Developing a core outcome set for paediatric wrist fractures: a systematic review of prior outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: This review aims to summarize the outcomes used to describe effectiveness of treatments for paediatric wrist fractures within existing literature. METHOD: We searched the Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Ovid Medline for studies pertaining to paediatric wrist fractures. Three authors independently identified and reviewed eligible studies. This resulted in a list of outcome domains and outcomes measures used within clinical research. Outcomes were mapped onto domains defined by the COMET collaborative. RESULTS: Our search terms identified 4,262 different papers. Screening of titles excluded 2,975, leaving 1,287 papers to be assessed for eligibility. Of this 1,287, 30 studies were included for full analysis. Overall, five outcome domains, 16 outcome measures, and 28 measurement instruments were identified as outcomes within these studies. 24 studies used at least one measurement pertaining to the physiological/clinical outcome domain. The technical, life impact, and adverse effect domains were recorded in 23, 20, and 11 of the studies respectively. Within each domain it was common for different measurement instruments to be used to assess each outcome measure. The most commonly reported outcome measures were range of movement, a broad array of "radiological measures" and pain intensity, which were used in 24, 23, and 12 of the 30 studies. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the heterogeneity in outcomes reported within clinical effectiveness studies of paediatric wrist fractures. We provided an overview of the types of outcomes reported in paediatric wrist fracture studies and identified a list of potentially relevant outcomes required for the development of a core outcome set.

Correction: STING expression and response to treatment with STING ligands in premalignant and malignant disease.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187532.].

STING expression and response to treatment with STING ligands in premalignant and malignant disease.

Human papilloma virus positive (HPV+) tumors represent a large proportion of anal, vulvar, vaginal, cervical and head and neck squamous carcinomas (HNSCC) and late stage invasive disease is thought to originate from a premalignant state. Cyclic dinucleotides that activate STimulator of INterferon Genes (STING) have been shown to cause rapid regression of a range of advanced tumors. We aimed to investigate STING ligands as a novel treatment for papilloma. We tested therapies in a spontaneous mouse model of papilloma of the face and anogenital region that histologically resembles human HPV-associated papilloma. We demonstrate that STING ligands cause rapid regression of papilloma, associated with T cell infiltration, and are significantly more effective than Imiquimod, a current immunotherapy for papilloma. In humans, we show that STING is expressed in the basal layer of normal skin and lost during keratinocyte differentiation. We found STING was expressed in all HPV-associated cervical and anal dysplasia and was strongly expressed in the cancer cells of HPV+ HNSCC but not in HPV-unrelated HNSCC. We found no strong association between STING expression and progressive disease in non-HPV oral dysplasia and oral pre-malignancies that are not HPV-related. These data demonstrate that STING is expressed in basal cells of the skin and is retained in HPV+ pre-malignancies and advanced cancers, but not in HPV-unrelated HNSCC. However, using a murine HNSCC model that does not express STING, we demonstrate that STING ligands are an effective therapy regardless of expression of STING by the cancer cells.

Circulating and intratumoral macrophages in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: correlation with therapeutic approach.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma arises in an environment of chronic injury, and wound-healing responses may vary by treatment. METHODS: Peripheral blood myeloid populations were quantified in 39 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with surgical or endoluminal therapy. Macrophages were quantified in tissue when available. RESULTS: There was a similar expansion of myeloid populations after operative procedures compared with endoluminal treatments. Immunostaining for CD68 revealed no significant differences in the number of macrophages within benign versus malignant tumors and when tumors were compared with nontumor liver. Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells were rare within tumors compared with the surrounding liver (P < .0001). Progression-free survival was reduced in patients with preoperative peripheral blood monocyte expansion (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: These data provide preliminary evidence of poor prognostic significance of elevated peripheral blood monocyte counts. We propose that the inflammatory environment of hepatocellular carcinoma may represent a consistent feature to both predict and alter the course of disease.

Synthesis of oriented arrays of TiO2 nanorods via a high temperature conversion of carbon nanotubes.

Oriented arrays of both rutile and anatase nanorods have been synthesised in a two-stage process, employing multi-walled carbon nanotubes as the initial structural template.

Accelerated synthesis of titanium oxide nanostructures using microfluidic chips.

The synthesis of one-dimensional titanium oxide nanostructures has been accelerated by performing the reaction in a microfluidic environment as opposed to a classical batch process.

Removal of oxidation debris from multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

Conventional liquid phase oxidation of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using concentrated acids generates contaminating debris that should be removed using aqueous base before further reaction.