Animals ; Coumarins ; pharmacology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; Female ; Heart ; drug effects ; Male ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury ; metabolism ; Myocardium ; chemistry ; NF-kappa B ; analysis ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha ; analysis

A 28-year-old female with a 1-year history of ketamine abuse developed ketamine-associated urinary symptoms that were refractory to conservative treatment after the complete cessation of ketamine use. Smooth voiding with increased bladder capacity and minimal postvoid residual urine volume were achieved by performing an augmentation enterocystoplasty. An uneventful pregnancy with the vaginal delivery of a healthy baby occurred postoperatively.
Adult ; Cystitis* ; Delivery, Obstetric ; Female ; Humans ; Ketamine* ; Pregnancy* ; Urinary Bladder

OBJECTIVETo observe the effects ot Guben Yiliu II (GY II) combined with arterial perfusion with chemotherapeutic agent on advanced pancreatic cancer (APC).

METHODSSixty-five APC patients were randomly assigned to the treated group (35 cases) given GY II and arterial perfusion with chemotherapeutic agent and the control group (30 cases) with chemotherapeutic agent alone.

RESULTSThe clinical beneficial rate was 54.2% in the treated group and 40.0% in the control group, with significant difference between them (P < 0.05), the overall effective rate being 17.1% and 13.3%, and the effective rate in relieving pain being 64.5% and 59.2% in the treated and the control group respectively, all showed insignificant difference between groups (P > 0.05). Furthermore, in the treated group after treatment, the blood hypercoagulation state ameliorated, cellular immunity elevated, the toxic and side- effects of chemical medicine relieved, and the quality of life improved.

CONCLUSIONGY II is effective in enhancing clinical effects and relieving toxic and side-effects of chemotherapy, and so, better efficacy could be obtained by therapy of GY II and arterial perfusion with chemotherapeutic agent for treatment of APC.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Humans ; Infusions, Intra-Arterial ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Phytotherapy ; Treatment Outcome

BACKGROUNDThere are few reports discussing the surgical pathological characteristics of superficial endobronchial lung cancer (SELC) defined as cancer growth limited to the bronchial wall. Its prognosis and corresponding TNM staging have not been fully clarified. Little is known as to whether T status is impacted by the existence of associated atelectasis or pneumonia (which might be controversial, indicating either T1 or T2), and circumstantial invasion depth.

METHODSBetween 1988 and 2007, 81 out of 8817 surgically treated patients met SELC criteria; there was no detectable invasion beyond the bronchial wall. A retrospective review was performed and follow-up information was collected.

RESULTSThe overall five-year survival rate of 81 patients was 85.6%; for N0M0 (n = 67), N1M0 (n = 7) and N2M0 (n = 7) patients, they were 89.3%, 75.0% and 60.0%, respectively. Intraluminal tumor size measured from 0.4 to 3.0 cm; obstructive atelectasis or pneumonia was noted in 14 patients. The presence of tumor-associated obstructive atelectasis or pneumonia did not have a significant impact upon prognosis (P = 0.96), nor did the greatest diameter of the tumor (P = 0.70). Histology showed carcinoma in situ (level one) in 13 cases; invasion of the submucosal layer (level two) in 12, involvement of the muscular layer (level three) in 20, invasion into the space between the muscular layer and cartilage (level four) in 21, and bronchial cartilage infiltration in 15 (level five). In cases without lymphnode metastases, five-year survival was 100% for the first three levels and 84.0% and 61.3% for the level four and level five.

CONCLUSIONSRelative to TNM-based prognostic data, superficial endobronchial lung cancer exhibits increased five-year survival rates, and therefore should be placed at the forefront among tumors in the T1 class, regardless of tumor size or the presence of secondary obstructive atelectasis or pneumonia. Lymphnode metastasis is associated with a worse prognosis. Survival is negatively impacted by tumor infiltration depth into the bronchial wall.

Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; mortality ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Lung Neoplasms ; mortality ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Pneumonia ; mortality ; pathology ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Atelectasis ; mortality ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect of partial splenic embolization (PSE) in prevention of gastroesophageal variceal rebleeding.

METHODSSixty-two patients with recent gastroesophageal variceal bleeding were treated by PSE with Seldinger technique. All the patients were followed-up for 12 months. The data including peripheral blood cell count, liver function, plasma prothrombin time (PT), portal vein diameter, and appearance of gastroesophageal varices under gastroscopy were collected before and after embolization for statistical analysis.

RESULTSFive days after the operation, the numbers of leucocytes and platelets were significantly increased (P<0.05), and PT was significantly shortened (P<0.05). All the patients showed a good response after PSE with reduced internal diameter of the portal vein and blood flow (P<0.05). Gastroesophageal varices were relieved in all the patients. Rebleeding occurred in 11 patients during the follow-up.

CONCLUSIONPSE can be effective in preventing gastroesophageal variceal rebleeding.

Adult ; Aged ; Embolization, Therapeutic ; methods ; Esophageal and Gastric Varices ; etiology ; surgery ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Splenic Artery

OBJECTIVETo investigate the feasibility of lymphadenectomy with skeletonization in extended right hemicolectomy by hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS).

METHODSFrom November 2001 to September 2004, 30 cases with right hemicolonic cancer were divided into two groups, and received laparoscopic or open extended right hemicolectomy plus lymphadenectomy with skeletonization. Clinical data of two groups were compared.

RESULTSThe mean operative time were (214.0 +/- 16.5) min and (245.0 +/- 24.6) min (t=2.248, P< 0.05), the mean volumes of intraoperative bleeding (78.4 +/- 24.3) ml and (203.3 +/- 48.5) ml (t=4.927, P< 0.05), the mean time of anal aerofluxus (53.4 +/- 6.7) h and (67.3 +/- 9.7) h (t=2.530, P< 0.05), the mean postoperative hospital stay (11.5 +/- 1.11) d and (17.9 +/- 3.98) d (t=3.413, P< 0.05) respectively in laparoscopic and open operation groups. The mean numbers of N1, N2 and N3 lymph nodes cleared in laparoscopic group were (15.3 +/- 2.6), (5.6 +/- 1.6) and (4.3 +/- 2.2) respectively,while (16.2 +/- 3.3), (5.9 +/- 2.2) and (6.1 +/- 1.5) respectively in open operation group (all P > 0.05). The complication rates were 20.0% (3/15) and 33.3% (5/15) respectively in laparoscopic and open operation groups (chi(2)=0.0227, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONExtended right hemicolectomy plus lymphadenectomy with skeletonization can be perfectly performed by HALS.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Colectomy ; methods ; Colonic Neoplasms ; pathology ; surgery ; Female ; Humans ; Laparoscopy ; methods ; Lymph Node Excision ; methods ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging

Protein succinylation is a biochemical reaction in which a succinyl group (-CO-CH2-CH2-CO-) is attached to the lysine residue of a protein molecule. Lysine succinylation plays important regulatory roles in living cells. However, studies in this field are limited by the difficulty in experi-mentally identifying the substrate site specificity of lysine succinylation. To facilitate this process, several tools have been proposed for the computational identification of succinylated lysine sites. In this study, we developed an approach to investigate the substrate specificity of lysine succinylated sites based on amino acid composition. Using experimentally verified lysine succinylated sites col-lected from public resources, the significant differences in position-specific amino acid composition between succinylated and non-succinylated sites were represented using the Two Sample Logo pro-gram. These findings enabled the adoption of an effective machine learning method, support vector machine, to train a predictive model with not only the amino acid composition, but also the com-position of k-spaced amino acid pairs. After the selection of the best model using a ten-fold cross-validation approach, the selected model significantly outperformed existing tools based on an inde-pendent dataset manually extracted from published research articles. Finally, the selected model was used to develop a web-based tool, SuccSite, to aid the study of protein succinylation. Two pro-teins were used as case studies on the website to demonstrate the effective prediction of succinyla-tion sites. We will regularly update SuccSite by integrating more experimental datasets. SuccSite is freely accessible at http://csb.cse.yzu.edu.tw/SuccSite/.

Background and Objectives: The impact of off-hours admission (such as weekends, nighttime, and non-working hours) vs. regular hours (weekdays and daytime working hours) on the mortality risk of patients undergoing surgery for type A aortic dissection (TAAD) repair is still uncertain. To address this uncertainty, we undertook a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. We aimed to assess the potential link between off-hours admission and the risk of mortality in patients undergoing TAAD repair surgery. Methods: We conducted a thorough search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases, covering the period from their inception to May 20, 2023. Our inclusion criteria encompassed all studies that examined the potential relationship between off-hour admission and mortality in individuals who had undergone surgery for TAAD repair. The odds ratios (ORs) were extracted and combined utilizing a random effects model for our synthesis. Results: Nine studies with 16,501 patients undergoing TAAD repair surgery were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, patients who underwent surgery during the weekend had higher in-hospital mortality (pooled OR, 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–1.75; p=0.002) than those treated on weekdays. However, the mortality risks among patients who underwent TAAD surgery during nighttime and non-working hours were not significantly elevated compared to daytime and working hours admission. Conclusions Weekend surgery for TAAD was associated with a higher in-hospital mortality risk than weekday surgery. However, further studies are warranted to identify and develop strategies to improve the quality of round-the-clock care for patients with TAAD.

Background and Objectives: The impact of off-hours admission (such as weekends, nighttime, and non-working hours) vs. regular hours (weekdays and daytime working hours) on the mortality risk of patients undergoing surgery for type A aortic dissection (TAAD) repair is still uncertain. To address this uncertainty, we undertook a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. We aimed to assess the potential link between off-hours admission and the risk of mortality in patients undergoing TAAD repair surgery. Methods: We conducted a thorough search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases, covering the period from their inception to May 20, 2023. Our inclusion criteria encompassed all studies that examined the potential relationship between off-hour admission and mortality in individuals who had undergone surgery for TAAD repair. The odds ratios (ORs) were extracted and combined utilizing a random effects model for our synthesis. Results: Nine studies with 16,501 patients undergoing TAAD repair surgery were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, patients who underwent surgery during the weekend had higher in-hospital mortality (pooled OR, 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–1.75; p=0.002) than those treated on weekdays. However, the mortality risks among patients who underwent TAAD surgery during nighttime and non-working hours were not significantly elevated compared to daytime and working hours admission. Conclusions Weekend surgery for TAAD was associated with a higher in-hospital mortality risk than weekday surgery. However, further studies are warranted to identify and develop strategies to improve the quality of round-the-clock care for patients with TAAD.

Background and Objectives: The impact of off-hours admission (such as weekends, nighttime, and non-working hours) vs. regular hours (weekdays and daytime working hours) on the mortality risk of patients undergoing surgery for type A aortic dissection (TAAD) repair is still uncertain. To address this uncertainty, we undertook a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. We aimed to assess the potential link between off-hours admission and the risk of mortality in patients undergoing TAAD repair surgery. Methods: We conducted a thorough search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases, covering the period from their inception to May 20, 2023. Our inclusion criteria encompassed all studies that examined the potential relationship between off-hour admission and mortality in individuals who had undergone surgery for TAAD repair. The odds ratios (ORs) were extracted and combined utilizing a random effects model for our synthesis. Results: Nine studies with 16,501 patients undergoing TAAD repair surgery were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, patients who underwent surgery during the weekend had higher in-hospital mortality (pooled OR, 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–1.75; p=0.002) than those treated on weekdays. However, the mortality risks among patients who underwent TAAD surgery during nighttime and non-working hours were not significantly elevated compared to daytime and working hours admission. Conclusions Weekend surgery for TAAD was associated with a higher in-hospital mortality risk than weekday surgery. However, further studies are warranted to identify and develop strategies to improve the quality of round-the-clock care for patients with TAAD.