A comparison of different severities of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy relative to stress, social support, and maternal adaptation

A cross-sectional and comparative research design with convenience sampling was used to recruit pregnant women from prenatal clinics in southern Taiwan between 2002 and 2003 to examine the differences in perceived stress, social support, and maternal psychosocial adaptation among women with different severities (mild or less than mild, moderate, and severe) of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. A total of 150 pregnant women participated in this study. One-way analysis of variance indicated that perceived stress was significantly different among the 3 groups. The least significant difference post-hoc test revealed that pregnant women with mild nausea and vomiting had significantly lower stress than did pregnant women with severe nausea and vomiting. The severity of nausea and vomiting was significantly associated with the Prenatal Self Evaluation Questionnaire subscales for "acceptance of pregnancy" and "fear of helplessness and loss of control in labor." Social support and maternal psychosocial adaptation were not significantly different among these three groups. The degree of perceived stress and maternal psychosocial adaptation may be related to the severity of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.     

Success of targeted transperineal biopsy in patients on surveillance for grade group 1 prostate cancer

IntroductionWe aimed to determine the minimum cross-sectional ellipsoid area on magnetic resonance (MR) of intraprostatic nodules that best predicts for subsequent targeted biopsies revealing ≥ grade group (GG) 2 disease.MethodsForty-six patients previously diagnosed with GG 1 prostate adenocarcinoma who received cognitively fused, MR-guided, transperineal targeted biopsies in addition to six random biopsies were included in this analysis. A Youden cutpoint analysis was used to determine the ellipsoid area in the axial plane best predicting for ≥GG 2 disease within the targeted biopsy cores and logistic regression used to assess the result.ResultsMedian time from MR imaging to targeted biopsy was 2.4 (1.4–5.5) months. Forty of 46 (87%) patients had one nodule and 6/46 (13%) had two separate nodules on MR that received targeted biopsy. Of the 52 nodules, five (10%), 33 (63%), and 14 (27%) were Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Thirteen (25%), six (12%), and 33 (64%) were in the anterior, medial, and posterior regions of the prostate, respectively. Median area was 0.72 (0.49–1.29) cm² (average diameter 9.5 mm). Fifteen of 46 (33%) patients had ≥1 random biopsy and 20/52 (38%) nodules had ≥1 targeted biopsy revealing ≥GG 2 disease. The optimal area cutpoint was ≥0.7 cm², with an area under the curve of 0.671 (0.510–0.832). On logistic regression, area ≥0.7 cm² was solely predictive of targeted biopsy revealing ≥GG 2 disease (odds ratio 6.5, 1.3–32.4, p=0.022).ConclusionsNodule area ≥0.7 cm² may predict for transperineal-based targeted biopsies being positive for ≥GG 2 disease when 1–2 cores are taken.     

Case of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia with Unusual Chromosome Aberrations

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is one of the most common leukemias in the western world and consists of many chromosome aberrations. We report the case of a 74-year-old male patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia with complex variant translocations t(8;22)(q24;q11) and der(8)t(6;8)(p21;p21) identified by chromosome banding analysis and confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of interphase cells. Because of the rarity of these changes, possible molecular mechanisms associated with this karyotype are discussed.     

Long-term health-related quality of life after pancreatic resection for malignancy in patients with and without severe postoperative complications

Background

Surgery for pancreatic cancer yields significant morbidity and mortality risks and survival is limited. Therefore, the influence of complications on quality of life (QoL) after pancreatic surgery is important. This study compares QoL in patients with and without severe complications after surgery for pancreatic (pre-)malignancy.

Detection of chymase activity using a specific peptide probe conjugated onto gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can be applied in biosensors using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) technique. Based on this technique, we have established a sensitive and efficient biosensing method by modifying a peptide-probe onto AuNPs to detect proteinase enzyme activity in this study. This biosensing method was designed for chymase activity detection and applied in kidney disease diagnosis. In this study, 16 nm-AuNPs were used to construct the AuNPs-based fluorescence peptide probe (named AuNPs-peptide probe) for chymase activity determination. The peptide sequence is FITC-Acp-DRVYIHPFHLDDDDDC, which comprises a fluorophore at the N-terminal end, an enzyme (chymase) substrate (DRVYIHPFHL), a spacer (DDDDD) and cysteine (C) to conjugate to AuNPs surface. When the enzyme catalyzes the substrate sequence, the fluorophore drifts away from AuNPs and the fluorescence emitting signal can be excited at 495 nm and detected at 515 nm. The results indicate that the time required for the AuNPs-peptide probe for activity detection of chymase was only 15 min, and a linear correlation from 10 to 100 ng mL⁻¹ of chymase was acquired. The chymase reaction would be significantly inhibited by addition of specific chymase inhibitor chymostatin. The AuNPs-peptide probe was tested for the detection of high concentrations of trypsin and chymotrypsin, but only minor emitted fluorescence intensity was detected. According to these results, sensitivity and specificity of the AuNPs-peptide probe for chymase detection have been confirmed. AuNPs-peptide probe was successfully used for the detection of renal chymase activity; and the results indicate the pathogenically increased chymase activity in kidney tissue of nephropathic mice from aristolochic acid I treatment.

The gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) peptide probe functionalized with specific peptide sequences was developed for the sensitive and efficient detection of chymase activity.