Systemic lupus erythematosus with initial presentation of empyematous pleural effusion in an elderly male patient: A diagnostic challenge

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) poses great difficulty in making an early diagnosis in elderly males, often presenting with atypical manifestations. Acute onset of empyematous pleural effusion has rarely been seen. Herein, we report a 66-year-old man with SLE presenting with rapid progression of bilateral pleural effusion. Diagnostic thoracocentesis disclosed neutrophil-predominant exudates and chest computed tomography revealed multiple loculated pleural effusions. Nevertheless, optimal antibiotic therapy plus surgical decortication of the pleura did not improve his condition. The diagnosis of SLE was readily established after LE cells were accidentally found in the pleural effusion. Large amounts of pleural effusion subsided soon after high dose corticosteroid therapy

Fabrication of multianalyte CeO2 nanograin electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor biosensors by using CF4 plasma treatment

Multianalyte CeO2 biosensors have been demonstrated to detect pH, glucose, and urine concentrations. To enhance the multianalyte sensing capability of these biosensors, CF4 plasma treatment was applied to create nanograin structures on the CeO2 membrane surface and thereby increase the contact surface area. Multiple material analyses indicated that crystallization or grainization caused by the incorporation of flourine atoms during plasma treatment might be related to the formation of the nanograins. Because of the changes in surface morphology and crystalline structures, the multianalyte sensing performance was considerably enhanced. Multianalyte CeO2 nanograin electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor biosensors exhibit potential for use in future biomedical sensing device applications

GeneAlign: a coding exon prediction tool based on phylogenetical comparisons

GeneAlign is a coding exon prediction tool for predicting protein coding genes by measuring the homologies between a sequence of a genome and related sequences, which have been annotated, of other genomes. Identifying protein coding genes is one of most important tasks in newly sequenced genomes. With increasing numbers of gene annotations verified by experiments, it is feasible to identify genes in the newly sequenced genomes by comparing to annotated genes of phylogenetically close organisms. GeneAlign applies CORAL, a heuristic linear time alignment tool, to determine if regions flanked by the candidate signals (initiation codon-GT, AG-GT and AG-STOP codon) are similar to annotated coding exons. Employing the conservation of gene structures and sequence homologies between protein coding regions increases the prediction accuracy. GeneAlign was tested on Projector dataset of 491 human–mouse homologous sequence pairs. At the gene level, both the average sensitivity and the average specificity of GeneAlign are 81%, and they are larger than 96% at the exon level. The rates of missing exons and wrong exons are smaller than 1%. GeneAlign is a free tool available at

A pre-S gene chip to detect pre-S deletions in hepatitis B virus large surface antigen as a predictive marker for hepatoma risk in chronic hepatitis B virus carriers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an important cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide. The pre-S₁and -S₂mutant large HBV surface antigen (LHBS), in which the pre-S₁and -S₂regions of the LHBS gene are partially deleted, are highly associated with HBV-related HCC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The pre-S region of the LHBS gene in two hundred and one HBV-positive serum samples was PCR-amplified and sequenced. A pre-S oligonucleotide gene chip was developed to efficiently detect pre-S deletions in chronic HBV carriers. Twenty serum samples from chronic HBV carriers were analyzed using the chip.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The pre-S deletion rates were relatively low (7%) in the sera of patients with acute HBV infection. They gradually increased in periods of persistent HBV infection: pre-S mutation rates were 37% in chronic HBV carriers, and as high as 60% in HCC patients. The Pre-S Gene Chip offers a highly sensitive and specific method for pre-S deletion detection and is less expensive and more efficient (turnaround time 3 days) than DNA sequencing analysis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The pre-S_1/2mutants may emerge during the long-term persistence of the HBV genome in carriers and facilitate HCC development. Combined detection of pre-S mutations, other markers of HBV replication, and viral titers, offers a reliable predictive method for HCC risks in chronic HBV carriers.</p

Chemical-free inactivated whole influenza virus vaccine prepared by ultrashort pulsed laser treatment

There is an urgent need for rapid methods to develop vaccines in response to emerging viral pathogens. Whole inactivated virus (WIV) vaccines represent an ideal strategy for this purpose; however, a universal method for producing safe and immunogenic inactivated vaccines is lacking. Conventional pathogen inactivation methods such as formalin, heat, ultraviolet light, and gamma rays cause structural alterations in vaccines that lead to reduced neutralizing antibody specificity, and in some cases, disastrous T helper type 2-mediated immune pathology. We have evaluated the potential of a visible ultrashort pulsed (USP) laser method to generate safe and immunogenic WIV vaccines without adjuvants. Specifically, we demonstrate that vaccination of mice with laser-inactivated H1N1 influenza virus at about a 10-fold lower dose than that required using conventional formalin-inactivated influenza vaccines results in protection against lethal H1N1 challenge in mice. The virus, inactivated by the USP laser irradiation, has been shown to retain its surface protein structure through hemagglutination assay. Unlike conventional inactivation methods, laser treatment did not generate carbonyl groups in protein, thereby reducing the risk of adverse vaccine-elicited T helper type 2 responses. Therefore, USP laser treatment is an attractive potential strategy to generate WIV vaccines with greater potency and safety than vaccines produced by current inactivation techniques

Adding Chinese Herbal Medicine to Routine Care is Associated With a Lower Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis Among Patients With Asthma: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study

Objective: Due to the shared pathogenesis of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), patients with asthma were found to have a higher risk of RA. While the benefits and safety of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for asthma have been reported, the scientific evidence regarding its effect on RA is limited. This longitudinal cohort study aimed to determine the relation between CHM use and RA risk in patients with asthma. Methods: Using the nationwide claims data, we enrolled 33,963 patients 20–80 years of age who were newly diagnosed with asthma and simultaneously free of RA between 2000 and 2007. From this sample, we utilized propensity score matching to create sets of participants as treatment and control groups, which comprised 13,440 CHM users and 13,440 non-CHM users. The incidence rate and hazard ratio (HR) for RA between the two groups were estimated at the end of 2013. A Cox proportional hazards model was constructed to examine the impact of the CHM use on the risk of RA. Results: The cumulative incidence of RA was substantially lower in the CHM user group. In the follow-up period, 214 patients in the CHM user group (1.92 per 1,000 person-years) and 359 patients in the non-CHM user group (2.92 per 1,000 person-years) developed RA (adjusted HR = 0.63, 95% confidence interval: 0.54–0.75). Of the commonly-prescribed formulae, nine CHM products were associated with a lower RA risk: Xiao-Qing-Long-Tang, Ma-Xing-Gan-Shi-Tang, Ding-Chuan-Tang, Xin-Yi-Qing-Fei-Tang, Bei Mu, Jie Geng, Xing Ren, Da Huang, and San Chi. Conclusion: This study found that patients with asthma who received CHM treatment, in addition to the conventional therapy, had a lower risk of RA. Use of CHM treatment may be integrated into conventional therapy to reduce subsequent RA risk among asthma patients

Clinical Effects and Differences in Neural Function Connectivity Revealed by MRI in Subacute Hemispheric and Brainstem Infarction Patients With Dysphagia After Swallowing Therapy

Background: Early detection and intervention for post-stroke dysphagia could reduce the incidence of pulmonary complications and mortality. The aims of this study were to investigate the benefits of swallowing therapy in swallowing function and brain neuro-plasticity and to explore the relationship between swallowing function recovery and neuroplasticity after swallowing therapy in cerebral and brainstem stroke patients with dysphagia.Methods: We collected 17 subacute stroke patients with dysphagia (11 cerebral stroke patients with a median age of 76 years and 6 brainstem stroke patients with a median age of 70 years). Each patient received swallowing therapies during hospitalization. For each patient, functional oral intake scale (FOIS), functional dysphagia scale (FDS) and 8-point penetration-aspiration scale (PAS) in videofluoroscopy swallowing study (VFSS), and brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were evaluated before and after treatment.Results: FOIS (p = 0.003 in hemispheric group and p = 0.039 in brainstem group) and FDS (p = 0.006 in hemispheric group and p = 0.028 in brainstem group) were both significantly improved after treatment in hemispheric and brainstem stroke patients. In hemispheric stroke patients, changes in FOIS were related to changes of functional brain connectivity in the ventral default mode network (vDMN) of the precuneus in brain functional MRI (fMRI). In brainstem stroke patients, changes in FOIS were related to changes of functional brain connectivity in the left sensorimotor network (LSMN) of the left postcentral region characterized by brain fMRI.Conclusion: Both hemispheric and brainstem stroke patients with different swallowing difficulties showed improvements after swallowing training. For these two dysphagic stroke groups with corresponding etiologies, swallowing therapy could contribute to different functional neuroplasticity