Postgraduate medical journal
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Review Meta Analysis
Association between serum amyloid A levels and cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Increased serum amyloid A (SAA) levels have been investigated in various human malignancies, but a consistent perspective has not been established to date. This study systematically reviewed the association between SAA levels and cancers. ⋯ High circulating SAA levels were markedly associated with the developing risks of cancer, especially for participants from Asia, Oceania and Europe, or subject age more than 50, or locations in oesophageal squamous cell, ovarian, breast, lung, renal and gastric cancers. In addition, our study found that the concentrations of SAA increased with the severity of cancer stages.
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Review Meta Analysis
Association between cytokine gene polymorphisms and ankylosing spondylitis susceptibility: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis to derive precise estimation of the association of interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R), IL-1 receptor 2 (IL-1R2), IL-12 beta (IL-12B), IL-10 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α polymorphisms with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) susceptibility. ⋯ The results suggested that the genetic susceptibility for AS is associated with the nine SNPs of IL-23R in overall population. In the subgroup analysis, significant associations were shown in European and American population, but not in Asian population. Our results also suggest that IL-10-819 C/T and TNF-α-857 C/T polymorphism might be associated with AS risk, especially in Asian population.
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Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a circulating form of a physiological and pathophysiological important cell surface receptor, implicated in inflammation. Recent studies showed that suPAR is a promising biomarker, useful for diagnosis, assessment and prognosis of several diseases. This review summarises the majority of preliminary studies and analyses the significance and the clinical application of suPAR in various clinical conditions. SuPAR seems to have a significant value in the diagnosis as well as prognosis of many diseases; nonetheless, it merits large-scale studies to set cut-off values that help physicians in following up their patients and accordingly tailor their treatment plans.
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Learning curves graphically represent the relationship between learning effort and learning outcome. Learning curves are increasingly used in research, the design of randomised controlled trials, the assessment of competency, healthcare education and training programme design. In this review we have outlined the principles behind plotting learning curves, described the common methods used to analyse learning curves, how to interpret learning curves, the multitude of learning models, their applications and potential pitfalls, and the importance of a mathematically rigorous approach to learning curve analytics.