Pathological Complete Response Patients after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer

Cases of breast cancer metastasis after achieving a pathological complete response (pCR) with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) are sometimes encountered in clinical practice. We investigated the prognostic factors for pCR in patients with breast cancer after NAC. This retrospective cohort study included patients with localized breast cancer who underwent NAC followed by surgery between 2004 and 2020 and achieved a pCR. The associations between clinical factors and distant metastasis-free survival rate were statistically analyzed. We analyzed data for 127 patients. Twelve patients (9.4%) had distant metastases, and seven (5.5%) died. For estrogen receptor (ER)-positive patients, the distant metastasis-free survival rate was 94.6% for both 5 and 8 years. In contrast, ER-negative patients had a distant metastasis-free survival rate of 87.6% and 85.4% for 5 and 8 years (p=0.094), respectively. In cT0-2 patients, the distant metastasis-free survival rate was 92.4% for 5 years and 90.5% for 8 years, whereas in cT3-4 patients, the distant metastasis-free survival rate was 83.5% for 5 years and 83.5% for 8 years (p=0.301). This study suggested that patients with ER-negative, pre-NAC cT3 or T4 breast cancer who had achieved a pCR after NAC tended to have a worse prognosis

Porencephaly in dogs and cats: relationships between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features and hippocampal atrophy

Porencephaly is the congenital cerebral defect and a rare malformation and described few MRI reports in veterinary medicine. MRI features of porencephaly are recognized the coexistence with the unilateral/bilateral hippocampal atrophy, caused by the seizure symptoms in human medicine. We studied 2 dogs and 1 cat with congenital porencephaly to characterize the clinical signs and MRI, and to discuss the associated MRI with hippocampal atrophy. The main clinical sign was the seizure symptoms, and all had hippocampal atrophy at the lesion side or the larger defect side. There is association between hippocampal atrophy or the cyst volume and the severe of clinical signs, and it is suggested that porencephaly coexists with hippocampal atrophy as well as humans in this study

Effects of gel pad thickness on skin stiffness evaluation by ultrasonographic strain elastography in normal dogs

Gel pads are commonly used for skin ultrasound examination; however, the effect of their thickness on the measured values is unknown. We investigated the effect of pad thickness on skin stiffness measurement in healthy dogs. The skin stiffness of the dorsal neck was measured using a durometer. Ultrasonographic strain elastography was performed with 5-, 10-, and 20-mm-thick pads. Among the strain ratios, muscle/skin (5 mm) showed a significantly positive correlation with skin stiffness. In the strain histogram, AREA (20 mm), CONTRAST (20 mm), MEAN (5, 20 mm), and STANDARD DEVIATION (20 mm) were significantly correlated with skin stiffness. In conclusion, the thickness of the gel pad affects the measurements during skin ultrasonographic strain elastography

Comparison of cardiac output measurements using transpulmonary thermodilution and conventional thermodilution techniques in anaesthetized dogs with fluid overload

Objective: To evaluate the agreement between cardiac output (CO) values obtained using a transpulmonary thermodilution technique (TPTDCO) and conventional thermodilution technique (TDCO) in anaesthetized dogs with fluid overload. Study design: Prospective experimental study. Animals: Six healthy Beagle dogs aged 7-8years. Methods: Dogs were anaesthetized with sevoflurane in oxygen, and catheters were inserted for TPTDCO and TDCO measurement. After instrumentation, baseline CO was measured using each technique at a central venous pressure (CVP) of 3-7mmHg. Dogs were subsequently administered lactated Ringer's solution and 6% hydroxyethyl starch to induce fluid overload. CO measurements were obtained using each technique at CVP values of 8-12mmHg, 13-17mmHg, 18-22mmHg and 23-27mmHg. Agreements between CO measurements obtained with the respective techniques were analysed using Dunnett's test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman analysis. Results: Thirty pairs of CO values were obtained, ranging from 1.45Lminute(-1) to 4.69Lminute(-1) for TPTDCO and from 1.30Lminute(-1) to 4.61Lminute(-1) for TDCO. TPTDCO and TDCO values correlated strongly (r(2)=0.915, p<0.001). The bias and mean relative bias between TPTDCO and TDCO were 0.260.30Lminute(-1) (limits of agreement -0.29 to 0.81Lminute(-1)) and 9.7%, respectively. Conclusions and clinical relevance: TPTDCO and TDCO measurements obtained in anaesthetized dogs during fluid overload exhibited good agreement. Accordingly, transpulmonary thermodilution provides an accurate measurement of CO in dogs with fluid overload

Anesthetic effect of a mixture of alfaxalone, medetomidine, and butorphanol for inducing surgical anesthesia in ICR, BALB/c, and C57BL/6 mouse strains

The anesthetic effects of alfaxalone combined with medetomidine and butorphanol were investigated for ICR, BALB/c, and C57BL/6 mice. Mice were administered a combination of 0.5 or 0.75 mg/kg medetomidine and 5 mg/kg butorphanol with 30 or 40 mg/kg alfaxalone (0.5MBA30, 0.75MBA30 and 0.75MBA40, respectively). The drug combinations were administered subcutaneously and were compared with a widely used combination of 0.3 mg/kg medetomidine, 4 mg/kg midazolam, and 5 mg/kg butorphanol (MMB). All three MBA combinations achieved surgical anesthesia, although the recovery time was longer with 0.75MBA30 and 0.75MBA40 compared with 0.5MBA30. Furthermore, several mice exhibited a considerable jumping reaction immediately after injection with 0.75MBA30 and 0.75MBA40. Therefore, 0.5MBA30 may be suitable for inducing surgical anesthesia in the mouse strains tested. The anesthetic scores for 0.5MBA30 were improved compared with those of MMB in all three mouse strains; however, the body temperature drop in C57BL/6 mice was greater with 0.5MBA30. Our results show that the alfaxalone combination, 0.5MBA30, should allow surgical operations that are more stable in more strains of mice than MMB, although the combination may cause hypothermia, especially in C57BL/6 mice