Metabolic syndrome is associated with increased risk of Barrett esophagus: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Barrett esophagus (BE) is considered precursor condition of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Its incidence and prevalence are increasing in general population. Studies reported that metabolic syndrome (MS) or diabetes mellitus (DM) is related to increased risk of BE. Current study was to assess and better understand the relationship between MS /DM and BE. METHODS: Electronic search was conducted in the database Pubmed/Medline (-December, 2015), Embase (-December, 2015), Cochrane Library (-December, 2015), and Web of Knowledge (-December, 2015). Studies included were assessed with summary odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and compared exposure group with control group. The heterogeneity was examined by the funnel plot and the Egger's test. Subgroup analyses and sensitive analyses were performed for the detection of possible heterogeneity and impact on stability of analysis results. RESULTS: Twelve publications met the criteria and included 355,311 subjects were analyzed. The pooled results showed MS was closely associated with increased risk of BE (OR = 1.23; 95%CI 1.03-1.47; P = 0.024), and yet DM did not significantly increase the risk of BE (OR = 1.07; 95%CI 0.82-1.38; P = 0.627). Substantial heterogeneities were detected. No significant publication bias was detected by Egger's test (P = 0.23). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of current meta-analysis, MS is associated with increased risk of BE. Further long-term follow-up prospective study needs to verify the current results, and definite pathophysiological mechanism needs to be further investigated and clearly elucidated.

[Study on serum p53 protein in cops in Guangzhou city].

OBJECTIVE: Serum p53 protein overexpression was detected in population exposed to traffic exhaust gas to study the relation between traffic exhaust gas and the increased risk in p53 gene mutation. METHODS: Serum p53 protein expression was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Relationship between different types of job and serum p53 protein overexpression were studied by pearson Chi-square tests. RESULTS: Results on serum p53 protein overexpression on jobs outside of office (5.74%) were not significantly higher than jobs inside the office. However, it suggested that traffic police men (12.12%) working outside of office, with whose length of service longer than 30 years had a significant overexpression of serum p53 protein than the others (5.36%) whose length of service was less than 30 years (P < 0.05, OR = 2.43, 95% CI: 1.11 - 5.33). Overexpression rate of p53 protein appeared to be 6.89% in the group whose average weekly exposure hours were more than 40 hours, which was significant higher than the group whose exposed hours were less than 40 hours (P < 0.05, OR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.03 - 2.81). CONCLUSION: The result suggested that traffic exhaust gas was likely to cause mutation of p53 gene and increasing the incidence of lung cancer.