Intracardiac echogenic focus and its location: association with congenital heart defects

Purpose: Significance of intracardiac echogenic focus (ICEF) in the fetal heart remains controversial. We aimed to investigate whether the location of ICEF is associated with fetal cardiac structure defects (CSDs) in low-risk pregnant women.

Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Singleton pregnancies with normal values of triple fetal serum markers were included. 758 of 9782 fetuses with ICEF were reviewed for involvement of three ICEF locations (left, right, and bilateral ventricles (BVs)) in CSDs. χ² or Fisher’s exact test was performed for statistical analysis.

Results: ICEF prevalence was 7.7% and its location was most frequently in the left ventricle (LV) (84.8%), followed by the BV (11.6%) and the right ventricle (RV) (3.6%). No statistically significant difference was found between the ICEF location and maternal age (χ²?=?3.92, p-value?=?.1409). There were cardiac defects with an isolated echogenic focus in 24 of 758 fetuses (3.2%). Significant difference for CSDs was observed among groups of RV, LV, and BV (p-fisher?=?.0146).

Conclusions: Significantly more CSDs cases were identified in fetuses with ICEF in RV. Further investigation is warranted to examine the histological characteristics of fetal echogenic focus in the RV.     

Differences in the association between childhood trauma history and borderline personality disorder or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnoses in adulthood

European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience - Common environmental etiological factors between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder...     

Probiotics and prebiotics to combat enteric infections and HIV in the developing world: a consensus report

Infectious disease in the developing world continues to represent one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Every year over a million children suffer and die from the sequela of enteric infections, while in 2008 it is estimated almost 2.7 million (UNAIDS 2009 update) adults and children became infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, and antiretrovirals (ARV) for HIV are critical, there is a place for adjunctive therapies to improve quality of life. The importance of the human microbiota in retaining health is now recognized, as is the concept of replenishing beneficial microbes through probiotic treatments. Studies have shown that probiotics can reduce the duration of diarrhea, improve gut barrier function, help prevent bacterial vaginosis (BV), and enhance immunity even in HIV-infected subjects. However, many issues remain before the extent of probiotic benefits can be verified, and their application to the developing world realised. This consensus report outlines the potential probiotic, and to a lesser extent prebiotic, applications in resource disadvantages settings, and recommends steps that could bring tangible relief to millions of people. The challenges to both efficacy and effectiveness studies in these settings include a lack of infrastructure and funding for scientists, students and research projects in developing countries; making available clinically proven probiotic and prebiotic products at affordable prices; and undertaking appropriately designed clinical trials. We present a roadmap on how efficacy studies may be conducted in a resource disadvantages setting among persons with chronic diarrhea and HIV. These examples and the translation of efficacy into effectiveness are described.     

Prognostication of prostate cancer based on NUCB2 protein assessment: NUCB2 in prostate cancer

Background

Nucleobindin 2 (NUCB2) protein, a novel oncoprotein, is overexpressed in breast cancer. To date, there have been no published data regarding the role of NUCB2 protein expression in prostate cancer (PCa). Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the correlations between NUCB2 protein expression and prognosis in patients with PCa.

Methods

Through immunohistochemistry, NUCB2 protein expression was evaluated in 60 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) specimens and 180 PCa specimens. The correlation of NUCB2 protein expression with clinicopathological parameters was assessed using χ² analysis. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlation between NUCB2 protein expression and prognosis of PCa patients.

Results

The immunohistochemistry results showed that the expression level of NUCB2 in PCa cases was significantly higher than that in BPH tissues (P < 0.001). Moreover, statistical analysis also showed that high NUCB2 protein expression was positively related to seminal vesicle invasion, lymph node metastasis, angiolymphatic invasion, higher Gleason score, biochemical recurrence (BCR), and higher preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Furthermore, it was also shown that patients with high NUCB2 protein expression had significantly poorer overall survival and BCR- free survival compared with patients with low expression of NUCB2 protein. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that high NUCB2 protein expression level was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and BCR-free survival of patients with PCa.

Conclusions

NUCB2 protein expression showed a strong association with the potencies of BCR and progression of PCa, and that may be applied as a novel biomarker for the prediction of BCR, and helpful for improving the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of PCa.