Medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
Association of serum/plasma high mobility group box 1 with autoimmune diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a kind of proinflammatory mediator to stimulate the innate and adaptive immune system and participates in a number of acute and chronic inflammatory processes after sterile injury or microbial invasion. HMGB1 has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases. However, the results are contradictory or inconclusive among these findings. The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum/plasma HMGB1 levels are associated with autoimmune diseases by comparing the serum/plasma HMGB1 levels in patients with autoimmune disease and healthy controls and to further evaluate whether serum/plasma HMGB1 levels are associated with disease state. ⋯ Serum/plasma HMGB1 levels in patients with autoimmune diseases are significantly higher than in healthy controls, and may reflect the disease activity.
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Review Meta Analysis
Predictive value of circulating cell-free DNA in the survival of breast cancer patients: A systemic review and meta-analysis.
Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has been reported to predict outcomes in patients with various types of cancer. However, its prognostic value in patients with breast cancer is not well established still now. In this meta-analysis, we evaluated the prognostic role of cfDNA in breast cancer patients. ⋯ Our meta-analysis indicated that cfDNA was associated with poor PFS and OS, thus it may help to predict outcomes of patients with breast cancer. However, further studies are needed to confirm our results.
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Review Meta Analysis
A meta-analysis of the relationship between environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer risk of nonsmoker in China.
To investigate the association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (EVT) and the incidence of lung cancer (LC) in nonsmoking adults. ⋯ EVT exposure is prospectively associated with a significantly increased risk of LC incidence. More high quality studies are required to address the association between EVT exposure and LC incidence.
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Review Meta Analysis
A meta-analysis of the association between CTLA-4 genetic polymorphism and susceptibility of asthma.
Numerous studies have reported an association between cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4 gene (CTLA4) polymorphism and susceptibility to asthma, in different populations, but the results have been inconsistent. We performed a meta-analysis of 19 published case-control studies to obtain a reasonably accurate estimation of the relationship between CTLA4 polymorphism and asthma. ⋯ Our meta-analysis results suggested that the +49A/G polymorphism in CTLA-4 was an important risk factor for asthma susceptibility, especially in Asian individuals, children, and atopic patients.
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Review Meta Analysis
Meta-analysis of the accuracy of transient elastography in measuring liver stiffness to diagnose esophageal varices in cirrhosis.
To assess the diagnostic performance of transient elastography (TE) in detecting the presence and size of esophageal varices (EV) in cirrhotic patients. ⋯ TE is a good tool for detecting the presence and degree of EV; however, in determination of the liver stiffness cutoff values means that TE is only cautiously used in clinical practice.