BurnCalc assessment study of computer-aided individual three-dimensional burn area calculation

BACKGROUND: Accurate estimation of a burned area is crucial to decisions about fluid resuscitation, surgical options, nutritional support, and prognosis. Widely used clinical methods to estimate a burn area are two-dimensional. They do not consider age, sex, body mass, physical deformities, or other relevant factors. Computer-aided methods have improved the accuracy of estimating burned areas by including data analysis and reducing subjective differences. Three-dimensional (3D) scanning allows us to determine body dimensions rapidly and reproducibly. We describe an individualized, cost-efficient, portable 3D scanning system, BurnCalc, that can create an individual 3D model and then calculate body surface area (BSA) and the burn area accurately and quickly. METHODS: The BurnCalc system was validated by verifying the accuracy and stability of BSA calculation. We measured 10 regular objects in experiment 1, using Student’s t-test and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) in the analysis. In experiment 2, artificial paper patches of known dimensions were attached to various parts of the body of 40 volunteers. Their sizes were then calculated using BurnCalc. The BurnCalc data were compared to actually measured values to verify accuracy and stability. Total BSAs of these 40 volunteers were also calculated by BurnCalc and compared to those derived from an accepted formula. In experiment 3, four experts using Chinese Rule-of-Nines or Rule-of-Palms methods calculated the percentages of the total BSA in 17 volunteers. Student’s t-test and ICC, respectively, were used to compare the results obtained with the BurnCalc technique. RESULTS: Statistically, in experiment 1, p = 0.834 and ICC = 0.999, demonstrating that there was no difference between the BurnCalc and real measurements. Also, the hypothesis of null difference among measures (experiment 2) was true because p > 0.05 and ICC = 0.999, indicating that calculations of the total BSA and the burn area were more accurate using the BurnCalc technology. The reliability of the BurnCalc program was 99.9%. In experiment 3, only the BurnCalc method exhibited values of p > 0.05 (p = 0.774) and ICC = 0.999. CONCLUSIONS: BurnCalc technology produced stable, accurate readings, suggesting that BurnCalc could be regarded as a new standard clinical method

Giant panda BAC library construction and assembly of a 650-kb contig spanning major histocompatibility complex class II region

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Giant panda is rare and endangered species endemic to China. The low rates of reproductive success and infectious disease resistance have severely hampered the development of captive and wild populations of the giant panda. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays important roles in immune response and reproductive system such as mate choice and mother-fetus bio-compatibility. It is thus essential to understand genetic details of the giant panda MHC. Construction of a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library will provide a new tool for panda genome physical mapping and thus facilitate understanding of panda MHC genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A giant panda BAC library consisting of 205,800 clones has been constructed. The average insert size was calculated to be 97 kb based on the examination of 174 randomly selected clones, indicating that the giant panda library contained 6.8-fold genome equivalents. Screening of the library with 16 giant panda PCR primer pairs revealed 6.4 positive clones per locus, in good agreement with an expected 6.8-fold genomic coverage of the library. Based on this BAC library, we constructed a contig map of the giant panda MHC class II region from <it>BTNL2 </it>to <it>DAXX </it>spanning about 650 kb by a three-step method: (1) PCR-based screening of the BAC library with primers from homologous MHC class II gene loci, end sequences and BAC clone shotgun sequences, (2) DNA sequencing validation of positive clones, and (3) restriction digest fingerprinting verification of inter-clone overlapping.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The identifications of genes and genomic regions of interest are greatly favored by the availability of this giant panda BAC library. The giant panda BAC library thus provides a useful platform for physical mapping, genome sequencing or complex analysis of targeted genomic regions. The 650 kb sequence-ready BAC contig map of the giant panda MHC class II region from <it>BTNL2 </it>to <it>DAXX</it>, verified by the three-step method, offers a powerful tool for further studies on the giant panda MHC class II genes.</p

Herbal Medicines for Irinotecan-Induced Diarrhea

Irinotecan (CPT-11), a water-soluble derivative of camptothecin, belongs to the class of DNA topoisomerase I inhibitors and has been approved worldwide for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and malignant lymphoma. Although CPT-11-based chemotherapy is widely used, severe gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity, especially late-onset diarrhea, is a common adverse reaction, limiting clinical application of the drug. The incidence of grade 3 or 4 diarrhea is high, with 20–40% of CPT-11-treated patients experiencing this adverse effect. High-dose loperamide and octreotide are generally recommended for treatment of CPT-11-induced diarrhea. However, in clinical practice, loperamide is associated with a significant failure rate and the beneficial effects of octreotide are controversial. An accumulating number of recent studies have suggested that medicinal herbs and their derived phytocompounds may be effective complementary treatments for CPT-11-induced diarrhea. In this mini-review, we briefly summarize currently available literatures regarding the formulae and herbs/natural products used as adjuvants in animal and clinical studies for the treatment of diarrhea caused by CPT-11

Evaluation of a novel scoring system based on thrombosis and inflammation for predicting stroke-associated pneumonia: A retrospective cohort study

BackgroundInflammation and thrombosis are involved in the development of stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP). Our aim was to evaluate the predictive value of a novel, simplified, thrombo-inflammatory prognostic score (TIPS) that combines both inflammatory and thrombus biomarkers in the early phase of ischemic stroke (IS).MethodsThe study population consisted of 897 patients with a first diagnosis of IS admitted to the emergency department of five tertiary hospitals in China. Of these, the data from 70% of patients was randomly selected to derive the model and the other 30% for model validation. A TIPS of “2” was indicative of high inflammation and thrombosis biomarkers and “1” of one biomarker, with “0” indicative of absence of biomarkers. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify the association between TIPS and SAP.ResultsThe TIPS was an independent predictor of SAP and 90-day mortality, with the incidence of SAP being significantly higher for patients with a high TIPS. The TIPS provided superior predictive value for SAP than clinical scores (A2DS2) and biomarkers currently used in practice, for both the derivation and validation sets. Mediation analysis revealed that TIPS provided a predictive value than either thrombotic (NLR) and inflammatory (D-dimer) biomarkers alone.ConclusionThe TIPS score may be a useful tool for early identification of patients at high-risk for SAP after IS

1,3,5-Tris{[3-(1H-benzotriazol-1-ylmeth­yl)phen­oxy]meth­yl}-2,4,6-trimethyl­benzene

In the title compound, C51H45N9O3, three 1-(1H-benzotriazol-1-ylmeth­yl)-3-phen­yloxy (bmph) ligands are bonded to the central benzene ring in an asymmetric arrangement, two bmph located on one side of the central benzene ring and the other bmph located on the opposite side of the central benzene ring. The dihedral angles between the central benzene ring and the three pendant phenoxy rings are 76.71 (14), 67.81 (13) and 70.67 (16)°. In the crystal structure, one bmph is disordered over two sites in a 0.611 (5):0.389 (5) ratio. Some of the methyl H atoms are equally disordered over two sets of sites. Inter­molecular C—H⋯N hydrogen bonding is present in the crystal structure