Integrative multi-omics analyses to identify the genetic and functional mechanisms underlying ovarian cancer risk regions.

To identify credible causal risk variants (CCVs) associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we performed genome-wide association analysis for 470,825 genotyped and 10,163,797 imputed SNPs in 25,981 EOC cases and 105,724 controls of European origin. We identified five histotype-specific EOC risk regions (p value <5 × 10) and confirmed previously reported associations for 27 risk regions. Conditional analyses identified an additional 11 signals independent of the primary signal at six risk regions (p value <10).

Qualitative and Economic Impact of Standardized and Digitalized Operation Room Processes in Obesity Surgery.

Purpose: The introduction of innovative digital solutions in healthcare lags compared to other industries but promises high potential to create value in efficiency and quality. Increasing economic pressure forces hospitals to optimize operating room (OR) processes, in which such solutions might provide additional support.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective case-control and monocentric study investigated if digitalized and standardized intraoperative surgical workflows of laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) have a significant impact on efficiency, quality, and economics.

Effects of Acquisition Matrix Size on the Accuracy and Repeatability of Parameters of Left Ventricular Function: A Phantom Study for ECG-gated Myocardial SPECT.

: The voxel size in ECG-gated myocardial SPECT (GSPECT) is a compromise between geometric resolution and count statistics with varying values and is rather inconsistent in different centers. We investigated the influence of typical acquisition matrix sizes for GSPECT on the reproducibility and accuracy of left ventricular function parameters using a dynamic heart phantom. : Ten paired acquisitions, each pair with slightly different phantom positions, were obtained using identical imaging parameters except acquisition matrix: 128 × 128 matrix (3.

Correction to: The effect of beta blocker withdrawal on adenosine myocardial perfusion imaging.

Regrettably the original version of the above article contained errors in Table 2 and wrong values in the text. The corrected table is presented here and the values which have been corrected now appear in bold text. Page 1223 abstract Global MBF showed an increase from 180.

Utilization of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Endometrial Cancer Care: A Quality and Cost Disparity.

Objective: To describe case mix-adjusted hospital level utilization of minimally invasive surgery for hysterectomy in the treatment of early-stage endometrial cancer.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed the proportion of patients who had a minimally invasive compared with open hysterectomy for nonmetastatic endometrial cancer using the U.S.

The effect of beta blocker withdrawal on myocardial SPECT modeled from adenosine 13N-ammonia PET.

Aim: The effect of beta blockers (BB) on myocardial imaging has been studied in several SPECT and PET studies with divergent results concerning perfusion and impact on diagnostic accuracy. The present study evaluated the effect of BB withdrawal on virtual SPECT studies modeled from quantitative PET perfusion scans.

Patients, Methods: Data from 20 CAD patients scheduled for adenosine 13N-ammonia imaging with and without BB were considered.

The effect of beta blocker withdrawal on adenosine myocardial perfusion imaging.

Background: The effect of beta blockers on myocardial blood flow (MBF) under vasodilators has been studied in several SPECT and PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) studies with divergent results. The present study evaluated the effect of a beta blocker withdrawal on quantitative adenosine MBF and on MPI results.

Methods: Twenty patients with beta blockers and CAD history were studied with quantitative adenosine N-13 ammonia PET.

Family history of inflammatory bowel disease among patients with ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background And Aims: Despite numerous shared susceptibility loci between Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the prevalence of family history among ulcerative colitis patients is not well-established and considered to be less prevalent. A systemic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the prevalence of family history of inflammatory bowel disease in ulcerative colitis patients, and its effect on disease outcomes.

Methods: PubMED was searched to identify studies reporting the prevalence of family history of inflammatory bowel disease among ulcerative colitis patients.

Quantitative myocardial perfusion PET combined with coronary anatomy derived from CT angiography: validation of a new fusion and visualisation software.

Aim: Dynamic perfusion PET offers a clinical relevant advantage over myocardial perfusion scintigraphy due to its ability to measure myocardial blood flow quantitatively. This leads to an improved detection of multivessel disease and the possibility to assess not only the culprit lesion but lower grade stenoses as well. For appropriate revascularization, perfusion defects must be matched to coronary lesions.

Myocardial sympathetic innervation in diabetic patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease.

Aim: In non-diabetic patients, sympathetic innervation can be preserved even if there is major impairment of myocardial blood supply. Matters may be more complex in diabetic patients because denervation can be caused by cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) or by ischemic injury. Our aim was to determine whether restrictions in myocardial blood supply have a pronounced influence on sympathetic innervation in diabetics and if this effect can be differentiated from CAN.

Optimisation of protocol for low dose CT-derived attenuation correction in myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging.

Purpose: In clinical routine, attenuation correction (AC) using X-ray CT is a relatively new method for reducing attenuation artefacts. We evaluated the quality of attenuation maps generated with very low tube current to minimise exposure due to transmission scanning.

Methods: SPECT/CT acquisitions were performed with a Millenium VG3 gamma camera with the Hawkeye CT device (GE Medical Systems).

Iodine-124 PET dosimetry in differentiated thyroid cancer: recovery coefficient in 2D and 3D modes for PET(/CT) systems.

Purpose: This study evaluated the absolute quantification of iodine-124 ((124)I) activity concentration with respect to the use of this isotope for dosimetry before therapies with (131)I or (131)I-labeled radiotherapeuticals. The recovery coefficients of positron emission tomography(/computed tomography) PET(/CT) systems using (124)I were determined using phantoms and then validated under typical conditions observed in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients.

Methods: Transversal spatial resolution and recovery measurements with (124)I and with fluorine-18 ((18)F) as the reference were performed using isotope-containing line sources embedded in water and six isotope-containing spheres 9.

Myocardial sympathetic innervation in patients with chronic coronary artery disease: is reduction in coronary flow reserve correlated with sympathetic denervation?

Purpose: Higher sensitivity of sympathetic nerves to ischaemia in comparison with myocytes has been observed and has been claimed to contribute to poor prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the dependency of myocardial sympathetic innervation on restrictions in coronary flow reserve (CFR).

Methods: We analysed 27 non-diabetic patients with advanced CAD.

[A dynamic heart phantom for quality control in functional nuclear cardiac imaging].

A dynamic heart phantom for the quality control of tomographic systems used in nuclear cardiology imaging was developed, built, and tested. The heart phantom anatomically simulates the left ventricle of the heart. The variable parameters are represented by the volume of the left ventricle, the temporal course of the filling event, and the frequency of the filling of the left ventricle.

Attenuation correction of myocardial SPECT perfusion images with low-dose CT: evaluation of the method by comparison with perfusion PET.

Unlabelled: In cardiac SPECT, specificity is significantly affected by artifacts due to photon absorption. As the success of attenuation correction depends mainly on high-quality attenuation maps, SPECT low-dose CT devices are promising. We wanted to evaluate the usefulness of a SPECT low-dose CT device in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy.

18F-FDG PET for detecting myocardial viability: validation of 3D data acquisition.

Unlabelled: (18)F-FDG PET is an important diagnostic tool for detecting myocardial viability in patients with coronary artery disease. In combination with perfusion scanning, (18)F-FDG PET allows differentiation between reversibly and irreversibly damaged myocardium and selection of patients likely to benefit from revascularization. Viability PET is usually performed in two-dimensional (2D) mode.

A method to remove artifacts in attenuation-corrected myocardial perfusion SPECT Introduced by misalignment between emission scan and CT-derived attenuation maps.

Unlabelled: Nonuniform soft-tissue attenuation affects the diagnostic accuracy of SPECT in myocardial perfusion imaging. The attenuation map required for attenuation correction can be acquired using x-ray tomography (CT). Frequent findings in attenuation-corrected images are defects in the apical and anterior myocardial wall.

Effects of Na(+) on the predominant K(+) channel in the tonoplast of Chara: decrease of conductance by blocks in 100 nanosecond range and induction of oligo- or poly-subconductance gating modes.

We present three mechanisms by which Na(+) inhibits the open channel currents of the predominant K(+) channel in the tonoplast of Chara corallina: (i) Fast block, i.e., short (100 ns range) interruptions of the open channel current which are determined by open channel noise analysis, (ii): Oligo-subconductance mode, i.

Transient and permanent fusion of vesicles in Zea mays coleoptile protoplasts measured in the cell-attached configuration.

Exocytosis in protoplasts from Zea mays L. coleoptiles was studied using patch-clamp techniques. Fusion of individual vesicles with the plasma membrane was monitored as a step increase of the membrane capacitance (Cm).

Improvement in coronary flow reserve determined by positron emission tomography after 6 months of cholesterol-lowering therapy in patients with early stages of coronary atherosclerosis.

Background: Early stages of coronary atherosclerosis are characterized by a mainly functional impairment of coronary vasodilator capacity under the impact of such risk factors as hypercholesterolemia. The goal of this study was to determine whether 6-month cholesterol-lowering therapy improves coronary flow reserve in patients with angina, reduced flow reserve despite minimally diseased coronary vessels or even normal angiogram, and mild to moderately elevated LDL levels on average.

Methods And Results: We noninvasively investigated 23 consecutive patients (18 men, 5 women; mean age, 56+/-7.

[Improved coronary vasodilator capacity by drug lipid lowering therapy in patients in the early stage of coronary atherosclerosis with reduced coronary reserves and moderate LDL hypercholesteremia].

Background: An abnormal coronary flow reserve represents an early marker of impaired blood flow regulation in the natural history of coronary atherosclerosis under the impact of risk factors such as hypercholesterolemia. Our clinical investigation was aimed at assessing noninvasively the integrative coronary flow response to dipyridamole stress in 18 consecutive patients with microvascular angina, only moderately elevated LDL-cholesterol levels (168 +/- 33 mg/dl), and reduced vasodilator capacity despite normal (n = 9) or slightly abnormal (n = 9) coronary arteriograms (minimal disease with luminal irregularities and/or diameter reduction < or = 30%) before and after 6-month lipid-lowering therapy (simvastatin).

Methods: Regional and averaged myocardial blood flow were measured at rest and after dipyridamole induced vasodilation (0.

Improvement of coronary vasodilatation capacity through single LDL apheresis.

A concomitant phenomenon of hypercholesterolemia is reduced coronary vasodilatation capacity due to disturbed endothelial function. Endothelial function can be partially or completely normalized by reducing cholesterol levels through drug therapy, but it is still unclear how rapidly this desired effect is achieved. An interval of between weeks and months has been presumed.

Cytotoxicity of linoleic acid diols to renal proximal tubular cells.

Monoepoxides of linoleic acid (leukotoxin and isoleukotoxin) have been associated with a variety of pathophysiological diseases in humans including multiple organ failure. They also have been shown to be toxic when injected into experimental animals. Because leukotoxin and isoleukotoxin are excellent substrates for epoxide hydrolases, we tested the hypothesis that the diol metabolites are less toxic than the parent monoepoxides using the rabbit renal proximal tubule (RPT) suspension model.

On the need for standardization in panic disorder treatment research: survey of the literature, 1980-1992.

A retrospective literature survey (1980-1992) was conducted to chronicle the development of panic disorder treatment research. Based on a National Institute of Mental Health conference on assessment standardization in this area (Shear and Maser, 1994), the results and implications of the survey are presented in terms of eight domains of measurement recommended as essential for high quality research.