Medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
18F-FDG PET with or without CT in the diagnosis of extrahepatic metastases or local residual/recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma.
The aim of the present study was to meta-analyze the literature on the diagnostic value of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) with or without computed tomography (CT) in detecting extrahepatic metastases or local residual/recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Systematic review of literature in MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane databases was conducted in March 2017, and relevant studies analyzing the diagnostic performance of F-FDG PET with or without CT were meta-analyzed. Meta-analysis was carried out on data from 11 studies involving 572 patients. ⋯ Similarly, pooled specificity was comparable with CT (93%) or without 95% (P = .481). F-FDG PET, with or without CT, shows relatively low sensitivity but high specificity for diagnosing extrahepatic metastases or local residual/recurrent HCC. Adding CT to F-FDG PET may improve diagnostic performance, but the available evidence suggests that the improvement is not statistically significant.
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Review Case Reports
Identification of a novel mutation of RUNX2 in a family with supernumerary teeth and craniofacial dysplasia by whole-exome sequencing: A case report and literature review.
Supernumerary teeth are those that teeth in excess number than the normal count. It is usually associated with genetic syndromes when present in more numbers. Several causal genes, such as APC, NHS, TRPS1, EVC and RUNX2, have been identified. However, etiology of supernumerary teeth remains largely unclear. ⋯ This is the first WES study to identify genetic cause in Chinese patients with a novel RUNX2 mutation. Our findings expanded the mutation spectrum and clinical features of the disease and facilitated clinic diagnosis and genetic counseling.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effectiveness and safety of acupotomy for treating back and/or leg pain in patients with lumbar disc herniation: A study protocol for a multicenter, randomized, controlled, clinical trial.
As the number of patients suffering from back and/or leg pain due to lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is increasing in Korea, conservative treatments for patients with LDH have been spotlighted. Although several studies have been published on the use of acupotomy for the treatment of such patients, most of them are only case studies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness and safety of acupotomy to those for manual acupuncture for the treatment of patients with LDH. ⋯ The results of this study will provide evidence for the effectiveness and safety of acupotomy treatment for patients with LDH.
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Previous studies have evaluated the diagnostic value of serum intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in patients with endometriosis, but the results remained inconsistent. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify the overall diagnostic accuracy of serum ICAM-1 for endometriosis. ⋯ Our results suggest that serum ICAM-1 has moderate diagnostic accuracy for endometriosis, while the diagnostic accuracy is higher in patients of Asian ethnicity compared with those of Caucasian ethnicity.
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Breast cancer survivors experience various symptoms associated with their cancer interventions, and the benefits of acupuncture for these symptoms have been evaluated in clinical trials worldwide. The purpose of this review was to discuss the current status of clinical research regarding the use of acupuncture as a part of traditional Korean medicine (KM) for various symptoms associated with breast cancer therapies. ⋯ There is a lack of conclusive evidence regarding the benefits of acupuncture for the treatment of breast cancer survivors in Korea. More rigorous RCTs are necessary in the future to establish stronger clinical evidence regarding the use of acupuncture to better reflect the clinical context of Korea.