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The effects of renal transplantation in patients with augmentation cystoplasty are still controversial. We retrospectively analyzed nine patients who underwent renal transplantation after augmentation cystoplasty.A total of nine patients who underwent augmentation cystoplasty prior to renal transplantation between January 1990 and May 2020 were reviewed. Basic information on augmentation cystoplasty, transplant procedures, and long-term outcomes of renal transplantation were analyzed.The bowel segments utilized for augmentation cystoplasty were the stomach in two patients (one patient needed revision using the ileum), the ileum in four patients, the ileocolic pouch in one patient, the sigmoid in one patient, and the ureter in one patient. All the cystoplasties were performed prior to renal transplantation. The mean follow-up period after transplantation was 161 months (range, 2-341 months). Two patients had an episode of acute rejection each; however, their graft functions were well-maintained. Five patients had recurrent urinary tract infections, and three of these patients progressed to allograft failure. One patient died from bladder cancer with a functioning graft. Five of nine patients showed well-maintained graft function.Renal transplantation after bladder augmentation surgery is a major operation requiring a high level of surgical skill. Based on our long-term experiences, we recommend diligent postoperative monitoring for urinary tract infections, optimal catheter use, and use of appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis to avoid severe complications.

Background Despite high contagiousness and rapid spread, SARS-CoV-2 has led to heterogeneous outcomes across affected nations. Within Europe, the United Kingdom (UK) is the most severely affected country, with a death toll in excess of 100.000 as of January 2021. We aimed to compare the national impact of COVID-19 on the risk of death in UK cancer patients versus those in continental Europe (EU). Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of the OnCovid study database, a European registry of cancer patients consecutively diagnosed with COVID-19 in 27 centres from February 27 to September 10, 2020. We analysed case fatality rates and risk of death at 30 days and 6 months stratified by region of origin (UK versus EU). We compared patient characteristics at baseline, including oncological and COVID-19 specific therapy across UK and EU cohorts and evaluated the association of these factors with the risk adverse outcome in multivariable Cox regression models. Findings Compared to EU (n=924), UK patients (n=468) were characterised by higher case fatality rates (40.38% versus 26.5%, p

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jva-10.1177_11297298211018020 for Comparison between autogenous brachial–brachial upper-arm elevated direct arteriovenous fistulas and prosthetic brachial-antecubital indirect forearm arteriovenous grafts by Hyokee Kim, Sanghyun Ahn, Minseob Kim, Chris Tae Young Chung, Kwang woo Choi, Hyunmin Ko, Ahram Han, Sangil Min, Seung-Kee Min and Jongwon Ha in The Journal of Vascular Access

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can be subdivided into prognostically significant groups with germinal center B-cell-like (GCB), activated B-cell-like (ABC), and type 3 groups. In this study, tissue microarray slides composed of 163 de novo DLBCLs from Chinese patients were immunostained for CD20, CD10, Bcl-6, MUM1, CD138, Bcl-2, Ki-67, cyclin D3, geminin, and P27(Kip1). One hundred forty-nine of 163 DLBCLs could then be classified into GCB group (pattern A), activated GCB group (pattern B) and activated non-GCB group (pattern C) according to the expression of CD10, Bcl-6, MUM1, and CD138. Of the 149 cases, 40 (26%) showed pattern A expression and were grouped as GCB group, lower than reported frequency of the studies involving mostly Western population. Compared with cases with pattern A, those with pattern B (activated GCB group) and C (activated non-GCB group) more often presented with more aggressive tumors and a shorter survival time. These results indicate that most of DLBCLs from Chinese patients can be classified into prognostically different groups based on the antigenic expression models using a panel of GCB- and ABC-associated markers. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of t(14;18) showed that 11 of 64 cases were t(14;18)-positive, and most (10 of 11) of it occurred in the group with pattern A. The translocation was significantly associated with expression of Bcl-2 protein. The group with pattern B demonstrated more frequent expression of Ki-67, cyclin D3, geminin, and showed higher proliferative activity than the group with pattern A. These findings suggest that high proliferative activity of tumors with pattern B may be associated with aggressive tumor behavior and poor clinical outcome in patients with DLBCL.

Diffusion Tensor MRI (DTI) is an imaging technique that can probe the properties of microstructures in the brain tissue. DTI has proved to be useful in detecting brain pathologies invisible by other techniques and in delineating specific white matter pathways. Analyzing DTI data from a single subject at multiple time points is desirable when the disease of interest presents with large inter-subject variability. However no such analysis framework exists due to the lack of proper tools to accurately estimate uncertainties of DTI derived parameters in a single subject.In this dissertation, novel DTI resampling statistical analysis frameworks were developed. Bootstrap algorithms were investigated by Monte Carlo simulation in order to better understand the properties of bootstrap and determine the optimal bootstrap algorithm for DTI. Then, DTI bootstrap was used to compare the uncertainties of DTI derived parameters with or without cardiac gating in order to determine the necessity of cardiac gating for DTI with single-shot EPI acquisitions. Bootstrap was also used to perform voxel-wise T-testing between DTI data from two time points of a single subject, a technique called BLADE (Bootstrap-based Longitudinal Analysis of Diffusion Estimates). An alternative analysis framework based on permutation testing, another resampling technique, was developed as well. This framework called PERVADE (Permutation Voxel-wise Analysis of Diffusion Estimates) was designed to overcome some of the limitations of BLADE.Monte Carlo simulation studies of bootstrap algorithms showed that the residual bootstrap algorithm developed in this work can estimate the uncertainties of DTI derived parameters with the highest accuracy. A cardiac gating scheme with minor increase in the scan time turned out to reduce the bootstrap-estimated uncertainties enough to justify the longer scan time, making cardiac gating necessary with partial Fourier acquisition. BLADE and PERVADE were able to detect FA changes in the normal appearing white matter as well as lesions of patients with traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis. Resampling techniques have shown great potential in subject-specific DTI analyses and quantification of artifacts, and are anticipated to play even bigger roles in the next generation diffusion MRI studies.

One objective of this thesis was to investigate the effect of details, such as the windows of high-rise buildings, on the radiowave propagation in the dense urban environment through modeling and simulations. If adding windows does not significantly change the signal distribution on average, it may not be necessary to build such a detailed model. Simulations are performed using several levels of detail and the results compared to estimate the impact of the fine details on the signal level. A second issue is base station antenna coverage. The antenna gain, half power beamwidth (HPBW), location, and pointing angle should be chosen to give the maximum coverage over a specified sector. Simulations can be used to select the optimums set of base station properties. Specifically this research looks at the coverage from the two sectored antennas versus a single one over a quadrant. http://archive.org/details/simulationofradi109453640 Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB author (civilian). Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.