No abstract

Specific viral single and co-infections as well as viral load contribute to disease severity in children with LRTIs.

These findings demonstrate that CVVH can remove TNF alpha and special cytokines from the circulation of critically ill patients. Cardiovascular hemodynamics seemed to improve in septic patients after induction of hemofiltration treatment, although there was no evidence that extracorporeal removal of cytokines achieved a reduction in blood levels. The study indicates that low volume continuous hemofiltration with polysulphone membranes in patients with acute renal failure is not able to induce significant removal of cytokines.

RESULTS.Light microscopic study showed that BSCC was composed of relatively versity, Düsseldorf, Germany.small tumor cells, arranged in solid lobules with abundant comedo-type necrosis.

Rac proteins of the Rho-like GTPase family, including the ubiquitous Rac1, the hematopoiesisspecific Rac2, and the least-characterized Rac3 play a major role in oncogenic transformation, tumor invasion and metastasis. However, the prognostic relevance of Rac expression in human tumors has not been investigated yet. In the present study, Rac protein expression was analyzed in benign secretory epithelium, high-grade prostatic intraepithelium neoplasia (HG-PIN), and prostate carcinomas of 60 R0-resected radical prostatectomy specimens by semiquantitative immunohistochemistry. Thus, Rac proteins were significantly strongly expressed in HG-PIN (P!0.001) and prostate carcinomas (P!0.001) when compared with benign secretory epithelium. Accordingly, all tumor tissues analyzed by isoform-specific real-time PCR (nZ7) exhibited significantly higher RNA expression levels of Rac (i.e. sum of Rac1 and Rac3 expression levels) than the respective benign counterparts (PZ0.018) and this appeared to result mainly from increased expression of the Rac3 isoform as verified by immunoblotting. Univariate analyses showed statistically significant associations of increased Rac protein expression in prostate cancer (PZ0.045), preoperative prostate-specific antigen levels (PZ0.044), pT stage (PZ0.002), and Gleason score (PZ0.001) with decreased disease-free survival (DFS). This prognostic effect of increased protein expression of Rac remained significant even in a multivariate analysis including all these four factors (relative riskZ3.22, 95% confidence intervalZ1.04-10.00; PZ0.043). In conclusion, our data suggest that increased Rac protein expression in prostate cancer relative to the corresponding benign secretory epithelium is an independent predictor of decreased DFS and appears to result mainly from increased expression of the Rac3 isoform.

The Rac-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor, Tiam1, plays a major role in oncogenicity, tumour invasion and metastasis but its usefulness as a prognostic marker in human cancer has not been tested yet. In the present study, Tiam1 expression was analysed in benign secretory epithelium, pre-neoplastic high-grade prostatic intraepithelium neoplasia (HG-PIN) and prostate carcinomas of 60 R0-resected radical prostatectomy specimens by semiquantitative immunohistochemistry. Tiam1 proved significantly overexpressed in both HG-PIN (Po0.001) and prostate carcinomas (Po0.001) when compared to benign secretory epithelium. Strong Tiam1 overexpression (i.e. X3.5-fold) in prostate carcinomas relative to the respective benign prostatic epithelium was statistically significantly associated with disease recurrence (P ¼ 0.016), the presence of lymph vessel invasion (P ¼ 0.031) and high Gleason scores (GS) (i.e. X7) (P ¼ 0.044). Univariate analysis showed a statistically significant association of strong Tiam1 overexpression with decreased disease-free survival (DFS) (P ¼ 0.03). This prognostic effect of strong Tiam1 overexpression remained significant in multivariate analysis including preoperative prostate-specific antigen levels, pT stage, and GS (relative risk ¼ 3.75, 95% confidence interval ¼ 1.06 -13.16; P ¼ 0.04). Together, our data suggest that strong Tiam1 overexpression relative to the corresponding benign epithelial cells is a new and independent predictor of decreased DFS for patients with prostate cancer.

Self-administered questionnaires via Tablet PC are a facile and capable option in patients with rheumatic diseases to monitor disease activity, efficacy and safety assessments continuously. Tablet PC applications offers directly available data for clinical decision-making improves quality of care by effective patient monitoring, and contributes to patients' empowerment.

NQO1 is an antioxidant enzyme, important in the detoxification of environmental carcinogens. A single nucleotide polymorphism (C3 T) at position 609 of the NQO1 cDNA has been associated with susceptibility to tumours induced by chemical carcinogens. In our case-control study, we determined the prevalence of the C609T NQO1 polymorphism by PCR-RFLP analysis in Caucasian patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC; n‫,)16؍‬ cardiac adenocarcinoma (CAC; n‫)021؍‬ or gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC; n‫)302؍‬ vs. a control group that consisted of 252 healthy blood donors. Additionally, NQO1 mRNA expression and NQO1 protein expression were determined by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in a subset of cases. The NQO1 C609T genotype distribution was significantly different among controls (C/C, 73.4%; C/T, 25.0%; T/T, 1.6%) as compared to OAC patients (C/C, 49.2%; C/T, 47.5%; T/T, 3.3%; p‫,)4000.0؍‬ CAC patients (C/C, 55.8%; C/T, 40.0%; T/T, 4.2%; p‫)5000.0؍‬ and with GAC patients (C/C, 65.5%; C/T; 30.6%, T/T; 3.9%; p‫.)7730.0؍‬ The 609T allele overall frequency was 0.141 in controls, 0.270 in OAC patients, 0.241 in CAC patients and 0.192 in GAC patients. Individuals carrying 1 or 2 609T alleles had a 2.85-fold higher risk (95% CI: 1.61-5.07; p‫)3000.0؍‬ for the development of OAC and a 2.18-fold higher risk (95% CI: 1.38 -3.44; p‫)7000.0؍‬ for the development of CAC than wild-type gene homozygotes. Immunohistochemical analysis showed NQO1 protein expression in 133 carcinomas, whereas 17 carcinomas were negative. Negativity for NQO1 protein expression correlated strongly with the NQO1 genotype being present in 3.9% of cases with C/C, 13.9% of cases with C/T and 62.5% of cases with T/T genotype (p<0.001). In contrast, NQO1 mRNA expression was detectable irrespective of underlying genotype. In conclusion, determination of the NQO1 genotype may gain importance as a stratification marker in future prevention trials for adenocarcinoma of upper gastrointestinal tract.