Arch Med Sci
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Worse survival in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) in the presence of a tumour in the ureter vs. pelvicalyceal tumours is reported in some studies; however, the definition of ureteral involvement (UI) varies across studies. We systematically evaluated evidence regarding the prognostic role of UI in overall and cancer-specific survival of patients with UTUC. ⋯ Our meta-analysis identified UI in UTUC as an adverse prognostic factor.
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Several published results have established variations in respect to plasma/serum macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) levels and gene polymorphisms with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study gave a more concise estimation on the MIF levels for SLE patients and established the association between MIF polymorphisms and SLE. ⋯ This study provided evidence of significant higher MIF levels in SLE patients and supported the association of MIF-173 C/G and SLE. However, we were not able to establish an association between MIF-794 CATT and SLE.
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Review
Does a high-fat diet-induced obesity model brown adipose tissue thermogenesis? A systematic review.
In this systematic review, we analysed studies that assessed the brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity in the high-fat/cafeteria diet model of obesity in rats. ⋯ Despite the consolidated use of high-fat/cafeteria diets as a model to induce obesity, the identification of the energy expenditure arm has been slow, especially the direct quantitative assessment of the contribution of BAT to the increase in metabolic rate in rats fed a cafeteria/high-fat diet.
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Approximately 1% of the world population has now been infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). With cases still rising and vaccines just beginning to rollout, we are still several months away from seeing reductions in daily case numbers, hospitalisations, and mortality. Therefore, there is a still an urgent need to control the disease spread by repurposing existing therapeutics. Owing to antiviral, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and cardioprotective actions, statin therapy has been considered as a plausible approach to improve COVID-19 outcomes. ⋯ These findings call attention to the need for systematic clinical studies to assess both pre- and in-hospital use of statins as a potential means of reducing COVID-19 disease severity, particularly in terms of reduction of ICU admission and total mortality reduction.
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Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is still a great challenge to global public health. As conventional diagnostic methods for TBM are unsatisfactory, interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) have been introduced for TBM diagnosis tentatively. However, the role of IGRAs for diagnosing TBM remains unclear. Thus, we systematically evaluated the diagnostic performance of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood (PB) IGRAs in TBM to fill this blank. ⋯ The diagnostic performance of IGRAs is suboptimal. In terms of cost, turn-around time and accessibility, these assays are unsuitable for use as biomarkers for TBM diagnosis.