Impact of surgical treatment on lipid metabolism in patients with lumbar spinal disorders: Prospective observational study.

PURPOSE: It is still unclear how lumbar spinal surgery affects the lipid metabolism of patients with lumbar spinal disorders (LSDs) such as lumbar spinal canal stenosis and lumbar disk herniation. The present study aimed to assess the impact of lumbar spinal surgery on lipid metabolism in patients with LSDs and clarify the factors associated with changes in visceral fat (VF) accumulation before and after lumbar spinal surgery. METHODS: Consecutive patients with lumbar spinal surgery for LSDs were prospectively included. Abdominal computed tomography images and blood examination of the participants were evaluated before surgery and at 6 months and 1 year after surgery. The cross-sectional VF area (VFA) was measured at the level of the navel using computed tomography images. Blood examination items included triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). RESULTS: The study enrolled a total of 138 patients. Female patients with LSDs had significantly increased VFA and serum triglyceride levels after lumbar spinal surgery. On multivariable analysis, the group with > 100 cm2 of preoperative VFA and a postoperative decrease in VFA had a significantly worse preoperative walking ability based on the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (relative risk 2.1; 95% confidence intervals 1.1-4.1). CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that patients with LSDs did not necessarily improve their lipid metabolism after lumbar spinal surgery. Instead, female patients with LSDs had significantly deteriorated lipid metabolism after lumbar spinal surgery. Finally, a worse preoperative walking ability was associated with the improvement in excess VF accumulation after lumbar spinal surgery.

Elevation of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio before First-Line Chemotherapy Predicts a Poor Prognosis for Second-Line Chemotherapy in Gastric Cancer.

OBJECTIVES: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been proposed as an indicator of cancer-related inflammation. The aim of our study was to examine the prognostic value of the NLR for patients with advanced gastric cancer receiving second-line chemotherapy. METHODS: The association of overall survival (OS) in second-line chemotherapy and the clinicopathological findings including NLR were analyzed retrospectively. The selection criteria were patients who received second-line chemotherapy between January 2010 and June 2015, had histologically confirmed gastric adenocarcinoma, and were followed up until death or for 180 days or longer. RESULTS: Eighty-six patients met the selection criteria. Multivariate analysis revealed that performance status 2, hemoglobin < 10 g/dL, and NLR before first-line chemotherapy ≥3 were adverse predictive markers. NLR before second-line chemotherapy was not associated with OS. A prognostic model was constructed dividing patients into three groups according to the number of adverse predictive factors: good (no factor), intermediate (one factor), and poor (more than two factors). The median OS for the good, intermediate, and poor groups was 14.3, 7.2, and 4.4 months, respectively (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with advanced gastric cancer with performance status 2, hemoglobin < 10 g/dL, and NLR before first-line chemotherapy ≥3 are not likely to benefit from second-line chemotherapy.

A cross sectional study on hand-arm vibration syndrome among a group of tree fellers in a tropical environment.

This study aimed to explore the clinical characteristics of hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) in a group of tree fellers in a tropical environment. We examined all tree fellers and selected control subjects in a logging camp of central Sarawak for vibration exposure and presence of HAVS symptoms utilizing vibrotactile perception threshold test (VPT) and cold water provocation test (CWP). None of the subjects reported white finger. The tree fellers reported significantly higher prevalence of finger coldness as compared to the control subjects (OR=10.32, 95%CI=1.21-87.94). A lower finger skin temperature, longer fingernail capillary return time and higher VPT were observed among the tree fellers as compared to the control subjects in all fingers (effect size >0.5). The VPT following CWP of the tree fellers was significantly higher (repeated measures ANOVA p=0.002, partial η(2)=0.196) than the control subject. The A (8) level was associated with finger tingling, numbness and dullness (effect size=0.983) and finger coldness (effect size=0.524) among the tree fellers. Finger coldness and finger tingling, numbness and dullness are important symptoms for HAVS in tropical environment that may indicate vascular and neurological damage due to hand-transmitted vibration exposure.

Single-operator double-balloon endoscopy (DBE) is as effective as dual-operator DBE.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Double-balloon endoscopy (DBE) is a new device that allows diagnosis and treatment throughout the entire small intestine. Although the originally described method requires two operators, we have recently developed a method to perform DBE by a single operator. We here assessed the clinical usefulness of this one-person method in comparison to the conventional two-person DBE. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred sixty-two patients (102 men and 60 women, mean age 59 years) underwent 303 DBE procedures. Total observation time, completion rate of total intestinal and colonic observation, lesion-discovery rate, and complication rate were retrospectively compared between the one-person method and the conventional two-person method of DBE. The one-person method consists of the Grip and Pinch technique and Keep (or Hold) and Slide technique. RESULTS: The total observation times were 95.5 +/- 35.1 min and 96.7 +/- 47.5 min by one-person and two-person antegrade DBE, respectively, and 103 +/- 29.8 min and 111 +/- 30.1 min by one-person and two-person retrograde DBE, respectively. The completion rate for examination of the entire small intestine was 74.2% in one-person DBE and 76.5% in two-person DBE, respectively. The lesion-discovery rate was 69.0% in one-person DBE and 65.5% in two-person DBE, respectively. No significant differences between two methods were found in all measures. Also, no difference was observed in complication rate of the two methods. CONCLUSIONS: The single-operator method for DBE was as efficient as the dual-operator DBE without any higher risk of complications and, therefore, could replace the conventional dual-operator method in the future.

Signaling pathway via TNF-alpha/NF-kappaB in intestinal epithelial cells may be directly involved in colitis-associated carcinogenesis.

Treatment with anti-TNF-alpha MAb has been accepted as a successful maintenance therapy for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Moreover, it has been recently reported that blockade of TNF receptor (TNFR) 1 signaling in infiltrating hematopoietic cells may prevent the development of colitis-associated cancer (CAC). However, it remains unclear whether the TNF-alpha signaling in epithelial cells is involved in the development of CAC. To investigate this, we studied the effects of anti-TNF-alpha MAb in an animal model of CAC by administration of azoxymethane (AOM) followed by sequential dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) ingestion. We observed that the NF-kappaB pathway is activated in colonic epithelia from DSS-administered mice in association with upregulation of TNFR2 rather than TNFR1. Immunoblot analysis also revealed that the TNFR2 upregulation accompanied by the NF-kappaB activation is further complicated in CAC tissues induced in AOM/DSS-administered mice compared with the nontumor area. Such NF-kappaB activity in the epithelial cells is significantly suppressed by the treatment of MP6-XT22, an anti-TNF-alpha MAb. Despite inability to reduce the severity of colitis, sequential administration of MP6-XT22 reduced the numbers and size of tumors in association with the NF-kappaB inactivation. Taken together, present studies suggest that the TNFR2 signaling in intestinal epithelial cells may be directly involved in the development of CAC with persistent colitis and imply that the maintenance therapy with anti-TNF-alpha MAb may prevent the development of CAC in patients with long-standing IBD.

Flagellin stimulation suppresses IL-7 secretion of intestinal epithelial cells.

IL-7 is a cytokine, which regulates development, maintenance and proliferation of T lymphocytes within the human immune system. Production of IL-7 is observed in a sterile environment such as thymus or bone marrow. However, it is also known that intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) residing in close contact with numerous bacterial stimuli also produce IL-7. Here we show that secretion of IL-7 by IECs is significantly suppressed upon stimulation by various bacterial components, including flagellin. Analysis of the intracellular mechanism by which flagellin regulates IL-7 production revealed that flagellin down-regulates expression of the two major transcripts encoding IL-7. Surprisingly, such function of flagellin was independent from the known transcriptional regulation of the IL-7 gene, as no significant change was observed in the transcriptional activity regulated by the previously identified promoter region. As the stability of IL-7 mRNA also remained unchanged upon flagellin stimulation, results suggested the possible involvement of a yet unknown transcriptional regulation of the IL-7 gene. These results describe a novel regulation of IL-7 production by bacterial stimuli, presumably mediated via Toll-like receptors. The present system might contribute to regulate the local lymphocyte pool, in response to the gut luminal or sub-mucosal bacterial abundance.

Collective chaos synchronization of pairs of modes in a chaotic three-mode laser.

We study chaos synchronization experimentally in a modulated globally coupled three-mode laser with different modal gains subjected to self-mixing Doppler-shifted feedback, which can apply the loss modulation to individual modes at Doppler-shift frequencies. Depending on the pump power, different forms of collective chaos synchronizations were found to appear when the laser was modulated at the highest relaxation oscillation frequency, reflecting the change in cross-saturation coefficient among modes. In the present experiment, each pair of modes exhibited phase, lag, or generalized synchronization collectively according to the inherent antiphase dynamics, where these types of synchronization have already been demonstrated in two coupled chaotic oscillators in different physical systems. Information flows among oscillating modes which are established in different forms of collective chaos synchronizations were characterized by information-circulation analysis of the experimental time series. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.