Elderly Rectal Cancer: An Updated Review.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Treatment of rectal cancer patients of advanced age should be modulated by life expectancy and tolerance. Due to the rapid advance of this field, we aim to conduct an updated review of this topic. RECENT FINDINGS: The field of elderly rectal cancer has advanced a lot. This review covers all the treatment aspects of elderly rectal cancer, including the prognostic factor, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and palliative treatment. We also provide the future aspect of the management of elderly rectal cancer. The advancement of prognostic factor research, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and palliative treatment has made the care of elderly rectal cancer patients better. The future of these fields should focus on the definition of the elderly and the application of particle therapy.

Chance fracture at L2 followed by delayed jejunal transection due to a motor vehicle collision: A case report and review.

Chance fractures are rare lesions but are often associated with abdominal injuries. We present a case of a 21-year-old patient who sustained a delayed type of abdominal injury associated with a bonny Chance fracture of lumbar 2nd following a traffic accident. Initial X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans showed a Chance fracture with subtle bowel images, evading the prompt diagnosis of bowel injuries. However, the toxic signs were presented after 17h of stay in intensive care unit, and hollow visceral perforation was diagnosed in the re-do abdominal CT scanning. The laparostomy with primary anastomosis was performed for complete transection of the middle part of the jejunum. After a follow-up period of 20 days, the patient underwent kyphoplasty, accompanied by posterior fusion of the L1-L3 vertebrae and was found well recovered at 2 weeks follow-up. Clinicians should realize the subtle but meaningful imaging signs to allow prompt diagnosis as well as management when meeting patients with seatbelt sign associated with Chance fracture after a traffic accident.

Challenges and Considerations in Identifying the Origin of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis: A Case Report.

Invasive lobular cancer (ILC) of the breast is the second most common type of invasive breast cancer. Clinical determination of the growth pattern of ILC of the breast is difficult. Furthermore, the ILC of the breast has a unique metastatic pattern that involves gastrointestinal and peritoneal sites. Our patient was initially misdiagnosed with left ovarian cancer based on the findings of positron emission tomography and computed tomography. Herein, we report a case of ILC of the breast presenting as peritoneal carcinomatosis. The ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for cancers of unknown primary sites were used in the diagnosis of the carcinoma of unknown primary origin. Image-guided biopsy and immunohistochemical staining are also useful in the diagnosis of these cancer types.

Application of acupuncture in the emergency department for patients with ileus: A pilot prospective cohort clinical study.

Acupuncture can be conveniently used for pain control in patients with a variety of conditions, and it has obvious effects on various acute pains. In 2018, we implemented a program for emergency treatment with Chinese medicine to promote the integration of Chinese and Western medicine at the Emergency Department (ED). Ileus is a common cause of abdominal pain among patients in the ED, and it is an indication for emergency treatment with Chinese medicine. This study investigated the efficacy of acupuncture as a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)-based treatment method for the treatment of patients with ileus in the ED. We analyzed data of patients with ileus, who visited ED between January and December 2019, and compared the length of ED stay between the Western medicine group and the Western medicine plus acupuncture group. Furthermore, pain intensity was measured by a visual analogue scale before and after acupuncture. We found that the length of ED stay was 10.8 hours lesser in the Western medicine plus acupuncture group than in the Western medicine group (P = .04), and the visual analogue scale score decreased by 2.0 on average from before to after acupuncture treatment (P = .02). Acupuncture treatment was effective and rapid in relieving the symptoms and discomfort in patients with ileus and in reducing their length of stay in the ED.

Neighborhood effects in mixed-species flocks affect foraging efficiency of intermediate and little egrets.

Birds aggregate for various survival needs, and ardeids form both conspecific and mixed-species flocks. However, it remains unclear whether and how ardeids' foraging while joining a flock is affected differently in conspecific versus mixed-species flocks. We studied egret flocks in southwestern Taiwan to assess the flock size and neighborhood effects on flock formation and foraging performance of egrets by examining landing tendencies and expelling behaviors of Little (Egretta garzetta) and Intermediate (E. intermedia) egrets, and assessing strike rates, strike efficiency, and intake rates of singles and egrets in conspecific and mixed-species flocks. We found no evidence of non-random landings to mixed-species flocks by either species, but egrets showed a trend of landing closer to conspecifics when conspecifics represented lower proportions in flocks. Intermediate Egrets displayed expelling behavior more frequently. Expelling by earlier arrived egrets interrupted subsequent flock formation on 45.2 % occasions, but was not affected by egrets' foraging performance. Solitary Little Egrets had higher strike and fish intake rates, but lower strike efficiency, than solitary Intermediate Egrets, whereas their biomass intake rates were similar. Strike and fish intake rates increased in flocks compared to singles in both species, but declined for Little Egrets as flocks increased from medium (11-30 birds) to large sizes (> 30). Intermediate Egrets had higher strike, fish intake, and biomass intake rates, but Little Egrets had lowered strike efficiency and fish- and biomass-intake rates, when near each other than when near conspecifics. Overall, Intermediate Egrets in mixed-species flocks improved foraging efficiency and food intakes by neighborhood effects at costs of reduced foraging efficiency to Little Egrets. The variation in landing tendency over flock compositions suggests potential interactions of the neighborhood effect with egrets' conspecific attraction.

Magnetic SiO(2)/Fe(3)O(4) colloidal crystals.

We proposed a novel technique to fabricate colloidal crystals by using monodisperse SiO(2) coated magnetic Fe(3)O(4)(SiO(2)/Fe(3)O(4)) microspheres. The magnetic SiO(2)/Fe(3)O(4) microspheres with a diameter of 700 nm were synthesized in the basic condition with ferric sulfate, ferrous sulfate, tartaric acid and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in the reaction system. Monodisperse SiO(2)/Fe(3)O(4) superparamagnetic microspheres have been successfully used to fabricate colloidal crystals under the existing magnetic field.

Rapid fabrication of 2D and 3D photonic crystals and their inversed structures.

In this paper a new technique is proposed for the fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals using monodisperse polystyrene microspheres as the templates. In addition, the approaches toward the creation of their corresponding inversed structures are described. The inversed structures were prepared by subjecting an introduced silica source to a sol-gel process; programmed heating was then performed to remove the template without spoiling the inversed structures. Utilizing these approaches, 2D and 3D photonic crystals and their highly ordered inversed hexagonal multilayer or monolayer structures were obtained on the substrate.