• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.136-142
• /
• 2009

Purpose: This clinical study was conducted to evaluate the predictive value of tumor markers for recurrence and the clinical significance of false positive findings after curative gastrectomy in patients with gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: Two hundred ninety patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy with curative intent were evaluated retrospectively. We analyzed the correlations between changes in tumor markers (CEA, CA 19-9, AFP, and CA-125) and clinicopathologic data, and basis for changes in tumor markers without recurrence during the follow-up period. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of tumor markers for recurrence were 75.0%, 64.6%, 23.1%, 94.8%, and 65.9% respectively. Among 36 patients with recurrences, 10 patients (27.8%) had elevated tumor markers prior to positive findings on imaging studies, while 13 patients (36.1%) had concomitant elevation in tumor markers. At least 1 of the 4 tumor markers increased in 90 of 290 patients during the follow-up period; however, there was no evidence of tumor recurrence. Twenty patients had persistently elevated tumor markers, while the tumor marker levels in 70 patients returned to normal level within $9.08\pm7.2$ months. The patients with pulmonary disease, hepatobiliary disease, diabetes, hypertension, or herbal medication users had elevated tumor markers more frequently than patients without disease (P<0.001). Conclusion: Although detecting recurrence of gastric cancer with tumor markers may be useful, false positive findings of tumor markers are common, so surgeons should consider other chronic benign diseases and medical conditions when tumor markers increase without evidence of recurrence.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.9
• /
• pp.4285-4288
• /
• 2012

Background: Opisthorchis viverrini infection is a serious public-health problem in Southeast Asia. It is associated with a number of hepatobiliary diseases and the evidence strongly indicates that liver fluke infection is the etiology of cholangiocarcinoma. Objectives: This study aimed to determine Opisthorchis viverrini infection in elderly people in Surin province, Northeastern Thailand. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 333 elderly in 17 districts of Surin province, during one year period from January to December 2011. O. viverrini infection was determined using Kato's Thick Smear technique and socio-demographic were collected using predesigned semi-structured questionnaires, respectively. Results: A total of 333 elderly including 116 males and 217 females were selected from different study sites. Overall intestinal parasitic infection was 16.2%, predominantly in O. viverrini (9.91%) and followed by Strongyloides stercolaris (4.80%) and hookworm (1.50%), respectively. The O. viverrini infection was found higher in males (13.8%) than females (7.83%), and frequently in elderly 60-70 year old with 14.2%. Chi-square testing indicated that education and occupation were significantly associated with O. viverrini infection (P value = 0.02). The distribution of O. viverrini infection was found in 11 districts which was covered 64.7% of the studies areas. The highest prevalence was found in Thatum with 39.1%, and followed by Sangkha (24.0%), Buachet (21.1%), Samrong Thap (19.1%), Si Narong (15.0%), and Ratanaburi (13.3%) districts. Conclusion: This findings stress that O viverrini is still a problem in Thailand. We confirmed, for the first time, the high endemicity of human O. viverrini infections in elderly in Surin province of Thailand, underlying the fact that mass treatment and health education are urgently required.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.303-309
• /
• 2016

Purpose: Malignant ascites is a common complication in terminal cancer patients. Less-invasive pigtail catheter insertion is the most frequent procedure in patients who need repeated ascites drainage. This study investigated effects and adverse events associated with catheter insertion for ascites drainage and evaluated prognostic outcomes. Methods: We reviewed medical records between 2010 and 2013 of hospice and palliative care institutions in Seoul, South Korea. Among 2,608 inpatients, 67 patients received ascites pigtail catheter drainage. We reviewed demographic data, palliative performance scale, laboratory data, duration of catheter insertion, prevalence and type of complications, use and duration of antibiotics, and survival time. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were used to evaluate prognostic outcomes related with catheter insertion. Results: Ascites drainage was performed most commonly in hepatobiliary and gastric cancer patients. Ascites symptoms improved in 55 patients after the catheter drainage. Adverse events included pain (19.4%), leakage (14.9%), disconnection (7.5%), catheter occlusion (6%) and fever (4.5%). In Cox regression analysis, survival time from the catheter insertion was significantly associated with Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) (HR 0.73; P value 0.045) and serum sodium level (HR 2.77; P value 0.003) in a multivariate model. Conclusion: Patients' PPS and serum sodium level should be considered before making a decision of pigtail catheter insertion.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.5-24
• /
• 2009

Injinho-tang(IJ) has been used for the treatment of hepatobiliary diseases. This study was performed to observe the effect of IJ extract on the hepatocellular carcinogenesis and hepatic cirrhosis induced by Diethylnitrosamine(DENA) and $CCl_4$ in Rats. Experimental groups were divided into two ; 8th and 12th week group, and subdivided into four; normal group(Nor), hepatocellular cancer and hepatic cirrhosis inducing control group(Con), and IJ extract 260mg/kg/day(IJA) or 520mg/kg/day(IJB) administered groups to Con. The results obtained are as follows: The body weight was decreased in the Con, IJA and IJB compared with the Nor from the 2nd week to the 12th week. The weight of liver and the weight of liver/100g body weight were decreased significantly in Con, IJA and IJB compared with the Nor. The activities of aspartate aminotransferase(AST) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) were significantly increased in the Con compared with Nor, but decreased in the IJA and IJB compared with Con from the 8th week group. The activities of alkaline phosphatase(ALP), lactacte dehydrogenase (LDH) and alpha fetoprotein(AFP) were increased significantly in the Con compared with Nor, but decreased in the IJA and IJB compared with Con. The activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD) were decreased in the IJA and IJB compared with Con, but the activities of catalase were increased in the IJA and IJB compared with Con. According to the light and electron microscopical observation, IJA and IJB improved the morphological and histopathological changes of the liver injured by DENA and $CCl_4$. The number of hepatic p53 positive cells was decreased in the IJA and IJB compared with Con. These results suggest that administration of IJ extract suppress or retard DENA and $CCl_4$-induced hepatocelluar carcinogenesis and hepatic cirrhosis in rats.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.23 no.12
• /
• pp.1260-1268
• /
• 2022

Objective: To propose standardized MRI-proton density fat fraction (PDFF) cutoff values for diagnosing hepatic steatosis, evaluated using contemporary PDFF measuring methods in a large population of healthy adults, using histologic fat fraction (HFF) as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: A retrospective search of electronic medical records between 2015 and 2018 identified 1063 adult donor candidates for liver transplantation who had undergone liver MRI and liver biopsy within a 7-day interval. Patients with a history of liver disease or significant alcohol consumption were excluded. Chemical shift imaging-based MRI (CS-MRI) PDFF and high-speed T2-corrected multi-echo MR spectroscopy (HISTO-MRS) PDFF data were obtained. By temporal splitting, the total population was divided into development and validation sets. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the MRI-PDFF method. Two cutoff values with sensitivity > 90% and specificity > 90% were selected to rule-out and rule-in, respectively, hepatic steatosis with reference to HFF ≥ 5% in the development set. The diagnostic performance was assessed using the validation set. Results: Of 921 final participants (624 male; mean age ± standard deviation, 31.5 ± 9.0 years), the development and validation sets comprised 497 and 424 patients, respectively. In the development set, the areas under the ROC curve for diagnosing hepatic steatosis were 0.920 for CS-MRI-PDFF and 0.915 for HISTO-MRS-PDFF. For ruling-out hepatic steatosis, the CS-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 2.3% (sensitivity, 92.4%; specificity, 63.0%) and the HISTO-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 2.6% (sensitivity, 88.8%; specificity, 70.1%). For ruling-in hepatic steatosis, the CS-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 3.5% (sensitivity, 73.5%; specificity, 88.6%) and the HISTO-MRI-PDFF cutoff was 4.0% (sensitivity, 74.7%; specificity, 90.6%). Conclusion: In a large population of healthy adults, our study suggests diagnostic thresholds for ruling-out and ruling-in hepatic steatosis defined as HFF ≥ 5% by contemporary PDFF measurement methods.