Metadherin mRNA expression in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Metadherin (MTDH) has been known as an essential oncogene in carcinogenesis and tumor spread in several malignancies, via its effect on pathways of signal transduction.Objective: We aimed to evaluate the role of serum MTDH mRNA expression in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to compare its expression levels with serum levels of Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP).Subjects & methods: A total of 150 subjects (90 HCC patients & 60 healthy volunteers) were enrolled in the current study. Serum MTDH mRNA relative expression was analyzed by Real Time PCR technique.Results: There was a significant statistical increase of serum MTDH mRNA expression in HCC group when compared to controls (P < 0.05). MTDH mRNA expression was significantly associated with clinicopathological data, advanced tumor stage and poor histological differentiation in HCC patients (p < 0.05). There was direct positive correlation between MTDH mRNA expression and serum AFP levels in HCC group (r = 0.445), P value = <0.05. ROC curve was used to verify the accuracy of MTDH mRNA expression and compare it with accuracy of serum AFP in HCC diagnosis; MTDH mRNA expression had higher accuracy (92%), sensitivity (91%) and specificity (93%) than AFP.Conclusion: MTDH mRNA is up-regulated in serum of HCC patients; MTDH may be considered as noninvasive biomarker for HCC diagnosis and it could replace serum AFP in HCC diagnosis as it had higher accuracy.Keywords: Biomarker, Expression, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Metadherin, Real Time PC

Can Interferon-Gamma or Interferon-Gamma-Induced-Protein-10 Differentiate Tuberculosis Infection and Disease in Children of High Endemic Areas?

Diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis (TB) is difficult in high TB burden settings. Interferon-gamma-induced protein 10 (IP10) has been suggested as a marker of TB infection and disease, but its ability to differentiate the two conditions remains uncertain.To describe Interferon-gamma (INFγ) and IP10 expression in children with TB infection and disease and controls to assess their potential to differentiate latent and active TB. TB), 335 children in contact with adults with pulmonary TB and 156 community controls in Southern Ethiopia. The Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and Quantiferon-In-Tube (QFT-IT) were performed. INFγ and IP10 were measured in plasma supernatants.INFγ and IP10 can identify children with TB infection and disease, but cannot differentiate between the two conditions. HIV status did not affect the expression of IP10

Patterns and obstacles to oral antidiabetic medications adherence among type 2 diabetics in Ismailia, Egypt: A cross section study

Introduction: diabetes is a costly and increasingly common chronic disease.Effective management of diabetes to achieve glycemic controlimproves patient quality of life. Adherence rates to drug regimens in patients with type 2 diabetes are relatively low and vary widely betweenpopulations.There are many factors that could affect patient adherence to drug therapy.The aim of the present study was assessing patterns andobstacles to adherence of type 2 diabetic patients to their oral hypoglycemic drugs. Methods: the present work is a descriptive cross section study, carried on type 2 diabetic patients who were on oral hypoglycemic drugs. Data  concerning adherence to drugs was assessed using measure treatment adherence scale (MTA). Results: a total of 372 (55.59 % males and 44.41% females) patients with type-2 diabetes fulfilled the inclusion criteria and included in the study. Among the participants, 26.1% were found to have good adherence, 47.9% had a fair adherence, and 26% had poor adherence. Conclusion: the overall rate of medication adherence among the diabetic patients population was suboptimal and nonacceptable. Evaluation of  adherence is vital for patients with diabetes in order to determine factors and barriers affecting the adherence and to manage them

Systematic Identification of Key Parameters and their Influence Range for Calibration of VISSIM Microscopic Simulator

status: publishe

Reducing the Non-Recurrent Freeway Congestion with Detour Operations: Case Study in Florida

To alleviate the impacts of freeway incidents and improve the traffic conditions on the entire transportation network, operational systems of discrete facilities need to be coordinated on a corridor. As such, this study focuses on a new traffic diversion methodology for a better utilization of the available traffic capacity of the corridor. The methodology aims to divert incident-induced freeway congestion to the adjacent arterials using the VISSIM microsimulation tool, which can simulate a freeway incident and measure the performance of detour operations. Within the study, an experiment with a 23 full factorial central composite design is utilized in order to define the optimum diversion rate in different demand levels. Experimental results are also modeled with the hierarchical multilevel regression model. Findings indicate that the resultant regression equation can successfully predict the corridor delay with 7 (s/veh) error and 83.85% accuracy. Traffic agencies can employ the proposed hierarchical model to decide whether or not a detour should be implemented. Furthermore, with the estimate of the incident duration and the current V/C ratio on the freeway, the diversion rate that results in a minimum corridor delay can be identified

Flow chart of study participants.

<p>Flow chart of study participants.</p

Characteristics of the study children.

<p>Characteristics of the study children.</p