Renal cell carcinoma is resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. STAT1 is overexpressed in human RCC tissue. Downregulation of STAT1 expression could significantly increase the radiosensitivity in RCC cell lines. To further investigate the function of STAT1 in RCC resistance to chemoradiotherapy, a stable STAT1 knockdown cell line was established. Knockdown ...

Recognizing actions in videos is rapidly becoming a topic of much research. To facilitate the development of methods for action recognition, several video collections, along with benchmark protocols, have previously been proposed. In this paper, we present a novel video database, the "Action Similarity LAbeliNg" (ASLAN) database, along with benchmark ...

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a potent antihyperglycemic hormone. It can induce glucose-dependent insulin secretion. GLP-1 has a short half-life of less than 2 min in vivo due to degradation by the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV. GLP-l analogues, such as exendin-4 and exendin-3, have similar biological activity but a longer in-vivo half-life. Pancreatic ...

In recent years, attempts have been made to enhance reproducibility in reporting early cancerous lesions. For this purpose, specific diagnoses in the language of clinical medicine have been substituted by nonspecific designations that encompass benign and malignant processes, such as "squamous intraepithelial lesion" and "melanocytic intraepidermal neoplasia." The propagation of ...

Hidradenoma papilliferum of the anogenital region was previously believed to originate from apocrine glands but has recently been accepted as originating from anogenital mammary-like glands. We describe a case of hidradenoma papilliferum with mixed features of syringocystadenoma papilliferum and mammary-like glands from the left labia majora of a 25-year-old woman. ...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is uncommonly observed as a cutaneous metastasis. We report a 76-year-old man with metastatic HCC to the skin of the nasal ala, diagnosed antecedent to the primary tumor. HCC was confirmed by positive immunostaining with Hep Par 1 in tissue from the metastasis and from a needle ...

Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease affecting human populations around the world. It is recognized that fluoride plays a significant role in dental caries reduction. Meanwhile, several low- and middle-income countries of Asia have not yet implemented systematic fluoride programs; contributing factors relate to misconceptions about the mechanisms ...

A five and a half year-old girl presented with a reddish-brown plaque on her right anterior tibia, first observed 1 year previously and without any history of injury or insect bite. Histological examination showed a dense dermal infiltrate composed of plasma cells and small lymphocytes, combined with lymphocytic exocytosis in ...

Professionally applied topical fluoride varnish, gel, and solution have been shown to be effective in preventing and in arresting dental caries. Their use in different countries in Asia varies greatly and may not correlate with the dental caries situation of the populations in the countries. In the higher-income countries, use ...

Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMSs) are soft tissue sarcomas with skeletal muscle differentiation. Cutaneous RMSs are exceedingly rare, and in most cases, they represent metastatic disease or the dermal involvement by a tumor arising in the underlying soft tissues. We herein report the case of a 41-year-old man who developed a cutaneous swelling ...

The caries-preventive benefits of fluoride are generally accepted by dental researchers and practicing professionals worldwide. The benefits of fluoride toothpastes and mouthrinses have been supported by several high-quality systematic reviews. The formulation of a fluoride toothpaste and biological (salivary flow rate) and behavioral factors (brushing frequency, brushing time, post-brushing rinsing ...

Different melanocytic nevi have been reported as being associated with dermal cysts. Signet ring cell melanocytic nevus is a rare variant of melanocytic nevus characterized by cells with signet ring morphology within a common melanocytic nevus. This article describes an exceptional case of melanocytic nevus composed exclusively of signet ring ...

Molluscum contagiosum is a cutaneous poxviral infection that is rarely associated with other skin diseases, such as cutaneous neoplasms. Such associations are likely to be coincidental, except in immunocompromised patients. Kaposi sarcoma, an angioproliferative neoplasm derived from lymphatic endothelium, is mediated by human herpes virus-8 infection and occurs with increased ...

The diagnosis of thrombophilia caused by protein S deficiency remains difficult. From 2005 to 2010, we documented 135 patients with suspected hereditary protein S deficiency for whom mutational analysis of the PROS1 gene had been performed by direct double-stranded sequencing of the amplified 15 exons including splice sites. Multiplex ligation-dependent ...

We compared 2 commercial plasma procoagulant phospholipid activity (PPA) assays, chromogenic, using bound annexin V to capture phosphatidylserine-containing microparticles, and clot-based. In both, anionic phospholipids accelerated activation of prothrombin by factor Xa. PPA levels were lower in the chromogenic vs the clot-based assay, with poor correlation between methods: normal samples, ...

Qualitative and quantitative serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) tests are used to diagnose pregnancy. We assessed physicians' perceptions and compared turnaround times (TATs) and performance characteristics of both tests. We surveyed 1,058 physicians about their perceptions of hCG tests. Seven months of TAT data were analyzed. hCG was measured in ...

We sought to determine if sufficient redundancy exists between specific IgE testing for Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus niger to eliminate one of the assays in determining Aspergillus hypersensitivity. We reviewed regional laboratory results comparing A fumigatus-specific IgE with A niger-specific IgE using the Pharmacia UniCAP system (Pharmacia, Kalamazoo, MI). By ...

del(17p13)(TP53) seems to be an independent poor prognostic factor in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) receiving lenalidomide. However, whether aberrant p53 nuclear expression detected by immunohistochemical analysis can be used as a surrogate marker for del(17p13)(TP53) in prognostic evaluation of lenalidomide-treated relapsed/refractory MM remains unclear. The p53 expression in ...

Others have suggested that CD117, or an immunophenotypic profile including CD117, can serve as surrogate for FLT3 mutation in T acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), thereby guiding targeted therapy. We report the results of flow cytometry immunophenotypic analysis in 42 cases of T-ALL and T/myeloid acute leukemia also assessed for FLT3 ...

Flow cytometric T-cell receptor V(β) repertoire analysis (TCR-V(β)-R) is a sensitive method to detect T-cell clonality; however, its implementation in low-cellularity specimens has not been established. We developed a strategy to use TCR-V(β)-R in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and fine-needle aspirate (FNA) specimens. Initially, full TCR-V(β)-R was evaluated in diagnostic/screening specimens ...

The PRAME (preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma) gene was previously shown to be overexpressed in ovarian/primary peritoneal serous carcinoma compared with malignant mesothelioma using gene expression arrays. The objective of this study was to validate this finding at the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction ...

The variety of histologic patterns in myxoid liposarcoma is underappreciated. The diversity of these patterns can lead to diagnostic difficulty. We examined the morphologic spectrum of myxoid liposarcoma by cataloguing and describing different patterns identified in biopsy and resection specimens of 46 primary, recurrent, and metastatic myxoid liposarcomas. The patterns ...

Recent reports show that the sensitivity of endometrial carcinoma detection on liquid-based Papanicolaou (Pap) tests (88%) is considerably higher than that reported on conventional Pap smears (20%-30%), although few laboratories have corroborated these results. We performed a 5-year retrospective review of all liquid-based Pap tests (n = 69) in women ...

Gastric biopsies are often done to evaluate for Helicobacter gastritis. Given the oncogenic association with Helicobacter gastritis and the relative ease of therapy, it is important for pathology departments to identify all positive cases. We describe an institutional quality assurance study of an institutional method for the diagnosis of Helicobacter ...

Metaplastic thymoma is a rare primary thymic epithelial tumor, and its biologic behavior is uncertain. We report 7 cases of metaplastic thymoma. The spindle components of the tumor seemed to be undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition, which is characterized by the loss of E-cadherin expression. Epstein-Barr virus seemed not to have an ...

Image analysis of the HER2 immunohistochemical (IHC) stain can help determine which breast cancer patients may benefit from HER2-targeted therapy. We studied the concordance of HER2 IHC and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as well as reproducibility of surgical pathologist (SP) and cytotechnologist (CT) interpretations using manual and image analysis ...

For clinical epidemiologic and proteomic studies, the control of preanalytic variation, including sample processing and storage, is important. We evaluated the stability of progastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP) as a marker for the quality control of stored serum and plasma samples. The ProGRP from 23 healthy volunteers was measured serially for 8 ...

Histologic tumor necrosis (TN) has been reported to indicate a poor prognosis for different human cancers. In papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC), data regarding the prognostic impact of TN are conflicting. We retrospectively studied the pathology records of 2,333 consecutive patients who underwent nephrectomy from 1984 to 2006 at a ...

A retrospective review was done to evaluate the importance of degenerative endometrial debris accompanied with benign-looking endometrial cells in Papanicolaou (Pap) smears. In total, 306 patients were divided into 2 groups according to the absence (group 1) or presence (group 2) of endometrial debris. Eighty-one (26.5%) patients received histologic follow-up. ...

We evaluated the detection rates of PAX8 and WT1 immunostaining in 68 (45 as cell blocks, 23 as smears) serous effusion specimens that had a cytologic diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma of ovarian origin. Of the cases, 58 (85%) were positive for PAX8, 56 (82%) were positive for WT1, and 64 ...

We report the case of a patient with myelodysplasia who had Sweet syndrome of the oral cavity. An atypical myeloid immunophenotype was present in the gingival biopsy specimen and in a concurrent bone marrow specimen. Fluorescence in situ hybridization performed on the gingival biopsy specimen demonstrated the same del(20q) cytogenetic ...

Purpose Appropriate therapies for commonly encountered poisonings, medication overdoses, and other toxicological emergencies are reviewed, with discussion of pharmacists' role in ensuring their ready availability and proper use. Summary Poisoning is the second leading cause of injury-related morbidity and mortality in the United States, with more than 2.4 million toxic ...

Purpose A case of hypertriglyceridemia-induced acute pancreatitis that was managed with insulin and heparin is reported. Summary A 39-year-old Hispanic man arrived at the emergency department with complaints of abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting over one day. A computed tomography scan of the abdomen revealed peripancreatic inflammatory changes surrounding the ...

Purpose A possible case of moxifloxacin-induced syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) is reported. Summary A 66-year-old Caucasian woman with stage II chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) arrived at the emergency department from an outpatient clinic complaining of worsening shortness of breath, headache, body aches, and dizziness. Five days before ...

Purpose The results of a retrospective evaluation of the frequency and preventability of adverse drug events (ADEs) involving multiple drugs among hospital inpatients are reported. Methods Data collected in a previous cohort study of 180 actual ADEs and 552 potential ADEs (PADEs) at six community hospitals in Massachusetts were analyzed ...

Purpose An elective rotation specifically designed to prepare postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) pharmacy residents for careers in academia is described, with insights on challenges faced and benefits gained during the first offering of the rotation. Summary Through a collaboration of the University of Florida (UF) college of pharmacy's St. Petersburg ...

Purpose The short-term stability of extemporaneously prepared triple intrathecal therapy, containing cytarabine, methotrexate sodium, and methylprednisolone sodium succinate, was evaluated. Methods Three batches of triple intrathecal solution were prepared using commercially available products and stored in three different packaging materials (plastic syringe system, brown glass vials, and brown glass vials ...

Purpose A quality initiative to improve the management of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) at an academic medical center, including the development of guidelines on the use of direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIs), is described. Summary In keeping with the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) for anticoagulant therapy (goal 03.05.01), a ...

Purpose An initiative to improve procedures and safeguards for inpatient oral contraceptive use at an academic medical center is described. Summary A retrospective chart review was conducted to determine patterns of oral contraceptive use and potential areas for quality improvement. During the six-month period covered by the chart review, a ...

Dementia cases may reach 100 million by 2050. Interventions are sought to curb or prevent cognitive decline. Exercise yields cognitive benefits, but few older adults exercise. Virtual reality-enhanced exercise or "exergames" may elicit greater participation. To test the following hypotheses: (1) stationary cycling with virtual reality tours ("cybercycle") will enhance ...

Active commuting (walking or cycling) to/from school is an important part of the overall physical activity levels of children but is on the decline in many countries. Data for adolescents on mode of transportation to and from school are limited for low- and middle-income countries, including Vietnam. This paper aims ...

Various hypotheses link neighborhood food environments and diet. Greater exposure to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores is thought to encourage overconsumption; supermarkets and large grocery stores are claimed to encourage healthier diets. For youth, empirical evidence for any particular hypothesis remains limited. This study examines the relationship between school and ...

Although studies have demonstrated that stair prompts are associated with increased physical activity, many were conducted in low-rise buildings over a period of weeks and did not differentiate between stair climbing and descent. This study evaluated the impact of a prompt across different building types, and on stair climbing versus ...

Alcohol-impaired driving caused 10,839 deaths in 2009. Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities as a percentage of all motor vehicle fatalities decreased from 1982 to 1999 but have remained stable since. Understanding characteristics of those who engage in this behavior is critical to achieving future reductions. The purpose of this study is to ...

Establishments dedicated to hookah tobacco smoking recently have proliferated and helped introduce hookah use to U.S. communities. To conduct a comprehensive, qualitative assessment of websites promoting these establishments. In June 2009, a systematic search process was initiated to access the universe of websites representing major hookah tobacco smoking establishments. In ...

Large cross-disciplinary scientific teams are becoming increasingly prominent in the conduct of research. This paper reports on a quasi-experimental longitudinal study conducted to compare bibliometric indicators of scientific collaboration, productivity, and impact of center-based transdisciplinary team science initiatives and traditional investigator-initiated grants in the same field. All grants began between ...

Delivery of preventive services sometimes falls short of guideline recommendations. To evaluate the multilevel factors associated with evidence-based preventive service delivery during periodic health examinations (PHEs). Primary care physicians were recruited from an integrated delivery system in southeast Michigan. Audio recordings of PHE office visits conducted from 2007 to 2009 ...

Compliance with dietary guidelines means incorporating multiple foods and nutrients into everyday diets, to be consumed in smaller or larger amounts. Feasibility studies can help determine whether one nutrient guideline comes into conflict with another. For one half of the U.S. population, the 2010 dietary guidelines for sodium were set ...

To aid translation of childhood obesity interventions evidence into practice, research studies must report results in a way that better supports pragmatic decision making. The current review evaluated the extent to which information on key external validity dimensions, participants, settings, interventions, outcomes, and maintenance of effects, was included in research ...

Observational audits commonly are used in public health research to collect data on built environment characteristics that affect health-related behaviors and outcomes, including physical activity and weight status. However, implementing in-person field audits can be expensive if observations are needed over large or geographically dispersed areas or at multiple points ...