Articles: disease.
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The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is amplified in approximately 20% of breast cancers, and HER2 receptor targeting therapy is associated with a significant improvement in disease-free and overall survival. In several clinical trials, the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate was significantly increased with combined pertuzumab and trastuzumab treatment in HER2-amplified breast cancer. Although the efficacy and safety of anti-HER2 dual blockade therapy has been reported, the markers that predict the response are still unclear. ⋯ The patients who experienced a pCR had a median HER2/CEP17 ratio of 7.08 (range, 3.16-10.40) and average HER2 copy number of 17.00 (range, 5.85-37.50). The patients who did not experience a pCR had a median ratio of 4.70 (range, 1.06-9.00) and median HER2 copy number of 12.00 (range, 5.85-20.95) (P = .030, P = .174), respectively.pCR was highly correlated with HER2/CEP17 ratio in neoadjuvant anti-HER2 dual blockade. This suggests that the HER2/CEP17 ratio can be used as a predictive marker for pCR in neoadjuvant trastuzumab and pertuzumab therapy.
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Observational Study
Sputum characteristics and airway clearance methods in patients with severe COVID-19.
Critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have a high case fatality rate. Hence, controlling the disease progression of severely ill COVID-19 patients to avoid the development of severe-to-critical COVID-19 is the most important target of COVID-19 treatment. The latest autopsy results of COVID-19 patients have shown the presence of viscous secretions in the airways. ⋯ In our study, we found that elderly COVID-19 patients were more susceptible to progression to critical illness (P = .024) and were likely to have accompanying lymphopenia (P = .035) or increased neutrophil counts (P = .019). We observed that there was a higher proportion of patients with Grade 3 sticky sputum in the critically ill group than in the noncritically ill group (P = .026), suggesting that changes in sputum characteristics may be one of the early warning signs of critical COVID-19. In addition, we found that the application rates of large doses of ambroxol (P = .043) and prone-position drainage (P = .037) were relatively high in COVID-19 patients with good prognoses, suggesting that the early application of large doses of expectorant drugs and prone-position drainage in COVID-19 patients may avoid progression to critical illness and improve the prognosis.
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When atherosclerosis occurs in the coronary artery, resulting in stenosis, occlusion, or spasm of the coronary artery, the supply of blood and oxygen to the myocardium will be reduced or even unavailable, resulting in myocardial necrosis and heart pain, chest tightness, dyspnea and other symptoms caused by myocardial necrosis are collectively referred to as coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. Coronary angiography can not only understand the degree of coronary artery damage, but also estimate the prognosis of coronary artery stenting, which provides a reliable reference for clinical treatment. Transradial coronary angiography (TCA) has the advantages of high success rate, small trauma, less complications, no bed rest, reduce hospital stay and other superiority, which accepted and used by physicians. Although the success rate of surgery is high, the postoperative complications will still affect the effect of surgery and the prognosis of patients. The main manifestations are radial artery occlusion (RAO), forearm hematoma formation, pseudoaneurysm formation, periosteal compartment syndrome, radial artery perforation, etc. Among the many ways to prevent RAO, anticoagulant therapy with common heparin is one of them, but the dosage of heparin is not clear. Therefore, we decided to use systematic evaluation to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of different dose of heparin in preventing of RAO, and to provide clinical basis for the early prevention and treatment of RAO. ⋯ This study adopts the Meta-analysis method and expands the sample size, which will give high-quality evidence-based medicine evidence on the clinical effectiveness and safety of different dose of heparin in preventing the occurrence of RAO.
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Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a worldwide disease and more and more people are suffered from it. With the increasing number of patients, it brings a huge burden on social economy and security system. There are varieties of methods to cure KOA, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and surgery. Needle knife therapy plus Sodium hyaluronate Injection is one of the prevalent treatments for KOA. Therefore, we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the evidence for the treatment of needle knife therapy plus sodium hyaluronate Injection. ⋯ CRD42020169602.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with increased incidence of venous thromboembolic events (VTE) as well as mortality. D-dimer is a marker of fibrinolysis and has been used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in VTE among other diseases. The purpose of our study is to describe outcomes from out center and to examine trends in D-dimer levels as it relates to VTE and mortality. ⋯ Rise in D-dimer >2000 ng/mL within any 24 hour period through hospital day 10 had 75% sensitivity and 74% specificity for diagnosis of VTE. We found that both magnitude and rate of rise in d-dimer within the first 10 days of hospitalization are predictive of diagnosis of VTE but not mortality. These parameters may aid in identifying individuals with possible underlying VTE or at high risk for VTE, thereby guiding risk stratification and anticoagulation policies in COVID-19 patients.