A Systematic Critical Appraisal of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Barrett's Esophagus Using the AGREE II Tool.

Background: Several clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) exist for managing Barrett's esophagus (BE). However, the methodological quality of these CPGs is not known. To summarize the methodological quality of CPGs, we performed a critical appraisal of all available CPGs for the management of BE published from January 2018 to February 2023.

Selective Immunoglobulin M Deficiency in Patients with Autoimmune Liver Diseases.

Cite this article as: Balaban YH, Ismail M, Nur Ayar Ş. Selective immunoglobulin M deficiency in patients with autoimmune liver diseases. Turk J Gastroenterol.

Improving Outcomes in Hepatorenal Syndrome-Acute Kidney Injury With Early Diagnoses and Implementation of Approved Treatment Regimens.

Decompensated cirrhosis, defined by the overt manifestations of liver failure and portal hypertension (eg, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, variceal bleeding), is the inflection point associated with increased morbidity and mortality in chronic liver disease. Acute kidney injury in the setting of cirrhosis (hepatorenal syndrome-acute kidney injury [HRS-AKI]) is a severe and often fatal complication. The goals of treatment of HRS-AKI are to reverse renal failure and prolong survival in these critically ill patients or perhaps to allow the transplant team to complete the pretransplant evaluation and bridge the patient to transplant.

Primary Hepatic EBV-DLBCL Lymphoma in the Setting of COVID-19 Infection.

This case study describes an instance of primary hepatic diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in a patient who had prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). DLBCL rarely presents as a primary hepatic mass. The 53-year-old man sought emergency care because of fatigue and weight loss.

Early treatment with terlipressin in patients with hepatorenal syndrome yields improved clinical outcomes in North American studies.

Hepatorenal syndrome type 1 (HRS-1) is a serious complication of advanced cirrhosis and a potentially reversible form of acute kidney injury that is associated with rapidly deteriorating kidney function. Liver transplantation remains the only curative treatment for decompensated cirrhosis. However, terlipressin, a vasopressin analog, successfully reverses HRS-1, and may improve patient survival while awaiting liver transplantation.

Left brachiocephalic vein vascular ring on CT: A rare venous anomaly.

We present a case of a vascular ring formed by the left brachiocephalic vein. A left brachiocephalic vein ring or circum-aortic left brachiocephalic vein is a rare congenital vascular variant. Although it is usually an incidental finding on chest imaging studies, left brachiocephalic vein anomalies, particularly the ring variant, can be clinically significant during procedures requiring installation of transvenous implantable devices such as pacemakers.

Social Determinants of Health Curriculum Integrated Into a Core Emergency Medicine Clerkship.

Introduction: Demand that health centers address health inequities has led medical schools to emphasize social determinants of health (SDH). The Emergency Department often serves as first (or sole) point of health care access, making it an ideal environment in which to identify/explore SDH. Yet there are few SDH curricula targeting core emergency medicine (EM) clerkships.

Corrected and Republished from: The COP9 Signalosome Interacts with and Regulates Interferon Regulatory Factor 5 Protein Stability.

The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) exerts crucial functions in the regulation of host immunity against extracellular pathogens, DNA damage-induced apoptosis, death receptor signaling, and macrophage polarization. Tight regulation of IRF5 is thus warranted for an efficient response to extracellular stressors and for limiting autoimmune and inflammatory responses. Here we report that the COP9 signalosome (CSN), a general modulator of diverse cellular and developmental processes, associates constitutively with IRF5 and promotes its protein stability.

A Phase I trial using local regional treatment, nonlethal irradiation, intratumoral and systemic polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid polylysine carboxymethylcellulose to treat liver cancer: in search of the abscopal effect.

Purpose: To determine the safety of an approach to immunologically enhance local treatment of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) by combining nonlethal radiation, local regional therapy with intratumoral injection, and systemic administration of a potent Toll-like receptor (TLR) immune adjuvant.

Methods: Patients with HCC not eligible for liver transplant or surgery were subject to: 1) 3 fractions of 2-Gy focal nonlethal radiation to increase tumor antigen expression, 2) intra-/peri-tumoral (IT) injection of the TLR3 agonist, polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid polylysine carboxymethylcellulose (poly-ICLC), to induce an immunologic "danger" response in the tumor microenvironment with local regional therapy, and 3) systemic boosting of immunity with intramuscular poly-ICLC. Primary end points were safety and tolerability; secondary end points were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years.

American Society of Clinical Oncology Position Statement: Strategies for Reducing Cancer Health Disparities Among Sexual and Gender Minority Populations.

ASCO is committed to addressing the needs of sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations as a diverse group at risk for receiving disparate care and having suboptimal experiences, including discrimination, throughout the cancer care continuum. This position statement outlines five areas of recommendations to address the needs of both SGM populations affected by cancer and members of the oncology workforce who identify as SGM: (1) patient education and support; (2) workforce development and diversity; (3) quality improvement strategies; (4) policy solutions; and (5) research strategies. In making these recommendations, the Society calls for increased outreach and educational support for SGM patients; increased SGM cultural competency training for providers; improvement of quality-of-care metrics that include sexual orientation and gender information variables; and increased data collection to inform future work addressing the needs of SGM communities.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and carotid artery atherosclerosis in children and adults: a meta-analysis.

Observational studies suggest that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with increased carotid intimal medial thickness (C-IMT) and carotid plaques in both children and adults. We carried out a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between NAFLD and carotid atherosclerosis measured as C-IMT and carotid plaque prevalence. Medline (Ovid), PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL databases were searched from 1946 to September 2014, complemented with a manual review of references of the published articles for studies that compared C-IMT or carotid plaque prevalence in adults and children.

Implementing a third-year emergency medicine medical student curriculum.

Background: Emergency medicine (EM) is commonly introduced in the fourth year of medical school because of a perceived need to have more experienced students in the complex and dynamic environment of the emergency department. However, there is no evidence supporting the optimal time or duration for an EM rotation, and a number of institutions offer third-year rotations.

Objective: A recently published syllabus provides areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that third-year EM rotation directors can use to develop curricula.

Labor outcomes of obese patients undergoing induction of labor with misoprostol compared to dinoprostone.

Objective: The aim of the article is to evaluate and compare labor outcomes in obese patients undergoing induction of labor (IOL) with misoprostol and dinoprostone.

Study Design: This was a retrospective review of patients who delivered from February 1, 2008, to July 1, 2013 at our institution. All obese women who underwent IOL were identified.

Loss of the xeroderma pigmentosum group B protein binding site impairs p210 BCR/ABL1 leukemogenic activity.

Previous studies have demonstrated that p210 BCR/ABL1 interacts directly with the xeroderma pigmentosum group B (XPB) protein, and that XPB is phosphorylated on tyrosine in cells that express p210 BCR/ABL1. In the current study, we have constructed a p210 BCR/ABL1 mutant that can no longer bind to XPB. The mutant has normal kinase activity and interacts with GRB2, but can no longer phosphorylate XPB.

Ubiquitin-mediated interaction of p210 BCR/ABL with β-catenin supports disease progression in a murine model for chronic myelogenous leukemia.

We have identified a ubiquitin-binding domain within the NH2-terminal sequences of p210 BCR/ABL and determined that the binding site co-localizes with the binding site for β-catenin. The domain does not support the auto- or trans-kinase activity of p210 BCR/ABL or its ability to interact with GRB2 and activate ERK1/2 signaling. Expression of p210 BCR/ABL, but not a β-catenin-binding mutant, in hematopoietic cells is associated with the accumulation of p-β-catenin (Tyr654) and increased TCF/LEF-mediated transcription.

Deletion of Irf5 protects hematopoietic stem cells from DNA damage-induced apoptosis and suppresses γ-irradiation-induced thymic lymphomagenesis.

Repeated low-dose γ-irradiation (IR) induces thymic lymphoma in mice because of oncogenic mutations propagating from a primitive hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSC) in the bone marrow. It is well known that IR-induced thymic lymphomagenesis is markedly enhanced by p53 deficiency, yet data also indicate that p53-dependent apoptosis can actively drive tumor formation in this model. The latter was recently expounded on by findings from Puma-deficient mice, indicating that loss of this proapoptotic p53 target gene results in protection from IR-induced lymphomagenesis rather than enhanced susceptibility to.

Establishing a minority-based community clinical oncology program: the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School-university Hospital Cancer Center experience.

The Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program (MB-CCOP) at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School-University Hospital Cancer Center was established to serve an unmet need in a medically, educationally, and socioeconomically underserved community of primarily African American and Latino patients in Newark and Essex County, New Jersey. The MB-CCOP was built on an existing infrastructure of multidisciplinary teams of cancer specialists who collaborated in patient care and an existing clinical research program, which included multilingual staff and a breast cancer navigator. This article highlights some of the unique opportunities and challenges involved in the startup of an MB-CCOP specifically relevant to an academic setting.

Vascular endothelial growth factors A and C are induced in the SVZ following neonatal hypoxia-ischemia and exert different effects on neonatal glial progenitors.

Episodes of neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (H-I) are strongly associated with cerebral palsy and a wide spectrum of other neurological deficits in children. Two key processes required to repair damaged organs are to amplify the number of precursors capable of regenerating damaged cells and to direct their differentiation towards the cell types that need to be replaced. Since hypoxia induces vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production, it is logical to predict that VEGFs are key mediators of tissue repair after H-I injury.

RNA-Seq for enrichment and analysis of IRF5 transcript expression in SLE.

Polymorphisms in the interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) gene have been consistently replicated and shown to confer risk for or protection from the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). IRF5 expression is significantly upregulated in SLE patients and upregulation associates with IRF5-SLE risk haplotypes. IRF5 alternative splicing has also been shown to be elevated in SLE patients.

Cooperative activation of tissue-specific genes by pRB and E2F1.

The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein pRB is conventionally regarded as an inhibitor of the E2F family of transcription factors. Conversely, pRB is also recognized as an activator of tissue-specific gene expression along various lineages including osteoblastogenesis. During osteoblast differentiation, pRB directly targets Alpl and Bglap, which encode the major markers of osteogenesis alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin.

The COP9 signalosome interacts with and regulates interferon regulatory factor 5 protein stability.

The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) exerts crucial functions in the regulation of host immunity against extracellular pathogens, DNA damage-induced apoptosis, death receptor signaling, and macrophage polarization. Tight regulation of IRF5 is thus warranted for an efficient response toward extracellular stressors and for limiting autoimmune and inflammatory responses. Here we report that the COP9 signalosome (CSN), a general modulator of diverse cellular and developmental processes, associates constitutively with IRF5 and promotes its protein stability.

Contributions of the RhoGEF activity of p210 BCR/ABL to disease progression.

We have previously identified a tyrosine kinase-independent, guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity, which is contained within the region of p210 no expansion BCR/ABL that distinguishes it from p190 BCR/ABL. In the current study, we have compared the transforming activity of p190 BCR/ABL, p210 BCR/ABL and a mutant that lacks GEF activity (p210 BCR/ABL(S509A)). In cell-based, ex vivo, and murine bone marrow transplantation (BMT) assays the transforming activity of p210 BCR/ABL(S509A) mimics p190 BCR/ABL, and is distinct from p210 BCR/ABL.