Adult intussusception secondary to an appendiceal tumour in a patient with ulcerative colitis: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Intussusception in adult patients is uncommon and appendiceal lead points are particularly rare. CASE PRESENTATION: We present the case of a 42-year-old male with a history of ulcerative colitis, presenting with sudden onset abdominal pain and bloody diarrhoea. Endoscopy revealed grossly normal mucosa in the descending colon with a congested polypoid mass in the proximal transverse colon. Computed tomography revealed ileocecal intussusception at the hepatic flexure. A right hemicolectomy was performed, where a grossly dilated appendix was noted, resected and sent for histopathological evaluation. Results revealed low-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasm. Post-operatively, the patient remained symptom free, however required reintroduction of biologic therapy due to relapse of his ulcerative colitis 12 weeks later. CONCLUSION: This case depicts a rare acute surgical presentation and reminds physicians and surgeons of the importance of 'thinking outside the box' in clinical practice.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a multivariate index assay compared to modified American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists criteria and CA-125 in the triage of women with adnexal masses.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the multivariate index assay (MIA) for use in triaging women with an adnexal mass relative to modified American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (mACOG) referral guidelines and CA-125 testing alone. METHODS: The MIA triage algorithm was based on qualitative serum testing of five biomarkers: transthyretin, apolipoprotein, A-1, 2-microglobulin, transferrin, and CA-125. An economic analysis was developed to evaluate the clinical and cost implications of adopting MIA in clinical practice versus the mACOG referral guidelines and CA-125 alone, over a lifetime horizon, from the perspective of the public payer. Clinical parameters used to characterize patients' disease status, quality of life, and treatment decisions were estimated using the results of published studies; costs were approximated using reimbursement rates from CMS fee schedules. Model endpoints included overall survival (OS), costs, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The cost-effectiveness threshold was set to $50,000 per QALY. One-way sensitivity analysis was performed to assess uncertainty of individual parameters included in the analysis. All costs were reported in 2014 US dollars. RESULTS: Use of MIA was cost-effective, resulting in fewer re-operations and pre-treatment CT scans. Overall MIA resulted in an ICER of $35,094/QALY gained. MIA was also cost-saving and QALY-increasing compared to use of CA-125 alone with an ICER of $12,189/QALY gained. One-way sensitivity analysis showed the ICER was most affected by the following parameters: (1) sensitivity of MIA; (2) sensitivity of mACOG; and (3) percentage of patients, not referred to a gynecologic oncologist, who were correctly diagnosed with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). CONCLUSION: Use of MIA is a more cost-effective triage strategy than mACOG or CA-125. It is expected to increase the percentage of women with ovarian cancer that are referred to gynecologic oncologists, which is shown to improve clinical outcomes. Limitations include the use of assumptions when published data was unavailable, and the use of multiple sources for survival data.

Costs of treatment for elderly women with advanced ovarian cancer in a Medicare population.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the cost of treating women with advanced stage epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) undergoing primary debulking surgery (PDS) or neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). METHODS: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) - Medicare database (1992 to 2009) was used to evaluate the 7-month cost of care following PDS and NACT for advanced EOC. Multivariate analyses were used to evaluate differences between women treated by PDS and NACT on cost and survival. RESULTS: Of the 4506 women eligible for analysis, 82.4% underwent PDS and 17.6% received NACT. Eighty-five percent with stage IIIC and 78.5% with stage IV EOC underwent PDS (p<0.0001). No significant difference in the median cost of care between PDS and NACT existed in women with stage IIIC EOC ($59,801 vs. $59,905). There was a 12% increase in adjusted cost of care for stage IV patients ($63,131 vs. $55,302) who received PDS (p<0.0001). Increasing Charlson score was associated with an increase in 7-month cost of care in both stages. NACT was associated with a decreased 5-year overall survival in women with stage IIIC EOC (HR=1.27, 95% CI: 1.10-1.47) and stage IV EOC (HR=1.19, 95% CI: 1.03-1.37) compared to PDS. CONCLUSION: NACT and PDS are comparable in cost for women with stage IIIC EOC, and PDS is minimally more expensive for women with stage IV EOC. PDS was associated with an increase 5-year overall survival. Future investigations should include cost-effectiveness analyses where additional measures such as quality adjusted life years and propensity scored survival are included.

Model-based analysis and optimization of bioreactor for hematopoietic stem cell cultivation.

One of the problems to be solved in attaining the full potentials of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) applications is the limited availability of the cells. Growing HSCs in a bioreactor offers an alternative solution to this problem. Besides, it also offers the advantages of eliminating labour intensive process as well as the possible contamination involved in the periodic nutrient replenishments in the traditional T-flask stem cell cultivation. In spite of this, the optimization of HSC cultivation in a bioreactor has been barely explored. This manuscript discusses the development of a mathematical model to describe the dynamics in nutrient distribution and cell concentration of an ex vivo HSC cultivation in a microchannel perfusion bioreactor. The model was further used to optimize the cultivation by proposing three alternative feeding strategies in order to prevent the occurrence of nutrient limitation in the bioreactor. The evaluation of these strategies, the periodic step change increase in the inlet oxygen concentration, the periodic step change increase in the media inflow, and the feedback control of media inflow, shows that these strategies can successfully improve the cell yield of the bioreactor. In general, the developed model is useful for the design and optimization of bioreactor operation.

Cutaneous innervation density in the allodynic form of postherpetic neuralgia.

The relationship between deafferentation, sensory function, and pain was explored in 18 subjects with chronic postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Subjective thresholds for warmth, cooling, and heat pain were measured quantitatively in painful skin areas and compared with normal contralateral skin. The severity of allodynia was graded in the affected area. Two 3-mm punch biopsies were taken from the most painful skin area and one from unaffected contralateral mirror-image skin. Immunofluorescence with the axonal marker PGP 9.5 revealed a reduction in density of innervation of the epidermis, the dermal-epidermal junction, and the eccrine sweat glands in PHN skin. In painful PHN skin, the reduction in innervation density was positively correlated with the magnitude of the thermal sensory deficits. However, loss of cutaneous innervation was inversely correlated with allodynia, indicating that surviving cutaneous primary afferent nociceptors that are spontaneously active and/or sensitized contribute to PHN pain and allodynia.