Rheumatology health care providers’ views and practices on obesity and smoking cessation management in rheumatoid arthritis

Clinical Rheumatology - To assess rheumatology health care providers’ (HCPs) knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy, practices, and perceived barriers pertaining to weight management and smoking...     

Serum and urine survivin levels in breast cancer

This study was conducted to investigate the serum and urine levels of survivin in patients with breast cancer and the relationships with known prognostic parameters and therapy. Forty-three patients with breast cancer and 21 healthy control subjects were investigated. Serum samples were obtained on the first admission before adjuvant and metastatic treatment were given and after two cycles of chemotherapy. Serum and urine survivin levels were determined using enzyme immunometric assay (EIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. There was no significant difference in the baseline serum and urine levels between patients with breast carcinoma and healthy controls (p=0.19 and p=0.84, respectively). None of the prognostic parameters analyzed were significantly correlated with the urine survivin concentrations. This was also true for serum survivin values, except for nodal involvement. Serum survivin levels were significantly higher in the patients with nodal involvement compared with node negatives (p=0.043). However, serum survivin levels were not influenced by the number of involved nodes (p=0.77). No significant correlation was found between the serum and urine levels of survivin (r=0.15, p=0.27). Serum and urine levels did not change significantly after chemotherapy (p=0.59 and p=0.50, respectively). In conclusion, the result of this study suggested that serum survivin level could be a sensitive marker for detecting metastases in lymph nodes from breast cancer patients. However, much research continues in this field, and exciting new knowledge will ultimately emerge.     

Transtympanic management of tinnitus

Transtympanic therapy is becoming and important treatment modality for many inner ear disorders. The current therapies aimed at Meniere's disease, sudden sensorineural hearing loss, noise-induced hearing loss, and the tinnitus associated with these disorders and idiopathic tinnitus, however, represents simply an evolutionary step in this treatment modality and must be validated by further scientific study. A number of promising developments including newer more targeted neuroactive medicines, a better understanding of medicine delivery, and the knowledge of the site, origin, and pathophysiology of the symptoms complex will make this therapy more effective. In the future it is possible that many inner ear disorders will be amenable to inner ear medical therapy. Ideally in the future with knowledge of the disease and its etiology the physician will simply pick the established medicine, the established dose, and the established route of administration and achieve a relatively predictable result.     

Sustained-release delivery of leupeptin in the chinchilla: hearing results

Transtympanic medical therapy is becoming an increasingly popular modality for the treatment of "inner-ear disorders." While investigators continue to examine the best dosing paradigms for gentamicin in the treatment of Ménière's disease and for steroids in the treatment of hearing loss, they have also begun to focus on the use of other agents. In particular, transtympanic therapy has been advocated as a plausible route for the treatment of tinnitus. Transtympanic therapy for tinnitus is not new, and a number of groups have reported success in the past. Despite this success, a number of laboratories have been focusing on newer agents that might yield higher success rates in the treatment of tinnitus and other inner-ear disorders. Many of these agents could have systemic side effects when delivered in high enough doses; therefore, they are ideal candidates for transtympanic administration. The goal of this study is to begin to define the effects of one of these agents--leupeptin, a calpain antagonist--on the normal inner ear of an animal model. In this investigation, we demonstrate the effects of sustained-release delivery of leupeptin (2.5 micrograms/ml) on the hearing of chinchillas. The medicine produced no hearing loss at the early time points but did produce some hearing loss at later time points. We discuss these results and begin to outline the next steps in the investigation of this agent.     

Serum levels of intercellular adhesion molecule ICAM-1 and E-selectin in advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer

Cell adhesion is a basic count in inter- and intra-cellular communication and plays an important role in tumor progression. This study was conducted to investigate the serum levels of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) and E-selectin in patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the relationships with known prognostic parameters and therapy. These serum factors were measured of 57 NSCLC patients pathologically verified before and after chemotherapy in comparison with 24 healthy controls by using ELISA method. Serum levels of ICAM-1 were increased significantly in NSCLC patients compared with the healthy controls (P = 0.006). However, serum E-selectin levels were not significantly different from healthy control groups (0.643). No statistically significant relationships were found between investigated all serum parameters and various characteristics of patients, and the diseases such as stage and tumor burden. Likewise, we also found no correlation between serum ICAM-1 and E-selectin (P = 0.78). We found that serum ICAM-1 levels were decreased owing to the chemotherapy effect, independently from chemotherapy response. However, serum E-selectin levels were not changed by the chemotherapy effect. The median survival of all patients was 11.9 months and 1-year survival rate was 47.6%. We found that patients performance status (P = 0.013), age (P = 0.015), and weight loss (P = 0.007) were prognostic factors for survival. Serum E-selectin levels showed a trend (P = 0.08) related to worse prognosis, however serum ICAM-1 levels were determined as ineffective on survival (P = 0.11). Multivariate analysis revealed that only weight loss (P = 0.005) and E-selectin levels (P = 0.002) remained as an independent prognostic factor for survival in patients with advanced NSCLC. In conclusion, our data suggest that higher serum ICAM-1 can be useful for diagnosis while E-selectin levels have prognostic significance and could be a potential prognostic factor in NSCLC patients.     

Pancreatic panniculitis as the first manifestation of the pancreatic involvement during the course of a gastric adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic panniculitis (PP) is a rare disease presenting during the course of pancreatic diseases such as acute and chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic carcinoma. There are also a few reports of PP associated with other carcinomas. We present a 69-year-old male patient of gastric carcinoma with PP. The literature is reviewed, clinical and histological features of the case are discussed. This is the first case of PP in a gastric carcinoma patient reported in literature. As a conclusion, PP can be the first manifestation of a pancreatic metastasis of any carcinoma.     

Reestablishing Lacrimal Drainage by Canaliculorhinostomy after Dacryocystectomy: A Viable Option in Symptomatic Patients

PurposeTo evaluate the outcome and efficacy of a modified technique of canaliculo-dacryocystorhinostomy (canaliculo-DCR) in the complete absence of lacrimal sac, as a means to reestablish lacrimal drainage in postdacryocystectomy (post-DCT) patients.MethodsA retrospective, nonrandomized interventional study including 15 proven and established post-DCT patients with intact canaliculi of at least 7 to 8 mm. The patients presented with bothersome tearing to the oculoplastic clinic from January 2017 to January 2018. Patients were operated by a single surgeon (ST). Procedure involved creating a bony ostium of optimum size, internal membranectomy and the nasal mucosal flap anchored appropriately to create a passage in line with the common canaliculus. Adjunctively bicanalicular intubation and mitomycin-C were used.ResultsOf the 15 patients who were operated (10 female and five male patients), 14 (93.33%) had functionally and anatomically patent lacrimal passage after the modified canaliculo-DCR, one (6.66%) was symptomatically better with partial regurgitation of clear fluid. Three (20%) had tube prolapse after 1st month postoperatively, which although significant, was not related to the technique. They were repositioned as an office procedure and retained thereafter till removal, no other tube related or mitomycin-C related sequelae was seen. No intraoperative complication was encountered.ConclusionsWith a success rate of 93.33% and a resultant patent lacrimal tear drainage passage and trivial complication such as tube prolapse, we can conclude, this technique of modified canaliculo-DCR in post-DCT patients is a safe and effective procedure with promising results, thereby avoiding cumbersome methods and maintenance of Jones tube while at the same time providing symptomatic relief to the patients.