University of Duisburg-Essen

About: University of Duisburg-Essen is a education organization based out in Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 16072 authors who have published 39972 publications receiving 1109199 citations.

Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer: Dual-Modality PET/CT in Preoperative Staging

Abstract: PURPOSE: To determine the accuracy of dual-modality positron emission tomographic (PET)–computed tomographic (CT) imaging, as compared with PET alone and CT alone, in the staging of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven patients with NSCLC underwent staging with combined fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET and CT. CT, PET, and coregistered PET/CT images were evaluated separately by two different physicians for each imaging modality, and disease stage was determined by using TNM and American Joint Committee on Cancer staging systems. Histopathologic results served as the reference standard. The statistical significance of differences among CT, PET, and PET/CT was determined by using the McNemar test. RESULTS: Overall tumor stage was correctly classified as 0–IV with CT in 19 patients, with PET in 20 patients, and with PET/CT in 26 patients. PET/CT findings when compared with PET findings led to a treatment change for four patients (15%) and when compared with CT findings le...

Assessment of european streams with diatoms, macrophytes, macroinvertebrates and fish : a comparative metric-based analysis of organism response to stress

Abstract: Summary 1. Periphytic diatoms, macrophytes, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish were sampled with standard methods in 185 streams in nine European countries to compare their response to degradation. Streams were classified into two main stream type groups (i.e. lowland, mountain streams); in addition, the lowland streams were grouped into four more specific stream types. 2. Principal components analysis with altogether 43 environmental parameters was used to construct complex stressor gradients for physical–chemical, hydromorphological and land use data. About 30 metrics were calculated for each sample and organism group. Metric responses to different stress types were analysed by Spearman Rank Correlation. 3. All four organism groups showed significant response to eutrophication/organic pollution gradients. Generally, diatom metrics were most strongly correlated to eutrophication gradients (85% and 89% of the diatom metrics tested correlated significantly in mountain and lowland streams, respectively), followed by invertebrate metrics (91% and 59%). 4. Responses of the four organism groups to other gradients were less strong; all organism groups responded to varying degrees to land use changes, hydromorphological degradation on the microhabitat scale and general degradation gradients, while the response to hydromorphological gradients on the reach scale was mainly limited to benthic macroinvertebrates (50% and 44% of the metrics tested correlated significantly in mountain and lowland streams, respectively) and fish (29% and 47%). 5. Fish and macrophyte metrics generally showed a poor response to degradation gradients in mountain streams and a strong response in lowland streams. 6. General recommendations on European bioassessment of streams were derived from the results.

Endovascular stent-graft placement in aortic dissection: a meta-analysis.

Abstract: Aims This article summarizes all available published data with respect to clinical success, complications, and outcomes of endovascular stent–graft placement among patients with descending aortic dissection (AD). Methods and results We performed a meta-analysis of all published series on retrograde endovascular stent–graft placement encompassing � 3 patients with AD. Thirty-nine studies, involving a total of 609 patients, were included. Procedural success was reported in 98.2+ 0.5% of patients. Major complications were reported in 11.1+ 1.4%, with the most dreaded neurologic complications in 2.9 + 0.7% patients. Periprocedural stroke was encountered more frequently than paraplegia (1.9+ 0.6% vs. 0.8+ 0.4%). Overall complications were significantly higher in patients undergoing stent–graft placement for acute AD than in patients with chronic AD (21.7 + 2.8% vs. 9.1+ 2.3%, P ¼ 0.005). The overall 30-day mortality was 5.3+ 0.9%, and was three-fold higher in patients with acute AD when compared with chronic AD (9.8 + 2.2% vs. 3.2+ 1.4%, P ¼ 0.015). In addition, 2.8 + 0.7% of patients died over a mean follow-up period of 19.5 + 7.1 months. Kaplan–Meier analysis yielded overall survival rates of 90.6+ 1.6% at 6 months, 89.9+ 1.7% at 1 year, and 88.8 + 1.9% at 2 years, respectively. Conclusion Endovascular stent–graft placement in type B-AD is technically feasible with success rates of .95% in selected cohort. Although minimally invasive, major complications occurred in 14–18% of patients depending upon the acuity of presentation, with very low incidence of paraplegia. Both, acute and mid-term mortality of this novel treatment strategy appear to favourably compare with surgical treatment but further studies are necessary to compare stent–graft placement with medical treatment in uncomplicated AD.