Liver transplantation for erythropoietic protoporphyria liver disease.

In erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), there is excessive production of protoporphyrin, primarily in the bone marrow, resulting in increased biliary excretion of this heme precursor. Some patients will develop progressive liver disease that may ultimately require liver transplantation. However, excessive production of protoporphyrin by the bone marrow continues after transplantation, which may cause recurrent disease in the allograft. This study was performed to define post-transplant survival, the risk of recurrent disease, and specific management issues in patients transplanted for EPP liver disease. The patients studied consisted of twelve males and eight females, with an average age of 31 (range, 13-56) years at the time of transplantation. The estimated maximum MELD score prior to transplant was 21 (range, 15-29). Unique complications in the perioperative period were light induced tissue damage in four patients and neuropathy in six, requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation in four. Patient and graft survival rates were 85% at 1 year, 69% at 5 years, and 47% at 10 years. Recurrent EPP liver disease occurred in 11 of 17 patients (65%) who survived more than 2 months. Three patients were retransplanted at 1.8, 12.6, and 14.5 years after the initial transplant for recurrent EPP liver disease. In conclusion, the 5-year patient survival rate in patients transplanted for EPP liver disease is good, but the recurrence of EPP liver disease appears to diminish long term graft and patient survival.     

Controlling for occasion-specific effects when assessing the test–retest reliability of self-report health questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: This study proposes a method for self-report health questionnaires to adjust test-retest reliability for changes during the test-retest interval based on an external measure, and to distinguish such changes from random response errors. METHODS: In our application, eighty participants completed the Symptoms of Illness Checklist (SIC) on two occasions, two weeks apart, immediately before interviews given on each occasion by one of two physicians in a crossover design. The physician interview scores served as external measures, and structural equation modeling was used to estimate the parameters of a model that corrected for the occasion-specific effect of participants' responses using information from the interviews. RESULTS: Correcting for changes in symptoms during the test-retest interval increased SIC test-retest reliability from .744 to .804 and significantly improved model fit (chi2(diff)(1) = 30.78, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest methods that can improve the evaluation of self-report health questionnaire test-retest reliability by identifying changes using an external measure, and distinguishing these from random response errors; these increased the estimated SIC test-retest reliability and indicated that the SIC was indeed able to measure changes over the studied time interval. This method can be applied across a broad range of questionnaires.     

Fusaric acid: a novel agent and mechanism to treat HNSCC.

OBJECTIVE: A new class of carboxylic acids has tumoricidal activity for head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). Fusaric acid (FA) can chelate divalent cations, especially zinc, and inactivate zinc finger proteins involved in DNA repair and protein synthesis. METHODS: 2 squamous carcinoma lines were utilized for in vitro and in vivo portions of this study. Cell counting and flow cytometry were used to analyze cells in culture in treatment and control groups over 96 hours. HNSCC subcutaneous implants were created in treatment and control groups of BALB-c nude mice (N = 30). RESULTS: In vitro studies demonstrated significant changes in cell numbers and cell cycle. In vivo studies of daily intralesional therapy for 1 month also showed reduced onset of growth and overall growth compared to controls. CONCLUSION: FA appears to have a tumoristatic/tumoricidal effect on HNSCC. Further nude mice studies are needed to optimize dosing and administration regimens for FA in anticipation of clinical trials.     

Sternal surgical-site infection following coronary artery bypass graft: prevalence, microbiology, and complications during a 42-month period.

OBJECTIVE: Surgical-site infection (SSI) is a serious and costly complication following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). We analyzed surgical factors, microbiology, and complications at a 608-bed community teaching hospital to identify opportunities for prevention. METHODS: All patients undergoing CABG procedures from June 1997 through December 2000 were analyzed. Hospital records and postdischarge surveillance data were reviewed for demographics, surgical information, timing and classification of infection, microbiology, and bacteremic events. RESULTS: Of 3,443 patients undergoing CABG, sternal SSI developed in 122 (3.5%); 71 (58.2%) were classified as superficial SSI and 51 (41.8%) as deep SSI. Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis was employed in all cases. On average, infection occurred 21.5 days (range, 4 to 315) after CABG. Most cases were diagnosed on readmission (59%); 20 cases (16%) were identified by postdischarge surveillance. Microbiological data were positive in 109 (89.3%), with a single pathogen implicated in most (86.2%). Gram-positive cocci were most frequently recovered (81%); gram-negative bacilli (17%), gram-positive bacilli (1%), and yeast (1%) were less common. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently isolated pathogen (49%). Bacteremia was noted in 22 instances (18%). It was significantly associated with deep SSI (P =. 002) and identified only in S. aureus cases. CONCLUSIONS: SSI complicated 3.5% of the procedures. S. aureus was implicated in most of the cases and was significantly associated with deep SSI. It was the only pathogen associated with secondary bacteremia. In addition to standard guidelines, targeted methods against S. aureus should help reduce the overall rate of SSI.     

锁骨中段骨折--手术与非手术治疗比较

有些证据表明,锁骨中段骨折采用手术或非手术治疗都可以获得成功,但非手术治疗的并发症更少。数据多数来自病例组研究,因此还需要对比研究来证明这些原始数据的真实性。     

Building bridges between neural models and complex decision making behaviour.

Diffusion processes, and their discrete time counterparts, random walk models, have demonstrated an ability to account for a wide range of findings from behavioural decision making for which the purely algebraic and deterministic models often used in economics and psychology cannot account. Recent studies that record neural activations in non-human primates during perceptual decision making tasks have revealed that neural firing rates closely mimic the accumulation of preference theorized by behaviourally-derived diffusion models of decision making. This article bridges the expanse between the neurophysiological and behavioural decision making literatures specifically, decision field theory [Busemeyer, J. R. & Townsend, J. T. (1993). Decision field theory: A dynamic-cognitive approach to decision making in an uncertain environment. Psychological Review, 100, 432-459], a dynamic and stochastic random walk theory of decision making, is presented as a model positioned between lower-level neural activation patterns and more complex notions of decision making found in psychology and economics. Potential neural correlates of this model are proposed, and relevant competing models are also addressed.