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Background and Purpose: Whether imaging parameters would independently predict stroke recurrence in low-risk minor ischemic stroke (MIS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) according to traditional score system (such as ABCD 2 score, which was termed on the basis of the initials of the five factors: age, blood pressure, clinical features, duration, diabetes) remains unclear. We sought to evaluate the association between imaging parameters and 1-year stroke recurrence in patients with TIA or MIS in different risk stratum stratified by ABCD 2 score. Methods: We included patients with TIA and MIS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score ≤3) with complete baseline vessel and brain imaging data from the Third China National Stroke Registry III. Patients were categorized into different risk groups based on ABCD 2 score (low risk, 0–3; moderate risk, 4–5; and high risk, 6–7). The primary outcome was stroke recurrence within 1 year. Multivariable Cox proportional-hazards regression models were used to assess whether imaging parameters (large artery stenosis, infarction number) were independently associated with stroke recurrence. Results: Of the 7140 patients included, 584 patients experienced stroke recurrence within 1 year. According to the ABCD 2 score, large artery stenosis was associated with higher stroke recurrence in both low-risk (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.746 [95% CI, 1.200–2.540]) and moderate-risk group (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.326 [95% CI, 1.042–1.687]) but not in the high-risk group ( P >0.05). Patients with multiple acute infarctions or single acute infarction had a higher risk of recurrent stroke than those with no infarction in both low- and moderate-risk groups, but not in the high-risk group. Conclusions: Large artery stenosis and infarction number were independent predictors of 1-year stroke recurrence in low-moderate risk but not in high-risk patients with TIA or MIS stratified by ABCD 2 score. This finding emphasizes the importance of early brain and vascular imaging evaluation for risk stratification in patients with TIA or MIS.

Background Optic perineuritis (OPN), an uncommon optic neuropathy, has previously not been described in patients with Behcet disease (BD). We conducted this study to describe the clinical features, response to treatment, and outcome of OPN due to BD, with particular emphasis on those features that might distinguish this from the idiopathic variety. Methods This is a retrospective, case series review of all patients with a diagnosis of OPN seen in a hospital-based neurology department from 2008 to 2014 who also met the international criteria for the diagnosis of BD. Results Twenty-one patients with OPN were identified, of whom 10 (12 eyes) met the criteria for BD. OPN developed 2-10 years (mean, 4 years) after onset of BD, but the diagnosis of BD was made only after onset of OPN in 6. Nine of 12 eyes (75%) had severe visual loss (≤20/200), and 80% of patients progressed over several days from onset. After high-dose corticosteroid treatment, all patients experienced relief of pain, and 5 patients (50%) showed improved visual acuity. At last follow-up (mean, 25 months) 7 of 11 (64%) of affected eyes had good visual outcome (≥14/20), and no patient experienced a subsequent neurological event. Conclusions OPN may occur as a manifestation of BD and, in non-Western countries, this may be more common than the idiopathic variety. In contrast to idiopathic cases, OPN in BD is more likely to demonstrate initial rapid progression of visual loss and more severe loss at presentation. Patients show less recovery of vision in response to corticosteroids but carry a lower rate of subsequent relapse. Patients with OPN should be specifically questioned regarding symptoms of BD.

Background Accurate and early prognosis of disease is essential to clinical decision making, particularly in diseases, such as HCC, that are typically diagnosed at a late stage in the course of disease and therefore carry a poor prognosis. CDCA5 is a cell cycle regulatory protein that has shown prognostic value in several cancers. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 178 patients with HCC treated with curative liver resection between September 2009 and September 2012 at Nanchong Central Hospital in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China. Patients were screened for their CDCA5 expression levels and assigned to either the high or low expression group. Patient demographics, comorbidities, clinicopathologic data, such as tumor microvascular invasion status and size, and long-term outcomes were compared between the two groups. The effect of CDCA5 on the proliferation of liver cancer cells was analyzed using in vitro and in vivo assays. Results The present study found that increased CDCA5 expression was associated with increased tumor diameter and microvascular invasion in HCC. It was also found that CDCA5 overexpression may be associated with liver cancer cells. Additionally, this study confirmed that CDCA5 expression was increased in HCC tissue versus normal liver tissue, that CDCA5 expression was associated with decreased survival and that CDCA5 knockdown using shRNA led to cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. Conclusions These findings suggest that CDCA5 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Recently, experts proposed subclassification for BCLC B patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficient of subclassification of patients with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system. Seven hundred twenty-nine consecutive hepatitis B virus-related HCC patients with BCLC stage B classification who underwent hepatectomy in the period 2006–2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were reclassified based on the new proposed subclassification of the BCLC B stage from B1 to B4. The prognosis of subclassification was tested using Kaplan-Meier statistics analysis. There were 145 (19.9%), 480 (65.8%), 62 (8.5%), and 42 (5.8%) patients in B1, B2, B3, and B4, respectively. The result suggested that overall and tumor-free survival rates among the B1, B2, and B3 subclassification in the Bolondi system had significant difference (P

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a group of clinicopathological manifestations. The outcome of liver surgery in metabolic syndrome-related hepatocellular carcinoma (MetS-HCC) still needs to be evaluated. We aim to clarify the outcomes following liver resection in patients with MetS-HCC compared those with hepatitis B virus-related HCC (HBV-HCC). All the consecutive patients undergoing hepatectomy for HCC between January 2009 and December 2012 were retrospectively considered. Patients were divided into three groups: MetS-HCC, MetS-HBV-HCC, and HBV-HCC. Data on clinical characteristics, postoperative complications, and long-term outcome were collected and analyzed. A total of 1352 patients were included in this study. In MetS-HCC group, the severe morbidity rate was 33.33%, which was higher than that of HBV-HCC group (15.68%). In subgroup analysis, patients with MetS-HCC in American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage I had superior DFS and OS when compared with those of the other two groups. We should pay more attention to patients with MetS-HCC perioperatively due to the high rate of surgical complications. Nevertheless, curative treatment should be provided to patients with MetS.

This letter proposed a novel series-parallel microstrip array antenna. The presented antenna is fabricated and measured. The frequency band of the designed antenna is from 2.351 to 2.540GHz, realized in a commercial Teflon printed-circuit board with a permittivity of 2.65 and thickness of 1mm. The average gain of E-plane of the proposed antenna is about 17.175dBi in the working frequency band. The antenna size is 291×291mm2. The measured results show that the proposed antenna is applied for WLAN application.

A novel bandpass filter based on comb microstrip structure is proposed, fabricated, and measured. This designed bandpass filter provides low passband insertion loss, very sharp transitions at the edges of the passband, easy fabrication, and low cost. The simulated and measured results show that the novel filter has wide passband of 600MHz for 3-dB bandwidth. The performances of the proposed filter are demonstrated by measured results, which are in good agreement with the simulated ones.

A novel batwing microstrip array antenna applied to WiMAX application is proposed. The proposed antenna provides a wide band frequency band from 5.3 to 5.9 GHz, realized in a commercial Teflon printed circuit board with a permittivity of 2.65 and thickness of 1mm. Both simulation and measurement are pretty matched. The proposed antenna at E-plane and H-plane achieves gains to be 22.14, 22.55, 21.53 dBi, and 6.25, 6.21, 6.53 dBi at 5.3, 5.5, and 5.9 GHz. The antenna dimension is 354× 50 mm2.