Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase as a biomarker for the diagnosis of infectious pleural effusions.

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) has been reported to be involved in infectious diseases, but it is unknown whether it plays a role in infectious pleural effusions (IPEs). We observed the levels of NAMPT in pleural effusions of different etiologies and investigated the clinical value of NAMPT in the differential diagnosis of infectious pleural effusions. A total of 111 patients with pleural effusion were enrolled in the study, including 25 parapneumonic effusions (PPEs) (17 uncomplicated PPEs, 3 complicated PPEs, and 5 empyemas), 30 tuberculous pleural effusions (TPEs), 36 malignant pleural effusions (MPEs), and 20 transudative effusions.

Macrolide therapy in cryptogenic organizing pneumonia: A case report and literature review.

Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) is a pulmonary disorder associated with nonspecific clinical presentations. The macrolide class of antimicrobial agents is widely used to treat infectious and inflammatory respiratory diseases in humans. The present study reports a case of COP that was effectively treated with azithromycin in combination with glucocorticoid.

Evaluation of VEGF-C and tumor markers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for lung cancer diagnosis.

A total of 87 patients were enrolled and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples were obtained from all subjects. A significant difference was found in BALF VEGF-C level between patients with squamous cell carcinoma and benign diseases (P = 0.043).

Utility of VEGF and sVEGFR-1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for differential diagnosis of primary lung cancer.

Published data have shown that the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and soluble VEGF receptor-1 (sVEGFR-1) in plasma and pleural effusion might be usefulness for lung cancer diagnosis. Here, we performed a prospective study to investigate the utility of VEGF and sVEGFR-1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) for differential diagnosis of primary lung cancer. A total of 56 patients with solitary pulmonary massed by chest radiograph or CT screening were enrolled in this study.

Association between angiotensin-converting enzyme I/D polymorphism and asthma risk: a meta-analysis involving 11,897 subjects.

Background: Genetic susceptibility to asthma has been a research focus in the scientific community. Several studies have been conducted in recent years to evaluate the risk of asthma and insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). However, the results remain conflicting rather than conclusive.

Excision repair cross complementation group 1 polymorphisms and lung cancer risk: a meta-analysis.

Background: Several studies have evaluated the association between polymorphisms of encoding excision repair cross complementation group 1 (ERCC1) enzyme and lung cancer risk in diverse populations but with conflicting results. By pooling the relatively small samples in each study, it is possible to perform a meta-analysis of the evidence by rigorous methods.

Methods: Embase, Ovid, Medline and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure were searched.

Polymorphism of vascular endothelial growth factor -2578C/A with cancer risk: evidence from 11263 subjects.

Published data on the association between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) -2578C/A polymorphism and cancer risk is inconclusive. To derive a more precise estimation of association between VEGF -2578C/A polymorphism and the risk of cancer, we performed a meta-analysis of 5415 cancer cases and 5848 controls from 16 published case-control studies. We used odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to assess the strength of the association.