Effect of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in tibial shaft treatment for fractures in adults: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article was to determine the effects of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures in adults. METHOD: Literature searches of the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, the Chinese Biomedical Literature database, the CNKI database, Wanfang Data, and the Weipu Journal database were performed up to August 2013. Only randomized and quasi-randomized controlled clinical trials comparing the use of percutaneous plates and interlocking intramedullary nails for tibial shaft fractures were included. Data collection and extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were performed according to the Cochrane standards. RESULTS: Eleven trials were included. Compared with interlocking intramedullary nailing, minimally invasive percutaneous plates shortened fracture healing time and resulted in lower rates of postoperative delayed union and pain. There was no significant difference between the two methods with regard to the rates of excellent and good Johner-Wruh scoring, the rate of reoperation, and other complications. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, insufficient evidence exists regarding the effects of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures in adults. Low-quality evidence suggests that minimally invasive percutaneous plates could shorten fracture healing time, decrease the rate of postoperative delayed union, and decrease pain levels compared with interlocking intramedullary nailing. There is no significant difference between the two groups in terms of functional recovery scores, reoperation, and other complications. Further research that includes high-quality randomized controlled, multicenter trials is required to compare the effects of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures in adults

Biomechanical analysis of the acetabular buttress-plate: are complex acetabular fractures in the quadrilateral area stable after treatment with anterior construct plate-1/3 tube buttress plate fixation?

OBJECTIVE: The acetabular buttress-plate has been widely used in treating difficult cases with satisfying clinical results. However, the biomechanical properties of a postoperative acetabular fracture fixed by the buttress-plate are not clear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical properties of stability after the anterior tube buttress-plate fixation of complex acetabular fractures in the quadrilateral area. METHODS: A construct was proposed based on anterior construct plate - 1/3 tube buttress plate fixation for acetabular both-column fractures. Two groups of six formalin-preserved cadaveric pelvises were analyzed: (1) group A, the normal pelvis and (2) group B, anterior construct plate-1/3 tube buttress plate with quadrilateral area fixation. The displacements were measured, and cyclical loads were applied in both standing and sitting simulations. RESULTS: As the load was added, the displacements were

Peripheral Direct Adjacent Lobe Invasion Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Has a Similar Survival to That of Parietal Pleural Invasion T3 Disease

IntroductionThe postoperative prognosis of peripheral adjacent lobe invasion non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the postoperative prognosis of NSCLC with direct adjacent lobe invasion by comparing it with that of visceral pleural invasion (primary lobe) T2 disease, and parietal pleural invasion T3 disease, and hence determine its most appropriate T category.MethodsA retrospective analysis was conducted to assess the survival of patients with peripheral direct adjacent lobe invasion NSCLC (group A), and it was compared with that of patients with visceral pleural invasion of the primary lobe (group B) and parietal pleural invasion (group C). All patients were node-negative on pathologic examination. Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare the postoperative survival between groups.ResultsA total of 263 patients were analyzed. The overall survival rates in groups A (n = 28), B (n = 167), and C (n = 68) at 5 years were 40.7, 54.6, and 41.9%, respectively; corresponding median survival in three groups were 53, 71, and 40 months, respectively. The survival difference among three groups was statistically significant (p = 0.031). A similar survival was observed between groups A and C, whereas group B had a much better survival than other groups.ConclusionsPeripheral adjacent lobe invasion NSCLC has a similar survival prognosis with that of parietal pleural invasion T3 disease and hence should be classified as T3 rather than T2. However, further studies are warranted

The effect of early and intensive statin therapy on ventricular premature beat or non-sustained ventricular tachycardia in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Background: Our study&#8217;s aim was to evaluate the prognostic value of early and intensive lipid-lowering treatment on ventricular premature beat or non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) after acute coronary syndrome (STEMI, non-STEMI, and unstable angina pectoris). Methods: Some 586 patients with acute coronary syndrome were randomly divided into two groups: Group A (with conventional statin therapy, to receive 10 mg/day atorvastatin, n = 289) and Group B (given early and intensive statin therapy, 60 mg immediately and 40 mg/day atorvastatin, n = 297). The frequency of ventricular premature beat and NSVT was recorded via Holter monitoring after hospitalization (24 h and 72 h). Results: Seventy seven (11.8%) patients had NSVT. When compared to patients with no documented NSVT, patients with NSVT were older and more frequently had myocardial infarction in their history, diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation and an ejection fraction < 40%. Ventricular premature beats decreased significantly in the early and aggressive treatment group (24 h, p < 0.01; 72 h, p < 0.001). A significant reduction in NSVT was seen in the early and aggressive treatment group (24 h, p < 0.01; 72 h, p < 0.001). There were no side effects observed in either group. Conclusions: Early and intensive lipid-lowering treatment can clearly decrease ventricular premature beats and NSVT. (Cardiol J 2010; 17, 4: 381-385

Homology-Driven Proteomics of Dinoflagellates with Unsequenced Genomes Using MALDI-TOF/TOF and Automated De Novo Sequencing

This study developed a multilayered, gel-based, and underivatized strategy for de novo protein sequence analysis of unsequenced dinoflagellates using a MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometer with the assistance of DeNovo Explorer software. MASCOT was applied as the first layer screen to identify either known or unknown proteins sharing identical peptides presented in a database. Once the confident identifications were removed after searching against the NCBInr database, the remainder was searched against the dinoflagellate expressed sequence tag database. In the last layer, those borderline and nonconfident hits were further subjected to de novo interpretation using DeNovo Explorer software. The de novo sequences passing a reliability filter were subsequently submitted to nonredundant MS-BLAST search. Using this layer identification method, 216 protein spots representing 158 unique proteins out of 220 selected protein spots from Alexandrium tamarense, a dinoflagellate with unsequenced genome, were confidently or tentatively identified by database searching. These proteins were involved in various intracellular physiological activities. This study is the first effort to develop a completely automated approach to identify proteins from unsequenced dinoflagellate databases and establishes a preliminary protein database for various physiological studies of dinoflagellates in the future

The expression of PLK-1 in cervical carcinoma: a possible target for enhancing chemosensitivity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Polo-like kinase-1 (PLK-1) is reported to be upregulated in a variety of human tumors and is implicated in cell proliferation and survival. However, its importance in cervical carcinoma has not yet been fully elucidated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined PLK-1 expression in cervical carcinoma tissues using immunohistochemical staining. Furthermore, we blocked PLK-1 expression in HeLa cells using specific siRNA and detected the cell cycle, cell proliferation and chemosensitivity using western blotting, MTT and flow cytometry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We provide evidence that expression of PLK-1 exists in human cervical carcinoma tissues and establish an association with tumor size. Furthermore, we show that PLK-1 knockdown by transfection of siRNA induces accumulation of HeLa cells in the G2/M cell cycle phase and enhances cisplatin-induced apoptosis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results indicate that PLK-1 production in HeLa cells might be critical in determining whether cells survive or undergo apoptosis. Therefore, targeting PLK-1 might be a promising strategy for enhancing sensitivity to chemotherapeutic reagents in cervical carcinoma.</p

Distribution of tick-borne diseases in China

As an important contributor to vector-borne diseases in China, in recent years, tick-borne diseases have attracted much attention because of their increasing incidence and consequent significant harm to livestock and human health. The most commonly observed human tick-borne diseases in China include Lyme borreliosis (known as Lyme disease in China), tick-borne encephalitis (known as Forest encephalitis in China), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (known as Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever in China), Q-fever, tularemia and North-Asia tick-borne spotted fever. In recent years, some emerging tick-borne diseases, such as human monocytic ehrlichiosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and a novel bunyavirus infection, have been reported frequently in China. Other tick-borne diseases that are not as frequently reported in China include Colorado fever, oriental spotted fever and piroplasmosis. Detailed information regarding the history, characteristics, and current epidemic status of these human tick-borne diseases in China will be reviewed in this paper. It is clear that greater efforts in government management and research are required for the prevention, control, diagnosis, and treatment of tick-borne diseases, as well as for the control of ticks, in order to decrease the tick-borne disease burden in China

Construction and characterization of a cDNA library from human brain glioma cell line U251 with overexpressed exogenous p53 gene

The tumor-suppressor gene p53 and its downstream genes consist of a complicated gene network, and the challenge to understand the network is to identify p53 downstream genes. In order to isolate and identify new p53 regulated genes, we constructed and characterized a normalized cDNA library from human brain glioma cell line U251 while exogenous p53 gene is overexpressed. The constructed cDNA library contained 1.3×106 directional recombinants, and its insert size ranged from 0.5 to 2.0 kb. Screening the cDNA library, we obtained two novel p53 downstream genes, PAP1 and PAP2. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses of the library for specific genes revealed the presence of cDNAs for p53 downstream genes such as p21, gadd45, and PCNA. These results demonstrate the sequence complexity and relatively low redundancy of our cDNA library. It is a valuable and unique resource for studying p53 gene expression, regulatory mechanisms and screening p53 downstream genes. Keywords: p53 Gene, p53 downstream gene, cDNA library, normalizationAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(33), pp. 5262-5268, 16 August, 201