Lung cancer - dia nosis and early detection.

Decisions about the treatment of a patient with lung cancer depend on the clinical stage of the disease, morphological diagnosis, examination of predictive markers and overall clinical condition; the wishes of a well-informed patient must also be taken into account. Accurate diagnosis is essential for the future of a patient with lung cancer. The epidemiology of lung cancer is related to cigarette consumption. The risk of the disease increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. The relative risk for smokers is 22.4, for very heavy smokers with a load of more than 25 packets, it can reach up to 50. Most cases of lung cancer are caught in the advanced stages of the disease, when surgery and sometimes other active treatments are no longer possible. Searching for lung cancer in at-risk groups is essential for reducing lung cancer mortality, leading to the detection of the disease at a low stage when the tumor is operable.

Rocuronium versus suxamethonium for rapid sequence induction of general anaesthesia for caesarean section: influence on neonatal outcomes.

BACKGROUND: In a previous study we compared rocuronium and suxamethonium for rapid-sequence induction of general anaesthesia for caesarean section and found no difference in maternal outcome. There was however, a significant difference in Apgar scores. As this was a secondary outcome, we extended the study to explore this finding on a larger sample. METHODS: We included 488 parturients of whom 240 were women from the original study. Women were randomly assigned to receive either rocuronium 1mg/kg (ROC n=245) or suxamethonium 1mg/kg (SUX n=243) after propofol 2mg/kg. Anaesthesia was maintained with up to 50% nitrous oxide and up to one minimum alveolar concentration of sevoflurane until the umbilical cord was clamped. We compared neonatal outcome using Apgar scores and umbilical cord blood gases. RESULTS: Data were analysed for 525 newborns (ROC n=263vs. SUX n=262). There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of Apgar scores <7 at 1min (ROC 17.5% vs. SUX 10.3%, P=0.023) but no difference at 5min (ROC 8% vs. SUX 4.2%, P=0.1) or 10min (ROC 3.0% vs. SUX 1.9%, P=0.58). There was no difference between groups in other measured outcomes. CONCLUSION: The use of rocuronium was associated with lower Apgar scores at 1min compared with suxamethonium. The clinical significance of this is unclear and warrants further investigation.

Prognostic role of serum C-reactive protein in patients with advanced-stage NSCLC treated with pemetrexed.

Pemetrexed is an intravenously administered antifolate cytostatic agent targeting several folate-dependent enzymatic pathways, widely used in the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It has been previously demonstrated that the superiority of pemetrexed is limited to patients with non-squamous histology. Aside from the non-squamous histology, there is still no available molecular biomarker predicting treatment efficacy of pemetrexed-based chemotherapy. The aim of our retrospective study was to evaluate the association of baseline serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) with outcomes in a large cohort of patients with non-squamous NSCLC treated with pemetrexed. Clinical data of 325 patients were analysed. Serum samples were collected within one week before the initiation of treatment. The median progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients with high CRP was 2.1 and 9.5 compared to 4.2 and 20.5 months for those with normal CRP (p=0.002 and p<0.001, respectively). The multivariable Cox proportional hazards model revealed that serum CRP (HR=1.46, p=0.002) was significantly associated with PFS and also with OS (HR=1.95, p<0.001). In conclusion, the study results suggest that pretreatment serum CRP is associated with poor outcome of non-squamous NSCLC patients treated with pemetrexed.

Association of the postoperative white blood cells (WBC) count in peripheral blood after radical surgical treatment of left upper lobe non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with overall survival - single center results.

INTRODUCTION: The individual patient prognosis after radical surgery for Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of left upper lobe remains still unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the predictive value of elevated white blood cell count in peripheral blood as early indicator of postoperative NSCLC prognosis. METHODS: A retrospective statistical analysis was performed studying patients subject to radical treatment of left upper lobe NSCLC in period of five years with subsequent one to three-year monitoring of morbidity and mortality of the patient population. The statistical ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis of the WBC count in peripheral blood third day after the operation was used to evaluate the relationship with overall survival, with respect to patients surviving for at least 24 months. RESULTS: Based on the results of the ROC analysis with a total area under the curve (AUC) of 0.67, it is possible to confirm that the WBC count established third day after the operation allows us to classify patients into groups according to the 24-month overall survival. CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm the potential of using WBC count to improve current protocols to establish postoperative prognosis for NSCLC of the upper left lobe (Tab. 2, Fig. 1, Ref. 11).

Continuously tunable Yb:KYW femtosecond oscillator based on a tunable highly dispersive semiconductor mirror.

The optimized nonuniform growth process was used to achieve spatially dependent reflectivity and dispersions characteristics in a highly dispersive semiconductor mirror. The mirror, together with a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM), was used to demonstrate a tunable femtosecond Yb:KYW oscillator. In the passive modelocking regime the laser could be continuously tuned over 3.5 nm spectral band around 1032 nm with high resolution, maintaining the average output power above 140 mW.

In-situ SEM indentation studies of the deformation mechanisms in TiN, CrN and TiN/CrN.

In this study, the microstructure and the deformation mechanisms of TiN, CrN and multilayer TiN/CrN thin films on silicon substrates were investigated. Cross-sectional lamellas of nanoindents were prepared by focused ion beam milling to observe by transmission electron microscopy the microstructure of the as-deposited and deformed materials. TiN film exhibits nanocrystalline columns, whereas CrN shows large grains. The TiN/CrN multilayer presents microstructural features typical for both materials. A film hardness of 16.9GPa for CrN, 15.8GPa for TiN and 16.6GPa for TiN/CrN was found by the nanoindentation. Reduced modulus recorded for TiN and CrN reference coatings were 221.54 and 171.1GPa, respectively, and 218.6GPa for the multilayer coating. The deformation mechanisms were observed via in-situ scanning electron microscope nanoindentation. The TiN thin film showed short radial cracks, whereas CrN deformed through pile-up and densification of the material. For TiN/CrN multilayer pile-up and cracks were found. Transmission electron microscopy observations indicated that TiN deforms through grain boundary sliding and CrN via densification and material flow. The deformation mechanism observed in TiN/CrN multilayer was found to be a mixture of both modes.