Screening and identification of nanobody against inhibin α-subunit from a phage display library.

Background: Inhibin is a member of the transforming growth factor family that influences reproduction in animals.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to obtain nanobodies from the phage antibody library constructed by us that can specifically bind to inhibin α-subunit.

Methods: In this study, camels were immunized with Kazakh sheep inhibin-α protein that expressed in BL21 , and the camel VHH nanobody phage display library was prepared using nested PCR.

Breast Cancer: Lifestyle, the Human Gut Microbiota/Microbiome, and Survivorship.

Patients with a current diagnosis of breast cancer are enjoying dramatic cure rates and survivorship secondary to an increase in awareness, earlier detection, and more effective therapies. Although strategies such as Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October focus on early detection, lifestyle changes are seldom discussed other than dietary concerns and physical activity. Lifestyle modifications centered on diet and exercise have been demonstrated to affect overall disease-free survival in breast cancer.

Lifestyle Medicine: A Brief Review of Its Dramatic Impact on Health and Survival.

By ignoring the root causes of disease and neglecting to prioritize lifestyle measures for prevention, the medical community is placing people at harm. Advanced nations, influenced by a Western lifestyle, are in the midst of a health crisis, resulting largely from poor lifestyle choices. Epidemiologic, ecologic, and interventional studies have repeatedly indicated that most chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, are the result of lifestyles fueled by poor nutrition and physical inactivity.

Breast cancer survivorship: a comprehensive review of long-term medical issues and lifestyle recommendations.

As breast cancer becomes a chronic condition rather than a life-threatening illness, survivors not only have the challenge of dealing with multiple long-term side effects of treatment protocols, but may also be forced to address the preexisting comorbidities of their therapies, which often include multiple other issues. It is imperative that the information available regarding survivorship issues be accessible in an organized and useful format. This article is a modest attempt to provide a comprehensive review of the long-term medical issues.

Total cost comparison of 2 biopsy methods for nonpalpable breast lesions.

Objective: To identify, quantify, and compare total facility costs for 2 breast biopsy methods: vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB) and needle-wire-localized open surgical biopsy (OSB).

Study Design: A time-and-motion study was done to identify unit resources used in both procedures. Costs were imputed from published literature to value resources.

The myths of managed care. Surgical perspectives.

Managed care is the contemporary and near-future system of medicine in which we must learn to exist. Many are afraid of managed care only because they are not familiar with the concept. Misconceptions abound in the medical community concerning the sudden rise of managed care systems.

Complications after negative laparotomy for trauma: long-term follow-up in a health maintenance organization.

Objective: To assess short-term and long-term complication rates after trauma laparotomy in a group of health maintenance organization (Kaiser Permanente) patients.

Design: Retrospective cohort study of patients belonging to Kaiser Permanente.

Materials And Methods: Eighty Kaiser patients who underwent a negative or nontherapeutic laparotomy for trauma at a Level I trauma center (University of California, Davis Medical Center (UCDMC)) between April 1989 and May 1994 were identified.

The injury potential and lethality of stab wounds: a Folsom Prison Study.

The morbidity and mortality of stab wounds is unknown since much of the data is unobtainable. Folsom Prison, a closed system with respect to population at risk and medical care, represents a unique situation where all stab wounds and subsequent care are accounted for. A retrospective review of stabbing incidents at Folsom Prison identified 751 wounds in 270 prisoners.

Simple ligation vs stump inversion in appendectomy.

The records of 886 patients who had appendectomy performed by the same surgeons within a five-year period were used to contrast appendiceal stump inversion vs simple ligation. Our analysis contrasted inversion vs simple ligation techniques as related to postoperative complications, hospital stay, and pathologic diagnosis. Adhesions requiring repeated operation to relieve bowel obstruction occurred in five of 87 patients with acute gangrenous appendicitis treated by inversion.

Retropharyngeal hematomas.

Hyperextension of the cervical spine in the elderly can cause retropharyngeal hematomas. We report this unusual cause of retropharyngeal hematoma in a 77-year-old women. The airway must be thoroughly evaluated in any such patient in whom this lesion is suspected.

Cystic neoplasms of the pancreas.

Eight patients with cystic neoplasms of the pancreas were seen at four Northern California hospitals between the years 1978 and 1986. Three of the tumors were benign and five were malignant. Three females, whose average age was 61 years, had cystadenomas.

Enterolith ileus resulting from small bowel diverticulosis.

Small intestine diverticula are infrequent. These acquired pulsion diverticula are postulated to be a result of intestinal dyskinesis. Usually asymptomatic, they can produce a variety of disorders such as malabsorption, hemorrhage, diverticulitis, and perforation.

Guidelines for discontinuing prehospital CPR in the emergency department--a review.

We provide information that we believe should allow the establishment of rational guidelines for discontinuing, with physician supervision, unsuccessful prehospital CPR. Goldberg has advocated that CPR be terminated only after evidence of brain or cardiac death has persisted for more than one hour of adequately applied advanced CPR. This recommendation was made for inhospital resuscitation and does not reflect the limited capabilities of basic and advanced CPR techniques to sustain life outside the hospital.

Prehospital stabilization of critically injured patients: a failed concept.

Prehospital resuscitation and stabilization of major trauma victims is increasingly employed. To evaluate the benefits of one such maneuver, fluid administration, we reviewed 52 consecutive trauma cases in which patients had a blood pressure of less than 100 mm Hg either at the scene or on arrival to hospital. In all cases, transport time to hospital was less than IV establishment time.

Diagnosis and management of ingested foreign bodies: a ten-year experience.

Ingested gastrointestinal foreign bodies may be managed by observation, endoscopy, and/or surgical intervention. We retrospectively reviewed 87 consecutive cases of foreign body ingestion. In 49 patients the ingested foreign body had passed beyond the gastroesophageal junction, and these cases form the basis of this study.

Effects of hypoproteinemia and increased vascular pressure on lung fluid balance in sheep.

We compared the effects of a sustained decrease in plasma oncotic pressure on lung fluid balance with those of an increase in vascular pressure in six unanesthetized sheep. Initial plasma protein concentration of 58.0 +/- 2.