Chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) is a common neurosurgical condition that can cause severe morbidity and mortality. cSDH recurs after surgical evacuation in 5–30% of patients, but drains may help reduce this risk. We aimed to investigate the effect of drainage versus no drainage on the rates of recurrence and mortality, as well as the clinical outcomes of cSDH. Following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, we searched four electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science) to identify eligible studies reported up to June 2022. Using Review Manager software, we reported four primary outcomes as odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs). The meta-analysis included a total of 10 studies with 1961 patients. The use of drainage was found to be significantly more effective than non-drainage in reducing the “mortality rate” (OR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.97; P = 0.04), the “recurrence rate” (OR = 0.39, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.55; P < 0.00001), and occurrence of “gross focal neurological deficit” (OR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.89; P = 0.01). No significant difference was found in the occurrence of a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 15 (OR = 1.21, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.76; P = 0.30). The use of drains after burr-hole irrigation reduces the recurrence, mortality, and gross focal neurological deficit rates of chronic subdural hematomas.
Background: Since the advent of global COVID-19 vaccination, several studies reported cases of encephalitis with its various subtypes following COVID-19 vaccinations. In this regard, we conducted a systematic review to investigate and characterize the clinical settings of these reported cases to aid in physician awareness and proper care provision. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus and manually searched Google Scholar. Studies published until October 2022 were included. Demographic data, clinical features, vaccine data, treatment lines, and outcomes were extracted. Results: A total of 65 patients from 52 studies were included. The mean age of patients was 46.82 ± 19.25 years, 36 cases (55.4%) were males. AstraZeneca was the most-reported vaccine associated with encephalitis (38.5%) followed by Pfizer (33.8%), Moderna (16.9%), and others. Moat encephalitis cases occurred after the first dose of vaccination in 41/65 (66.1%). The mean time between vaccination and symptom onset was 9.97 ± 7.16 days. Corticosteroids (86.2 %) and immunosuppressants (81.5 %) were the most used lines of treatment. The majority of affected individuals experienced a full recovery. Conclusion: Our study summarizes the current evidence of reported post-vaccination encephalitis, regarding clinical presentation, symptoms onset, management, outcomes, and comorbid conditions; however, it fails to either acknowledge the incidence of occurrence or establish a causal relationship between various COVID-19 vaccines and encephalitis.
Background and Objectives: breast cancer remains the most common health burden affecting females worldwide. Despite developments in breast cancer diagnostic approaches and treatment strategies, the clinical management of metastatic breast cancer remains challenging. Thus, there is a need to identify new biomarkers and novel drug targets for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy. Recently, aberrant glypican-3 (GPC3) expression in cancers has gained considerable interest in cancer research. The studies, however, have yielded contradictory results about GPC3 expression in breast cancer. Therefore, the current study aims to analyse GPC3 expression across a large panel of different breast cancer subtypes. Materials and Methods: GPC3 expression was immunohistochemically evaluated in 230 breast cancer patients along with eight normal tissues and its associations to clinical and demographic characteristics, as well as immunohistochemical biomarkers for breast cancer. Moreover, a public database consisting of breast cancer patients’ survival data and GPC3 gene expression information was used to assess the prognostic value of GPC3 in the survival of breast cancer patients. Results: GPC3 expression was only characterised in 7.5% of different histological breast cancer subtypes. None of the normal breast tissues displayed GPC3 expression. Interestingly, all cases of Paget’s disease, as well as 42.9% of intraductal and 16.7% of mucinous carcinomas were found to have GPC3 expression, where it was able to significantly discriminate Paget’s disease and intraductal carcinoma from other breast cancer subtypes. Importantly, GPC3 expression was found more often in tumours that tested positive for the expression of hormone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), indicating more favourable histological subtypes of breast cancer. Consequently, longer relapse-free survival (RFS) was significantly correlated with higher GPC3 mRNA expression. Conclusions: Our study proposes that GPC3 is a promising breast cancer subtype-specific biomarker. Moreover, GPC3 may have the potential to be a molecular target for the development of new therapeutics for specific subtypes of breast cancer.
13 September 2025 in International Journal of Cardiology