This large observational study demonstrates an improvement in operative mortality for patients undergoing pancreatectomy for neoplastic disease from 1998 to 2003. In addition, a greater proportion of pancreatectomies were performed at high-volume centers in 2003. The regionalization of pancreatic surgery may have partially contributed to the observed decrease in mortality rates.

The amyloid precursor protein (APP) has been associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) because APP is processed into the ␤-peptide that accumulates in amyloid plaques, and APP gene mutations can cause early onset AD. Inflammation is also associated with AD as exemplified by increased expression of interleukin-1 (IL-1) in microglia in affected areas of the AD brain. Here we demonstrate that IL-1␣ and IL-1␤ increase APP synthesis by up to 6-fold in primary human astrocytes and by 15-fold in human astrocytoma cells without changing the steady-state levels of APP mRNA. A 90-nucleotide sequence in the APP gene 5-untranslated region (5-UTR) conferred translational regulation by IL-1␣ and IL-1␤ to a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene. Steady-state levels of transfected APP(5-UTR)/CAT mRNAs were unchanged, whereas both baseline and IL-1-dependent CAT protein synthesis were increased. This APP mRNA translational enhancer maps from ؉55 to ؉144 nucleotides from the 5-cap site and is homologous to related translational control elements in the 5-UTR of the light and and heavy ferritin genes. Enhanced translation of APP mRNA provides a mechanism by which IL-1 influences the pathogenesis of AD.

A higher percentage of women currently present with aneurysm rupture. They have higher in-hospital mortality rates for both iAAA and rAAA. This gender difference in the outcomes following repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm has persisted over time, the cause of which is not explained by these or previous data, a fact that warrants further investigation.

In the United States, for RAAA, EVAR had a lower postoperative mortality than open repair. Higher elective open repair as well as RAAA volume increased this mortality advantage for EVAR. These results support regionalization of RAAA repair to high volume centers whenever possible and a wider adoption of endovascular repair of RAAA nationwide.