Interrelationships between tumor proliferative activity, leucocyte and macrophage infiltration, systemic inflammatory response, and survival in patients selected for potentially curative resection for gastroesophageal cancer.

Background: A number of accepted criteria, including pathological tumor, node, metastasis system stage, lymph node metastasis, and tumor differentiation, predict survival in patients undergoing surgery for gastroesophageal cancer. We examined the interrelationships between standard clinicopathological factors, systemic and local inflammatory responses, tumor proliferative activity, and survival.

Methods: The interrelationships between the systemic inflammatory response (Glasgow prognostic score, mGPS), standard clinicopathological factors, local inflammatory response (Klintrup criteria, macrophage infiltration), and tumor proliferative activity (Ki-67) were examined by immunohistochemistry in 100 patients (44 esophageal [19 squamous, 25 adenocarcinoma], 19 junctional, and 37 gastric cancers) selected for potentially curative resection.

Endoscopic mucosal resection for gastroesophageal cancer in a U.K. population. Long-term follow-up of a consecutive series.

Background: Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) of early gastric and esophageal tumors is effective and avoids the morbidity and mortality of surgery. We report the long-term results of a consecutive series of 93 endoscopic resections, during a 7-year period, in a U.K.

Is hypoalbuminemia an independent prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancer?

Background: Studies have indicated that hypoalbuminemia is associated with decreased survival of patients with gastric cancer. However, the prognostic value of albumin may be secondary to an ongoing systemic inflammatory response. The aim of the study was to assess the relation between hypoalbuminemia, the systemic inflammatory response, and survival in patients with gastric cancer.

Comparison of pre-treatment clinical prognostic factors in patients with gastro-oesophageal cancer and proposal of a new staging system.

Background: Clinical staging in patients with gastro-oesophageal cancer, is of crucial importance in determining the likely benefit of treatment. Despite recent advances in clinical staging, overall survival remains poor. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between pre-treatment clinical prognostic factors and cancer-specific survival.

Systematic four-quadrant biopsy detects Barrett's dysplasia in more patients than nonsystematic biopsy.

Aims: To compare detection of Barrett's dysplasia and adenocarcinoma by systematic versus nonsystematic surveillance biopsy protocols.

Methods: Upper GI consultation and open-access endoscopy are provided jointly at Glasgow Royal Infirmary by medical and surgical teams. The surgical team adopted annual systematic four-quadrant biopsy Barrett's surveillance in 1995.

Comparison of an inflammation-based prognostic score (GPS) with performance status (ECOG-ps) in patients receiving palliative chemotherapy for gastroesophageal cancer.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to compare an inflammation-based prognostic score (Glasgow Prognostic Score, GPS) with performance status (ECOG-ps) in patients receiving platinum-based chemotherapy for palliation of gastroesophageal cancer.

Methods: Sixty-five patients presenting with gastroesophageal carcinoma to the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow between January 1999 and December 2005 and who received palliative chemotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy were studied. ECOG-ps, C-reactive protein, and albumin were recorded at diagnosis.

Enhancing and expansile portal vein thrombosis: value in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with multiple hepatic lesions.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether the presence of enhancing and expansile portal vein thrombus is suggestive of the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Conclusion: In the presence of hepatic tumors, enhancing expansile portal vein thrombus is highly suggestive of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Are plain radiographs of the spine necessary during evaluation after blunt trauma? Accuracy of screening torso computed tomography in thoracic/lumbar spine fracture diagnosis.

Background: Fracture of the thoracolumbar (TL) spine is reported in 8 to 15% of victims of blunt trauma. Current screening of these patients is done with conventional radiography. This may require repeated sets of films and take hours to days.

NMDA currents and receptor protein are downregulated in the amygdala during maintenance of fear memory.

The amygdala plays a critical role in fear conditioning, a model of emotional learning and cue-induced anxiety. In the lateral amygdala, fear conditioning is associated with an enduring increase in synaptic strength mediated through AMPA receptors and with a reduction in paired-pulse facilitation, reflecting an increased probability of neurotransmitter release. Here we show that NMDA-mediated transmission in the thalamic-to-lateral amygdala pathway is not facilitated after fear conditioning, although probability of transmitter release is enhanced.

L-type voltage-gated calcium channels are involved in the in vivo and in vitro expression of fear conditioning.

Fear conditioning, a behavioral model of fear learning and cue-related anxiety, causes enhanced neuronal transmission in the thalamic to lateral amygdala pathway.(1,2) In the expression phase of learned fear, this increased transmission recorded in vitro is revealed in increased amplitudes of excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) and occlusion of paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) implicating a presynaptic increase in transmitter release. Here we examined the contribution of L-type calcium channels in fear conditioning.

Expression of fear-conditioning is accompanied by increased paired-pulse depression within the amygdala.

Fear-conditioning is a model of fear learning and anxiety. The lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) provides a critical link for relaying thalamic and cortical auditory information to the rest of the amygdala during the fear conditioning process. Alterations in excitatory synaptic transmission in the thalamic to LA pyramidal cells was studied using whole-cell patch clamp recordings in brain slices from fear-conditioned animals.