Analysis of Sagittal Position Changes of the Condyle After Mandibular Setback Surgery Across the Four Different Types of Plating Systems.

ABSTRACT: The authors analyzed the three-dimensional postoperative condylar position change across the plating systems. This retrospective study was conducted with the patients who underwent bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy with setback surgery. The condylar change was analyzed from preoperative cone-beam computed tomography to postoperative 1 month (T1) and postoperative 6 months (T2) using superimposition software, automatically merging based on the anterior cranial base. The condylar changes during T1 and T2 were analyzed across the four types of plates (4-hole sliding, heart-shaped, 3-hole sliding, and 4-hole conventional) Mean intraclass correlation coefficient values were consistently high for each measurement (>0.850). During T1, the conventional plate had a decreased condylar anterior distance when compared with the 3-hole sliding plate (P = 0.032). During T2, the conventional plate had an increased condylar posterior distance when compared with the 3-hole sliding plate (P = 0.031). Superimposition software based on the anterior cranial base could be available for measurement of condylar position with highly reproducible results. After bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy, the 3-hole sliding plate could effectively compensate for the anterior displacement of the condyle compared to other plates.

Use of Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System Inhibitors and Severe COVID-19 Outcomes in Patients with Hypertension: A Nationwide Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 facilitates the entry of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 into the human body. We investigated the association of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitor use with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes in hypertensive patients. METHODS: We identified hypertensive patients with confirmed COVID-19 from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service from inception to May 15, 2020. The primary outcome was the composite of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and death from COVID-19. The individual components were evaluated as secondary outcomes. RESULTS: Of 1,374 hypertensive patients with COVID-19, 1,076 (78.3%) and 298 (21.7%) were users and never-users of RAAS inhibitors, respectively. The RAAS inhibitor users were not associated with the risk of the primary outcome (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.46 to 1.10). The risk of ICU admission was significantly lower in the users than the never-users (aOR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.84). The RAAS inhibitors were beneficial only in ICU admissions that did not require IMV (aOR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.58). The risk of death from COVID-19 was comparable between the groups (aOR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.64 to 1.85). We could not evaluate the risks of CRRT and ECMO owing to the small number of events. CONCLUSION: RAAS inhibitor use was not associated with the composite of severe outcomes in the hypertensive patients with COVID-19 but significantly lowered the risk of ICU admission, particularly in patients who did not require IMV.

Classification of postoperative edema based on the anatomic division with mandibular third molar extraction.

PURPOSE: Several investigations have been performed for a postoperative edema after extraction, but the results have been controversial due to low objectivity or poorly reproducible assessments of the edema. The aim of this study was to suggest a classification and patterns of postoperative edema according to the anatomical division associated with extraction of mandibular third molar as a qualitative evaluation method. METHODS: This study was conducted forty-four mandibular third molars extracted and MRI was taken within 48 h after extraction. The postoperative edema space was classified by MRI (one anatomic component-buccinator muscle-and four fascial spaces-supra-periosteum space, buccal space, parapharyngeal space, and lingual space), and evaluated independently by two examiners. The inter-examiner reliability was calculated using Kappa statistics. RESULTS: The evaluation of buccinator muscle edema showed good agreement and the fascial spaces showed constant high agreement. The incidence of postoperative edema was high in the following order: supra-periosteum space (75.00%), buccinator muscle (68.18%), parapharyngeal space (54.55%), buccal space (40.91%), and lingual space (25.00%). CONCLUSION: Postoperative edema could be assessed clearly by each space, which showed a different tendency between the anatomic and fascial spaces.

Influence of Osteoporosis Following Spine Surgery on Reoperation, Readmission, and Economic Costs: An 8-Year Nationwide Population-Based Study in Korea.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between prevalence of osteoporosis and risk factors, medical costs, reoperation, and readmission in patients after spine surgery. METHODS: Patients >50 years old with thoracic or lumbar spine diseases who underwent spine surgery between 2005 and 2008 were selected from the Korean National Health Insurance Service databases for analysis. There were 147,676 patients selected, who were divided into 2 groups (osteoporosis and non-osteoporosis) and followed for 8 years. Multiple logistic regressions were performed to examine the effect of osteoporosis following spine surgery. RESULTS: Patients with osteoporosis showed significant increases in readmission rates (odds ratio = 1.26, P < 0.001). Osteoporosis was found to be significantly associated with longer hospital stays and increased medical costs regardless of the cause of spine disease. For readmission, there was a 62-day difference in hospitalization time and U.S. dollars $2040 difference in medical costs between the osteoporosis group and non-osteoporosis group. Total medical costs of the osteoporosis group were about U.S. dollars $310 million more than total medical costs of the non-osteoporosis group. Osteoporosis increased the risk of reoperation in fusion surgery, particularly in the first 3 months postoperatively (odds ratio = 1.34, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Osteoporosis was significantly associated with higher readmission rates, longer hospitalization, and greater medical costs during the 8-year follow-up. It also increased the risk of reoperation in fusion surgery. Proper management of osteoporosis is essential before spine surgery, particularly fusion surgery, to help reduce patients' socioeconomic burden and produce more satisfactory surgical outcomes.

Association of maxillary dental developmental abnormality with precocious puberty: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Dental studies of precocious puberty have focused on examination of jaw and dentition growth. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between precocious puberty and maxillary dental developmental abnormalities (DDAs). METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted on the Korean patients in whom dental panoramic and hand-wrist radiographs had been taken before they were 15 years of age. The maxillary DDAs were assessed as mesiodens, congenital missing teeth, peg-shape lateral incisors, or impacted teeth. The chronological ages of the control group members were within the normal range of the hand-wrist bone age. Others with a peak luteinizing hormone of ≥ 5 and < 5 IU/L were allocated to central precocious puberty (CPP) and peripheral precocious puberty (PPP), respectively. RESULTS: Of the enrolled 270 patients, 195, 52, and 23 were allocated to the control, CPP, and PPP groups, respectively. The maxillary DDAs were significantly more prevalent in the CPP group than in the other groups. Among those with maxillary DDA, the mesiodens predominated. Age- and sex-adjusted multivariate analysis revealed maxillary DDA (odds ratio, 3.36; 95% CI, 1.60-7.05) and especially mesiodens (odds ratio, 5.52; CI, 2.29-13.28) to be significantly associated with CPP. CONCLUSIONS: Maxillary DDAs were significantly more prevalent in the CPP group than in the PPP or control groups. Among the many types of maxillary DDAs, mesiodens was significantly associated with CPP and may be considered a predictor of the development of CPP.

Development and validation of a difficulty index for mandibular third molars with extraction time.

OBJECTIVES: : This study aimed to validate the effectiveness of a recently proposed difficulty index for removal of impacted mandibular third molars based on extraction time and suggest a modified difficulty index including the presence of pathologic conditions associated with third molars. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study enrolled 65 male patients younger than 25 years with third molars. Extraction time was calculated from start of the incision to the last suture. The difficulty scores for third molars were based on spatial relationship (1-5 points), depth (1-4 points), and ramus relationship (1-3 points) using cone-beam computed tomography. The difficulty index was defined as follows: I (3-4 points), II (5-7 points), III (8-10 points), and IV (11-12 points). The modified difficulty score was calculated by adding one point to the difficulty score if the third molar was associated with a pathologic condition. Two modified difficulty indices, based on the presence of pathologic conditions, were as follows: the half-level up difficulty index (HDI) and the one-level up difficulty index (ODI) from the recently proposed difficulty index. RESULTS: The correlations between extraction time and difficulty index and or modified difficulty indices were significant (P<0.001). The correlation coefficient between extraction time and difficulty index was 0.584. The correlation coefficients between extraction time and HDI and ODI were 0.728 and 0.764, respectively. CONCLUSION: Extraction time of impacted third molars exhibited a moderate correlation with difficulty index and was strongly correlated with the modified indices. Considering the clinical implications, the difficulty index of surgical extraction should take into consideration the pathologic conditions associated with third molars.

The Effect of Coffee Consumption on the Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus: The 2012-2016 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

An inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) has been observed. However, little is known about this association in Koreans, although they are now among the top global consumers of coffee. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the prevalence of DM and the amount of coffee consumption using a unit of exact measurement, regardless of the type of coffee consumed. This study was based on data acquired from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2012-2016. The participants who completed the survey were included in the statistical analysis (n = 14,578). Subjects were stratified by age (19-39 years old: young adult; 40-64 years old: middle-aged adult) and gender (men, women). The amount of coffee was measured using a teaspoon (tsp) unit corresponding to 5 mL of powdered coffee and was analyzed as a continuous variable. The mean powdered coffee intake per day was 1.97 tsp in women groups, 2.24 tsp in young adult men, and 2.72 tsp in middle-aged men. The frequency of coffee consumption showed an inverse relationship with the amount of coffee intake at a time. With each 1-tsp increment in daily coffee intake, the odds of DM were 0.89 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.86-0.92, p < 0.001) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.90-0.95, p = 0.003) in middle-aged women and men, respectively. Coffee consumption was inversely correlated with the prevalence of DM even with adjustment for covariates in middle-aged adults. We delineated that the prevalence for DM decreased as coffee intake increased in Korean middle-aged adults. Therefore, our data represented an inverse association between coffee consumption and the prevalence of DM, although Koreans have a unique coffee-drinking habit.

Influence of diabetes mellitus on patients with lumbar spinal stenosis: A nationwide population-based study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the relationship between comorbidities, medical cost, and surgical outcome in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and diabetes mellitus (DM). METHODS: Data on patients with LSS (n = 14,298) were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database from 2005 to 2007. After 8 years of follow-up, a "DM group" (n = 3,478) and a "non-DM group" (n = 10,820) were compared according to outcome measures. Cox proportional hazard regressions were performed to examine the relationship between DM, hypertension (HTN), cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), cerebrovascular disease (CbVD), and surgery for LSS. The admission rate and medical cost as well asthe overall survival rate for those who underwent lumbar surgery were also assessed among patients with DM and LSS. RESULTS: Mortality was about 1.35 times higher in the DM group than in the non-DM group. Patients with DM and comorbidities including HTN (hazard ratio [HR], 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.25-1.56; p<0.001), CVD (HR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.36-1.73; p<0.001), CKD (HR, 3.18; 95% CI, 2.7-3.76; p<0.001), and CbVD (HR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.49-1.91; p<0.001) showed an increased risk of mortality. The mean hospitalization time and average medical cost of patients with DM who underwent lumbar surgery were 60.8 days, and 7,127 USD, respectively. This was 31.3 days longer, and 6,207 USD higher, respectively, than those of patients with DM who underwent conservative treatment for LSS. Within the DM group, the survival rate of surgical management of LSS had a significant tendency for positive prognosis compared with those administered conservative treatment (p = 0.046). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with LSS, DM was associated both with poor prognosis (most significantly in those with CKD), and increased medical cost in those who underwent surgery. Nevertheless, surgical treatment for LSS in patients with DM was related to favorable prognosis compared with conservative treatment.

Characteristics and Treatment Patterns of Patients with Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma in Korea.

PURPOSE: A soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a rare type of cancer, accounting for 1% of adult solid cancers. The aim of the present study is to determine the incidence of localized and advanced STS in Korean patients, their treatment patterns, and the survival of patients by disease status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The STS patient cohort was defined using National Health Insurance Service medical data from 2002 to 2015. Incidence, distribution, anatomical location of tumors, survival rates (Kaplan-Meyer survival function) and treatment patterns were analyzed by applying different algorithms to the STS cohort containing localized and advanced STS cases. RESULTS: A total of 7,813 patients were diagnosed with STS from 2007 to 2014, 4,307 were localized STS and 3,506 advanced STS cases. The total incidence of STS was 2.49 per 100,000 person- years: 1.37 per 100,000 person-years for localized STS and 1.12 per 100,000 person-years for advanced STS. The 5-year survival rate after diagnosis was 56.4% for all STS, 82.4% for localized, and 27.2% for advanced STS. Half of the advanced STS patients (49.98%) received anthracycline-containing chemotherapy as initial treatment after diagnosis. CONCLUSION: This study provides insights into localized and advanced STS epidemiology, treatment patterns and outcomes in Korea, which could be used as fundamental data in improving clinical outcomes of STS patients in the future.

Prevalence, Incidence, Comorbidity, and Mortality Rates of Ossification of Posterior Longitudinal Ligament in the Cervical Spine: A Nested Case-Control Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate prevalence, incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates of cervical ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) using data from a 12-year national cohort of 1,025,340 Korean people. METHODS: A nested case-control cohort study was performed from 2002 to 2013 using the insurance claims database provided by the National Health Insurance Service. We examined prevalence and incidence of cervical OPLL. Age- and sex-matched control subjects were randomly extracted, with 10 times the number of OPLL cases. Differences in sex, comorbidity, and relative survival rate compared with control subjects were assessed. RESULTS: Cumulative prevalence was 20,960 per 1,025,340 people for 12 years. Annual incidence was approximately 199-371 per 1 million people. Overall crude mortality rate was 7.64%. Relative survival rate of OPLL cases was not significantly different from control cases. Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease, except renal disease, correlated significantly with OPLL compared with control cases (P < 0.001). Additionally, between dead and surviving patients among OPLL cases, all comorbidities correlated more significantly with death (P < 0.001). Furthermore, between surgery and nonsurgery cases of OPLL, diabetes, hypertension, and renal disease (P < 0.05) were significantly associated with surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Annual incidence of OPLL was 199-371 per 1,025,340 people for 10 years. Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease, except renal disease, correlated significantly with OPLL compared with control cases. Especially, diabetes, hypertension, and renal disease were associated with patients with OPLL who underwent surgery.

Feasibility of a Modified E-PASS and POSSUM System for Postoperative Risk Assessment in Patients with Spinal Disease.

OBJECTIVE: This retrospective case control study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of using Estimation of Physiological Ability and Surgical Stress (E-PASS) and Physiological and Operative Severity Score for the enumeration of Mortality and Morbidity (POSSUM) systems in patients undergoing spinal surgical procedures. Degenerative spine disease has increased in incidence in aging societies, as has the number of older adult patients undergoing spinal surgery. Many older adults are at a high surgical risk because of comorbidity and poor general health. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 217 patients who had undergone spinal surgery at a single tertiary care. We investigated complications within 1 month after surgery. Criteria for both skin incision in E-PASS and operation magnitude in the POSSUM system were modified to fit spine surgery. We calculated the E-PASS and POSSUM scores for enrolled patients, and investigated the relationship between postoperative complications and both surgical risk scoring systems. To reinforce the predictive ability of the E-PASS system, we adjusted equations and developed modified E-PASS systems. RESULTS: The overall complication rate for spinal surgery was 22.6%. Forty-nine patients experienced 58 postoperative complications. Nineteen major complications, including hematoma, deep infection, pleural effusion, progression of weakness, pulmonary edema, esophageal injury, myocardial infarction, pneumonia, reoperation, renal failure, sepsis, and death, occurred in 17 patients. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for predicted postoperative complications after spine surgery was 0.588 for E-PASS and 0.721 for POSSUM. For predicted major postoperative complications, the AUC increased to 0.619 for E-PASS and 0.842 for POSSUM. The AUC of the E-PASS system increased from 0.588 to 0.694 with the Modified E-PASS equation. CONCLUSIONS: The POSSUM system may be more useful than the E-PASS system for estimating postoperative surgical risk in patients undergoing spine surgery. The preoperative risk scores of E-PASS and POSSUM can be useful for predicting postoperative major complications. To enhance the predictability of the scoring systems, using of modified equations based on spine surgery-specific factors may help ensure surgical outcomes and patient safety.

A prediction model for advanced colorectal neoplasia in an asymptomatic screening population.

BACKGROUND: An electronic medical record (EMR) database of a large unselected population who received screening colonoscopies may minimize sampling error and represent real-world estimates of risk for screening target lesions of advanced colorectal neoplasia (CRN). Our aim was to develop and validate a prediction model for assessing the probability of advanced CRN using a clinical data warehouse. METHODS: A total of 49,450 screenees underwent their first colonoscopy as part of a health check-up from 2002 to 2012 at Samsung Medical Center, and the dataset was constructed by means of natural language processing from the computerized EMR system. The screenees were randomized into training and validation sets. The prediction model was developed using logistic regression. The model performance was validated and compared with existing models using area under receiver operating curve (AUC) analysis. RESULTS: In the training set, age, gender, smoking duration, drinking frequency, and aspirin use were identified as independent predictors for advanced CRN (adjusted P < .01). The developed model had good discrimination (AUC = 0.726) and was internally validated (AUC = 0.713). The high-risk group had a 3.7-fold increased risk of advanced CRN compared to the low-risk group (1.1% vs. 4.0%, P < .001). The discrimination performance of the present model for high-risk patients with advanced CRN was better than that of the Asia-Pacific Colorectal Screening score (AUC = 0.678, P < .001) and Schroy's CAN index (AUC = 0.672, P < .001). CONCLUSION: The present 5-item risk model can be calculated readily using a simple questionnaire and can identify the low- and high-risk groups of advanced CRN at the first screening colonoscopy. This model may increase colorectal cancer risk awareness and assist healthcare providers in encouraging the high-risk group to undergo a colonoscopy.

Evaluation of the risk factors associated with rectal neuroendocrine tumors: a big data analytic study from a health screening center.

BACKGROUND: Rectal neuroendocrine tumor (NET) is the most common NET in Asia. The risk factors associated with rectal NETs are unclear because of the overall low incidence rate of these tumors and the associated difficulty in conducting large epidemiological studies on rare cases. The aim of this study was to exploit the benefits of big data analytics to assess the risk factors associated with rectal NET. METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was conducted, including 102 patients with histologically confirmed rectal NETs and 52,583 healthy controls who underwent screening colonoscopy at the Center for Health Promotion of the Samsung Medical Center in Korea between January 2002 and December 2012. Information on different risk factors was collected and logistic regression analysis applied to identify predictive factors. RESULTS: Four factors were significantly associated with rectal NET: higher levels of cholesterol [odds ratio (OR) = 1.007, 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.001-1.013, p = 0.016] and ferritin (OR = 1.502, 95 % CI, 1.167-1.935, p = 0.002), presence of metabolic syndrome (OR = 1.768, 95 % CI, 1.071-2.918, p = 0.026), and family history of cancer among first-degree relatives (OR = 1.664, 95 % CI, 1.019-2.718, p = 0.042). CONCLUSION: The findings of our study demonstrate the benefits of using big data analytics for research and clinical risk factor studies. Specifically, in this study, this analytical method was applied to identify higher levels of serum cholesterol and ferritin, metabolic syndrome, and family history of cancer as factors that may explain the increasing incidence and prevalence of rectal NET.

Effect of oral antiviral treatment on long-term outcomes of radiofrequency ablation therapy for hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the effect of oral antiviral treatment on the prognosis of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after radiofrequency (RF) ablation. METHODS: Between January 2003 and December 2010, 228 patients without a history of antiviral treatment were treated with RF ablation for a single HBV-related HCC. We divided the patients into two groups, patients who received (n=125) or did not receive antiviral treatment (n=103), based on whether oral antiviral treatment was administered after RF ablation. The median duration of antiviral treatment was 60.1 months. HCC recurrence and overall survival were compared in the two groups in the full cohort and the propensity score-matched cohort. RESULTS: In the matched cohort, the probability of HCC recurrence at 5 years was 43.8% for the non-antiviral treatment group and 14.7% for the antiviral treatment group (p<0.001). The probability of overall survival at 5 years was 77.2% for the non-antiviral treatment group and 93.5% for the antiviral treatment group (p=0.002). Multivariable analysis showed that risk factors for HCC recurrence included large tumor size (hazard ratio (HR)=1.30, p=0.022), HBV DNA serum level (HR=1.11, p=0.005), and serum AFP level ≥20 ng/mL (HR=1.66, p=0.005). Overall survival was associated with larger tumor size (HR=1.86, p=0.001) and Child-Pugh Class B (HR=2.13, p=0.019). Oral antiviral treatment after RF ablation was significantly associated with a lower risk of tumor recurrence and death (HR=0.33, p<0.001, and HR=0.44, p=0.004). CONCLUSION: Use of oral antiviral treatment after curative RF ablation was associated with favorable outcomes in terms of tumor recurrence and overall survival in patients with HBV-related HCC.

A Modest Protective Effect of Thyrotropin against Bone Loss Is Associated with Plasma Triiodothyronine Levels.

BACKGROUND: The independent skeletal effect of thyrotropin (thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH) has been suggested in animal studies. However, clinical data on the association between bone loss and variations in TSH levels is inconsistent. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between TSH levels and bone mineral density (BMD). METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 37,431 subjects (33,052 cases with euthyroidism and 4,379 cases with subclinical thyroid dysfunction) aged over 35 years. We performed thyroid function tests and measured BMD at the lumbar spine, femur neck, and total hip. RESULTS: Levels of TSH and T3 were positively correlated in women (r = 0.076, P = 0.001) and uncorrelated in men. In both men and women, TSH levels correlated positively and T3 levels correlated negatively with BMD at all skeletal sites in age and body mass index adjusted analyses. BMD increased steadily with TSH levels from the subclinical hyperthyroid to subclinical hypothyroid range in subjects with T3 levels in the highest tertile (119.5-200.0 ng/dL), but was no longer significant in subjects with lower plasma T3 levels. CONCLUSIONS: The variations in TSH levels within the euthyroid and subclinical range were positively correlated with BMD in healthy men and women. The negative effect of T3 on BMD appears to be compensated for by increased TSH in subjects with plasma T3 levels in the upper normal range.

Development and external validation of nomograms predictive of response to radiation therapy and overall survival in nasopharyngeal cancer patients.

INTRODUCTION: Large variability in the clinical outcomes has been observed among the nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients with the same stage receiving similar treatment. This suggests that the current Tumour-Node-Metastasis staging systems need to be refined. The nomogram is a useful predictive tool that integrates individual variables into a statistical model to predict outcome of interest. This study was to design predictive nomograms based on the clinical and pathological features of patients with NPC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical data of 270 NPC patients who underwent definitive radiation therapy (RT) alone or concurrent with chemotherapy were collected. Factors predictive of response to RT and overall survival (OS) were determined by univariate and multivariate analyses, and predictive nomograms were created. Nomograms were validated externally by assessing discrimination and calibration using an independent data set (N=122). RESULTS: Three variables predictive of response to RT (age, histology classification and N classification) and four predictive of OS (age, performance status, smoking status and N classification), in addition to T classification, were extracted to generate the nomograms. The nomograms were validated externally, which showed perfect correlation with each other. CONCLUSION: The designed nomograms proved highly predictive of response to RT and OS in individual patients, and could facilitate individualised and personalised patients' counselling and care.

Ligand profiling and identification technology for searching bioactive ligands.

We introduce a new methodology named ligand profiling and identification for effective discovery of bioactive ligands such as peptide hormones. This technology was developed from a new concept of parallel column chromatography and active fraction profiling by nano-LC MS. Traditional methods use sequential column chromatography, and thus are inevitably limited by the low abundance of the peptide of interest and by a low yield due to the many column steps. Using this new technology, insulin was successfully identified and diarginylinsulin, a minor intermediate form of insulin, was unexpectedly also identified simultaneously from 100 mg of porcine pancreatic tissue. This integrative technology could be used to search for various low-abundance peptides (or bioactive molecules) rapidly and simultaneously, by applying this to the later stages of traditional sequential purification.