OBJECTIVES To calculate the prevalence of disabling chronic pain (DCP) and to offer a more representative and accurate estimation by applying different calibration techniques. SETTINGS 2011 Andalusian Health Survey, a cross-sectional population survey based on face-to-face home interviews. PARTICIPANTS 6507 people aged 16 years or older and living in Andalusia, Spain. OUTCOMES Design weig...

Dear Editor, Diphencyprone (DCP) is a contact sensitiser used to treat dermatological conditions resulting from an altered immunological state, such as extensive alopecia areata. Adverse effects include local eczema with blistering, regional lymphadenopathy and contact urticaria. Rare adverse effects include an erythema multiforme-like reaction, hyperpigmentation, hypopigmentation and vitiligo....

BACKGROUND Finding a noninvasive method to predict liver fibrosis using inexpensive and easy-to-use markers is important. OBJECTIVES We aimed to clarify whether NX-des-γ-carboxyprothrombin (NX-DCP) could become a new noninvasive model to predict liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus (HCV) related liver disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a prospective cohort study on a consecutive grou...

Thirty-eight lactating dairy cows including 6 ruminally cannulated cows were used in a feeding study to assess effects of feed sources that differed in dietary nonfiber carbohydrate (NFC) composition and ruminal degradability of dietary protein (RDP) on production, ruminal, and plasma measures. The design was a partially balanced, incomplete Latin square with three 21-d periods and a 3 x 2 fact...

Reduced cellular uptake of menaquinone-4 (MK-4), a vitamin K2 homolog, in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) limits its usefulness as a safe long-term antitumor agent for recurrent HCC and produces des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP). We hypothesized that effective delivery of menahydroquinone-4 (MKH), the active form of MK-4 for γ-glutamyl carboxylation, into HCC cells is critical for regulating...

The effectiveness of three carbohydrate sources, high-moisture ear corn (HMEC), cracked shelled corn (CSC), and a 50:50 mixture of HMEC plus dried citrus pulp (DCP), fed with or without supplemental rumen-undegraded protein as expeller soybean meal (ESBM), was assessed in 48 multiparous dairy cows. All diets contained (dry mater [DM] basis) 50% alfalfa silage, 10% ryegrass silage, 28% NDF, and ...

The clinical value of Serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) to detect early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been questioned due to its low sensitivity and specificity found in recent years. Other than AFP, several new serum biomarkers including the circulating AFP isoform AFP-L3, des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) and Golgi protein-73 (GP73) have been identified as useful HCC markers. In this inves...

An efficient serum marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently lacking and requires intensive exploration. We aimed to evaluate the performance of des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) for identifying hepatitis B virus-related HCC in a large, multicentre study in China. A total of 1034 subjects in three cohorts (A, B, and C) including HCC and various non-HCC controls were enrolled from...

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify the chemicals used by five printing workers and one coating worker who developed cholangiocarcinoma and estimate the workers' levels of chemical exposure. METHODS We obtained information on chemicals from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan, and estimated working environment concentrations of the chemicals in printing and coating rooms and ...

An enzymeless sensor based on a multi-walled carbon nanotubes-dicetyl phosphate (MWCNT-DCP) film modified vitreous carbon electrode was developed for the determination of hypoxanthine. The MWCNT-DCP film modified electrode showed a remarkable enhancement effect on the oxidation peak current of hypoxanthine. Under the optimized conditions, the oxidation peak current is proportional to the concen...