Alarmins and Clinical Outcomes After Major Abdominal Surgery-A Prospective Study.

Purpose: Tissue injury causing immune response is an integral part of surgical procedure. Evaluation of the degree of surgical trauma could help to improve postoperative management and determine the clinical outcomes.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed serum levels of alarmins, including S100A5, S100A6, S100A8, S100A9, S100A11, and S100A12; high-mobility group box 1; and heat-shock protein 70, after elective major abdominal surgery (n = 82).

The rs1803274 polymorphism of the BCHE gene is associated with an increased risk of coronary in-stent restenosis.

Background: We sought to identify gene polymorphisms that confer susceptibility to in-stent restenosis after coronary artery bare-metal stenting in a Central European population.

Methods: 160 controls without post-percutaneous coronary intervention in-stent restenosis were matched for age, sex, vessel diameter, and diabetes to 160 consecutive cases involving in-stent restenosis of the target lesion within 12 months. Using real time polymerase chain reaction and melting-curve analysis, we detected 13 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 11 candidate genes - rs1803274 (BCHE gene), rs529038 (ROS1), rs1050450 (GPX1), rs1800849 (UCP3), rs17216473 (ALOX5AP), rs7412, rs429358 (ApoE), rs2228570 (VDR), rs7041, rs4588 (GC), rs1799986 (LRP1) and rs2228671 (LDLR).

Increased levels of MMP-3, MMP-9 and MPO represent predictors of in-stent restenosis, while increased levels of ADMA, LCAT, ApoE and ApoD predict bare metal stent patency.

Aims: We sought to identify biochemical predictors that indicate susceptibility to in-stent restenosis (ISR) after coronary artery bare-metal stenting.

Methods: A total of 111 consecutive patients with post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in-stent restenosis of a target lesion within 12 months were matched for age, sex, vessel diameter, and diabetes with 111 controls without post-PCI ISR. Plasma or serum levels of biochemical markers were measured: matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) 2, 3, 9; myeloperoxidase (MPO); asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA); lipoprotein (a) (Lp[a]); apolipoproteins E and D (ApoE and D); and lecitin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT).

Localisation of sentinel lymph nodes in patients with melanomas by planar lymphoscintigraphic and hybrid SPECT/CT imaging.

Background: The aim of the study was to assess the role of planar lymphoscintigraphy and fusion imaging of SPECT/CT in sentinel lymph node (SLN) identification in patients with melanomas.

Material And Methods: Planar and hybrid SPECT/low-dose CT lymphoscintigraphy were performed in 113 consecutive patients with melanomas (59 men, 54 women, mean age 57.6 with range 11-87 years, BMI 29.

Endoscopic third ventriculostomy for obstructive hydrocephalus in children younger than 6 months of age: is it a first-choice method?

Introduction: Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) is considered a safe procedure and is a method of choice in treatment of obstructive hydrocephalus nowadays. In case of Sylvian aqueduct stenosis, the success rate reaches 90%. In children younger than 6 to 24 months, respectively, however, some authors report lower effectiveness ranging between 0% and 64%.

Analysis of the upper urinary tract function in multiple sclerosis patients.

Aims: The objective of this study was to analyse the upper urinary tract (UT) function in a group of consecutive multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, who had not previously been treated by urologist.

Materials And Methods: Ninety-two MS patients suffering from lower UT dysfunction were included in the study. The group of patients consisted of 69 women and 23 men.

The highest incidence in the world of rectal cancer is in Czech Republic.

Czech Republic is among the countries with the highest incidence of rectal cancer. The aim of the prospective study was to monitor the surgical treatment of patients with the diagnosis of rectal cancer. Certain aspects were examined: mainly the safety distance of the lower resection line during the operation of rectal cancer, the types of operations carried out, the amount of lymphatic nodes spotted in mesorectum and the possibility of laparoscopic utilization.

Prevention and treatment of chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis: a review.

Oral mucositis is a distressing toxic effect of systemic chemotherapy with many commonly utilized drugs and of head and neck irradiation in patients with cancer. The agents and methods that have been used and studied in chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis, their mechanisms of action, and the current knowledge of their efficiency to reduce the incidence, severity or shorten the duration of oral mucositis are reviewed in this article. Oral cooling is a cheap and available method to lower the severity of bolus 5-fluorouracil-induced oral mucositis.

Evans' syndrome in a child with diabetes mellitus.

A patient suffering from infantile-onset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is reported in whom immune pancytopenia (Evans' syndrome) developed at the age of 2 1/2 years. Hepatosplenomegaly, chronic lymphadenopathy, and elevated levels of immunoglobulins G and M were also present. The course of Evans' syndrome was fatal in this patient.