Medicine
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Comparative Study
Clinical value of haptoglobin and soluble CD163 testing for the differential diagnosis of tuberculous and malignant pleural effusions.
This study aims to evaluate the clinical value of haptoglobin (Hp) and sCD163 testing for the differential diagnosis of pleural effusion, and investigate the correlation of Hp and sCD163 with the inflammatory response of the body. Pleural effusion samples were collected from 78 patients (38 tuberculous pleural effusions [TPE] and 40 malignant pleural effusions [MPE]). The concentrations of Hp and sCD163 in the pleural effusion were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ⋯ However, there was no correlation between sCD163 and TNF-α, CRP and ESR in either the TPE group, or the MPE group (P > .05). Furthermore, sCD163 and IL-1β were weakly correlated in the TPE group (r = 0.49, P = .0018), but these had no correlation in the MPE group (r = 0.068, P = .6767). Hp and sCD163 can be used as biological markers for the differential diagnosis of pleural effusion in clinic, and the level of Hp in pleural effusion may reflect the intensity of inflammation in the body to some extent.
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Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has shown beneficial effects on the lipid profile and inflammatory parameters in general population. Our goal is to analyze these changes together with those of intestinal microbiota in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients over 50 years of age. ⋯ Sustained consumption of 50 g of EVOO in elderly HIV-infected patients might be associated with an improvement in lipid profile and alfa diversity of intestinal microbiota.
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Observational Study
Effectiveness and safety of perampanel in adults with mesial temporal epilepsy: A single-center postmarketing study in Taiwan.
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is a common epilepsy syndrome often refractory to antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of perampanel (PER) as add-on treatment for patients of MTLE. We pooled retrospective data from adult patients with MTLE, from a tertiary center in Taiwan, who were prescribed PER between March 2016 and December 2016. ⋯ Twenty-three patients (52.3%) experienced adverse effects. The most common adverse effects were dizziness, ataxia, and irritability. Our results suggest that PER, at doses of 2 to 12 mg/day, reduces seizure frequency effectively with acceptable safety profiles for adults with MTLE.
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This study aims to construct a neural network to predict weaning difficulty among planned extubation patients in intensive care units. This observational cohort study was conducted in eight adult ICUs in a medical center about adult patients experiencing planned extubation. The data of 3602 patients with planned extubation in ICUs of Chi-Mei Medical Center (from Dec. 2009 through Dec. 2011) was used to train and test an artificial neural network (ANN) model. ⋯ The accuracy is 0.769 and the area under receiver operating characteristic curve for simple weaning, prolonged weaning, and difficult weaning are 0.910, 0.849, and 0.942 respectively. The results revealed that the ANN model achieved a good performance in prediction the weaning difficulty in planned extubation patients. Such a model will be helpful for predicting ICU patients' successful planned extubation.
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The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between cluster of differentiation 86 (CD86) gene rs1129055 and rs2715267 single nucleotide polymorphisms and sepsis susceptibility. One hundred twenty-five sepsis patients and 120 healthy controls were enrolled in this case-control study. CD86 polymorphisms rs1129055 and rs2715267 were genotyped through polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism approach. ⋯ Nevertheless, rs2715267 had no significant association with sepsis susceptibility (P > .05). AA genotype and A allele of CD86 polymorphism rs1129055 might be correlated with decreased sepsis susceptibility in Chinese Han population, but not rs2715267. Further study should be performed to verify our findings.