Background: Lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) is a surrogate marker of systemic inflammation which is shown to be related to patient’s survival in multiple malignancies. An important implication of this marker potentially is neoplasms in which there is no correlation between prognosis and histopathological staging, or has no reliable chemical markers associated with prognosis. Herein, this meta-analysis aimed to investigate the prognostic role of LMR in the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods: In the current systemic review and meta-analysis, we conducted a systemic search of databases and indexing sources, including Medline (PubMed), EMBASE, Cochrane, Scopus, and ProQuest up to May 2019. We include studies evaluating the prognostic significance of LMR on patients with HCC. Overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and recurrence free survival (RFS) values were extracted from the studies and analyzed. The pooled hazard ratio with 95% confidence interval explored to identify the prognostic value of LMR in survival of the patients with HCC.Results: A total of 12 studies with a total sample size of 3750 were included. There was significant heterogeneity among the studies, so subgroup analysis was also performed. Overall analysis regarding OS showed an insignificant relationship between LMR and patient’s prognosis, subgroup based on LMR cut-offs did not yield any significant result, subgroup analysis for RFS founded statistically significant results and LMR was significantly related to DFS.Conclusion: High LMR was associated with increased DFS and RFS, in return this correlation was not observed for OS.

Albucasis is one of the world’s pioneers in surgery. In his book, “Al-Tasrif”, he described the surgical procedures and tools, as well as post-operative care in detail. He introduced colorectal surgeries in detail and used topical substances to accelerate recovery. Albucasis considered different approaches for anorectal surgeries and used them according to the complexity of the cases. Many of these methods were first invented by him and the effect of his ideas on modern surgical methods is evident. In this article, we discuss anorectal diseases treated by Albucasis using surgical procedures.

Hyperphosphorylated tau aggregates, also known as neurofibrillary tangles, are a hallmark neuropathological feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Molecular imaging of tau by positron emission tomography (PET) began with the development of [18F]FDDNP, an amyloid β tracer with off-target binding to tau, which obtained regional specificity through the differing distributions of amyloid β and tau in AD brains. A concerted search for more selective and affine tau PET tracers yielded compounds belonging to at least eight structural categories; 18F-flortaucipir, known variously as [18F]-T807, AV-1451, and Tauvid®, emerged as the first tau tracer approved by the American Food and Drug Administration. The various tau tracers differ concerning their selectivity over amyloid β, off-target binding at sites such as monoamine oxidase and neuromelanin, and degree of uptake in white matter. While there have been many reviews of molecular imaging of tau in AD and other conditions, there has been no systematic comparison of the fitness of the various tracers for discriminating between AD patient and healthy control (HC) groups. In this narrative review, we endeavored to compare the binding properties of the various tau tracers in vitro and the effect size (Cohen’s d) for the contrast by PET between AD patients and age-matched HC groups. The available tracers all gave good discrimination, with Cohen’s d generally in the range of two–three in culprit brain regions. Overall, Cohen’s d was higher for AD patient groups with more severe illness. Second-generation tracers, while superior concerning off-target binding, do not have conspicuously higher sensitivity for the discrimination of AD and HC groups. We suppose that available pharmacophores may have converged on a maximal affinity for tau fibrils, which may limit the specific signal imparted in PET studies.