A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Health Literacy and Compliance to Treatment in Organ Transplant Recipients.

This study was conducted to determine the correlations between health literacy, transplant effects, and compliance to treatment in organ transplant recipients and to identify the factors influencing compliance to treatment. The participants ( = 130; males = 66.9%; mean age = 56.

De Novo Cancer Incidence after Kidney Transplantation in South Korea from 2002 to 2017.

Advances in patient care and immunosuppressive drugs have improved graft survival, resulting in an increase in kidney transplantation (KT); however, persistent immunosuppression is thought to cause late occurrence of cancer. This population-based study consisted of a total of 14,842 patients whose data from the years 2002 to 2017 were collected from the National Health Information Database in South Korea. Malignancies occurred in 7.

The effectiveness of an enhanced recovery after surgery protocol in head and neck cancer surgery with free-flap reconstruction.

Purpose: An enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol incorporates up-to-date perioperative care principles; the primary aim in using an ERAS protocol is to reduce issues that delay the recovery and cause the complications. The aim of this study was to compare outcomes associated with head and neck cancer surgery with free-flap reconstruction before and after implementation of an ERAS protocol.

Methods: Outcomes were analyzed by dividing patients into 2 groups: 29 patients in the non-ERAS group and 60 patients in the ERAS group.

Long-term Trends in the Clinicopathologic Features of Kidney Transplant Recipients With Graft Dysfunction.

Background: Graft biopsy is the gold standard for the differential diagnosis of graft dysfunction. The time interval between transplant surgery and biopsy often provides clinicians with diagnostic clues. However, the clinicopathologic features of late graft biopsy, especially those obtained at more than 5 years after kidney transplant, are not well understood.

Validity analysis of respiratory events of polysomnography using a plethysmography chest and abdominal belt.

Purpose: Respiratory inductive plethysmography (RIP) is recommended as an alternative respiratory sensor for the identification of each apnea and hypopnea event in polysomnography. Using this sensor, the cumulative RIP results from the chest and abdomen (RIP sum) and time-derived results of the RIP sum (RIP flow) are calculated to track respiratory flow. However, the effectiveness of this sensor and the calculated respiratory results is still unclear, and validation studies for the scoring of respiratory events in polysomnography are rare.

Longitudinal Pure-Tone Threshold Changes in the Same Subjects: Analysis of Factors Affecting Hearing.

Objectives: To investigate the change of hearing threshold over time and analyze factors that could affect hearing, this longitudinal study of pure-tone threshold changes in the same subjects at a 9-year interval was performed.

Study Design: Retrospective longitudinal study in a single center (n = 1,978).

Methods: A total of 1,978 subjects were included; they received pure-tone audiometry at a 9-year interval.

Endovascular management in immature arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis.

To evaluate the outcomes and prognostic factors of endovascular management in immature arteriovenous fistula (AVF) for hemodialysis.From April 2007 to September 2017, 54 patients (male:female = 31:23, mean age 65.63 years, range 33-90 years) who underwent endovascular management for the salvage of immature AVF were retrospectively reviewed.

Variable Selection and Joint Estimation of Mean and Covariance Models with an Application to eQTL Data.

In genomic data analysis, it is commonplace that underlying regulatory relationship over multiple genes is hardly ascertained due to unknown genetic complexity and epigenetic regulations. In this paper, we consider a joint mean and constant covariance model (JMCCM) that elucidates conditional dependent structures of genes with controlling for potential genotype perturbations. To this end, the modified Cholesky decomposition is utilized to parametrize entries of a precision matrix.

Antiplatelet Premedication-Free Stent-Assisted Coil Embolization in Acutely Ruptured Aneurysms.

Objective: Stent-assisted coil embolization (SAC) is one of the treatment options for patients with intracranial aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to assess clinical outcomes of patients who underwent coil embolization for acutely ruptured aneurysms without antiplatelet premedication.

Methods: A total of 449 patients with acutely ruptured aneurysms underwent endovascular treatment without antiplatelet premedication between April 2006 and October 2015.

Antiplatelet Premedication for Stent-Assisted Coil Embolization of Intracranial Aneurysms: Low-Dose Prasugrel vs Clopidogrel.

Background: The use of antiplatelet medications to prevent thrombosis in the treatment of cerebral aneurysms with stents has become widely emphasized.

Objective: To compare low-dose prasugrel with clopidogrel in stent-assisted coil embolization of intracranial aneurysms.

Methods: This is a retrospective review of 311 aneurysms from 297 patients who underwent stent-assisted endovascular coil embolization of unruptured intracranial aneurysm between November 2014 and March 2017.

Node-Structured Integrative Gaussian Graphical Model Guided by Pathway Information.

Up to date, many biological pathways related to cancer have been extensively applied thanks to outputs of burgeoning biomedical research. This leads to a new technical challenge of exploring and validating biological pathways that can characterize transcriptomic mechanisms across different disease subtypes. In pursuit of accommodating multiple studies, the joint Gaussian graphical model was previously proposed to incorporate nonzero edge effects.

Erratum to: Meta-analytic support vector machine for integrating multiple omics data.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13040-017-0126-8.].

Meta-analytic support vector machine for integrating multiple omics data.

Background: Of late, high-throughput microarray and sequencing data have been extensively used to monitor biomarkers and biological processes related to many diseases. Under this circumstance, the support vector machine (SVM) has been popularly used and been successful for gene selection in many applications. Despite surpassing benefits of the SVMs, single data analysis using small- and mid-size of data inevitably runs into the problem of low reproducibility and statistical power.

Low-dose mycophenolate mofetil in tablet form or capsule form combined with tacrolimus in the early period after kidney transplantation: a prospective randomized trial .

Aims: The tablet form (500 mg) of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) provides more convenience of taking drugs and cost-effectiveness than the capsule form (250 mg). We examined the efficacy and safety of MMF in its different forms combined with tacrolimus in kidney transplant recipients.

Methods: This multicenter, 26-week, randomized trial was performed to compare the efficacy and safety of the tablet form of MMF versus the capsule form of MMF in 156 kidney transplant recipients.

Efficacy of rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin for steroid-resistant acute rejection after liver transplantation.

Acute cellular rejection after liver transplantation (LT) can be treated with steroid pulse therapy, but there is no ideal treatment for steroid-resistant acute rejection (SRAR). We aimed to determine the feasibility and potential complications of rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (rATG) application to treat SRAR in liver transplant recipients. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 429 recipients who underwent LT at Severance Hospital between January 2010 and March 2015.

Adefovir- or Lamivudine-Induced Renal Tubular Dysfunction after Liver Transplantation.

To reduce hepatitis B virus reinfection after liver transplantation (LT), patients often receive antihepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) alone or combined with antiviral nucleoside/nucleotide analogs (NUCs); however, proximal renal tubular dysfunction (RTD) that was induced by NUCs in liver recipients was rarely reported. Here, we analyzed RTD and renal impairment (RI) following adefovir (ADV) and lamivudine (LAM) treatment in liver recipients. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients treated with HBIG alone (group 1, n = 42) or combined with ADV or LAM (group 2, n = 21) after LT.

A 12-month single arm pilot study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of sirolimus in combination with tacrolimus in kidney transplant recipients at high immunologic risk.

The optimal immunosuppressive strategy for renal transplant recipients at high immunologic risk remains a topic of investigation. This prospective single arm pilot study was undertaken to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a combined tacrolimus and sirolimus regimen in recipients at immunological high risk and to compare outcomes with a contemporaneous control group received tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. Patients that received a renal allograft between 2010 and 2011 at high risk (defined as panel reactive antibodies > 50%, 4 or more human leukocyte antigen mismatches, or retransplantation) were enrolled.

Effect of donor-specific antibodies and panel reactive antibodies in living donor liver transplant recipients.

Purpose: Preformed circulating donor-specific antibodies (DSAs) immunologically challenge vascular endothelium and the bile duct. However, the liver is an immune-tolerant organ and can avoid immunological challenges. This study was undertaken to analyze the effects of DSAs after adult living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).

LW6, a novel HIF-1 inhibitor, promotes proteasomal degradation of HIF-1alpha via upregulation of VHL in a colon cancer cell line.

Hypoxia-inducible factor HIF-1 is responsible for radiation resistance and poor prognosis in cancer therapy. As part of our drug discovery program, a novel HIF inhibitor, LW6, was identified as a small compound that inhibits the accumulation of HIF-1alpha. We found that LW6 decreased HIF-1alpha protein expression without affecting HIF-1beta expression.

Up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 expression through CaMKII-ERK1/2-Nrf2 signaling mediates the anti-inflammatory effect of bisdemethoxycurcumin in LPS-stimulated macrophages.

We have identified a novel anti-inflammatory signaling pathway that leads to the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in response to bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC), an analog of curcumin. Treatment with BDMC suppressed inducible nitric oxide synthase expression and nitric oxide (NO) production by down-regulating NF-kappaB activity in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages.

Synthesis of tripeptides as potent Yersinia protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors.

We report the synthesis of a series of monoanionic phosphotyrosyl (pTyr) mimetic-containing tripeptides based on 'Fmoc-Glu(OBn)-Xxx-Leu-amide' (where Xxx = pTyr mimetic) and their N-terminally modified derivatives. The inhibitory potencies of compounds were tested against YopH and human PTP1B enzymes. Several compounds exhibited noteworthy activity against both YopH and PTP1B.

Suitability of shredded tyres as a substitute for a landfill leachate collection medium.

A series of tests were conducted to investigate the fate of heavy metals and gasoline components in a simulated landfill, consisting of a 30 cm thick clay liner and a leachate collection layer containing tyres as well as in two test cells installed in a landfill. Arsenic, selenium, mercury, barium, and lead concentrations were lower while zinc concentration was higher in the tank containing tyre-chips than the tank without tyre-chips. When samples were filtered, however, concentrations of zinc as well as other inorganics were lower in the tank containing tyre-chips, indicating that metals in the leachate exposed to tyre-chips travel more slowly in a subsurface environment due to filtering effect.