Medicine
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Preterm birth (PTB) is the most important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality next to congenital anomalies in the developed world. NF-κB and AP-1 were reported to play an important role in parturition initiation. However, the interaction relationship between the 2 molecules in labor initiation has not yet been reported. ⋯ Interactions were found between the 2 molecules in HLPMCs both in natural labor and non-labor group and were also found in primary culture HLPMCs before and after neuromedin B (NMB) stimulation. NF-κBp65 and AP-1(c-jun) were localized mainly in the cytoplasm before labor onset or NMB stimulation and were translocated into the nucleus upon labor initiation and NMB stimulation. These results demonstrated that upregulated protein expression of NF-κBp65 and AP-1(c-jun), the enhanced interaction between the 2 molecules, and their translocation to nucleus might be correlated to labor initiation.
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Observational Study
Effects of the attenuation correction and reconstruction method parameters on conventional cardiac dynamic SPECT.
Nuclear cardiology has not witnessed development of new tracers or hardware for many years. Hence there is a need for the development of improvised techniques. Dynamic cardiac single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is one such technique that has a potential to overcome the limitations of conventional myocardial SPECT including the absolute quantification of blood flow. ⋯ These parameters also showed a direct effect on the defect extent in final results. The study showed that the AC may partly improve the bias of calculated normal washout value. The effect of attenuation correction on the defective washout value could not be answered comprehensively in this paper.
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Observational Study
Early postoperative outcomes of surgery for intestinal perforation in NEC based on intestinal location of disease.
Current surgical strategies for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) include primary drainage, resection with enterostomies, and primary anastomosis. There is considerable controversy regarding the preferable surgical management of NEC. We sought to investigate whether the surgical outcomes of newborns with NEC undergoing exploratory laparotomy differed according to the location of the disease site. ⋯ The mean NICU length of stay (P = .088) was longer for the patients with drainage, although the difference did not attain significant. No difference in the overall mortality rate was detected between the 2 groups (P = .10). The postoperative outcomes in newborns undergoing laparotomy were associated with the surgical type, which was determined by disease location in the bowel.
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Observational Study
Development and validation of the hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage prognosis models.
To develop and validate the prognosis model of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage based on admission characteristics, which would be applied to predict the 3-month outcome. For developing the prognosis models, we studied data from 325 patients with retrospectively consecutive hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage admitted between 2012 and 2016. The predictive value of admission characteristics was tested in logistic regression models, presenting 3-month outcome as the primary outcome. ⋯ The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to analyze the discriminant ability of model A, model A + B, and model A + B + C. Specifically, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve increased from 0.816 (model A; 95% CI, 0.760-0.872) to 0.913 (model A + B + C; 95% CI, 0.881-0.946), and the models were not overoptimistic and were applicably confirmed by internal and external validations respectively. This prognosis model could be used to predict the prognosis of patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage early, simply and accurately, contributing to the clinical treatment eventually.
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The off-label uses of tigecycline (TGC) to treat ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) have aroused worldwide concerns. The efficacy about TGC has been recently reported. However, the adverse events (AEs) remain controversial. ⋯ The risk of side effects was related to the TGC duration, although not increased as the dosage rose. Full course of the HD regimen was associated with better outcomes for the treatment of VAP patients, especially for the MDR gram-negative bacilli infection. Inappropriate antimicrobial treatment might lead to clinical treatment failure.