Advances in statistical methodology and their application in critical care

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review some of the major advances in statistical methodology of the past two decades and their application to investigations in critical care. RECENT FINDINGS: The introduction of new technologies and the ready availability of advanced computer resources have led to significant developments in statistical methodology. These include the development of computationally intensive methods, improved methods for modeling correlated outcome data, and new methods for handling missing data. Although many of these tools are available in standard statistical software, they remain underutilized in the medical literature. SUMMARY: By becoming familiar with advances in statistical methodology, researchers and clinicians can enhance collaboration with their statistical colleagues, toward the goal of better study design and analysis.     

Multicentric Castleman's disease and Kaposi's sarcoma in a cyclosporin treated,HIV-1 negative patient: case report

Background  

Multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) is a rare disease, but is more frequent in AIDS patients. MCD has only been reported twice before in patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy after renal transplantation, and never in patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy without transplantation. About half of the cases of MCD are human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) – related, in contrast to Kaposi's sarcoma, a more common complication arising after immunosuppression, where the virus is found in virtually all cases.     

转染外源性白细胞介素6基因增强乳腺癌细胞株MCF-7表达肿瘤相关抗原

目的 :探索白细胞介素 6 (interleukin 6 ,IL 6 )增强乳腺癌细胞表达乳腺癌抗原 (CA15 3)和癌胚抗原 (CEA)的作用。方法 :将含IL 6蛋白编码顺序1176bpcDNA插入Pci neo哺乳动物表达载体。将重组载体转染MCF 7乳腺癌细胞 ,采用ELASA方法测定细胞培养上清液内IL 6浓度 ,用MEIA(microp articalenzymeimmunoassay)方法测定上清液中肿瘤相关抗原CA15 3、CEA和CA12 5。结果 :含有外源IL 6基因的MCF 7细胞分泌IL 6浓度 (338.5±2 2 .6pg·10 -6细胞 )明显高于父本没有含外源基因的MCF 7细胞 (2 5 .4± 4 .6pg·10 -6细胞 )和仅含空载体Pci neo的MCF 7细胞 (19.6± 3.0pg·10 -6细胞 ) (P<0 .0 1)。细胞培养d 3后 ,带外源IL 6基因的MCF 7细胞培养上清液中CA15 3和CA12 5水平 (分别为 14 .9± 2 .3和 38.8± 5 .1μg·10 -6细胞 )明显高于父本 (分别为 6 .6± 1.5和 10 .0± 1.6 μg·10 -6细胞 )和空载体Pci neo的MCF 7细胞 (分别为 3.4±0 .7和 14 .6± 2 .2 μg·10 -6细胞 ,P <0 .0 5 )。而转染IL 6基因没有明显改变CEA表达 (P >0 .0 5 )。结论 :IL 6具有诱导肿瘤相关抗原的表达和增强肿瘤细胞的免疫原性的作用 ,提示IL 6可能增强机体对肿瘤的免疫反应性。