Tag: nevin manimala

Zhonghua Shao Shang Za Zhi. 2021 Apr 22;37:1-9. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.cn501120-20210104-00005. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the effects and mechanisms of polycaprolactone-cellulose acetate (PCL-CA) nanofiber scaffold loaded with rat epidermal stem cells (ESCs) on wound healing in rats with full-thickness skin defect wounds. Methods: The experiment research mehod was applied. The primary ESCs were isolated from 1－3 d old Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (undefined gender) by rapid adherent method and cultured. After the positive expressions of integrin β₁ and cytokeratin 19 (CK19) in primary cells were identified by flow cytometer and immunofluorescence method, respectively, the first passage of ESCs were used for the subsequent experiments. PCL-CA nanofiber scaffolds with polycaprolactone and cellulose acetate as components were prepared by electrospinning technique. The topological structure of the nanofiber scaffolds was determined by scanning electron microscope, and the diameter of 25 fibers was measured. The constructed PCL-CA nanofiber scaffolds were used as the culture substrate of ESCs, which were cultured with keratinocytes (KCs) medium to construct ESCs-nanofiber scaffold complex (hereinafter referred to as ESCs scaffold). After 3 days of culture, the morphology of ESCs in the scaffold and their relationship was observed by scanning electron microscope. The ESCs in ESCs scaffold were set as PCL-CA nanofiber scaffold group, and the ESCs cultured with KCs medium in culture dishes coated with type Ⅳ collagen were set as type Ⅳ collagen group. Western blotting was used to detect the protein expression level of CK19 in ESCs in the two groups after 3 days of culture (n=3). The expressions of CK19 and proliferating nuclear antigen (PCNA) in ESCs in the two groups were detected by immunofluorescence method after 7 days of culture. A full-thickness skin defect wound with diameter of 2 cm was made on both sides of the back of 15 male 6－8 weeks old SD rats. The rats were then equally divided into blank control group without implantation, scaffold alone group implanted with PCL-CA nanofiber scaffold, and ESCs scaffold group implanted with ESCs scaffold which were constructed after 3 days of culture according to random number table. The percentage of wound areas on post injury day (PID) 3, 7, 14, and 21 was calculated (n=5). The new skin tissue at the wound edge was collected on PID 21, the wound healing quality was evaluated by Masson staining, and the protein expression levels of Notch1, Jagged1, and Hes1, which are key proteins of Notch signaling pathway, were detected by Western blotting (n=3). Data were statistically analyzed with one-way analysis of variance, one-way analysis of variance for repeated measurement, independent sample t test, and Bonferroni correction. Results: The constructed PCL-CA nanofiber scaffolds had a porous, mesh-like and multilayered three-dimensional structure, in which the surface of the fibers was smooth and non-porous, and the fiber diameter was (383±24) nm. The ESCs in ESCs scaffold which were cultured for 3 days had an intact cellular structure and were tightly attached to the scaffold. The cells were conjugated with each other and fully extended on the surface of the scaffold to form a membrane. After 3 days of culture, the protein expression level of CK19 of ESCs in PCL-CA nanofiber scaffold group was significantly higher than that in type Ⅳ collagen group (t=24.56, P<0.01). After 7 days of culture, compared with those in type Ⅳ collagen group, there was no significant change in the proportion of PCNA positive cells of ESCs in PCL-CA nanofiber scaffold group, while the proportion of CK19 positive cells was higher. On PID 3, 7, 14, and 21, the percentages of wound areas of rats in ESCs scaffold group were (78.0±1.8)%, (40.9±2.0)%, (17.9±1.1)%, and (5.0±1.0)%, respectively, which were significantly lower than (84.2±1.9)%, (45.4±2.6)%, (21.8±1.7)%, and (10.1±1.1)% in blank control group (t=5.42, 3.09, 4.33, 7.58, P<0.05 or P<0.01) and (82.7±1.2)%, (44.8±2.0)%, (22.4±2.4)%, and (10.3±2.4)% in scaffold alone group (t=4.98, 3.11, 3.84, 4.57, P<0.05 or P<0.01), while the percentages of wound areas of rats between blank control group and scaffold group were similar (t=1.47, 0.39, 0.47, 0.22, P>0.05). On PID 21, the layer of new skin at the wound edge of rats in each group was intact; compared with that in blank control group or scaffold alone group, the new skin tissue at the wound edge of rats in ESCs scaffold group had more orderly collagen arrangement; the scaffolds in the new skin at the wound edge of rats were completely degraded in ESCs scaffold group and scaffold alone group. On PID 21, the protein expression levels of Notch1, Jagged1, and Hes1 in the new skin tissue at the wound edge of rats in scaffold alone group were similar to those in blank control group (t=1.70, 1.94, 0.18, P>0.05), while the protein expression levels of Notch1, Jagged1, and Hes1 the new skin tissue at the wound edge of rats in ESCs scaffold group were significantly higher than those in scaffold alone group (t=13.31, 22.07, 20.71, P<0.01). Conclusions: PCL-CA nanofiber scaffolds can inhibit the differentiation of ESCs without affecting their proliferation in vitro. ESCs scaffolds constructed through using PCL-CA nanofiber scaffolds as the carrier to culture ESCs can significantly promote the wound healing of full-thickness skin defects in rats, and the mechanism may be related to the activation of Notch signaling pathway.

PMID:33894697 | DOI:10.3760/cma.j.cn501120-20210104-00005

Eur J Cancer. 2021 Apr 21;150:83-94. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.02.042. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the prognostic significance of circulating tumour cell (CTC) number determined on the Epic Sciences platform in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) treated with an androgen receptor signalling inhibitor (ARSI).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A pre-treatment blood sample was collected from men with progressing mCRPC starting either abiraterone or enzalutamide as a first-, second- or third-line systemic therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (Discovery cohort, N = 171) or as a first- or second-line therapy as part of the multicenter PROPHECY trial (NCT02269982) (Validation cohort, N = 107). The measured CTC number was then associated with overall survival (OS) in the Discovery cohort, and progression-free survival (PFS) and OS in the Validation cohort. CTC enumeration was also performed on a concurrently obtained blood sample using the CellSearch® Circulating Tumor Cell Kit.

RESULTS: In the MSKCC Discovery cohort, CTC count was a statistically significant prognostic factor of OS as a dichotomous (<3 CTCs/mL versus ≥ 3 CTCs/mL; hazard ratio [HR] = 1.8 [95% confidence interval {CI} 1.3-3.0]) and a continuous variable when adjusting for line of therapy, presence of visceral metastases, prostate-specific antigen, lactate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase. The findings were validated in an independent datas et from PROPHECY (HR [95% CI] = 1.8 [1.1-3.0] for OS and 1.7 [1.1-2.9] for PFS). A strong correlation was also observed between CTC counts determined in matched samples on the CellSearch® and Epic platforms (r = 0.84).

CONCLUSION: The findings validate the prognostic significance of pretreatment CTC number determined on the Epic Sciences platform for predicting OS in men with progressing mCRPC starting an ARSI.

PMID:33894633 | DOI:10.1016/j.ejca.2021.02.042

Ultrasonics. 2021 Apr 15;115:106441. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2021.106441. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Industrial inspection protocols are qualified using mock-ups manufactured according to the same procedure as the plant part. For coarse-grained castings, known for their low inspectability, relying on mock-ups becomes particularly challenging owing to the variability of grain properties among components. Consequently, there is a keen interest in the capability to verify whether the grain size of the component under test matches the qualification specification in-situ. This paper investigates the potential of an attenuation measurement for assessing the ultrasonic inspectability of coarse-grained components using qualified procedures in a practical setting. The experimental part of the study focuses on an industrial Inconel 600 mock-up with spatially varying attenuation, measured across the entire sample in an immersion tank. Three zones with distinctly different attenuations were examined using metallography, which allowed for calculating classical grain size histograms and two-point correlation functions. For one of the zones, we synthesised the microstructure with the same statistical properties numerically and simulated the propagation of ultrasound using a grain-scale finite element model. The results showed good agreement with the experiment, and lead to several suggestions for the reasons for the discrepancy, the varying grain size statistics being the most likely. A parametric study, which followed, depicted the effect of the mean and standard deviation-to-mean ratio of the log-normal grain size distribution on the attenuation of ultrasound and its frequency dependence. Most notably, we demonstrated the known non-uniqueness of the relationship between the log-normal grain size distribution parameters and the attenuation. We suggested that the correlation length calculated from a single exponential fit to the two-point correlation function is a more robust metric describing grain statistics for this context, which can be obtained from attenuation. The correlation lengths estimated from measured attenuation using the second-order approximation model for the three zones of the studied mock-up yielded results of acceptable accuracy. We concluded that this metric could replace the average grain size in practical settings, as it retains more statistical information than the mean grain size and allows for linking measurements to the established theoretical attenuation models which this paper demonstrates.

PMID:33894662 | DOI:10.1016/j.ultras.2021.106441

Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2021 Mar 20;205:106605. doi: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106605. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The benefits of telemedicine in neurosurgery have been widely studied, especially as its implementation into clinical practice boomed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have investigated telemedicine from the perspective of the patient experience.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patient satisfaction scores of telemedicine outpatient clinic visits in neurosurgery in comparison with in-person visits.

METHODS: After obtaining Institutional Review Board approval, Press Ganey surveys from 3/1/2019 to 9/15/2020 were evaluated retrospectively from single-institution, academic neurosurgical clinics. Due to the non-normality of our data, stratified Wilcoxon tests were performed with correction for care provider differences. Domain score probability values were corrected for multiple comparisons. Average scores (range 20-100) are documented as mean ± standard deviation.

RESULTS: The response rates were 20% (97 responders) for telemedicine visits and 19% (589 responders) for in-person visits. Patient overall satisfaction score was slightly higher with telemedicine visits compared to in-person corrected for care provider differences (94.2 ± 12.2 vs 93.1 ± 13.4, p = 0.085). The care provider domain demonstrated no statistically significant difference in telemedicine compared to in-person (94.7 ± 14.4 vs 92.4 ± 16.5, p = 0.096). The access domain (93.7 ± 12.3 vs 93.4 ± 12.4, p = 0.999) and overall domains (94.1 ± 12.1 vs 94.4 ± 13.4, p = 1.000) were not found to be different between visit types.

CONCLUSION: Telemedicine appears to be a valuable option for neurosurgical patients and is not significantly different to in-person visits in all domains. This study demonstrates that telemedicine visits result in comparable satisfaction scores by neurosurgical patients, and providers should continue offering this option to their patients as we approach the post-COVID era.

PMID:33894681 | DOI:10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106605

Nurse Educ Today. 2021 Apr 17;102:104911. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104911. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: According to recent statistics from the Korean Ministry of Education, the number of students who have dropped out of college has increased.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the relationship between creativity, social support, voice behaviour, and college life adjustment among first-year nursing students and to identify the factors influencing college life adjustment.

DESIGN: This study used a cross-sectional correlational design.

SAMPLE: Non-random convenience sampling.

PARTICIPANTS: Participants were first-year Korean nursing students (n = 153).

METHOD: Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analysed using a multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS: Adjustment to college life was significantly correlated with creativity (r = 0.26, p < .001), social support (r = 0.37, p < .001), and voice behaviour (r = 0.40, p < .001). A stepwise regression model showed subjective interpersonal degree (β = 0.32, p < .001), satisfaction with major (β = 0.31, p < .001), voice behaviour (β = 0.25, p < .001), and academic confidence (β = 0.15, p = .015) were significant predictors of college life adjustment (R² = 0.56, p < .001).

CONCLUSION: To improve the college life adjustment of new students in nursing schools, nursing education programmes should include strategies to enhance interpersonal-relationship levels, satisfaction with nursing major, voice behaviour, and academic confidence.

PMID:33894593 | DOI:10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104911

Nurse Educ Today. 2021 Apr 17;102:104908. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104908. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Unfinished Nursing Care (UNC) indicates required interventions that are delayed or omitted. Nursing students are also exposed to UNC during their clinical rotations. However, no tools have been validated to date to collect UNC as perceived by them.

OBJECTIVES: To validate a tool measuring UNC as perceived by nursing students.

DESIGN: A validation study in 2018 by following the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments guideline.

SETTING: Three nursing programmes in Northern Italy.

PARTICIPANTS: All 1190 students who were attending their clinical rotation in hospital or community settings, were eligible. To assess the criterion validity, 30 clinical nurse supervisors in a random sample of units were involved.

METHODS: Content and face validity of the Unfinished Nursing Care Survey tool (UNCS) were assessed; then the tool, divided into part A (unfinished interventions) and B (reasons) was administered via Google and paper-pencil. Acceptability, construct validity (Mokken Scale Analysis, Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses), hypothesis testing, and criterion validity were assessed.

RESULTS: 737 students (61.9%) and 30 (100%) clinical nurse supervisors participated. On the Mokken Scale, with regard to part A, nursing interventions were ordered in higher and lower priority, reflecting different degrees of difficulty in terms of leaving the interventions unfinished. In the Confirmatory Factor Analyses, reasons for UNC were categorised into ‘Communication’, ‘Priority setting’, ‘Nurses’ aides’ supervision’, ‘Material resources’, ‘Human resources’, and ‘Workload unpredictability’. Students in the second year perceived higher UNC occurrence; only some individual and nursing programme variables were significantly correlated with the UNC. No statistical differences emerged between the UNC perceptions of students and that of their clinical supervisors.

CONCLUSION: The Unfinished Nursing Care Survey for Students is composed of part A (22 items) and part B (18 items) seems to be valid in terms of acceptability, construct validity, hypothesis testing, and criterion validity.

PMID:33894594 | DOI:10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104908

Ann Diagn Pathol. 2021 Mar 15;52:151731. doi: 10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2021.151731. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

In this study we evaluated the expression of SATB2 protein in colorectal cancer (CRC) and its association with microsatellite instability (MSI) status, inflammation and hypoxia. Immunohistochemical SATB2 expression was observed in 111 CRC samples. We assessed the correlation between SATB2 expression and clinico-morphological parameters, MSI, COX-2 and HIF-1α expression. SATB2 was noticed in 92.8% CRC. We observed nuclear staining with predominantly strong immunoreaction intensity (67.6%) and percentage of SATB-2 positive cells in more than 50% of cells (87.4%). The statistically significant associations were recorded between high SATB2 expression and low grade, negative lymph nodes and negative vascular invasion. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant correlation between SATB2 expression and microsatellite stability, tendency to correlate with COX-2 and no significant correlation with HIF-1α. SATB2 is overexpressed in CRC and its high expression is a marker of good prognosis. Moreover, SATB2 expression is significantly associated with microsatellite stability, there is tendency to correlate with pro-inflammatory COX-2 and there is no association with hypoxia.

PMID:33894556 | DOI:10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2021.151731

Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2021 Apr 14;43:101393. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2021.101393. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the effect of acupressure on stress, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HBA1C) in patients with type 2 diabetes.

METHODS: In this randomized controlled clinical trial, sixty-six diabetic patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into intervention and sham groups. The intervention group applied self-acupressure to the desired points for a month. The sham group were asked to slightly touch the same points. The DASS-21 and FBG were measured before intervention, 24 h after the intervention for both groups. In addition, HBA1C was measured for both groups before intervention and three months after the beginning of the intervention. Data were analyzed with SPSS 15.

RESULTS: Statistical data analysis of 60 patients showed that the mean FBG and the mean stress score of the intervention group reduced significantly after the intervention (p < 0.001) but the mean rate of HBA1C in the intervention group did not differ significantly after the intervention (p = 0.21).

CONCLUSION: Acupressure should be considered for diabetic patients to reduce their stress and FBG.

PMID:33894577 | DOI:10.1016/j.ctcp.2021.101393

Phys Med. 2021 Apr 21;84:141-148. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2021.03.040. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Whole-body bone scintigraphy is the most widely used method for detecting bone metastases in advanced cancer. However, its interpretation depends on the experience of the radiologist. Some automatic interpretation systems have been developed in order to improve diagnostic accuracy. These systems are pixel-based and do not use spatial or textural information of groups of pixels, which could be very important for classifying images with better accuracy. This paper presents a fast method of object-oriented classification that facilitates easier interpretation of bone scintigraphy images.

METHODS: Nine whole-body images from patients suspected with bone metastases were analyzed in this preliminary study. First, an edge-based segmentation algorithm together with the full lambda-schedule algorithm were used to identify the object in the bone scintigraphy and the textural and spatial attributes of these objects were calculated. Then, a set of objects (224 objects, ~ 46% of the total objects) were selected as training data based on visual examination of the image, and were assigned to various levels of radionuclide accumulation before performing the data classification using both k-nearest-neighbor and support vector machine classifiers. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated using as metric the statistical parameters calculated from error matrix.

RESULTS: The results revealed that the proposed object-oriented classification approach using either k-nearest-neighbor or support vector machine as classification methods performed well in detecting bone metastasis in terms of overall accuracy (86.62 ± 2.163% and 86.81 ± 2.137% respectively) and kappa coefficient (0.6395 ± 0.0143 and 0.6481 ± 0.0218 respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the described method provided encouraging results in mapping bone metastases in whole-body bone scintigraphy.

PMID:33894584 | DOI:10.1016/j.ejmp.2021.03.040

Chemosphere. 2021 Apr 17;279:130591. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130591. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The presence of antimicrobials, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (ARB), and the associated antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment is a global health concern. In this study, the concentrations of 25 antimicrobials, the resistance of Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains in response to the selection pressure imposed by 15 antimicrobials, and enrichment of 20 ARGs in E. coli isolated from hospital wastewaters and surface waters were investigated from 2016 to 2018. In hospital wastewaters, clarithromycin was detected at the highest concentration followed by sulfamethoxazole and sulfapyridine. Approximately 80% of the E. coli isolates were resistant, while 14% of the isolates exhibited intermediate resistance against the tested antimicrobial agents. Approximately 61% of the examined isolates were categorized as multidrug-resistant bacteria. The overall abundance of phenotypes that were resistant toward drugs was in the following order: β-lactams, tetracycline, quinolones, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, aminoglycosides, and chloramphenicol. The data showed that the E. coli isolates frequently harbored bla_TEM, bla_CTX-M, tetA, qnrS, and sul2. These results indicated that personal care products were significantly associated with the presence of several resistant phenotypes and resistance genes, implying their role in co-association with multidrug resistance. Statistical analysis also indicated a disparity specific to the site, treatment, and year in the data describing the prevalence of ARB and ARGs and their release into downstream waters. This study provides novel insights into the abundance of antimicrobial, ARB and ARGs in Sri Lanka, and could further offer invaluable information that can be integrated into global antimicrobial resistance databases.

PMID:33894511 | DOI:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130591