Feasibility of gastric endoscopic submucosal dissection with continuous low-dose aspirin for patients receiving dual antiplatelet therapy

BACKGROUND Endoscopic submucosal dissection(ESD) for gastric neoplasms during continuous low-dose aspirin(LDA) administration is generally acceptable according to recent guidelines. This retrospective study aimed to investigate the effect of continuous LDA on the postoperative bleeding after gastric ESD in patients receiving dual antiplatelet therapy(DAPT).AIM To investigate the feasibility of gastric ESD with continuous LDA in patients with DAPT.METHODS A total of 597 patients with gastric neoplasms treated with ESD between January2010 and June 2017 were enrolled. The patients were categorized according to type of antiplatelet therapy(APT).RESULTS The postoperative bleeding rate was 6.9%(41/597) in all patients. Patients were divided into the following two groups: no APT(n = 443) and APT(n = 154). APT included single-LDA(n = 95) and DAPT(LDA plus clopidogrel, n = 59)subgroups. In the single-LDA and DAPT subgroups, 56 and 39 patients were received continuous LDA, respectively. The bleeding rate with continuous singleLDA(10.7%) was similar to that with discontinuous single-LDA(10.3%)(P >0.99). Although the bleeding rate with continuous LDA in patients receiving DAPT(23.1%) was higher than that with discontinuous LDA in patients receiving DAPT(5.0%), no significant difference was observed(P = 0.141).CONCLUSION The bleeding rate with continuous LDA in patients receiving DAPT was not statistically different from that with discontinuous LDA in patients receiving DAPT. Therefore, continuous LDA administration may be acceptable for ESD in patients receiving DAPT, although patients should be carefully monitored for possible bleeding.

Cell sheet technology for regeneration of esophageal mucosa

The progress of tissue-engineering technology has realized development of new therapies to treat various disorders by using cultured cells. Cell-and tissue-based therapies have been successfully applied to human patients, and several tissue-engineered products have been approved by the regulatory agencies and are commercially available. In the review article, we describe our experience of development and clinical application of cell sheet-based regenerative medicine.Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) have been shown to be useful for removal of gastrointestinal neoplasms with less invasiveness compared with open surgery, especially in esophageal surgery. However, postoperative inflammation and stenosis are major complications observed after intensive mucosal resection. Therefore, we have developed novel regenerative medicine to prevent such complications and promote wound healing of esophageal mucosa after EMR or ESD. Transplantable oral mucosal epithelial cell sheets were fabricated from patients' own oral mucosa. Immediately after EMR or ESD, fabricated autologous cell sheets were endoscopically transplanted to the ulcer sites. We performed a preclinical study with a canine model. In human clinical settings, cell culture and cell sheet fabrication were performed in clean rooms according to good manufacturing practice guidelines, and pharmaceutical drugs were used as supplements to culture medium in place of research regents used in animal study. We believe that cell-based regenerative medicine would be useful to improve quality of life of patients after EMR or ESD.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection for small submucosal tumors of the rectum compared with endoscopic submucosal resection with a ligation device

AIMTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for small rectal submucosal tumors (SMTs). METHODSBetween August 2008 and March 2016, 39 patients were treated with endoscopic submucosal resection with a ligation device (ESMR-L) (n = 21) or ESD (n = 18) for small rectal SMTs in this study. Twenty-five lesions were confirmed by histological evaluation of endoscopic biopsy prior to the procedure, and 14 lesions were not evaluated by endoscopic biopsy. The results for the ESMR-L group and the ESD group were retrospectively compared, including baseline characteristics and therapeutic outcomes. RESULTSThe rate of en bloc resection was 100% in both groups. Although the rate of complete endoscopic resection was higher in the ESD group than in the ESMR-L group (100% vs 95.2%), there were no significant differences between the two groups (P = 0.462). In one patient in the ESMR-L group with a previously biopsied tumor, histological complete resection with a vertical margin involvement of carcinoid tumor could not be achieved, whereas there was no incomplete resection in the ESD group. The mean length of the procedure was significantly greater in the ESD group than in the ESMR-L group (14.7 ± 6.4 min vs 5.4 ± 1.7 min, P vs 2.8 ± 1.5 d, P CONCLUSIONBoth ESMR-L and ESD were effective for treatment of small rectal SMTs. ESMR-L was simpler to perform than ESD and took less time.

Antibiotic Treatment for Chronic Rhinosinusitis after Endoscopic Surgery: How Long Should Macrolide Antibiotics Be Given?

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine an appropriate period for macrolide antibiotic therapy, and to investigate whether this period could be shorter, for patients with chronicrhino sinusitis (CRS) after functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Methods: A retrospective analysis of 41 patients undergoing FESS for CRS was performed. All patients underwent pre-operative computed tomography (CT). Patients with fungal sinusitis, allergic fungal sinusitis, and eosinophilic sinusitis were excluded. After FESS, normalized sinus mucosa was confirmed by CT and endoscopy in all patients. Postoperative antibiotic therapy consisted of first-line and second-line regimens. Garenoxacin (GRNX), or clarithromycin (CAM, 400 mg/day) was used as the first-line regimens and low-dose macrolide therapy (CAM, 200 mg/day) was used as the second-line regimen and was prescribed at outpatient visits based on our clinical criteria. Results: Second-line antibiotic therapy (low-dose CAM) was not necessary in 12 of 41 (29%) patients, while it was prescribed in 29 of 41 (71%). The mean duration of low-dose CAM therapy after FESS was 36 days (range 7 to 122 days;median, 25 days). Patients who received second-line therapy (n = 29) were divided into two groups based on the choice of first-line therapy, a GRNX group (n = 13) and a non-GRNX group (n = 16). Those in the non-GRNX had longer periods of postoperative CAM therapy than those in the GRNX group. Conclusion: GRNX was associated with a shorter duration of low-dose macrolide therapy after FESS, and 29% of patients did not need any low-dose macrolide therapy postoperatively. Therefore, macrolide antibiotics should not be routinely prescribed after FESS.

High-performance solutions of geographically weighted regression in R

As an established spatial analytical tool,Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR)has been applied across a variety of disciplines.However,its usage can be challenging for large datasets,which are increasingly prevalent in today’s digital world.In this study,we propose two high-performance R solutions for GWR via Multi-core Parallel(MP)and Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA)techniques,respectively GWR-MP and GWR-CUDA.We compared GWR-MP and GWR-CUDA with three existing solutions available in Geographically Weighted Models(GWmodel),Multi-scale GWR(MGWR)and Fast GWR(FastGWR).Results showed that all five solutions perform differently across varying sample sizes,with no single solution a clear winner in terms of computational efficiency.Specifically,solutions given in GWmodel and MGWR provided acceptable computational costs for GWR studies with a relatively small sample size.For a large sample size,GWR-MP and FastGWR provided coherent solutions on a Personal Computer(PC)with a common multi-core configuration,GWR-MP provided more efficient computing capacity for each core or thread than FastGWR.For cases when the sample size was very large,and for these cases only,GWR-CUDA provided the most efficient solution,but should note its I/O cost with small samples.In summary,GWR-MP and GWR-CUDA provided complementary high-performance R solutions to existing ones,where for certain data-rich GWR studies,they should be preferred.