Segmental and global longitudinal strain differences between Kawasaki disease and multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children.

BACKGROUND: Multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children and Kawasaki disease have overlapping clinical features but comparative echocardiographic studies are lacking. METHODS: We reviewed echocardiography findings of all multi-system inflammatory syndrome cases between 1st April and 31st July, 2020 and typical Kawasaki disease patients with coronary arteries abnormalities consecutively followed between 1st October, 2016 and June 30th, 2019. RESULTS: We included 40 multi-system inflammatory syndrome children (25 males, 62.5%) and 45 Kawasaki disease patients (31 males, 68.9%) at a mean age of 6.4 years old and 8 years old, respectively. Four out of 40 multi-system inflammatory syndrome children had coronary arteries abnormalities. Left ventricle ejection fraction was normal in both groups. Global longitudinal strain was normal although Kawasaki disease group had significantly lower values (-20.0 versus -21.7%; p = 0.02). Basal segments were the most affected in Kawasaki disease patients with significant differences in the basal anterior, anterolateral, and anteroseptal strain: -18.2 versus -23.0% (p = 0.002), -16.7 versus -22.0% (p < 0.001), -16.7 versus -19.5% (p = 0.034), respectively. The basal anterolateral and anteroseptal segments in Kawasaki disease patients were the only ones with an absolute reduction of longitudinal strain (-16.7% both) consistent with the greater left main coronary involvement in this cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with the transient cardiac involvement in multi-system inflammatory syndrome, as opposed to the subtle and chronic myocardial involvement in Kawasaki disease children with coronary arteries abnormalities. We speculate that the mechanism of cardiac impairment in the few multi-system inflammatory syndrome children with reduced global longitudinal strain is not related to coronary arteries abnormalities.

A novel strategy for preserving renal grafts in an ex vivo setting: potential for enhancing the marginal donor pool.

Renal transplantation remains the best treatment option for patients with end-stage renal failure. However, the shortage of renal grafts remains a big challenge. Renal graft ischemic injuries that occur before and after graft retrieval have a devastating effect on graft survival, especially on grafts from marginal donors. This study was conducted to assess the protective effect against ischemic injury of a preservative solution supplemented with xenon (Xe), when used on ex vivo kidney grafts in a rat renal transplant model, and to explore the underlying mechanisms in vitro. Lewis rat renal grafts were stored in Soltran preservative solution at 4°C, saturated with nitrogen (N2) or Xe gas (70% Xe or N2, with 5% CO2 balanced with O2) for 24 or 48 h. Grafts stored in Xe-saturated preservative solution demonstrated significantly less severe histopathologic changes, together with enhanced B-cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 and heat shock protein (HSP)-70 expression. After engraftment in the Lewis rat recipient, renal function was significantly improved in the Xe-treated grafts, and macrophage infiltration and fibrosis were reduced. Xe exposure enhanced Bcl-2 and HSP-70 expression in human renal tubular epithelial (HK-2) cells and prevented mitochondrial and nuclear damage. The release of the apoptogenic factors cytochrome c, apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF), and proinflammatory high-mobility group protein B1 (HMGB-1) was effectively suppressed. This study thus demonstrated for the first time that Xe confers renoprotection on renal grafts ex vivo and is likely to stabilize cellular structure during ischemic insult. The current study has significant clinical implications, in which the use of Xe ex vivo could enhance the marginal donor pool of renal grafts by preventing graft loss due to ischemia.

The role of interleukin 17 in tumour proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis.

With 7.6 million deaths globally, cancer according to the World Health Organisation is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Interleukin 17 (IL-17) is a cytokine produced by Th17 cells, a T helper cell subset developed from an activated CD4+ T-cell. Whilst the importance of IL-17 in human autoimmune disease, inflammation, and pathogen defence reactions has already been established, its potential role in cancer progression still needs to be updated. Interestingly studies have demonstrated that IL-17 plays an intricate role in the pathophysiology of cancer, from tumorigenesis, proliferation, angiogenesis, and metastasis, to adapting the tumour in its ability to confer upon itself both immune, and chemotherapy resistance. This review will look into IL-17 and summarise the current information and data on its role in the pathophysiology of cancer as well as its potential application in the overall management of the disease.

Myocardial deformation assessed by CMR in children after multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).

BACKGROUND: Short-term sequelae of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), recently published by our institution, showed rapid improvement of the cardiac abnormalities within a few weeks after the onset of the disease. However, subtle residual abnormalities, affecting mainly the myocardial interstitium, were shown in some of the patients. The current study aimed to assess myocardial deformation with CMR shortly after MIS-C. METHODS: Sixty children were included into the study; 30 following MIS-C (onset-to-scan mean 27 days, SD 11) and 30 controls. Strain values were compared between patients and controls and additionally to published paediatric normal CMR values. U-Mann Whitney test was used for comparison of the myocardial deformation between patients and controls. RESULTS: Median age of the patients was 9.0 years (range 0.99-14.4) and controls 9.8 years (range 4.7-14.9). All conventional CMR parameters in patients were in normal range. Strain values were significantly lower in patients than in controls. When compared to published centile graphs, radial and circumferential global strain was within 2.5th and 97.5th centile in all patients. Eleven patients had global longitudinal strain between 2.5th centile and 50th centile, 1 patient was below 2.5th centile and all the others above 50th centile. Only 3 controls had global longitudinal strain between 2.5th centile and 50th centile, all other had higher strain. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that myocardial deformation indices measured by CMR are within normal range in the vast majority of the patients within a few weeks after the onset of MIS-C. However, when compared to healthy controls, all strain parameters were lower in patients.

Childhood risk factors in Korean women with anorexia nervosa: two sets of case-control studies with retrospective comparisons.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of the risk factors for anorexia nervosa (AN) in Korean women. METHOD: Two sets of case-control comparisons were conducted, in which 52 women with lifetime AN from Seoul, S. Korea, were compared with 108 Korean healthy controls and also with 42 women with lifetime AN from the UK in terms of their childhood risk factors. A questionnaire designed to conduct a retrospective assessment of the childhood risk factors was administered to all participants. RESULTS: The Korean AN women were more likely to report premorbid anxiety, perfectionism, and emotional undereating and were less likely to report having supportive figures in their childhood than the Korean healthy controls. There were no overall differences in the childhood risk factors between the Korean and British women with AN. DISCUSSION: Premorbid anxiety, perfectionism, less social support, and emotional undereating merit attention as risk factors in Korean AN. The current results are informative, but an epidemiologically robust prospective case-control study would be needed to validate these findings.

Size of colorectal polyps determines time taken to remove them endoscopically.

BACKGROUND AN STUDY AIMS: Polypectomy and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) are effective and safe ways of removing polyps from the colon at endoscopy. Guidelines exist for advising the time allocation for diagnostic endoscopy but not for polypectomy and EMR. The aim of this study was to identify if time allocated for polypectomy and EMR at planned therapeutic lists in our endoscopy unit is sufficient for procedures to be carried out. We also wanted to identify factors that might be associated with procedures taking longer than the allocated time and to identify factors that might predict duration of these procedures. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective case study of planned 100 lower gastrointestinal EMR and polypectomy procedures at colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy was performed and analyzed with quantitative analysis. RESULTS: The mean actual procedural time (APT) for 100 procedures was 52 minutes and the mean allocated time (AT) was 43.05 minutes. Hence the mean APT was 9 minutes longer than the mean AT. Factors that were significantly associated with procedures taking longer than the allocated time were patient age ( P  = 0.029) and polyp size ( P  = 0.005). Factors that significant changed the actual procedure time were patient age ( P  = 0.018), morphology ( P  = 0.002) and polyp size ( P  < 0.001). Procedures involving flat and lateral spreading tumor (LST) type polyps took longer than the protruding ones. On multivariate analysis, polyp size was the only factor that associated with actual procedure time. Number of polyps, quality of bowel preparation, and distance of polyp from insertion did significantly change procedure duration. CONCLUSION: Factors that significantly contribute to duration of polypectomy and EMR at lower gastrointestinal endoscopy include patient age and polyp size and morphology on univariate analysis, with polyp size being the factor with a significant association on multivariate analysis. We recommend that endoscopy units take these factors into consideration locally when allocating time for these procedures to be safe and effective.

Algorithm to Estimate the Extended Turnaround Time Including Outpatient Waiting Time for Blood Specimen Collection when a Stand-alone Queue Ticket System not Connectable to Laboratory Information System Is Used.

BACKGROUND: A queue ticket system (QTS) used in an outpatient phlebotomy clinic was unable to be directly integrated with the laboratory information system (LIS). To monitor patient's waiting time and extended turnaround time (TAT) as patient-centered quality indicators for outpatient laboratory services, we developed an algorithm to integrate data between the QTS and the LIS. METHODS: Between June 1 to September 30, 2017, data files were exported from a QSYS-8000 (HION Tech, Seoul, Korea). Each calling event from the QTS data was matched to a barcode of test requests from the LIS if the following conditions were met: (1) time interval between "call time" from QTS and "barcode printing time" from LIS <90 s; (2) "Counter Number" from LIS="Counter Number" from QTS. Extended TAT was estimated as the interval between pulling the queue ticket and the reporting of the test result. RESULTS: 82.66%±3.14% of the barcodes from the LIS were matched to issued tickets. Median waiting time (mean±SD) was 6.5±5.3 min. Median extended TAT was 84.7±11.2 min for non-STAT and 53.0±6.4 min for STAT. CONCLUSION: When a stand-alone QTS was used in the outpatient phlebotomy clinic, data from the QTS and the LIS were integrated using a novel algorithm we developed.