Months Of Size Research Articles

Size and fitness responses of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) following reciprocal transplant along an estuarine gradient

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) differs in shoot size, growth rate, and life history investment along a 30-km estuarine gradient in Willapa Bay, Washington (USA). In this study, reciprocal transplants were carried out among four sites in the estuary to test the roles of source population and outplant site for summer-season performance, a method that distinguishes any advantage of locally-tuned phenotypes and whether such trait differences are fixed or phenotypically-plastic. Shoots were measured after 2–3 months for size, leaf emergence rate (productivity) and shoot emergence rate (fitness), as well as simply finding them again (retrieval). Results generally did not support that best performance came from local shoots (few source x outplant site interactions). However, at one site, local shoots had higher fitness than other sources, and for one source, local retrieval exceeded that at other sites. Across all outplants, retrieval improved with rhizome length, suggesting that longer rhizomes provided better anchors. Fitness and productivity were both reduced for transplants into eelgrass relative to those in nearby bare areas at most sites, likely reflecting strong intraspecific competition for transplanted shoots. At this within-estuary scale in summer, morphology appeared entirely plastic, given convergence to local size, but annual vs. perennial life history was strictly a function of source population regardless of outplant site. This reciprocal transplant study supports many of the best practices for restoration, which include effective anchoring of shoots into locations with suitable environmental conditions. Matching donor populations for life history may be more important than for size, given differential phenotypic plasticity in these traits.

Efficacy of low dose capecitabine and sorafenib in patients with advanced alfa-fetoprotein secreting hepatocellular carcinoma: a 1year experience.

BackgroundThere is no global consensus for the optimal management of HCC. Most of patients at the time of diagnosis are not candidate for potentially curative therapy. The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of low dose capecitabine combined with sorafenib in subset of Egyptian HCV patients presented with advanced HCC unfit for surgical or locoregional therapies.Methods15 patients with advanced HCC, unfit for surgical or locoregional intervention, with PS <2 recieved Capecitabine 500 mg/day with sorafeneb 200 mg twice daily till normalization of AFP then the treatment was modified to capecitabine 250 mg every other day and sorafenib 400 mg once daily. They were followed every 3 months for size, number of focal masses and AFP. 30 patients were selected as a control group, they received supportive therapy (n = 15) or sorafenib only (n = 15).ResultsAfter 10 months of therapy, 6 patients showed complete response (40 %) with complete recanalization of portal vein (n = 2) and treatment was stopped and the others (n = 4) showed partial portal vein recanalization so, treatment is continued till now. 1 patient (6.7 %) showed recurrence of the disease and died after 1 month, 8 patients showed partial response (53.3 %) and still on treatment. The control groups showed a highly significant reduction in survival when compared to patients who received capecitabine and sorafenib (12.9 ± 2.1, 7.9 ± 0.9, 4.5 ± 1.3 months, p = 0.000).ConclusionsCombined low dose capecitabine and sorafenib proved to be safe with low toxicity profile and deserves further attention as a convenient, outpatient-based chemotherapy in patients with advanced HCC.

ADC texture--an imaging biomarker for high-grade glioma?

Survival for high-grade gliomas is poor, at least partly explained by intratumoral heterogeneity contributing to treatment resistance. Radiological evaluation of treatment response is in most cases limited to assessment of tumor size months after the initiation of therapy. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its estimate of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) has been widely investigated, as it reflects tumor cellularity and proliferation. The aim of this study was to investigate texture analysis of ADC images in conjunction with multivariate image analysis as a means for identification of pretreatment imaging biomarkers. Twenty-three consecutive high-grade glioma patients were treated with radiotherapy (2 Gy/60 Gy) with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide. ADC maps and T1-weighted anatomical images with and without contrast enhancement were collected prior to treatment, and (residual) tumor contrast enhancement was delineated. A gray-level co-occurrence matrix analysis was performed on the ADC maps in a cuboid encapsulating the tumor in coronal, sagittal, and transversal planes, giving a total of 60 textural descriptors for each tumor. In addition, similar examinations and analyses were performed at day 1, week 2, and week 6 into treatment. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to reduce dimensionality of the data, and the five largest components (scores) were used in subsequent analyses. MRI assessment three months after completion of radiochemotherapy was used for classifying tumor progression or regression. The score scatter plots revealed that the first, third, and fifth components of the pretreatment examinations exhibited a pattern that strongly correlated to survival. Two groups could be identified: one with a median survival after diagnosis of 1099 days and one with 345 days, p = 0.0001. By combining PCA and texture analysis, ADC texture characteristics were identified, which seems to hold pretreatment prognostic information, independent of known prognostic factors such as age, stage, and surgical procedure. These findings encourage further studies with a larger patient cohort.

P16.02 * ADC TEXTURE - AN IMAGING BIOMARKER FOR HIGH GRADE GLIOMA?

INTRODUCTION: Median survival for high grade gliomas is limited, at least partly explained by intratumoral heterogeneity contributing to treatment resistance. Radiological evaluation of treatment response is in most cases limited to assessment of tumor size months after the initiation of therapy. Diffusion weighted MRI and its estimate apparent diffusion coefficient, ADC, has been widely investigated, as it reflects tumor cellularity and proliferation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of applying texture analysis in conjunction with multivariate ADC image for identifying early imaging biomarkers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 23 consecutive high-grade glioma patients aged ≥18 years after diagnostic biopsy or resection were treated with radiotherapy (2 Gy/60 Gy) with concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide. MRI assessment three months after completion of radio-chemotherapy was used for classifying tumor progression or regression. A baseline exam was performed within one week before treatment start, day one, two weeks and six weeks into the treatment. ADC maps and T1 weighted anatomical images with and without contrast enhancement were collected, and (residual) tumor contrast enhancement was delineated. A gray-level co-occurrence matrix analysis was performed on the ADC maps in a cuboid encapsulating the tumor in coronal, sagittal and transversal planes, giving a total of 66 textural descriptors for each tumor. Principal component analysis, PCA, was applied to reduce dimensionality of the data, and the five largest components, or scores, were used in subsequent analyses. RESULTS: The score scatter plots revealed that the first, fourth and fifth components combined exhibited a pattern that strongly correlated to survival. Two groups could easily be identified: One with a median survival after diagnosis of 908 days and one with 299 days, p = 0.0005. MRI three months after completion of radiotherapy, age, surgical procedure and tumor grade all harbored prognostic information, but not to the same extent. CONCLUSION: By combining PCA and texture analysis ADC texture characteristics are identified, that seems to host pretreatment prognostic information, independent of known prognostic factors such as age, stage and surgical procedure. Validation of these data in a larger patient cohort is ongoing at our department.

Scrotal trauma: a cause of testicular atrophy

Scrotal trauma is often mentioned as a cause of testicular atrophy yet there have been few studies documenting the effect of scrotal trauma on testicular size months or years following injury. We performed clinical and sonographic examinations in 10 patients who had suffered blunt scrotal trauma. A significant reduction in volume of the injured testis was observed in 5 10 cases at follow-up sonography. In two cases the affected testis was heterogeneous and colour flow Doppler examination showed reduced flow. In three cases the testis was homogeneous but reduced in volume and in the remaining five cases the affected testis appeared normal. We conclude that testicular atrophy is a sequel of scrotal trauma and occurred in 50% of patients in this study.