Body sway increases immediately after strabismus surgery.

The purposes of this study were to examine whether body sway is altered immediately after strabismus surgery in children and to find preoperative clinical factors associated with body sway. In a prospective study, body sway was measured on 1-3 days before surgery and on the third day after surgery; for the measurements, computerized static stabilometry was carried out on 28 consecutive patients with strabismus (age range: 3 to 12 years old; mean: 7.4) who underwent strabismus surgery under general anesthesia. The linear length of the sway path (cm), the linear length of the sway path in a particular unit of time (cm/second), and the area of the sway path (cm2), indicative of the extent of body sway, all increased significantly among a total of 28 patients in both conditions of the patient's eyes open and closed, as well as among those in a subgroup of 16 patients with exotropia, after they had undergone strabismus surgery (p &#60; 0.05, Wilcoxon signed ranks test). The center of pressure along the Y axis of orientation from the toe to the heel was found to deviate significantly toward the heel postoperatively, as compared with the preoperative center in the subgroup of 16 patients with exotropia (p &#60; 0.05). Before surgery, 15 patients with no stereoacuity exhibited a greater amount of body sway when their eyes were open than did 13 patients with measurable stereoacuity (p &#60; 0.05, Mann-Whitney U-test). In the subgroup of 16 patients with exotropia when their eyes open, 3 patients with abnormal head posture exhibited more extensive body sway than did 13 patients without abnormal head posture (p &#60; 0.05). Body sway was found to significantly increase immediately after strabismus surgery in children with strabismus. Stereoacuity and abnormal head posture are 2 clinical factors associated with preoperative postural instability.</p

Changes in conditional net survival and dynamic prognostic factors in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer initially treated with androgen deprivation therapy

Background The purpose of this study was to identify predictive factors associated with conditional net survival in patients with metastatic hormone-naive prostate cancer (mHNPC) initially treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Methods At nine hospitals in Tohoku, Japan, the medical records of 605 consecutive patients with mHNPC who initially received ADT were retrospectively reviewed. The Pohar Perme estimator was used to calculate conditional net cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) for up to 5 years subsequent to the diagnosis. Using multiple imputation, proportional hazard ratios for conditional CSS and OS were calculated with adjusted Cox regression models. Results During a median follow up of 2.95 years, 208 patients died, of which 169 died due to progressive prostate cancer. At baseline, the 5-year CSS and OS rates were 65.5% and 58.2%, respectively. Conditional 5-year net CSS and OS survival gradually increased for all the patients. In patients given a 5-year survivorship, the conditional 5-year net CSS and OS rates improved to 0.906 and 0.811, respectively. Only the extent of disease score (EOD) >= 2 remained a prognostic factor for CSS and OS up to 5 years; as survival time increased, other variables were no longer independent prognostic factors. Conclusions The conditional 5-year net CSS and OS in patients with mHNPC gradually increased; thus, the risk of mortality decreased with increasing survival. The patient\u27s risk profile changed over time. EOD remained an independent prognostic factor for CSS and OS after 5-year follow-up. Conditional net survival can play a role in clinical decision-making, providing intriguing information for cancer survivors

Prognostic significance of early changes in serum biomarker levels in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer

We evaluated the impact of early changes in serum biomarker levels on the survival of patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) who were initially treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). We retrospectively investigated 330 patients with mHSPC whose serum maker levels were at baseline and at 2-4 months. An optimal Cox regression model was established with the highest optimism-corrected concordance index based on 10-fold cross-validation. The median cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were 7.08 and 6.47 years (median follow-up, 2.53 years), respectively. In the final optimal Cox model with serum biomarker levels treated as time-varying covariates, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), hemoglobin (Hb), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) significantly increased the risk of poor survival in the context of both CSS and OS. Kaplan-Meier curves stratified by the three risk factors of high PSA, low Hb and high ALP desmondtated that median OS were not reached with none of these factors, 6.47 years with one or two factors, and 1.76 years with all three factors. Early changes in serum biomarker levels after ADT may be good prognostic markers for the survival of patients with mHSPC

Vertical Distribution and Seasonal Abundance of Zooplankters in Lake Tanganyika

Vertical distribution and seasonal abundance of zooplankters were studied in Lake Tanganyika. Faunal composition of zooplankton was simple. Limnocnida tanganicae, copepod nauplii, Diaptomus simplex, cyclopoids, and shrimp were collected by closing nets. Nauplii were dominant in number, but cyclopoid copepodites were dominant in biomass. The biomass calculated was in the range of 1.2-3.7 (average 2.3) g/m² excluding shrimp and medusa. For the vertical distribution of the copepods, the larger the size, the deeper the layers they stayed in the daytime, and the more remarkable diel vertical migration they showed. Chlorophyll a amount was high at the end of September and in October, which coincides with the bloom of Anabaena and Dictyosphaerium off Myako. The time of phytoplankton boom off Myako seemed to correspond with that of other parts of the lake as cited in the literature. The number of Diaptomus females with eggs increased in September and October, and the number of shrimp also increased in October. The increase of Diaptomus females with eggs corresponded with phytoplankton abundance. The seasonal abundance and high reproduction of zooplankters seemed to be a product of the abundance of phytoplankton in Lake Tanganyika