Medicine
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Treatment against shunt infection by transvenous antimicrobial treatment is difficult, with a high risk of relapse. Consequently, to maintain a sufficient cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration, intraventricular administration is utilized in combination with the transvenous administration of vancomycin (VCM). Few studies have so far investigated the optimum administration dose for newborns and the concentration in the CSF. ⋯ At the same time, in the 5 mg group (n = 5), the concentration in the CSF 24 hours following VCM administration was sufficiently maintained (33.2-62.9 mg/L), with a sufficient trough concentration still maintained at 72 hours (11.7-16.5 mg/L). The concentration in the CSF is prolonged in newborns, thus allowing a sufficient therapeutic range to be maintained even at an intraventricular administration of 5 mg. It is therefore believed that the monitoring of the CSF is very important regarding the administration interval because the VCM concentration in the CSF differs depending on the case.
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Observational Study
A Genetic Susceptibility Mechanism for Major Depression: Combinations of polymorphisms Defined the Risk of Major Depression and Subpopulations.
Major Depression (MD) is a highly inherited psychiatric disorder. The norepinephrine transporter (NET) gene plays important role in pathophysiology of MD. This study attempted to examine the relationship between polymorphisms of NET gene and MD. ⋯ When referenced by TT genotype, the OR value increased gradient from TC to CC genotype; when referenced by T allele, the odds ratio value of C allele also increased. Compared with those having both -182 T/T and 1287 G/G genotypes, in patients with MD, early-onset MD, and MD with suicide concept group, the -182 C/C and 1287 G/A combinatorial genotype has significant risk; yet in patients with MD family history, the -182 C/C and 1287 A/A combinatorial genotype has significant risk. Different combinations of T-182C and the G1287A polymorphisms of NET gene might increase morbidity risk of MD subpopulations.
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Observational Study
Rare Variants of ATG5 Are Likely to Be Associated With Chinese Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
Recently, common variants within or near ATG5, which is a key autophagy gene required for the formation of autophagosomes, have been identified as a candidate gene of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) by several genome-wide association studies. Moreover, elevated ATG5 expression was observed in SLE as well as other autoimmune diseases. However, no significant associations between variants within ATG5 and SLE were identified in several Chinese populations. ⋯ None of the 5 common SNPs showed significant association between patients and controls, whereas increased frequencies of rare or novel variants were observed in patients compared with healthy controls, with 6/90 in LN patients, 2/30 in SLE patients, and 1/163 in healthy controls. Although these rare variants were observed to be located in the flanking regions of exons instead of missense mutations, patients carrying them tended to have severe clinical phenotype, and in silicon analysis suggested their regulatory effects. Increased frequencies of rare variants of ATG5 were identified in patients with LN and SLE compared with healthy controls, highlighting a likely important role of rare ATG5 variants in Chinese SLE patients.
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The neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte/monocyte ratio (LMR), and absolute lymphocyte count/absolute monocyte count prognostic score (ALC/AMC PS) have been described as the most useful prognostic tools for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). We retrospectively analyzed 148 Taiwanese patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma under rituximab (R)-CHOP-like regimens from January 2001 to December 2010 at the Tri-Service General Hospital and investigated the utility of these inexpensive tools in our patients. In a univariate analysis, the NLR, LMR, and ALC/AMC PS had significant prognostic value in our DLBCL patients (NLR: 5-year progression-free survival [PFS], P = 0.001; 5-year overall survival [OS], P = 0.007. LMR: PFS, P = 0.003; OS, P = 0.05. ⋯ PFS, P < 0.001; OS, P < 0.001). In a separate multivariate analysis, the ALC/AMC PS appeared to interact less with the other clinical factors but retained statistical significance in the survival analysis (PFS, P = 0.023; OS, P = 0.017). The akaike information criterion (AIC) analysis produced scores of 388.773 in the NLR, 387.625 in the LMR, and 372.574 in the ALC/AMC PS. The results suggested that the ALC/AMC PS appears to be more reliable than the NLR and LMR and may provide additional prognostic information when used in conjunction with the International Prognostic Index.
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Observational Study
The Prognostic Impact of Preoperative and Postoperative Chemoradiation in Clinical Stage II and III Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinomas: A Population Based Study in Taiwan.
While preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery (pre-OP CRT) has been widely applied in the treatment of patients with esophageal cancer, some studies have shown a survival benefit of postoperative chemoradiation (post-OP CRT). The optimal combination of multimodality therapy and the sequence of surgery and chemoradiation for esophageal cancer remain to be investigated. A total of 1385 patients with clinical stage II and III esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) were included. ⋯ In the subgroup analysis, patients with clinical T3/4 stage tumors or those with a tumor size greater than 5 cm were more likely to demonstrate an overall survival benefit from pre-OP CRT compared with post-OP CRT. Both pre-OP CRT and post-OP CRT demonstrated a survival benefit compared with surgery alone, which indicates the importance of trimodality therapy in patients with clinical stage II/III ESCC. However, no survival difference was observed among patients in the pre-OP CRT+S and S+post-OP CRT groups, which suggests that the sequence of surgery and chemoradiation may be irrelevant to the outcome.