的争议.自从在年龄>50岁的妇女中使用萝芙碱提取物造成乳腺癌发病率增加的报道后[1],这一争议已持续了30年.Sipahi和同事们最近的研究显示:血管紧张素受体拮抗剂(angiotensin receptor-blockers,ARB)有较高的致癌风险.这一发现再次引发了抗...     

Validity of the telephone interview for cognitive status (TICS) and modified TICS (TICSm) for mild cognitive imparment (MCI) and dementia screening

This study aimed to validate the TICS and modified TICS (TICSm) in Korean elderly population and to compare MCI and dementia screening ability between TICS and TICSm. TICS and TICSm were administered to 70 cognitively normal (CN), 75 MCI, and 85 dementia subjects, with mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and other cognitive and functional measures. TICS and TICSm scores were highly correlated with other global cognitive and functional scores. The CN vs. dementia discrimination ability of both instruments was as excellent as that of MMSE (sensitivity/specificity at optimal cutoff: 87.1/90.1 for TICS; 88.2/90.0 for TICSm). Although their CN vs. MCI discrimination performances were comparable to that of MMSE, they were far from perfect (sensitivity/specificity: 69.3/68.6 for TICS; 73.3/67.1 for TICSm). There was no significant difference in dementia or MCI screening accuracy between TICS and TICSm. Both of them also showed high test-retest reliability. Our findings indicate that TICS and TICSm are reliable and as valid as MMSE in regard of screening cognitively impaired elderly. In terms of the comparison between TICSm and TICS, however, TICSm has little advantage over TICS for screening dementia and even MCI, in spite of longer administration time and more efforts required.     

High-Throughput,Fluorescence-Based Esterase Activity Assay for Assessing Polysorbate Degradation Risk during Biopharmaceutical Development

Pharmaceutical Research - Hydrolytic degradation of polysorbate during 2–8°C storage of monoclonal antibody drug products has been attributed to residual enzymes (e.g., esterases) from...