Medicine
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Observational Study
Monoclonal gammopathies regardless of subtypes are associated with poor prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: A STROBE-compliant article.
Monoclonal gammopathy (MG), a positive result of serum immunofixation electrophoresis (SIFE), has been reported in cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). We performed this study to further investigate the prognostic value of MG in DLBCL. We retrospectively reviewed patients diagnosed with DLBCL between January 2007 and December 2014, and identified 37 patients with MG. ⋯ Furthermore, our study found that the appearance of MG during treatment did make prognostic sense compared to nonsecretors. Overall, MG can serve as a prognostic factor for DLBCL. We hypothesize that its presence in DLBCL may reflect the immune microenvironment in tumor progression and warrants further study to unveil the underlying molecular pathogenesis.
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Observational Study
Quality of life in Chinese patients with laryngeal cancer after radiotherapy.
This retrospective study explored the quality of life (QoL) in Chinese patients with laryngeal cancer (LC) after radiotherapy. Fifty-nine eligible patients with Tis-T4 LC were included in this retrospective study. All patients received radiotherapy. ⋯ All outcomes were assessed before and 3 months after the radiotherapy. Three months after the radiotherapy, all items of QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 scales changed significantly (P < .05), except the social functioning (P = .09), role activities (P = .81), and global (P = .12) in QLQ-C30 scale and social contacts (P = 1.00), teeth problems (P = .21), trismus (P = 1.00), and feeling ill (P = .07) in QLQ-H&N35 scale, compared with these items before the radiotherapy. The results of this study showed that most items of QoL changed significantly after 3 months of radiotherapy in Chinese patients with LC.
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This study retrospectively evaluated the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine Shenqilixin Formula (SQLXF) as an adjunctive intervention for treating patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). This retrospective study included 135 patients with CHF. They were allocated to a treatment group or a control group according to the different treatments they received. ⋯ Compared to subjects in the control group, patients in the treatment group revealed greater effectiveness in cardiac function, measured by LVEF (P < .05), CO (P < .05), and ECO (P < .05), and motor function, measured by the 6MWT scale (P < .05). Moreover, no significant differences of AEs were found between the 2 groups. SQLXF as an adjunctive therapy to routine treatment may help to improve both cardiac and motor function in patients with CHF.
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Paraquat, an agent highly toxic to humans and animals, is a widely used herbicide and also commonly used for suicide attempts in Taiwan. The most common route of intoxication is oral ingestion, and parenteral poisoning is respectively rare. ⋯ Intravenous paraquat intoxication is rare. Patients who suffer from intravenous intoxication may not directly suffer from mucosal irritation, but the clinical onset of systemic effects is more immediate and lethal. The prognosis of paraquat poisoning is determined by the time of poisoning and the plasma paraquat concentration before treatment. Proudfoot's curve provides a simple method of predicting the survival rate. The most effective mode of management is extracorporeal therapy, and immunosuppressive or antioxidant therapies have shown insufficient evidence of benefit.
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Observational Study
Cyclic adenosine monophosphate-regulated transcriptional co-activator 3 polymorphism in Chinese patients with acute coronary syndrome.
To investigate the cAMP-regulated transcriptional co-activator 3 (CRTC3) polymorphism and its significance in the acute coronary syndrome patients. In total, 248 patients with acute coronary syndrome admitted to Taizhou People's Hospital between March 2016 and October 2016 were included in this study. Eighty-eight age- and gender-matched healthy individuals received physical examination in our hospital served as normal control. ⋯ Statistical increase was noticed in the high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in those with AG phenotype compared with those with AA phenotype in those with rs3862434. Significant decrease was identified in the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and weight in those with CC phenotype compared with those with CT phenotype among the cases with rs11635252 (P < .05). CRTC3 polymorphism was associated with the onset of acute coronary syndrome in Han Chinese patients, which may be related to the imbalance of the lipid metabolism.