Arthrocentesis and Joint Injection in Patients Receiving Direct Oral Anticoagulants.

Anticoagulation is common in patients undergoing arthrocentesis and joint injections. Previous studies have established the safety of continuing anticoagulation with warfarin before joint aspirations/injections with only a small increased risk of bleeding, but no data are available regarding the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) and joint aspirations/injections. The objective of this study was to determine the rate of bleeding complications associated with arthrocentesis and joint injection in patients receiving DOACs.

Sequence analysis and functional characterization of full-length hepatitis B virus genomes from Korean cirrhotic patients with or without liver cancer.

This study aimed to identify and characterize mutations in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome associated with advanced liver diseases. The 3.2-kb HBV genome of the C2 subgenotype was amplified from sera of 18 cirrhotic Korean patients with (10) or without (8) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and two clones per patient were characterized by transient transfection experiments in human hepatoma cells.

A germline mutation in the BRCA1 3'UTR predicts Stage IV breast cancer.

Background: A germline, variant in the BRCA1 3'UTR (rs8176318) was previously shown to predict breast and ovarian cancer risk in women from high-risk families, as well as increased risk of triple negative breast cancer. Here, we tested the hypothesis that this variant predicts tumor biology, like other 3'UTR mutations in cancer.

Methods: The impact of the BRCA1-3'UTR-variant on BRCA1 gene expression, and altered response to external stimuli was tested in vitro using a luciferase reporter assay.

SNPs in microRNA binding sites as prognostic and predictive cancer biomarkers.

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms within microRNA (miRNA) binding sites comprise a novel genre of cancer biomarkers. Since miRNA regulation is dependent on sequence complementarity between the mRNA transcript and the miRNA, even single-nucleotide aberrations can have significant effects. Over the past few years, many examples of these functional miRNA binding site SNPs have been identified as cancer biomarkers.