The composition of FAs in erythrocyte membranes is altered during AP. These changes are likely to be associated with alcohol consumption, inflammatory processes, and oxidative stress.
These findings indicate that certain lifestyle factors might be important for the development of concomitant CP and LC. More studies will be needed to identify additional genetic and environmental factors underlying this association.
Background and objectives: The effectiveness of neoadjuvant therapy, which is commonly used for stage II-III rectal cancer (RC) treatment, is limited. Genes associated with the pathogenesis of RC could determine response to this treatment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the potential predictive value of VEGFA, COX2, HUR and CUGBP2 genes and the associations between post-treatment changes in gene expression and the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy. Materials and Methods: Biopsies from RC and healthy rectal tissue of 28 RC patients were collected before neoadjuvant therapy and 6-8 weeks after neoadjuvant therapy. The expression levels of VEGFA, COX2, HUR, CUGBP2 genes were evaluated using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: The results reveal a significantly higher expression of VEGFA, COX2 and HUR mRNA in RC tissue compared to healthy rectal tissue (p < 0.05), and elevated VEGFA gene expression in pre-treatment tissues was associated with a better response to neoadjuvant therapy based on T-stage downstaging (p < 0.05). The expression of VEGFA, HUR and CUGBP2 genes significantly decreased after neoadjuvant therapy (p < 0.05). Responders to treatment demonstrated a significantly stronger decrease of VEGFA and COX2 expression after neoadjuvant therapy than non-responders (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that the pre-treatment VEGFA gene expression might have predictive value for the response to neoadjuvant therapy, while the post-treatment decrease in VEGFA and COX2 gene expression could indicate the effectiveness of neoadjuvant therapy in RC patients.
BACKGROUND
Degree of portal hypertension (PH) is the most important prognostic factor for the decompensation of liver cirrhosis and death, therefore adequate care for patients with liver cirrhosis requires timely detection and evaluation of the presence of clinically significant PH (CSPH) and severe PH (SPH). As the most accurate method for the assessment of PH is an invasive direct measurement of hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), the search for non-invasive methods to diagnose these conditions is actively ongoing.
AIM
To evaluate the feasibility of parameters of endogenously induced displacements and strain of liver to assess degree of PH.
METHODS
Of 36 patients with liver cirrhosis and measured HVPG were included in the case-control study. Endogenous motion of the liver was characterized by derived parameters of region average tissue displacement signal (
d
antero
,
d
r
etro
,
d
RMS
) and results of endogenous tissue strain imaging using specific radiofrequency signal processing algorithm. Average endogenous strain
µ
and standard deviation
σ
of strain were assessed in the regions of interest (ROI) (1 cm × 1 cm and 2 cm × 2 cm in size) and different frequency subbands of endogenous motion (0-10 Hz and 10-20 Hz).
RESULTS
Four parameters showed statistically significant (
P
< 0.05) correlation with HVPG measurement. The strongest correlation was obtained for the standard deviation of strain (estimated at 0-10 Hz and 2 cm × 2 cm ROI size). Three parameters showed statistically significant differences between patient groups with CSPH, but only
d
retro
showed significant results in SPH analysis. According to ROC analysis area under the curve (AUC) of the
σ
ROI[0…10Hz, 2 cm × 2 cm]
parameter reached 0.71 (
P
= 0.036) for the diagnosis of CSPH; with a cut-off value of 1.28 μm/cm providing 73% sensitivity and 70% specificity. AUC for the diagnosis of CSPH for
µ
ROI[0…10Hz, 1 cm × 1 cm]
was 0.78 (
P
= 0.0024); with a cut-off value of 3.92 μm/cm providing 73% sensitivity and 80% specificity.
D
retro
parameter had an AUC of 0.86 (
P
= 0.0001) for the diagnosis of CSPH and 0.84 (
P
= 0.0001) for the diagnosis of SPH. A cut-off value of -132.34 μm yielded 100% sensitivity for both conditions, whereas specificity was 80% and 72% for CSPH and SPH respectively.
CONCLUSION
The parameters of endogenously induced displacements and strain of the liver correlated with HVPG and might be used for non-invas...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.