Can we replace the microscope with microarrays for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of early breast cancer?

In recent years, molecular research has translated into remarkable changes for breast cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Molecular tests such as Oncotype DX® and MammaPrint® have revolutionized the predictive and prognostic tools in the clinic. By stratifying the risk of recurrence for patients, the tests are able to provide clinicians with more information on the treatment outcomes of using chemotherapy, endocrine therapy or combination therapies for patients with genetic expression patterns.

Primary colorectal lymphoma: case series and literature review.

Primary colorectal lymphoma is a rare disease that accounts for 0.16% of colorectal malignancies. Treatments include surgical intervention with or without chemotherapy.

Translational research to realize the full potential of novel agents--an opportunity for vinflunine?

In the past few years, innumerable novel anti-cancer agents have been developed. Some of them have successfully entered into clinical practice while some of them have failed for different reasons. Although, nowadays, cancer treatment still relies heavily on conventional chemotherapy and surgery, with increasing evidence of novel biologic agents which demonstrate its higher anti-cancer activity and fewer side effects, more and more efforts have been spent on development of different types of novel agents.

Does medical student willingness to practise peer physical examination translate into action?

Background: Peer physical examination (PPE) is commonly used in clinical skills teaching to allow students to practice physical examination techniques on each other. Previous studies have demonstrated medical students' generally positive attitudes towards PPE, but the correlation between student attitude and actual practice of PPE has yet to be examined.

Aim: To determine if a positive student attitude towards PPE leads to subsequent action.

The journey of Malaysian NCVD-PCI (National Cardiovascular Disease Database-Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) Registry: a summary of three years report.

Introduction: The Malaysian National Cardiovascular Disease Database (NCVD) team presents Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Registry report for the year 2007 to 2009. It provides comprehensive information regarding practice and outcome of PCI in Malaysia.

Methodology: It was a voluntary, multi-centered, observational, cohort study and included patients of 18 years or above who underwent PCI at eleven participating centers in Malaysia from the year 2007 to 2009.

Competitive inhibitor of cellular α-glucosidases protects mice from lethal dengue virus infection.

Dengue virus infection causes diseases in people, ranging from the acute febrile illness dengue fever, to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome. We previously reported that a host cellular α-glucosidases I and II inhibitor, imino sugar CM-10-18, potently inhibited dengue virus replication in cultured cells, and significantly reduced viremia in dengue virus infected AG129 mice. In this report we show that CM-10-18 also significantly protects mice from death and/or disease progress in two mouse models of lethal dengue virus infection.

A novel "by difference" method for assessing dermal absorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soil at federal contaminated sites.

A highly precautionary cost-effective method for estimating dermal absorption using data from 24-h skin soap washes from in vitro dermal absorption tests in Bronaugh flow-through diffusion cells with human skin is reported. Skin was dosed with 16 U.S.

Subspace learning for Mumford-Shah-model-based texture segmentation through texture patches.

In this paper, we develop a robust and effective algorithm for texture segmentation and feature selection. The approach is to incorporate a patch-based subspace learning technique into the subspace Mumford-Shah (SMS) model to make the minimization of the SMS model robust and accurate. The proposed method is fully unsupervised in that it removes the need to specify training data, which is required by existing methods for the same model.

Racial differences in acute toxicities of neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

Background: Racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes are attributed to differences in baseline tumour characteristics and biology, stage, age, ethnic background and socioeconomic factors. However, little is known about racial differences in treatment-related toxicities. We hypothesised that racial/ethnic differences result in differential tolerance to chemotherapy potentially, leading to compromised dose intensity/density of chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

A primal-dual method for total-variation-based wavelet domain inpainting.

Loss of information in a wavelet domain can occur during storage or transmission when the images are formatted and stored in terms of wavelet coefficients. This calls for image inpainting in wavelet domains. In this paper, a variational approach is used to formulate the reconstruction problem.

Satisfaction with sex and erection hardness: results of the Asia-Pacific sexual health and overall wellness survey.

The Asia-Pacific Sexual Health and Overall Wellness (AP SHOW) survey assessed sexual satisfaction and health and the association with erection hardness in 13 Asia-Pacific countries/regions. Adults aged 25-74 years who had sexual intercourse > 1 time in the past 12 months answered Internet surveys or participated in street-intercept interviews. Data were weighted by demographics and country/region size.

Multimedia manuscript: laparoscopic resection of hepatocellular carcinoma at segment 7: the posterior approach to anatomic resection.

Background: Open anatomical liver resections remain one of the most effective treatments of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and results in better recurrence-free and overall survival compared to nonanatomical resections [1]. On the other hand, laparoscopic hepatectomies for HCC have recently emerged with the benefits of reduced blood loss, shorter hospital stay, and less severe wound pain [2, 3]. Classically, liver lesions considered suitable for laparoscopic resection were those small tumors (<4 cm) located over the anterior and left lateral segments [3].

A single amino acid in nonstructural protein NS4B confers virulence to dengue virus in AG129 mice through enhancement of viral RNA synthesis.

Dengue (DEN) is a mosquito-borne viral disease that has become an increasing economic and health burden for the tropical and subtropical world. The lack of an appropriate animal model of DEN has greatly impeded the study of its pathogenesis and the development of vaccines/antivirals. We recently reported a DEN virus 2 (DENV-2) strain (D2Y98P) that lethally infects immunocompromised AG129 mice, resulting in organ damage or dysfunction and increased vascular permeability, hallmarks of severe DEN in patients (G.

A three-dimensional random network model of the cytoskeleton and its role in mechanotransduction and nucleus deformation.

We have developed a three-dimensional random network model of the intracellular actin cytoskeleton and have used it to study the role of the cytoskeleton in mechanotransduction and nucleus deformation. We use the model to predict the deformation of the nucleus when mechanical stresses applied on the plasma membrane are propagated through the random cytoskeletal network to the nucleus membrane. We found that our results agree with previous experiments utilizing micropipette pulling.

Lipid modification in the elderly using the combination of a statin and a cholesterol absorption inhibitor.

While the optimal lipid-lowering treatment to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in elderly patients has not been definitively established, evidence so far indicates that reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) should be a primary goal, as with other patient groups. The VYTELD (VYTorin in the ELDerly) study--a multicenter, 12-week, randomized, double-blind trial--evaluated the efficacy and safety of combination therapy comprised of ezetimibe plus simvastatin (eze/simva) versus atorvastatin in 1289 hypercholesterolemic patients aged ? 65 years. For all prespecified comparisons, patients randomized to eze/simva were found to have significantly greater percentage decreases in LDL-C and were significantly more likely to achieve LDL-C target levels compared with those on atorvastatin monotherapy (p < 0.

Clinical outcome of open and laparoscopic surgery in Dukes' B and C rectal cancer: experience from a regional hospital in Hong Kong.

Objective: To compare the long-term outcome of open and laparoscopic surgery for Dukes' B and C rectal cancer in a regional hospital in Hong Kong.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: A regional hospital in Hong Kong.

Bone metabolism and quality-of-life of postmenopausal women with invasive breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant hormonal therapy: sub-analyses from celecoxib anti-aromatase neoadjuvant (CAAN) trial.

Objective: Anti-aromatase therapy is important in the treatment of breast cancer in postmenopausal women but they have effects on the bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors have been shown to be effective in chemoprevention in animal and clinical studies. A proof of principle study was performed to investigate the efficacy of combing anti-aromatase therapy (exemestane) and COX-2 inhibitors neoadjuvantly.

A variational model for segmentation of overlapping objects with additive intensity value.

We propose a variant of the Mumford-Shah model for the segmentation of a pair of overlapping objects with additive intensity value. Unlike standard segmentation models, it does not only determine distinct objects in the image, but also recover the possibly multiple membership of the pixels. To accomplish this, some a priori knowledge about the smoothness of the object boundary is integrated into the model.

Conflicting perceptions between health care professionals and patients on the psychological morbidity following miscarriage.

Background: Miscarriage is common and may result in significant psychological morbidity for women. Recent research has revealed that health care professionals often tend to neglect this factor. This negligence may lead to delayed diagnosis and appropriate care.

Automatic measurement of volume percentage stroma in endometrial images using texture segmentation.

The popularity of digital microscopy and tissue microarrays allow the use of high-throughput imaging for pathology research. To coordinate with this new technique, it is essential to automate the process of extracting information from such high amount of images. In this paper, we present a new model called the Subspace Mumford-Shah model for texture segmentation of microscopic endometrial images.

Development and evaluation of an undergraduate training course for developing International Council of Nurses disaster nursing competencies in China.

Background: Nurses are often called upon to play the role of first responder when disaster occurs. Yet the lack of accepted competencies and gaps in education make it difficult to recruit nurses prepared to respond to a disaster and provide assistance in an effective manner.

Design: Based on the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Framework of Disaster Nursing Competencies and Global Standards for the Initial Education of Professional Nurses and Midwives, a training course titled "Introduction to Disaster Nursing" was designed and implemented with 150 students.

Combination of α-glucosidase inhibitor and ribavirin for the treatment of dengue virus infection in vitro and in vivo.

Cellular α-glucosidases I and II are enzymes that sequentially trim the three terminal glucoses in the N-linked oligosaccharides of viral envelope glycoproteins. This process is essential for the proper folding of viral glycoproteins and subsequent assembly of many enveloped viruses, including dengue virus (DENV). Imino sugars are substrate mimics of α-glucosidases I and II.

Designing health innovation networks using complexity science and systems thinking: the CoNEKTR model.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Complex problems require strategies to engage diverse perspectives in a focused, flexible manner, yet few options exist that fit with the current health care and public health system constraints. The Complex Network Electronic Knowledge Translation Research model (CoNEKTR) brings together complexity science, design thinking, social learning theories, systems thinking and eHealth technologies together to support a sustained engagement strategy for social innovation support and enhancing knowledge integration.

Methods: The CoNEKTR model adapts elements of other face-to-face social organizing methods and combines it with social media and electronic networking tools to create a strategy for idea generation, refinement and social action.