Abstract
Background Introduction
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of patients diagnosed with pediatric diseases who have severe
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
(MP) pneumonia, and ...there has also been an increased attention to serious extrapulmonary complications. However, cases with abdominal pain, acute abdomen, scrotal swelling and pain, and fever as the primary symptoms have been rarely reported.
Case Description
A 3‐years‐and‐8‐months‐old male patient diagnosed with pediatric disease was reported with abdominal pain, scrotal swelling and pain, and fever as the primary symptoms in the present study. No respiratory symptoms were observed throughout the disease. Through computed tomography (CT) scanning, the patient was diagnosed with severe MP pneumonia based on the symptoms of abdominal pain and fever, as well as pulmonary infection, pleural effusion, and retroperitoneal exudation. Laboratory tests supported the diagnosis of MP infection, and the diagnosis was confirmed by severe MP pneumonia. The
therapeutic
effects of azithromycin were poor, and the symptoms were quickly alleviated with the addition of gamma globulin and methylprednisolone. After discharge, azithromycin sequential therapy was administered. The chest CT was normal at the follow‐up 1‐month later.
Conclusion
Severe MP pneumonia in patients with pediatric diseases may include abdominal pain, scrotal swelling and pain, and fever as the primary symptoms. Care should be taken to avoid missed diagnoses and misdiagnoses in clinical practice.
•Esophageal cancer-related gene (ECRG) family has recently been characterized as an integrator and indispensable node in carcinogenesis.•Identification of this issue may be important to guide ...clinical management of liver cancer in the future.•Consequently, our present data using in silico data-mining analyses as well as immunohistochemistry provide an in-depth insight into the prognostic significance of ECRG family members in liver cancer.•We conclude that ECRG factors may act as an essential role in the progression of liver cancer.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a lethal cancer with increasing incidence, yet the molecular biomarkers that have strong prognostic impact and also hold great therapeutic promise remain elusive.
Data mining approaches with a set of publicly accessible databases and immunohistochemistry were used to provide a novel insight into the expression pattern and prognostic significance of the esophageal cancer-related gene (ECRG) family members in HCC.
We found that elevated mRNA expression levels of ECRG factors were correlated with better overall survival, relapse-free survival and progression-free survival rates in patients with HCC. Subgroup analyses showed significant associations between ECRG expression and survival outcome in select HCC patients. In addition, immunohistochemical and multivariate analysis confirmed increased ECRG4 expression as an independent prognostic indicator for survival.
Our data suggest that ECRG factors have significant impacts on the survival of HCC patients. The expression of ECRG factors may be involved in HCC progression and could serve as novel biomarkers for predicting more accurate prognosis.
We have previously characterized esophageal carcinoma-related gene 4 (ECRG4) as a novel tumor suppressor gene, which is frequently inactivated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and breast cancer. ...Nevertheless, the expression status and prognostic significance of ECRG4 maintain elusive in human gastric cancer. Herein, we examined ECRG4 expression profile in gastric cancer and assessed its association with clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival.
Online data mining, real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were employed to determined ECRG4 expression at transcriptional and protein levels in tumors vs. noncancerous tissues. Statistical analyses including the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and the Cox hazard model were utilized to detect the impact on clinical outcome. Moreover, ECRG4 expression was silenced in gastric cancer SGC7901 cells, and cell proliferation, colony formation and invasion assays were carried out.
ECRG4 mRNA and protein levels were obviously downregulated in cancer tissues than noncancerous tissues. Statistical analyses demonstrated that low ECRG4 expression was found in 34.5% (58/168) of primary gastric cancer tissues, which was associated with higher histological grade (P= 0.018), lymph node metastasis (P= 0.011), invasive depth (P= 0.020), advanced tumor stage (P= 0.002) and poor overall survival (P< 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed ECRG4 expression is an independent prognostic predictor (P< 0.001). Silencing ECRG4 expression promoted gastric cancer cell growth and invasion. Western blot analysis revealed the anti-metastatic functions of ECRG4 by downregulating of E-cadherin and α-Catenin, as well as upregulating N-cadherin and Vimentin.
Our observations reveal that ECRG4 expression is involved in gastric cancer pathogenesis and progression, and may serve as a candidate prognostic biomarker for this disease.
Emergency endoscopy is recommended for patients with acute esophageal variceal bleeding (EVB) and their prognosis has improved markedly over past decades due to the increased specialization of ...endoscopic practice. The study aimed to compare outcomes following emergency endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) and endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) in cirrhotic patients with acute EVB.
Cirrhotic patients with acute EVB who underwent emergency endoscopy were retrospectively enrolled from 2013 to 2020 across 34 university hospitals from 30 cities. The primary outcome was the incidence of 5-day rebleeding after emergency endoscopy. Subgroup analysis was stratified by Child-Pugh class and bleeding history. A 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed.
A total of 1,017 and 382 patients were included in EIS group and EVL group, respectively. The 5-day rebleeding incidence was similar between EIS group and EVL group (4% vs. 5%,
= 0.45). The result remained the same after PSM (
= 1.00). Among Child-Pugh class A, B and C patients, there were no differences in the 5-day rebleeding incidence between the two groups after PSM (
= 0.25, 0.82, and 0.21, respectively). As for the patients with or without bleeding history, the differences between EIS group and EVL group were not significant after PSM (
= 1.00 and 0.26, respectively).
The nationwide cohort study indicates that EIS and EVL are both efficient emergency endoscopic treatment strategies for acute EVB. EIS should not be dismissed as an economical and effective emergency endoscopic treatment strategy of acute EVB. ClincialTrials.gov number NCT04307264.
Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) was well correlated with carcinogenesis and tumor progression in many kinds of cancer. In this study, high expression of HIF-1α was found in 37 of the 72 (51.39%) ...tumor specimens, and significantly correlated with venous invasion and lymphonode invasion. Patients with high expression of HIF-1α had a significantly shorter overall survival rate and disease-free survival rate than those with low expression. Multivariate analysis showed high HIF-1α expression was a borderline independent factor of overall survival. HIF-1α expression was also found to be significantly correlated with the expression of hepatitis B virus X protein (HBx), and over-expressed HBx upregulated HIF-1α protein expression in vitro. These results suggested that HIF-1α, which was partially regulated by HBx, might be a prognostic marker of HBV-related HCC patients.
The zinc-fingers and homeoboxes (ZHX) family members have been characterized as master regulators in cancer initiation and development. The present study performed in silico data-mining with publicly ...available datasets and immunohistochemistry to assess the expression status of ZHX factors and the corresponding prognostic implications in liver cancer. Increased ZHX3 mRNA expression was associated with favorable overall survival in patients with liver cancer. Subgroups analyses revealed a significant association between the expression of ZHX factors and outcomes in select patient cohorts. Immunohistochemical analysis supported that ZHX3 expression was an independent prognostic indicator for patient survival. These results suggested that dysregulation of ZHX factors is involved in disease progression and ZHX3 expression may serve as a prognostic biomarker for liver cancer.
Mitotic arrest deficient 2 (MAD2) is an essential component of the mitotic spindle checkpoint pathway. It was previously shown to be associated with drug resistance of tumor cells. To further explore ...the roles of MAD2 in responses of gastric cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs, we constructed the siRNA vectors of MAD2 and transfected them into gastric cancer SGC7901 cells to inhibit expression of MAD2. MTT assay showed that the downregulation of MAD2 increased the resistance of SGC7901 cells to spindle inhibitors and DNA damaging agents. The apoptosis rates of gastric cancer cells transfected with MAD2-siRNA were 10.7% and 10%, respectively, after treated by 1.0
μg/ml VCR and cisplatin. In contrast, the apoptosis rates of SGC7901 and SGC7901/psilencer3.1 induced by VCR were 43.2%, 38.7%; and that induced by cispaltin were 34.1%, 31.4%. The ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax was much higher in the MAD2-siRNA transfectants compared with the SGC7901/psilencer. In SGC7901/psilencer, cytochrome
c and cleaved caspase 3 protein levels increased along with the exposure time increased. However, these protein levels of SGC7901/MAD2-siRNA had no changes during the drug treatment. These results indicate that down regulation of MAD2 could promote the drug resistance of gastric cancer cells and inhibit anticancer drugs induced-apoptosis by upregulating Bcl-2 and interfering the mitochondrion apoptosis pathway.
Serum response factor (SRF) is highly expressed in many tumors, including gastric cancer. However, the exact prognostic utility of SRF in patients with gastric cancer remains unclear. Therefore, in ...this study, we investigated the expression and prognostic value of SRF in patients with gastric cancer. SRF expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in 149 gastric cancer samples. The relationship between SRF expression and clinicopathological characteristics along with the prognostic significance of SRF in disease-free survival and overall survival of patients was analyzed. We found that the expression of SRF was significantly increased in gastric cancer tissues compared with adjacent noncancerous tissues. Overexpression of SRF was significantly correlated with histologic differentiation, invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage. Furthermore, disease-free survival rate and overall survival rate were both significantly lower for patients with high SRF expression. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified high SRF expression as an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival but not for overall survival. Our findings indicate that overexpression of SRF may play an important role in human gastric cancer recurrence and prognosis. SRF may serve as a predictive marker for prognosis of gastric cancer.
•Overexpression of SRF was found in GC tissues.•Overexpression of SRF was significantly correlated with histologic differentiation, invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage.•Overexpression of SRF was an independent prognostic factor for DFS, but not for OS.
Antibiotic resistance is the most important factor leading to failed Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy, and personalized treatment based on antibiotic susceptibility is becoming increasingly ...important. To strengthen the understanding of antibiotic genotypic resistance of H. pylori and identify new antibiotic resistance loci, in this study, we identified phenotypic resistance information for 60 clinical isolates and compared the concordance of phenotypic and genotypic resistance using whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Clarithromycin and levofloxacin genotypic resistance was in almost perfect concordance with phenotypic resistance, with kappa coefficients of 0.867 and 0.833, respectively. All strains with the R16H/C mutation and truncation in
were metronidazole resistant, with 100% specificity. For other genes of concern, at least one phenotypically sensitive strain had a previous mutation related to antibiotic resistance. Moreover, we found that the A1378G mutation of HP0399 and the A149G mutation of
might contribute to tetracycline resistance and multidrug resistance, respectively. Overall, the inference of resistance to clarithromycin and levofloxacin from genotypic resistance is reliable, and WGS has been very helpful in discovering novel H. pylori resistance loci. In addition, WGS has also enhanced our study of strain lineages, providing new ways to understand resistance information and mechanisms.
Professor Zhang Fengchuan found from clinical observation that patients with vitiligo often had a variety of emotional abnormalities before the onset of disease, such as emotional depression, anxiety ...and panic, insomnia and dreaminess, anxiety and irritability, etc. ...it is believed that abnormal emotion and stagnation of liver qi are the main causes of vitiligo4 . (vi) Deficiency of liver and kidney, failure of nourishing skin and muscle. ...in case of deficiency of qi in the zang-fu organs and abnormality of zang-fu function, the qi and blood can not operate normally, resulting in failure to nourish the skin and muscle and developing into white patches. The first is latent onset and watching for the proper moment for action, namely toxins are accumulated in the body, which generally do not break out immediately, but will activate when the body is weak with declined immunity. Since qi, blood and body fluid are stagnated in the accumulation place of pathogenic toxin, and most of them are complex onsets of various pathogenic factors, the course of the disease is lingering and stubborn. According to modem medicine, stress, accumulation of toxic compounds , spread of infection, changes in cellular environment and impaired migration of melanocytes can lead to the occurrence of vitiligo7, and its pathogenesis is related
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