Objective:To identify the correlation between neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who underwent transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods: We retrospectively re-viewed 216 patients who were diagnosed with HCC and treated with TACE between January 2007 and June 2015 at the Department of Hepatobiliary Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University. The patients were stratified into two groups using NLR and PLR cutoff values. NLR and PLR were analyzed and compared through the area under receiver operating characteristic curves at different time points. Univariate and multivariate analyses were applied to evaluate the correlation between NLR, PLR, and HCC patients who were treated with TACE. Results:The median follow-up period was 431.11 d. The estimated 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival (OS) rates were 61.3%, 44.2%, and 40.5%for the entire study cohort, respectively. The median OS was 410.5 d. The estimated 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates for NLR<1.77 group and NLR≥1.77 group were 81.6%, 63.0%, and 45.7%;and 43.1%, 27.0%, and 19.3%, respectively. The dif-ference was significant (P<0.001). The estimated 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates for PLR<94.62 group and PLR≥94.62 group were 62.7%, 47.0%, and 37.0%;and 46.8%, 29.0%, and 18.5%, respectively. The difference was significant (P=0.002). In a multivariate analysis, NLR≥1.77 was a risk factor associated with poor outcome for patients with HCC who received TACE therapy. Conclusion:NLR level be-fore TACE is an indicator of systemic inflammation and is a risk factor associated with the prognosis of HCC patients who were treated with TACE.

Postoperative delirium involves attention and cognitive impairment and is a common, serious and often fatal condition in the elderly.This review summarizes the definition, diagnosis, pathogenesis, risk factors, prevention and treatment of postoperative delirium in elderly patients with hip fractures.

Objective:To examine the safety and clinical efficacy of ultrasound-guided irreversible electroporation (IRE) using the open surgery approach, after induction chemotherapy, in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) .Methods:The data of 64 LAPC patients who underwent ultrasound-guided IRE using the open surgery approach after induction chemotherapy at Department of Pancreatobiliary Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from August 2015 to March 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The study comprised of 30 males and 34 females, with median age of 58.5 years old (range: 34 to 87 years old) , were included in this study.The tumor was located in the pancreatic head and body/tail in 30 and 34 patients, respectively.The largest recorded tumor size was 6.1 cm (≤4.0 cm: n=35; >4.0 cm: n=29) .To create an electric field around the tumor, Two to six probes were parallelly inserted into each patient′s tumor, based on the size of the tumor, at a distance of 2 cm apart through the transverse mesocolon in a caudal-to-cranial direction.According to the numerical sequence of patients undergoing ultrasound-guided IRE, the first 15 cases and following 49 patients were categorized as the primary and secondary treatment group, respectively.T text or χ 2 test was analyzed to the data between two groups.The study endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) , which were investigated using Kaplan-Meier method, and their differences were compared using log-rank test. Results:The overall length of hospital stay was (8.9±2.7) days (range: 5 to 20 days) . Four patients were lost to follow-up.The study follow-up rate was 93.8%, with a median follow-up time of 29.3 months (range: 13.5 to 55.7 months) .The median OS and PFS of the entire cohort was 24.6 months (95 % CI: 22.0 to 27.3 months) and 12.0 months (95 %CI: 8.8 to 15.2 months) , respectively.One month after IRE, abdominal pain was significantly relieved in 95.3% of the patients ( t=-28.55, P<0.01) .The rate of complications in the entire cohort was 20.3% and all were classified as grade B.Of them, pancreatic fistula, incisional infection, and upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage were observed in 7, 4, and 2 cases, respectively.The rate of complications for patients in the primary and secondary treatment groups were significantly different (10/15 vs. 6.1%) , respectively (χ 2=26.01, P<0.01) .Further, two deaths were observed after IRE in the primary treatment group, while none was observed in the secondary treatment group. Conclusions:Ultrasound-guided IRE using the open surgery approach after induction chemotherapy is found to be safe and effective in treating patients with LAPC.However, these findings should be validated in prospective randomized trials before wide clinical application.

Objective:To examine the safety and clinical efficacy of ultrasound-guided irreversible electroporation (IRE) using the open surgery approach, after induction chemotherapy, in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) .Methods:The data of 64 LAPC patients who underwent ultrasound-guided IRE using the open surgery approach after induction chemotherapy at Department of Pancreatobiliary Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from August 2015 to March 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The study comprised of 30 males and 34 females, with median age of 58.5 years old (range: 34 to 87 years old) , were included in this study.The tumor was located in the pancreatic head and body/tail in 30 and 34 patients, respectively.The largest recorded tumor size was 6.1 cm (≤4.0 cm: n=35; >4.0 cm: n=29) .To create an electric field around the tumor, Two to six probes were parallelly inserted into each patient′s tumor, based on the size of the tumor, at a distance of 2 cm apart through the transverse mesocolon in a caudal-to-cranial direction.According to the numerical sequence of patients undergoing ultrasound-guided IRE, the first 15 cases and following 49 patients were categorized as the primary and secondary treatment group, respectively.T text or χ 2 test was analyzed to the data between two groups.The study endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) , which were investigated using Kaplan-Meier method, and their differences were compared using log-rank test. Results:The overall length of hospital stay was (8.9±2.7) days (range: 5 to 20 days) . Four patients were lost to follow-up.The study follow-up rate was 93.8%, with a median follow-up time of 29.3 months (range: 13.5 to 55.7 months) .The median OS and PFS of the entire cohort was 24.6 months (95 % CI: 22.0 to 27.3 months) and 12.0 months (95 %CI: 8.8 to 15.2 months) , respectively.One month after IRE, abdominal pain was significantly relieved in 95.3% of the patients ( t=-28.55, P<0.01) .The rate of complications in the entire cohort was 20.3% and all were classified as grade B.Of them, pancreatic fistula, incisional infection, and upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage were observed in 7, 4, and 2 cases, respectively.The rate of complications for patients in the primary and secondary treatment groups were significantly different (10/15 vs. 6.1%) , respectively (χ 2=26.01, P<0.01) .Further, two deaths were observed after IRE in the primary treatment group, while none was observed in the secondary treatment group. Conclusions:Ultrasound-guided IRE using the open surgery approach after induction chemotherapy is found to be safe and effective in treating patients with LAPC.However, these findings should be validated in prospective randomized trials before wide clinical application.

Objective To investigate maternal zinc metabolism and the changes of zinc-related factors as metallothionein-1 (MT1) and zinc transporter-1 (ZnT1) in certain types of congenital heart diseases (CHD).Methods Fifteen infants with interventricular septal defect,12 infants with atrial septal defect and 7 infants with tetralogy of Fallot,together with their mothers were enrolled,and normal infants and their mothers were enrolled by a ratio of 1 ∶ 1 with the above three types of CHD diseases.General conditions of the mothers,along with their diets and zinc-containing drug supplementation during the pregnancy,were surveyed.Maternal blood zinc levels and serum alkaline phosphatase activities at gestation week 32 and delivery or induced abortion,and the protein and mRNA expressions of MT1 and ZnT1 in maternal serum and placental tissue at delivery or induced abortion were assayed.Results The general conditions were comparable between the CHD group and control group.The ratio of the mothers taking more zinc-rich food was significantly lower in the CHD group than in the control group.Circulating zinc levels in interventricular septal defect (73.55±5.79 μmol/L),atrial septal defect (72.66±5.82 μmol/L) and tetralogy of Fallot (68.72±6.72 μmol/L) groups were significantly lower than those in the control groups (82.77± 7.88,84.58 ± 7.55 and 85.66 ± 7.30 μmol/L) at delivery (P all ＜ 0.05).Similar change patterns were seen for serum alkaline phosphatase activities.The relative quantities of serum MT1 and ZnT1 proteins in interventricular septal defect (73.22±36.54 and 68.55± 27.82),atrial septal defect (64.29± 38.26 and 74.55 ± 29.67) and tetralogy of Fallot (67.88± 30.50 and 70.13±29.65) groups were significantly lower than those in their corresponding control groups (166.31±67.43and 97.67±30.22,182.56±71.40 and 111.65±32.70,and 173.81±62.36 and 108.27±28.52,P＜0.01 or P＜0.05).The relative quantities of placental MT1 and ZnT1 proteins and mRNA expressions in interventricular septal defect (protein quantities 0.438±0.096 and 0.384±0.061,mRNA expressions 1.23±0.82 and 0.96±0.39),atrial septal defect (0.427±0.093 and 0.377±0.059,1.17±0.70 and 0.85±0.40) and tetralogy of Fallot (0.414±0.111 and 0.336±0.066,1.31±0.97 and 0.90±0.38) groups were significantly lower than those in their corresponding control groups (protein quantities 0.565±0.083 and 0.541±0.090,mRNA expressions 2.78± 1.06 and 1.67±0.33;protein quantities 0.622±0.136 and 0.493±0.079,mRNA expressions 2.85±0.89 and 1.72±0.38;protein quantities 0.637±0.125 and 0.521±0.089,mRNA expressions 3.21 ± 0.99 and 1.61±0.29;P＜0.01 or P＜0.05).Conclusion Mothers with their fetus of certain types of CHD are found zinc deficiency,and down-regulation of MT1 and ZnT1 expressions in the serum and placenta may involve in the pathogenesis of CHD when maternal zinc deficiency.