Increased VSR was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality. This suggests that the location of fat deposits may be more important than the actual amount of body fat.

P ancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis with a 5-year survival rate of only 8% (1). However, surgical resection with a negative margin may be a potentially curative treatment option for this disease. Recently, the concept of borderline resectable pancreatic cancer has emerged to indicate a special category of potential resectability that may help refine the conventional resectable or unresectable binary stratification system (2). Although there is no widespread consensus on the ideal treatment for borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (3-5), neoadjuvant treatment has been suggested to enhance the margin-negative (ie, R0) resection rate for this disease and to enable better patient selection for surgical procedures (6). In this regard, accurate categorization of patients according to their resectability status at initial workup would have a major impact on the management decision (2,7). Furthermore, proper selection of surgical candidates would offer the best chance to cure patients with resectable disease while preventing futile laparotomies in those with unresectable diseases.The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines (version 2.2017; 8) recommend pancreatic protocol multi-detector row CT, including pancreatic and portal venous phases, preferably CT angiography with thin-section axial images, multiplanar reformats, and maximal intensity projection or three-dimensional volumetric images, for the initial evaluation of patients who are clinically suspected of having pancreatic cancers. Indeed, for the prediction of the resectability of pancreatic cancer, CT shows good diagnostic performance (9-11). Currently, in an attempt to standardize the imaging interpretation of the local resectability of pancreatic cancers, several guidelines define the vessels that should be assessed and the imaging criteria to define the tumor-vascular relationship: abutment (,180°),

Simple synthesis of modafinil derivatives and their biological activity are described. The key synthetic strategies involve substitution and coupling reactions. We determined the anti-inflammatory effects of modafinil derivatives in cultured BV2 cells by measuring the inhibition of nitrite production and expression of iNOS and COX-2 after LPS stimulation. It was found that for sulfide analogues introduction of aliphatic groups on the amide part (compounds 11a–d) resulted in lower anti-inflammatory activity compared with cyclic or aromatic moieties (compounds 11e–k). However, for the sulfoxide analogues, introduction of aliphatic moieties (compounds 12a–d) showed higher anti-inflammatory activity than cyclic or aromatic fragments (compounds 12e–k) in BV-2 microglia cells.

We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of dual-source computed tomography coronary angiography (DSCT-CA) in the measurement of the ascending aorta (AA) diameter and compare the AA diameter in patients with severe bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) stenosis. Eighty-eight consecutive patients (50 men, mean age 60.3 ± 13 year) with severe aortic stenosis (AS) underwent DSCT-CA before aortic valve surgery. Seventy-four of the 88 patients underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). The internal diameter of AA was measured from early-systole with DSCT-CA and CMR by 2 radiologists independently at 4 levels (aortic annulus, sinuses of Valsalva, sinotubular junction, and tubular portion at the right pulmonary artery). The patients were divided in to 2 groups (BAV [n = 53]; TAV [n = 35]) according to operative findings. Patients with BAV were significantly younger than those with TAV (P = 0.0035). Inter-observer agreement of AA diameters at 4 levels with DSCT-CA and CMR was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.89-0.97). Also, the DSCT-CA and CMR measurements of the AA diameter strongly correlated (r = 0.871-0.976). Mean diameter of the AA by DSCT-CA was significantly larger in patients with BAV (34.4 ± 8.2 mm) as compared to those with TAV (30.6 ± 5.5 mm). The diameters at the sinuses of Valsalva, sinotubular junction, and tubular portion were significantly larger in BAV than in TAV. Twenty-two of 53 (41.5%) patients with BAV and 2 of 35 (5.7%) patients with TAV had AA dilatation > 45 mm. DSCT-CA allows accurate assessment of the AA diameters in patients with severe AS. Patients with severe BAV stenosis had larger AA diameters and higher prevalence of AA dilatation > 45 mm as compared to those with severe TAV stenosis.

The presence of DGWT in cirrhotic patients is associated with the presence of ascites, lower platelet count, and lower albumin level. The degree of DGWT is not correlated with such variables.