Laser diverticulotomy for Zenker's diverticulum-does it improve quality of life?

To determine quality of life (QoL) in individuals with dysphagia related to identified Zenker’s diverticulum before (T1) and one year after undergoing endoscopic laser diverticulotomy surgery (T2). A total of 43 individuals (18 women and 25 men) were included at T1 and 37 of these responded at T2 (13 women and 24 men). Health-related QoL (HRQoL) was determined with the short form 36 (SF-36) and disease-specific QoL (DSQoL) was assessed with the MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI). In addition, two questions about specific symptoms related to Zenker’s diverticulum were added and ordered as a fifth subscale of MDADI. Comparisons were made between patients and an age- and gender-adjusted normative sample from the Norwegian population. Significant differences were found in all subscales on MDADI, but none between T1 and T2 on SF-36. Compared to the normative sample, the component score MCS of SF-36 was significantly lower in the dysphagia patients at both T1 and T2. The attrition sample had significantly lower PCS than the completers. The results substantiate that disease severity is associated with poorer disease-related QoL, and that the disease-specific QoL is significantly improved one year after laser diverticulotomy

A comparison of variability and bias when ageing Northeastern Atlantic minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) by counting growth layer groups in the mandible and bulla tympanica

The age of 43 minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) was estimated by counting growth layer groups (GLGs) GLGs in 500um thick haemotoxylin stained transverse sections of left and right mandible. The same whales were also aged by counting GLGs in 150um unstained sections of left and right bulla tympanica. The staining and preparation methods were also used to prepare and stain mandible sections of a sperm whale and the GLG count of this was the same as the GLG count of a longitudinal section of a tooth from the same animal. Minke whale mandible age estimates had higher CV (63% on average) than the bulla age estimates (36% on average). Comparing the age estimates with the number of ovulations revealed that both methods underestimated the true age of the whales

Risikofaktorer for hepatitt C-smitte blant sprøytemisbrukere

Hepatitt C-virusinfeksjon er vanlig blant injiserende stoffmisbrukere. Målet med denne studien var å undersøke forekomst av risikoatferd blant injiserende stoffmisbrukere i Oslo og deres assosiasjon med hepatitt C-smitte. Materiale og metode. Dette er en tverrsnittsundersøkelse, der 327 brukere av sprøytebussen i Oslo valgte å delta. Det ble foretatt et strukturert intervju som fokuserte på type rusmisbruk og risikoatferd med tanke på smitte. Blodprøver ble undersøkt for anti-hepatitt C-virus (anti-HCV) (EIA-3) og HCV-RNA (internt utført PCR). Resultater: Prevalensen av HCV-RNA var 51 %, og 81% var anti-HCV-positive (anti-HCV+). I en multivariatanalyse var anti-HCV+ assosiert med debutalder for sprøytemisbruk 34 år, deling av sprøyter, sprøytemisbruk i fengsel, deling av dose fra felles sprøyte og heroinbruk. En av fem med anti-HCV+ oppga aldri å ha delt sprøyter, men anti-HCV+ var ikke assosiert med deling av annet brukerutstyr enn sprøyter. Målt i de siste fire ukene før intervjuet var deling av sprøyter vanligere blant gifte/samboende enn aleneboende. Fortolkning: De fleste sprøytemisbrukere i Oslo er blitt eksponert for hepatitt C (anti HCV+), og halvparten har utviklet kronisk infeksjon (HCV-RNA+). Hepatitt C-smitte var blant annet assosiert med deling av dose fra felles sprøyte og deling av sprøyter, særlig i fengsel. Deling av annet utstyr enn sprøyter var ikke assosiert med smitte

Lung Cancer Risk in Never-Smokers of European Descent is Associated With Genetic Variation in the 5(p)15.33 TERT-CLPTM1Ll Region

Introduction: Inherited susceptibility to lung cancer risk in never-smokers is poorly understood. The major reason for this gap in knowledge is that this disease is relatively uncommon (except in Asians), making it difficult to assemble an adequate study sample. In this study we conducted a genome-wide association study on the largest, to date, set of European-descent never-smokers with lung cancer. Methods: We conducted a two-phase (discovery and replication) genome-wide association study in never-smokers of European descent. We further augmented the sample by performing a meta-analysis with never-smokers from the recent OncoArray study, which resulted in a total of 3636 cases and 6295 controls. We also compare our findings with those in smokers with lung cancer. Results: We detected three genome-wide statistically significant single nucleotide polymorphisms rs31490 (odds ratio [OR]: 0.769, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.722-0.820; p value 5.31 x 10(-16)), rs380286 (OR: 0.770, 95% CI: 0.723-0.820; p value 4.32 x 10(-16)), and rs4975616 OR: 0.778, 95% CI: 0.730-0.829; p value 1.04 x 10(-14)). All three mapped to Chromosome 5 CLPTM1L-TERT region, previously shown to be associated with lung cancer risk in smokers and in never-smoker Asian women, and risk of other cancers including breast, ovarian, colorectal, and prostate. Conclusions: We found that genetic susceptibility to lung cancer in never-smokers is associated to genetic variants with pan-cancer risk effects. The comparison with smokers shows that top variants previously shown to be associated with lung cancer risk only confer risk in the presence of tobacco exposure, underscoring the importance of gene-environment interactions in the etiology of this disease. (C) 2019 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Protein-altering germline mutations implicate novel genes related to lung cancer development

Few germline mutations are known to affect lung cancer risk. We performed analyses of rare variants from 39,146 individuals of European ancestry and investigated gene expression levels in 7,773 samples. We find a large-effect association with an ATM L2307F (rs56009889) mutation in adenocarcinoma for discovery (adjusted Odds Ratio = 8.82, P = 1.18 × 10−15) and replication (adjusted OR = 2.93, P = 2.22 × 10−3) that is more pronounced in females (adjusted OR = 6.81 and 3.19 and for discovery and replication). We observe an excess loss of heterozygosity in lung tumors among ATM L2307F allele carriers. L2307F is more frequent (4%) among Ashkenazi Jewish populations. We also observe an association in discovery (adjusted OR = 2.61, P = 7.98 × 10−22) and replication datasets (adjusted OR = 1.55, P = 0.06) with a loss-of-function mutation, Q4X (rs150665432) of an uncharacterized gene, KIAA0930. Our findings implicate germline genetic variants in ATM with lung cancer susceptibility and suggest KIAA0930 as a novel candidate gene for lung cancer risk

Large-scale association analysis identifies new lung cancer susceptibility loci and heterogeneity in genetic susceptibility across histological subtypes.

Although several lung cancer susceptibility loci have been identified, much of the heritability for lung cancer remains unexplained. Here 14,803 cases and 12,262 controls of European descent were genotyped on the OncoArray and combined with existing data for an aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis of lung cancer in 29,266 cases and 56,450 controls. We identified 18 susceptibility loci achieving genome-wide significance, including 10 new loci. The new loci highlight the striking heterogeneity in genetic susceptibility across the histological subtypes of lung cancer, with four loci associated with lung cancer overall and six loci associated with lung adenocarcinoma. Gene expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis in 1,425 normal lung tissue samples highlights RNASET2, SECISBP2L and NRG1 as candidate genes. Other loci include genes such as a cholinergic nicotinic receptor, CHRNA2, and the telomere-related genes OFBC1 and RTEL1. Further exploration of the target genes will continue to provide new insights into the etiology of lung cancer

Diet and food availability for Northeast Atlantic minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata

Ecological studies of the Northeast Atlantic minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostra) were carried out during spring (mainly April-May), summer (June-July) and autumn (AugustSeptember) in 1993 and 1994. Four small-type whaling vessels were chartered for operations in four selected subareas in Norwegian and adjacent waters. To ensure random sampling of whales, stringent sampling procedures, where the vessels searched for whales along predetermined transects within each subarea, were applied. Estimates of potential prey abundance were obtained from a review of results from synoptic surveys and from long-term survey series. Samples were obtained from 63 and 70 whales in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Results from forestomach analyses indicate a minke whale diet where fish play a very prominent role during most of the season. Diets varied between both periods and areas. Gadoid fish species dominated the spring diet. In summer and autumn the diet in the northmost areas (Spitsbergen and Bear Island) was primarily characterized by krill Thysanoessa spp., to a much lesser extent by capelin Mallotus villosus. This is consistent with an increase in krill and severe decrease in capelin availability in these areas in 1993 and 1994 compared with previous years. In the coastal areas of North Norway, herring Clupea harengus is the dominant planktivorous fish, and was also the most important food item for the whales both in summer and autumn. To some extent, however, the herring was accompanied by some gadoid species during summer. Whale consumption of 0-group fish was rather limited. Statistical analyses of potential prey preferences indicate a preference for herring and capelin. Given the opportunity to choose, it appears that minke whales will generally favour these two prey species before other actual species such as krill and gadoid fish species