二巯基丁二酸降血压及对肾、血管损伤的保护作用

应用高盐饮食将高血压基因鼠（ＤａｈｌＳＳ）造成与人类高血压相似的模型，观察二巯基丁二酸（２，３－ｄｉｍｅｒｃａｐｔｏｓｕｃｃｉｎｉｃａｃｉｄ，ＤＭＳＡ）的治疗作用。结果：ＤＭＳＡ不仅可使盐敏感的Ｄａｈｌ鼠降低血压，而且具有保护肾组织及血管免受损伤的作用。推测ＤＭＳＡ是通过对氧自由基的清除作用来保护组织和器官免受破坏的。     

阴茎海绵体摺叠术纠正阴茎弯曲畸形

自１９８９年１２月至１９９３年３月对１５例阴茎弯曲患者施行弯曲纠正手术作回顾性分析，随访期３个月至３年，平均１６个月。全部病例接受阴茎海绵体摺叠术，即在弯曲的凸面进行缝合以拉直阴茎。３例（２０％）在手术后３个月至１年内复发，需再次手术。１３例（８６．６％）对手术效果满意，阴茎挺直，性交时无疼痛或不适。１例（６７％）出现静脉渗漏性阳萎，施行了阴茎深静脉结扎剥脱术。     

Factors affecting the labor efficiency of hospital-based blood bank laboratories

BACKGROUND: A variety of financing mechanisms and managerial innovations have been developed in the past decade to control hospital costs. Some evidence suggests that those changes have not produced substantial improvements in labor efficiency among employees in the hospital's technical level, such as in the blood bank laboratories. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This study measured labor efficiency in 40 hospital-based blood bank laboratories in Southern California during the year from July 1989 to June 1990 and explored the impact of financial, managerial, and operational factors on labor efficiency. RESULTS: With standardized output measures used in all blood bank laboratories, a wide variation of labor efficiency was found. Multivariate analyses indicate that the labor efficiency of blood bank employees was not influenced by organizational financial incentives, but was affected by the managerial styles of blood bank managers. CONCLUSION: Interpretation of the findings suggests that labor efficiency is affected by operational designs intended to improve responses to variable workloads and reduce slack time.     

Calcium calmodulin dependent kinase kinase 2 - a novel therapeutic target for gastric adenocarcinoma

Gastric cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal malignancies and is associated with poor prognosis. Exploring alterations in the proteomic landscape of gastric cancer is likely to provide potential biomarkers for early detection and molecules for targeted therapeutic intervention. Using iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis, we identified 22 proteins that were overexpressed and 17 proteins that were downregulated in gastric tumor tissues as compared to the adjacent normal tissue. Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase 2 (CAMKK2) was found to be 7-fold overexpressed in gastric tumor tissues. Immunohistochemical labeling of tumor tissue microarrays for validation of CAMKK2 overexpression revealed that it was indeed overexpressed in 94% (92 of 98) of gastric cancer cases. Silencing of CAMKK2 using siRNA significantly reduced cell proliferation, colony formation and invasion of gastric cancer cells. Our results demonstrate that CAMKK2 signals in gastric cancer through AMPK activation and suggest that CAMKK2 could be a novel therapeutic target in gastric cancer.     

Comparison of accuracy of fibrosis degree classifications by liver biopsy and non-invasive tests in chronic hepatitis C

Background

Non-invasive tests have been constructed and evaluated mainly for binary diagnoses such as significant fibrosis. Recently, detailed fibrosis classifications for several non-invasive tests have been developed, but their accuracy has not been thoroughly evaluated in comparison to liver biopsy, especially in clinical practice and for Fibroscan. Therefore, the main aim of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of detailed fibrosis classifications available for non-invasive tests and liver biopsy. The secondary aim was to validate these accuracies in independent populations.

Methods

Four HCV populations provided 2,068 patients with liver biopsy, four different pathologist skill-levels and non-invasive tests. Results were expressed as percentages of correctly classified patients.

Results

In population #1 including 205 patients and comparing liver biopsy (reference: consensus reading by two experts) and blood tests, Metavir fibrosis (F_M) stage accuracy was 64.4% in local pathologists vs. 82.2% (p < 10^-3) in single expert pathologist. Significant discrepancy (≥ 2F_M vs reference histological result) rates were: Fibrotest: 17.2%, FibroMeter^2G: 5.6%, local pathologists: 4.9%, FibroMeter^3G: 0.5%, expert pathologist: 0% (p < 10^-3). In population #2 including 1,056 patients and comparing blood tests, the discrepancy scores, taking into account the error magnitude, of detailed fibrosis classification were significantly different between FibroMeter^2G (0.30 ± 0.55) and FibroMeter^3G (0.14 ± 0.37, p < 10^-3) or Fibrotest (0.84 ± 0.80, p < 10^-3). In population #3 (and #4) including 458 (359) patients and comparing blood tests and Fibroscan, accuracies of detailed fibrosis classification were, respectively: Fibrotest: 42.5% (33.5%), Fibroscan: 64.9% (50.7%), FibroMeter^2G: 68.7% (68.2%), FibroMeter^3G: 77.1% (83.4%), p < 10^-3 (p < 10^-3). Significant discrepancy (≥ 2 F_M) rates were, respectively: Fibrotest: 21.3% (22.2%), Fibroscan: 12.9% (12.3%), FibroMeter^2G: 5.7% (6.0%), FibroMeter^3G: 0.9% (0.9%), p < 10^-3 (p < 10^-3).

Conclusions

The accuracy in detailed fibrosis classification of the best-performing blood test outperforms liver biopsy read by a local pathologist, i.e., in clinical practice; however, the classification precision is apparently lesser. This detailed classification accuracy is much lower than that of significant fibrosis with Fibroscan and even Fibrotest but higher with FibroMeter^3G. FibroMeter classification accuracy was significantly higher than those of other non-invasive tests. Finally, for hepatitis C evaluation in clinical practice, fibrosis degree can be evaluated using an accurate blood test.

     

血管成形术和支架辅助血管成形术治疗颅内动脉粥样硬化的报告标准（下）

本刊经Philip M．Meyers博士代表写作组授权,将“ Reporting standards for angioplasty and stent-assisted angioplasty for intracranial atherosclerosis”译为中文在本刊刊登。标准中对患者的选择、颅内动脉狭窄程度的判断、最佳内科治疗、围手术期处理、血管内治疗、术后并发症等,进行了规范化总结,拟为今后的临床试验和研究的规范化确定标准,以保证结果的可比性,对神经介入医师具有重要的指导意义。     

Differential properties of human ACL and MCL stem cells may be responsible for their differential healing capacity

Background

The World Health Organisation estimates that by 2030 there will be approximately 350 million people with type 2 diabetes. Associated with renal complications, heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease, early identification of patients with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes or those at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes is an important challenge. We sought to systematically review and critically assess the conduct and reporting of methods used to develop risk prediction models for predicting the risk of having undiagnosed (prevalent) or future risk of developing (incident) type 2 diabetes in adults.

Methods

We conducted a systematic search of PubMed and EMBASE databases to identify studies published before May 2011 that describe the development of models combining two or more variables to predict the risk of prevalent or incident type 2 diabetes. We extracted key information that describes aspects of developing a prediction model including study design, sample size and number of events, outcome definition, risk predictor selection and coding, missing data, model-building strategies and aspects of performance.

Results

Thirty-nine studies comprising 43 risk prediction models were included. Seventeen studies (44%) reported the development of models to predict incident type 2 diabetes, whilst 15 studies (38%) described the derivation of models to predict prevalent type 2 diabetes. In nine studies (23%), the number of events per variable was less than ten, whilst in fourteen studies there was insufficient information reported for this measure to be calculated. The number of candidate risk predictors ranged from four to sixty-four, and in seven studies it was unclear how many risk predictors were considered. A method, not recommended to select risk predictors for inclusion in the multivariate model, using statistical significance from univariate screening was carried out in eight studies (21%), whilst the selection procedure was unclear in ten studies (26%). Twenty-one risk prediction models (49%) were developed by categorising all continuous risk predictors. The treatment and handling of missing data were not reported in 16 studies (41%).

Conclusions

We found widespread use of poor methods that could jeopardise model development, including univariate pre-screening of variables, categorisation of continuous risk predictors and poor handling of missing data. The use of poor methods affects the reliability of the prediction model and ultimately compromises the accuracy of the probability estimates of having undiagnosed type 2 diabetes or the predicted risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In addition, many studies were characterised by a generally poor level of reporting, with many key details to objectively judge the usefulness of the models often omitted.     

Liver Manipulation Causes Hepatocyte Injury and Precedes Systemic Inflammation in Patients Undergoing Liver Resection

Background Liver failure following liver surgery is caused by an insufficient functioning remnant cell mass. This can be due to insufficient liver volume and can be aggravated by additional cell death during or after surgery. The aim of this study was to elucidate the causes of hepatocellular injury in patients undergoing liver resection. Methods Markers of hepatocyte injury (AST, GSTα, and L-FABP) and inflammation (IL-6) were measured in plasma of patients undergoing liver resection with and without intermittent inflow occlusion. To study the separate involvement of the intestines and the liver in systemic L-FABP release, arteriovenous concentration differences for L-FABP were measured. Results During liver manipulation, liver injury markers increased significantly. Arterial plasma levels and transhepatic and transintestinal concentration gradients of L-FABP indicated that this increase was exclusively due to hepatic and not due to intestinal release. Intermittent hepatic inflow occlusion, anesthesia, and liver transection did not further enhance arterial L-FABP and GSTα levels. Hepatocyte injury was followed by an inflammatory response. Conclusions This study shows that liver manipulation is a leading cause of hepatocyte injury during liver surgery. A potential causal relation between liver manipulation and systemic inflammation remains to be established; but since the inflammatory response is apparently initiated early during major abdominal surgery, interventions aimed at reducing postoperative inflammation and related complications should be started early during surgery or beforehand. Marcel C. G. van de Poll, Joep P. M. Derikx contributed equally to this work.