BioMed research international
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Meta Analysis
Yes-Associated Protein 1 as a Novel Prognostic Biomarker for Gastrointestinal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.
Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) is an effector of Hippo pathway, which plays a significant role in cell proliferation and tumor progression. The relationship between YAP1 and gastrointestinal cancer has been explored in many previous studies. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore the prognostic effect of YAP1 in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. ⋯ Elevated YAP1 expression in patients with gastrointestinal cancer might be related to shorter OS. YAP1 protein could serve as a potential predictor of poor prognosis in gastrointestinal cancer.
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Numerous studies have investigated the prognostic role of frailty in elderly patients with heart failure (HF), but the limited size of the reported studies has resulted in continued uncertainty regarding its prognostic impact. The aim of this study was to integrate the findings of all available studies and estimate the impact of frailty on the prognosis of HF by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis. ⋯ Frailty has a high prevalence among older patients with HF. Elderly HF patients with frailty have a poorer prognosis than those without frailty. Further studies are now required to implement the use of frailty assessment tools and explore effective interventions for frailty in older HF patients.
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Review
The Central Role of the Inflammatory Response in Understanding the Heterogeneity of Sepsis-3.
In sepsis-3, in contrast with sepsis-1, the definition "systemic inflammatory response" has been replaced with "dysregulated host response", and "systemic inflammatory response syndrome" (SIRS) has been replaced with "sequential organ failure assessment" (SOFA). Although the definition of sepsis has changed, the debate regarding its nature is ongoing. ⋯ Moreover, powerful links exist between inflammation and other host responses (such as the neuroendocrine response, coagulation, and immunosuppression). We suggest that a comprehensive evaluation of the role of the inflammatory response will improve our understanding of the heterogeneity of sepsis.
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Asthma is a chronic and heterogeneous disease, which is defined as severe disease whenever it requires treatment with a high dose of inhaled corticosteroids plus a second controller and/or systemic corticosteroids to prevent it from becoming ''uncontrolled" or if it remains ''uncontrolled" despite this therapy. Severe asthma is a heterogeneous condition consisting of phenotypes such as eosinophilic asthma, which is characterized by sputum eosinophilia, associated with mild to moderate increase in blood eosinophil count, frequently adult-onset, and associated with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in half of the cases. Eosinophilic asthma is driven by T2 inflammation, characterized, among the others, by interleukin-5 production. ⋯ All these IL-5 target drugs have been shown to reduce the number of exacerbation in patients with severe asthma selected on the basis of peripheral blood eosinophil count. There are still a number of unresolved issues related to the anti-IL5 strategy in eosinophilic asthma, which are here reviewed. These issues include the effects of such therapy on airway obstruction and asthmatic symptoms, the level of baseline eosinophils that predicts a response to treatment, the relationship between blood and airway eosinophilia, and, perhaps most importantly, how to elucidate the pathogenetic role played by eosinophils in the individual patient with severe eosinophilic asthma.
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Review
A Systematic Review of the Effects of Hyperoxia in Acutely Ill Patients: Should We Aim for Less?
Despite widespread and liberal use of oxygen supplementation, guidelines about rational use of oxygen are scarce. Recent data demonstrates that current protocols lead to hyperoxemia in the majority of the patients and most health care professionals are not aware of the negative effects of hyperoxemia. ⋯ Liberal oxygen therapy leads to hyperoxemia in a majority of patients and hyperoxemia may negatively affect survival after acute illness. As a clinical consequence, aiming for normoxemia may limit negative effects of hyperoxemia in patients with acute illness.