Association of clinicopathological features with E-cadherin (CDH1) gene-160 C>A promoter polymorphism in Turkish colorectal cancer patients

Background and Aim of Study: The role of E-cadherin (CDH1) gene-160 C>A (rs16260) promoter polymorphism in colorectal cancer (CRC) still remains inconclusive. The aim of this study is to investigate the associations between the CDH1-160 C>A polymorphism with the susceptibility and clinicopathological development of CRC in the Turkish patients. To our knowledge, this is the first report examining the role of CDH1 polymorphism in Turkish CRC patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 92 colorectal carcinoma cases (including 62 colon and 30 rectal cancer patients) and the corresponding adjacent normal tissues as controls were studied. The polymorphism was genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Clinicopathological features including patient's age, gender, tumor stage, and tumor location (colon/rectum) were compared statistically with the polymorphism status. Results: There was no significant difference in both genotype and allele frequencies of the CDH1 polymorphism between colorectal tumor cases and normal samples (P = 0.472 and 0.508, respectively). Furthermore, no significant associations were observed between the CDH1 polymorphism status and age, gender, tumor stage, and tumor location of the colorectal tumor cases (all P > 0.05). Conclusions: These results indicate that CDH1-160 C>A polymorphism does not contribute to the genetic susceptibility of CRC and the polymorphism may not be a direct effect on the progression of the disease in Turkish CRC patients

Shear Wave Elastography in the Evaluation of the Kidneys in Pediatric Patients with Unilateral Vesicoureteral Reflux

Objectives To evaluate the ability of shear wave elastography (SWE) to detect renal parenchymal scar formation in patients with vesicoureteral reflux. Methods We prospectively evaluated 49 patients with unilateral grade 2 or higher-degree VUR. All patients underwent dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scintigraphy for evaluation of the renal parenchymal scar. After the DMSA scan, 2 radiologists, who were blinded to clinical data and each other's measurements, evaluated the kidneys of the patients using SWE. The kidneys were divided into 3 parts: upper pole, middle region, and lower pole, and 3 regions of interest were placed to each part. Shear wave velocity (SWV) values were calculated using meters per second as a unit and recorded for each region. Afterward, SWV values were compared to DMSA results. Results There was no significant difference between the observers' mean SWV values of kidneys with VUR without scar formation (mean +/- SD, 2.11 +/- 0.06 and 2.09 +/- 0.05 m/s) and the contralateral normal kidney SVW values (2.11 +/- 0.06 and 2.10 +/- 0.05 m/s; P = .936 and .724, respectively). We observed a significant difference between the mean SWV values of the kidneys with VUR accompanied by scar formation (2.28 +/- 0.10 and 2.27 +/- 0.11 m/s) and the mean SWV values of the contralateral normal kidneys (2.09 +/- 0.05 and 2.10 +/- 0.04 m/s; P < .001 for both observers). Conclusions Shear wave elastography could detect scar tissue in kidneys; however, the variability of the stiffness due to the kidney's complex structure, and variations in blood perfusion and the glomerular filtration rate of the kidney might limit the use of SWE in current clinical diagnostic algorithms for VUR