Oral feeding of minocycline attenuates glial activation and reductions of tau and drebrin in response to systemically injected cytokines

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Predictive factors for extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy success in ureteric stones, does skin-stone distance and hounsfield unit matter?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the usefulness of measuring stone skin distance and stone attenuation values by non-contrast computed tomography for predicting treatment outcome of ureteric stones by extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL). PATIENT AND METHOD : Retrospective review of 66 patients who underwent ESWL for ureteric stones with pre-ESWL NCCT in 2010–2012. Subjects were stratified into 2 groups, successful ESWL and failed ESWL, with ESWL success defined as stone fragment less than 4 mm at 6 weeks after ESWL. Patient age, sex, stone size, stone location, laterality, shockwave energy, number of shockwave administered, Hounsfield unit (HU), skin to stone distance (SSD), presence of hydronephrosis, pre-ESWL JJ stent or PCN were studied as predictive factors. RESULTS : Patient demographics and stone characteristics were similar between the 2 groups. On univariate analysis, the mean stone size for successful ESWL was 7.9 mm compared with 10.2 mm in the failure group (P = 0.02). For the skin-stone distance, the mean distance for the successful group was 95 mm compared with 104 mm in the failure group (P = 0.04). Concerning the Hounsfield Unit, a mean of 1034 HU was found in the successful compared with 1129 HU in the failure group (P = 0.16) CONCLUSION : Skin to stone distance on non-contrast CT scan is a useful predictive factors for ESWL success for ureteric stones.postprin

A retrospective analysis of complications of treatment of nevus of Ota with the Q-switched Alexandrite (QS Alex) and Q-switched Neodymium: Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (QS Nd-YAG) lasers

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Impact of skeletal-related events on survival in patients with metastatic prostate cancer prescribed androgen deprivation therapy

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Validity and Reliability of Curl-Up Test on Assessing the Core Endurance for Kindergarten Children in Hong Kong

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability and the criterion validity of a curlup test (CUT) as a measure of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability in kindergarten children. CUT performance was also compared to half hold lying test (HHLT) and walking time on course (WTC) among without obstacle, with low obstacle and high obstacle measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability. Methods: To estimate reliability, 33 males and 27 female kindergarten children (M aged=4.5 years old) performed the CUT on 2 different days. In the validity phase of the study, scores of all participants were obtained on three field test measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability (CUT, HHLT and WTC). Results: Results indicate that the MCU test has no significant correlation on intra-class test-retest reliability (R=0.13, p>0.01). The criterion validity of the CUT for kindergarten children has is comparable to that of the HHLT(r=0.98, p<0.01) and WTC without obstacle(r=0.96, p<0.01), with low obstacle (r=0.96, p<0.01) and with high obstacle (r=0.98, p<0.01). Result indicates that the CUT test cannot produces reasonably accurate and stable measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability. Conclusion: These preliminary findings provide evidences into the CUT test cannot produces reasonably accurate and stable measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability for kindergarten children

Infall of gas as the formation mechanism of stars up to 20 times more massive than the Sun

Theory predicts and observations confirm that low-mass stars (like the Sun) in their early life grow by accreting gas from the surrounding material. But for stars ~ 10 times more massive than the Sun (~10 M_sun), the powerful stellar radiation is expected to inhibit accretion and thus limit the growth of their mass. Clearly, stars with masses >10 M_sun exist, so there must be a way for them to form. The problem may be solved by non-spherical accretion, which allows some of the stellar photons to escape along the symmetry axis where the density is lower. The recent detection of rotating disks and toroids around very young massive stars has lent support to the idea that high-mass (> 8 M_sun) stars could form in this way. Here we report observations of an ammonia line towards a high-mass star forming region. We conclude from the data that the gas is falling inwards towards a very young star of ~20 M_sun, in line with theoretical predictions of non-spherical accretion.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Nevus of Ota: a new classification based upon the response to laser treatment

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MicroRNA-210 and endoplasmic reticulum chaperones in the regulation of chemoresistance in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the commonest primary brain tumour in adults characterized by relentless recurrence due to resistance towards the standard chemotherapeutic agent temozolomide (TMZ). Prolyl 4-hydroxylase, beta polypeptide (P4HB), an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone, is known to be upregulated in TMZ-resistant GBM cells. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-protein-coding transcripts that may play important roles in GBM chemoresistance. We surmised that miRNA dysregulations may contribute to P4HB upregulation, hence chemoresistance.We found that miRNA-210 (miR-210) was P4HB-targeting and was highly downregulated in TMZ-resistant GBM cells. Forced overexpression of miR-210 led to P4HB downregulation and a reduction in TMZ-resistance. A reciprocal relationship between their expressions was also verified in clinical glioma specimens. Our study is the first to demonstrate a potential link between miR-210 and ER chaperone in determining chemosensitivity in GBM. The findings have important translational implications in suggesting new directions of future studies.published_or_final_versio

Clinical features, management, and prognostic factors of status epilepticus in Chinese

Poster PresentationINTRODUCTION: Status epilepticus (SE) is a neurological emergency with significant mortality and morbidity. There are currently limited data regarding the causes and outcomes of SE in our locality, and identification of prognostic factors, especially those available at presentation, could lower risk of under- or over-treatment in SE. METHODS: We retrospectively studied the clinical characteristics, management, and clinical outcome of adults diagnosed with incident SE, excluding episodes due to cerebral anoxia, at a regional hospi…published_or_final_versio

Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy in Hong Kong: a review of 235 cases

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