Step-down units are cost-effective alternatives to coronary care units with non-inferior outcomes in the management of ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients after successful primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) within a door-to-balloon timing of 90 min have greatly decreased mortality and morbidity of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. Post-PCI, they are routinely transferred into the coronary care unit (CCU) regardless of the severity of their condition, resulting in frequent CCU overcrowding. This study assesses the feasibility of step-down units (SDUs) as an alternative to CCUs in the management of STEMI patients after successful PCI, to alleviate CCU overcrowding.

Performance Assessment of the Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis Score, Modified Early Warning Score, Rapid Emergency Medicine Score, and Rapid Acute Physiology Score in Predicting Survival Outcomes of Adult Renal Abscess Patients in the Emergency Department.

Background: Renal abscess is a relatively uncommon yet debilitating and potentially fatal disease. There is no clearly defined, objective risk stratification tool available for emergency physicians' and surgeons' use in the emergency department (ED) to quickly determine the appropriate management strategy for these patients, despite early intervention having a beneficial impact on survival outcomes.

Objective: This case control study evaluates the performance of Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis Score (MEDS), Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS), and Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS) in predicting risk of mortality in ED adult patients with renal abscess.

Various clinicopathological features of patients with metachronous colorectal cancer in relation to different diagnostic intervals.

Backgrounds: Clinicopathologic factors relating to developing metachronous colorectal cancer (CRC) have been reported. However, the effects of different diagnostic intervals on these risk factors required further analysis.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study comprised 14,481 patients diagnosed from January 1995 to December 2012.

Tumor-associated intronic editing of generates a novel splicing variant linked to cell proliferation.

Processing of the eukaryotic transcriptome is a dynamic regulatory mechanism that confers genetic diversity, and splicing and adenosine to inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing are well-characterized examples of such processing. Growing evidence reveals the cross-talk between the splicing and RNA editing, but there is a paucity of substantial evidence for its mechanistic details and contribution in a physiological context. Here, our findings demonstrate that tumor-associated differential RNA editing, in conjunction with splicing machinery, regulates the expression of variants of , a gene encoding splicing factor.

Transfusion-associated adverse reactions (TAARs) and cytokine accumulations in the stored blood components: the impact of prestorage versus poststorage leukoreduction.

Leukoreduction in blood units could prevent patients undergoing transfusions from transfusion-associated adverse reactions (TAARs) such as febrile nonhemolytic transfusion reactions (FNHTRs). However, the effect of prestorage and poststorage leukoreduction on TAARs and its underlying mechanisms in stored blood components remains to be determined. Therefore, we investigated the impact of prestorage leukocyte-reduced (pre-LR) and poststorage leukocyte-reduced (post-LR) blood products, including red blood cells (RBCs) and apheresis platelets (PHs), on the incidence of FNHTRs and other TAARs in patients who received transfusions from 2009 to 2014 in a tertiary care center.

Identification of a c.544C>T mutation in WDR34 as a deleterious recessive allele of short rib-polydactyly syndrome.

Objective: Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays and whole-exome sequencing (WES) are tools to precisely diagnose rare autosomal recessive (AR) diseases. In this study, SNP chip and WES were used to identify a mutated location in WDR34 in a baby born to consanguineous parents.

Case Report: The baby, born at 36 gestational weeks had a small thoracic cage, symmetric short proximal bones, and polydactyly.

Comparison of the Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis Score, Modified Early Warning Score, Rapid Emergency Medicine Score and Rapid Acute Physiology Score for predicting the outcomes of adult splenic abscess patients in the emergency department.

Background: Splenic abscess is rare but has mortality rates as high as 14% even with recent improvements in management. Early and appropriate intervention may improve patient outcomes, yet at present there is no identified method that can predict mortality risk rapidly and accurately for emergency physicians, surgeons, and intensivists to decide on the ideal course of action.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the performance of Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis Score (MEDS), Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS) and Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS) for predicting the mortality risk of adult splenic abscess patients.

Long-term outcome of pregnancy complicating with severe aplastic anemia under supportive care.

Objectives: Pregnancy associated with aplastic anemia (AA) is a rare and heterogeneous disorder. We aimed to identify and evaluate the maternal and pregnant outcomes of pregnancy-associated severe AA treated with supportive care.

Materials And Methods: A 25-year retrospective study was conducted at in a single center between 1990 and 2014 with pregnancy associated severe AA.

Rapid Emergency Medicine Score: A novel prognostic tool for predicting the outcomes of adult patients with hepatic portal venous gas in the emergency department.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the performance of Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS), Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS), and Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) in ascertaining the severity of illness and predicting the mortality of adult hepatic portal venous gas (HPVG) patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). This will assist emergency physicians (EPs) in risk stratification.

Methods: Data for 66 adult HPVG patients who visited the EDs of 2 research hospitals between October 1999 and April 2016 were analyzed.

Controlled release of liposome-encapsulated temozolomide for brain tumour treatment by convection-enhanced delivery.

Convection-enhanced delivery (CED) is a promising technique for the delivery of drugs directly into the central nervous system (CNS) and, more specifically, the brain. CED can increase drug concentration within a brain tumour, thereby improving the therapeutic efficacy and limiting the systemic toxicity of tumoricidal agents. In this study, we evaluated a drug-liposome construct in vitro and in vivo using U87 tumour-bearing nude mice.

Clinical manifestations and STK11 germline mutations in Taiwanese patients with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.

Backgrounds: Clinical manifestations and molecular basis of Taiwanese patients with Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) were investigated to add the knowledge of phenotype and genotype of the disease.

Methods: Based on the Pathology Data Bank and the Colorectal Cancer Register, we collected their clinical data. The entire coding sequence of the STK11 gene was amplified and analyzed by sequencing using the genomic DNA.

ADAR1-mediated 3' UTR editing and expression control of antiapoptosis genes fine-tunes cellular apoptosis response.

Adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing constitutes a crucial component of the cellular transcriptome and critically underpins organism survival and development. While recent high-throughput approaches have provided comprehensive documentation of the RNA editome, its functional output remains mostly unresolved, particularly for events in the non-coding regions. Gene ontology analysis of the known RNA editing targets unveiled a preponderance of genes related to apoptosis regulation, among which proto-oncogenes XIAP and MDM2 encode two the most abundantly edited transcripts.

The PPARγ-SETD8 axis constitutes an epigenetic, p53-independent checkpoint on p21-mediated cellular senescence.

Cellular senescence is a permanent proliferative arrest triggered by genome instability or aberrant growth stresses, acting as a protective or even tumor-suppressive mechanism. While several key aspects of gene regulation have been known to program this cessation of cell growth, the involvement of the epigenetic regulation has just emerged but remains largely unresolved. Using a systems approach that is based on targeted gene profiling, we uncovered known and novel chromatin modifiers with putative link to the senescent state of the cells.

A Peutz-Jeghers syndrome family associated with sinonasal adenocarcinoma: 28 years follow up report.

Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare hereditary disorder characterized by hamartomatous polyps in both of the gastrointestinal tract and mucosal pigmentation. It could increase in risk of intestinal and extra-intestinal neoplasms. We here described three cases of sinonasal polyposis in a PJS family and two developed sinonasal type adenocarcinoma.

Superior Survivorship of Cementless vs Cemented Diaphyseal Fixed Modular Rotating-Hinged Knee Megaprosthesis at 7 Years' Follow-Up.

Background: Total knee arthroplasty in the presence of a huge bone and soft-tissue defect is always a challenge. A rotating-hinged (RH) megaprosthesis is indicated for extensive soft-tissue loss with a huge bone defect such as a primary or metastatic neoplasm of the bone, repeat periprosthetic joint infection, or extensive trauma of the knee. However, the reported survivorship of RH megaprostheses is unsatisfactory.

Prenatal diagnosis of paternal duplication of 11p15.5→14.3: Its implication of Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome.

Objective: To characterize a prenatally detected chromosomal aberration with molecular cytogenetic approaches and explore its relationship with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS).

Case Report: A 33-year-old woman, gravida 2, para 0, was referred to our prenatal clinic at 20+ weeks due to an abnormal amniocentesis karyotyping finding, which showed 46,XY,add(11)(q24.2)dn.

Therapeutic potential of pro-angiogenic BPC157 is associated with VEGFR2 activation and up-regulation.

Unlabelled: BPC 157, a pentadecapeptide with extensive healing effects, has recently been suggested to contribute to angiogenesis. However, the underlying mechanism is not yet clear. The present study aimed to explore the potential therapeutic effect and pro-angiogenic mechanism of BPC 157.

The efficacy of semi-quantitative urine protein-to-creatinine (P/C) ratio for the detection of significant proteinuria in urine specimens in health screening settings.

Background: Urine protein detection could be underestimated using the conventional dipstick method because of variations in urine aliquots. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of the semi-quantitative urine protein-to-creatinine (P/C) ratio compared with other laboratory methods.

Methods: Random urine samples were requested from patients undergoing chronic kidney disease screening.

The effect of ambient exposure to PM on the transfusion usage of blood components and adverse transfusion reactions in the haze weather.

Background: Accumulating evidence has shown that ambient exposure to PM, especially in the haze weather, increased the risk of various diseases. However, the association of air pollution status with blood transfusion utilization and the prevalence and severity of adverse transfusion reactions remain to be clarified.

Materials And Methods: The data of monthly transfusion usage of blood components, adverse transfusion reactions, as well as PM and PM levels from 2013 to 2015 were obtained.

Non-invasive, neuron-specific gene therapy by focused ultrasound-induced blood-brain barrier opening in Parkinson's disease mouse model.

Focused ultrasound (FUS)-induced with microbubbles (MBs) is a promising technique for noninvasive opening of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to allow targeted delivery of therapeutic substances into the brain and thus the noninvasive delivery of gene vectors for CNS treatment. We have previously demonstrated that a separated gene-carrying liposome and MBs administration plus FUS exposure can deliver genes into the brain, with the successful expression of the reporter gene and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) gene. In this study, we further modify the delivery system by conjugating gene-carrying liposomes with MBs to improve the GDNF gene-delivery efficiency, and to verify the possibility of using this system to perform treatment in the 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced animal disease model.

Association of Urinary Cadmium with Mortality in Patients at a Coronary Care Unit.

Background: Determine the effect of the day 1 urinary excretion of cadmium (D1-UE-Cd) on mortality of patients admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU).

Methods: A total of 323 patients were enrolled in this 6-month study. Urine and blood samples were taken within 24 h after CCU admission.