Outcomes of retropupillary iris claw intraocular lens implantation combined with pars plana vitrectomy

PURPOSE: To report 12-month visual outcomes, incidence of intraocular pressure (IOP) changes and postoperative complications after pars plana vitrectomy with retropupillary implantation of an iris claw intraocular lens (IOL) in aphakic eyes after complicated cataract surgery and eyes with a dislocation of the IOL. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of eyes undergoing implantation of an iris claw IOL combined with pars plana vitrectomy from 1st of January 2009 until 30th of June 2018 after complicated cataract extraction with capsular loss (Group A) or dislocation of an IOL (Group B). Corrected distance visual acuity was analyzed in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) units, IOP was recorded in mmHg. RESULTS: Eyes in Group A (n = 49) improved from a preoperative median visual acuity of 0.523 logMAR (Snellen 20/65) to 0.201 logMAR (Snellen 20/30), P 0.05. During 12 months in Group A, IOP >21 mmHg occurred in 9 (18.4%) eyes; no eye had an IOP 21 mmHg occurred in 15 (11.9%) eyes, IOP 21 mmHg or <6 mmHg at 12 months follow-up. CONCLUSION: The retropupillary implantation of an iris claw IOL with pars plana vitrectomy provides adequate visual rehabilitation and seems to be safe in IOP changes

PTEN expression is a strong predictor of survival in mesothelioma patients

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly aggressive tumour with poor prognosis and limited response to therapy. MPM is characterised by complex chromosomal aberrations, including chromosome 10 losses. The tumour suppressor gene phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN) located on chromosome 10q23 plays an important role in different cancer, but its relevance for MPM is unclear. Patients and methods: In the present tissue microarray-based study, 341 MPM were studied for PTEN expression by immunohistochemistry using a monoclonal mouse PTEN antibody. Expression levels were semiquantitatively scored (negative, weak, moderate, strong). Expression of PTEN was correlated to overall survival. Results: Clinical data from 206 patients were available. One hundred and five patients were stage T4 and 92 patients presented with regional and mediastinal lymph node metastasis. Loss of PTEN expression was observed in 62% of the cases. The survival time was correlated to PTEN expression in 126 cases with complete follow-up data. Comparing any PTEN expression versus no expression, median survival time was significantly longer (log rank test p=0.0001) in patients with PTEN expression (15.5 months; 95% CI: 3.8; 27.2 vs 9.7 months; 95% CI: 7.9; 11.7). Cox regression analysis revealed an association between PTEN expression and survival (p=0.003) independently from the histological subtype (p=0.7). Conclusion: PTEN is an independent prognostic biomarker in mesothelioma patients. The frequent loss of expression of the tumour suppressor gene PTEN suggests involvement of the PI3K-AKT/protein kinase B (PKB) pathway in MPMs, which may be relevant for future mesothelioma treatmen

Assessing Choroidal Nevi, Melanomas and Indeterminate Melanocytic Lesions Using Multimodal Imaging—A Retrospective Chart Review

Using multimodal imaging, the literature proposed the following risk factors for choroidal nevus growth into melanoma: increased tumor thickness, subretinal fluid, decreased visual acuity, presence of orange pigment, ultrasound acoustic hollowness, and increased tumor diameter. This study investigated the presence of the mentioned risk factors in choroidal nevi, choroidal melanomas, and indeterminate choroidal melanocytic lesions. This retrospective, single-center chart review assessed choroidal melanocytic tumors with multimodal imaging. We defined our primary outcome as the cumulative presence of mentioned risk factors. Further, we evaluated various optical coherence tomography (OCT), ultrasound, and autofluorescence findings. We analyzed 51 tumors from 49 patients during the period from April 2008 to June 2021. The median (IQR) age was 64.0 (56.0 to 70.5) years, with 23 of 49 (46.9%) patients being female. The follow-up time for all tumors was median (IQR) 25.0 (12.0 to 39.0) months. The choroidal nevi had a median (range) risk score of 0.0 (0.0 to 3.0), and the choroidal melanoma of 5.0 (3.0 to 6.0), with statistically significant different ratings (p < 0.001). Multimodal imaging creates a score that may help to distinguish choroidal nevi from choroidal melanomas objectively

A phase II, open-label study of gefitinib (IRESSA) in patients with locally advanced, metastatic, or relapsed renal-cell carcinoma

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression has been associated with clinical outcome in some studies of renal-cell carcinoma (RCC). We investigated the efficacy and safety of gefitinib (IRESSA), an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in RCC patients. This phase II trial recruited 28 patients with advanced, metastatic, or relapsed RCC. Patients received oral gefitinib 500mg/day. Objective responses (ORs) were assessed every 2months according to RECIST. Baseline tumor biopsies were analyzed immunohistochemically for EGFR expression. At trial closure (March 2003), no ORs were seen but 14 patients (53.8%) had stable disease. At extended analysis (August 2004), median time to progression was 110days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 55, 117); median overall survival was 303days (95% CI 180, 444). Gefitinib was generally well tolerated. Skin rash and diarrhea were the most common drug-related adverse events (AEs) [54 and 39% of patients, respectively] and the most common drug-related grade 3/4 AEs (both 11%). The majority of tumor biopsies (91%) had ≥70% of tumor cells expressing membrane EGFR. Despite the lack of ORs in this study, disease control was observed in 53.8% of patients. Gefitinib was generally well tolerated and no unexpected drug-related AEs were observe

Expression of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 in mesothelioma patients - correlation with clinico-pathological characteristics and outcome: results from the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) Mesoscape project

Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis. Although histology and pathologic stage are important prognostic factors, better prognostic biomarkers are needed. The ribosomal protein S6 is a downstream target of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway involved in protein synthesis and cell proliferation. In previous studies, low phosphorylated S6 (pS6) immunoreactivity was significantly correlated with longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in PM patients. We aimed to correlate pS6 expression to clinical data in a large multi-centre PM cohort as part of the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) Mesoscape project. Tissue Micro Arrays (TMAs) of PM were constructed and expression of pS6 was evaluated by a semi-quantitatively aggregate H-score. Expression results were correlated to patient characteristics as well as OS/PFS. pS6 IHC results of 364 patients from 9 centres, diagnosed between 1999 and 2017 were available. The primary histology of included tumours was epithelioid (70.3%), followed by biphasic (24.2%) and sarcomatoid (5.5%). TMAs included both treatment-naïve and tumour tissue taken after induction chemotherapy. High pS6 expression (181 patients with H-score>1.41) was significantly associated with less complete resection. In the overall cohort, OS/PFS were not significantly different between pS6-low and pS6-high patients. In a subgroup analysis non-epithelioid (biphasic and sarcomatoid) patients with high pS6 expression showed a significantly shorter OS (p < 0.001, 10.7 versus 16.9 months) and PFS (p < 0.001, 6.2 versus 10.8 months). In subgroup analysis, in non-epithelioid PM patients high pS6 expression was associated with significantly shorter OS and PFS. These exploratory findings suggest a clinically relevant PI3K pathway activation in non-epithelioid PM which might lay the foundation for future targeted treatment strategies

Expression of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 in mesothelioma patients - correlation with clinico-pathological characteristics and outcome: results from the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) Mesoscape project

Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis. Although histology and pathologic stage are important prognostic factors, better prognostic biomarkers are needed. The ribosomal protein S6 is a downstream target of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway involved in protein synthesis and cell proliferation. In previous studies, low phosphorylated S6 (pS6) immunoreactivity was significantly correlated with longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in PM patients. We aimed to correlate pS6 expression to clinical data in a large multi-centre PM cohort as part of the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) Mesoscape project. Tissue Micro Arrays (TMAs) of PM were constructed and expression of pS6 was evaluated by a semiquantitatively aggregate H-score. Expression results were correlated to patient characteristics as well as OS/PFS. pS6 IHC results of 364 patients from 9 centres, diagnosed between 1999 and 2017 were available. The primary histology of included tumours was epithelioid (70.3%), followed by biphasic (24.2%) and sarcomatoid (5.5%). TMAs included both treatment-naive and tumour tissue taken after induction chemotherapy. High pS6 expression (181 patients with H-score>1.41) was significantly associated with less complete resection. In the overall cohort, OS/PFS were not significantly different between pS6-low and pS6-high patients. In a subgroup analysis nonepithelioid (biphasic and sarcomatoid) patients with high pS6 expression showed a significantly shorter OS (p< 0.001, 10.7 versus 16.9 months) and PFS (p < 0.001, 6.2 versus 10.8 months). In subgroup analysis, in non-epithelioid PM patients high pS6 expression was associated with significantly shorter OS and PFS. These exploratory findings suggest a clinically relevant PI3K pathway activation in non-epithelioid PM which might lay the foundation for future targeted treatment strategies

The LIFE TRIAD of emergency general surgery

Emergency General Surgery (EGS) was identified as multidisciplinary surgery performed for traumatic and non-traumatic acute conditions during the same admission in the hospital by general emergency surgeons and other specialists. It is the most diffused surgical discipline in the world. To live and grow strong EGS necessitates three fundamental parts: emergency and elective continuous surgical practice, evidence generation through clinical registries and data accrual, and indications and guidelines production: the LIFE TRIAD.Peer reviewe

Year in review in Intensive Care Medicine, 2008: II. Experimental, acute respiratory failure and ARDS, mechanical ventilation and endotracheal intubation

SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe