No abstract

These results suggest that early diagnosis and treatment within 3 days of the onset of paralysis are necessary for maximal efficacy of combined acyclovir and prednisolone therapy for Bell's palsy.

An aluminum wire-grid polarizer whose period is 0.39 microm has been fabricated on a quartz substrate by electron-beam direct-writing lithography and the lift-off method. By using the s -polarization resonance effect and optimizing structural parameters, characteristics such as a loss of less than 20% and an extinction ratio larger than 1000 have been experimentally obtained at the 0.8- microm -wavelength band. Theoretical analysis is performed and found to be consistent with the experimental results.

The valacyclovir and prednisolone therapy was more effective in treating Bell's palsy, excluding zoster sine herpete, than the conventional prednisolone therapy. To our knowledge, this is the first controlled study of an antiviral agent in the treatment of a sufficient number of Bell's palsy cases based on an etiologic background.

Background A comparison between atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (ATEZO/BEVA) and lenvatinib (LEN) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. Objective This study aimed to compare the therapeutic effects and safety of ATEZO/BEVA and LEN as first-line therapies for HCC. Patients and Methods This study was a retrospective analysis of 810 patients with HCC who underwent ATEZO/BEVA ( n = 186) or LEN ( n = 624) as first-line systemic therapy between March 2018 to March 2022 at 14 facilities. After propensity score matching, 304 patients (ATEZO/BEVA group: n = 152; LEN group: n = 152) were analyzed. Results After propensity score matching, although there was no significant difference in objective response rates (ORRs) between the ATEZO/BEVA and LEN groups (ORR 44.8% vs. 46.7%, p = 0.644), the median progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) in the ATEZO/BEVA group were significantly higher than those in the LEN group (median PFS: 8.3 months vs. 6.0 months, p = 0.005; median OS: not reached vs. 20.2 months, p = 0.039). The rates of appetite loss, fatigue, and proteinuria of grade 3 or higher in the ATEZO/BEVA group were lower than those in the LEN group. However, the rate of bleeding of grade 3 or higher in the ATEZO/BEVA group was higher than that in the LEN group. The conversion rate was higher in the ATEZO/BEVA group than that in the LEN group (8.6% vs. 1.9%, p = 0.007). Conclusions ATEZO/BEVA showed superiority to LEN in terms of prognosis and conversion rate as first-line therapy. Moreover, ATEZO/BEVA had a lower rate of severe adverse events, except for bleeding, than LEN. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11523-022-00921-x.