Early response of hepatobiliary biochemical indexes after short-term ursodeoxycholic acid treatment in patients with primary biliary cholangitis / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective:To explore the early response of hepatobiliary biochemical indexes after short-term ursodeoxycholic acid treatment in patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).Methods:According to the Child-Pugh (C-P) score, the patients with newly diagnosed PBC were divided into groups A, B and C. The early biochemical response was defined as the improvement of hepatobiliary biochemical indexes while daily dose of 13-15 mg/kg ursodeoxycholic acid(UDCA) was administrated for 3-4 weeks. Rank sum test was used to compare the alkaline phosphatase (ALP), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bile acid (TBA) and total bilirubin (TBil) before and after treatment between groups. Chi-square test was used to analyze the differences in numerical data between groups. ROC curve was also used for data an-alysis.Results:The levels of AST, ALP, GGT and TBil of groups A and B after treatment were lower than those of before treatment ( P<0.05). And there was no significant difference in group C ( P>0.05). On the contrast, TBA levels after treatment in group A, B and C were significantly higher than those of before ( P<0.05). ROC curve analysis of the baseline ALP, GGT and AST indexes that declineed less than 20% showed that their cut-off value of indexes were 211.00, 285.85 and 86.68 U/L respectively in group A. And then the cut-off value of above parameters in group B was 505.00, 353.10 and 179.15 U/L respectively. But no statistical significant difference was found in ROC curve analysis of above indexes of group C. The baseline TBil level declined synchronously with the decline of ALP, AST and GGT less than 20% were analyzed by ROC curve, but no statistical significant difference was found in group A, B and C. ROC curve analysis of the treatment showed that increased of TBA level was synchronously to the decline of ALP, AST and GGT less than 20% showed that cut-off value were 38.75 and 35.95 μmol/L respectively in group A and B. There was no statistically significant difference in ROC curve analysis of TBA in group C. As for baseline ALP, GGT and AST their level were decreased with treatment, and less than 40%, ROC curve analysis did not find statistical significant difference in above indexes. Conclusion:After 3-4 weeks of UDCA treatment, the cut off values of ALP, GGT and AST in Grade A or B of C-P are met, and the biochemical response could be reduced by 20% or more, among which the accuracy of ALP is higher. The TBA level of C-P in grade A or B PBC patients after UDCA treatment increases, and when the Cut-off value is met, it suggests that ALP, GGT and AST indexes may decrease by 20% or more. Total bilirubin does not show response to treatment.

A Comparative Study of Postmortem Bacterial Culture and Identification Methods / 대한법의학회지

Postmortem bacterial culture can be valuable for investigating deaths and determining the cause of death. However, there are many concerns regarding postmortem bacterial culture such as postmortem transmigration and agonal spread of bacteria. The two main methods for identification of the bacteria are biochemical and genetic methods. In Korea, the genetic method has been used for postmortem bacterial culture and identification in forensic medicine. However, there is a lack of consensus on the method to be used for postmortem bacterial culture and identification. Herein, we compared the genetic and biochemical methods of postmortem bacterial culture in autopsy practice. Both analyses were performed on the same samples. Bacteria were identified in 28 of the 34 cases (82.4%). Of the 74 comparable samples, only 28 (37.8%) showed consistent results by both methods. In addition, the biochemical method had a shorter reporting time and was more sensitive. In conclusion, we analyzed the causes of the inconsistency between the two methods and provided appropriate conditions and protocols for postmortem bacterial culture and identification.

Valorization alternatives of colombian bee-pollen for its use as food resource ­ a structured review / Alternativas de valorización de polen apícola colombiano para su uso como recurso alimenticio ­ una revisión estructurada

Background: Pollen of honey-bee Apis mellifera L. is a product gathered for human consumption and marketed as a nutritional and functional resource. However, some studies indicate that it is necessary to develop transformation processes to modify the external structure of pollen, which is extremely difficult and prevents the nutrients and bioactive compounds to be completely digested in the gastrointestinal tract. The bee-pollen productivity in Colombia is up to five times higher than in countries traditionally recognized for its marketing, making this a valuable business opportunity. Objectives: To describe the chemical structure and the most important nutritional and functional components in bee pollen, as well as to understand the availability of compounds and some backgrounds reported for the opening of the bee-pollen grain, both in a natural and artificial manner. Methods: The literature search involved the use of different terms, alone or combined, by using logical operators; some terms were: pollen, beebread, bioactive and nutritional compounds, bioavailability, pollen structure, exine, fertilization. Selected search fields were the title or abstract of the publication in the following databases: Directory of Open Access Journals, Emerald, Pubmed, Redalyc, Scientific Electronic Library Online, Science Direct, Springer Journal, Taylor & Francis, Wiley Online Library. The selected literature was that found mainly between 2008 and 2014in Spanish and English. Results: The nutritional and functional composition of bee-pollen is widely reported; nevertheless, few studies on transformation processes to improve the availability of the compounds present in this product were found. The natural fermentation process occurred within the hive to obtain the product known as "bee-bread" is highlighted, since an emulation of this transformation could be developed in a controlled manner for a scaled production; despite this, further research in the involved biotechnological aspects is still required. Conclusions: Efforts have been made to characterize the bee-pollen from a physical-chemical point of view, but no significant progress in the development of processes of transformation has been reached. The future trends should aim at developing engineering processes emulating the phenomena occurred in nature where structural changes in the outer layer of bee-pollen can be achieved.

Controversial predictors of biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy: a study from a Latin American (Brazilian) Institution

Purpose To analyze controversial clinicopathologic predictors of biochemical recurrence after surgery: age, race, tumor extent on surgical specimen, tumor extent on needle biopsy, Gleason score 3 + 4 vs 4 + 3, and amount of extent of extraprostatic extension and positive surgical margins. Materials and Methods The needle biopsies and the correspondent surgical specimens were analyzed from 400 patients. Time to recurrence was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier curves and risk of shorter time to recurrence using Cox univariate and multivariate analysis. Results Except for age, race, maximum percentage of cancer per core, and number of cores with cancer, all other variables studied were significantly predictive of time to biochemical recurrence using the Kaplan-Meier curves. In univariate analysis, except for focal extraprostatic extension, age, race, focal positive surgical margins, and maximum extent and percentage of cancer per core, all other variables were significantly predictive of shorter time to recurrence. On multivariate analysis, diffuse positive surgical margins and preoperative PSA were independent predictors. Conclusions Young patients and non-whites were not significantly associated with time to biochemical recurrence. The time consuming tumor extent evaluation in surgical specimens seems not to add additional information to other well established predictive findings. The higher predictive value of Gleason score 4 + 3 = 7 vs 3 + 4 = 7 discloses the importance of grade 4 as the predominant pattern. Extent and not simply presence or absent of extraprostatic extension should be informed. Most tumor extent evaluations on needle biopsies are predictive of time to biochemical recurrence, however, maximum percentage of cancer in all cores was the strongest predictor. .