euroendocrine tumors, no standard therapy exists and the prognosis remains difficult to determine. Studies, including larger series, are needed in order to understand the biological behavior of these tumors.BACKGROUND 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters have been applied as prognostic factors in multi-malignancies. However, the role in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) was not confirmed. In this study, we investigated the prognostic value of 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters in LAPC patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). METHODS Seventy three LAPC patients who received SBRT therapy and pre-treatment 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging from January 2012 to January 2016 were included in this retrospective study. The study aim was to evaluate the relationship between metabolic parameters with clinical factors, and the value of metabolic parameters in the prognosis of LAPC. The median of parameters was set as the cut-off value for statistical analysis. Univariate survival analysis was performed by the Kaplan Meier method and log-rank test, and multivariate analysis was carried out by a Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS Patients with lymph node metastasis or longer tumor diameters were associated with higher TLG (P  less then  0.05). Univariate analysis showed MTV, TLG, radiotherapy dose and chemotherapy were significantly associated with disease progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) (P  less then  0.05). Lymph node metastasis and tumor longest diameter were associated with OS. Multivariate analysis demonstrated TLG, radiotherapy dose, and chemotherapy were independent factors of PFS and OS (HR 2.307, 0.591, 0.572 and 2.145, 0.480, 0.471, P  less then  0.05). CONCLUSIONS TLG was found to be the independent prognostic factor of OS and PFS. Among clinical factors, radiotherapy dose and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors of OS and PFS.OBJECTIVE Trichosporon asahii is the major causative fungus of disseminated or deep-seated trichosporonosis and forms a biofilm on medical devices. Biofilm formation leads to antifungal drug resistance, so biofilm-related infections are relatively difficult to treat and infected devices often require surgical removal. Therefore, prevention of biofilm formation is important in clinical settings. In this study, to identify metal cations that affect biofilm formation, we evaluated the effects of cation chelators on biofilm formation in T. asahii. RESULTS We evaluated the effect of cation chelators on biofilm formation, since microorganisms must assimilate essential nutrients from their hosts to form and maintain biofilms. The inhibition by N,N,N’,N’-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylenediamine (TPEN) was greater than those by other cation chelators, such as deferoxamine, triethylenetetramine, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. The inhibitory effect of TPEN was suppressed by the addition of zinc. TPEN also inhibited T. selleck products asahii hyphal formation, which is related to biofilm formation, and the inhibition was suppressed by the addition of zinc. These results suggest that zinc is essential for biofilm formation and hyphal formation. Thus, zinc chelators have the potential to be developed into a new treatment for biofilm-related infection caused by T. asahii.BACKGROUND There is no comparative study with long-term follow-up between posterior-only and combined posterior-anterior approaches in treating lumbar spinal tuberculosis (LSTB) and lumbosacral spinal tuberculosis (LSSTB). This retrospective study aimed to compare and evaluate the long-term outcomes of these two surgical approaches in LSTB and LSSTB. METHODS Thirty patients with LSTB and 12 patients with LSSTB underwent posterior-only approach (group A); 26 patients with LSTB and 14 patients with LSSTB were managed with combined posterior-anterior approaches (group B). Analysis and comparison in clinical and radiographic outcomes between the two groups were performed. RESULTS The intra-operative bleeding amount, surgery time, and hospitalization days in group A were less than that in group B (P 0.05). Complications occurred in both groups. CONCLUSIONS Both combined posterior-anterior approaches and posterior-only approach can achieve satisfactory clinical and radiological outcomes of long-term in treating LSTB and LSSTB, while posterior-only approach can safely and effectively achieve lesion debridement, decompression, and stability reconstruction and maintenance with the advantages of less invasive surgery, less bleeding, shorter surgery time, and hospital stay, and fewer complications. So, posterior-only approach seemed to be superior to the combined posterior-anterior one.BACKGROUND Sentinel lymph node excision (SLNE) can be performed in tumescent local anesthesia (TLA) or general anesthesia (GA). Perioperative cortisol level changes and anxiety are common in surgical interventions and might be influenced by the type of anesthesia. In this study, we intended to determine whether the type of anesthesia impacts the patients’ perioperative levels of salivary cortisol (primary outcome) and the feeling of anxiety evaluated by psychological questionnaires (secondary outcome). METHODS All melanoma patients of age undergoing SLNE at the University Hospital Essen, Germany, could be included in the study. Exclusion criteria were patients’ intake of glucocorticoids or psychotropic medication during the former 6 months, pregnancy, age under 18 years, and BMI ≥ 30 as salivary cortisol levels were reported to be significantly impacted by obesity and might confound results. RESULTS In total, 111 melanoma patients undergoing SLNE were included in our prospective study between May 2011 and Aprrtisol levels in melanoma patients. Further studies are mandatory to evaluate the relevance of endogenous perioperative cortisol levels on the postoperative clinical course. TRIAL REGISTRATION German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00003076, registered 1 May 2011.BACKGROUND Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is an important clinical construct in the field of mental health, as longer DUP can be associated with worse intervention outcomes. DUP estimation requires knowledge about when psychosis symptoms first started (symptom onset), and when psychosis treatment was initiated. Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a useful resource for retrospective clinical studies on DUP, but the core information underlying this construct is most likely to lie in free text, meaning it is not readily available for clinical research. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a means to addressing this problem by automatically extracting relevant information in a structured form. As a first step, it is important to identify appropriate documents, i.e., those that are likely to include the information of interest. Next, temporal information extraction methods are needed to identify time references for early psychosis symptoms. This NLP challenge requires solving three different tasks time expression extraction, symptom extraction, and temporal “linking”.