Decision analysis model of incisional hernia after open abdominal surgery

Background The incidence rate of incisional hernias after open surgery has been reported to be higher than that of port site hernias after laparoscopic surgery. No studies have compared the costs for the health care system in treating those two types of hernia. Methods A systematic review was conducted to obtain the baseline data, and a decision analysis model was created to simulate the occurrence and recurrence of incisional and port site hernias. Results The overall risk of having incisional hernias was eight-times higher than that of having port site hernias (7.4% vs 0.9%). A cost savings of ￡93 per patient can be generated for the health care system in the UK. Similar results were obtained for Germany, Italy and France. Conclusions The additional treatment costs for incisional hernia should be taken into account when the costs of a surgery performed by open approach are compared with by laparoscopy.     

Laser induced autofluorescence studies of animal skin used in modeling of human cutaneous tissue spectroscopic measurements

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Laser-induced autofluorescence spectroscopy provides excellent possibilities for medical diagnostics of different tissue pathologies including cancer. However, to create the whole picture of pathological changes, investigators collect spectral information from patients in vivo or they study different tumor models to obtain objective information for fluorescent properties of every kind of healthy and diseased tissue. Therefore, it is very important to find the most appropriate, and close to the human skin, animal samples from the fluorescence point of view, which will allow the extrapolation of the animal data to human spectroscopic diagnostics. METHODS: In the present work, we examined the autofluorescence properties of different animal skin tissues, which are considered as the most common skin models. A nitrogen laser was used as an excitation source. Samples of healthy mouse, chicken and pig skin in vivo and/or ex vivo were studied and were compared with results obtained from investigations of healthy human skin in vivo. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Specific features of the recorded spectra are discussed and the possible origin of the obtained fluorescence signals is proposed. Quantitative evaluation of data extrapolation for each skin type is also depicted.     

Melatonin‐evoked potentiation of the juvenile rat tail artery neurogenic reactivity depends on degree of the change in the reactivity

Aim: Dependence of the melatonin‐evoked potentiation of the rat tail artery neurogenic reactivity on degree of the change in the reactivity was studied. Method: Electrical field stimulation‐evoked contractile response of the juvenile rat tail artery segment under isometric conditions was recorded. 0.1 μm melatonin was administered after the change in the response produced both spontaneously and by acidification (pH 6.6) or alkalinization (pH 7.8) of the solution. Results: During the course of experiment, the contraction force continuously declined, being reduced by 12 ± 5, 24 ± 7 and 32 ± 6% at 20, 70, and 170 min after beginning of experiment, respectively. Melatonin applied at these time points increased the contraction by 20 ± 5, 41 ± 10, and 48 ± 8%, respectively, relative to control. This increase in potentiating effect of melatonin during the course of experiment was not because of sensitization of the segment to the hormone. Acidosis‐induced considerable decline in neurogenic contraction was counteracted by melatonin, while after alkalosis‐induced augmentation in the contraction the hormone was not effective. Melatonin increased the artery response to 0.1 μm noradrenaline. Conclusion: These data suggest that melatonin can restore an attenuated neurogenic reactivity of the juvenile rat tail artery. The effect is more pronounced with further decrease in reactivity and might be due to a change in sensitivity of the post‐junctional membrane to noradrenaline.     

乌司他丁对大鼠胰性脑病保护作用的实验研究

目的 :探讨乌司他丁对大鼠急性出血坏死性胰腺炎时对脑组织损害的保护作用 ,为胰性脑病的治疗提供实验依据。方法 :将 90只SD大鼠随机分为正常对照组 ,急性出血坏死性胰腺炎诱导组和乌司他丁处理组 ,经胰胆管逆行注射 5%牛磺胆酸钠建立大鼠ANP模型 ,12h后处死动物 ,测定血清TNFα水平 ,并检测脑组织含水量、脑微血管内白细胞聚集及附壁现象。结果 :经乌司他丁处理后 ,血清中乌司他丁水平、脑组织含水量、脑组织MDA含量、脑微血管内白细胞聚集及附壁现象显著降低(P <0 .0 1)。结论 :乌司他丁可以减轻急性出血坏死性胰腺炎时脑损害的发生和发展     

荷人卵巢癌严重联合免疫缺陷鼠腹腔移植模型的建立

目的 :建立荷人卵巢癌细胞株 SKOV3严重联合免疫缺陷小鼠 (SCID)动物模型。方法 :SCID鼠腹腔注射人 SKOV3卵巢癌细胞 1× 10 7个 /只 ,饲养在无特定病原体环境中 ,观察其生物学特性。结果 :实验组 3只 SCID小鼠腹腔内均见肿瘤生长 ,并形成以横膈、肠系膜、肝周、腹膜为主的转移灶 ,其中 1只肺部有镜下转移灶。移植后肿瘤细胞在形态、生长、分泌 CA12 5功能方面均与原细胞株保持一致。结论 :建立的荷人 SKOV3卵巢癌 SCID鼠腹腔移植模型能较好地模拟人卵巢癌腹腔播散的生物学特征。     

Working‐correlation‐structure identification in generalized estimating equations

Selecting an appropriate working correlation structure is pertinent to clustered data analysis using generalized estimating equations (GEE) because an inappropriate choice will lead to inefficient parameter estimation. We investigate the well‐known criterion of QIC for selecting a working correlation structure, and have found that performance of the QIC is deteriorated by a term that is theoretically independent of the correlation structures but has to be estimated with an error. This leads us to propose a correlation information criterion (CIC) that substantially improves the QIC performance. Extensive simulation studies indicate that the CIC has remarkable improvement in selecting the correct correlation structures. We also illustrate our findings using a data set from the Madras Longitudinal Schizophrenia Study. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Iron deficiency down-regulates the Akt/TSC1-TSC2/mammalian Target of Rapamycin signaling pathway in rats and in COS-1 cells

Iron deficiency (ID) is one of the most commonly known forms of nutritional deficiencies. Low body iron is thought to induce neurologic defects but may also play a protective role against cancer development by cell growth arrest. Thus, ID may affect cellular pathways controlling cell growth and proliferation, the mechanism of which is still not fully understood. The serine/threonine protein kinase Akt and its downstream target, the mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR), is known to play a crucial role in the regulation of cell growth and survival. Therefore, we hypothesized that Akt/mTOR pathway could be influenced by ID. Three-week-old male Wistar-strain rats were divided into 3 groups and the 2 groups had free access to a control diet (C group) or an iron-deficient diet (D group). The third group (PF group) were pair-fed the control diet to the mean intake of the D group. After 4 weeks, rats were killed and their brains were sampled. In separate experiments, COS-1 cells were cultured with or without the iron chelator deferoxamine. Western blots of brain samples and COS-1 lysates were used to analyze the expression and phosphorylation state of Akt, TSC2, mTOR, and S6 kinase proteins implicated in the Akt/mTOR pathway. Using 2 different ID models, we show for the first time that iron deficiency depresses Akt activity in rats and in COS-1 cells, leading to a decrease in mTOR activity.     

Is the political system really related to health?

We analyze whether the political system and its stability are related to cross-country differences in health. We apply factor analysis on various national health indicators for a large sample of countries over the period 2000–2005 and use the outcomes of the factor analysis to construct two new health measures, i.e., the health of individuals and the quality of the health care sector. Using a cross-country structural equation model with various economic and demographic control variables, we examine the relationship between the type of regime and political stability on the one hand and health on the other. The political variables and the control variables are measured as averages over the period 1980–1999. Our results suggest that democracy has a positive relationship with the health of individuals, while regime instability has a negative relationship with the health of individuals. Government instability is negatively related to individual health via its link with the quality of the health care sector, while democracy is positively related with individual health through its link with income. Our main findings are confirmed by the results of a panel model and various sensitivity tests.     

邻近皮瓣修复面部皮肤缺损

目的 探讨邻近皮瓣修复面部皮肤缺损的应用效果。方法 162例面部病变切除后皮肤缺损患者，其中先天性色素痣63例，基底细胞癌28例，鳞状细胞癌6例，其他皮肤病变65例。均采用邻近皮瓣即时修复，其中菱形皮瓣57例、双叶皮瓣8例，A-T皮瓣23例、V-Y皮瓣13例、Z成形术23例、推进皮瓣27例、鼻状皮瓣11例。结果 162例皮瓣存活良好，手术切口1期愈合，存活后皮瓣颜色与邻近部位无明显差异，术后无眼睑、眉毛、鼻梁及口角牵扯歪钭，术后3个月切口不显露。结论 邻近皮瓣是修复面部较大皮肤缺损的良好方法，手术外观效果好。     

盲肠结扎穿刺致豚鼠急性肺损伤动物模型建立

目的 研究败血性急性肺损伤的动物模型，并探讨其在急性肺损伤研究中的意义。方法 用盲肠结扎穿刺(CLP)法的豚鼠急性肺损伤模型，结合动脉血气分析、外周血白细胞计数、肺湿重／干重比值(W／D)及肺组织病理观察。结果 CLP模型中动物的症状和表现缓慢出现，逐渐恶化．最后导致败血性休克，于2d左右出现大量死亡。结论 用盲肠结扎穿刺的方法制作豚鼠急性肺损伤动物模型较大鼠内毒素性休克，表现更类似于人类的肠源性肺损伤，且症状缓慢发生，逐渐恶化，有利于观察和进行各种干预。