Prognostic impact of the distance from the root of splenic artery to tumor in the patients with pancreatic body or tail cancer.

BACKGROUND: The impact of the distance from the root of splenic artery to tumor (DST) on the prognosis and optimal surgical procedures in the patients with pancreatic body/tail cancer has been unclear. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 94 patients who underwent distal pancreatectomy (DP) and 17 patients who underwent DP with celiac axis resection (DP-CAR) between 2008 and 2018. RESULTS: The 111 patients were assigned by DST length (in mm) as DST = 0: n = 14, 0

Nanoarchitectonics Design Strategy of Metal-Organic Framework and Bio-Metal-Organic Framework Composites for Advanced Wastewater Treatment through Adsorption.

Freshwater depletion is an alarm for finding an eco-friendly solution to treat wastewater for drinking and domestic applications. Though several methods like chlorination, filtration, and coagulation-sedimentation are conventionally employed for water treatment, these methods need to be improved as they are not environmentally friendly, rely on chemicals, and are ineffective for all kinds of pollutants. These problems can be addressed by employing an alternative solution that is effective for efficient water treatment and favors commercial aspects. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs), an emerging porous material, possess high stability, pore size tunability, greater surface area, and active sites. These MOFs can be tailored; thus, they can be customized according to the target pollutant. Hence, MOFs can be employed as adsorbents that effectively target different pollutants. Bio-MOFs are a kind of MOFs that are incorporated with biomolecules, which also possess properties of MOFs and are used as a nontoxic adsorbent. In this review, we elaborate on the interaction between MOFs and target pollutants, the role of linkers in the adsorption of contaminants, tailoring strategy that can be employed on MOFs and Bio-MOFs to target specific pollutants, and we also highlight the effect of environmental matrices on adsorption of pollutants by MOFs.

Influences of hair dyeing on the distribution shapes of zolpidem and methoxyphenamine in hair.

In order to investigate the influences of hair dyeing on the distribution shapes of drugs in hair, different hair dyeing processes ("semi-permanent coloring without bleaching" and "permanent coloring with bleaching") were performed in vitro on black hair specimens collected from two subjects (Asians) who took a single dose of zolpidem (ZP, 10 mg of ZP tartrate) or methoxyphenamine (MOP, 50 mg of MOP hydrochloride). Under the following three different dyeing conditions, (1) semi-permanent coloring, (2) permanent coloring (once), (3) permanent coloring (twice), drug distributions in single hair specimens were investigated using a 2-mm segmental analysis by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Distribution shapes of drugs changed significantly only under the permanent coloring (twice) condition, resulting in reduced peak concentration and extended distribution width. There was, however, no significant difference in the amounts of drugs in hair between non-treated and dyed specimens, suggesting the drugs hardly leaked out of hair or were only slightly degraded during dyeing. In addition, while assuming contact with aqueous environment such as daily hair washing after dyeing, dyed hair specimens were individually immersed in ultrapure water for 20 hours, then the outflow of drugs in ultrapure water as well as the distribution shapes of drugs remaining in hair were determined. The drug outflow after permanent coloring (once and twice) was significantly larger than those after semi-permanent coloring, and the outflow ratios, [outflow]/([outflow] + [amount remaining in hair]), ranged over 9.8-24% (n = 3) for ZP and 68-71% (n = 3) for MOP after permanent coloring (once), and 54-72% (n = 3) for ZP and 86-91% (n = 3) for MOP after permanent coloring (twice). The distribution shapes of drugs after 20 h of immersion tended to flatten as outflow ratios increased, resulting in no change in the shapes after semi-permanent coloring, and complete collapse of their shapes after permanent coloring (twice). Thus, the present results indicated that hair dyeing involving bleaching and subsequent contact with aqueous environment after dyeing could significantly influence distribution shapes of drugs in hair.

Efficacy of lymph node dissection for duodenal cancer according to the lymph node station.

Background: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is associated with poor prognosis in patients with duodenal cancer (DC). However, the efficacy and optimal extent of lymph node (LN) dissection have not been thoroughly discussed. Methods: A total of 98 consecutive patients with DC who underwent surgical resection (pancreatoduodenectomy, n = 55; partial resection, n = 32; pancreas-sparing total duodenectomy, n = 9) were retrospectively analyzed. The LN stations located upstream of the lymphatic flow were defined as Np stations according to tumor location, whereas the others were defined as Nd stations. The association between the dissection of each LN station and survival outcome was investigated using the efficacy index (EI; percentage of metastases to lymph nodes in each station multiplied by the 5-year survival rate of metastatic cases). Results: The survival of patients with LNM at the Nd stations (n = 6) was significantly worse than that of patients with LNM only at the Np stations (n = 20) (relapse-free survival, median survival time [MST], 6.0 vs. 48.4 months, p < 0.001; overall survival, MST, 15.1 vs. 96.0 months, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified LNM at Nd stations as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (hazard ratio 9.92; p = 0.015). The Np stations had a high EI (range, 8.34-20.88), whereas the Nd stations had an EI of 0, regardless of the tumor location. Conclusions: LN dissection of the Np stations contributed to acceptable survival, whereas LNM of the Nd stations led to poor survival, possibly reflecting advanced tumor progression to systemic disease in patients with DC.

Impact of a new dedicated sheath device for tissue sampling of biliary stricture on pathological diagnostic yield: Retrospective study.

Background and study aims Endoscopic transpapillary biliary forceps biopsy (TBFB) is a common method for obtaining specimens from biliary lesions. Its diagnostic yield is unsatisfactory; to overcome this disadvantage, a dedicated sheath has been developed. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of conventional TBFB and TBFB with a novel sheath device. Patients and methods Consecutive patients who underwent TBFB between January 2020 and December 2021 were retrospectively evaluated. The rate of obtaining adequate samples, failed attempts at forceps insertion into the bile duct, and sensitivity were compared between the two groups. Results Ninety-two patients who underwent 115 endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatographies (76 in the conventional group vs. 39 in the dedicated sheath group) were included. The rates of obtaining adequate samples, failed attempts of the forceps into the bile duct, and sensitivity were 72.4% vs. 89.7% ( P = 0.03), 28.3% vs. 0% ( P < 0.01), and 66.7% vs. 88.9% ( P = 0.02), respectively. Conclusions TBFB with the novel sheath device contributed to improved sensitivity for diagnosis of biliary stricture without insertion of forceps outside the bile duct.