1.What’s new in dermatopathology 2023: WHO 5th edition updates
Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine 2023;57(6):337-340
The 5th edition WHO Classification of Skin Tumors (2022) has introduced changes to nomenclature and diagnostics. Important differences are discussed below. Changes in each category of skin tumor have been detailed, with particular emphasis on meaningful advances in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of the skin’s diverse tumor landscape.
2.De novo hepatico-gastric stent placement for biliary stricture via percutaneous transhepatic biliary approach.
Abhimanyu AGGARWAL ; Auh Whan PARK ; Jonathan WEST
Gastrointestinal Intervention 2017;6(3):183-186
Biliary stricture formation is a known complication of hepatic surgery in cases of adult living donor liver transplant. In our case, successful percutaneous placement of a hepatico-gastric stent was performed for the drainage of an isolated bile duct after right liver transplant with Roux-en-Y biliary anastomosis in a 42-year-old male. The patient initially presented with cholangitis and a percutaneous transhepatic cholangiogram revealed an isolated stricture of the posterior bile duct. Multiple attempts at regaining continuity of the isolated bile duct with the jejunum were unsuccessful. Thus a tract was created via a percutaneous transhepatic and transluminal approach between the isolated duct and the stomach using a covered stent. The patient had no complications at 18-month follow-up.
Adult
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Bile Ducts
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Biliary Tract
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Cholangitis
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Constriction, Pathologic*
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Drainage
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Follow-Up Studies
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Humans
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Jejunum
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Liver
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Liver Transplantation
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Living Donors
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Male
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Stents*
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Stomach
3.Evaluation of 153 Asymptomatic Subjects Using the Anopress Portable Anal Manometry Device
Cosimo Alex LEO ; Emanuel CAVAZZONI ; Gregory P THOMAS ; Jonathan HODGKISON ; Jamie MURPHY ; Carolynne J VAIZEY
Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility 2018;24(3):431-436
BACKGROUND/AIMS: The Anopress device is a new portable manometry system. The aim of this study is to formulate normative data using this new device by recording the anorectal function of asymptomatic subjects. Patient comfort was also assessed. METHODS: Anorectal function was assessed in asymptomatic volunteers using the Anopress. All volunteers were examined in a standardized way in accordance with the study protocol. Normative values for the Anopress were obtained from the recorded data and patient comfort was assessed using a visual analogue scale. RESULTS: We recruited 153 healthy volunteers. Eighty were female (23 parous; median age 39.5 [interquartile range {IQR}, 28.75–53.00]) and 73 were male (median age 40.5 [IQR, 29.00–52.25]). For the female cohort, the following normal range (2.5–97.5 percentile) values were recorded across the whole anal canal: resting pressure 40.0–103.0 mmHg; squeeze increment 35.0–140.6 mmHg; endurance 1.3–9.0 seconds; involuntary squeeze 41.1–120.8 mmHg; and strain pressure 22.1–77.9 mmHg. Similarly, the following male normal range (2.5–97.5 percentile) values were recorded across the whole anal canal: resting pressure 38.3–99.6 mmHg; squeeze increment 42.5–154.8 mmHg; involuntary squeeze 40.0–123.6 mmHg; endurance 2.0–10.0 seconds; and strain pressure 11.0–72.1 mmHg. The median visual analogue scale scores for discomfort during the measurement was 0.0 (IQR, 0.00–0.00). CONCLUSIONS: Normative values for the Anopress device have been calculated by this study. The Anopress appears to be a safe and well tolerated way of measuring pressures from the entire anal canal. Further comparisons with other standard and commonly used manometry tests are, however, required to verify its reliability.
Anal Canal
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Cohort Studies
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Female
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Healthy Volunteers
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Humans
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Male
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Manometry
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Physiology
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Reference Values
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Volunteers
4.Unraveling the serial glycosylation in the biosynthesis of steroidal saponins in the medicinal plant Paris polyphylla and their antifungal action.
Yuegui CHEN ; Qin YAN ; Yunheng JI ; Xue BAI ; Desen LI ; Rongfang MU ; Kai GUO ; Minjie YANG ; Yang TAO ; Jonathan GERSHENZON ; Yan LIU ; Shenghong LI
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B 2023;13(11):4638-4654
Sugar-sugar glycosyltransferases play important roles in constructing complex and bioactive saponins. Here, we characterized a series of UDP-glycosyltransferases responsible for biosynthesizing the branched sugar chain of bioactive steroidal saponins from a widely known medicinal plant Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis. Among them, a 2'-O-rhamnosyltransferase and three 6'-O-glucosyltrasferases catalyzed a cascade of glycosylation to produce steroidal diglycosides and triglycosides, respectively. These UDP-glycosyltransferases showed astonishing substrate promiscuity, resulting in the generation of a panel of 24 terpenoid glycosides including 15 previously undescribed compounds. A mutant library containing 44 variants was constructed based on the identification of critical residues by molecular docking simulations and protein model alignments, and a mutant UGT91AH1Y187A with increased catalytic efficiency was obtained. The steroidal saponins exhibited remarkable antifungal activity against four widespread strains of human pathogenic fungi attributed to ergosterol-dependent damage of fungal cell membranes, and 2'-O-rhamnosylation appeared to correlate with strong antifungal effects. The findings elucidated the biosynthetic machinery for their production of steroidal saponins and revealed their potential as new antifungal agents.