AIM to investigate the cost effectiveness of CGA in an acute geriatric ward. METHODS a non-randomized controlled trial was carried out at Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital from January to December 2005. The inclusion criteria were elderly patients with geriatric syndrome. Exclusion criteria were advanced malignancy, APACHE II score > 34,in-hospital mortality in the first 24 hours, move ...

BACKGROUND Most neuroendocrine tumors express chromogranin A (CgA). The posttranslational processing of neuroendocrine proteins such as CgA is often specific for the individual tumor. To cope with this variability and improve tumor diagnosis, we developed a processing-independent analysis (PIA) method to measure the total CgA product. METHODS For PIA, samples underwent trypsin treatment follo...

A critical assessment of the various X-ray and electron-based methods of determining the structure of ultrafine metallic particles of colloidal dimension is given. In particular, examples of the use and potential of high-resolution electron microscopy of high-angle Rutherford scattering and of scanning tunneling microscopic procedures are illustrated. Several growth points of current and possib...

Background and Objective: Neuroendocrine differentiation has not been proved to have effects in behavior of colorectal carcinomas. The aim of this study was Immunohistochemical evaluation of neuroendocrine differentiation in colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 83 paraffin blocks from patients admitted in Rasoul-e-akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran, during 2003 to ...

Three new methods of selection of mating pairs for Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are introduced where the partners are chosen based on either their genotypic similarity (called genotypic assortative mating) or their phenotypic similarity (called phenotypic assortative mating). These methods not only help in exploiting the current search space properly before exploring the new one but also enable one...

BACKGROUND Human chromogranin A (CgA) is an acidic protein widely expressed in neuroendocrine tissue and tumors. The extensive tissue- and tumor-specific cleavages of CgA at basic cleavage sites produce multiple peptides. METHODS We have developed a library of RIAs specific for different epitopes, including the NH2 and COOH termini and three sequences adjacent to dibasic sites in the remainin...

We thoroughly investigate a simple model representative of the recently synthesized Janus particles, i.e., colloidal spherical particles whose surface is divided into two areas of different chemical composition. When the two surfaces are solvophilic and solvophobic, these particles constitute the simplest example of surfactants. The phase diagram includes a colloidal-poor (gas), colloidal-rich ...

We present first observations of wetting phenomena in depletion interaction driven, phase separated colloidal dispersions (coated silica-cyclohexane-polydimethylsiloxane). The contact angle of the colloidal liquid-gas interface at a solid substrate (coated glass) was determined for a series of compositions. Upon approach to the critical point, a transition occurs from partial to complete wetting.

Chromogranin A (CgA) not only plays an important role in pathologic diagnosis, but is also used as a circulating biomarker in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm (GEP-NEN). However, the relationship between immunohistochemistry (IHC) expression and serum levels of CgA has not been investigated. The value of CgA for evaluating treatment response and prognosis is still no...

Chromogranin A (CGA) is an abundant protein of dense-cored secretory vesicles in endocrine and neuronal cells. The present study, for the first time, compares CGA of neurons of the central nervous system with the CGA of adrenal origin. By S1 nucleus protection assay, we found that the 3' part of the CGA mRNA between exons 5-8 of the cerebellum and the spinal cord of the rat is homologous to tha...