WHITE PIEDRA

A 39-year-old Thai man had eczema on the left groin accompanied by asymptomatic white nodules on the public hair for two weeks. Examination with the Wood's lamp, microscopic examination, culture and biochemical testing showed organisms compatible with Trichosporon beigelii. The diagnosis of "White Piedra" was made, and this is the first case of White Piedra to be reported in Thailand.     

A serine proteinase PmClipSP2 contributes to prophenoloxidase system and plays a protective role in shrimp defense by scavenging lipopolysaccharide

Serine proteinases (SPs) participate in various biological processes and play vital role in immunity. In this study, we investigated the function of PmClipSP2 from shrimp Penaeus monodon in defense against bacterial infection. PmClipSP2 was identified as a clip-domain SP and its mRNA increased in response to infection with Vibrio harveyi. PmClipSP2-knockdown shrimp displayed a significantly reduced phenoloxidase (PO) activity and increased susceptibility to V. harveyi infection. Injection of LPS and/or β-1,3-glucan induced a dose-dependent mortality and a significant decrease in the number of total hemocytes, with clear morphological changes in the hemocyte surface, of the PmClipSP2-knockdown shrimp. Recombinant PmClipSP2 was shown to bind to LPS and β-1,3-glucan and to activate PO activity. These results reveal that PmClipSP2 acts as a pattern-recognition protein, binding to microbial polysaccharides and likely activating the proPO system, whilst it may play an essential role in the hemocyte homeostasis by scavenging LPS and neutralizing its toxicity.     

Care related pain in hospitalized patients: A cross‐sectional study

Context: Care‐related pain includes pain occurring during transportation, movement, diagnostic imaging, physical examination, or treatment. Its prevalence has never been assessed in a large adult inpatient population. Objective: To identify the procedures likely to induce or increase pain in hospital patients, attempting to separate the most painful from those reported as most frequently inducing pain. Design: A single‐day cross‐sectional survey conducted in two large French teaching hospitals, including all hospitalized patients, free of communication problems. One third was randomly selected and interviewed about the painful episodes that had occurred or were associated with the procedures performed during the previous two weeks. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Results: Six‐hundred‐eighty‐four patients were randomly selected. Six‐hundred‐seventy‐one painful events were reported in 55% of the patients, with an average of 1.8events/patient. Fifty‐two percent of the painful events were associated with procedures performed by non‐medical staff; 38% of the painful episodes occurred during procedures involving vascular puncture and 24% during patients’ mobilization. In 57% of painful procedures, pain was rated as severe or extremely severe. The most painful procedures were invasive procedures, other than vascular and non vascular punctures (74% of severe and extremely severe painful episodes). Maximum pain intensity was rated higher for procedures that were repeated than for those experienced only once (62% versus 53%, p=0.02). Conclusion: This survey gives new insight into our daily practice. Proper management of care‐related pain should be a major concern of all hospital staff to improve the quality of our health care.     

Perioperative Outcomes of Patients Who Were Not Candidates for Additional Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in a Multimodal Pain Control Regimen for Total Knee Arthroplasty

BackgroudPostoperative pain following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) may hamper patients from a rapid recovery and increase perioperative blood loss and stress on the cardiovascular system. Therefore, our objective was to assess perioperative outcomes after TKA in patients who were not candidates for the additional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in a multimodal pain control regimen.MethodsPropensity score matching for age, sex, body mass index, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, and preoperative hemoglobin level was conducted on patients undergoing unilateral TKA, and thereby 52 patients remained in each group. The control group comprised patients who received parenteral parecoxib every 12 hours during the first 48 hours after TKA. The No-NSAIDs group did not receive NSAIDs because of known contraindications. Identical postoperative pain control including intravenous patient-controlled analgesia was applied for all patients. Visual analog scale (VAS) score for pain, knee flexion, blood loss, serum cardiac troponin-T (cTnT), and length of stay (LOS) were determined.ResultsThe No-NSAIDs group had significantly higher VAS scores in 6–96 hours and consumed more morphine at 24 hours and 48 hours after the surgery than the control group. The No-NSAIDs group had significantly less knee flexion at 48 hours (p = 0.045) and tended to have more emesis and longer LOS than the control group. The blood loss of the No-NSAIDs and control group was 552.52 mL and 397.65 mL (p = 0.02), respectively, and blood transfusion rate was 23.1% and 17.3% (p = 0.63), respectively. The cTnT of the No-NSAIDs group rose over the first 48 hours and was significantly higher than that of the control group at 48 hours.ConclusionsPatients who were not candidates for NSAIDs had significantly higher pain scores and consumed more morphine after TKA. They also tended to have greater blood loss and the rising of cardiac biomarkers during the first 48 hours after TKA. Hence, these patients may benefit from supplementary analgesia and appropriate perioperative monitoring.     

Intra-Articular Tranexamic Acid Mitigates Blood Loss and Morphine Use After Total Knee Arthroplasty. A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background

Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been widely used in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for blood loss reduction. Given limited evidence on potential relationship between the TXA and improvement of pain control and functional outcome after TKA, this study aimed at comparing the blood loss, pain scores, morphine consumption, and knee flexion across the TXA administration routes.

The Importance of CYP19A1 in Estrogen Receptor-Positive Cholangiocarcinoma

CYP19A1, also called aromatase, is a key enzyme for converting androgens to estrogens of estrogen synthesis. Elevated serum estrogen and high expression levels of estrogen-related proteins are found in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA; bile duct cancer). However, the expression of CYP19A1 in relation to estrogen-related proteins, including estrogen receptors (ERα, ERβ, and GPR30) and an estrogen response protein (TFF1), has never been explored in CCA. In this study, we investigated the expressions of CYP19A1 and estrogen-related proteins in CCA tissues (n?=?74; 51 males and 23 females) using immunohistochemistry. The results showed that CYP19A1 was overexpressed in CCA cells compared with that in normal bile duct cells in the adjacent tissues. High expression of CYP19A1 was correlated with the metastatic status of the patients. High CYP19A1 expression was also positively correlated with GPR30 expression. Correlation between high CYP19A1 expression in the tumor tissues and shorter survival time was more prominent in male than in female CCA patients. To elucidate further, the effect of CYP19A1 knockdown on a CCA cell line was examined using a specific siRNA. When CYP19A1 gene expression was suppressed, migration and proliferation activities of CCA cells were significantly reduced. Moreover, the cell proliferation of high CYP19A1-expressing KKU-213 cells was more profoundly suppressed by CYP19A1 inhibitors (exemestane and letrozole) than low CYP19A1-expressing KKU-100 cells. Thus, CYP19A1 promotes CCA progression with aggressive clinical outcomes via increased migration and proliferation activities of cancer cells. CYP19A1 can be a potential chemotherapeutic target for CCA, especially in male patients.     

Treatment of multiple lesions of Bowen's disease and squamous cell carcinoma with topical imiquimod

We observed complete clinical and histopathologic remission of papules, plaques and nodules in two patients with multiple lesions of Bowen's disease and squamous cell carcinoma. Our findings indicate that topical imiquimod is a potentially promising therapeutic approach for the local treatment of early forms of cutaneous neoplasia, such as Bowen's disease and squamous cell carcinoma because it is a non-invasive therapy with a good cosmetic outcome. It may therefore be worthy of consideration in a subgroup of patients who cannot have or do not wish to have surgery.