Detecting hepatocellular carcinoma in gadoxetic-acid-enhanced hepatobiliary-phase MR imaging at 3T: comparing high and low flip angle.

Purpose: We evaluated the diagnostic performance of fat-suppressed 3D T1-weighted gradient-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences for the hepatobiliary phase of gadoxetic-acid-enhanced liver MRI between low and high flip angle (FA) at 3T.

Materials And Methods: Forty-six patients with 62 HCCs were enrolled in this retrospective study from among 267 consecutive patients who underwent 3T MRI with low and high FA (10° and 25°) sequences at the hepatobiliary phase. A radiologist measured signal intensities and standard deviations (SD) of lesion, liver, and spleen and calculated signal-to-noise ratio, liver-spleen contrast, and liver-lesion contrast.

Adjuvant capecitabine and oxaliplatin for gastric cancer after D2 gastrectomy (CLASSIC): a phase 3 open-label, randomised controlled trial.

Background: D2 gastrectomy is recommended in US and European guidelines, and is preferred in east Asia, for patients with resectable gastric cancer. Adjuvant chemotherapy improves patient outcomes after surgery, but the benefits after a D2 resection have not been extensively investigated in large-scale trials. We investigated the effect on disease-free survival of adjuvant chemotherapy with capecitabine plus oxaliplatin after D2 gastrectomy compared with D2 gastrectomy only in patients with stage II-IIIB gastric cancer.

Flow cytometric isolation and phenotypic characterization of two subsets of ED2(+) (CD163) hepatic macrophages in rats.

Aims: Macrophages in the liver are well known for their functional heterogeneity. However, subpopulations of the hepatic macrophages are not well defined.

Methods: Two subsets of hepatic macrophages isolated from rats via FACS with immunolabeling of ED2 (anti-CD163) antibody were studied for phenotypic and functional characteristics.

Interaction of CD44 and hyaluronic acid enhances biliary epithelial proliferation in cholestatic livers.

Biliary epithelia express high levels of CD44 in hepatobiliary diseases. The role of CD44-hyaluronic acid interaction in biliary pathology, however, is unclear. A rat model of hepatic cholestasis induced by bile duct ligation was employed for characterization of hepatic CD44 expression and extracellular hyaluronan distribution.