Dilated Cardiomyopathy With Left Ventricular Thrombi as a Presenting Feature of Cushing Disease

We report on a 20-year-old man with dilated cardiomyopathy and intracardiac thrombi associated with Cushing disease (CD). The patient presented with symptomatic heart failure. Follow-up echocardiography showed 2 thrombi in the apex of the left ventricle, which resolved after intravenous heparin therapy. The patient was first treated symptomatically, and then trans-sphenoidal adenomectomy was performed. Although cortisol excess alone may not be sufficient to produce severe cardiomyopathy, progressive improvement of cardiac function was observed within 3 years after surgery.     

Structure confirmation and thermal kinetics of the inclusion of cis-jasmone in β-cyclodextrin

In this study, inclusion complex of cis-jasmone in β-CD (β-CD-CJ) was synthesized to improve cis-jasmone stability. The structure and thermal kinetics of the inclusion complex was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). DSC studies showed that the stability of cis-jasmone after β-cyclodextrin encapsulation was improved. The dissociation kinetics of β-CD-CJ at different heating rates was studied by TG, and the activation energy E of β-CD-CJ thermal decomposition kinetic parameters was defined by Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method. The results showed that the average activation energy E was 121.16 kJ mol⁻¹.

In this study, inclusion complex of cis-jasmone in β-CD (β-CD-CJ) was synthesized to improve cis-jasmone stability.     

Prognostic significance of TP53 expression for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

Background

Various studies evaluated the relationship between p53 expression and the clinical outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but yielded conflicting results.

Methods

Electronic databases updated to Dec 2013 were searched to find relevant studies. A meta-analysis was conducted with eligible studies which quantitatively evaluated the relationship between p53 expression and survival of patients with HCC. Survival data were aggregated and quantitatively analyzed.

Results

We performed a meta-analysis of 24 studies that evaluated the correlation between p53 expression and survival in patients with HCC. Combined hazard ratios (HRs) suggested that p53 expression had an unfavorable impact on overall survival (OS) [HR =1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.40-1.85], and disease free survival (DFS) (HR =1.57, 95% CI: 1.26-1.87) in patients with HCC.

Conclusions

p53 expression indicates a poor prognosis for patients with HCC.