Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward total neoadjuvant therapy for rectal cancer among oncologists in China: A survey study.

This cross-sectional survey study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) for rectal cancer (RC) among specialists in Hainan Province, China. RC specialists working in Hainan Province (China) were enrolled in this cross-sectional study between March and June 2023. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect the participants' characteristics and KAP toward TNT for RC. A total of 279 valid questionnaires were collected. The KAP scores were 15.91 ± 6.02 (possible range: 0-24), 34.16 ± 5.11 (possible range: 10-50), and 12.42 ± 1.83 (possible range: 3-15), respectively. The KAP scores of specialists who had applied TNT in clinical practice or research and had evaluated RC patients treated with TNT were significantly higher than those who had not (all P < 0.05). The structural equation model showed that knowledge of TNT directly affected attitude (ß = 0.292, P = 0.007) and practice (ß = 0.912, P = 0.007), and attitude toward TNT also had a direct effect on practice (ß = 1.047, P = 0.008). In conclusion, RC specialists in Hainan (China) had inadequate knowledge, negative attitudes, and sufficient practice toward TNT in Hainan Province, China. It is necessary to enhance education for RC specialists to improve their knowledge and attitude toward TNT.

Hepatic artery diameter predicts bleeding risk after gastroesophageal varices treatment: a contrast-enhanced CT study.

OBJECTIVE: Portal hypertension leads to hepatic artery dilatation and a higher risk of bleeding. We tried to identify the bleeding risk after gastroesophageal varices (GOV) treatment using hepatic artery diameter of contrast-enhanced CT. METHODS: Retrospective retrieval of 258 patients with cirrhosis who underwent contrast-enhanced CT from January 2022 to May 2023 and endoscopy within one month thereafter at Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University. Cirrhotic patients before GOV treatment were used as the test cohort (n = 199), and cirrhotic patients after GOV treatment were used as the validation cohort (n = 59). The grading and bleeding risk was classified according to the endoscopic findings. Arterial-phase images of contrast-enhanced CT were used for coronal reconstruction, and the midpoint diameter of the hepatic artery was measured on coronal images. The optimal cutoff value for identifying bleeding risk was analyzed and calculated in the test cohort, and its diagnostic performance was evaluated in the validation cohort. RESULTS: In the test cohort, hepatic artery diameters were significantly higher in high-risk GOV than in low-risk GOV [4.69 (4.31, 5.56) vs. 3.10 (2.59, 3.77), P < 0.001]. With a hepatic artery diameter cutoff value of 4.06 mm, the optimal area under the operating characteristic curve was 0.940 (95% confidence interval: 0.908-0.972), with a sensitivity of 0.887, a specificity of 0.892, a positive predictive value of 0.904, and a negative predictive value of 0.874 for identifying bleeding risk in the test cohort, while in the validation cohort, the sensitivity was 0.885, specificity was 0.939, positive predictive value was 0.920, and negative predictive value was 0.912. CONCLUSION: Hepatic artery diameter has high diagnostic performance in identifying bleeding risk after GOV treatment.

Multi-parameters of Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Estimate Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury after Stroke in Hyperglycemic Rats.

The aim of the study is to verify the effect of hyperglycemia on ischemia-reperfusion injury and to explore the feasibility of noninvasive observation of ischemic-reperfusion injury in hyperglycemic ischemic stroke by MRI technique. According to the duration of ischemia and blood glucose levels, 40 rats were divided into hyperglycemic ischemic 2-hr (H-I2h), hyperglycemic ischemic 6-hr (H-I6h), non- hyperglycemic ischemic 2-hr (NH-I2h), and non- hyperglycemic ischemic 6-hr (NH-I6h) groups. T2W imaging, DW imaging, T2 mapping, T2* mapping, DCE, and T1 mapping after enhancement sequences were acquired before reperfusion and approximately 3-hr after reperfusion. ADC, T1, T2, T2*, and Ktrans values of ischemic lesion were obtained in different groups. After reperfusion, the variation of ADC values showed no significant difference between groups with diabetes and groups without diabetes and between different recanalization time-points (2-hr vs 6-hr). After reperfusion, T2, T2*, and Ktrans values increased in different degrees in all four groups. Only the T1 value decreased in all groups. The change of all parameters in groups with hyperglycemia was more obvious than that in groups without hyperglycemia and was more obvious in groups with H-I6h versus those with H-I2h. This study confirms that hyperglycemia aggravates ischemia-reperfusion injury and may be an important risk factor for the prognosis of ischemic stroke. The Ktrans values should be noninvasive imaging indicators to monitor blood brain barrier permeability and ischemic-reperfusion injury in ischemic stroke.