Clinical and radiographic changes after percutaneous endoscopic cervical discectomy: a long-term follow-up.

Objective: Results following anterior cervical discectomy (ACD) without fusion are not well reported because of skepticism that the disturbed cervical spine anatomy after ACD might compromise clinical outcome. The purpose of this study was to determine whether ACD without fusion prompts the degenerative process significantly, and whether it is necessary to preserve disc height and cervical alignment for the sake of better clinical outcome following cervical spine surgery.

Background Data: Out of 56 consecutive patients, 37 patients who replied and consequently underwent postoperative MRI from April to June 2009 were included in this study.

Effects of intensive low-salt diet education on albuminuria among nondiabetic patients with hypertension treated with olmesartan: a single-blinded randomized, controlled trial.

Background And Objectives: The antiproteinuric effect of a renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system blockade can be magnified by dietary salt restriction. This study sought to determine the effect of intensive low-salt diet education on BP and urine albumin excretion in nondiabetic patients with hypertension and albuminuria.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: This study was conducted between March of 2012 and March of 2013 as an open-label, randomized, controlled trial.

Correlation between HER2 Overexpression and Clinicopathological Characteristics in Gastric Cancer Patients Who Have Undergone Curative Resection.

Purpose: At present, a human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-based concept of tumor biology has been established, and trastuzumab (Herceptin®; Genentech/Roche, San Francisco, CA, USA), a monoclonal humanized antibody directed against HER2, is a pivotal agent for the management of HER2 positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer. It is also known that HER2 has a predictive value in gastric cancer; however, its association with the prognosis of this disease remains uncertain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate both the relationship between HER2 overexpression in the tumors of gastric cancer patients, and the prognosis of these patients who have had curative resection.

Urinary sodium excretion has positive correlation with activation of urinary renin angiotensin system and reactive oxygen species in hypertensive chronic kidney disease.

It is not well described the pathophysiology of renal injuries caused by a high salt intake in humans. The authors analyzed the relationship between the 24-hr urine sodium-to-creatinine ratio (24HUna/cr) and renal injury parameters such as urine angiotensinogen (uAGT/cr), monocyte chemoattractant peptide-1 (uMCP1/cr), and malondialdehyde-to-creatinine ratio (uMDA/cr) by using the data derived from 226 hypertensive chronic kidney disease patients. At baseline, the 24HUna/cr group or levels had a positive correlation with uAGT/cr and uMDA/cr adjusted for related factors (P<0.

Plasmon-enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting with size-controllable gold nanodot arrays.

Size-controllable Au nanodot arrays (50, 63, and 83 nm dot size) with a narrow size distribution (± 5%) were prepared by a direct contact printing method on an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate. Titania was added to the Au nanodots using TiO(2) sols of 2-3 nm in size. This created a precisely controlled Au nanodot with 110 nm of TiO(2) overcoats.

Validation study of peripheral blood diagnostic test for acute rejection in kidney transplantation.

Background: Diagnosing acute rejection (AR) in kidney transplant recipients typically requires an invasive kidney biopsy. A previous study has suggested that expression of five genes in peripheral blood can indicate the presence of AR in American pediatric kidney transplant recipients. This study aims to validate if these five genes are also useful to diagnose AR in Korean adult kidney transplant patients.

Clinicopathological role of kidney injury molecule-1 in immunoglobulin A nephropathy.

Background: Urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) is an early and sensitive biomarker of acute kidney injury, but it is unclear if it is a biomarker of chronic glomerulonephritis. We evaluated whether urinary KIM-1 levels in patients with immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy can be a marker to reflect clinicopathological severity and predict the prognosis.

Methods: We measured urinary KIM-1 levels in 40 patients (15 males; mean age 36.

Lateral antebrachial cutaneous neuropathy after steroid injection at lateral epicondyle.

Background And Objectives: This report aimed to present a case of lateral antebrachial cutaneous neuropathy (LACNP) that occurred after a steroid injection in the lateral epicondyle to treat lateral epicondylitis in a 40-year-old woman.

Material And Method: A 40-year-old woman presented with decreased sensation and paresthesia over her right lateral forearm; the paresthesia had occurred after a steroid injection in the right lateral epicondyle 3 months before. Her sensation of light touch and pain was diminished over the lateral side of the right forearm and wrist area.

Clinical usefulness of electrodiagnostic study to predict surgical outcomes in lumbosacral disc herniation or spinal stenosis.

Purpose: Although surgeries have been performed for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) or lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), not all patients who undergo surgery are satisfied with the outcome. Electrodiagnostic study (EDX) can assess the physiological functions of nerve roots with higher specificity and relate better with clinical manifestations. The purpose of this study was to examine how EDX can predict surgical outcomes in patients with LDH and LSS and to compare the predicted values of EDX with other clinical factors and MRI findings.

Febuxostat ameliorates diabetic renal injury in a streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat model.

Background: Oxidative stress and inflammation are known to play central roles in the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Febuxostat is a novel non-purine xanthine oxidase (XO)-specific inhibitor developed to treat hyperuricemia. In this study, we investigated whether febuxostat could ameliorate DN via renoprotective mechanisms such as alleviation of oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory actions.

Protection from hemolytic uremic syndrome by eyedrop vaccination with modified enterohemorrhagic E. coli outer membrane vesicles.

We investigated whether eyedrop vaccination using modified outer membrane vesicles (mOMVs) is effective for protecting against hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) caused by enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) O157:H7 infection. Modified OMVs and waaJ-mOMVs were prepared from cultures of MsbB- and Shiga toxin A subunit (STxA)-deficient EHEC O157:H7 bacteria with or without an additional waaJ mutation.

Assessment of mOMV adjuvant efficacy in the pathogenic H1N1 influenza virus vaccine.

Purpose: Since the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus has been a seasonal flu which still poses great human health concerns worldwide, vaccination would be considered as the most effective strategy to control the influenza virus spreading. Here, we assessed adjuvant efficacy of modified outer membrane vesicle (mOMV) towards the pandemic H1N1 split antigen.

Materials And Methods: For this study, mice were vaccinated twice with various amount of antigen (0.

A case of midazolam anaphylaxis.

Midazolam is a type of anesthetic agent frequently used for conscious sedation during a variety of medical procedures. Anaphylactic reactions to midazolam are rarely reported. However, we observed a case of midazolam hypersensitivity in which emergency measures were required to ensure patient recovery after administration of midazolam as a sedative.

Twist technique for removal of spinal extradural arachnoid cyst: technical note.

Study Design: We document a spinal extradual arachnoid cyst treated by twist technique. The cyst is tightly adherent to the neural tissue or the dura, and the communication stalk is little or short.

Objective: To demonstrate the effectiveness of twist technique of closure of the communication stalk for the removal of spinal extradural arachnoid cyst.

Transfer printing of metal nanoring and nanodot arrays for use in catalytic reactions.

Nanoscale metal ring and dot catalyst arrays are printed over large substrate areas using vertically aligned carbon-based stamps with the ring- and dot-shaped tips. The fundamental nature of these ring and dot catalysts is successfully compared by applying them in diverse electrocatalytic reactions in acidic and alkaline media.

SAUR Inhibition of PP2C-D Phosphatases Activates Plasma Membrane H+-ATPases to Promote Cell Expansion in Arabidopsis.

The plant hormone auxin promotes cell expansion. Forty years ago, the acid growth theory was proposed, whereby auxin promotes proton efflux to acidify the apoplast and facilitate the uptake of solutes and water to drive plant cell expansion. However, the underlying molecular and genetic bases of this process remain unclear.

Fracture of the L-4 vertebral body after use of a stand-alone interbody fusion device in degenerative spondylolisthesis for anterior L3-4 fixation.

Many studies attest to the excellent results achieved using anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) for degenerative spondylolisthesis. The purpose of this report is to document a rare instance of L-4 vertebral body fracture following use of a stand-alone interbody fusion device for L3-4 ALIF. The patient, a 55-year-old man, had suffered intractable pain of the back, right buttock, and left leg for several weeks.

Dominant role of peroxiredoxin/JNK axis in stemness regulation during neurogenesis from embryonic stem cells.

Redox balance has been suggested as an important determinant of "stemness" in embryonic stem cells (ESCs). In this study, we demonstrate that peroxiredoxin (Prx) plays a pivotal role in maintenance of ESC stemness during neurogenesis through suppression of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-sensitive signaling. During neurogenesis, Prx I and Oct4 are expressed in a mutually dependent manner and their expression is abruptly downregulated by an excess of ROS.

4-1BB-based isolation and expansion of CD8+ T cells specific for self-tumor and non-self-tumor antigens for adoptive T-cell therapy.

Adoptive T-cell therapy is a promising approach to the immunotherapy of cancer, but for it to be a general cancer therapy a simple and standardized procedure for producing tumor-specific CD8 T cells is needed. On the basis of a unique property of 4-1BB (CD137), the selective expression on activated T cells, we have developed a simple and practical protocol to produce antigen-specific CD8 T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. We have proved the feasibility of this procedure by isolating and expanding cytomegalovirus-specific CD8 T cells, and applied the procedure to produce Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific CD8 T cells.

Fractal analysis of CT perfusion images for evaluation of antiangiogenic treatment and survival in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Rationale And Objectives: Tumor vascular heterogeneity is a recognized biomarker for cancer progression. Our purpose was to assess the tumor perfusion heterogeneity during antiangiogenic therapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by means of fractal analysis on computed tomography perfusion (CTP) images.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-two patients (15 men and 7 women; mean age: 61.

Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar foraminotomy: an advanced surgical technique and clinical outcomes.

Background: Although several authors have reported the use of endoscopic techniques to treat lumbar foraminal stenosis, the practical application of these techniques has been limited to soft disc herniation.

Objective: To describe the details of the percutaneous endoscopic lumbar foraminotomy (ELF) technique for bony foraminal stenosis and to demonstrate the clinical outcomes.

Methods: Two years of prospective data were collected from 33 consecutive patients with lumbar foraminal stenosis who underwent ELF.

Association studies of cytochrome P450, family 2, subfamily E, polypeptide 1 (CYP2E1) gene polymorphisms with acute rejection in kidney transplantation recipients.

Recent studies have shown that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with allograft rejection in kidney transplantation recipients. We evaluated the possible association between SNPs of the cytochrome P450, family 2, subfamily E, polypeptide 1 (CYP2E1) gene, and acute rejection (AR) among renal transplant patients in a Korean population. We conducted a case-control association study in 63 AR and 284 non-AR kidney transplant recipients.

Clinical effectiveness of percutaneous adhesiolysis versus transforaminal epidural steroid injection in patients with postlumbar surgery syndrome.

Background And Objectives: A number of patients with postlumbar surgery syndrome (PLSS) do not experience satisfactory results after epidural injection. A main reason for failure is surgically induced perineural fibrosis impeding injected material from spreading effectively into the target area. Percutaneous adhesiolysis (PA) has the ability to eliminate the deleterious effects of such adhesions.

Clinical significance of elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level in acute viral hepatitis A (AHA).

Background/aims: The clinical course of acute viral hepatitis A (AHA) is highly variable. Serum alphafetoprotein (AFP) level is often elevated in various types of acute liver injuries, indicating active liver regeneration. This study was aimed to investigate the clinical significance of serum AFP level in the aspect of the early recovery in AHA.