Activation and negative feedback regulation of SlHY5 transcription by the SlBBX20/21-SlHY5 transcription factor module in UV-B signaling.

In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and other plants, the photoreceptor UV-RESISTANCE LOCUS 8 regulates plant UV-B photomorphogenesis by modulating the transcription of many genes, the majority of which depends on the transcription factor ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5). HY5 transcription is induced and then rapidly attenuated by UV-B. However, neither the transcription factors that activate HY5 transcription nor the mechanism for its attenuation during UV-B signaling is known. Here, we report that the tomato B-BOX (BBX) transcription factors SlBBX20 and SlBBX21 interact with SlHY5 and bind to the SlHY5 promoter to activate its transcription. UV-B-induced SlHY5 expression and SlHY5-controlled UV-B responses are normal in slbbx20 and slbbx21 single mutants, but strongly compromised in the slbbx20 slbbx21 double mutant. Surprisingly, UV-B responses are also compromised in lines overexpressing SlBBX20 or SlBBX21. Both SlHY5 and SlBBX20 bind to G-box1 in the SlHY5 promoter. SlHY5 outcompetes SlBBX20 for binding to the SlHY5 promoter in vitro, and inhibits the association of SlBBX20 with the SlHY5 promoter in vivo. Overexpressing 35S:SlHY5-FLAG in the WT background inhibits UV-B-induced endogenous SlHY5 expression. Together, our results reveal the critical role of the SlBBX20/21-SlHY5 module in activating the expression of SlHY5, the gene product of which inhibits its own gene transcription under UV-B, forming an autoregulatory negative feedback loop that balances SlHY5 transcription in plants.

Growth-regulating factor 15-mediated gene regulatory network enhances salt tolerance in poplar.

Soil salinity is an important determinant of crop productivity and triggers salt stress response pathways in plants. The salt stress response is controlled by transcriptional regulatory networks that maintain regulatory homeostasis through combinations of transcription factor (TF)-DNA and TF-TF interactions. We investigated the transcriptome of poplar 84 K (Populus alba × Populus glandulosa) under salt stress using samples collected at 4- or 6-h intervals within 2 days of salt stress treatment. We detected 24,973 differentially expressed genes, including 2,231 TFs that might be responsive to salt stress. To explore these interactions and targets of TFs in perennial woody plants, we combined gene regulatory networks, DNA affinity purification sequencing, yeast two-hybrid-sequencing, and multi-gene association approaches. Growth-regulating factor 15 (PagGRF15) and its target, high-affinity K+ transporter 6 (PagHAK6), were identified as an important regulatory module in the salt stress response. Overexpression of PagGRF15 and PagHAK6 in transgenic lines improved salt tolerance by enhancing Na+ transport and modulating H2O2 accumulation in poplar. Yeast two-hybrid assays identified more than 420 PagGRF15-interacting proteins, including ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR TFs and a zinc finger protein (C2H2) that are produced in response to a variety of phytohormones and environmental signals and are likely involved in abiotic stress. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that PagGRF15 is a multifunctional TF involved in growth, development, and salt stress tolerance, highlighting the capability of a multifaceted approach in identifying regulatory nodes in plants.

The transcriptional landscape of Populus pattern/effector-triggered immunity and how PagWRKY18 involved in it.

Plants trigger a robust immune response by activating massive transcriptome reprogramming through crosstalk between PTI and ETI. However, how PTI and ETI contribute to the quantitative or/and qualitative output of immunity and how they work together when both are being activated were unclear. In this study, we performed a comprehensive overview of pathogen-triggered transcriptomic reprogramming by analyzing temporal changes in the transcriptome up to 144 h after Colletotrichum gloeosporioides inoculated in Populus. Moreover, we constructed a hierarchical gene regulatory network of PagWRKY18 and its potential target genes to explore the underlying regulatory mechanisms of PagWRKY18 that are not yet clear. Interestingly, we confirmed that PagWRKY18 protein can directly bind the W-box elements in the promoter of a transmembrane leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase, PagSOBIR1 gene, to trigger PTI. At the same time, PagWRKY18 functions in disease tolerance by modulation of ROS homeostasis and induction of cell death via directly targeting PagGSTU7 and PagPR4 respectively. Furthermore, PagPR4 can interact with PagWRKY18 to inhibit the expression of PagPR4 genes, forming a negative feedback loop. Taken together, these results suggest that PagWRKY18 may be involved in regulating crosstalk between PTI and ETI to activate a robust immune response and maintain intracellular homeostasis.

Eyelid retraction during smiling in a patient with monocular congenital ptosis: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Blepharoptosis is a common symptom in ophthalmology clinic, but eyelid retraction when smiling in a ptosis eye is a rare manifestation. Here we report a novel manifestation that eyelid retraction during smiling in a patient with monocular congenital ptosis. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 10-year-old girl with isolated and mild unilateral congenital ptosis showed eyelid retraction in ptotsis eye when smiling together with a lid lag on downgaze. She didn't have any systematic and ocular diseases other than myopia and astigmatism.Eyelid retraction during smiling is 5 mm, resulting in a significant difference in the height of bilateral palpebral fissures.As for ptosis, is mild.The margin to reflex distance 1 is 1.0 mm on the right eye(ptosis eye) and 3.0 mm on the left eye. A lid lag of 1.0 mm on downward gaze was noted on the right, she could close her eyes fully while sleeping.The ice pack test, laboratory test for thyroid function, whole-exome sequencing (WES) and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) of the orbital and ocular motor nerves showed normal results.Her symptoms alleviated after 6 months, with the retraction of the right upper eyelid when smiling was approximately 3 mm, thus the difference in the palpebral fissure height when smiling was smaller than that at the initial presentation. CONCLUSION: Blepharoptosis may accompanied with abnormal innervation like eyelid retraction, this phenomenon can be alleviated with age.The results of the levator muscle function test should be carefully examined to determine whether it is ptosis in an impaired innervation eyelid.

Evolutionary Origins of Pseudogenes and Their Association with Regulatory Sequences in Plants.

Pseudogenes (Ψs), nonfunctional relatives of functional genes, form by duplication or retrotransposition, and loss of gene function by disabling mutations. Evolutionary analysis provides clues to Ψ origins and effects on gene regulation. However, few systematic studies of plant Ψs have been conducted, hampering comparative analyses. Here, we examined the origin, evolution, and expression patterns of Ψs and their relationships with noncoding sequences in seven angiosperm plants. We identified ∼250,000 Ψs, most of which are more lineage specific than protein-coding genes. The distribution of Ψs on the chromosome indicates that genome recombination may contribute to Ψ elimination. Most Ψs evolve rapidly in terms of sequence and expression levels, showing tissue- or stage-specific expression patterns. We found that a surprisingly large fraction of nontransposable element regulatory noncoding RNAs (microRNAs and long noncoding RNAs) originate from transcription of Ψ proximal upstream regions. We also found that transcription factor binding sites preferentially occur in putative Ψ proximal upstream regions compared with random intergenic regions, suggesting that Ψs have conditioned genome evolution by providing transcription factor binding sites that serve as promoters and enhancers. We therefore propose that rapid rewiring of Ψ transcriptional regulatory regions is a major mechanism driving the origin of novel regulatory modules.

Electrochemical Synthesis of Cyclic Diaryl Phosphinamides via Intramolecular sp2 C-H Phosphinamidation.

We developed an oxidant- and transition-metal-free approach to construct six-membered cyclic phosphinamides via an intramolecular electrochemical C-H phosphinamidation process. With nBu4NBr as the catalyst and electrolyte, cyclic phosphinamides bearing a variety of functional groups (22 examples) were readily accessed under mild conditions. Meanwhile, this protocol provided an alternative route to organic electroluminescent materials and P-N ligands.

TonB-Dependent Receptors Affect the Spontaneous Oxytetracycline Resistance Evolution in Aeromonas hydrophila.

It is well known that most microbial populations develop their intrinsic antibiotics resistance at low concentrations in antibiotics environments, but the factors influencing spontaneous resistance are still largely unknown. In this study, Aeromonas hydrophila strains with different resistance levels to oxytetracycline (OXY) were induced by sublethal antibiotic selection pressure, and differential expression of proteins was compared among them using iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomics. Our following bioinformatic analysis showed that energy metabolism-related proteins were downregulated, while several iron-related proteins were upregulated in high OXY-resistant strains. To further investigate the role of spontaneous OXY resistance evolution, four TonB-dependent receptor-coded genes were deleted, and their OXY susceptibility capabilities and antibiotic evolutionary assays were performed, respectively. Our results showed that the deletion of these genes did not affect the susceptibility to OXY, but showed different evolution rates in the spontaneous OXY evolution compared with wild-type strain, especially for AHA_0971 and AHA_4251. Therefore, this study indicates the important role of TonB-dependent receptor proteins during the bacterial antibiotics resistance evolution and may provide a new prophylactic strategy against the development of antibiotic resistance.

Synonymous mutation in Growth Regulating Factor 15 of miR396a target sites enhances photosynthetic efficiency and heat tolerance in poplar.

Heat stress damages plant tissues and induces multiple adaptive responses. Complex and spatiotemporally specific interactions among transcription factors (TFs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and their targets play crucial roles in regulating stress responses. To explore these interactions and to identify regulatory networks in perennial woody plants subjected to heat stress, we integrated time-course RNA-seq, small RNA-seq, degradome sequencing, weighted gene correlation network analysis, and multi-gene association approaches in poplar. Results from Populus trichocarpa enabled us to construct a three-layer, highly interwoven regulatory network involving 15 TFs, 45 miRNAs, and 77 photosynthetic genes. Candidate gene association studies in a population of P. tomentosa identified 114 significant associations and 696 epistatic SNP-SNP pairs that were linked to 29 photosynthetic and growth traits (P<0.0001, q<0.05). We also identified miR396a and its target, Growth-Regulating Factor 15 (GRF15) as an important regulatory module in the heat-stress response. Transgenic plants of hybrid poplar (P. alba × P. glandulosa) overexpressing a GRF15 mRNA lacking the miR396a target sites exhibited enhanced heat tolerance and photosynthetic efficiency compared to wild-type plants. Together, our observations demonstrate that GRF15 plays a crucial role in responding to heat stress, and they highlight the power of this new, multifaceted approach for identifying regulatory nodes in plants.

Automatic Detection of Scattered Garbage Regions Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Low-Altitude Remote Sensing Images for High-Altitude Natural Reserve Environmental Protection.

Recently, some famous high-altitude nature reserves have been shut down due to tourist garbage pollution. In order to clean up such garbage more conveniently and quickly, a novel detection framework is proposed to automatically detect scattered garbage regions using low-altitude remote sensing of small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs), and it contains the following steps. First, high-resolution, low-altitude, multitemporal remote sensing images containing scattered garbage regions are collected by SUAVs, and two data augmentation methods are proposed to expand the training samples. Second, low-altitude remote sensing image registration and target-level image change detection are used to extract the candidate regions of garbage. Finally, a deep learning detection network is adopted to classify the scattered garbage regions. Experimental results show that the proposed detection framework achieves a mean accuracy of 96.94% and provides better performances on the real dataset compared with state-of-the-art methods.

Development of genistein-O-alkylamines derivatives as multifunctional agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

The multi-target-directed ligands have been regarded as the promising multifunctional agents for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Based on our previous work, a series of genistein-O-alkylamines derivatives was developed to further explore the structure-activity-relationship. The results showed that compound 7d indicated reversible and highly selective hAChE inhibitory activity with IC50 value of 0.53 µM. Compound 7d also displayed good antioxidant activity (ORAC = 1.1 eq.), promising neuroprotective effect and selective metal chelation property. Moreover, compound 7d significantly inhibited self-induced, hAChE-induced and Cu2+-induced Aß aggregation with 39.8%, 42.1% and 74.1%, respectively, and disaggregated Cu2+-induced Aß1-42 aggregation (67.3%). In addition, compound 7d was a potential autophagy inducer and improved the levels of GPX4 protein. Furthermore, compound 7d presented good blood-brain-barrier permeability in vitro. More importantly, compound 7d did not show any acute toxicity at doses of up to 1000 mg/kg and presented good precognitive effect on scopolamine-induced memory impairment. Therefore, compound 7d was a promising multifunctional agent for the development of anti-AD drugs.

Key Genes and Genetic Interactions of Plant-Pathogen Functional Modules in Poplar Infected by Marssonina brunnea.

Marssonina brunnea, the causative pathogen of Marssonina leaf spot of poplars (MLSP), devastates poplar plantations by forming black spots on leaves and defoliating trees. Although MLSP has been studied for over 30 years, the key genes that function during M. brunnea infection and their effects on plant growth are poorly understood. Here, we used multigene association studies to investigate the effects of key genes in the plant-pathogen interaction pathway, as revealed by transcriptome analysis, on photosynthesis and growth in a natural population of 435 Populus tomentosa individuals. By analyzing transcriptomic changes during three stages of infection, we detected 628 transcription factor genes among the 7,611 differentially expressed genes that might be associated with basal defense responses. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses revealed that transcriptomic changes across different stages of infection lead to the reprogramming of metabolic processes possibly related to defense activation. We identified 29,399 common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within 221 full-length genes in plant-pathogen interaction pathways that were significantly associated with photosynthetic and growth traits. We also detected 4,460 significant epistatic pairs associated with stomatal conductance, tree diameter, and tree height. Epistasis analysis uncovered significant interactions between 2,561 SNP-SNP pairs from different functional modules in the plant-pathogen interaction pathway, revealing possible genetic interactions. This analysis revealed many key genes that function during M. brunnea infection and their potential roles in mediating photosynthesis and plant growth, shedding light on genetic interactions between functional modules in the plant-pathogen interaction pathway.

Determinants of Clinical COPD Questionnaire in Patients with COPD: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: The Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) has been suggested by the Global Initiative of Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) as a comprehensive symptom measurement tool, which helps to classify patients in order to direct pharmacological treatment. Therefore, it is essential to understand its determinants. OBJECTIVES: To identify the determinants of the overall CCQ score and scores of its 3 subdomains among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients from China. METHODS: A total of 1,241 COPD patients in the outpatient department of the Second Xiangya Hospital in China were recruited. Basic information and clinical data were collected. Differences in the GOLD categories based on Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC), COPD Assessment Test (CAT), and CCQ were compared. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate determinant factors of the total CCQ and subdomain scores. RESULTS: The total CCQ and/or separate domain scores significantly differed with sex, age, BMI, smoking status, biomass fuel exposure, exacerbation frequency, mMRC, CAT, and GOLD grades and groups. Subjects with asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) had worse health status based on CCQ than those with COPD alone. As for the 16 subgroups based on GOLD 2017, statistical differences in the total CCQ and functional domain scores were found among subgroups 1A-4A, 1B-4B, and 1D-4D. The mMRC classified much more patients into more symptom groups than CAT and CCQ. No significant difference was observed in the GOLD categories between the CAT and CCQ (cut point = 1.5). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that smoking status, underweight, ACO, post-bronchodilator FEV1% predicted <50%, exacerbation history, and mMRC were independently associated with the total CCQ score. Only 3 variables were significantly associated with the symptom domain: ACO, exacerbations, and mMRC; for the functional domain, age ≥75 years, ACO, post-bronchodilator FEV1% predicted <50%, exacerbation history, and mMRC were significant; female sex, underweight, frequent exacerbations (≥2), and mMRC were significantly associated with higher scores in the mental domain. CONCLUSIONS: The classification of COPD produced by mMRC, CAT, and CCQ was not identical. Smoking status, underweight, ACO, post-bronchodilator FEV1% predicted <50%, exacerbation history, and mMRC were associated with lower health-related quality of life assessed by the total CCQ score, while different subdomains of CCQ had different determinant factors.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Pain in Patients of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study in China.

The purposes of this study were to: (1) study the prevalence of pain in patients with mild-to-very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in China; (2) compare the differences in pain characteristics between stable COPD and acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD); (3) explore the clinical associations with pain in those with COPD. This cross-sectional study was conducted in China from October 24, 2017, to January 11, 2019. A face-to-face interview was conducted to collect data. The Chinese version of the brief pain inventory (BPI-C) was applied to investigate the pain characteristics in patients with COPD. Of the 901 patients in this study, 226 (25.1%) patients reported pain problems. The prevalence of pain in patients with mild to very severe COPD was 32.9%, 23.9%, 25.2%, and 23.5%, respectively (p = 0.447). According to the BPI-C results, 31.3% (31/99) of patients reported pain of AECOPD, compared to 24.3% (195/802) of stable COPD (p = 0.13). Reported pain intensity and pain interference evaluated by the BPI-C were significantly higher in AECOPD than stable COPD (p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively). Those with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 24kg/m2 or COPD assessment test (CAT) score > 20 were significantly more likely to have pain problems than BMI < 24kg/m2 (aOR = 1.568, a95IC = 1.132-2.170, p = 0.007) or CAT ≤ 20 (aOR= 1.754, a95IC = 1.213-2.536, p = 0.003). Pain was common in patients with both stable COPD and AECOPD. AECOPD patients had a significantly higher pain intensity than stable COPD. Overweight and CAT > 20 were significantly related to higher prevalence of pain.

Sample-Guided Adaptive Class Prototype for Visual Domain Adaptation.

Domain adaptation aims to handle the distribution mismatch of training and testing data, which achieves dramatic progress in multi-sensor systems. Previous methods align the cross-domain distributions by some statistics, such as the means and variances. Despite their appeal, such methods often fail to model the discriminative structures existing within testing samples. In this paper, we present a sample-guided adaptive class prototype method, which consists of the no distribution matching strategy. Specifically, two adaptive measures are proposed. Firstly, the modified nearest class prototype is raised, which allows more diversity within same class, while keeping most of the class wise discrimination information. Secondly, we put forward an easy-to-hard testing scheme by taking into account the different difficulties in recognizing target samples. Easy samples are classified and selected to assist the prediction of hard samples. Extensive experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Incidence of pediatric metachronous contralateral inguinal hernia and the relationship with contralateral patent processus vaginalis.

BACKGROUND: The management of contralateral patent processus vaginalis (CPPV) in children with unilateral inguinal hernia is still controversial. The objective of this study was to verify the relationship between metachronous contralateral inguinal hernia (MCIH) and CPPV, and the risk factors of MCIH. METHODS: Children with unilateral inguinal hernia from three medical centers underwent either open or laparoscopic repairs. Clinical information, including demographics, morphological characteristics of CPPV, follow-up outcomes were collected. RESULTS: Among 2942 patients (92.2%) who received open repair with successful follow-up, 185 (6.29%) developed MCIHs [125 (10.9%) on the right side and 60 (3.3%)] on the left including 156 (7.07%) younger than 3 years old and 29 (3.94%) older than 3 years old. Patients younger than 3 years old with primary left inguinal hernias more easily develop MCIHs and the difference is statistically significant. Among 5370 patients (96.0%) who received laparoscopic repair with successful follow-up, the morphology of ipsilateral patent processus vaginalis were cavernous type in 5318 (99%) and 52 (1%) were fissure type. CPPVs were identified in 2233 (41.5%) cases [1256 (35.01%) on the left side and 977 (54.80%) on the right side, P < 0.001]; 1503 cases were cavernous type (1276 cases younger than 3 years old and 227 cases older than 3 years old) and 730 cases were fissure type (422 cases younger than 3 years old and 308 cases older than 3 years old). The probability of occurence of cavernous type and CPPV in children younger than 3 years old was higher than that in children older than 3 years old. CONCLUSIONS: Not all CPPVS progress into an MIH, and approximate one of 15 CPPVs would progress into MIH. If patient with initial left-sided inguinal hernia is younger than 3 years old, when the morphology of CPPV is cavernous type identified by laparoscopic exploration, the contralateral repair would be recommended.

Comparison of laparoscopic portoenterostomy and open portoenterostomy for the treatment of biliary atresia.

BACKGROUND: Although open portoenterostomy (OPE) is considered the standard treatment for biliary atresia (BA), laparoscopic portoenterostomy (LPE) is conducted and reported by many investigators. Data on the safety and efficacy of LPE remain controversial. The aim of this meta-analysis is to compare the safety and efficacy of LPE and OPE for the treatment of BA. METHODS: Three electronic databases were searched: PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. The eligible studies were limited to those published in English. The following keywords were used: "biliary atresia," "laparoscopic portoenterostomy," "Kasai portoenterostomy," "open portoenterostomy," "surgery," and "treatment." RESULTS: Nine studies, including 434 patients, were analyzed. The operative time of LPE was significantly longer than that of OPE (MD = 40.55 min, 95% CI 4.83-76.27 min, P = 0.03). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of the time of hospital stay, the volume of intraoperative blood loss, or the rates of cholangitis, early clearance of jaundice or two-year survival with the native liver. The subgroup analyses revealed that the rate of early clearance of jaundice in the LPE group was significantly higher than that in the OPE group in studies published after 2016 (95% CI 1.04-1.75; P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis provides evidence that LPE is a feasible option for patients with BA. LPE should be revaluated by further studies and longer follow-up.

Tight glycemic control in critically ill pediatric patients: a meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

BackgroundThere still are controversies in the impact of tight glycemic control (TGC) in critically ill children. The aim of this study was to assess the benefits and risks of TGC compared with conventional glycemic control (CGC) in critically ill pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) by using the data retrieved from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).MethodsEMBASE, CNKI, PubMed, and the Cochrane Database were searched for RCTs comparing TGC with CGC in critically ill children in PICU.ResultsThe meta-analysis included 5 RCTs representing 3,933 patients that compared TGC with CGC. Our result revealed that TGC did not reduce 30-day mortality rates (odds ratio (OR) 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74-1.32, P=0.95) and was not associated with decreasing health care-associated infections (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.64-1.00, P=0.05) compared with CGC, but significantly increased the incidence of hypoglycemia (OR 6.37, 95% CI 4.41-9.21, P<0.001).ConclusionTight glycemic control was not associated with reducing 30-day mortality rates and acquired infections compared with CGC in critically ill children. Significant increase of incidence of hypoglycemia was revealed in TGC group. The conclusion should be interpreted with caution for the methodological heterogeneity among trials.

Tight glycemic control in critically ill pediatric patients: a meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: There still are controversies in the impact of tight glycemic control (TGC) in critically ill children. The aim of this study was to assess the benefits and risks of TGC compared with conventional glycemic control (CGC) in critically ill pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) by using data retrieved from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHOD: EMBASE, CNKI, PubMed, and the Cochrane Database were searched for RCTs comparing TGC with CGC in critically ill children in PICU. RESULT: The meta-analysis included five RCTs representing 3933 patients and compared TGC with CGC. Our result revealed that TGC did not reduce the 30-day mortality rates (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.74-1.32, P = 0.95) and was not associated with decreasing health care-associated infections (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.64-1.00, P = 0.05) compared with CGC, but significantly increased the incidence of hypoglycemia (OR 6.37, 95% CI 4.41-9.21, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Tight glycemic control was not associated with reducing the 30-day mortality rates and acquired infections compared with CGC in critically ill children. Significant increase of the incidence of hypoglycemia was revealed in TGC group. The conclusion should be interpreted with caution for the methodological heterogeneity among trials.

Medium-term Outcome of Laparoscopic Kasai Portoenterostomy for Biliary Atresia With 49 Cases.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the mid-term results of laparoscopic Kasai portoenterostomy (LKPE) for biliary atresia (BA) at our hospital. METHODS: From May 2009 to May 2012, the charts of infants with BA who underwent LKPE were reviewed retrospectively. The clearance of jaundice (CJ) as well as 3-year, and 5-year survival with native liver (SNL) rates were analyzed and compared with those after open Kasai portoenterostomy (OKPE). RESULTS: Forty-nine patients with BA who underwent LKPE were assigned to group A, and 40 patients with BA who underwent OKPE were assigned to group B. All patients in both groups had type III non-syndromic BA, and the LKPE and OKPE procedures were performed by 2 different surgical teams at our hospital. After median follow-up periods of 77 months in group A and 79 months in group B, the CJ and 3- and 5-year SNL rates were 61.2%, 55.1%, and 36.7% in group A, and 45.0%, 37.5%, and 25.0% in group B, respectively. The difference of CJ between group A and group B was not significant. The Kaplan-Meier method analysis showed that the difference in SNL between group A and group B was not significant either. CONCLUSIONS: LKPE for patients with BA was a technically feasible and alternative procedure to OKPE. The 3- and 5-year SNL rates after LKPE were not different compared to those after OKPE.

Cost-effectiveness of afatinib and erlotinib as second-line treatments for advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.

AIM: To investigate the cost-effectiveness of afatinib and erlotinib as second-line therapy for advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. MATERIALS & METHODS: A decision-analytic model was developed for projecting the economic outcomes. Clinical parameters and utilities were from the LUX-Lung 8 trial. Costs were mainly estimated from the Chinese health system. The outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. RESULTS: The afatinib strategy generated additional 0.154 quality-adjusted life-years compared with erlotinib, with incremental costs of ¥16,852. Relative to erlotinib, afatinib resulted in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of ¥109,429 per quality-adjusted life-year gained. The overall survival time of afatinib had a considerable impact on the model outcomes. CONCLUSION: Afatinib is a cost-effective treatment option compared with erlotinib in patients with squamous cell carcinoma.