Common Structural Details and Deficiencies in Indonesian RC Buildings: Preliminary Report on Field Investigation in Padang City, West Sumatra

Significant damage to reinforced concrete buildings by the 2009 Western Sumatera Earthquake revealed that deficiencies in design engineering and/or construction practice existed. This indicated that enforcement of building design codes was lacking. The Indonesian government has updated the building design codes which should have been applied in the construction of new buildings. However, enforcement of these codes on design engineering and/or construction practice in Padang city is not clear. In this study, a field investigation was performed to investigate common structural details and deficiencies in newly constructed multi-story reinforced concrete buildings. The investigation was conducted through visiting building construction sites in Padang city area. This study preliminary reports the investigation results on 39 private buildings and 8 government buildings. The common deficiencies found on the investigated buildings were low material quality, small structural dimensions with light longitudinal reinforcement, insufficient transverse reinforcement with poor details, improper location of lap splice of rebar, lack of hoops inside exterior and interior beam-column joints, and deficient anchorage of beam reinforcement to exterior beam-column joints. These investigation results clarify that enforcement of the latest buildings design codes in design engineering and/or construction practice is still lacking in the investigated area

Diffuse Intervertebral Disk Calcification in a Patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis

A patient with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who presented with intervertebral disk calcification (IDC) of several thoracic and lumbar intervertebral disks is herein described. There was no evidence of any other coexisting diseases such as ochronosis and hemochromatosis, but a remarkable degree of polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia was observed as a notable finding. Although the appearance of IDC on T1-weighted images on magnetic resonance is controversal, no increased signal intensity was observed in our patient. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of IDC in RA

Cutaneous T-cell-attracting chemokine as a novel biomarker for predicting prognosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a prospective observational study

[Background] Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive fibrotic lung disease that leads to respiratory failure and death. Although there is a greater understanding of the etiology of this disease, accurately predicting the disease course in individual patients is still not possible. This study aimed to evaluate serum cytokines/chemokines as potential biomarkers that can predict outcomes in IPF patients. [Methods] A multi-institutional prospective two-stage discovery and validation design using two independent cohorts was adopted. For the discovery analysis, serum samples from 100 IPF patients and 32 healthy controls were examined using an unbiased, multiplex immunoassay of 48 cytokines/chemokines. The serum cytokine/chemokine values were compared between IPF patients and controls; the association between multiplex measurements and survival time was evaluated in IPF patients. In the validation analysis, the cytokines/chemokines identified in the discovery analysis were examined in serum samples from another 81 IPF patients to verify the ability of these cytokines/chemokines to predict survival. Immunohistochemical assessment of IPF-derived lung samples was also performed to determine where this novel biomarker is expressed. [Results] In the discovery cohort, 18 cytokines/chemokines were significantly elevated in sera from IPF patients compared with those from controls. Interleukin-1 receptor alpha (IL-1Rα), interleukin-8 (IL-8), macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha (MIP-1α), and cutaneous T-cell-attracting chemokine (CTACK) were associated with survival: IL-1Rα, hazard ratio (HR) = 1.04 per 10 units, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.01–1.07; IL-8, HR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.01–1.08; MIP-1α, HR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.00–1.36; and CTACK, HR = 1.12 per 100 units, 95% CI 1.02–1.21. A replication analysis was performed only for CTACK because others were previously reported to be potential biomarkers of interstitial lung diseases. In the validation cohort, CTACK was associated with survival: HR = 1.14 per 100 units, 95% CI 1.01–1.28. Immunohistochemistry revealed the expression of CTACK and CC chemokine receptor 10 (a ligand of CTACK) in airway and type II alveolar epithelial cells of IPF patients but not in those of controls. [Conclusions] CTACK is a novel prognostic biomarker of IPF