Application of a Serum Protein Signature for Pancreatic Cancer to Separate Cases from Controls in a Pancreatic Surveillance Cohort

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer (PC) surveillance is currently offered to individuals with a genetic predisposition to PC, but routinely used radiological screening modalities are not entirely reliable in detecting early-stage PC or its precursor lesions. We recently identified a discriminating PC biomarker signature in a sporadic patient cohort. In this study, we investigated if protein profiling can accurately distinguish PC from non-PC in a pancreatic surveillance cohort of genetically predisposed individuals. METHODS: Serum samples of 66 individuals with a CDKN2A germline mutation who participated in the pancreatic surveillance program (5 cases, 61 controls) were obtained following a standardized protocol. After sample clean-up, peptide and protein profiles were obtained on an ultrahigh-resolution matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry platform. A discriminant score for each sample was calculated with a previously designed prediction rule, and the median discriminant scores of cases and controls were compared. Individuals with precursor lesions of PC (n = 4) and individuals with a recent diagnosis of melanoma (n = 4) were also separately considered. RESULTS: Cases had a higher median discriminant score than controls (0.26 vs 0.016; P = .001). The only individual with pathologically confirmed precursor lesions of PC could also be clearly distinguished from controls, and having a (recent) medical history of melanoma did not influence the protein signatures. CONCLUSIONS: Peptide and protein signatures are able to accurately distinguish PC cases from controls in a pancreatic surveillance setting. Mass spectrometry-based protein profiling therefore seems to be a promising candidate for implementation in the pancreatic surveillance program as an additional screening modality.Surgical oncolog

Tooth color and tooth discoloration: in-vitro studies on tooth color determination and tooth discoloration related to endodontic procedures

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_000497223.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Promotores : A. Plasschaert en J. ten Bosch99 p

A New Method for Matching Tooth Colors with Color Standards

A new method for quantitative intra-oral tooth color determination is presented. Basically, the tooth color is assessed by visual comparison with opaque color standards, which are logically arranged according to three visual color dimensions. The standards were analyzed spectrophotometrically, and the C.I.E. color coordinates were computed. Illumination and observation were standardized during the matching procedure. Two distinct situations, method 1 and method 2, were investigated. The situation in method 1 is to be considered as large window illumination and small window collection of the reflected light. For method 2, the same small window was used for both illumination and observation. Using both methods, the color of a tooth could be quantified into three separate color dimensions. Using method 1, the consistency among 25 examiners was high in determining the color of ten teeth; using method 2, the inter-examiner agreement was low. For the same tooth, different color standards were selected with method 1 or method 2. The standard selected with method 2 often appeared to be in disagreement within clinical expectations. The differences in results between method 1 and method 2 are explained by the optical properties of the translucent dental enamel (e.g., volume reflection). Method 1 allows for reproducible quantification of clinical tooth discoloration according to C.I.E. color specifications and can possibly be applied in prosthetic dentistr

Measurement of reflectivity and color of translucent materials

This paper discusses the error made when measuring the color of translucent materials, using the same window for illumination and light collection. Two methods, based on large-window illumination and small-window collection are described