A Summed Score From Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Parameters Predicts 1-Year Mortality in Newly Diagnosed Interstitial Lung Disease.

Background: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is a unique diagnostic tool that assesses the functional capacity of the heart, lungs, and peripheral oxidative system in an integrated manner. However, the clinical utility of CPET for evaluating interstitial lung disease (ILD) remains uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine the predictive value of CPET for mortality in subjects with ILD.

2024 multidisciplinary consensus on image-guided lung tumor ablation from the Taiwan Academy of Tumor Ablation.

In this article, the multidisciplinary team of the Taiwan Academy of Tumor Ablation, who have expertise in treating lung cancer, present their perspectives on percutaneous image-guided thermal ablation (IGTA) of lung tumors. The modified Delphi technique was applied to reach a consensus on clinical practice guidelines concerning ablation procedures, including a comprehensive literature review, selection of panelists, creation of a rating form and survey, and arrangement of an in-person meeting where panelists agreed or disagreed on various points. The conclusion was a final rating and written summary of the agreement.

A composite score based on cardiovascular parameters can predict the mortality risk of patients with newly diagnosed interstitial lung disease: A prospective observational study.

Background: It is crucial to identify factors that can predict the risk of mortality in patients newly diagnosed with interstitial lung disease (ILD). This study sought to develop and assess a composite scoring system for mortality prediction among ILD patients based on cardiovascular parameters, which were previously reported as predictors of survival.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled patients with newly diagnosed ILD and monitored their survival status for 24 months.

Opportunistic screening with multiphase contrast-enhanced dual-layer spectral CT for osteoblastic lesions in prostate cancer compared with bone scintigraphy.

Our study aimed to compare bone scintigraphy and dual-layer detector spectral CT (DLCT) with multiphase contrast enhancement for the diagnosis of osteoblastic bone lesions in patients with prostate cancer. The patients with prostate cancer and osteoblastic bone lesions detected on DLCT were divided into positive bone scintigraphy group (pBS) and negative bone scintigraphy group (nBS) based on bone scintigraphy. A total of 106 patients (57 nBS and 49 pBS) was included.

Multidisciplinary-derived clinical score for accurate prediction of long-term mortality in fibrotic lung disease patients.

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) stands out as one of the most aggressive forms of interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), currently without a definitive cure. Multidisciplinary discussion (MDD) is now considered a cornerstone in diagnosing and differentiating ILD subtypes. The Gender-Age-Physiology (GAP) score, developed to assess IPF prognosis based on sex, age, forced vital capacity, and diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO), is limited in not considering dyspnea and functional impairment during the walking test.

Feasibility of Computed Tomography-guided Percutaneous Renal Cryoablation Under Local Anesthesia: A Single Center Experience in Taiwan.

Background/aim: To survey the safety and efficacy of percutaneous cryoablation for renal tumors under local anesthesia and pain control by using the -40°C lethal isotherm of the ice ball to cover the tumor margin as well as the coaxial cryoablation technique.

Patients And Methods: All procedures were performed between February 2014 and November 2021 with computed tomography (CT) guidance. All tumors were ablated by following the aforementioned plan, according to which tumor margins were covered by the -40°C lethal isotherm.

Adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation preoperative survey using MDCT, a single medical center experience in Taiwan.

This study evaluated multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) scans performed on potential living donors for adult-to-adult liver transplantation (LDLT), with the aim of identifying significant findings that could be used to exclude potential transplantation donors. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 151 consecutive potential adult donors for LDLT from May 2007 to January 2015. Liver parenchyma steatosis, focal hepatic mass or intraabdominal malignancy, vascular variations, and donor liver volume were evaluated via MDCT.

Time-Resolved Magnetic Resonance Angiography in the Evaluation of Intracranial Vascular Lesions and Tumors: A Pictorial Essay of Our Experience.

Time-resolved magnetic resonance angiography (TR MRA) is a promising less invasive technique for the diagnosis of intracranial vascular lesions and hypervascular tumors. Similar to 4-dimensional computed tomographic angiography obtaining high frame rate images, TR MRA utilizes acceleration techniques to acquire sequential arterial and venous phase images for identifying, localizing, and classifying vascular lesions. Because of the good agreement with digital subtraction angiography for grading brain arteriovenous malformations with the Spetzler-Martin classification and the good sensitivity for visualizing arteriovenous fistulas, studies have suggested that TR MRA could serve as a screening or routine follow-up tool for diagnosing intracranial vascular disorders.

Degradation of βII-Spectrin Protein by Calpain-2 and Caspase-3 Under Neurotoxic and Traumatic Brain Injury Conditions.

A major consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the rapid proteolytic degradation of structural cytoskeletal proteins. This process is largely reflected by the interruption of axonal transport as a result of extensive axonal injury leading to neuronal cell injury. Previous work from our group has described the extensive degradation of the axonally enriched cytoskeletal αII-spectrin protein which results in molecular signature breakdown products (BDPs) indicative of injury mechanisms and to specific protease activation both in vitro and in vivo.

Serum levels of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase distinguish mild traumatic brain injury from trauma controls and are elevated in mild and moderate traumatic brain injury patients with intracranial lesions and neurosurgical intervention.

Background: This study compared early serum levels of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCH-L1) from patients with mild and moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) with uninjured and injured controls and examined their association with traumatic intracranial lesions on computed tomography (CT) scan (CT positive) and the need for neurosurgical intervention (NSI).

Methods: This prospective cohort study enrolled adult patients presenting to three tertiary care Level I trauma centers after blunt head trauma with loss of consciousness, amnesia, or disorientation and a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score 9 to 15. Control groups included normal uninjured controls and nonhead injured trauma controls presenting to the emergency department with orthopedic injuries or motor vehicle crash without TBI.

Elevated levels of serum glial fibrillary acidic protein breakdown products in mild and moderate traumatic brain injury are associated with intracranial lesions and neurosurgical intervention.

Study Objective: This study examines whether serum levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein breakdown products (GFAP-BDP) are elevated in patients with mild and moderate traumatic brain injury compared with controls and whether they are associated with traumatic intracranial lesions on computed tomography (CT) scan (positive CT result) and with having a neurosurgical intervention.

Methods: This prospective cohort study enrolled adult patients presenting to 3 Level I trauma centers after blunt head trauma with loss of consciousness, amnesia, or disorientation and a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 9 to 15. Control groups included normal uninjured controls and trauma controls presenting to the emergency department with orthopedic injuries or a motor vehicle crash without traumatic brain injury.

Dual vulnerability of tau to calpains and caspase-3 proteolysis under neurotoxic and neurodegenerative conditions.

Axonally specific microtubule-associated protein tau is an important component of neurofibrillary tangles found in AD (Alzheimer's disease) and other tauopathy diseases such as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). Such tau aggregate is found to be hyperphosphorylated and often proteolytically fragmented. Similarly, tau is degraded following TBI (traumatic brain injury).

Multiple alphaII-spectrin breakdown products distinguish calpain and caspase dominated necrotic and apoptotic cell death pathways.

Apoptosis and oncotic necrosis in neuronal and glial cells have been documented in many neurological diseases. Distinguishing between these two major types of cell death in different neurological diseases is needed in order to better reveal the injury mechanisms so as to open up opportunities for therapy development. Accumulating evidence suggests apoptosis and oncosis epitomize the extreme ends of a broad spectrum of morphological and biochemical events.

Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase is a novel biomarker in humans for severe traumatic brain injury.

Objective: Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCH-L1), also called neuronal-specific protein gene product (PGP 9.3), is highly abundant in neurons. To assess the reliability of UCH-L1 as a potential biomarker for traumatic brain injury (TBI) this study compared cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of UCH-L1 from adult patients with severe TBI to uninjured controls; and examined the relationship between levels with severity of injury, complications and functional outcome.

Alpha II-spectrin breakdown products serve as novel markers of brain injury severity in a canine model of hypothermic circulatory arrest.

Background: The development of specific biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of neuronal injury is of paramount importance in cardiac surgery. Alpha II-spectrin is a structural protein abundant in neurons of the central nervous system and cleaved into signature fragments by proteases involved in necrotic and apoptotic cell death. We measured cerebrospinal fluid alpha II-spectrin breakdown products (alphaII-SBDPs) in a canine model of hypothermic circulatory arrest (HCA) and cardiopulmonary bypass.

P43/pro-EMAPII: a potential biomarker for discriminating traumatic versus ischemic brain injury.

To gain additional insights into the pathogenic cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying different types of brain injury (e.g., trauma versus ischemia), recently attention has focused on the discovery and study of protein biomarkers.

Biochemical, structural, and biomarker evidence for calpain-mediated cytoskeletal change after diffuse brain injury uncomplicated by contusion.

Calpain-mediated degradation of the cytoskeletal protein alpha-II-spectrin has been implicated in the pathobiology of experimental and human traumatic brain injury (TBI). Spectrin proteolysis after diffuse/widespread TBI uncomplicated by either subtle or overt contusion and/or mass lesions, (i.e.

Spillway-induced salmon head injury triggers the generation of brain alphaII-spectrin breakdown product biomarkers similar to mammalian traumatic brain injury.

Recent advances in biomedical research have resulted in the development of specific biomarkers for diagnostic testing of disease condition or physiological risk. Of specific interest are alphaII-spectrin breakdown products (SBDPs), which are produced by proteolytic events in traumatic brain injury and have been used as biomarkers to predict the severity of injury in humans and other mammalian brain injury models. This study describes and demonstrates the successful use of antibody-based mammalian SBDP biomarkers to detect head injury in migrating juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) that have been injured during passage through high-energy hydraulic environments present in spillways under different operational configurations.

alphaII-Spectrin breakdown product cerebrospinal fluid exposure metrics suggest differences in cellular injury mechanisms after severe traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) produces alphaII-spectrin breakdown products (SBDPs) that are potential biomarkers for TBI. To further understand these biomarkers, the present study examined (1) the exposure and kinetic characteristics of SBDPs in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of adults with severe TBI, and (2) the relationship between these exposure and kinetic metrics and severity of injury. This clinical database study analyzed CSF concentrations of 150-, 145-, and 120-kDa SBDPs in 38 severe TBI patients.

Dicyclomine, an M1 muscarinic antagonist, reduces biomarker levels, but not neuronal degeneration, in fluid percussion brain injury.

Recent studies indicate that alphaII-spectrin breakdown products (SBDPs) have utility as biological markers of traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the utility of SBDP biomarkers for detecting effects of therapeutic interventions has not been explored. Acetylcholine plays a role in pathological neuronal excitation and TBI-induced muscarinic cholinergic receptor activation may contribute to excitotoxic processes.

Physiological and pathological actions of calpains in glutamatergic neurons.

These animations show the activation and actions of neuronal calpains under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. They emphasize how physiological events involved in excitatory neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity-such as glutamate release, calcium influx, and activation of postsynaptic calpains-can become destructive under pathological conditions. These animations would be useful in a neurobiology or neuroscience course, where they could be used to illustrate proteolytic mechanisms underling activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, and how excessive activation of these signaling mechanisms can lead to excitotoxic neuronal death.

Calpain in the CNS: from synaptic function to neurotoxicity.

The calpains are a class of cellular cysteine proteases that require calcium and are functionally active at neutral pH. Calpain activation can take place in two modes: controlled activation under physiological conditions (in which only a few molecules of calpain are activated per cell), and hyperactivation under pathological conditions that involve sustained calcium overload (in which all available calpain molecules are activated). Regulated activation of calpain in the central nervous system (CNS) may be critical to synaptic function and memory formation, with possible substrates including various structural and scaffolding proteins, enzymes, and glutamate receptors.