Cainwalsh0716

Increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is the most crucial risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Statins are the mainstay therapy, but many patients need to add non-statin treatment to reach the recommended LDL-C goal. Although proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors are the most effective agents in LDL-C reduction, they are much more expensive than other lipid-lowering agents. In January 2020, the Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) program started to reimburse PCSK9 inhibitors for select ASCVD patients with certain conditions. Major guidelines or consensus worldwide also provide specific recommendations about how to appropriately use these agents. This review summarizes the Taiwan NHI regulations of using PCSK9 inhibitors and compared them with other guidelines or consensus around the world.

Russell body gastritis (RBG) is very rare type of chronic inflammation of gastric mucosa. The pathologic hallmark of the disease is Russell bodies (RB) which represent accumulation of eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusions in endoplasmic reticulum of mature plasma cells (Mott cells). Most published cases are associated with

(

) infection because of correlation between plasma cell activation and antigenic stimulation. There are insufficient data about

-negative RBG and very little is known about the natural course of the disease.

A 51-year-old male patient underwent endoscopic screening for mild iron deficiency anemia. Gastroscopy revealed diffuse hyperemia, edema and nodularity of the fundic and corpus mucosa. Due to non-specific endoscopic findings and iron-deficiency anemia our preliminary diagnosis was diffuse type of gastric carcinoma or gastric lymphoma. Biopsy specimens of gastric mucosa showed inflammatory infiltrate rich in Mott cells, consisting entirely of cytoplasmic RB. Absence of nuclear atypia and mitosis of the plasma cells, polyclonal pattern of the Mott cells and negative staining for cytokeratins favored diagnosis of RBG. The patient was treated with proton-pump inhibitor for 8 wk. Long-term clinical and endoscopic surveillance was scheduled. Albeit, there was no improvement in endoscopic features of the gastric mucosa in three consecutive gastroscopies, histopathological findings demonstrated that the chronic inflammatory infiltrate in the fundic mucosa is less pronounced, rich in plasma cells, with almost absent RB and Mott cells.

The prognosis of this entity is uncertain, that is why these patients are subjects of continuous follow up.

The prognosis of this entity is uncertain, that is why these patients are subjects of continuous follow up.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a frequent cause of cancer related death globally. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and albumin bilirubin (ALBI) grade are emerging prognostic indicators in HCC.

To study published literature of NLR and ALBI over the last five years, and to validate NLR and ALBI locally in our centre as indicators of HCC survival.

A systematic review of the published literature on PubMed of NLR and ALBI in HCC over the last five years. The search followed the guidelines of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Additionally, we also investigated HCC cases between December 2013 and December 2018 in our centre.

There were 54 studies describing the relation between HCC and NLR and 95 studies describing the relation between HCC and ALBI grade over the last five years. Our local cohort of patients showed NLR to have a significant negative relationship to survival (

= 0.011). There was also significant inverse relationship between the size of the largeotte Pugh score. These markers are done as part of routine clinical care and in cases of normal alpha fetoprotein, these markers could give a better understanding of the patient disease progression. NLR and ALBI grade could have a role in modified easier to learn staging and prognostic systems for HCC.

Rectal cancer (RC) patient stratification by different factors may yield variable results. Therefore, more efficient prognostic biomarkers are needed for improved risk stratification, personalized treatment, and prognostication of RC patients.

To build a novel model for predicting the presence of distant metastases and 3-year overall survival (OS) in RC patients.

This was a retrospective analysis of 148 patients (76 males and 72 females) with RC treated with curative resection, without neoadjuvant or postoperative chemoradiotherapy, between October 2012 and December 2015. These patients were allocated to a training or validation set, with a ratio of 73. Radiomic features were extracted from portal venous phase computed tomography (CT) images of RC. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression analysis was used for feature selection. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to develop the radiomics signature (Rad-score) and the clinicoradiologic risk model (the combined model)the training set and validation set, respectively. For the survival analysis, the combined model was associated with an improved OS in the whole cohort and the respective subgroups.

This study presents a clinicoradiologic risk model, visualized in a nomogram, that can be used to facilitate individualized prediction of distant metastasis and 3-year OS in patients with RC.

This study presents a clinicoradiologic risk model, visualized in a nomogram, that can be used to facilitate individualized prediction of distant metastasis and 3-year OS in patients with RC.

Liver fat accumulation is associated with increased cholesterol synthesis and hypersecretion of biliary cholesterol, which may be related to the development of cholelithiasis.

To investigate whether liver fat accumulation measured by high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a risk factor for cholelithiasis.

Forty patients with cholelithiasis and thirty-one healthy controls were retrospectively enrolled. The participants underwent high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo single-voxel MRS of the liver at a 3T MR scanner. The proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and R2 value were calculated. Serum parameters and waist circumference (WC) were recorded. TH5427 price Spearman's correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between PDFF, R2, and WC values. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the significant predictors of the risk of cholelithiasis. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the discriminative performance of significant predictors.