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Purpose: To report the midterm outcomes of a trial comparing self-expanding nitinol stents to percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) with provisional stenting in the treatment of obstructive disease in the superficial femoral and popliteal arteries. Materials and Methods: The SM-01 study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01183117), a single-blinded, multicenter, randomized controlled trial in Japan, enrolled 105 consecutive patients with de novo or postangioplasty restenotic femoropopliteal lesions; after removing protocol violations (1 from each group), 51 patients (mean age 74±8 years; 36 men) in the stent group and 52 patients (mean age 73±8 years; 35 men) in the PTA group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. The groups were well-matched at baseline. Patients were followed to 36 months with duplex imaging. Three-year primary patency was assessed based on a duplex-derived peak systolic velocity ratio <2.5. Freedom from clinically-driven target vessel revascularization (TVR) and target lesions revascularization (TLR) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: The technical success rate was higher (100% vs 48%, p<0.001) and the frequency of vascular dissection was lower (4% vs 31%, p<0.001) in the stent group. The S.M.A.R.T stent group had a higher 3-year primary patency rate (73% vs 51%, p=0.033). Freedom from clinically-driven TVR and TLR were not significantly different between the groups. Conclusion: The S.M.A.R.T. stent maintained a higher primary patency rate than PTA at 3 years in this randomized trial; the need for clinically-driven revascularization was similar for both therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examined whether epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can be used to predict survival in a population of bone-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients treated with docetaxel chemotherapy. Methods: All patients with mCRPC who had experienced treatment failure with androgen-deprivation therapy and had received docetaxel chemotherapy were eligible. CTCs and EGFR expression in CTCs were enumerated with the CellSearch System in whole blood. This system is a semi-automated system that detects and enriches epithelial cells from whole blood using an EpCAM antibody-based immunomagnetic capture. In addition, the EGFR-positive CTCs were assessed using CellSearch® Tumor Phenotyping Reagent EGFR. Results: The median CTC count at baseline before starting trial treatment was eight CTCs per 7.5 mL of blood (range 0-184). There were 37 patients (61.7%) who had ≥5 CTCs, with median overall survival of 11.5 months compared with 20.0 months for 23 patients (38.3%) with <5 CTCs (p < 0.001). A total of 15 patients (40.5%, 15/37) with five or more CTCs were subjected to automated immunofluorescence staining and cell sorting for EGFR protein. Patients with EGFR-positive CTCs had a shorter overall survival (OS) (5.5 months) than patients with EGFR-negative CTCs (20.0 months). CTCs, EGFR-positive CTCs, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were independent predictors of overall survival time (p = 0.002, p < 0.001, and p = 0.017, respectively). Conclusion: CTCs may be an independent predictor of OS in CRPC treated with docetaxel chemotherapy. The EGFR expression detected in CTCs was important for assessing the response to chemotherapy and predicting disease outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (vEDS) is a dominantly inherited connective tissue disorder characterised by colon rupture and arterial aneurysm, dissection and rupture. A patient was diagnosed with vEDS after a spontaneous colon rupture when he was brought to our institute because of sudden chest pain. An ECG revealed wide regional ST elevation, which was initially suggestive of acute myocarditis. On the second day, haemodynamics suddenly deteriorated because of a rapid accumulation of bloody pericardial effusion, and the patient died. Autopsy revealed an excessive spontaneous myocardial haemorrhage owing to fragility, which suggested an underlying disease--vEDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]