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6,906 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: bladder cancer is the second most common genitourinary malignancy and the sixth most common cancer in the world . in china ,
the incidence of bladder cancer also increases with age , and the peak is reached approximately at the age of 60 years ; bladder cancer is three times more common in men than in women . among the newly diagnosed cases of transitional cell carcinomas , approximately 75% to 80% of these cases present superficial tumours ; 50% to 70% of these superficial tumours relapse within five years ; and roughly 10% to 20% progress to a more aggressive disease .
bladder cancer is a multifactorial disease mediated by genetic abnormalities , environmental factors , and chronic irritation .
although many individuals are exposed to these risk factors , only a fraction of exposed individuals develop bladder cancer in their lifetime , suggesting that genetic variations may participate in bladder carcinogenesis .
thrombospondin-1 ( tsp-1 ) is an adhesive glycoprotein with a size of 450 kd initially discovered in platelets , where tsp-1 is sequestered in a platelet -granule .
tsp-1 has been implicated in regulating numerous biological activities , including cell adhesion , cell migration , proliferation , angiogenesis , inflammation , and wound healing [ 712 ] .
tsp-1 also elicits different effects on tumour growth and progression depending on the tumour type , leading to cancer progression and inhibition in different instances [ 1118 ] . in bladder cancer , low tsp-1 expression is significantly associated with an increased risk of disease recurrence and decreased overall survival [ 17 , 18 ] .
studies have been conducted to assess the association between polymorphisms in candidate genes and bladder cancer risk . to date , genetic polymorphisms in tsp-1 gene are possibly associated with coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction [ 20 , 21 ] .
the transcriptional initiation site of the tsp-1 gene was identified by laherty et al . .
tsp-1 - 1223 a / g polymorphism is located in the 5 near - gene region... | backgrounds . tsp-1 is a glycoprotein that functions in the biology of bladder cancer .
we investigated the relationship between the distribution of tsp-1 - 1223 a / g polymorphism ( rs2169830 ) and the clinical characteristics of bladder cancer .
materials and methods .
taqman assay was performed to determine the genotype of 609 cases and 670 control subjects in a chinese population .
logistic regression was used to assess the association between the polymorphism and the risk of bladder cancer .
quantitative real - time polymerase chain reaction was performed to determine tsp-1 mrna expression .
survival curves were generated using the kaplan - meier method .
results .
no significant differences were detected in the genotype frequencies of healthy control subjects and patients with bladder cancer . by contrast , the time until the first recurrence differed significantly between genotypes ( p = 0.017 ) .
the expression of tsp-1 mrna in bladder cancer tissues was lower in patients with an ag genotype than in those with an aa genotype .
the lowest expression was observed in patients with a gg genotype .
conclusions . in conclusion
, tsp-1 - 1223 a / g polymorphism may contribute to the recurrence of bladder cancer in chinese population . |
6,907 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 38-year - old male patient with a 40-pack - year history of smoking initially presented with sudden - onset right - sided facial nerve palsy which was diagnosed as idiopathic bell 's palsy and was treated with prednisolone .
three weeks later , the patient developed a new left - sided facial palsy in addition to his unrecovered right - sided facial palsy .
outside of the facial nerve paralysis , he was neurologically intact , and his physical examination revealed no abnormalities .
further workup was carried out to rule out autoimmune , metabolic , infectious , and vasculitic causes and revealed no abnormality .
a chest x - ray showed a right upper lobe opacity which prompted a computed tomography ( ct ) scan of the chest which showed a well - defined , suspected soft - tissue lesion in the right upper lobe with extensive hilar and ipsilateral mediastinal lymphadenopathy ( fig 1a , b ) . at this point , the differential diagnosis included sarcoidosis and primary lung cancer given the presenting complaint was bilateral facial nerve paralysis .
because the intrapulmonary lesion was too distal to be reached by flexible bronchoscopy , video - assisted mediastinoscopy was performed and revealed gross right - sided mediastinal invasion .
multiple biopsies from lymph nodes were taken and revealed metastatic poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the lung .
accordingly , positron emission tomography ( pet)/ct and magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) of the brain were performed to stage the cancer .
brain mri with contrast showed normal enhancement of the seventh and eighth cranial nerves with neither brain metastasis nor leptomeningeal metastasis .
the pet / ct showed a metabolically active right upper lobe lesion with extension into the mediastinum and active ipsilateral mediastinal lymph nodes but no distant metastasis .
due to our high clinical suspicion of leptomeningeal involvement , a lumbar puncture was performed .
at this point , his clinical stage was considered ciiib ; ct4 ( extension ) n2 m0 .
the patient... | leptomeningeal carcinomatosis is rare , and its precise incidence is unknown . it is associated with a wide spectrum of solid and hematological malignancies . to complicate its diagnosis , the clinical presentation of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis can be variable .
we report a case of a 38-year - old male with bilateral facial nerve paralysis as first presentation of lung adenocarcinoma . to our knowledge
, this is the only case describing bilateral facial nerve palsy as the first and only manifestation of lung adenocarcinoma . |
6,908 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: since the advent of the hiv - aids pandemic across the globe , pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia has been one of the most common defining illnesses of this condition .
idiopathic cd4 lymphocytopenia is one such condition where the patient presents with such aids defining illnesses but with negative serological marker for this dreaded disease . here
, we describe a case where a young man presented with pneumocystis infection but was having negative markers for hiv and thus the diagnosis of icl was concluded .
a 32-year - old adequately nourished male was admitted for complaints of shortness of breath for 1 month which had exacerbated for the past 2 days .
he used to work as a tailor with a mixed diet usually on his platter .
examination revealed a well built and nourished male with a body mass index of 25.3 kg / m who was tachypneic with the presence of tachycardia and mild fever .
oral thrush was present and scrapings were sent for fungal culture . there were no apparent risk factors for the presence of hiv or any other immunosuppressive states .
chest x - ray revealed few scattered inspiratory crackles and the saturation monitor was showing a spo2 of 87% .
high flow o2 was initiated and the patient was then shifted to the intensive care unit for further management .
given the clinical picture of the patient , pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia ( pjp ) was high on cards , given the apparent immunosuppressed state .
empirical antibiotics , fluconazole and oral trimethoprim - sulphomethoxazole [ tmp - smx ] , was started along with steroids .
u / l ( high ) and high - resolution computed tomography of the thorax revealed ground glass opacities in both lung fields , more so being perihilar .
thus , the diagnosis of pjp was confirmed . to identify the cause of the immunosuppressed state ,
since the clinical suspicion of hiv was so high , a western blot and a hiv - rna polymerase chain reaction were ordered as well .
cd4 and cd8 counts were ordered , as a suspicion for idiopathic cd4 lymphocytopenia ( icl ) was high... | idiopathic cd4 + lymphocytopenia ( icl ) is a rare disorder characterized by the presence of depleted cd4 cell line without the presence of hiv infection .
slight male preponderance is noticed and is usually seen in the middle age group .
opportunistic infections are the reason for their discovery and here we describe a case where a man was diagnosed as having pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia and oral candidiasis . |
6,909 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: diabetes is a metabolic disease with the main symptom of chronic hyperglycemia caused by insufficient insulin action .
most symptoms can not be noticed when the degree of the metabolic disorders caused by insufficient insulin action is mild .
however , thirst , polydipsia , polyuria , and weight loss are observed in the metabolic state where the bloodsugar level is significantly higher .
moreover , this more advanced condition leads to acute complications such as disturbance of consciousness and coma , and may also lead to death if effective therapy is not provided .
the risk of developing characteristic longterm complications ( retinopathy , nephropathy , and neuropathy ) is high even when mild metabolic disorders continue for a long time .
moreover , arteriosclerosis of the whole body is accelerated with diabetes , and this can cause myocardial infarction , cerebral infarction , and arteriosclerosis obliterans of the lower extremities .
the goal of diabetes therapy is to prevent the onset and exacerbation of shortterm and longterm complications , to maintain quality of life ( qol ) , and to achieve a life span that is comparable to that of a healthy person .
it is evident from some epidemiological analyses that the risks of onset and progression of microangiopathy and macroangiopathy are reduced with better glycemic control .
there is no clear standard indicating the degree to which glycemic control has to be improved to prevent the onset of complications .
evidence has been reported in japan that the onset and progression of microangiopathy could be prevented with hba1c ( jds ) levels of < 6.5% [ hba1c ( ngsp ) 6.9% ] 1 .
however , the risk of the onset and progression of macroangiopathy is high beginning at the early stage of impaired glucose intolerance , where only the postprandial blood glucose level is high2 .
therefore , the ideal goal of glycemic control is to correct fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia , and not just hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia over the course of 1 day , and as a result to... | abstractin the evidencebased practice guideline for the treatment for diabetes in japan 2013 , a new concept of the glycemic control in patients with diabetes in japan has been declared from the japan diabetes society .
the main objective value of hba1c was set to < 7% from the perspective of preventing microvascular complications . on the other hand ,
the objective in cases where objectives can be attained by appropriate dietary or exercise therapy , or during pharmacotherapy without the occurrence of side effects such as hypoglycemia was set to < 6% , and the objective in cases where intensification of treatment was considered difficult due to side effects such as hypoglycemia or for other reasons was set to < 8% .
treatment objectives should be established individually , in consideration of age , duration of disease , organ damage , risk of hypoglycemia , support structure , and etc . |
6,910 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: urethritis in males that is caused by sexual transmission is a major health - care concern worldwide .
gonococcal urethritis ( gu ) is a common sexually transmitted disease ( std ) that is caused by neisseria gonorrhoeae .
common signs and symptoms in males are purulent discharge from the urethra with dysuria , perimeatal erythema , and edema .
positive test for intracellular gram - negative diplococci from urethral discharge establishes definitive clinical diagnosis of gu .
in contrast , non - gu ( ngu ) is a nonspecific infection of the urethra with many infectious etiologies .
ngu is confirmed in symptomatic men when staining of urethral secretions indicates inflammation without gram - negative diplococci .
gu and ngu coinfections are common . according to the 2014 annual epidemiological surveillance report on sexually transmitted infection conducted by the bureau of epidemiology , ministry of public health , thailand , 6,184 ( 17.6% ) of 35,073 patients with stds
age ranges of std - infected individuals were as follows : 1524 years ( 57.9% ) , 2534 years ( 18.8% ) , and 3544 years ( 8.7% ) . the percentage of infection in 1524 years age group continues to grow on a year - over - year basis . as a result , gu and ngu
the gonococcal isolate surveillance project from the united states reported 0.3% , 0.4% , 1.1% , 13.5% , and 22.5% of gonococcal isolates resistant to ceftriaxone , azithromycin , cefixime , ciprofloxacin , and tetracycline , respectively . the gonococcal resistance to antimicrobials
surveillance program from england and wales reported 0.2% , 0.8% , 5.7% , 2.2% , 25.2% , and 75.0% of gonococcal isolates resistant to those same five antibiotics , respectively .
loss to follow - up and poor compliance rates among gu and ngu patients are an increasingly serious problem in thailand .
these two factors could result in an increase in the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance as well as an increase in the spread of infection to sexual partners .
studies regarding treatment outcomes and loss to... | background : poor follow - up compliance of patients with infectious urethritis is a recognized and serious public health problem in thailand.aim:the aim of this study was to determine treatment outcomes and loss to follow - up rate of male patients with gonococcal urethritis ( gu ) and non - gu ( ngu ) at a sexually transmitted disease ( std ) clinic at thailand 's tertiary hospital.methods:this retrospective chart review of male patients who sought treatment at stds clinic , siriraj hospital , and who were diagnosed with gu and/or ngu was conducted during january 2007 to december 2014 study period.results:two hundred and twenty - seven male urethritis patients were included in this study with a mean age was 29.5 years .
gu and ngu were found in 120 ( 52.9% ) and 107 ( 47.1% ) of patients , respectively .
overall prevalence of gu and ngu during the 8-year study period at std clinic , siriraj hospital , was 8.6% and 7.8% , respectively .
ninety - six patients ( 42.3% ) were lost to follow - up .
recurrent urethritis was found in 23.8% of patients , and hiv infection was identified in 11.6% .
mean age of patients lost to follow - up was 29 years .
compared with patients who attended every scheduled follow - up visit , men who have sex with men had a significantly lower rate of loss to follow - up ( p = 0.012).conclusion : almost half of patients with gu or ngu were lost to follow - up , and one - quarter had recurrent urethritis .
fast and easy access to services that provide accurate diagnostic testing and effective treatment should be a public health priority to prevent complications and reduce rates of disease transmission . |
6,911 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: for decades , tracking studies with eels have been conducted to reveal the oceanic migration routes to their mysterious spawning areas6,000 km from the european coast by using acoustic and archival tags ( tesch 2003 ) .
recently , the use of pop - up satellite tags ( psats ) , developed for tracking large animals ( > 50 kg ) , were used in several studies for tracking eels ( aarestrup et al .
although the oceanic migration routes were partially obtained this way , the assumed spawning areas have never been reached .
results showed a much lower travel speed than required for reaching the spawning areas in time .
the minimal speed for european silver eels is 0.4 m s , 6,000 km within 6 months the time between leaving the coast and the occurrence of the first larvae ( tesch 2003 ) .
2009 ) found an average horizontal migration speed of 13.8 km day , which corresponds to ca .
the effect of psats on the swimming efficiency and swimming behaviour of eels has not been tested before .
eels have been shown to be very efficient swimmers ; they are some five times more efficient than salmonids with respect to the energy cost of swimming ( van ginneken and van den thillart 2000 ; van den thillart et al .
particularly this extreme high swimming efficiency must have been a strong selection force during evolution ; as a consequence , any interference with shape and movement must have a serious impact on the cost of transport ( cot ) and thus interferes with successful spawning migration .
current psats have almost the same cross section as that of an eel of 1 kg , which therefore almost doubles the hydrodynamic drag .
the psat resists not only forward but also sideward motion , which must have an additional disturbing effect on the anguilliform mode of swimming .
furthermore due to the positive buoyancy of the psat , there will be an additional constant pull upwards , which also impairs the swimming mode .
thus , one may expect a strong interference of a psat with swimming mode , swimming capacity and swimming... | the journey of the european eel to the spawning area in the sargasso sea is still a mystery .
several trials have been carried out to follow migrating eels with pop - up satellite tags ( psats ) , without much success .
as eels are very efficient swimmers , tags likely interfere with their high swimming efficiency . here
we report a more than twofold increase in swimming cost caused by a regular small satellite tag .
the impact was determined at a range of swimming speeds with and without tag in a 2-m swimming tunnel .
these results help to explain why the previous use of psats to identify spawning sites in the sargasso sea was thus far unsuccessful . |
6,912 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: over the past years in italy , the current affairs press has produced ample information on the subject of haccp ( hazard analysis and critical control points ) with the goal of providing support to those in charge of food companies and to allow these companies to conform to that provided for by italian legislative decree no.155/97 , which introduced the self - monitoring system .
after an initial haccp system planning period , marked on the legislative level by the different derogations to the sanctions , we have now reached complete actuation of self - monitoring . during this phase , the evaluation of self - monitoring plans plays an important role , as it is an important activity for interlocution between the person in charge of the food industry and the health authority .
the evaluation investigates the concreteness of the self - monitoring plans with reference to the hygienic - sanitary safety of foods .
food companies essentially - in addition to having the piece of paper of the self - monitoring plan ( and in many cases , they are substantial , well laid out volumes with various colours ) must adopt all the procedures indicated in the plans themselves in order to knock down or reduce potential hazards [ 25 ] .
panunzio et al . introduced and used an evaluation sheet that took into consideration the most important aspects of self - monitoring from the point of view of specificity , simplicity , feasibility and adherence . in this manner , different self - monitoring plans were evaluated using these four profiles ; a score was determined and for each profile .
the question we asked ourselves during the study of this work was what evaluation of the self - monitoring plans can be made in the light of adherence to the haccp method ?
adherence was taken into consideration because it is the most critical aspect of the self - monitoring plans that contain haccp principles . when a plan is drawn up based on photocopies of other non - specific plans ,
the haccp method is generally almost non - existent... | with respect to food safety , many works have studied the effectiveness of self - monitoring plans of food companies , designed using the hazard analysis and critical control point ( haccp ) method . on the other hand ,
in - depth research has not been made concerning the adherence of the plans to haccp standards . during our research
, we evaluated 116 self - monitoring plans adopted by food companies located in the territory of the local health authority ( lha ) of foggia , italy .
the general errors ( terminology , philosophy and redundancy ) and the specific errors ( transversal plan , critical limits , hazard specificity , and lack of procedures ) were standardized . concerning the general errors , terminological errors pertain to half the plans examined , 47% include superfluous elements and 60% have repetitive subjects . with regards to the specific errors , 77% of the plans examined contained specific errors .
the evaluation has pointed out the lack of comprehension of the haccp system by the food companies and has allowed the servizio di igiene degli alimenti e della nutrizione ( food and nutrition health service ) , in its capacity as a control body , to intervene with the companies in order to improve designing haccp plans . |
6,913 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: estrogen - based therapies decrease hot flashes by up to 90% , but their use is generally discouraged in breast cancer survivors and in women with an increased risk of breast cancer.13 several hormonal and nonhormonal therapies are claimed to alleviate hot flashes .
these include hormonal agents , such as progestational agents , complementary and alternative therapies and supplements , and pharmacologic agents .
hormonal therapies seem to be most effective , but women at risk for or who have survived breast cancer may carry an increased risk of new or relapsed cancer.4 as such , studies have aimed to find nonhormonal agents that can decrease this bothersome symptom .
many therapies have been studied , but none seem to be as effective as hormonal therapies.5 other commonly prescribed nonhormonal treatments for hot flashes are well described in a recent review,6 and include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( ssris ) , serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors ( snris ) , clonidine , gabapentin , and others .
many women take prescription and over - the - counter medication for treatment of hot flashes .
there is sparse information about what women are actually taking . in a population of breast cancer patients
, we aimed to describe the frequency of hot flashes and night sweats , list what treatments were employed , and explore the possible association of hot flashes and use of calcium supplements .
we retrospectively reviewed clinic charts of a randomly selected sample of women with breast cancer treated at a single institution .
cases were randomly selected for inclusion by arranging all breast cancer cases in alphabetical order and then choosing every fourth chart for review .
the study was approved by the institutional review board at wake forest university school of medicine .
information gathered included the following : demographic information including age at diagnosis and race ; adjuvant hormonal therapy use for breast cancer , defined as any record in the chart for prescription of tamoxifen... | aimsin breast cancer survivors , we aimed to describe the frequency of hot flashes and night sweats , frequency and type of treatment , and the association of hot flashes and use of calcium supplements.methodscharts of breast cancer survivors were reviewed for information about hot flashes , treatment for hot flashes , and calcium supplementation .
associations between variables were explored using the chi - square test and fisher s exact test.resultseighty-six charts were reviewed .
mean age of the women was 58 years and 79% were postmenopausal .
forty - two ( 49% ) of women had hot flashes and 18 ( 21% ) had night sweats .
thirty - one ( 36% ) were treated for hot flashes .
treatment included selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors / serotonin - norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors ( n = 19 ) , clonidine ( n = 7 ) , bellergal - s ( n = 8) ,
sleep - aid ( n = 7 ) , and other ( n = 5 ) .
calcium supplementation was recorded in 31% . of women with hot flashes ,
44% took calcium supplements ; of women without hot flashes , 18% took calcium supplements ( chi - square p = 0.02).conclusionhot flashes were recorded in 49% of this group of primarily postmenopausal breast cancer survivors .
women with hot flashes were more likely to be taking calcium supplements .
further exploration of the association between hot flashes and calcium supplementation is warranted . |
6,914 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: antidepressant medication is a standard treatment and the first choice for depressed patients in current psychiatric guidelines.1 approximately 60% of patients respond well to active treatment,24 but ~40%50% of patients using the full dosage and duration of antidepressant medications still have residual symptoms and can not obtain full remission.46 one reason for this may be that some depressed patients discontinue treatment because of adverse effects or higher economic burden.2 moreover , misdiagnosis , genetic inheritance , and comorbid somatic disease also influence the outcome of treatment.7,8 in a 5-year follow - up study , riihimki et al9 studied 137 major depressive disorders ( mdds ) and found that the patients spent 34% of the follow - up time in major depressive episodes , 24% in partial remission , and 42% in full remission .
szauliska et al10 reported that obstructive sleep apnea ( osa ) is present in 11%18% of patients with mdds , 15%48% of patients with schizophrenia , and 21%43% of patients with bipolar disorder , but in only 5% of the general population.11 one study has shown that patients diagnosed with osa are at an increased risk of a diagnosis of depression.12 additionally , the symptoms of sleep apnea might imitate the symptoms of depression , including sleep disturbance , general fatigue , decreased volition and judgment ability , aggravated cognitive impairment , and a lower quality of life.10 in addition , osa might exacerbate symptom severity in mdds.8 participants with both mdds and osa also reported more severe and longer episodes of depression.13 meanwhile , osa might influence response to pharmacological treatment of depression as well as reduce patient adherence to antidepressants.8,14 waterman et al14 studied 400 patients with mdds and found that those with comorbid osa were 1.5 times less likely to respond to 12 weeks of treatment with the antidepressant venlafaxine than those with either depressive disorder occurring alone .
kerner et al15 confirmed that the cognitive... | objectiveoverlap of obstructive sleep apnea ( osa ) complicates diagnosis of depressive disorder and renders antidepressant treatment challenging .
previous studies have reported that the incidence of osa is higher in patients with depression than in the general population .
the purpose of this article was to investigate clinical risk factors to predict osa in depression disorders.methodsa total of 115 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder ( mdd ) and bipolar disorder ( in a major depressive episode ) , who underwent overnight polysomnography , were studied retrospectively .
they were divided into two groups : non - osa and osa .
the patients who had apnea hypopnea index ( ahi )
< 5 were defined as the non - osa group , whereas the osa group was defined as those with an ahi 5 .
logistic regression was used to analyze the association among ahi and clinical factors , including sex , age , body mass index ( bmi ) , hamilton depression rating scale ( hamd ) , hamilton anxiety rating scale , pittsburgh sleep quality index ( psqi ) , and diagnosis ( mdd or bipolar disorder [ in a major depressive episode]).resultsin 115 patients , 51.3% had osa .
logistic regression analysis showed significant associations between ahi and diagnosis ( mdd or bipolar disorder [ in a major depressive episode ] ) , bmi , hamd , and psqi ( p<0.05).conclusionthe findings of our study suggested that the rate of depression being comorbid with osa is remarkably high and revealed that there is a high rate of undetected osa among depressive disorder patients and untreated osa among mood disorder patients .
the clinical risk factors ( diagnosis [ mdd or bipolar disorder { in a major depressive episode } ] , bmi , hamd , and psqi ) could predict ahi or osa diagnosis and contribute to osa screening in depressive disorder patients . |
6,915 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: angiotensin - converting enzyme ( ace ) inhibitors have been increasingly used for the therapeutic management of several conditions , such as hypertension , acute myocardial infarction , left ventricular systolic dysfunction , chronic renal failure , and so on .
large multicentric trials have proved that ace inhibitors not only increase the life expectancy , but also improve the quality of life in high - risk patients suffering from cardiovascular events .
ace inhibitors have specific effect on myocardial and vascular cell growth , also referred to as remodeling , they have a greater protective potential than any other class of antihypertensive drugs .
very few studies have conducted to evaluate the occurrence of adrs due to ace inhibitors .
reporting of adrs has become an important component of monitoring and evaluation activities performed in hospitals .
such adr reporting programs encourage surveillance for adrs , promote the reporting of adrs , and stimulate the education of health professionals regarding potential adrs .
intensive monitoring study will help in obtaining detailed data on incidence and pattern of adrs .
the present study was designed to evaluate the incidence and pattern of adrs due to ace inhibitors in the cardiology department .
a cross - sectional observational study was carried out for the period of 6 months ( january june 2010 ) in an indian teaching hospital .
the ethical approval was obtained from institutional ethics committee prior to study initiation ( uec/19/2010 ) .
prescription from each patient during his / her hospitalization in the ward during the study period was included .
the information such as demographics , complaints on admission , routine biochemical investigations , were obtained from the patient 's clinical records .
details necessary for evaluations regarding previous allergies , concomitant medications , comorbidities , and others were collected .
all drugs were classified with anatomical therapeutic chemical classification ( atc code level 1 , who , 2008 )... | background : adverse drug reactions ( adrs ) occur frequently with cardiovascular drugs leading to change in therapy , increasing morbidity , and mortality.aim:the study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of adrs due to angiotensin - converting enzyme inhibitors in cardiology department.materials and methods : a cross - sectional observational study was carried out for a period of 6 months .
the data were assessed for the pattern of the adrs with respect to patient demographics , nature of the reaction , outcome of the reactions , causality , severity , and preventability.results:among 692 patients , 51 ( 7.36% ) had developed 60 adrs , and majority of cases ( 56.66% ) were in the age group of > 61 years and most of them were developed in female ( 80% ) .
the common adrs observed were cough , hypotension , hyperkalemia , and acute renal failure . in 21.66% cases
the dose of the suspected drug was altered and in 78.33% cases the drug was withdrawn . considering the outcome , 93.33% of cases recovered from adrs , whereas in 6.66% cases were continuing .
causality assessment showed that majority of adrs was probable and were found to be moderately severe.conclusion:our study concludes geriatrics and female patients have higher incidence of adrs .
so early identification and management of adrs are essential for this population . |
6,916 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: melioidosis , a febrile illness with disease states ranging from acute pneumonia or septicemia to chronic or localized abscess formation , was first documented by whitmore and krishnaswami ( 1912 ) .
the causative agent , burkholderia pseudomallei , was subsequently identified as a motile , gram - negative bacillus , which is principally a saprophyte found in soil and water in subtropical areas .
the disease is acquired by inhalation , aspiration , sub - cutaneously , or occasionally via ingestion .
melioidosis has become an increasingly important disease in endemic areas such as south - east asia and northern australia causing a significant number of deaths despite antibiotic treatment .
furthermore , b. pseudomallei is also recognized as a pathogen of numerous animal species ( reviewed in lazar adler et al . , 2009 ; galyov et al . , 2010
burkholderia mallei is closely related to b. pseudomallei and is the etiological agent of glanders , an infectious equine disease that can be transmitted to humans . the disease may be acute or chronic , with the chronic form usually occurring in horses and the acute form occurring in mules and donkeys .
b. mallei is adapted to a narrower range of hosts than b. pseudomallei and is not considered able to persist for protracted periods in the environment .
infections in humans frequently involve sepsis , pneumonia and abscess formation and have a high mortality rate .
the incubation period ranges from days to weeks , and animals can die within a week of the onset of clinical symptoms ( reviewed in whitlock et al .
autotransporters ( ats ) are a large and diverse family of bacterial secreted and outer membrane ( om ) proteins that are translocated from the bacterial cytoplasm via the type v pathway , one of seven recognized secretion pathways in gram - negative bacteria .
ats play diverse roles , and many such proteins influence pathogenesis and immunity , for example by acting as invasins , adhesins , proteases , or actin - nucleating factors .
ats typically consist of a... | burkholderia pseudomallei and burkholderia mallei are closely related gram - negative bacteria responsible for the infectious diseases melioidosis and glanders , respectively .
autotransporters ( ats ) comprise a large and diverse family of secreted and outer membrane proteins that includes virulence - associated invasins , adhesins , proteases , and actin - nucleating factors .
the b. pseudomallei k96243 genome contains 11 predicted ats , eight of which share homologs in the b. mallei atcc 23344 genome .
this review distils key findings from in silico , in vitro , and in vivo studies on the ats of b. pseudomallei and b. mallei . to date ,
the best characterized of the predicted ats of b. pseudomallei and b. mallei is bima , a predicted trimeric at mediating actin - based motility which varies in sequence and mode of action between burkholderia species . of
the remaining eight predicted b. pseudomallei trimeric autotransporters , five of which are also present in b. mallei , two ( boaa and boab ) , have been implicated in bacterial adhesion to epithelial cells .
several predicted burkholderia ats are recognized by human humoral and cell - mediated immunity , indicating that they are expressed during infection and may be useful for diagnosis and vaccine - mediated protection .
further studies on the mode of secretion and functions of burkholderia ats will facilitate the rational design of control strategies . |
6,917 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: repetitive lifting and unloading as well as moving with excessive weights have been known
to be major causes of various musculoskeletal disorders and low back pain1 . such carrying or actions may increase the
load on the spine while decreasing the pressure that protects the spine , thereby increasing
the risk of low back pain and injury to the spine2 .
therefore , to ensure workers safety and prevent injury , cumulative
fatigue induced in repetitive work environment needs to be in studies using various
interventions for recovery from fatigue . in this study ,
muscle fatigue , tone of the erector spinae , and blood levels of ck ( creatine
kinase ) and ldh ( lactate dehydrogenase ) , two blood serum enzymes , were measured before and
after the intervention and their results were compared to analyze the cumulative
fatigue .
it has been widely used to
improve reduced muscle function , muscle strength , and joint range of motion , as well as the
muscle activities of neurological patients . however , if long - term tens is applied to the
human body , it can cause muscle fatigue and the accumulation of waste matter , and serious
muscle damage .
it has also been reported that tens does not have a significant effect on
fatigue after high - intensity exercise3,4,5 .
therefore , although therapies using tens may have a variety of advantages , more study is
required to conclusively determine the effect tens has on muscles with cumulative
fatigue .
microcurrent stimulation plays a role in restoring cells or facilitating healing by
increasing the creation of adenosine triphosphate ( atp ) and proteins , and curing wounds
through the supply of electric energy at the cell level , which restores the potential of the
cell membrane to normal potential6 . in
recent years
, a number of studies of microcurrent stimulation have been performed for in a
wide range of conditions such as fracture and fatigue recovery , and various diseases
involving cancers and diabetic nerve damage7,8,9,10 .... | [ purpose ] the aim of this study was to determine the effect of low - frequency electrical
stimulation on fatigue recovery of the erector spinae with cumulative fatigue induced by
repeated lifting and lowering work . [ subjects ] thirty - two healthy men volunteered to
participate in this study and they were randomly divided into three groups : a mc group of
12 persons who underwent microcurrent , a tens group of 10 persons who underwent
transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation , and a control group of 10 persons who only
rested . [ methods ] cumulative fatigue was induced and then , emg , muscle tone , ck and ldh
serum levels of the erector spinae were measured .
each group then underwent the assigned
intervention and was re - measured . to analyze the differences in fatigue between before and
after the intervention
, the paired t - test was conducted , while groups were compared using
analysis of covariance with a control group .
[ results ] the mc groups showed a significant
reduction in muscle fatigue and decreased muscle tone when compared to the control group .
however , no significant differences were found between the tens and control groups .
[ conclusion ] these results suggest that microcurrent stimulation was effective for
recovery from cumulative muscle fatigue while tens had no effect . |
6,918 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: cemento - ossifying fibroma ( cof ) is considered a benign osseous tumor , very closely related to other lesions such as fibrous dysplasia , cementifying periapical dysplasia , or cemento - osseous florid dysplasia , however , creating its own entity in the 1992 who classification .
consequently , one of its principal characteristics is the massive formation of cementum , cementoid substance , or calcified material in the interior of a predominantly fibrous .
a 35-year - old female patient reported to the department with a chief complaint of painless swelling on the left upper side of face since one and a half years .
initially , swelling was smaller in size , approximately 1 cm , and it grew slowly and has reached to its present size in last one and a half years .
patient suffered from the same problem 15 years back in the left lower jaw region and was operated for the same problem .
after fourteen and a half years , swelling reappeared in the left upper and right lower jaw regions .
extraoral examination revealed that face of the patient was bilaterally asymmetrical with the diffused swelling roughly circular in shape measuring about 3 to 4 cm in its greatest dimension extending anteroposteriorly from the inner canthus of the eye to the angle of the mandible and superior - inferiorly from the infraorbital margin to the angle of the mouth .
color of the overlying skin was normal but had ill - defined borders [ figure 1 ] . on palpation , all inspectory findings were confirmed .
swelling was non - tender on palpation , hard in consistency , non - fluctuant , and had diffused borders , temperature of the overlying skin was not raised , tmj was normal without any deviation , clicking sound , or tenderness .
submandibular lymph nodes on the left side were palpable , non - tender , firm in consistency , and mobile .
intraoral examination showed solitary dome - shaped swelling measuring about 3 to 4 cm in its greatest dimension in the left upper posterior teeth region extending anteroposteriorly from the mesial... | cemento - ossifying fibroma ( cof ) is considered a benign osseous tumor .
herewith , we present a case of multiple central ossifying fibroma in a 35-yeaold woman .
intraorally , there was swelling in the left upper posterior teeth region and another diffused swelling in the fourth quadrant .
radiographs revealed the presence of well - defined mixed radiolucent radiopaque area having thin radiolucent rim followed by thick sclerotic margin .
no genetic correlation could be established . as
bilateral cof is a rare entity , we present such a case with different radiographic appearance , using various radiographic techniques . |
6,919 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: radiography is generally used in determining dental maturation and two - dimensional panoramic radiographs are mainly used in radiography as seen in the dental and forensic literature . however
, different dental age estimation methods have been used to measure tooth development , which include diagrams , charts , and definition of the formative stages at present .
cone beam computed tomography ( cbct ) allows obtaining three - dimensional images of the tooth .
yang et al . mentioned that the clinical use of cbct has shown new techniques for acquiring three - dimensional dental radiographs , resulting in good image quality with low radiation dose .
cameriere et al . emphasized that volumetric study with cbct would be the best method for dental age estimation .
first describe an approach to dental age estimation by cbct using the ratio of pulp / tooth volume that could be calculated for living individuals .
indicated that to improve age estimation goal , including the volume of dental tissues and their ratio , further investigation should aim : to acquire larger sample sizes in order to reduce standard errors of age estimation , study the effect of several factors on model parameters , and investigate the use of all types of teeth together .
limited number of studies is available on the issue of ratio of pulp / tooth volume .
dental age estimation is usually done on the mandibular incisor , canine , or premolar that is , always the monoradicular teeth in the afore - mentioned studies .
nevertheless , no study has investigated the use of tooth germ volume for dental age estimation in multiradicular teeth .
in addition to this , it is a well - known fact that dental development is a multi - factorial phenomenon .
garn et al . in their study have reported in 1965 that they thought genes , harmonies , and even calories have an important role in tooth development .
however , environmental factors are now better known to have a very important role in the dental development .
orthodontic malocclusions on the... | objectives : the aim was to investigate mandibular third molar ( 3 m ) 's maturation in the crossbite and normal sides by two- and three - dimensional analyses using cone beam computed tomography ( cbct).materials and methods : a retrospective study was performed using cbct of 25 patients ( 16 females and 9 males ; mean age : 16.8 2.9 years ) with unilateral posterior crossbite .
the formation stages and the volume of the mandibular 3ms were evaluated by means of cbct data of the patients without knowing the crossbite side of the patients.results:statistically no significant differences were found in the development of the 3ms between the crossbite and the control sides , whereas the volume of 3 m was found to be less in the crossbite side than in the normal side ( p = 0.021).conclusions : a volume of 3 m was found to be less in the crossbite side than in the normal side . |
6,920 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: anemia represents a frequent complication in cancer patients as well as in chronic inflammatory diseases .
it is an important cause of cancer - related fatigue , which considerably affects quality of life .
anemia is in fact considered as a bad prognostic factor for survival regardless of tumor type . up to 40% of cancer patients
are anemic at diagnosis [ 3 , 4 ] and the frequency even increases following chemotherapy .
this incidence varies according to the stage and the tumor type as well as patient age
. moreover , tumor responsiveness to radiotherapy seems to be weakened in the case of anemia . in substitution to blood transfusion as anti - anemia therapy , some erythroid stimulating agents have been developed including human recombinant erythropoietin ( hrepo ) . despite this treatment
improves quality of life by alleviating anemia , the use of hrepo as a treatment for cancer related anemia could be inappropriate for cancer patients .
indeed , based on clinical trials [ 7 , 8 ] hrepo was suspected to trigger tumor progression leading to decreased survival
. the essential role of circulating erythrocytes is the transport of oxygen to the tissues .
oxygen is bound to hemoglobin within erythrocytes that makes them highly prone to oxidative damage .
for this reason , erythroid cells contain numerous antioxidant enzymes to protect them against oxygen radicals and deficient protection from reactive oxygen species ( ros ) results in disease of red blood cells including anemia .
in fact , there are several causes of cancer - associated anemia including mechanical influence of the tumor on blood flow , and mainly the immune system activation with autoantibody formation and pro - inflammatory cytokines production . indeed , in vivo and in vitro studies have demonstrated the implication of interferon ( ifn)- , tumour - necrosis factor ( tnf)- , tnf - related apoptosis - inducing ligand ( trail ) and interleukin ( il)-1 [ 1318 ] in the inhibition of the proliferation , and differentiation of erythroid... | anemia of cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases is a frequent complication affecting quality of life . for cancer patients it represents a particularly bad prognostic
. low level of erythropoietin is considered as one of the causes of anemia in these pathologies .
the deficiency in erythropoietin production results from pro - inflammatory cytokines effect .
however , few data is available concerning molecular mechanisms involved in cytokine - mediated anemia .
some recent publications have demonstrated the direct effect of pro - inflammatory cytokines on cell differentiation towards erythroid pathway , without erythropoietin defect .
this suggested that pro - inflammatory cytokine - mediated signaling pathways affect erythropoietin activity .
they could interfere with erythropoietin - mediated signaling pathways , inducing early apoptosis and perturbing the expression and regulation of specific transcription factors involved in the control of erythroid differentiation . in this review
we summarize the effect of tumor necrosis factor ( tnf) , tnf - related apoptosis - inducing ligand ( trail ) , and interferon ( ifn)- on erythropoiesis with a particular interest for molecular feature . |
6,921 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans ( a. ferrooxidans ) is a gram - negative , extremely acidophilic , mesophilic , chemolithotrophic bacterium and the most well - studied acidophilic organism which is usually found in acid environments such as acid mine drainage , . due to its bioleaching capabilities
, it is an important member of microbial consortia involved in the industrial recovery of metal under mesophilic conditions ( bioleaching or biomining ) .
recently , a. ferrooxidans has played important roles in bioleaching and harnesse environmental contamination , .
like in other acidophilic iron - oxidizing bacterium , it grows optimally at about 35 c in 9k inorganic medium at extremely low ph ( ph 1.02.0 ) and fixes both carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere .
a. ferrooxidans derives energy from oxidizing reduced sulfur compounds and fe ions to form sulfate and fe , respectively .
dna was isolated from 1.01.5 g of cell paste using qiagen genomic 500 dna kit ( qiagen , hil - den , germany ) with a modified protocol , st / ft , for cell lysis , as described in valdes et al . .
draft genome sequence of a. ferrooxidans type strain dlc-5 was obtained in illumina hiseq2000 sequencing technology by shanghai majorbio bio - pharm technology co. , ltd .
( shanghai , china ) , using the short oligonucleotides alignment program ( soap ) denovo alignment tool ( http://soap.genomics.org.cn/ ) processes reads assemble . a library containing 300-bp inserts
was constructed . altogether , 6,372,268 paired reads ; 398,580 single reads ; total 1,079,535,272 bp bases with average coverage of 221.1 . reads were filtered to remove adapter sequences , low - quality bases ( phred score , < 20 ) , removing the 5 end that contains the bases of it is not a , g , c , t before shearing , remove reads with the containing 10% of n , giving up adapter and small fragments of length less than 25 bp after qualitative pruning .
the reads were assembled into 881 contigs ( > 1000 bp ; contig n50 , 102 bp ; contig n90 , 569 bp ) and 573... | acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans type strain dlc-5 , isolated from wudalianchi in heihe of heilongjiang province , china . here ,
we present the draft genome of strain dlc-5 which contains 4,232,149 bp in 2745 contigs with 57.628% gc content and includes 32,719 protein - coding genes and 64 trna - encoding genes . the genome sequence can be accessed at ddbj / embl / genbank under the accession no .
jnnh00000000.1 . |
6,922 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | protooncogenes expressed in murine embryonal carcinoma ( ec ) cells or their differentiated daughter cells include more or less ubiquitously expressed protooncogenes such as c - myc , c - k - ras , and c - abl , as well as c - onc genes with a very restricted expression pattern .
examples of the latter are n - myc , c - mos , and int-2 .
these c - onc genes are transcriptionally active in ec cells , as well as in germ cells and/or early embryonic cells . when ec cells are induced to differentiate some protooncogenes or oncogene - related products undergo changes in expression .
thus , ec cell differentiation has been associated with increased expression of c - src , c - fos , int-1 , int-2 , and the epidermal growth factor ( egf ) receptor , whereas decreased expression has been observed for c - mos , c - k - ras , c - myc , n - myc , and platelet - derived growth factor .
the relationships between these changes in expression and ec cell differentiation are not understood .
they may be important for the differentiation process or for expression of a differentiated phenotype .
they may , however , also be secondary events with no functional significance to ec cell differentiation.imagesfigure 2.figure 2.figure 4.figure 4.figure 5.figure 5 . |
6,923 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: hiv / aids is increasingly affecting the health and welfare of children and undermining hard - won gains of child survival in highly affected countries .
recent estimates from the joint united nations programs on hiv / aids ( unaids ) suggest that globally about 2.5 million children younger than 15 years of age are infected with hiv : 90% living in sub - saharan africa and about 64,813 living in ethiopia . without treatment 75% of hiv - infected children
as highly active antiretroviral therapy ( haart ) becomes increasingly available in low resource settings , infected children are living longer .
with increased survival , one of the greatest psychosocial challenges that parents and caregivers of hiv - infected children face is the disclosure of hiv - positive status to their infected children .
one of the most difficult issues that families with hiv - infected children face is when and how to talk about hiv to their children .
hiv - positive status disclosure to infected children and adolescents should take place in a supportive environment with collaboration and cooperation among caregivers and health care providers .
disclosure is contingent on the caregiver 's acknowledgement of the illness , the readiness to disclose , and child 's cognitive skills and emotional maturity . despite emerging evidence of the benefit of disclosure , when and how to disclose the diagnosis of hiv to children remain a clinical dilemma .
clinicians and other members of multidisciplinary teams should collaborate with caregivers of hiv - infected children to disclose hiv diagnosis to the child in a developmentally appropriate manner .
children react to hiv disclosure in different ways and it is not uncommon for relatives to disagree about disclosing hiv - related information to children .
disclosure has to be individualized taking into consideration the particular child , parent ( s ) , family , household , and community .
hiv diagnosis disclosure entails communication about a potentially life - threatening , stigmatized , and... | introduction .
clinical reports have indicated positive outcomes associated with disclosure of hiv - positive status in children .
this study assessed the level and associated factors of hiv - positive status disclosure to hiv - infected children in northwest ethiopia .
methods .
institution - based cross - sectional study was conducted among hiv - positive children from march to april 2012 .
data were collected using a structured questionnaire by face - to - face interview technique .
bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed .
results . of the 428 children , 169 ( 39.5% ) were disclosed their hiv - positive status .
the mean age of hiv - positive status disclosure was at 10.7 ( 2.3 ) years . having a nonbiological parent ( aor = 4.14 , 95% ci : 1.22 , 14.04 ) , child 's age older than 10 years ( aor = 8.54 , 95% ci : 4.5 , 15.53 ) , and death of a family member ( aor = 2.04 , 95% ci : 1.16 , 3.6 ) were significantly and independently associated with disclosure of hiv - positive status to infected children . conclusions .
the rate of disclosure of hiv - positive status to infected children still remains low in north gondar .
hence , it is important to target children living with their biological parents and having young parents and children younger than 10 years .
the guideline for disclosure of children with hiv / aids should be established in an ethiopian context . |
6,924 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: decreasing healthcare costs while maintaining optimal patient outcomes has been a recent focus of many institutions given changes in united states healthcare .
cost reduction with optimal outcomes has been shown by switching from intravenous ( iv ) to oral ( po ) antibiotics for the treatment of pneumonia in the non - intensive care unit ( icu ) population .
this practice has potential for significant economic impact if expanded to the icu population , as pneumonia affects 1.1 million people annually and accounts for more than 50,000 mortalities ( 16.5 deaths per 100,000 ) in the united states alone .
while oral antibiotic therapy is routinely used to treat community - acquired pneumonia ( cap ) , particularly in less severe infections that are treated on an outpatient basis , patients admitted to the icu are customarily treated with iv antibiotics for the duration of therapy .
acquisition cost for the majority of iv antibiotics is significantly more expensive than their oral equivalents .
in addition , iv antibiotics can have additional indirect costs , specifically involving preparation , nursing administration , and waste .
the effectiveness of switching from iv to oral antibiotics has been demonstrated in cap . a multicenter , randomized trial of clinically stable patients transitioned to oral antibiotics after 3 days of iv therapy for a 10-day total course found no difference in rates of clinical cure , mortality , or clinical deterioration compared to those receiving iv treatment for duration of therapy . however , those transitioned to oral therapy had significantly shorter hospital length of stay .
similarly , a prospective , observational study of patients with cap who were transitioned from iv to oral therapy within 24 h of clinical improvement demonstrated clinical cure rate of 97% . guidelines for cap developed by the infectious disease society of america recommend the switch from iv to oral therapy once patients are clinically improving , hemodynamically stable , and able to adequately absorb and... | background : controlling healthcare costs without compromising patient care is a focus given recent healthcare changes in the united states .
the purpose of this study was to assess clinical improvement in surgical intensive care unit ( sicu ) patients initiated on or transitioned to enteral antibiotics compared to those who solely receive intravenous ( iv ) antibiotic therapy for treatment of bacterial pneumonia.materials and methods : this retrospective cohort study included patients with a positive quantitative respiratory culture being treated for bacterial pneumonia in a sicu from 1/1/09 to 3/31/11 .
two distinct patient groups were identified : those treated with iv antibiotics exclusively ( iv ) and those either initiated on or transitioned to enteral antibiotics within 4 days of antibiotic initiation ( po ) .
the primary endpoint of clinical improvement was assessed on day of antibiotic discontinuation.results:a total of 647 patients were evaluated ; 124 met inclusion criteria ( 30 patients po group and 94 iv group ) .
there was no difference in clinical improvement ( 86.7 po vs 72.3% iv , p = 0.14 ) or recurrence ( 10 po vs. 12.8% iv , p > 0.99 ) between groups .
secondary outcomes of duration of mechanical ventilation , icu and hospital length of stay , and all - cause mortality were also similar .
antibiotic and infection - related costs were significantly decreased in the po group ( $ 1,042 vs $ 697 , p = 0.04 ; $ 20,776 vs $ 17,381 , p = 0.012 , respectively).conclusions : sicu patients initiated on or transitioned to po antibiotics for pneumonia had similar clinical outcomes , but significantly less infection - related and antibiotic costs compared to those receiving iv therapy .
further , prospective studies are warranted . |
6,925 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ganciclovir , a drug against cytomegalovirus ( cmv ) infection , is generally well tolerated , but can cause neurotoxicity such as encephalopathy .
although ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy has been described in several reports , a literature search revealed that ganciclovir concentrations in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid were previously measured in only 3 patients with encephalopathy .
prompt and accurate diagnosis is thus sometimes difficult , and is derived solely from accumulated clinical information of definite cases , since ganciclovir concentrations , not routinely measured , become available after several days or a few weeks .
here , we summarize clinical information of all patients with definite ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy including our own patient , who had severe symptoms , with the highest reported trough concentration of ganciclovir in the blood , and underwent therapeutic dialysis with complete recovery .
encephalopathy can be caused by neurotoxicity with prophylactically or therapeutically administered drugs such as acyclovir , ganciclovir , and their prodrugs , valacyclovir and valganciclovir .
the drugs are structurally similar nucleoside analogues , but their effects on neurons are poorly understood .
acyclovir - induced encephalopathy is more widely known than ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy , possibly because acyclovir is used against herpes virus infection , which is more common than cytomegalovirus ( cmv ) infection , for which ganciclovir is used .
ganciclovir was also reported to be effective against hepatitis b infection , but has rarely been used for this indication recently .
although ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy has been documented previously , a literature search revealed that ganciclovir concentrations in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid ( csf ) have been reported in only 3 patients [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] .
previous reports on patients with such definite ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy have suggested that the trough concentration of ganciclovir in the... | backgroundganciclovir , a drug against cytomegalovirus ( cmv ) infection , is generally well tolerated , but can cause neurotoxicity such as encephalopathy .
although ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy has been described in several reports , a literature search revealed that ganciclovir concentrations in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid were previously measured in only 3 patients with encephalopathy .
symptoms usually include confusion and disturbed consciousness , which mimic cmv encephalitis .
prompt and accurate diagnosis is thus sometimes difficult , and is derived solely from accumulated clinical information of definite cases , since ganciclovir concentrations , not routinely measured , become available after several days or a few weeks.case presentationhere , we summarize clinical information of all patients with definite ganciclovir - induced encephalopathy including our own patient , who had severe symptoms , with the highest reported trough concentration of ganciclovir in the blood , and underwent therapeutic dialysis with complete recovery.conclusionour summary of patients with definite encephalopathy could lead to prompt and accurate diagnoses . |
6,926 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: plasma proteins are the primary targets of glycation following elevated levels of glucose in diabetes . amongst plasma proteins ,
albumin is one of the heavily glycated proteins because of its abundance , comparatively longer half - life and a higher number of free lysine and arginine residues .
glycation accelerates albumin degradation via increasing catabolic rate and decreasing protein half - life , thus decreasing the albumin levels in diabetes .
it has been mechanistically shown that albumin competes with other proteins for glycation and low albumin level was associated with increased plasma protein glycation in diabetes .
this study was corroborated in a recent finding where low albumin levels were associated with increased fibrinogen glycation .
it has also been suggested that low plasma albumin predicts the glycated hemoglobin ( hba1c ) in type 2 diabetes , thus , strongly implicating albumin in regulation of plasma protein glycation and hba1c .
glycated hemoglobin is an important marker of glycemic control as it estimates average blood glucose of the previous 3 months .
recent guidelines by the american diabetes association also recommended hba1c as a diagnostic tool for diabetes , in addition to its well - known use to define control .
studies showed that its level correlates with average plasma glucose and the progression of diabetes complication .
however , several biological , ethnic and therapeutic factors are known to affect hba1c values , one of being albumin levels . despite a significant negative correlation between plasma albumin levels and hba1c in type 2 diabetes , levels of albumin are not routinely monitored in diabetes . only in diabetic nephropathy ,
therefore , we hypothesized that low albumin levels may be associated with higher hba1c levels and vice versa .
thus we pursued this hypothesis by analyzing the association between albumin and hba1c in clinical setting .
we analyzed clinical , anthropometric and biochemical data of subjects who attended outpatient 's clinic of chellaram... | background : protein glycation plays a significant role in diabetic complications . glycated hemoglobin ( hba1c ) is a known predictor of diabetes and its complications .
albumin , found to be profoundly glycated in diabetes , and its level could regulate plasma protein as well as hemoglobin glycation.aim:we aimed to evaluate the association between variations in albumin level with hba1c in the asian indian population.materials and methods : we screened data of 929 subjects who have had a simultaneous measurement of fasting plasma glucose ( fpg ) , hba1c and albumin levels via the same blood collection .
data were analyzed by spss for 610 subjects who met the study criteria.results:there was a significant negative correlation between hba1c and albumin concentration ( r = 0.284 ; p < 0.001 ) .
univariate analysis showed the statistically significant decrease of average hba1c but not for fasting plasma glucose ( fpg ) across increasing tertiles of albumin .
stepwise multiple regression model showed a significant correlation between hba1c and serum albumin ( p < 0.05 ) , fpg ( p < 0.001 ) , hemoglobin ( hb ) ( p < 0.001 ) and serum globulin ( p < 0.05 ) .
fpg was the strongest predictor ( 63.4% ) of variation of hba1c .
the albumin concentration ( r = 0.114 ) accounted for 0.3% ( p < 0.05 ) of the total variance in hba1c independent of age , body mass index , fpg , hb , creatinine , total protein and globulin .
it was also observed that hba1c decreases with increasing albumin concentration in those having fpg between 100 to < 126 mg / dl.conclusion : serum albumin negatively correlates with hba1c in asian indians independent of other variables .
this study suggests that predicting diabetes and its complication based on the hba1c needs to be further investigated in indian subjects . |
6,927 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: rup has long championed public access to research articles via a six - month embargo , and we thus support this aspect of the wellcome trust policy and the new rcuk policy .
however , we question the value of a provision in their policies that specifies licensing terms for reuse of content by third parties .
both organizations now require that the articles for which they have paid an immediate access fee be made available under a creative commons attribution license ( cc - by ) .
this means that third parties are allowed to copy , distribute and transmit the work , to adapt the work , and to make commercial use of the work , [ as long as they ] attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor ( 1 ) .
cc : creative commons a nonprofit organization that provides standardized copyright licenses , which define the terms of reuse of creative work . by : attribution
nc : noncommercial published work can be reused without permission , as long as it is for noncommercial purposes .
sa : share alike any subsequent distribution must follow the rules set out in the original license .
indeed , we could not release all of our content under a license that permits unfettered commercial reuse of the work .
this would allow commercial content aggregators to bundle and sell our content without any recompense to us , thus jeopardizing our subscription revenues .
, our content has been released to the public under a cc - by - nc - sa license , which allows third party use of the content for noncommercial purposes but prevents its use for commercial gain without expressed permission ( 2 ) .
subscription - based publishers who do take immediate access fees from rcuk and the wellcome trust will , by necessity , have content under two different licenses the one that applies to the bulk of their content and preserves their subscription revenues and the license that applies to immediate access articles funded by rcuk and the wellcome trust .
this will add considerable confusion to the research community about... | the existing public access policy for our three journals the journal of cell biology , the journal of experimental medicine , and the journal of general physiology is fully compliant with new policies from the research councils uk ( rcuk ) and the wellcome trust .
in addition to mandating public access , the new policies specify licensing terms for reuse of content by third parties , in particular for text and data mining .
we question the need for these specific terms , and we have added a statement to our licensing policy stipulating that anyone , including commercial entities , is permitted to mine our published text and data . |
6,928 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the relation between spatial and numerical cognition was first assumed by galton ( 1880 ) at the end of the nineteenth century .
taking into account introspective reports he proposed that magnitude information might be analogically arranged through the location of numbers along a spatial axis oriented from left to right .
the concept of a mental number line ( mnl ) , where smaller numbers occupy leftward locations and larger numbers rightward locations , later found consistent evidence in the spatial
( 1993 ) , in a seminal study where participants were asked to decide if a centrally presented number was even or odd by pressing one of two lateralized keys .
they reported that large numbers were responded to faster with the right than with the left key and small numbers were responded to faster with the left than with the right key . such preferential mapping effect ( see ,
e.g. , kornblum et al . , 1990 ) between the magnitude of a target number and the location of a correct response in external space
would thus corroborate the idea of the existence of a mental representation linking numbers to space .
even if magnitude information is irrelevant to the task of parity judgment , the display and subsequent processing of an arabic number was thus assumed to obligatorily activate its numerical magnitude code ( i.e. , cardinality ; see , e.g. , santens and gevers , 2008 ; fitousi et al . , 2009 for more recent proposals with a different emphasis ) .
the snarc effect is nowadays an established finding ( see fischer , 2006 , for reservations ) and it has been consistently found across different tasks , materials , response modalities , and populations ( fias and fischer , 2005 ; wood et al . , 2008 ) .
1993 ) found that the snarc effect does not reverse in left handed individuals or when participants are asked to respond with their hands crossed ( but see wood et al . , 2006a ) .
they found weaker snarc effects in subjects who were originally educated in a right to left writing system , such as iranian immigrants ;... | a structural representation of the hand embedding information about the identity and relative position of fingers is necessary to counting routines
. it may also support associations between numbers and allocentric spatial codes that predictably interact with other known numerical spatial representations , such as the mental number line ( mnl ) . in this study , 48 western participants
whose typical counting routine proceeded from thumb - to - little on both hands performed magnitude and parity binary judgments .
response keys were pressed either with the right index and middle fingers or with the left index and middle fingers in separate blocks .
24 participants responded with either hands in prone posture ( i.e. , palm down ) and 24 participants responded with either hands in supine ( i.e. , palm up ) posture .
when hands were in prone posture , the counting direction of the left hand conflicted with the direction of the left
right mnl , whereas the counting direction of the right hand was consistent with it .
when hands were in supine posture , the opposite was true . if systematic associations existed between relative number magnitude and an allocentric spatial representation of the finger series within each hand , as predicted on the basis of counting habits , interactions would be expected between hand posture and a unimanual version of the spatial
numerical association of response codes ( snarc ) effect .
data revealed that with hands in prone posture a unimanual snarc effect was present for the right hand , and with hands in supine posture a unimanual snarc effect was present for the left hand .
we propose that a posture - invariant body structural representation of the finger series provides a relevant frame of reference , a within - hand directional vector , that is associated to simple number processing
. such frame of reference can significantly interact with stimulus
response correspondence effects , like the snarc , that have been typically attributed to the mapping... |
6,929 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ticks are blood - sucking ectoparasites which transmit serious diseases to animals and humans . they are considered as main vectors for transmission of many viral , bacterial , rickettsial and parasitical pathogens ( garcia 2007 ) .
several tick species are important in veterinary medicine as vectors of theileriosis , babesiosis and anaplasmosis .
in addition , lyme disease , ehrlishiosis , babesiosis , rocky mountain fever , colorado tick fever , tularemia , q fever , spotted fever , tick paralysis and tick encephalitis are the most common diseases which have been transmitted to human by ticks .
they transmit diseases , produce paralysis , weight loss and cause economic damages to livestock (
wall 2001 ) . in view of the disease relationships of ticks , rhipicephalus species are important vectors of ovine babesiosis and ovine ehrlichiosis .
annulata and crimean - congo hemorrhagic fever virus ( jongejan and uilenberg 1994 , chinikar et al .
( 2010 ) carried out a study in yazd province , and reported 7 species of ticks including : hy .
numerous studies on the distribution of tick fauna in iran have been conducted ( delpy 1936 , abbasian 1961 , mazlum 1971 , razmi et al .
2004 ) reported different species of ixodidae ( hard ticks ) in rawalpindi and islamabad , pakistan .
sulcata and hy . anatolicum was highly significant in this region . this article was conducted to collect and identify the tick species prevalent in domestic animals in zabol county .
sistan and baluchestan is located in the southeast of iran and zabol is in the north of this province with hot and dry desert climate .
the latitude and longitude gps coordinates of zabol ( iran ) is : lat : 31.0385 , long : 61.4962 .
this survey was carried out to investigate the prevalence of hard tick species ( acari : ixodidae ) on cattle in zabol county during 2012 .
sampling was done during the activating seasons of ticks ( i.e. summer and spring ) .
the number of ticks was determined according to the cochran formula :
( n = z2pqd2 )
where , n=... | background : ticks are important vectors of human and animal pathogens .
they are considered as main vectors for transmission of many viral , bacterial , rickettsial and parasitical pathogens .
the aim of the present study was to find out species diversity of ticks , which infested the domestic ruminants in zabol county , eastern iran in 2012.methods:ticks were selected randomly from sheep , goats , cattle and camels .
the ticks were collected from the body of infested animals and stored in 70% ethanol , then transported to the laboratory of zabol university of medical sciences . following examinations under stereomicroscope , ticks were identified using available taxonomic keys.results:in this study , a total number of 469 adult ticks ( 381 males and 88 females ) were collected .
ticks were classified into 2 genera and 9 species including : hyalomma dromedarii ( 17.3% ) , hy .
schulzei ( 1.8% ) , hy .
marginatum ( 0.5% ) , hy .
anatolicum excavatum ( 12.60% ) , hy .
anatolicum anatolicum ( 11.2% ) , hy .
asiaticum asiaticum ( 11.0% ) , rhipicephalus sanguineus ( 21.2% ) , rh .
bursa ( 10.2% ) and rh .
turacunis ( 13.911% ) .
the frequency of genus hyalomma ( 54.6% ) was higher than rhipicephalus .
rh .
sanguineus was the predominant tick species and accounted for 21.26% of the ticks .
the ratio of males was more than the female ticks.conclusion:hyalomma and rhipicephalus species are commonly distributed in the study area .
further investigations are needed to identify the role of above tick species as vectors of pathogenic organisms . |
6,930 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: modest cognitive dysfunction is consistently reported in children and young adults with type 1 diabetes ( t1d ) ( 1 ) .
mental efficiency , psychomotor speed , executive functioning , and intelligence quotient appear to be most affected ( 2 ) ; studies report effect sizes between 0.2 and 0.5 ( small to modest ) in children and adolescents ( 3 ) and between 0.4 and 0.8 ( modest to large ) in adults ( 2 ) . whether effect sizes continue to increase as those with t1d age
a key issue not yet addressed is whether aging individuals with t1d have an increased risk of manifesting clinically relevant cognitive impairment , defined by comparing individual cognitive test scores to demographically appropriate normative means , as opposed to the more commonly investigated cognitive dysfunction , or between - group differences in cognitive test scores . unlike the extensive literature examining cognitive impairment in type 2 diabetes , we know of only one prior study examining cognitive impairment in t1d ( 4 ) .
this early study reported a higher rate of clinically relevant cognitive impairment among children ( 1018 years of age ) diagnosed before compared with after age 6 years ( 24% vs. 6% , respectively ) or a non - t1d cohort ( 6% ) .
cognitive impairment is important to study in an aging t1d population because these individuals are concurrently exposed to the consequences of long - term t1d and the negative effects of advancing age on cognition .
furthermore , several risk factors for age - related cognitive impairment , such as hypertension ( 5 ) and impaired renal function ( 6 ) , are highly prevalent in t1d , yet the contribution of these factors to worsening cognitive function in an aging t1d cohort remains unknown . characterizing cognitive impairment in aging participants with t1d is warranted based on findings from cognitive studies of aging populations without t1d : cognitive impairment is related to poor self - care ( 7 ) , high costs ( 8) , and disability ( 9 ) .
this study tests the hypothesis that... | objectivethe aim of this study was to investigate the presence and correlates of clinically relevant cognitive impairment in middle - aged adults with childhood - onset type 1 diabetes ( t1d).research design and methodsduring 20102013 , 97 adults diagnosed with t1d and aged < 18 years ( age and duration 49 7 and 41 6 years , respectively ; 51% female ) and 138 similarly aged adults without t1d ( age 49 7 years ; 55% female ) completed extensive neuropsychological testing .
biomedical data on participants with t1d were collected periodically since 19861988 .
cognitive impairment status was based on the number of test scores 1.5 sd worse than demographically appropriate published norms : none , mild ( only one test ) , or clinically relevant ( two or more tests).resultsthe prevalence of clinically relevant cognitive impairment was five times higher among participants with than without t1d ( 28% vs. 5% ; p < 0.0001 ) , independent of education , age , or blood pressure .
effect sizes were large ( cohen d 0.60.9 ; p < 0.0001 ) for psychomotor speed and visuoconstruction tasks and were modest ( d 0.30.6 ; p < 0.05 ) for measures of executive function . among participants with t1d , prevalent cognitive impairment was related to 14-year average a1c > 7.5% ( 58 mmol / mol ) ( odds ratio [ or ] 3.0 ; p = 0.009 ) , proliferative retinopathy ( or 2.8 ; p = 0.01 ) , and distal symmetric polyneuropathy ( or 2.6 ; p = 0.03 ) measured 5 years earlier ; higher bmi ( or 1.1 ; p = 0.03 ) ; and ankle - brachial index 1.3 ( or 4.2 ; p = 0.01 ) measured 20 years earlier , independent of education.conclusionsclinically relevant cognitive impairment is highly prevalent among these middle - aged adults with childhood - onset t1d . in this aging cohort , chronic hyperglycemia and prevalent microvascular disease
were associated with cognitive impairment , relationships shown previously in younger populations with t1d .
two additional potentially modifiable risk factors for t1d - related cognitive impairment , vascular... |
6,931 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 57-year - old woman developed multiple ( > 20 ) melanoma in - transit metastatic nodules on her right thigh ( figure 1a ) , as confirmed by histological examination , after removal , six months earlier , of a primary 2.2 mm thick ulcerated nodular melanoma on her right leg for which the initial sentinel lymph node biopsy was negative .
after completion of fdg pet - ct to exclude distant metastasis and assessment of the extent of limb metastasis , the patient was referred to a specialized center to receive , isolated limb perfusion ( ilp ) of melphalan under hyperthermia , tnf- and interferon . superficial and deep pelvic ( ilioinguinal ) lymphadenectomy was simultaneously performed and revealed two additional deep pelvic lymph node metastases .
one month after the end of this procedure , most in - transit lesions had undergone necrosis .
four months later , all lesions had healed and persisted as non - changing pigmented macules ( figure 1b ) with no clinical or radiological ( including fdg pet - ct ) signs of relapse . in order to confirm that none of the residual pigmented macules was an active lesion , two of them were excised after being previously examined by rcm .
histological examination showed a persisting melanophage granuloma ( nodular melanosis ) within areas of fibrosis in the upper dermis with no sign of tumor infiltration ( figure 2a and 2b ) .
rcm imaging , performed using the vivascope 1500 ( vivascope systems , munich , germany ) showed ill - defined aggregates of dermal bright cells , typical of melanophages with almost no visible nuclei .
sometimes a characteristic ring - shaped deposit was seen within the network of bright collagen fibers and bundles ( figure 3 ) .
such deposits could be seen in many areas of the excised lesions and correlated with the histological images .
we then performed rcm imaging on 12 other main persisting pigmented lesions ( figure 1b ) in which a similar characteristic image was consistently seen .
the patient has now been followed for more than a year without... | complete response can be difficult to assess after isolated limb perfusion ( ilp ) for metastatic in - transit melanoma , especially when numerous and unresectable post - necrotic persisting pigmented lesions occur .
these residual lesions are mainly seen in the more superficial and pigmented types of metastatic disease and correspond to the residual melanophage granuloma that persists after tumor tissues undergo complete necrosis .
reflectance confocal microscopy ( rcm ) is a non - invasive technique that allows the exploration of the superficial dermis . here , we present the case of a patient in whom numerous post - ilp limb residual pigmented lesions were explored using combined rcm and histological examination of sample lesions and could be characterized as non - active .
this approach allowed us to avoid additional excisions . |
6,932 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: prior to np[xl184 ] synthesis , the biodegradable copolymer plga 50:50 ( 17 kda ; 0.18 dlg ; lake shore biomaterials ) was modified to incorporate a peg moiety ( cooh - peg - nh2 ; 3.5 kda ; jenkem technology ) , which enhances both nanoparticle stability and circulation time .
nanoparticles were synthesized with various xl184 ( > 99.0% purity ; selleck chemicals ) and peg - plga drug / polymer ratios ranging from 110% ( w / w ) . of the tested ratios ,
the xl184 molar loading efficiency was maximal at a drug / polymer ( w / w ) ratio of 1% ( supplemental figure 2 ) .
in addition , a range of solvent : water ratios ( 1:21:10 ) were tested and the optimal ratio for np[xl184 ] formation was 1:3 acetone : water .
for the optimized synthesis protocol , xl184 was co - solubilized in 1 ml of acetone with plga - peg at a 1% ( w / w ) drug to polymer concentration .
nanoprecipitation was achieved by adding this mixture drop - wise using a 27-gauge needle to 3 ml of h2o stirred magnetically at 400 rpm .
the reaction mixture was then stirred uncovered for 6 h to allow acetone evaporation , passed through a 0.2 m filter and purified by ultrafiltration ( amicon - millipore ; 30 kda cut - off ) at 2500 rpm for 10 min with intermittent washing ( 4 cycles ; 4 ml phosphate - buffered saline per wash ) .
the xl184plga nanoparticle loading efficiency was determined by optical absorption measurements following solvation of the nanoparticles in dimethyl sulfoxide , using the formula : 100(no .
all np[xl184 ] size and charge measurements were made by dynamic light scattering ( malvern , zetasizer nano zs ) .
pmils co - encapsulating bpd ( verteporfin ; vwr international ) and np[xl184 ] were prepared by modification of existing synthesis methods .
the lipids ( dppc , dotap , cholesterol , and dspe - peg ; avanti polar lipids ) were each dissolved separately in chloroform , and then mixed together in a molar ratio of 2:0.2:1:0.2 ( dppc : dotap : cholesterol : dspe - peg ) with 100 nmoles of bpd .
this lipid composition was... | nanoscale drug delivery vehicles can facilitate multimodal therapies of cancer by promoting tumour - selective drug release .
however , few are effective because cancer cells develop ways to resist and evade treatment . here
, we introduce a photoactivatable multi - inhibitor nanoliposome ( pmil ) that imparts light - induced cytotoxicity in synchrony with photo - initiated and sustained release of inhibitors that suppress tumour regrowth and treatment escape signalling pathways .
the pmil consists of a nanoliposome doped with a photoactivatable chromophore ( benzoporphyrin derivative , bpd ) in the lipid bilayer , and a nanoparticle containing cabozantinib ( xl184)a multikinase inhibitor encapsulated inside . near infrared tumour irradiation ,
following intravenous pmil administration , triggers photodynamic damage of tumour cells and microvessels , and simultaneously initiates release of xl184 inside the tumour .
a single pmil treatment achieves prolonged tumour reduction in two mouse models and suppresses metastatic escape in an orthotopic pancreatic tumour model .
the pmil offers new prospects for cancer therapy by enabling spatiotemporal control of drug release whilst reducing systemic drug exposure and associated toxicities . |
6,933 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 66-year - old woman with sjgren syndrome presented with a 5-year history of bilateral shoulder pain that was significantly worse on the right than the left side .
the pain was reported to be constant in nature but worse at night , and completely prohibited activities above shoulder height .
examination of the right shoulder revealed a globally restricted range of movement at the glenohumeral joint .
treatment with copeland resurfacing hemiarthroplasty was performed in june 2007 through an anterosuperior ( mackenzie ) approach .
. 1 interrupted pds ( polydioxanone ) sutures were used for reattachment of the anterior border of the osteo - periosteal sleeve to the acromion .
the sutures were placed transosseously through the acromium on one side and through the deltoid fascia , incorporating an osteo - periosteal sleeve , on the other [ figure 2 ] .
preoperative radiograph demonstrating severe osteoarthritis radiograph taken in the immediate postoperative period showing a copeland resurfacing hemiarthroplasty passive elevation past 90 could be achieved on the first postoperative day .
a shoulder immobilizer was worn for 3 weeks and the patient was instructed to avoid active elevation .
the patient had returned to aerobics and table tennis by the 4 postoperative month , at which point increased pain in the shoulder was reported . at the end of the 1 postoperative year , significant impingement symptoms were reported and x - rays demonstrated a new bony spur on the anteroinferior edge of the acromion [ figure 3 ] .
an ultrasound scan showed a bony spur indenting the supraspinatus , but there was no accompanying cuff tear .
the pain continued to worsen and diagnostic arthroscopy was performed in july 2009 , which confirmed the presence of the spur at the anteroinferior edge of the acromion and excluded the presence of significant glenoid arthrosis or adhesions as contributing factors to the patient 's symptoms .
radiograph at 1 year showing new bony spur on the inferior surface of the acromion appearance... | we report the case of a patient with end - stage osteoarthritis who received a successful copeland resurfacing hemiarthroplasty through a mackenzie anterosuperior approach , which involves taking the anterior portion of the deltoid attachment from the acromion along with an osteo - periosteal sleeve .
the patient went on to develop severe subacromial impingement symptoms 4 months postoperatively .
x - rays revealed a large anteroinferior acromial osteophyte that had not been present preoperatively and was deemed to represent a malunited osteo - periosteal sleeve from the mackenzie approach . |
6,934 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: hemophilia is a coagulation disorder characterized by acute hemorrhages into the musculoskeletal system leading eventually to arthropathy and disability .
deficiency of factor viii ( hemophilia a ) accounts for 85% of cases and 15% are due to factor ix deficiency ( hemophilia b ) .
acute bleeding increases the pressure in the synovial cavity and bone marrow which leads to severe pain and possible osteonecrosis or a pseudotumoral mass .
intra - articular bleeding produces a direct chemical effect on synovium , cartilage , and bone .
recurrent hyperemia of the joint in the growing child causes juxta articular osteoporosis and overgrowth of the epiphysis .
patients with severe hemophilia may be at risk for developing reduced bone density in childhood and adolescence for a number of reasons as arthropathy and joint deformities result in prolonged immobilization and reduced physical activity which predisposes them for osteoporosis .
this can lead to increasing tendency of bone fragility and fractures in patients after trivial trauma .
osteoporosis is a multifactorial disease with particular considerations to calcium , magnesium ( mg ) , and other trace elements as copper ( cu ) and zinc ( zn ) , as they are essential in bone metabolism as cofactors for specific enzymes for optimal bone matrix development and bone density sustenance .
therefore , we aimed to assess the presence and severity of osteoporosis in patients with hemophilic arthropathy by determining dual energy x - ray absorptiometry ( dexa ) and to correlate these findings with the extent of joint disease and serum levels of trace minerals as magnesium , copper , and zinc .
their age ranged from 7 to 40 years compared to 20 controls matched for age and sex .
those patients and controls were presenting to the internal medicine and physical medicine , rheumatology , and rehabilitation outpatient clinics of ain shams university hospitals .
the diagnosis of hemophilia was made clinically and useful to classify them according to measured factor... | objective . to find out the presence of osteoporosis in hemophilic arthropathy patients and its correlation with clinical severity and serum levels of magnesium , copper , and zinc .
methods .
joint score , functional assessment score , bone densitometry , and serum magnesium , copper and zinc were done in twenty male hemophilic arthropathy patients and twenty controls .
results .
there was highly significant lower z scores of lumbar spine and neck of femur in patients versus controls ( p < 0.011 ) .
z score of neck of femur correlated negatively with total joint score ( p = 0.013 ) and functional assessment score ( p = 0.011 ) .
serum levels of copper and zinc correlated positively with z score of neck of femur ( p = 0.004 , p = 0.001 , resp . ) .
conclusion .
osteoporosis represents a frequent concomitant observation in hemophiliacs .
screening of young hemophiliacs for osteoporosis is recommended with measuring serum levels of magnesium , copper , and zinc for better management of the disease . |
6,935 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: irritable bowel syndrome ( ibs ) is a heterogeneous , idiopathic , gastrointestinal syndrome characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort , diarrhea , and/or constipation .
a questionnaire survey conducted in students from a chinese university found that only 5.7% of respondents could be diagnosed with ibs , but epidemiological surveys in india , iran , japan , and other asian countries suggest that ibs is more prevalent in elderly people than in young adults [ 24 ] .
questionnaires and related testing of elderly people in hong kong diagnosed 13.1% with ibs , and epidemiological investigation in the songjiang district of shanghai found a prevalence of 9.4% in adults aged 6079 years old and 10.2% in those over 80 years of age . although the etiology of ibs is currently unknown , several hypotheses have been proposed for its pathogenesis .
the development of ibs may involve visceral abnormalities , genetic susceptibility , a neuro - immunological disorder , and/or psychological factors .
ibs shows a familial tendency , and the mutations involved in genetic susceptibility to ibs have recently received particular attention .
however , identifying genetic markers of ibs is complicated by the multi - factorial pathophysiology of this syndrome .
it is hypothesized that exposure to certain environmental factors , such as infection or severe psychological stress , may induce ibs in genetically susceptible individuals .
polymorphisms in the 5-hydroxytryptamine ( 5-ht ) transporter or receptors , adrenergic system , and mitochondrial genome have been highlighted as potentially contributing to abnormalities in ibs patients , including enhanced perception of gut stimuli , altered gastrointestinal motor function , and psychiatric symptoms .
several neurotransmitter receptors involved in the regulation of gastrointestinal motility , such as the 5-ht receptor , adrenergic receptor , and cannabinoid receptor , are g protein - coupled receptors .
one g protein subunit , g protein beta polypeptide 3 ( gn3 ) , is a component of... | backgroundseveral polymorphisms have been reported to be associated with irritable bowel syndrome ( ibs ) , including c825 t , the single nucleotide polymorphism ( snp ) , responsible for a truncated g protein 3 subunit ( gn3 ) , and the vall158met substitution in catechol - o - methyltransferase ( comt ) .
we investigated the association between these mutations and the prevalence of ibs in 66 elderly chinese patients.material/methodssixty-six patients ( over age 60 years ) were diagnosed with ibs according to the rome iii criteria , and divided into 3 groups based on symptom presentation .
the groups consisted of 7 patients with constipation , 46 patients with diarrhea , and 13 patients with both or neither symptoms .
we enrolled 115 age - matched individuals without ibs as the control group .
all patients were evaluated by using the geriatric depression scale , disease progression was recorded , and gn3 and comt were genotyped by pcr.resultsthere was no significant difference in gn3 c825 t genotype distribution and allele frequency between the 2 groups . in contrast , compared with control subjects , comt 158met was significantly more prevalent in the ibs group ( p=0.040 ) and significantly more prevalent in patients with diarrhea ( p=0.029 ) .
158met was also more prevalent in those patients who had experienced symptoms for over 5 years ( p=0.022).conclusionsin elderly chinese patients , the 158met snp in comt is associated with ibs pathogenesis , but the gn3-c825 t snp is not associated with ibs pathogenesis . |
6,936 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( copd ) assessed by decline in forced expiratory volume in one second ( fev1 ) is closely related to active tobacco smoking .
it has been shown that smoking cessation decelerates the fev1 decline in patients with mild - to - moderate copd.1,2 it is also widely assumed that acute exacerbations contribute to disease progression.3 exacerbations increase respiratory symptoms , impair exercise capacity , and cause a deterioration in quality of life.4,5 however , most studies evaluating the functional and clinical changes associated with an acute exacerbation and its recovery have included current smokers , making it difficult to separate the effects of exacerbations from those of smoking.36 studies in ex - smokers are scarce and have yielded conflicting results.79 analysis of the lung health study data by kanner et al indicate that acute exacerbations evaluated by self - reported episodes of lower respiratory infections resulting in physician visits during the previous year in ex - smoking patients do not contribute to fev1 decline , whereas in a follow - up of 102 patients for 3 years , makris et al reported that acute exacerbations produced a decline in fev1 in ex - smokers , albeit of a lesser magnitude that in active smokers . on the other hand , there is no information about the effect of acute exacerbations on patient - centered outcomes in ex - smoking copd patients .
the aim of the present study was to evaluate if frequent acute exacerbations in ex - smoking copd patients are associated with disease progression by assessing functional and clinical indices over 2 years of follow - up .
a cohort of 105 consecutive ex - smoking patients with a long history of copd according to global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease ( gold ) criteria10 was enrolled in a 2-year follow - up study , based on scheduled visits every 6 months .
recruitment criteria included : age older than 40 years ; smoking history greater than ten packs / year ; cessation of... | backgroundin addition to smoking , acute exacerbations are considered to be a contributing factor to progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( copd ) . however , these findings come from studies including active smokers , while results in ex - smokers are scarce and contradictory .
the purpose of this study was to evaluate if frequent acute moderate exacerbations are associated with an accelerated decline in forced expiratory volume in one second ( fev1 ) and impairment of functional and clinical outcomes in ex - smoking copd patients.methodsa cohort of 100 ex - smoking patients recruited for a 2-year follow - up study was evaluated at inclusion and at 6-monthly scheduled visits while in a stable condition .
evaluation included anthropometry , spirometry , inspiratory capacity , peripheral capillary oxygen saturation , severity of dyspnea , a 6-minute walking test , bode ( body mass index , airflow obstruction , dyspnea , exercise performance ) index , and quality of life ( st george s respiratory questionnaire and chronic respiratory disease questionnaire ) .
severity of exacerbation was graded as moderate or severe according to health care utilization .
patients were classified as infrequent exacerbators if they had no or one acute exacerbation / year and frequent exacerbators if they had two or more acute exacerbations / year .
random effects modeling , within hierarchical linear modeling , was used for analysis.resultsduring follow - up , 419 ( 96% moderate ) acute exacerbations were registered . at baseline ,
frequent exacerbators had more severe disease than infrequent exacerbators according to their fev1 and bode index , and also showed greater impairment in inspiratory capacity , forced vital capacity , peripheral capillary oxygen saturation , 6-minute walking test , and quality of life .
however , no significant difference in fev1 decline over time was found between the two groups ( 54.713 ml / year versus 85.415.9 ml / year in frequent exacerbators and infrequent... |
6,937 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: their general metabolic pathway in mammals involves cytochrome p-450 ( cyp ) enzyme - mediated oxidation to form hydroxylated metabolites and epoxides and further conjugation with glucuronide or glutathione to create corresponding conjugates , leading further to methylsulfonyl metabolites catalyzed by glutathione s - transferase ( gst ) ( 1 ) .
pcbs with vicinal hydrogens at the 3 and 4 positions of the aromatic ring as well as 2,5- or 2,3,6-substituted chlorines are most likely to be metabolized to methyl sulfones ( 2,3 ) .
it is important to study the fate of individual pcb congeners because the properties , toxicities , and behavior of pcbs vary widely in the environment .
the coplanar 3,3,4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl ( cb77 , iupac number ) is a dioxin - like congener , with a relatively high toxicity compared to most tetrachlorobiphenyls .
the main monohydroxy metabolites of cb77 in mammals includes 4-hydroxy-3,3,4,5-tetrachlorobiphenyl ( 4oh - cb79 ) , 5-hydroxy-3,3,4,4- tetrachlorobiphenyl ( 5oh - cb77 ) , a trace of 6-hydroxy-3,3,4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl ( 6oh - cb77 ) , and 2-hydroxy-3,3,4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl ( 2oh - cb77 ) .
the methylsulfonyl metabolites of cb77 were documented in rats , mice , and fish , although cb77 is not one of the preferred structures for methyl sulfone metabolism ( 58 ) . according to the green liver model , metabolism in plants
is similar to the detoxification mechanism in animal livers because of similar enzyme systems ( 9 ) . to date ,
metabolism of pcbs in plants is generally reported in in vitro studies using cell or tissue cultures , which have the advantages of rapidly growing biomass and axenic conditions where microorganisms play no role in plant metabolism ( 1012 ) .
different plant species , including paul s scarlet rose , tobacco , solanum spp . ,
horseradish , and alfalfa have been screened for their ability to biotransform pcbs using cell cultures .
mono- and dihydroxy - chlorobiphenyls were identified as the metabolites of mono- and dichlorobiphenyls ( 13 )... | polychlorinated biphenyls ( pcbs ) are widely distributed persistent organic pollutants . in vitro research
has shown that plant cell cultures might transform lower chlorinated congeners to hydroxylated pcbs , but there are few studies on in vivo metabolism of pcbs by intact whole plants . in this research , poplar plants ( populus deltoides nigra , dn34 ) and switchgrass ( panicum vigratum , alamo ) were hydroponically exposed to 3,3,4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl ( cb77 ) .
metabolism in plants occurred rapidly , and metabolites were detected after only a 24 h exposure .
rearrangement of chlorine atoms and dechlorination of cb77 by plants was unexpectedly observed . in addition , poplars were able to hydroxylate cb77 and the metabolite 6-hydroxy-3,3,4,4-tetrachlorobiphenyl ( 6-oh - cb77 ) was identified and quantified .
hybrid poplar was able to hydroxylate cb77 , but switchgrass was not , suggesting that enzymatic transformations are plant specific .
sulfur - containing metabolites ( from the action of sulfotransferases ) were investigated in this study , but they were not detected in either poplar or switchgrass . |
6,938 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the most frequently used neck disability questionnaires are the neck pain and disability scale ( npad ) and neck disability index ( ndi ) , which are validated in several languages [ 4 , 16 , 21 , 22 , 38 ] . to evaluate the effect of treatment programs for neck disorders
it is necessary that questionnaires are responsive , i.e. , have the ability to detect clinical important changes over time .
there is a need to define minimum changes in scores on questionnaires that are relevant from patients- , clinicians- or socioeconomic perspectives . to determine relevant change two concepts of interpretability
are described [ 1 , 3 , 8 , 10 , 34 ] . in a distribution - based approach the statistical characteristics of the sample
are used to express the observed change in a standardized metric [ 8 , 10 , 34 ] .
the most commonly used measure is the minimal detectable change ( mdc ) [ 3 , 57 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 22 , 29 , 32 , 36 , 38 , 40 ] .
the mdc assesses the minimal magnitude of change required to be confident that the observed change reflects
real change and not measurement error [ 1 , 8 , 10 , 30 , 34 ] .
a major limitation of distribution - based approaches is that they are statistical measures which by themselves do not provide a good indication of the clinical relevance of the observed change [ 8 , 10 , 34 ] .
the anchor - based approach assesses which change on a questionnaire corresponds with an important change defined on an external criterion or anchor [ for example global perceived effect ( gpe ) ] [ 8 , 10 , 17 , 34 ] .
the most common method in this approach is the calculation of the minimal important change ( mic ) determined by the receiver operator characteristic ( roc ) curve cut - off point [ 68 , 10 , 23 , 29 , 33 , 34 , 40 ] .
a major limitation of the anchor - based approach is the absence of a gold standard for the external criterion .
a further limitation is that it does not take measurement precision into account and therefore does not necessarily imply statistical significance [ 8 , 10 , 34... | purposeto investigate relevant change on the neck pain and disability scale ( npad ) and neck disability index ( ndi ) and which questionnaire is the most responsive in patients with non - specific chronic neck pain ( cnp).methodsseventy - six patients with non - specific cnp in an outpatient tertiary rehabilitation setting were dichotomized into improved and stable based on global perceived effect ( gpe ) scores . to investigate relevant change minimal detectable change ( mdc ) and minimal important change ( mic ) with the receiver operator characteristic ( roc )
cut - off point were assessed .
comparison of responsiveness was performed using areas under the roc curve ( auc ) and correlations between change scores of npad and ndi , and gpe.resultsmdc and mic on npad ( scale 0100 ) were 31.7 and 11.5 points , respectively .
mdc and mic on ndi ( scale 050 ) were 8.4 and 3.5 points , respectively .
changes should exceed this mdc or mic cut - off to be interpreted as relevant .
auc was 0.75 for both npad and ndi .
correlations between change scores of npad and ndi , and gpe were , respectively , 0.48 ( 95 % ci 0.290.64 ) and 0.49 ( 95 % ci 0.300.64).conclusionsrelevant change on both npad and ndi assessed with mdc and mic resulted in different cut - offs and consequently with different amounts of certainty that the patient is improved .
responsiveness of npad and ndi was similar . |
6,939 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: peritonitis is the most troublesome complication in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis ( capd ) .
gram - positive organisms , especially staphylococcus aureus and staphylococcus epidermidis , are the most frequent causative pathogens
the prevalence of vancomycin resistant enterococci ( vre ) in hospitalized patients is reported to be 0.4 - 14% .
there are few agents with in vitro activity against pathogens that have developed resistance to vancomycin .
newer drugs such as quinupristin , dalfopristin and linezolid show in vitro and in vivo activity against enterococci including vre .
we report ( i ) a case of peritonitis , in a capd patient , caused by two different species of enterococci with a different antimicrobial susceptibility pattern , especially for vancomycin and ( ii ) the effectiveness of linezolid for the treatment of vancomycin resistant enterococcal peritonitis .
a 63-year - old male was hospitalized in bp koirala institute of health sciences , dharan , nepal with the complaint of bilateral swelling of lower limbs for 7 days , clouding of capd fluid for 5 days and fever for 2 days .
the patient , having history of stage 2 hypertension for 20 years and type 2 diabetes mellitus with nephropathy ( with end stage renal disease ) for 15 years , was on capd .
in addition , he also had history of one episode of peritonitis and recurrent urinary tract infections in the past . gram staining of the capd fluid showed plenty of polymorphs with gram - positive cocci ( gpc ) in pairs and short chains . the organism in culture was presumptively identified as enterococcus sp ecies based on the colony morphology , absence of hemolysis , gram reaction , catalase negativity and bile esculin positivity .
the isolate was further characterized with a set of biochemical tests using standard microbiological methods and identified as enterococcus faecalis .
on performing antimicrobial susceptibility by kirby - bauer disc diffusion method in compliance with clinical and laboratory standards institute... | peritonitis in a continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patient by two different species of enterococci is a rare condition .
we report a case of peritonitis from which vancomycin sensitive enterococcus faecalis and vancomycin resistant enterococcusc faecium were isolated .
it also emphasizes the effectiveness of linezolid for the treatment of vancomycin resistant enterococcal infection . |
6,940 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: obesity results from the accumulation of excess adipose tissue ; however , it is not a single disorder but a heterogeneous group of conditions with multiple causes .
major causes of the increasing prevalence of obesity include behavioral and environmental factors , such as excessive consumption of energy - dense foods and a sedentary lifestyle .
still , it is now recognized that a series of underexplored physiological and environmental predispositions underlies the traditional risk factors for obesity and its associated metabolic disorders . in this
regards , gut microbiota has recently been proposed as an environmental factor responsible for the weight gain and the altered energy metabolism that accompanies the obese state .
gut microbiota affects host metabolism by increased energy extraction , immune system modulation , and altered lipid metabolism .
furthermore , both the physical presence of bacteria and the metabolites from bacteria are responsible for these effects .
an evaluation of the evidence indicating that the gut microbiota plays a role in energy balance and obesity - associated diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases ( cvds ) , as well as factors that mediate these hard endpoints , is presented in this paper .
microbiota is a collection of microorganisms including bacteria , archaea , viruses , and some unicellular eukaryotes .
, it has been estimated that 10 microorganisms reside in various parts of the body such as the surface of skin and in the gastrointestinal , genitourinary , and respiratory tracts . the gastrointestinal tract , which has the largest number of microorganisms in humans , is comprised of specialized compartments such as the mouth , esophagus , stomach , small intestine , large intestine ( colon ) , rectum , and anus .
each of these compartments has unique physiological functions and anatomical structures . as a result ,
the chemical environment and habitable microorganisms differ tremendously in each compartment ( figure 1 ) . in the colon , up to 10 ... | the gut microbiota refers to the trillions of microorganisms residing in the intestine and is integral in multiple physiological processes of the host .
recent research has shown that gut bacteria play a role in metabolic disorders such as obesity , diabetes , and cardiovascular diseases .
the mechanisms by which the gut microbiota affects metabolic diseases are by two major routes : ( 1 ) the innate immune response to the structural components of bacteria ( e.g. , lipopolysaccharide ) resulting in inflammation and ( 2 ) bacterial metabolites of dietary compounds ( e.g. , scfa from fiber ) , which have biological activities that regulate host functions .
gut microbiota has evolved with humans as a mutualistic partner , but dysbiosis in a form of altered gut metagenome and collected microbial activities , in combination with classic genetic and environmental factors , may promote the development of metabolic disorders .
this paper reviews the available literature about the gut microbiota and aforementioned metabolic disorders and reveals the gaps in knowledge for future study . |
6,941 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study:
curing type acetoxycolor tranlucentdensity approximately 1.04 g / ccskin formation time approximately 5 min at 30ccuring time approximately 24 h. for 2 mm thickness at 30cmovement accommodation
approximately 0.61 n / mmelasticity approximately 260%
curing type acetoxy density approximately 1.04 g / cc skin formation time approximately 5 min at 30c curing time approximately 24 h. for 2 mm thickness at 30c movement accommodation approximately 15% tensile strength
step 1 : ear impression is made using irreversible hydrocolloid alginate and custom made wax rim .
wet gauze pieces are layered on top of alginate for the interlocking of the plaster to be poured [ figure 1 ] .
making of ear impression step 2 : undercut areas in the impression are identified and blocked out with wax .
block out impression partly with wax and cast poured step 3 : working model is retrieved from the impression carefully and base trimmed [ figure 3 ] . working model with dental stone prepared step 4 : custom tray using soft tray sheets prepared .
a complete ear cast is made by making alginate impression for a person related to the patient [ figure 4 ] .
custom tray using soft tray sheets prepared for complete ear cast step 5 : skin tone of the patient is matched to the oil colors .
colors mixed with silicone step 6 : silicone material is dispensed to the under cuts of the custom tray and filled completely [ figure 6 ] .
material dispensed with syringe into soft sheet custom tray step 7 : separating medium is applied on working cast and under cuts are filled with silicone material .
it is pressed against the soft sheet custom tray carrying the silicone material [ figure 7 ] .
silicone filled tray pressed against working cast step 8 : prosthesis is tried on the model and trimmed before insertion on patient [ figure 8 ] .
over a period of time various materials such as wood , leather , polyurethane and polyvinyl chloride have been used to produce esthetic properties to prosthesis , but silicone has proved to be the... | this article describes an industrial elastic silicone as a material for the laboratory fabrication of ear prosthesis .
it has been tested for toxicity in lab animals by the sgs india pvt .
ltd and approved as a material to pass the parameter of abnormal toxicity .
this material therefore can be safely recommended for laboratory exercise to fabricate facial prosthesis .
the high cost of the maxillo facial silicone materials prohibits their use for facial prosthesis in pre - clinical training of post - graduate students in maxillofacial prosthodontics . for this reason ,
pre - clinical laboratory exercise in facial prosthesis is inadequate .
a few institutions use polymethyl methacrylate resins which are rigid and do not have elastic characteristics of silicone , which is used for facial defects .
this cost - effective industrial silicone material which mimics the elastic and color characteristics of the conventional silicones can be recommended for preclinical exercises . |
6,942 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: during 20082013 , a total of 68 satellite or global positioning system radio collars were deployed on african buffalo captured in southern gonarezhou np ; in northern kruger np , south of the limpopo river ; and in zimbabwe , north of limpopo river ( on sengwe communal land ) .
of the 68 buffalo , 47 were adult females , selected because their behavior is representative of core herd movements .
two adult males were also equipped with global positioning system devices because males are believed to move between herds ( 7 ) ; however , these devices failed after a few weeks because the collars fell off .
nineteen subadult female buffalo 2.54.5 years of age ( age determined by teeth eruption ) were also selected because individuals from this group are believed to disperse from their native herds ( 8 ; r. bengis , pers .
blood samples were taken and stored appropriately for disease screening , and individually numbered ear - tags were applied . during the study ,
extraordinarily long - distance movements for 3 subadult females were plotted by satellite telemetry readings ( figure 1 ) . in january 2014 , a 2.5-year - old female buffalo collared in south africa walked a maximum direct distance of 95 km . in 6 days , she crossed into zimbabwe , then into mozambique , and into zimbabwe again to enter gonarezhou np , with localizations within the home range of the buffalo herd in which btb was first diagnosed in a female buffalo in 2008 ( 6 ) .
this subadult buffalo later left the park and visited a commercial farm area before reentering gonarezhou np . in february 2014
, another 4-year - old female buffalo walked a direct distance of 64 km in 8 days .
finally , in march 2013 , a 4.5-year - old female captured in july 2011 was sighted in a location deep into communal land at a distance of 96 km from her capture site .
in contrast to these young female buffalo , no adult females collared in this study moved such long distances outside their home range during 20082014 .
the long - distance travel of these 3 subadult... | we report on the long - distance movements of subadult female buffalo within a transfrontier conservation area in africa .
our observations confirm that bovine tuberculosis and other diseases can spread between buffalo populations across national parks , community land , and countries , thus posing a risk to animal and human health in surrounding wildlife areas . |
6,943 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: while nigeria has only two percent of the global population , it contributes 10% to the global maternal mortality burden .
the average national maternal mortality rate is 545 per 100,000 while in the north eastern zone , it is 1,549 per 100,000 .
annually , an estimated 52,900 nigeria women die ( about 1,000 per week ) while pregnant , during childbirth or within 42 days of giving birth out of a global 529,000.1 this is the equivalent of an aeroplane , full of precious nigerian mothers crashing with no survivor , every day , for an entire year!. antenatal care ( anc ) reduces the incidence of maternal mortality .
most maternal deaths occur in poor countries and most of these can be attributed to low level of supply and utilisation of skilled maternal health services.23 skilled attendants at delivery care has been considered as the single most effective means for reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in low and middle income countries.4 however , studies have suggested that the cost of health services is a major determinant of demand for healthcare , particularly for maternity healthcare.5 estimates of out - of - pocket costs for maternity care shows that they constitute a significant percentage of household income.6 the cost of obtaining skilled obstetric care at a health facility is prohibitively high for many poor households and constitutes a major barrier to increase utilization and access to safe maternal care.78 it is , therefore , not surprising that in rural communities , majority of births take place at home .
for example , in rural bangladesh , 85% of births take place at home.9 home delivery is preferred as it is associated with low cost.10 almost four times as many women in the rural areas had no anc compared to urban areas.11 the cost of anc and delivery services ( obstetric care ) could be catastrophic in some communities .
for example , in a study in matlab , a rural community of bangladesh , the cost of a normal delivery alone was found to be equivalent to 18% of the annual income of the... | background : maternal mortality remains a leading cause of death among women of reproductive age . while nigeria has only two percent of the global population , it contributes 10% to the global maternal mortality burden .
antenatal care ( anc ) reduces the incidence of maternal mortality .
however , financial capability affects access to antenatal care .
thus , the rural poor are at a higher risk of maternal mortality.materials and methods : a cross - sectional descriptive study involving 135 women ( pregnant women and those who are 6 weeks postpartum ) .
structured interviewer - administered questionnaires were used for data collection .
data analysis was carried out using statistical package for social sciences software ( version 17).results : the average amount spent on booking and initial laboratory investigations were n77 ( half a dollar ) and n316 ( $ 2 ) , respectively . per anc visit ,
average amount spent on drugs and transportation were n229 ( $ 1.5 ) and n139 ( $ 0.9 ) respectively .
for delivery , the average amount spent was n1500 ( $ 9.6 ) . on an average , anc plus delivery cost about n3,365.00 ( $ 22 ) .
there was a statistically significant association between husband 's income and anc attendance ( x2 = 2.451 , df = 2 , p = 0.048).conclusion : cost of antenatal care and delivery services were not catastrophic but were a barrier to accessing antenatal care and facility - based delivery services in the study area .
anc attendance was associated with the income of household heads .
pro - poor policies and actions are needed to address this problem , as it will go a long way in reducing maternal mortality in this part of the country . |
6,944 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: early in life , parental interactions can serve as a buffer against the negative consequences of stress on physiology and learning ( stanton and levine , 1990 , kirschbaum et al .
, 2003 , shionoya et al . , 2007 , taylor et al . , 2008 ,
however , if rearing conditions are suboptimal , parental stress or disruptions in the quality or reliability of care can be rapidly transmitted to the offspring and serve as a primary source of stress , driving changes in development and neurobehavioral outcomes ( levine , 1967 , rosenfeld et al . , 1991 ,
, 1993 , liu et al . , 1997 , avishai - eliner et al . , 2001 , rice et al . , 2008 ,
, 2014 , bath et al . , 2016 , heun - johnson and levitt , 2016 ) .
significant disruptions in the quality of early life care impact neural structure and functional plasticity of the brain ( teicher et al . , 2006 , chen et al . , 2008 , chen et al . , 2013 ) and have been identified as potential catalysts for negative health outcomes , including disturbance in cognitive development .
for example , in humans , institutionalized rearing or abusive early environments have been associated with the development of significant impairments in general cognitive functioning with specific deficits identified in memory recall ( bremner and narayan , 1998 ) and short term memory ( bremner et al . , 2000 ) .
these same experiences are associated with regional effects on brain development , with significant reductions in hippocampal volume and cortical thinning in frontal regions associated with memory function , attention , and spatial abilities ( bremner et al . , 1997 ) .
significant sex disparities have been identified for stress - associated pathology , with females being twice as likely as males to develop ptsd , depression , and anxiety disorders ( weissman et al . , 1996 ,
, 1997a , breslau et al . , 1997b , felitti et al . , 1998 , gater et al . , 1998 , burt and stein , 2002 , kuehner , 2003 , keita , 2007 , breslau , 2009 , de munck et al . , 2009 , hankin , 2009 , olino... | disruptions in early life care , including neglect , extreme poverty , and trauma , influence neural development and increase the risk for and severity of pathology .
significant sex disparities have been identified for affective pathology , with females having an increased risk of developing anxiety and depressive disorder .
however , the effects of early life stress ( els ) on cognitive development have not been as well characterized , especially in reference to sex specific impacts of els on cognitive abilities over development . in mice , fragmented maternal care resulting from maternal bedding restriction , was used to induce els .
the development of spatial abilities were tracked using a novel object placement ( nop ) task at several different ages across early development ( p21 , p28 , p38 , p50 , and p75 ) .
male mice exposed to els showed significant impairments in the nop task compared with control reared mice at all ages tested . in female mice , els
led to impaired nop performance immediately following weaning ( p21 ) and during peri - adolescence ( p38 ) , but these effects did not persist into early adulthood . prior work has implicated impaired hippocampus neurogenesis as a possible mediator of negative outcomes in els males . in the hippocampus of behaviorally nave animals
there was a significant decrease in expression of ki-67 ( proliferative marker ) and doublecortin ( dcx - immature cell marker ) as mice aged , and a more rapid developmental decline in these markers in els reared mice .
however , the effect of els dissipated by p28 and no main effect of sex were observed .
together these results indicate that els impacts the development of spatial abilities in both male and female mice and that these effects are more profound and lasting in males . |
6,945 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: primary cardiac tumors are quite rare , especially in the pediatric age group,13 and their atypical presentations often prevent a timely diagnosis.4 most primary cardiac tumors in the pediatric age group are benign ; autopsy studies in children have reported incidence rates ranging from 0.027% to 0.08%.4 one echocardiography database has reported an incidence of 0.17% , which suggests that one or two new primary cardiac tumors will be detected for every 1000 first - time pediatric echocardiograms.4 fibromas are generally reported as the second most common primary cardiac tumor in the pediatric age group.3 , 5 however , in a more recent review of boston children s hospital database from 1980 to 2005 , fibromas were the third most common tumor . to date , no distinct genetic inheritance or familial predisposition has been associated with cardiac fibromas .
these neoplasms are often intramural and involve the left ventricular free wall or the interventricular septum .
less frequently , they can be multiple and invade the right ventricular free wall , the atrial septum , or its free wall .
although rare , intracavitary fibromas have also been reported.4 , 6 it is very rare for primary intracardiac tumors to occur in the supravalvular pulmonic or aortic positions.7 a case of a seven - year - old boy with an intraluminal pulmonary artery fibroma was reported in the pediatric cardiology journal ( 21 : 480482 2000 ) from southwest texas methodist hospital .
we herein present the case of a girl with an intraluminal fibroma in her ascending aorta .
we present a 23-month - old girl admitted for the evaluation of a cardiac murmur with a history of one episode of syncope two months before admission . she had no positive history for syncope and no positive family history for congenital heart diseases or any kind of cardiac tumors . on physical examination ,
her growth and development were within normal limits ( height = 85 cm , weight = 11 kg ) .
, there was a grade 3/6 systolic ejection murmur at the second right inter -... | primary cardiac tumors are quite rare , especially in the pediatric age group , and their atypical presentations often prevent a timely diagnosis .
most primary cardiac tumors in the pediatric age group are benign .
fibromas are generally reported as the second most common primary cardiac tumors in the pediatric age group . these neoplasms are often intramural and involve the left ventricular free wall or the interventricular septum .
although benign , fibromas may become life - threatening by causing arrhythmias or obstruction to the blood flow . a case of supravalvular intraluminal ascending aorta fibroma in a 23-month - old girl , presenting with syncope ,
is described here ; the location is rare and the presentation atypical for this type of tumor .
transesophageal echocardiography helped us to evaluate the anatomic details of the tumor and plan surgery . |
6,946 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: breast cancer is the most common cancer among women globally and one of the main concerns of societies , especially for women . according to the american cancer society report
, breast cancer is diagnosed in about 1.3 million women annually worldwide and around 465,000 will die from the disease .
present data is showing an increase in the annual incidence rates of the disease and is ranked as the first recorded malignancies among iranian women since 1999 .
it is also ranked as the second cause of death in females of all cancer mortalities .
results of recent studies in iran indicated that the age of onset of breast cancer is about 10 years earlier than the developed countries .
of the available cancer control measures for breast cancer , only screening has the potential for a rapid and major effect , though this will be restricted to a reduction in mortality rather than a reduction in incidence .
establishing population - based screening programs , including periodical mammography , breast examination ( bpx ) by a trained medical staff and monthly breast self - examination ( bse ) is useful in detecting breast cancer at an early stage . bse+bpx as simple non - invasive tests would be a suitable option for countries in economic transition , where incidence rates are on the rise and limited resources do not permit screening by mammography .
moreover , some studies have shown that annual mammography does not result in a reduction in breast cancer specific mortality for women aged 40 - 59 years compared with physical examination alone or the usual care in the community .
it attempts to clarify whether bpx combined with bse would reduce the cumulative incidence of advanced stage ( stage 3 or worse ) and mortality from breast cancer in a population of yazd .
the present work is the first report of a multicenter community based intervention evaluating the effect of bse+bpx on the reduction of morbidity and mortality of breast cancer .
there are three distinctive phases in this trial with 10 years duration : phase -... | there is some evidence to suggest that a benefit might be derived from a program that incorporated both annual physical examination of the breast ( bpx ) and the teaching of breast self - examination ( bse ) .
current investigation presents the profile of a multicenter community based intervention for evaluating the effect of bse+bpx on the reduction of morbidity and mortality due to breast cancer amongst women residing in urban areas of yazd ( iran ) from 2008 to 2018 . there were three distinctive phases in this trial with 10 years duration : pilot phase with the duration of 1 year
, active intervention phase with 4 rounds of annual screening of bpx+bse and follow up phase with 5 years duration . tools of enquiry included a pre - tested questionnaire , repeated annual physical examination of the breast and more importantly mammography , sonography , and fine needle aspiration ( fna ) .
data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies , percent , mean ( sd ) , tests of chi - square and student t - test with 95% confidence level .
comparison of socio - demographic and socio - economic factors such as age , age at marriage , family size , number of live births , occupation , education level , total family income and marital status showed that no significant difference was seen between the groups ( p>0.05 ) .
a response rate of 84.5% was seen by participants of the experiment group visiting the health centers for the first bpx .
our results showed that except for the education and marital status , the difference in other main demographic and socio - economic factors between the groups were not significant , and the response rate of individuals in the experiment group was at an acceptable level . |
6,947 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: overweight or obesity among american children has reached epidemic proportions . over the past 25 years , childhood overweight or obesity has nearly quadrupled in the united states , affecting almost 17% of children and adolescents aged 219 in 2007 - 2008 [ 2 , 3 ] .
childhood overweight or obesity is defined as having a body mass index ( bmi ) greater or equal to the age- and sex - specific 95th percentile of the 2000 centre for disease control growth charts .
overweight - obese youth are increasingly suffering from comorbid conditions once considered limited to adults . despite considerable efforts to halt or reverse the growing rates of childhood overweight or obesity
paediatric overweight or obesity has been implicated in a myriad of serious health concerns .
short - term consequences of overweight - obese status include chronic orthopedic and psychological disorders , nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases , metabolic syndrome , as well as a host of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and type ii diabetes mellitus [ 5 , 6 ] .
long - term consequences have proven the persistence of childhood obesity into adulthood , with an estimated 50% of obese adolescents becoming obese adults .
this persistence into adulthood incites a cascade of cardiovascular risk factors and other chronic morbidities , dramatically increasing the risk for premature mortality . the economic burden of overweight and obesity on the american healthcare system is expected to intensify with persevering rates of childhood overweight and obesity .
increased rates of overweight and obesity among children have been attributed to an increase in sedentary pursuits and a decrease in physical activity .
furthermore , children who participate in higher levels of physical activity are less likely to display risk factors for cardiovascular disease and more likely to have positive outcomes in weight regulation [ 913 ] .
motivating children to participate in physical activity may also preclude the persistence of childhood... | increasing epidemic proportions of overweight children in the united states presents formidable challenges for education and healthcare .
given the popularity and pervasiveness of video gaming culture in north american children , the perfect opportunity arises to investigate the potential of video games to promote healthful behaviour .
our objective was to systematically review the literature for possible benefits of active and educational video games targeting diet and physical activity in children .
a review of english - language journal articles from 1998 to 2011 using embase and pubmed was conducted .
thirty - four studies concerned with children , video games , physical , and/or nutritional outcomes were included .
results of these studies that showed some benefit ( increased physical activity and nutritional knowledge as a result of gaming ) demonstrate the possibility of video games to combat childhood obesity looking beyond the stigma attached to gaming . |
6,948 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: since first described by quain in 1847 ( 1 ) , hundreds of abdominal aortic stenosis have been reported with many variations in anatomy .
though , the complete absence of infrarenal aorta , seen in presenting case , is extremely rare .
this represents the first case of complete segmental occlusion of infrarenal aorta in the old patient .
a 52-yr - old woman presented to the clinic with one - year history of bilateral claudication .
blood pressures were measured at 130/80 mmhg in the forearms and at 100/70 mmhg in the thighs , with ankle - brachial indexes of 0.77 .
serologic tests including c3 , c4 , venereal disease research laboratory test ( vdrl ) , and immunoglobulin g were unremarkable except mild elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( esr ) of 22 mm / hr and low tittered anti - nuclear antibody of 1:80 with speckled pattern .
the abdominal aorta was reconstituted by multiple collaterals , such as marginal artery of drummond , the anastomosis between superior mesenteric and inferior mesenteric artery , bilateral epigastric , lumbar , and abdominal superficial arteries .
for her knee joint arthritis , she was started with methylprednisolon of 8 mg and non - steroid anti - inflammatory drug .
after negative results of pathergy test and human lymphocyte antigen b 51 , we ruled out the behcet 's disease and she tapered the medications to stop successfully .
she wanted the antihypertensive drug for mild hypertension and was taken amlodipine at 5 mg daily .
one year later , computer tomographic angiography showed patent bypass graft and decreased collateral vessels ( fig .
the etiology of abdominal aortic stenosis is poorly understood . the young age of most of the patients suggests that the malformation may be congenital .
maycock first proposed an unequal fusion of embryonic aorta as a congenital mechanism ( 3 ) . in first month of fetus , the paired primitive dorsal aortas fuse to form the abdominal aorta .
incomplete fusion due to infection or inflammation may lead of kinking of the aorta resulting to... | we describe a case of infrarenal aortic hypoplasia in a 52-yr - old woman who presented with claudication .
computed tomographic angiography revealed an abrupt absence of the infrarenal aorta , with collateral flow reconstituting the iliofemoral systems .
after a polytetrafluoroethylene graft was interposed between the aortic stump and the iliac bifurcation , the patient 's claudication resolved . |
6,949 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: every time we discuss about immunization program in adult and in elderly people , we should consider two important changes that happened in our current society : the increasing ageing of population and a different old age compared with the past .
it has been estimated that since 2005 to 2030 world population over 65 will double ( from 500 million to 1 billion ) . in 2030
elderly people will be 40% of all population and in italy in the next 10 years elderly people will be the double compared with 0 - 14 population .
elderly people showed some social and demographic characteristics in the past decades : in the end of working life few years remained to live ; the end or working life coincided with exclusion of every role in social or recreational activities ; in the most of cases after - work activities were domestic ( particularly for women ) ; younger generations took care of elderly , usually inside the same home . today
we are witness to a new paradigm : usually a 65 years old person does n't feel old ; usually life expectancy at the time of retirement is long ; most of retired people are included in social and recreational activities ; elderly people claim quality of life ; over 80 people are increasing in number and usually they live with comorbidity and they represent a high cost for each health service .
every year , influenza is responsible of 40,000 deaths in europe , most of them in elderly people and with chronic diseases .
the economic burden to manage these preventable diseases with adult immunization , other than year - of - life lost , is more than 10 billion dollars every year . in spite of availability of effective and safe vaccines for these diseases
, they are underused . which are the reasons to immunize adult people with vaccines ?
at least one of these issues is a good reason to immunize them : because they did n't have immunization in childhood ; because at present time new vaccines are available ; because human immune system gets old and acquired immunity can decline... | summaryvaccine - preventable disease significantly contributes to the morbidity and mortality of adults worldwide .
the rates of vaccination against influenza , pneumococcal disease and tetanus in adults and in high - risk group of people are far from the optimal coverage as suggested by minister of health .
general practitioners ( gps ) can contribute to increase immunization in adults and in elderly people because these age groups attend frequently the surgery of their family doctors for reasons related to their chronic diseases .
the gps , on their side , can proactively involve patients through informatics tools that supply lists of specific patients and electronic alerts in patient records . |
6,950 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the higher risk of fracture is also attributed to other factors such as effect of endodontic irrigants , age changes in dentin , and bacteria - dentine interaction . in -
vivo investigations have indicated compromised tactile sense to perceive the functional overload in root canal treated teeth .
the amount of remaining tooth structure is the most critical factor for the fracture resistance of endodontically treated teeth .
the rehabilitation of root canal treated tooth is complete only with the resumption of its shape and full function .
the choice of restorative techniques for these teeth is mainly influenced by the extent of tooth structure destruction , type , and location of the tooth in the dental arch .
the endodontic post is indicated for teeth with the substantial amount of coronal tooth structure destruction .
the indiscriminate use of post is discouraged by the researchers due to its associated multiple risks .
frequently , clinician encounters a tooth with large central defect with normal height and peripheral dentin wall .
the predicament of a restorative dentist to utilize the endodontic post in this clinical situation will be addressed by evaluating the fracture strength of the tooth with varying dentin wall thickness . though the influence of remaining tooth structure height on fracture resistance is evaluated by many researchers , studies on the influence of remaining dentin wall thickness on fracture resistance are few .
the objective of this in - vitro study was to investigate the effect of coronal dentin wall thickness on the fracture strength of root canal treated teeth .
it was also aimed to evaluate the influence of endodontic post on fracture resistance at various dentin wall widths .
recently extracted 50 human mandibular premolars were used for the study with the mean root length of 15.83 1.79 mm .
the teeth included in the study were intact , caries - free teeth without previous endodontic treatment .
the teeth were divided into five groups of ten each ( n = 10 ) depending on... | background : remaining dentin wall thickness may influence the fracture resistance of tooth.aims:to investigate the effect of various coronal dentin wall widths on the fracture strength of root canal treated teeth.materials and methods : fifty recently extracted single canal mandibular premolars were used for the study .
ten unrestored teeth were used as control ( group 1 ) ; remaining teeth were root canal treated and divided into four groups ( n = 10 ) .
the groups 2a , 2b and 3a , 3b were having 2.5 mm , 1.5 mm remaining dentin with and without post , respectively .
the samples fracture resistance was tested under the universal testing machine .
the data were analyzed with one - way anova and post - hoc tukey test for comparative evaluation.results:the mean fracture strength observed in group 1 was ( 29.75 mpa ) followed by group 2a ( 28.97 mpa ) , group 2b ( 27.70 mpa ) , group 3a ( 23.39 mpa ) , and group 3b ( 16.38 mpa ) .
there was no statistically significant difference between control and groups 2a and 2b with p > 0.05 .
the post contributed significantly for fracture resistance in group 3a.conclusion:the endodontic post is not required in root canal treated teeth > 2.5 mm coronal dentin wall width while the post is essential for a tooth with < 1.5 mm dentin wall width to improve fracture resistance . |
6,951 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in refractory temporal lobe epilepsy ( tle ) , it is important to be able to determine which hemisphere is dominant and hosts the majority of the language areas . when a patient is evaluated as a potential candidate for resective surgery
, language mapping should be able to indicate which hemisphere is dominant and precisely identify where the language areas are situated within the brain . while the general principle of mapping language for tle in children might be the same as for adults , many challenges are encountered in the mapping process because children are not small adults but differ from adults in many aspects . to understand some of the differences between children and adults in tle features , a brief overview of tle
then , a brief summary of language development and lateralization differences between normal children and children with epilepsy is provided .
the semiology of temporal lobe originating seizures is not as well characterized in children compared to adults and is dependent on age .
for example , infants have a predominance of behavioral arrests , they also tend to have more prominent convulsive activity than adults , and their seizures appear clinically generalized . in younger patients ,
the automatisms are first discrete and mostly orofacial , but the complexity of hand automatisms increases with age .
after the age of 3 years , tonic or myoclonic spasms decrease , as do other motor phenomena , which might have been reminiscent of frontal lobe seizures , and the overall semiology becomes closer to that observed in adults [ 1 , 2 ] .
mesial temporal sclerosis ( mts ) is the most common adult etiology , while in children it is relatively rare . in the pediatric population , when mts is present , it is often accompanied by a neocortical pathology ( dual pathology ) [ 36 ] , and curative surgery therefore necessitates a temporal lobectomy instead of a selective amygdalohippocampectomy to maximize the chances of being seizure - free .
other pathologies , such as focal malformation of... | temporal lobe epilepsy ( tle ) in children is a slightly different entity than tle in adults not only because of its semiology and pathology but also because of the different approach to surgical treatment .
presurgical investigations for eloquent cortex , especially language , must take these differences into account .
most diagnostic tests were created for adults , and many of the assessment tools need to be adapted for children because they are not just small adults .
this paper will highlight the specific challenges and solutions in mapping language in a pediatric population with tle . |
6,952 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: diabetes mellitus ( dm ) which is characterized by hyperglycemia is a common metabolic disorder that happens due to insulin deficiency and insulin resistance ( 1 ) .
it is associated with central nervous system ( cns ) and peripheral nervous system ( pns ) neurological complication ( 2 ) .
dm in long - term causes a vast range of peripheral neuronal deficits including reduced motor nerve conduction velocity , axonal shrinkage , impaired nerve regeneration , and deficient axonal transport ( 3 ) .
stz - induced diabetes is a well - defined experimental model for dm because the nerve damages are similar to the nerve degeneration that occurs in human diabetic neuropathy ( 4 ) .
it has been suggested that diabetes is one of the primary risk factors in the creation of senile dementia of the alzheimer 's type ( sdat ) ( 5 ) .
although the complete mechanisms through which diabetes could mediate these effects are not fully understood , it seems that hyperglycemia , oxidative stress and subsequent free radicals generation , lead to increased cell membrane damage ( lipid peroxidation ) and initiates death signaling pathways ) 6 , 7 ) .
portulaca oleracea l. ( portulacaceae ) which is referred to as purslane ( khorfeh in persian ) has been given the term
global panacea and is listed by the world health organization as one of the most used medicinal plants .
purslane is a rich source of antioxidants ( vitamins a , c , and e , -carotene , and glutathione ) and omega-3 fatty acids ( 8) .
other bioactives found in purslane are coumarins , alkaloids , saponins , polyphenols and anthocyanin ( 10 ) .
the aqueous extract of purslane hasn't shown any cytotoxicity or genotoxicity , and has been certified safe for daily consumption as a vegetable ( 11 ) . a wide range of biological effects related to purslane has been reported including being neuroprotective ( 12 , 13 ) , effective in cognition improvement ( 14 ) , being anxiolytic ( 15 , 16 ) , analgesic ( 17 ) , antidiabetic ( 18 , 19 ) and having antioxidant effects ( 8 - 10... | diabetes mellitus is one of the most common causes of neuropathy .
although antioxidant and antidiabetic effects of the aqueous extract of purslane ( portulaca oleracea ) ( aeop ) have been demonstrated before by other researchers , we did not find any study that assessed the psychobiological effects of aeop in diabetes induced animals .
thirty ovariectomized ( ovx ) female wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups of control , dia and dia+aeop .
the latter group was orally treated by 300 mg / kg of aeop for 35 days .
dia and dia+aeop groups were made diabetic by ip injection of 60 mg / kg of streptozotocin ( stz ) .
the psychobiological effects of aeop were assessed by morris water maze ( mwm ) , elevated plus maze ( epm ) , forced swimming test ( fst ) and tail pinch stressor ( tps ) .
aeop significantly decreased hyperglycemia ( p<0.001 ) .
diabetes significantly decreased their spatial cognitive performance at the training trial as well as the total distance traveled at the probe trial in mwm ( p<0.05 ) .
all the diabetes related deficits at training trials were improved by aeop treatment ( p<0.05 ) .
aeop treatment not only improved the motor deficit of dia group in epm , but also showed anxiolytic effects compared to both control and dia groups ( p<0.05 ) . in the fst , no differences were observed between any groups ( p>0.05 ) .
diabetes significantly increased their non - functional masticatory activity in tps ( p0.001 ) while it was improved in dia+aeop group .
we showed that aeop has significant anxiolytic effects and it can improve spatial cognitive performance , locomotor deficit and stress in diabetic ovx rats . |
6,953 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: carbon nanotubes have been extensively studied because of their interesting physical properties and potential applications . motivated by this success , scientists have been exploring nanotubes and nanostructures made of different materials . in particular ,
theoretical studies have also been carried out to investigate the electronic , optical and elastic properties of bc2n nanotubes using the first - principles and tight - binding methods , respectively [ 3 - 6 ] .
besides the elastic and electronic properties , theoretical and experimental research on phonon properties of bc2n nanotubes is also useful in understanding the properties of the nanotubes .
furthermore , symmetry properties of nanotubes have profound implications on their physical properties , such as photogalvanic effects in boron nitride nanotubes .
studies on the symmetry properties of carbon nanotubes predicted the raman- and infrared - active vibrations in the single - walled carbon nanotubes , which are consistent with the experimental data and theoretical calculations .
a similar work was carried out by alon on boron nitride nanotubes , and the results were later confirmed by first - principles calculations . and the symmetry of bc2n nanotube was reported .
the purpose of this study is to extend the symmetry analysis to bc2n nanotubes and to determine their line groups .
the number of raman- and infrared ( ir)-active vibrations of the bc2n nanotubes is determined accordingly .
similar to carbon or boron nitride nanotubes , a single - walled bc2n nanotube can be completely specified by the chiral vector which is given in terms of a pair of integers ( nm ) .
however , compared to a carbon and boron nitride nanotubes , different bc2n nanotubes can be obtained by rolling up a bc2n sheet along different directions , as shown in fig . 1a , because of the anisotropic geometry of the bc2n sheet . if we follow the notations for carbon nanotubes , at least two types of zigzag bc2n nanotubes and two types of armchair nanotubes can be obtained .... | the symmetry properties of the single - walled bc2n nanotubes were investigated .
all the bc2n nanotubes possess nonsymmorphic line groups .
in contrast with the carbon and boron nitride nanotubes , armchair and zigzag bc2n nanotubes belong to different line groups , depending on the index n ( even or odd ) and the vector chosen .
the number of raman- active phonon modes is almost twice that of the infrared - active phonon modes for all kinds of bc2n nanotubes . |
6,954 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the online version of this article ( doi:10.1007/s00239 - 009 - 9239 - 0 ) contains supplementary material , which is available to authorized users .
alpha-2-fucosyltransferases ( 2fts ) are enzymes required for the biosynthesis of the terminal glycan motif fuc2gal-r found in abh and lewis histo - blood group antigens
. the biologic functions of such carbohydrate motifs are not completely clear yet , but their main expression at the surface of epithelial cells that constitute doors of entry for pathogens , as well as on soluble mucins present in these epithelia , suggests that they might have functions related to interactions with microorganisms , pathogenic or not ( marionneau et al .
consistent with this view , helicobacter pylori strains , campilobacter pilori , uropathogenic strains of escherichia coli , lactobacilli strains , and several strains of caliciviruses are known to attach to 2fucosylated glycan structures ( boren et al .
1993 ; le pendu et al . 2006 ; ruiz - palacios et al . 2003
additional cellular functions such as involvement in the development of the olfactory system , angiogenesis , interaction between dendritic cells and the vascular endothelium , and regulation of apoptosis ( garcia - vallejo et al .
2006)recently have been suggested . like other glycosyltransferases , 2fts are type ii membrane proteins anchored in the golgi apparatus .
they present a short intracytoplasmic tail and a transmembrane domain in n - terminal location , followed by a stem region and the catalytic domain , which can be subdivided into two subdomains , the n- and c - terminal subdomains . in mammalian genomes ,
three 2 ft genes are located in tandem and designated as fut1 , fut2 , and sec1 ( oriol et al .
2000 ) . the coding sequence of each of the three genes is comprised within a single exon , and it has been suggested that this monoexonic structure results from an l1-retrotransposition event that occurred within the 2 ft mammalian ancestor gene ( saunier et al .
their tandem localization and earlier... | the alpha-2-fucosyltransferases ( 2fts ) are enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of 2fucosylated glycan structures . in mammalian genomes , there are three 2 ft genes located in tandem fut1 , fut2 , and
sec1each contained within a single exon .
it has been suggested that these genes originated from two successive duplications , with fut1 being generated first and fut2 and sec1 second . despite gene conversion being considered the main mechanism of concerted evolution in gene families , previous studies of primates 2fts failed to detect it ,
although the occurrence of gene conversion between fut2 and sec1 was recently reported in a human allele .
the primary aim of our work was to initiate a broader study on the molecular evolution of mammalian 2fts .
sequence comparison leads us to confirm that the three genes appeared by two rounds of duplication .
in addition , we were able to detect multiple gene - conversion events at the base of primates and within several nonprimate species involving fut2 and sec1 .
gene conversion involving fut1 and either fut2 or sec1 was also detected in rabbit .
the extent of gene conversion between the 2fts genes appears to be species - specific , possibly related to functional differentiation of these genes . with the exception of rabbits ,
gene conversion was not observed in the region coding the c - terminal part of the catalytic domain . in this region ,
the number of amino acids that are identical between fut1 and fut2 , but different in sec1 , is higher than in other parts of the protein .
the biologic meaning of this observation may be related to functional constraints.electronic supplementary materialthe online version of this article ( doi:10.1007/s00239 - 009 - 9239 - 0 ) contains supplementary material , which is available to authorized users . |
6,955 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: testosterone is the main androgen hormone and exerts its physiological effects through a genomic mechanism that is mediated by the androgen receptor .
these non - genomic effects are considered to be rapid , in contrast to the genomic effects , and several possible pathways have been identified .
the activation of myocardial inflammation signaling enzymes of the mapk family , mediated by the androgen receptor , has been documented , but interestingly this activation is not related to the receptor s transcriptional activity .
testosterone and its related androgens has significant anabolic and androgenic effects . since its molecular identification , testosterone has been used as a therapy for hormone replacement , infertility and libido dysfunction , as well as an anti - aging agent .
the abuse of androgens for improvement of performance has become a common , yet serious , condition that may have detrimental effects on the athletes .
testosterone abuse has been linked to an increase of cardiovascular adverse events such as significant cardiac hypertrophy and myocardial infarction , virilization of women , prostate hyperplasia in men , liver hypertrophy and hepatocellular adenomas or carcinomas [ 812 ] , apoptotic death of myocardial and neuronal cells . on the other hand ,
recent investigations have shown that testosterone might have anti - ischemic effects and possibly inhibits plaque development .
the aim of this study was to examine the effect of testosterone administration at the ultrastructural level of the rat myocardium , as well as to investigate whether testosterone abuse can induce apoptosis .
we used high doses of testosterone enanthate for a long period of time mimicking androgen abuse .
all procedures for animal use were in accordance with the guidelines of the greek government and the bioethics committee of the medical school of the aristotle university of thessaloniki .
we used adult male wistar rats ( weighing between 350400 g ) separated into 2 groups .
group a ( experimental ) consisted... | summarybackgroundandrogen abuse is an increasing problem amongst professional and amateur athletes .
moreover , testosterone , apart from its widely accepted indications , is used for a variety of other indications such as aging and ischemia .
its actions are mainly attributed to a specific genomic mechanism through the androgen receptor , but emerging evidence reveals non - genomic effects as well .
the use of androgens has been linked with several adverse effects .
the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of testosterone on the morphology and the ultrastructure of the myocardium and to investigate the possible role of apoptosis.material/methodswe used 12 adult male wistar rats , separated into 2 groups .
group a consisted of 6 rats that were administered high doses of testosterone enanthate , while group b consisted of 6 male wistar rats that received placebo ( normal saline ) intramuscularly .
after the last day of treatment , all rats were anesthetized and sacrificed , and the hearts were removed and processed for optical and electron microscopy and immunohistochemical detection of caspase-3 , an apoptosis marker.resultswe found significant myocardial hypertrophy along with abundant ultrastructural alterations .
the immunohistochemical staining of the myocardial cells for caspase-3 was positive in group a ( experimental group ) , which is interpreted as an activation of apoptosis by testosterone treatment.conclusionstestosterone abuse has serious adverse effects , including myocardial hypertrophy , myocardial fibrosis and activation of apoptosis .
these findings need to be taken into account whenever androgens are prescribed to improve performance or as hormone therapy . |
6,956 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: several important novel structures evolved in ancestral vertebrates , including a complicated nervous system equipped with integrated sensory systems , bones , and acquired immune systems .
importantly , these novel structures probably did not evolve all at once , but via sequential steps .
therefore , to understand the early evolutionary history of the vertebrates , we need to reveal the evolutionary sequence of the emergence of these novel structures .
this information will have rich implications concerning how the bodies of ancestral vertebrates became more elaborate , and what kinds of adaptation promoted the evolution of the body plan . to infer the evolutionary sequence of vertebrate characteristics ,
in addition , the genome is another possible chronicle of the early history of vertebrates .
it is now widely accepted that vertebrates experienced two rounds of whole genome duplication , which can be traced from conserved genomic segments in chromosomes 1 , 2 .
traces of these genome duplications are also evidenced in the observations that most invertebrate genes have two to four counterparts in vertebrate genomes . in this article
, we test the possible relationship of these genome duplications to the evolution of the neural crest .
since gans and northcutt ( 1983 ) 3 proposed the new head theory , the origin and evolution of the neural crest has been one of the main issues in vertebrate evolutionary biology .
the neural crest is a population of cells that differentiates at the boundary between the neural tube and the surface ectoderm .
protochordates represented by ascidians and amphioxus , which are the closest relatives of vertebrates , lack comparable cells , such as migratory cells or multipotent cells , at the boundary between the neural tube and the surface ectoderm ( but see jeffery et al .
therefore , the neural crest was once regarded as a new cell type that emerged at the origin of the vertebrates . in addition
, the neural crest gives rise to several structures that are characteristic of... | it is now accepted that ancestral vertebrates underwent two rounds of genome duplication . here
we test the possible utility of these genome duplication events as a reference time for the evolutionary history of vertebrates , by tracing the molecular evolutionary history of the genes involved in vertebrate neural crest development . for most transcription factors that are involved in neural crest specification ,
more than two paralogs are involved in that process .
these were likely involved in the specification of the neural crest before the genome duplications occurred in ancestral vertebrates , although foxd3 may have acquired that role after the genome duplications . by contrast , the epithelial - mesenchymal transition of neural crest cells is controlled by genes that evolved after the genome duplications , such as cadherin6 , cadherin7 , cadherin11 , and rhob .
this suggests that primitive neural crest cells control their delamination by using a small or distinct set of cell adhesion molecules .
alternatively , these observations suggest that delamination of the neural crest evolved after the genome duplications . in that case
, the neural crest might have evolved in sequential steps ; the specification of the neural crest occurred before the genome duplications , and the neural crest acquired a new cell migration property after the genome duplications . |
6,957 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: recent advances in brain imaging techniques facilitate the investigation of brain activity levels during movement by unrestrained human subjects .
imaging studies using single photon emission computed tomography and functional near - infrared spectroscopy ( fnirs ) have demonstrated that , in the frontal lobe , the primary sensorimotor area and the supplementary motor area ( sma ) were coactivated during walking in healthy human subjects . for successful execution of bipedal gait , the central nervous system ( cns )
integrates neural substrates involved in the control of upright posture and stepping movements . concerning cortical mechanisms for the control of locomotion
, neurophysiological studies in cats and humans have demonstrated that the ( primary ) motor cortex modulates ongoing activities in the spinal circuitries via the corticospinal or the pyramidal tract [ 3 , 4 ] .
however , studies on the role of the sma in locomotor control are fairly limited .
clinical observations have shown that patients with focal lesions involving the sma exhibited mixed signs including disequilibrium and gait abnormalities [ 5 , 6 ] .
gurfinkel ' and l'ner and viallet et al . studied patients with brain lesions and hypothesized that the secondary motor area , particularly the sma , may participate in postural adjustments associated with voluntary movements .
thus , our understanding of the functional significance of the sma in the control of bipedal gait in humans remains unclear .
in addition , humans commonly exhibit quadrupedalism during infancy , that is , crawling , which then develops into upright bipedalism .
experimental evaluations of the functional significance of the sma in postural control during locomotion could include comparative studies of mammalian quadrupedalism and human upright bipedalism or among humans at different developmental stages , such as crawling in infants versus upright bipedalism in adults .
however , these intergroup comparisons are applied onto the different cns and... | to understand cortical mechanisms related to truncal posture control during human locomotion , we investigated hemodynamic responses in the supplementary motor area ( sma ) with quadrupedal and bipedal gaits using functional near - infrared spectroscopy in 10 healthy adults .
the subjects performed three locomotor tasks where the degree of postural instability varied biomechanically , namely , hand - knee quadrupedal crawling ( hkquad task ) , upright quadrupedalism using bilateral lofstrand crutches ( upquad task ) , and typical upright bipedalism ( upbi task ) , on a treadmill .
we measured the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin ( oxy - hb ) during the tasks .
the oxy - hb significantly decreased in the sma during the hkquad task , whereas it increased during the upquad task .
no significant responses were observed during the upbi task . based on the degree of oxy - hb responses
, we ranked these locomotor tasks as upquad > upbi > hkquad .
the order of the different tasks did not correspond with postural instability of the tasks .
however , qualitative inspection of oxy - hb time courses showed that oxy - hb waveform patterns differed between upright posture tasks ( peak - plateau - trough pattern for the upquad and upbi tasks ) and horizontal posture task ( downhill pattern for the hkquad task ) .
thus , the sma may contribute to the control of truncal posture accompanying locomotor movements in humans . |
6,958 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a total of 20,653 women delivered in our hospital between january 2002 and december 2010 .
we did not include the women with known diabetes ( n = 204 ) or those for whom the status for either one of the five risk factors was not known ( n = 1674 ) . therefore , 18,775 pregnancies were analyzed .
data are routinely entered at birth for all women giving birth in our university hospital by the midwife assisting with the delivery and then checked and collected during maternity stay by a single midwife ( i.p . ) qualified in data management and storage .
a gdm screening was performed early at 15 weeks gestation only for the subjects with a history of gdm or those who had two or more of the following criteria : family history of diabetes ; personal history of glucose intolerance ; pregravid bmi > 27 kg / m ; age > 35 years ; history of a previous pregnancy with gdm , preeclampsia , or malformation ; macrosomia ( birth weight > 4 kg ) and/or intrauterine fetal death ; current pregnancy with hypertension ; or estimated fetal weight > 90th percentile for gestational age on ultrasound scan .
unless gdm had been found in early pregnancy , gdm screening was performed in all women at 2428 weeks gestation or later if it was not possible during this period . in both cases
, gdm was diagnosed using a one - step screening and diagnostic test , with a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test ( 7 ) , and was defined as a fasting plasma glucose value 5.3
mmol / l ( the fasting plasma glucose target in the previous french recommendations ) ( 8) and/or a 2-h blood glucose value 7.8
this one - step screening was decided to limit the number lost to follow - up in our population characterized by a widespread geographic origin .
screening was precisely prescribed during the hospital routine follow - up visit and then performed out of the hospital .
the percentage of women without screening could be considered close to 12.5% ( 2011 data ) .
all women with diagnosed gdm were referred to a multidisciplinary team including a diabetologist , an... | objectivewe aimed to evaluate a selective screening strategy for gestational diabetes mellitus ( gdm ) based on the presence of risk factors : bmi 25 kg / m2 , age 35 years , family history of diabetes , personal history of gdm , or birth of a child with macrosomia.research design and methodsof 20,630 deliveries between 2002 and 2010 , we selected 18,775 deliveries in women with no known diabetes and for whom all risk factors were known .
gdm was universally screened and defined as fasting plasma glucose level 5.3 mmol / l and/or 2-h postload ( 75 g ) glucose level 7.8 mmol / l.resultsthe prevalence of at least one risk factor has increased since 2002 ( p < 0.001 ) from 51.7 to 61.5% , with no change in the gdm prevalence ( mean 14.4% , intention to screen ) .
at least one risk factor was present in 58.5% of women who represented 65.3% of all those with gdm .
the presence of risk factors was significantly associated with gdm ( odds ratio 1.4 [ 95% ci 1.31.5 ] , p < 0.001 ) and with gdm - related events ( preeclampsia / large for gestational age / dystocia ) ( p < 0.001 ) with the following incidences : no gdm / no risk factor 8.8% , no gdm / risk factor 11.1% , gdm / no risk factor 16.7% , and gdm / risk factor 18.2%.conclusionsthe presence of risk factors increased during the last decade .
this condition is predictive of gdm and gdm - related events .
however , a selective screening would lead to missing one - third of the women with gdm who , even without risk factors , had more events than women without gdm .
therefore , these data stand against the present selective screening currently proposed in the french guidelines . |
6,959 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: atrial fibrillation ( af ) is a common arrhythmia with an estimated clinical prevalence of approximately 1% in the general population and as high as 9% in individuals by the age of 80 years
myocardial dysfunction observed in sepsis could contribute to arrhythmias and inflammation per se could induce or provoke af .
we describe the management of an acute af in an elderly patient scheduled for emergency laparotomy .
a 77 year - old lady ( weight : 50 kg ) of american society of anaesthesiologists ( asa ) iii was scheduled for emergency laparotomy and closure of hollow viscous perforation .
she had an uneventful general anaesthesia for laparoscopic appendicectomy 2 days ago . however , she had abdominal pain and fever postoperatively in the ward for last 24 hours . on examination
, she was febrile ; her pulse was 110/min , regular ; blood pressure was 106/72 mmhg and respiratory rate was 20/min .
blood investigations done 6 hours prior to surgery revealed haemoglobin of 11.9 g / dl , total counts of 14,000/mm with 13% band forms , serum sodium 140 meq / l , potassium 3.6 meq / l , platelets 220,000/mm and creatinine of 1.4 mg% .
electrocardiogram ( ecg ) showed sinus tachycardia with heart rate ( hr ) of 106/min . in the operating room , baseline monitors ( pulsoximetry / non - invasive blood pressure / ecg ) were established .
ecg showed hr of 156/min in af , which was not present earlier and confirmed with 12-lead ecg .
, intravenous metoprolol was administered to control ventricular rate in aliquots of 1 mg to a total of 5 mg .
as the patient 's blood pressure was stable , patient 's trachea was intubated with rapid sequence induction using midazolam 1 mg , fentanyl 250 mcg , propofol 60 mg and succinylcholine 60 mg .
central line was inserted in right internal jugular vein ( ijv ) under aseptic precautions .
anaesthesia was maintained with air , oxygen , sevoflurane , fentanyl , hydromorphone and rocuronium .
as the hr was refractory to beta blockers , intravenous amiodarone 150 mg was administered .
hr... | atrial fibrillation ( af ) is a common arrhythmia with an estimated clinical prevalence of approximately 1% in the general population and as high as 9% in individuals by the age of 80 years .
the aetiology is multifactorial .
systemic disease , e.g. , inflammatory processes , sarcoidosis , autoimmune disorders , has also been linked to the development of af .
myocardial dysfunction observed in sepsis could contribute to arrhythmias and inflammation per se could induce or provoke af .
we describe the successful management of an acute af in an elderly patient scheduled for emergency laparotomy and closure of hollow viscous perforation . |
6,960 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: when vaginal hysterectomy ( vh ) is not possible , many surgeons are reluctant to use laparoscopic techniques on obese patients and instead use the abdominal approach .
current evidence suggests that there is no significant difference in outcomes for normal weight versus obese women undergoing laparoscopic hysterectomy ( lh ) .
however , more gynecologic surgeons will have to master new skill sets to offer this route universally . a growing body of evidence advocates the use of laparoscopic rather than open surgery in obese individuals .
the general surgery literature shows a preference for performing bariatric surgery with a laparoscopic rather than open approach .
a small case series in europe suggests that surgical and anesthetic complications are reduced when laparoscopy is used preferentially to abdominal approaches in gynecologic surgery .
o'hanlan et al suggest that a study comparing the outcomes of normal weight and obese women undergoing lh and abdominal hysterectomy ( ah ) would contribute to the gynecologic literature .
the objective of this study was to compare the surgical outcomes of obese and normal weight women having hysterectomy according to the route of the procedure .
an analysis was performed of patients who had surgery by faculty offering all 3 approaches ( ah , vh , lh ) .
hysterectomy procedures from june 6 , 2001 ( the date of the first total laparoscopic hysterectomy offered in the institution ) through february 9 , 2006 were analyzed .
all hysterectomies performed by these surgeons during this time period are included in this study .
the indication for surgery , operative time , anesthesia time , complications , estimated blood loss , change in hematocrit , conversion of route , uterine weight , wound complications , and transfusion events were tabulated .
demographics and medical history information were also collected including age , race , gravidity , parity , weight , height , and history of prior uterine scar ( including cesarean delivery , myomectomy , or other incision into... | objective : our objective was to compare the surgical outcomes of obese women having hysterectomy according to the route ( abdominal , vaginal , or laparoscopic ) of the procedure.methods:a chart review of 293 hysterectomy procedures was performed .
data were collected including operative and anesthesia time , estimated blood loss , change in hematocrit , hospital stay , complications , conversion to laparotomy , transfusion , and body mass index .
an analysis of variance and a newman - keuls multiple comparison test were performed.results:obese women experienced a significant decrease in hospital days ( 2.5 versus 4.2 ) and reported blood loss ( 204 ml versus 455 ml ) in the laparoscopic hysterectomy and vaginal hysterectomy groups compared with the abdominal hysterectomy group .
no significant difference was found in obese women between laparoscopic and abdominal hysterectomy for time spent in surgery and under anesthesia . for obese and normal weight women ,
vaginal hysterectomy offered the shortest surgery , anesthesia times , and hospital stays.conclusions:for normal and obese women , vaginal hysterectomy offered the shortest hospital stay and surgery time . in obese patients for whom
vaginal hysterectomy is not possible , laparoscopic hysterectomy should be considered before abdominal hysterectomy , because the laparoscopic route reduced hospital time and blood loss . |
6,961 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome ( pres ) relates to a transient pattern of brain edema mostly involving the parietal and occipital regions . severe hypertension may lead to pres when overcoming brain autoregulation with subsequent breakthrough brain edema .
we describe a case of asymmetric pres associated with the presence of a hyperplastic anterior choroidal artery ( acha ) in a man affected by severe hypertension .
a 58-year man , with a history of mild hypertension , was referred to the emergency room for a sudden onset of visual disturbance , difficulty in speech , headache and mental confusion .
clinical examination revealed increased blood pressure ( 220 mmhg ) , mild anemia ( hgb , 10.5 g / dl ) and hyper - cholesterolemia ( 250 mg / dl ) on routine blood work .
neurologic examination revealed left homonymous lateral hemianopia , mild difficulty in searching words , mild pronation and downward drift of the right arm .
subcortical patchy hypodense foci localized in the parietal - occipital lobes , asymmetric for left predominance without enhancement after i.v .
multiple hypodense confluent areas localized in the supratentorial white matter as a result of chronic ischemic cerebral disease were evident as well .
mri , performed immediately after ct , showed the presence of asymmetric cortico - subcortical patchy hyperintense areas on flair images mostly localized in the left parieto - occipital lobe ( fig .
no signal alteration was seen in dwi images while adc maps showed high signal indicating vasogenic edema ( fig .
no pathological enhancement was seen after contrast administration.fig . 1the first mri ( a c ) showed cortical
subcortical patchy hyperintense areas on t2 flair - weighted images ( a ) localized in the parietal occipital lobes with asymmetric representation for left predominance .
no signal alteration was seen in dwi images ( b ) in presence of high signal on adc maps indicating vasogenic edema ( c ) .
mri exam after 3 months demonstrated complete resolution of the... | we describe a case of asymmetric pres due to the presence of hyperplastic anterior choroidal artery ( acha ) in a man affected by sever hypertension .
posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome ( pres ) has become synonymous with a unique pattern of brain vasogenic edema and predominates in the parietal and occipital regions , accompanied by clinical neurological alterations .
sever hypertension is a risk factor that exceeds the limits of brain autoregulation , leading to breakthrough brain edema . in our knowledge
this is the first case reported in literature , in which a similar vascular abnormality is linked to a pres syndrome . |
6,962 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: electrochemical water
oxidation , also known as the oxygen evolution
reaction ( oer ) , is a key energy conversion reaction in a number of
clean energy technologies , including rechargeable metal
air
batteries , electrolysis cells , and solar fuel production . widespread commercialization of these technologies is limited in
part by the scarcity and high cost of the best known catalysts for
the oer , ruthenium and iridium oxides .
nickel oxides
( niox ) present a viable alternative to
precious metal oxides in alkaline environments and are currently used
in commercially available alkaline electrolyzers .
other
nonprecious metal oxides , including manganese oxides ( mnox ) and cobalt oxides ( coox ) , have also demonstrated promising oer activity under alkaline conditions . to facilitate the development of nonprecious metal oer catalysts
with improved activities , it is necessary to identify the specific
catalytic sites that participate in the reaction and accurately determine
their turnover frequencies .
although isolating site - specific turnover
frequencies can be challenging in oxide electrocatalysts , the likelihood
of success can be improved if the catalytic activity is studied on
well - defined materials deposited on inert supports .
there have been conflicting reports in the recent
literature regarding
the role metal supports play in the oer activity of metal oxide catalysts .
a study , which used pt(111 ) and au(111 ) single crystal surfaces as
supports for oer catalysts , demonstrated that the oer activity of
four first row transitional metal oxides did not vary with the nature
of the metal support and was linearly dependent on the coverage of
the support by the metal oxide .
other
reports , however , have shown that the oer activities of nickel , cobalt , and manganese
oxides were influenced by the nature of the underlying
support , and that the oer turnover frequency of a bulk metal oxide
was inferior to that of a submonolayer amount of the same... | to
develop active nonprecious metal - based electrocatalysts for
the oxygen evolution reaction ( oer ) , a limiting reaction in several
emerging renewable energy technologies , a deeper understanding of
the activity of the first row transition metal oxides is needed .
previous
studies of these catalysts have reported conflicting results on the
influence of noble metal supports on the oer activity of the transition
metal oxides .
our study aims to clarify the interactions between a
transition metal oxide catalyst and its metal support in turning over
this reaction . to achieve this goal
, we examine a catalytic system
comprising nanoparticulate au , a common electrocatalytic support ,
and nanoparticulate mnox , a promising
oer catalyst .
we conclusively demonstrate that adding au to mnox significantly enhances oer activity relative
to mnox in the absence of au , producing
an order of magnitude higher turnover frequency ( tof ) than the tof
of the best pure mnox catalysts reported
to date .
we also provide evidence that it is a local rather than bulk
interaction between au and mnox that leads
to the observed enhancement in the oer activity .
engineering improvements
in nonprecious metal - based catalysts by the addition of au or other
noble metals could still represent a scalable catalyst as even trace
amounts of au are shown to lead a significant enhancement in the oer
activity of mnox . |
6,963 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: there is concern that older people with reduced respiratory muscle strength may be misclassified as having copd on the basis of spirometric results and receive unnecessary and potentially harmful treatment . with increasing age , the smaller pulmonary airways more readily collapse and forced vital capacity ( fvc ) , forced expiratory volume in 1 second ( fev1 ) , and forced expiratory flow decrease ; there is an increase in functional residual capacity and expiratory reserve volume , residual volume increases , and there is little change in total lung capacity.13 in addition with aging , there is a decreased respiratory response to hypoxemia and hypercapnia and a reduced perception of raised resistance of the airway.2 there is a loss of synovial joints between the sternum and the costal cartilages reducing chest wall compliance and tension forces , leading to reduced maximal respiratory pressure and decreased muscle mass and strength of accessory respiratory muscles.4 it has also been observed that there is a significant decrease by 25% in the diaphragm strength in the older compared with young adults.5 one study has observed that inspiratory ( mainly diaphragmatic ) strength has been considered to be the most relevant in relation to function , fatigue , and training.6 with aging , there is a triad of loss of muscle mass , strength , and function defined as sarcopenia .
this is common and has serious consequences including increased risk of current and future falls , dependency , hospitalization , and mortality .
grip strength is recommended as a simple standardized clinical measure used in the diagnosis of sarcopenia.7 age - associated skeletal muscle changes may impact respiratory muscle function , and a positive correlation between grip strength and inspiratory and expiratory muscle strength has been demonstrated.810 reduced lung function ( in particular fev1 and fvc ) after adjusting for age , smoking , and physical activity has been demonstrated with reduced skeletal muscle mass in korea.11 copd is... | objectiveolder people with reduced respiratory muscle strength may be misclassified as having copd on the basis of spirometric results .
we aimed to evaluate the relationship between lung function and grip strength in older hospitalized patients without known airways disease.methodspatients in acute medical wards were recruited who were aged 70 years ; no history , symptoms , or signs of respiratory disease ; mini mental state examination 24 ; willing and able to consent to participate ; and able to perform hand grip and forced spirometry .
data including lung function ( forced expiratory volume in 1 second [ fev1 ] , forced vital capacity [ fvc ] , fev1/fvc , peak expiratory flow rate [ pefr ] , and slow vital capacity [ svc ] ) , grip strength , age , weight , and height were recorded .
data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and linear regression unadjusted and adjusted ( for age , height , and weight).resultsa total of 50 patients ( 20 men ) were recruited .
stronger grip strength in men was significantly associated with greater fev1 , but this was attenuated by adjustment for age , height , and weight .
significant positive associations were found in women between grip strength and both pefr and svc , both of which remained robust to adjustment.conclusionthe association between grip strength and pefr and svc may reflect stronger patients generating higher intrathoracic pressure at the start of spirometry and pushing harder against thoracic cage recoil at end - expiration .
conversely , patients with weaker grip strength had lower pefr and svc . these patients may be misclassified as having copd on the basis of spirometric results . |
6,964 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: focal choroidal excavation ( fce ) was first described by jampol et al1 as an anomalous excavation of the choroid ; it is typically observed by optical coherence tomography ( oct).1,2 this condition has been associated with several chorioretinal conditions and asymptomatic status , including central serous chorioretinopathy , choroidal neovascularization , and best vitelliform macular dystrophy.112 however , the mechanisms underlying the formation of fce remain uncertain .
wakabayashi et al2 described two patterns of fce : 1 ) conforming pattern excavations that involved the outer retinal layers up to and including the external limiting membrane ; and 2 ) nonconforming pattern excavations that involved only the retinal pigment epithelium ( rpe ) .
here we describe a clinical course of fce associated with vkh before and after treatment and compare the morphological findings of fce in four subjects with different chorioretinal conditions .
a 55-year - old man ( subject 1 ) presented with bilateral metamorphopsia , with decimal visual acuity being 0.8 in the right eye and 1.2 in the left .
the clinical diagnosis of vkh was made based on bilateral panuveitis and multifocal exudative retinal detachments at the posterior poles ( figure 1 ) .
the serous detachments entirely resolved within 9 weeks and visual acuity in the right eye improved to 1.2 .
serial spectral - domain oct ( sd - oct ) images obtained at the preuveitic , uveitic , and posttreatment phase are shown in figure 2 .
sd - oct obtained 1 year before the onset of vkh due to symptoms of a floater and visual disturbance demonstrated a dome - shaped posterior protrusion of the rpe and outer retinal layers into the choroidal cavity ( ie , conforming fce ) at the fovea in the right eye .
sd - oct at the uveitic phase identified multiple bilateral sensory retinal detachments , with the fce now involving only the rpe ( ie , nonconforming fce ) .
the fce pattern and its alteration during treatment of the case with vkh were compared to those of four subjects... | we describe focal choroidal excavation ( fce ) in a case of vogt koyanagi harada ( vkh ) disease and compare the findings with different chorioretinal conditions .
a 55-year - old man was diagnosed with vkh based on panuveitis and exudative retinal detachments .
spectral - domain optical coherence tomography demonstrated a dome - shaped protrusion with a nonconforming pattern at the fovea , which had been detected as a conforming pattern 1 year before the onset .
the fce pattern returned into a conforming pattern following corticosteroid therapy .
these findings suggest that the natively existent fce could be affected by pathophysiological changes of vkh as well as other chorioretinal conditions . |
6,965 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: levocetirizine ( lcz ) , an active enantiomer of cetirizine , is a second - generation antihistamine that was approved by the us food and drug administration in 2008 for the relief of symptoms associated with allergic diseases in adults and children [ 1 - 3 ] .
although it has some side effects such as sleepiness , headache , dry mouth , vision problems , palpitation , and fatigue it is considered to be effective and safe treating allergic disease .
we present the first report of lcz - induced liver injury with histologic confirmation in a 48-year - old man without a history of hepatobiliary disease .
a 48-year - old man without significant medical history was referred from the dermatology department due to jaundice and generalized pruritus .
the patient did not report any fatigue , anorexia , nausea , abdominal discomfort , fever , rash , myalgia , muscle weakness , swelling , and recent illness .
medication in recent use included lcz 5 mg daily for 2 months , and the patient had been taking bepotastine besilate 10 mg daily until 2 months ago .
he did not report taking any other medications including statins , over - the - counter medications , herbal medications including red ginseng or any extract or nutritional supplements .
specific history of exposure to hepatotoxic chemicals or familial history of liver disease was not identified .
initial blood pressure was 110/70 mmhg , pulse rate 88/min , respiratory rate 18/min , and body temperature 36.7c .
laboratory findings revealed prothrombin time 11.8 s , international normalized ratio 0.88 , aspartate aminotransferase ( ast ) 1,208 iu / l , alanine aminotransferase ( alt ) 2,043
iu / l , total bilirubin 8.68 mg / dl , direct bilirubin 7.23 mg / dl , alkaline phosphatase 184 u / l , lactate dehydrogenase 463
iu / l , protein 5.9 g / dl , albumin 3.9 g / dl , and creatine phosphokinase 21 iu / l .
serologic viral marker evaluations revealed hepatitis b surface antigen negative , antibody to hepatitis b surface antigen positive , antibody to hepatitis b core... | levocetirizine is a second - generation nonsedative antihistaminic agent that has been demonstrated to be safe and effective for treating allergic disease .
there was only one case report of levocetirizine - induced liver toxicity , but a liver biopsy was not performed . in this article , we present the first case of levocetirizine - induced liver injury with histologic findings .
a 48-year - old man was hospitalized with jaundice and generalized pruritus that had developed after 2 months of therapy with levocetirizine for prurigo nodularis .
laboratory findings revealed acute hepatitis with cholestasis .
a liver biopsy demonstrated portal inflammation and hepatitis with apoptotic hepatocytes .
the patient fully recovered 3 weeks after withdrawing levocetirizine .
although levocetirizine is safe and effective , physicians should be aware of its potential hepatotoxicity . |
6,966 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: bacterial vaginosis ( bv ) is a common condition causing various symptoms such as vaginal
discharge , odor and irritation , and has been associated with increased
acquisition of many sexually transmitted diseases [ 1 , 2 ] .
pregnant women with bv have an increased risk
of preterm labor and preterm delivery with the potential for neonatal morbidity
and mortality . early research concerning bv characterized the vaginal
microbiological flora using gram stain and culture [ 4 , 5 ] .
more recent studies
have focused on host defense factors and the local immune response that may
mediate the relationship between vaginal flora and adverse reproductive and
pregnancy outcomes [ 6 , 7 ] .
( il-1 ) , interleukin 6 ( il-6 ) , interleukin 8 ( il-8 ) , and the host defense
molecule secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor ( slpi ) have been of particular
interest [ 810 ] .
subjects are routinely asked to
avoid vaginal intercourse and the use of intravaginal products that might affect
test results prior to having specimens collected . however , compliance with
these requests is difficult to assess .
when vaginal fluid is collected to
measure cytokine concentrations , it is important to determine what effect , if
any , there may be on the results if semen is present .
the objective of this analysis was to
determine whether semen present in vaginal fluid alters proinflammatory
cytokine or slpi concentrations .
we hypothesized that the presence of semen
would increase the concentrations of vaginal proinflammatory cytokines and
slpi .
this secondary analysis included data from 138
pregnant women , between 7 and 20 weeks gestation , who participated in a
prospective observational cohort study of the effects of bv on pregnancy
outcome .
subjects were recruited from
the prenatal clinics associated with the university of washington medical center in seattle ,
wash , usa . participation in the study was limited to
those subjects who met the following criteria : singleton... | the presence of semen in vaginal fluid , as identified by an acid phosphatase spot test , does not influence vaginal proinflammatory cytokine concentrations . objective : determine whether semen , as detected by acid phosphatase , influences vaginal cytokines or secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor concentrations .
methods : 138 pregnant women had vaginal fluid collected for gram stain , acid phosphatase detection by colorimetric assay , and interleukin 1-beta , interleukin-6 , interleukin-8 , and secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor measurement by enzyme immunoassay .
results for women with and without acid phosphatase were compared by mann - whitney test .
results : of 138 subjects , 28 ( 20% ) had acid phosphatase detected ; of these , only 19 ( 68% ) reported recent intercourse and 3 ( 11% ) had sperm seen on gram stain .
there were no significant differences in proinflammatory cytokine concentrations ; however , secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor concentrations were significantly higher among women with acid phosphatase .
conclusions : proinflammatory cytokine measurement does not appear to be affected by the presence of semen , but secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor is significantly higher when semen is present .
detection of semen by acid phosphatase was associated with higher vaginal
slpi concentrations , however , the presence of semen did not appear to influence vaginal
proinflammatory cytokine concentrations . |
6,967 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: longipalpis were obtained from santarm and camar colonies , maintained
at the department of entomology , oswaldo cruz foundation , rio de janeiro ( rj ) ,
brazil .
salivary glands of three - five days - old non blood - fed adult female
lu .
longipalpis were dissected , transferred to microtubes
containing phosphate buffer saline ( pbs ) and lysed by sonication .
the homogenates
were centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 1 min to remove debris and the supernatants were
transferred to new tubes and stored to -80c until use .
parasites - leishmania amazonensis
( mhom / br/75/josefa ) was maintained on schneider insect 's medium supplemented with
10% foetal calf serum and 2% human urine at 26c .
briefly , stationary promastigotes
of five - six day cultures were collected , washed and resuspended at 1 x 10
/ml density in rpmi-1640 . parasites ( 4 ml ) were then overlaid on 4
ml of ficoll ( 10% ) in pbs and centrifuged at room temperature ( rt ) for 10 min at
1,300 g with the brake off .
metacyclic forms were collected in the
10% ficoll layer , washed twice in pbs and resuspended in pbs for assays .
reagents - factor xa was purchased from calbiochem ( san diego , ca ,
usa ) .
human factor va and factor x were purchased from haematologic technologies
( essex junction , vt , usa ) .
human factor ixa was purchased from american diagnostica
( greenwich , ct , usa ) .
human fviii ( advate ) was purchased from baxter healthcare
corporation ( westlake village , ca , usa ) and was activated with human thrombin as
previously described ( astermark et al .
chromogenic substrates for factor xa
( s-2765 , n--benzyloxycarbonyl - d - arg - gly - arg - p - nitroanilide ) and thrombin ( s-2238 ,
h - d - phenylalanyl - l - pipecolyl - l - arginine - p - nitroanilinedihydrochloride ) were
purchased from diapharma ( westchester , oh , usa ) . activated partial thromboplastin
time ( aptt ) ( cephalin plus kaolin ) and prothrombin time ( pt ) ( thromboplastin with
calcium ) reagents were from... | leishmania parasites expose phosphatidylserine ( ps ) on their
surface , a process that has been associated with regulation of host 's immune
responses . in this study
we demonstrate that ps exposure by metacyclic
promastigotes of leishmania amazonensis favours blood
coagulation .
l. amazonensis accelerates in vitro coagulation of
human plasma .
in addition , l. amazonensis supports the assembly
of the prothrombinase complex , thus promoting thrombin formation .
this process
was reversed by annexin v which blocks ps binding sites . during blood meal ,
lutzomyia longipalpis sandfly inject saliva in the bite
site , which has a series of pharmacologically active compounds that inhibit
blood coagulation .
since saliva and parasites are co - injected in the host during
natural transmission , we evaluated the anticoagulant properties of sandfly
saliva in counteracting the procoagulant activity of l.
amazonensis .
lu .
longipalpis saliva reverses
plasma clotting promoted by promastigotes .
it also inhibits thrombin formation
by the prothrombinase complex assembled either in phosphatidylcholine ( pc)/ps
vesicles or in l. amazonensis .
sandfly saliva inhibits factor
x activation by the intrinsic tenase complex assembled on pc / ps vesicles and
blocks factor xa catalytic activity .
altogether our results show that metacyclic
promastigotes of l. amazonensis are procoagulant due to ps
exposure .
notably , this effect is efficiently counteracted by sandfly
saliva . |
6,968 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: eligible patients were drawn from 2 truven marketscan databases : commercial claims & encounters and medicare supplemental & coordination of benefits .
large selfinsured employers , health plans , hospitals , and medicare contribute claims data to these databases .
the full population includes 26 million people annually in the commercial data and 4 million people annually in the medicare claims .
the medicare population includes people 65 and older with employersponsored comprehensive hmo coverage through medicare advantage or supplemental coverage through medigap plans .
marketscan data are widely used in health services research to characterize patterns of care.18 , 19 , 20 , 21 compared to the whole us population , the marketscan population is generally younger , more likely to be employed , and thus wealthier .
previous comparisons have shown that marketscan represents the under65 , noncapitated population well.22 this study was deemed not human subjects research by the health care policy compliance office , in accordance with the office of human research administration , harvard longwood medical area policy , and federal regulations [ 45 cfr 46.102(f ) ] .
we matched inpatient and outpatient claims using dates of service to form episodes of care that included any international classification of disease , 9th revision clinical modification ( icd9cm ) procedure codes or current procedural terminology codes related to the 3 devices of interest .
though we focused primarily on crtp and crtd implants , we identified icd implants to provide context according to overall device utilization .
we limited the sample to adults ( 18 years old ) receiving new implants between 2008 and 2013 by excluding episodes with codes that indicated removals , revisions , and generator changes , and then classified each new implant as icd , crtd , or crtp ( figure 1 ) .
tables s1 and s2 list the specific codes used to select new implants and classify devices .
we required 6 months of continuous enrollment prior to implant in... | backgroundcardiac implantable electric devices are commonly used to treat heart failure .
little is known about temporal and geographic variation in use of cardiac resynchronization therapy ( crt ) devices in usual care settings.methods and resultswe identified new crt with pacemaker ( crtp ) or defibrillator generators ( crtd ) implanted between 2008 and 2013 in the united states from a commercial claims database . for each implant , we characterized prior medication use , comorbidities , and geography . among 17 780 patients with crt devices ( median age 69 , 31% women ) ,
crtps were a small and increasing share of crt devices , growing from 12% to 20% in this study period . compared to crtd recipients ,
crtp recipients were older ( median age 76 versus 67 ) , and more likely to be female ( 40% versus 30% ) .
preimplant use of blockers and angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin ii receptor blockers was low in both crtd ( 46% ) and crtp ( 31% ) patients .
the fraction of crtp devices among all new implants varied widely across states . compared to the increasing national trend , the share of crtp implants was relatively increasing in kansas and relatively decreasing in minnesota and oregon.conclusionsin this large , contemporary heart failure population , crtd use dwarfed crtp , though the latter nearly doubled over 6 years .
practice patterns vary substantially across states and over time .
medical therapy appears suboptimal in realworld practice . |
6,969 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: lateral elbow pain is common with a population prevalence of 1%3%.1 the peak incidence occurs at around 4050 years of age group and in women aged 4246 years , incidence increases to 10%.23 in the uk , the netherlands , and scandinavia , the annual incidence of lateral elbow pain in general practice is 4 - 7/1000 population.345 the term was coined in 1883 as lawn - tennis elbow.6 inflammatory cells are not found in the tendon tissues ; therefore , nirschl et al . coined the term
angiofibroblastic tendinosis to describe this condition.78 its common name , tennis elbow , is somewhat of a misnomer because the condition is often work related and occurs in athletes and nonathletes alike.9 the condition starts as a micro - tear in extensor carpi radialis brevis.10 acute onset of symptoms occurs more often in young athletes ; chronic , recalcitrant symptoms typically occur in older patients.9 conservative measures are undertaken initially because symptoms in most patients improve with time and rest .
those who fail to respond to conservative therapy are considered for surgical treatment.11 the goals of nonoperative treatment are to revitalize the unhealthy pain producing tendinosis tissue.10 nonoperative treatment includes rehabilitative resistance exercise with progression of the exercise program,10 corticosteroid injection,12 autologous blood injection,13 extracorporeal shock wave therapy,14 botulinum toxin injection,15 and hyaluronic acid with chondroitin sulfate injection.16 platelets , an important reservoir of growth factors in the body , play an important role in many processes such as coagulation , immune response , angiogenesis , and the healing of damaged tissues .
numerous proteins are contained in the alpha - granules of platelets : platelet - derived growth factor , transforming growth factor , platelet factor interleukin , platelet - derived angiogenesis factor , vascular endothelial growth factor , epidermal growth factor , insulin - like growth factor , and fibronectin.17 single or multiple... | background : lateral elbow pain is common with a population prevalence of 1%3% .
the study was a comparative trial to validate the efficacy of single injection of platelet - rich plasma ( prp ) for tennis elbow as compared with single injections of triamcinolone and placebo ( normal saline ) over a short term period.materials and methods : comparative trial with 3- and 6-month followup evaluated with visual analog scale ( vas ) and facial pain scale ( fps ) .
our study included a total of eighty patients with unilateral or bilateral tennis elbows .
the study population included patients between 20 and 40 years age group belonging to either sex with seventy unilateral and ten bilateral affections for more than 3-month duration . patients suffering from elbow pain due to other problems or those who have received any form of injection were excluded from the study .
one milliliter of 2% xylocaine injection was given before injecting the proposed formulation under trial .
vas and fps were used for scoring pain .
kruskal
wallis test and mann whitney u - tests were used for statistical analyses at 12 and 24 weeks.results:overall , 49 females and 31 males were included with thirty elbows in each group . both the prp and triamcinolone groups had better pain relief at 3 and 6 months as compared to normal saline group ( p < 0.05 ) , but at 6 months followup , the prp group had statistically significant better pain relief than triamcinolone group . in the triamcinolone group ,
13 patients had injection site hypopigmentation and 3 patients had subdermal atrophy.conclusion:over a short term period , prp gives better pain relief than triamcinolone or normal saline in tennis elbow which needs to be validated over long term period by further studies . |
6,970 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: arsenic
is recognized as one of the most serious inorganic contaminants
in soil and groundwater worldwide , with significant public health
implications .
arsenic often makes its way into soil and water courses
by the natural processes of weathering and dissolution of minerals
such as arsenian pyrite , fe(as , s)2 , and arsenopyrite , feass .
anthropogenic activities , particularly mineral
extraction and processing can also introduce arsenic - rich effluents
into the environment if not carefully monitored and controlled .
the effects of arsenic on human health are highly
detrimental , with arsenic poisoning being linked to neurological disorders ,
dermatological and gastrointestinal problems , and it is also a known
carcinogen .
arsenic can exist in a range of oxidation
states from 3
to + 5 , although in aqueous solutions it is most commonly found as
as(iii ) or as(v ) oxyacids .
as(iii ) is both more toxic ( 2065
times ) and more mobile ( being able to travel five to six times faster )
than as(v ) and is one of the main toxic species in natural waters . analyses of hydrothermal fluids show that as is transported mainly
as as(iii ) , and the uptake of as(iii )
from aqueous solutions is reported to occur via neutral molecules ,
which suggest that arsenous acid ( as(oh)3 ) or related species
could be the common form of arsenic in contaminated waters .
an understanding of the geochemistry of as(oh)3 in low
temperature anoxic sedimentary environments is therefore crucial to
the development of safe drinking water and food supplies in many countries . of the processes influencing arsenite mobility , reactive mineral
water
interfaces exert control on the bioavailability of contaminant arsenic
species in natural aqueous systems .
the adsorption of arsenic species
onto mineral surfaces strongly affects their concentrations in aqueous
environments . in recent years
,
iron sulfide mackinawite ( fes ) , has attracted
significant interests for environmental remediation... | reactive
mineral water interfaces exert control on the bioavailability
of contaminant arsenic species in natural aqueous systems . however ,
the ability to accurately predict as surface complexation is limited
by the lack of molecular - level understanding of as water mineral
interactions . in the present study , we report the structures and properties
of the adsorption complexes of arsenous acid ( as(oh)3 )
on hydrated mackinawite ( fes ) surfaces , obtained from density functional
theory ( dft ) calculations .
the fundamental aspects of the adsorption ,
including the registries of the adsorption complexes , adsorption energies ,
and structural parameters are presented .
the fes surfaces are shown
to be stabilized by hydration , as is perhaps to be expected because
the adsorbed water molecules stabilize the low - coordinated surface
atoms .
as(oh)3
adsorbs weakly at the water
fes(001 )
interface through a network of hydrogen - bonded interactions with water
molecules on the surface , with the lowest - energy structure calculated
to be an as up outer - sphere complex . compared to the water
fes(001 )
interface , stronger adsorption was calculated for as(oh)3 on the water
fes(011 ) and water
fes(111 ) interfaces ,
characterized by strong hybridization between the s - p and o - p states of as(oh)3 and the surface
fe - d states .
the as(oh)3 molecule displayed
a variety of chemisorption geometries on the water
fes(011 )
and water
fes(111 ) interfaces , where the most stable configuration
at the water
fes(011 ) interface is a bidentate fe aso fe
complex , but on the water
fes(111 ) interface , a monodentate
fe o fe complex was found .
detailed information regarding
the adsorption mechanisms has been obtained via projected density
of states ( pdos ) and electron density difference iso - surface analyses
and vibrational frequency assignments of the adsorbed as(oh)3 molecule . |
6,971 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the incidence of parenchymal brain metastasis ( pbm ) from primary systemic cancer has been increasing along with prolonged survival of the patients with cancer .
recent report showed that up to 30% of cancer patients can be expected to develop pbm according to the types of primary cancer6,12 ) .
a population - based estimate of the incidence proportion of pbm was highest for lung cancer followed by melanoma , renal- , and breast cancer3 ) .
however , leptomeningeal carcinomatosis ( lmc ) , which is one of terminal manifestations of central nervous system ( cns ) metastasis from systemic malignancy , remains incurable without a discernible advance in treatment over the past decades .
lmc also has been diagnosed more frequently with the advancement of neuroimaging and prolonged survival of cancer patients8,13,29 ) . among the pathogenesis of lmc , spread of cancer cells followed by surgical resection ( sr )
has been suggested from several clinical observations of solid tumors including malignant brain tumors2,11,16,22,23,34 ) .
although the overall incidence of lmc is difficult to estimate according to pbm status , it is apparent that the primary cancer showing a high incidence of pbm , such as lung cancer , breast cancer or melanoma , develops into a high proportion of lmc among those cancer patients5,35 ) .
several reports suggested that the risk for development of lmc may increase in patients with pbm who underwent sr compared with non - surgical treatment , and at the same time , the risk may also be affected by factors such as location of the tumor , treatment modality and the histology of primary cancer21,23,24,30 - 33 ) . however , to our knowledge , neither a controlled - prospective study nor any study which attempted to adjust these variables to evaluate the significant risk factors for lmc has been reported .
breast cancer is known to be the second most common cancer associated with pbm and is also , one of the most common primary cancers that causes lmc5,6,38 ) .
thus , we retrospectively collected... | objectivethe objective of study is to evaluate the incidence of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis ( lmc ) in breast cancer patients with parenchymal brain metastases ( pbm ) and clinical risk factors for the development of lmc.methodswe retrospectively analyzed 27 patients who had undergone surgical resection ( sr ) and 156 patients with whole brain radiation therapy ( wbrt ) as an initial treatment for their pbm from breast cancer in our institution and compared the difference of incidence of lmc according to clinical factors .
the diagnosis of lmc was made by cerebrospinal fluid cytology and/or magnetic resonance imaging.resultsa total of 27 patients ( 14% ) in the study population developed lmc at a median of 6.0 months ( range , 1.0 - 50 ) .
ten of 27 patients ( 37% ) developed lmc after sr , whereas 17 of 156 ( 11% ) patients who received wbrt were diagnosed with lmc after the index procedure .
the incidence of lmc was significantly higher in the sr group compared with the wbrt group and the hazard ratio was 2.95 ( 95% confidence interval ; 1.33 - 6.54 , p<0.01 ) .
three additional factors were identified in the multivariable analysis : the younger age group ( < 40 years old ) , the progressing systemic disease showed significantly increased incidence of lmc , whereas the adjuvant chemotherapy reduce the incidence.conclusionthere is an increased risk of lmc after sr for pbm from breast cancer compared with wbrt
. the young age ( < 40 ) and systemic burden of cancer in terms of progressing systemic disease without adjuvant chemotherapy could be additional risk factors for the development of lmc . |
6,972 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: subarachnoid - pleural fistula ( spf ) is an abnormal communication between the subarachnoid and pleural spaces that normally can arise from blunt or penetrating trauma or as a complication of chest operation .
this occurs infrequently following cardiothoracic surgery for lung or chest wall resection and closure of patent ductus arteriosus , spine surgery for transthoracic discectomy [ 3 , 4 ] , removal of vertebral tumors , or spinal fusion .
symptoms develop from the accumulation of pleural fluid , the reduced volume of cerebrospinal fluid ( csf ) , the presence of intracranial air , or the development of meningitis , with outcomes ranging from benign to catastrophic .
this complication most frequently occurs in the setting of a tumour that occupies the costovertebral angle requiring extrapleural dissection , excessive rib retraction , or disarticulation of the costotransverse joint leading to nerve root avulsion or dural tear .
following confirmation of the spf diagnosis by computed tomography ( ct ) myelography or radionuclide cisternography , conservative therapies such as lumbar drainage to divert csf flow may be successful , though this is less likely to occur in patients who have undergone previous surgery or received radiotherapy to the affected area .
consequently , direct operative repair of the dural defect with fine non - absorbable suture and reinforcing repair with a tissue patch is often necessary for permanent definitive treatment of the established spf .
this paper describes the diagnosis and management of two cases of spf encountered by the senior author that illustrate the typical course to presentations of this complication .
this motivates a detailed anatomic description of cerebrospinal fluid fistulas to the pleural space , with elaboration of intraoperative techniques to lessen the likelihood of such complication .
an 18-year - old woman with a known diagnosis of wilm 's tumor had undergone left nephrectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy at 15 months of age .
tumor recurrence was... | subarachnoid - pleural fistula ( spf ) is a rare complication of chest or spine operations for neoplastic disease .
concomitant dural and parietal pleural defects permit flow of cerebrospinal fluid into the pleural cavity or intrapleural air into the subarachnoid space .
dural injury recognized intraoperatively permits immediate repair , but unnoticed damage may cause postoperative pleural effusion , intracranial hypotension , meningitis , or pneumocephalus .
we review two cases of spf following surgical intervention for chest wall metastatic disease to motivate a detailed review of the anatomy of neural , osseous , and ligamentous structures at the intervertebral foramen .
we further provide recommendations for avoidance and detection of such complication . |
6,973 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: thus , the high prevalence of olfactory dysfunction after surgery or head trauma has a great effect on overall quality of life . following head injury with a fracture across the cribriform plate ,
a minor blow to the occipital area may result in anosmia due to tearing or shearing of olfactory nerve filaments .
the olfactory nerve and tracts are also at risk during intradural explorations using the interhemispheric approach or the frontotemporal approach [ 10 , 11 ] .
both approaches require some degree of frontal lobe retraction , which may result in temporary or permanent olfactory dysfunction because of nerve avulsion or mechanical compression [ 3 , 4 , 6 , 12 ] .
furthermore , it is well known that bilateral anosmia is highly likely to occur when bilateral olfactory nerves are pulled out from the frontal base .
it is not always true that preservation of the anatomical structure will result in preservation of function .
however , preservation of anatomical structure may be an important factor in the preservation of olfactory function . based on this background
, strength tests of the human olfactory nerve at the frontal skull base were performed using cadavers , and the microsurgical anatomical features of this nerve were reviewed in order to identify operative nuances that may contribute to reducing the rate of postoperative olfactory dysfunction .
all procedures were conducted in accordance with the institutional guideline of jikei university and the tokyo medical examiner s office .
ninety brains were obtained from autopsies of 68 men and 22 women , aged 2480 years at the time of death .
they were within 12 h after death and had no intracranial disease or trauma .
the calvaria was opened , and the brain was removed en bloc after the olfactory nerves were severed 1015 mm from the skull base with minimal retraction ( figs . 1 and 2a ) .
the calvaria was positioned so that the frontal base was perpendicular to the ground without rotation .
then , the cut edges of the olfactory nerves were clipped and... | olfactory dysfunction may influence the quality of life tremendously .
this study investigated the strength of the human olfactory nerve at the frontal skull base using cadavers .
a total of 180 olfactory nerves were examined in 90 human cadaveric heads .
the cut edges of the olfactory nerves were pulled until they were pulled out from the skull base . in the first set of 30 cases , each right olfactory nerve
was pulled 0 laterally and 0 upward , and each left olfactory nerve was pulled 0 laterally and 15 upward . in the second set of 30 cases , each right olfactory nerve was pulled 0 laterally and 15 upward , and each left olfactory nerve was pulled 15 laterally and 15 upward . in the third set of 30 cases ,
each right olfactory nerve was pulled 15 laterally and 15 upward , and each left olfactory nerve was pulled 30 laterally and 15 upward .
the strength of the olfactory nerve was measured when pulled in each direction .
there was no significant difference in the strength of the olfactory nerves when pulling them in the postero - upward direction between 0 and 15 upward .
the strengths of the olfactory nerves when pulling them in the postero - lateral direction 0 and 15 laterally were 3.141.87 and 4.051.70 g ( mean standard deviation [ sd ] ) , respectively ; the difference was almost significant .
the olfactory nerve could be pulled more laterally than posteriorly because the retraction force is absorbed by the lateral wall of the olfactory fossa . |
6,974 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in the absence of telomerase , telomere shortening limits the replicative lifespan of human cells thus providing a stringent tumor suppressive mechanism . however if dna damage checkpoints are compromised , cells can continue to divide until the telomeres lose their end - capping function and are subjected to dna double - strand break repair activity that results in telomere - telomere fusion events .
the resulting dicentric chromosomes can initiate cycles of anaphase - bridging , breakage , and fusion that generate the large - scale genomic rearrangements common in human cancer .
telomere - driven mutation is therefore a mechanism that generates variation in tumor cell populations , upon which clonal selection can operate and facilitate progression .
we have developed high - resolution , single - molecule technologies to study telomere length and fusion in detail ; these methods have provided a level of clarity that was hitherto impossible to achieve in human cells . in colorectal cancer
we showed that telomere erosion , dysfunction , and fusion not only precede the adenoma / carcinoma transition , but may also be pre - existent in the normal cells in which the initial mutation occurs . in chronic lymphocytic leukemia ( cll )
we observed extreme telomere erosion and fusion , consistent with cll b - cells undergoing a telomere - driven crisis .
importantly , this was also detected in a subset of patients with early - stage disease prior to clinical progression .
our recent large - scale analysis of telomere length and fusion in early - stage cll has allowed definition of the telomere length threshold below which telomere fusion is detected and revealed the prognostic value of stratifying patients according to this parameter .
patients with telomeres below the telomere fusion threshold had a significantly shorter overall survival that was even more prognostic in early - stage disease patients ( p < 00001 , hr = 19.3 ) , and telomere dysfunction was the dominant variable in a multivariate analysis . based on... | telomere dysfunction and fusion play key roles in driving genomic instability and clonal evolution in many tumor types .
we have recently described a role for dna ligase iii ( lig3 ) in facilitating the escape of cells from crisis induced by telomere dysfunction .
our data indicate that lig3-mediated telomere fusion is important in facilitating clonal evolution . |
6,975 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the renin - angiotensin - aldosterone system ( raas ) plays an important role in the control of cardiovascular and renal homeostasis by regulating vascular tone ,
blood pressure ( bp ) , and fluid volume [ 1 , 2 ] .
angiotensin ii ( ang ii ) is a
physiologically active component of the raas , produced via an enzymatic cascade
that begins with angiotensinogen ( agt ) cleaving renin ( ren ) to form angiotensin
i ( ang i ) , which is then cleaved by the angiotensin converting enzyme ( ace ) to
form ang ii .
ang ii causes vasoconstriction
directly by activating ang ii type 1 ( at1 ) receptors on vascular smooth
muscle , affects fluid volume via at1 receptor activation in the
proximal tubule , resulting in renal sodium and water reabsorption , and plays an
important role in the regulation of fluid balance by stimulating aldosterone
secretion from the zona glomeruloza of the adrenal glands .
ace inhibitors , ang ii receptor antagonists , and aldosterone receptor antagonists have been used as therapeutic interventions to treat hypertension .
the genes of the renin - angiotensin have been linked to and/or associated with hypertension in animal models and humans .
recently , transgenic rodent models have been developed that over express both human ren and angiotensinogen , which leads to hypertension via chronic overproduction of ang ii .
specific examples include the murine double transgenic line ( ang 204/1 ren 9 ) , which produces a mean arterial bp 40 mmhg higher than background mice ( c57bl/6j ) that lack the human genes .
in addition , transgenic rats harboring the mouse renin-2 gene developed hypertension , cardiac hypertrophy , and renal damage
.
the tsukuba hypertensive mice ( thm ) , which express the human ren and angiotensinogen genes , have been proven
to develop hypertension .
originally , the raas was viewed solely as an
endocrine system , in which angiotensinogen of hepatic origin is
secreted intothe systemic circulation and cleaved by ren and ace to
produce the active... | hypertensive mice that express the human renin and angiotensinogen genes are used as a model for human hypertension because they develop hypertension secondary to increased renin - angiotensin system activity .
our study investigated the cellular localization and distribution of cox-1 , cox-2 , mpges-1 , and mpges-2 in organ tissues from a mouse model of human hypertension .
male ( n = 15 ) and female ( n = 15 ) double transgenic mice ( h - ang 204/1 h - ren 9 ) were used in the study .
lung , kidney , and heart tissues were obtained from mice at necropsy and fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin followed by embedding in paraffin wax .
cut sections were stained immunohistochemically with antibodies to cox-1 , cox-2 , mpges-1 , and mpges-2 and analyzed by light microscopy .
renal expression of cox-1 was the highest in the distal convoluted tubules , cortical collecting ducts , and medullary collecting ducts ; while proximal convoluted tubules lacked cox-1 expression .
bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells , alveolar macrophages , and cardiac vascular endothelial cells also had strong cox-1 expression , with other renal , pulmonary , or cardiac microanatomic locations having mild - to - moderate expression .
mpges-2 expression was strong in the bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells , mild to moderate in various renal microanatomic locations , and absent in cardiac tissues .
cox-2 expression was strong in the proximal and distal convoluted tubules , alveolar macrophages , and bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells .
marked mpges-1 was present only in bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells ; while mild - to - moderate expression was present in other pulmonary , renal , or cardiac microanatomic locations .
expression of these molecules was similar between males and females .
our work suggests that in hypertensive mice , there are ( a ) significant microanatomic variations in the pulmonary , renal , and cardiac distribution and cellular localization of cox-1 , cox-2 ,... |
6,976 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: extensive surgical resection is often abandoned on identification of wide and deep tumor invasion at the hilar bile duct intraoperatively , because it is difficult to achieve curative resection . on determining that curative resection of the perihilar cholangiocarcinoma is not possible , an intraoperative decision about whether or not to perform palliative bilio - enteric bypass surgery must be made .
in patients with complex separation of the hilar bile ducts , it is often difficult to insert multiple biliary stents percutaneously through percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage ( ptbd ) or endoscopic retrograde cholangiography approach , as well as maintain them successfully for a prolonged time .
a majority of these patients are required to keep one or more ptbd tubes with or without endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage ( erbd).123456 in such intractable situations , palliative bilio - enteric bypass to remove ptbd tubes is seriously considered as a measure to improve the quality of life .
however , bilio - enteric bypass for multiple separate hilar bile ducts is technically demanding , and its patency is also much shorter than expected because multiple bilio - enteric anastomoses are often performed to the residual tumor tissue itself .
biliary reconstruction is difficult in extensive hilar bile duct necrosis resulting from iatrogenic bile duct injury , similar to cases of advanced perihilar cholangiocarcinoma.2 for such difficult biliary reconstruction , we devised a surgical technique termed cluster hepaticojejunostomy ( hj ) that involves placement of multiple biliary stents and single wide porto - enterostomy on the surrounding connective tissue.7 we have performed the cluster hj technique in more than 20 cases so far , indicative of its clinical applicability .
herein , we present the technical details of cluster hj with discussion on further modification .
in patients with advanced perihilar cholangiocarcinoma , resectability is usually determined after dissection of the hepatoduodenal ligament... | secure reconstruction of multiple hepatic ducts that are severely damaged by tumor invasion or iatrogenic injury is a challenge .
failure of percutaneous or endoscopic biliary stenting requires lifelong placement of one or more percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage ( ptbd ) tubes . for such difficult situations
, we devised a surgical technique termed cluster hepaticojejunostomy ( hj ) , which can be coupled with palliative bile duct resection .
the cluster hj technique consisted of applying multiple internal biliary stents and a single wide porto - enterostomy to the surrounding connective tissues .
the technique is described in detail in the present case report . performing cluster hj benefits from three technical tips as follows : making the multiple bile duct openings wide and parallel after sequential side - to - side unification ; radially anchoring and traction of the suture materials at the anterior anastomotic suture line ; and making multiple segmented continuous sutures at the posterior anastomotic suture line .
thus , cluster hj with radial spreading anchoring traction technique is a useful surgical method for secure reconstruction of severely damaged hilar bile ducts . |
6,977 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: structural genomics has been successful in determining the structures of many unique proteins in a high throughput manner . since 2001
, these efforts have resulted in more than 6,772 structure depositions to the pdb , 3,251 of which are from the nih - sponsored protein structure initiative ( psi ) centers .
nevertheless , the number of known protein sequences is much larger than the number of experimentally solved protein structures , and this number is growing at an unprecedented rate due to large - scale genome sequencing and meta - genomics projects .
homology ( or comparative ) modeling methods make use of experimental protein structures to build models for evolutionarily related proteins .
this technique predicts the three - dimensional structure of a given protein sequence ( target ) based primarily on its alignment to one or more proteins of known structure ( templates ) . for every experimentally determined structure ,
often models for hundreds of proteins can be derived using a variety of established methods for comparative protein structure modeling methods , which dramatically increases the structural coverage of protein sequences .
structural genomics and homology modeling thereby complement each other in the exploration of protein structure space .
the quality of a comparative protein structure model depends on the evolutionary distance between the sequence of the target protein to be modeled and the template structure . in general comparative models sharing more than 40% of sequence identity with the template
comparative protein structure models are routinely used in a widespread range of biomedical applications such as the rational design of mutagenesis experiments , the interpretation of disease - related mutations , or structure - based virtual screening studies [ 46 ] . however , despite this tremendous growth in protein structure data in recent years , structural information is often not used to its full extent in biomedical research projects .
one reason is that experimental protein... | structural genomics has been successful in determining the structures of many unique proteins in a high throughput manner .
still , the number of known protein sequences is much larger than the number of experimentally solved protein structures .
homology ( or comparative ) modeling methods make use of experimental protein structures to build models for evolutionary related proteins . thereby , experimental structure determination efforts and homology modeling complement each other in the exploration of the protein structure space .
one of the challenges in using model information effectively has been to access all models available for a specific protein in heterogeneous formats at different sites using various incompatible accession code systems .
often , structure models for hundreds of proteins can be derived from a given experimentally determined structure , using a variety of established methods .
this has been done by all of the psi centers , and by various independent modeling groups .
the goal of the protein model portal ( pmp ) is to provide a single portal which gives access to the various models that can be leveraged from psi targets and other experimental protein structures .
a single interface allows all existing pre - computed models across these various sites to be queried simultaneously , and provides links to interactive services for template selection , target - template alignment , model building , and quality assessment .
the current release of the portal consists of 7.6 million model structures provided by different partner resources ( csmp , jcsg , mcsg , nesg , nysgxrc , jcmm , modbase , swiss - model repository ) .
the pmp is available at http://www.proteinmodelportal.org and from the psi structural genomics knowledgebase . |
6,978 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: polymers are pervasive
throughout all aspects of the modern age
and , as described by rolf mlhaupt , without polymers ,
modern life would be impossible because polymers secure the high quality
of life and serve as pacemakers for modern technologies . consequently , the urge to find renewable resources
to reduce consumption of fossil fuel feedstocks , decrease the use
of energy intensive products , and solve recycling and/or degradation
issues has led to the investigation of biopolymers .
additionally ,
the increase in fuel costs observed over the past 30 years dictates a transition to polymeric precursors
that do not rely expressly on fossil fuels .
however , the full life
cycle assessment of most bio - based polymers is not well reported ,
and a focus on the environmental impacts of biopolymers will be necessary . as unrecycled polymers end up in the oceans ( estimated
5 billion kg per year ) , water - degradable
polymers such as polycarbonates that degrade into carbon dioxide and
diols represent a reasonable class of
materials to investigate further .
polycarbonates are mainly
used where toughness , high optical transparency ,
and solvent resistance are required .
although more stable toward hydrolysis
than their polyester counterparts , polycarbonates are able to degrade
in water and are , thus , considered as aqueous degradable materials .
strategies for the use of renewables in polycarbonates
include polycondensation of feedstock products such as aliphatic diols , ring - opening polymerization of 6-membered cyclic
carbonates , epoxides and carbon dioxide - based
systems , polycondensation of cereal - based products
such as 1,4:3,6-isosorbide , and natural
phenols to afford copolymers .
noteworthy ,
biorenewable - based polycarbonates have found applications as powder
coating agents and as drug delivery vehicles .
previous efforts from our lab have led to the synthesis of polycarbonates
derived from both carbohydrates and quinic
acid . in an effort... | ferulic acid ( fa ) , a bio - based resource
found in fruits and vegetables ,
was coupled with a hydroxyl - amino acid to generate a new class of
monomers to afford poly(carbonate
amide)s with potential to
degrade into natural products .
l - serine was first selected
as the hydroxyl - amino partner for fa , from which the activated p - nitrophenyl carbonate monomer was synthesized .
unfortunately ,
polymerizations were unsuccessful , and the elimination product was
systematically obtained . to avoid elimination , we revised our strategy
and used l - tyrosine ethyl ester , which lacks an acidic proton
on the position of the ethyl ester .
four new monomers were
synthesized and converted into the corresponding poly(carbonate
amide)s
with specific regioselectivities .
the polymers were fully characterized
through thermal and spectroscopic analyses .
preliminary fluorescent
studies revealed interesting photophysical properties for the monomers
and their corresponding poly(carbonate amide)s , beyond the
fluorescence characteristics of l - tyrosine and fa , making
these materials potentially viable for sensing and/or imaging applications ,
in addition to their attractiveness as engineering materials derived
from renewable resources . |
6,979 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: electromagnetic interference ( emi ) is a transient disruption or alteration in a devices normal function caused by an external signal . in implantable cardiac rhythm devices ,
the lead creates a loop antenna allowing a magnetic field to induce a current between the lead and the generator .
the power of the external force , distance the external force is from the device , and duration and frequency of the signal will determine the degree ( if any ) of interference .
implantable cardioverter defibrillators ( icds ) are designed in controlled situations to communicate with specific programmers using radiofrequency ( rf ) signals and are designed to respond to an appropriate static magnetic field by suspending delivery of therapeutic shocks .
icds incorporate various magnetic sensors that allow programming of the device by applying an external magnet ( magnet mode ) .
unplanned static magnetic fields can potentially prevent therapeutic shocks , while induced current from rf signal sources may be incorrectly sensed as an arrhythmia and treated inappropriately .
currently , research has been conducted for potential emi interference caused by rf from cell phones , digital music players , and ipods .
additionally , in a study by lee and colleagues , emi from magnets in portable headphones created magnet mode response in 38% of patients with icds when placed within 2 cm from the device . with the advancements in shielding , filters , and detection algorithms , emi of medical devices by emitting rf is relatively uncommon .
however , with newer electronic device technology , strong magnets are used to activate features or provide fixation for attachments such as covers .
one example is the apple ipad2 and later models that incorporate strong magnets along its frame to attach the smart cover .
the smart cover also incorporates magnets to assist fixation and to turn the ipad on and off .
ipad devices are often used in close proximity to a person 's body , ie , when reading sitting up or laying down .
no research to... | backgroundover 140 million ipads have been sold worldwide .
the ipad2 , with magnets embedded in its frame and smart cover and 3 g cellular data capability , can potentially cause electromagnetic interference in implantable cardioverter defibrillators .
this can lead to potentially lifethreatening situations in patients .
the goal of this study was to determine whether the ipad2 can cause electromagnetic interference in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators.methods and resultstwentyseven patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators were studied .
the ipad2 was held at reading distance and placed directly over the device with cellular data capability activated and deactivated .
the manufacturers / models of devices and the patients ' body mass index were noted .
the presence of electromagnetic interference was detected by using a programmer supplied by each manufacturer .
magnet mode with suspension of antitachycardia therapy was triggered in 9 ( 33% ) patients .
all occurred when the ipad2 was placed directly over the device .
the cellular data status did not cause interference and no noise or oversensing was noted .
there was no significant difference between the mean body mass index of the groups with or without interference.conclusionsthe ipad2 can trigger magnet mode in implantable cardioverter defibrillators when laid directly over the device .
this is potentially dangerous if patients should develop lifethreatening arrhythmias at the same time . as new electronic products that use magnets
are produced , the potential risk to patients with implantable defibrillators needs to be addressed . |
6,980 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the content of each peptide flask was dissolved by addition of hepes buffer 100 mm , ph 7.4 ( a128 ) or ultrapure milli - q water ( a116 ) .
the concentration of a was then measured by uv - visible spectroscopy ( 276 nm ( tyr10)=1410 m cm ) .
uv - visible spectra were recorded on a biochrom libra s50 or a specord 205 spectrophotometer ( analytik jena , germany ) .
fluorescence spectra were recorded on a flsp920 spectrometer ( edinburgh instruments ltd , uk ) , with bandwidth for excitation and emission=2 nm .
a complex was first prepared by mixing equimolar amounts of a128 and cucl2 in hepes buffer 50 mm , ph 7.4 .
the metalation of a was monitored by the decrease of fluorescence ( see ref . ) .
a solution of ligand 1 or cq in dmso was then added ( 1 or 2 mol equiv , respectively ) , and the reaction was monitored by uv - visible spectroscopy .
final concentrations were [ a128]=[cu]==20 m , [ cq]=40 m ; dmso / hepes buffer=5:95 v / v . the 50 % decrease of fluorescence of a upon metalation by copper was confirmed in buffered mixture containing up to 10 vol % of an organic solvent , namely ch3cn ( ref . ) , or dmso ( present report , data not shown ) .
x - band ( 9.525 ghz ) esr spectra were recorded in quartz tubes at 120 k , using a bruker elexsys - ii e500 spectrometer . for experiments with ligand 1 ,
the solvent was hepes buffer 100 mm , ph 7.4 , containing 13 vol % of dmso .
[ a116]=185 m ; a116/cu molar ratio=1:1 ( figure 3 a ) , a116/cu/1=1:1:0.5 ( figure 3 b ) , a116/cu/1=1:1:1 ( figure 3 c ) , cu/1=1:1 ( figure 3 d ) .
the addition of 16 vol % of dmso in hepes did not induce modification of the spectrum of cu
the solvent was dmso / hepes buffer 100 mm , ph 7.4 , 90:10 v / v .
a116/cu molar ratio=1:1 ( figure 5 a ) , a116/cu / cq=1:1:1 ( figure 5 b ) , a116/cu / cq=1:1:2 ( figure 5 c ) , cu / cq=1:2 ( figure 5 d ) .
the sample solutions were injected ( 7.5 l ) using a mobile phase ch3oh / h2o ( 90:10 v / v ) , flow rate=0.15 ml min .
the cone voltage was... | the accumulation of redox - active metal ions , in particular copper , in amyloid plaques is considered to the cause of the intensive oxidation damage to the brain of patients with alzheimers disease ( ad ) .
drug candidates based on a bis(8-aminoquinoline ) tetradentate ligand are able to efficiently extract cu2 + from copper - loaded amyloids ( cu a ) .
contrarily , in the presence of a bidentate hydroxyquinoline , such as clioquinol , the copper is not released from a , but remains sequestrated within a acu clioquinol ternary complex that has been characterized by mass spectrometry .
facile extraction of copper(ii ) at a low amyloid / ligand ratio is essential for the re - introduction of copper in regular metal circulation in the brain .
as , upon reduction , the cu+ is easily released from the bis(8-aminoquinoline ) ligand unable to accommodate cui , it should be taken by proteins with an affinity for copper .
so , the tetradentate bis(8-aminoquinoline ) described here might act as a regulator of copper homeostasis . |
6,981 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: as obesity is becoming increasingly more prevalent in the united states , weight loss to reduce adipose tissue mass is strongly promoted as a means to decrease the disease risk associated with excess adiposity ( 5 , 57 ) .
unfortunately , the majority of individuals who lose weight are unlikely to maintain the reduced weight for an extended period of time ( 15 , 51 , 59 ) . repeated periods of weight loss and regain form a pattern known as weight cycling . hill ( 2004 ) indicates that popular and lay literature have asserted that weight cycling ( i.e. yo - yo dieting ) may increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease or type ii diabetes to a greater extent than remaining weight stable at an obese body mass index ( bmi ; 30 kg / m)(27 ) .
because there is no universally - accepted definition of weight cycling , differences in experimental design may have contributed to discrepancies in scientific outcomes .
weight gain has significant implications concerning disease risk , which is believed to be mediated by an elevated level of systemic inflammation .
low - grade systemic inflammation is associated with obesity and it may serve as a link between adiposity and the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes ( 66 ) . to our knowledge ,
discerning a difference in disease risk between maintenance of obesity and weight cycling is important and may provide insight concerning individual differences in disease progression .
if weight cycling is associated with an increased disease risk , continually recommending weight loss to those unable to maintain reduced weights may be a major public health issue .
this review has two aims : 1 ) to compare studies that both support or refute the theory that weight cycling is independently associated with increases in disease risk2 ) to discuss the possibility that weight cycling impacts pro - inflammatory biomarkers .
it has been estimated 24% of american men and 38% of women are currently attempting to lose weight ( 35 , 53 , 64 ) .
when individuals... | research indicates that weight cycling , or yo - yo dieting is a common occurrence in overweight and obese populations .
the long term negative health consequences of weight cycling are debated and it is unclear whether or not this weight change pattern poses a greater disease risk compared to obesity maintenance .
this review discusses the prevalence of weight cycling and physiological alterations occurring during weight loss that promotes weight regain .
we also discuss the effect weight regain has upon adipose tissue in terms of rate and type of accumulation . also within this review
are discussions surrounding the previously published literature based upon human and rodent research .
we focus on previous limitations and difference in experimental design that have perhaps resulted in mixed findings concerning independent effects of weight cycling on health parameters .
the final purpose of this review is to discuss future directions in evaluating the pro - inflammatory response to weight cycling in order to compare the disease risk compared to obesity maintenance . |
6,982 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: complications of foot ulcers are the major cause of hospitalization and amputation in diabetic patients and lead to significant health care costs as evidenced by the fact that 2040% of health care resources are spent on diabetes - related diabetic foot [ 1 , 2 ] .
diabetic foot syndrome ( dfs ) is defined , according to the world health organization , as ulceration of the foot ( distally from the ankle and including the ankle ) associated with neuropathy and different grades of ischemia and infection .
it represents a serious long - term complication of diabetes mellitus leading to amputations , disability , and reduced quality of life .
approximately 82000 lower extremity amputations directly related to diabetes are performed in the usa annually . of these amputations , the majority ( 80% ) have been preceded by foot ulceration .
the presence of foot ulceration is considered an important risk for morbidity , mortality , and disability as supported by the fact that about 80% of nontraumatic amputations are caused by the presence of diabetes and 85% of these amputations are preceded by a foot ulceration .
an estimated 15% of patients with diabetes will develop a lower extremity ulcer during the course of their disease .
several population - based studies indicate a 0,5% to 3% annual cumulative incidence of diabetic foot ulcers .
the prevalence of foot ulcers reported for a variety of populations ranges from 2% to 10% . in
a retrospective us cohort study of 8.905 patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes , the incidence of dfs was 5,8% over an observational period of 3 years . in 15,6% of patients with dfs , lower limb amputations were necessary and survival
was significantly shortened and the cost for 4065-year - old male with new foot ulcers was $ 27987 for the two years after diagnosis .
pathogenesis of diabetic foot ulcers is complex and multifactorial and it is well known that these lesions rarely result from a single pathology .
the most common components of this detrimental pathway which lead to foot... | diabetic foot ulcerations have been extensively reported as vascular complications of diabetes mellitus associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality ; in fact , some authors showed a higher prevalence of major , previous and new - onset , cardiovascular , and cerebrovascular events in diabetic patients with foot ulcers than in those without these complications .
this is consistent with the fact that in diabetes there is a complex interplay of several variables with inflammatory metabolic disorders and their effect on the cardiovascular system that could explain previous reports of high morbidity and mortality rates in diabetic patients with amputations .
involvement of inflammatory markers such as il-6 plasma levels and resistin in diabetic subjects confirmed the pathogenetic issue of the adipovascular axis that may contribute to cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes . in patients with diabetic foot , this
adipovascular axis
expression in lower plasma levels of adiponectin and higher plasma levels of il-6 could be linked to foot ulcers pathogenesis by microvascular and inflammatory mechanisms .
the purpose of this review is to focus on the immune inflammatory features of dfs and its possible role as a marker of cardiovascular risk in diabetes patients . |
6,983 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: down syndrome ( ds ) is the most common chromosomal aneuploidy in live births and a leading cause of mental retardation .
prenatal detection of chromosomal anomalies , such as trisomy 21 , in cases with ds relies on invasive practices such as amniocentesis or chorionic villi sampling .
these procedures are associated with a risk of fetal loss or adverse pregnancy outcome .
alternative strategies are sought , such as the noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal genetic anomalies via the analysis of rare trafficking fetal cells or cell - free fetal nucleic acids in maternal blood . as this long sought goal has not yet reached clinical implementation ,
current clinical practice relies on a series of screening steps aimed at detecting at - risk pregnancies . in many centres the screening procedure for ds
is carried out in the late first and early second trimester ( 1114 weeks of gestation ) and involves a combination of ultrasound and serum marker analysis . although the efficacy of this method has improved considerably , and is more accurate than previous second trimester screening approaches , it is hampered by the skill and precision of the ultrasonographer and external factors such as ethnicity or other factors , such as assisted reproductive technologies . hence , it is obvious that new tools are needed to improve current state of the art .
the rationale for this strategy is that placentae from fetuses with ds , especially the villi , are morphologically distinct from the placentae of euploid fetuses , a feature attributed to altered aberrant protein expression . as the placenta
, a large organ with rapid cell turn - over is in direct contact with the maternal circulation , proteins released by it should be detectable in maternal plasma , and could consequently serve as promising markers for abnormal placentation involved in a number of pregnancy related disorders . in this
regard , preliminary proteomic investigations have shown that quantitative alterations in protein expression are found to... | currently no specific biomarkers exist for the screening of pregnancies at risk for down
syndrome ( ds ) .
since a quantitative proteomic approach with isobaric labelling ( itraq ) has
recently been suggested to be highly suitable for the discovery of novel plasma biomarkers , we
have now used this method to examine for potential quantitative changes in the plasma
proteome of the pregnancies bearing ds fetuses in comparison to normal healthy babies . in our
study , we used plasma from six women with ds pregnancies and six with uncomplicated
pregnancies care were taken to match cases and controls for gestational and maternal age , as
these could be a confounder .
in our quantitative proteomics analysis
we were able to detect 178 proteins using itraq
labelling in conjunction with 4800 maldi tof / tof . amongst these we observed changes in hcg , a known screening marker for ds , indicating that our assay was functional .
we found a
number of elevated proteins ig lambda chain c region , serum amyloid p - component , amyloid
beta a4 , and under expressed proteins like gamma - actin and titin in ds pregnancies .
these proteins
are also found in the sera of patients with alzheimer disease , which share similar pathologies of
ds .
our study therefore indicates that the itraq labelling approach may be indeed useful for the
detection of novel biomarkers . |
6,984 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs ( nsaids ) are one of the most commonly prescribed classes of medication , and they are routinely employed for their analgesic , antipyretic , and antiinflammatory properties . because they are potent inhibitors of cyclooxygenase ( cox ) enzymes , they reduce the synthesis of pro - inflammatory prostaglandins ( pgs ) .
nsaids have been widely used systemically for many decades and have more recently become available in the form of topical ophthalmic formulations . in ophthalmology , topical nsaids
are mostly used to stabilize pupillary dilation during intraocular surgery , to control postoperative pain and inflammation ( particularly after refractive surgery ) , and to treat allergic conjunctivitis and pseudophakic cystoid macular edema ( cme ) [ 2 , 3 ] .
a growing body of evidence suggests that nsaids may also be beneficial in diabetic retinopathy ( dr ) , ocular tumors , and age - related macular degeneration [ 1 , 48 ] .
they catalyze the biosynthesis of eicosanoids from arachidonic acid to produce 5 classes of pgs : pge2 , pgd2 , pgf2 , pgi2 , and thromboxane a2 .
pge2 increases the iop by local vasodilation and increased permeability of blood aqueous barrier . on the other hand pgf2
thirdly , pgs cause vasodilation and increase the vascular permeability with the disruption of the blood - ocular barrier with leukocyte migration and therefore edema formation . by definition , nsaids lack a steroid nucleus . cox-1 and cox-2 are the main cox isoforms , although there is a third isoform , cox-3 .
cox-3 is an acetaminophen - sensitive alternatively spliced variant of cox-1 , and it has not been well defined [ 1113 ] .
cox-1 regulates normal physiological processes and is mainly expressed in the gastrointestinal tract , kidneys , platelets , and vascular endothelium .
cox-2 is the predominant isoform in the retinal pigment epithelium ( rpe ) and is upregulated during inflammatory processes , pain , and fever , but it is also expressed under normal conditions in sites... | nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs ( nsaids ) are nowadays widely used in ophthalmology to reduce eye inflammation , pain , and cystoid macular edema associated with cataract surgery .
recently , new topical nsaids have been approved for topical ophthalmic use , allowing for greater drug penetration into the vitreous .
hence , new therapeutic effects can be achieved , such as reduction of exudation secondary to age - related macular degeneration or diabetic maculopathy .
we provide an updated review on the clinical use of nsaids for retinal diseases , with a focus on the potential future applications . |
6,985 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: t4 lysozyme , as a member
of the lysozyme family produced by bacteriophage ,
breaks down the bacterial cell wall by catalyzing the hydrolysis of
poly saccharide chains during infection of the bacteria .
the enzyme specifically cleaves the glycosidic bonds connecting
the repeating subunits of cell walls between n - acetylglucosamine
and n - acetylmuramic acid that are substituted with
peptide side chains .
the three - dimensional
structure is clearly organized with two domains connected by a long
-helix ( figure 1 ) . the active site cleft ,
where hydrolysis of the glycosidic linkage takes place , is located
at the interface between the two domains .
it has been widely accepted
that t4 lysozyme exhibit hinge - bending conformational motions , referring
to rotation of one domain relative to the other domain along an axis
running through the interface of the two domains . both
ensemble - level and
single - molecule measurements have revealed hinge - bending
motions in which the opening of the active site cleft is within a
nanometer .
as we have reported previously , the t4 lysozyme enzymatic reaction involves complex conformational
state changes in the enzymatic turnovers . a simplified michaelis
menten
type of mechanism can be presented as1where e , s , es , es * , and ep represent enzyme ,
substrate , nonspecific enzyme substrate complex , specific or
active enzyme substrate complex , and enzyme product
complex , respectively .
the process of forming the active complex of
es * involves multiple conformational states .
the process of e + s
es es * essentially involves the enzyme active site
opening up to take the substrate , forming a nonspecific es complex ,
and binding down to form the active complex of es * ready to react
followed by turnover to ep .
the process of reaction and product releasing
es * ep e + p may not involve significant enzymatic
active site conformational changes . while t4 lysozyme hinge - bending
motions have been... | conformational motions of proteins
are highly dynamic and intrinsically
complex . to capture the temporal and spatial complexity of conformational
motions and further to understand their roles in protein functions ,
an attempt is made to probe multidimensional conformational dynamics
of proteins besides the typical one - dimensional fret coordinate or
the projected conformational motions on the one - dimensional fret coordinate .
t4 lysozyme hinge - bending motions between two domains along -helix
have been probed by single - molecule fret . nevertheless , the domain
motions of t4 lysozyme are rather complex involving multiple coupled
nuclear coordinates and most likely contain motions besides hinge - bending .
it is highly likely that the multiple dimensional protein conformational
motions beyond the typical enzymatic hinged - bending motions have profound
impact on overall enzymatic functions . in this report , we have developed
a single - molecule multiparameter photon stamping spectroscopy integrating
fluorescence anisotropy , fret , and fluorescence lifetime .
this spectroscopic
approach enables simultaneous observations of both fret - related site - to - site
conformational dynamics and molecular rotational ( or orientational )
motions of individual cy3-cy5 labeled t4 lysozyme molecules .
we have
further observed wide - distributed rotational flexibility along orientation
coordinates by recording fluorescence anisotropy and simultaneously
identified multiple intermediate conformational states along fret
coordinate by monitoring time - dependent donor lifetime , presenting
a whole picture of multidimensional conformational dynamics in the
process of t4 lysozyme open - close hinge - bending enzymatic turnover
motions under enzymatic reaction conditions . by analyzing the autocorrelation
functions of both lifetime and anisotropy trajectories
, we have also
observed the dynamic and static inhomogeneity of t4 lysozyme multidimensional
... |
6,986 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity ( spec fpl ) is currently considered to be the
most accurate blood test for the diagnosis of feline pancreatitis . in this study , we
measured lipase activity in cats using a newer catalytic lipase assay of dry - chemistry
system ( fdc - v - lip ) to determine the reference range and compared the results with those
for spec fpl . based on the results of healthy cats , the reference range of fdc - v - lip was
determined to be less than 30 u / l .
fdc - v - lip did not show a strong
correlation with spec fpl in cats with various diseases , which resulted in the low
sensitivity and positive predictive value .
however , the relatively high ( > 90% )
specificity and negative predictive value indicated that fdc - v - lip could be a useful
patient - side screening test for the exclusion of feline pancreatitis . |
6,987 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the results of cancer patient treatment in poland remain unsatisfactory . according to eurocare reports , polish oncology patients have a much lower chance of surviving 5 years after diagnosis than elsewhere in europe [ 1 , 2 ] .
this problem , which undoubtedly reflects poland s low healthcare budget , has for several years stirred lively debate in poland .
the main causes identified were the low health awareness of polish society at large , the inadequate education of physicians [ 46 ] , lack of funds for delivering healthcare , and the small number of dedicated oncology centers .
to improve the situation , on july 1 , 2005 , the polish government launched the national program for combating neoplastic diseases ( npcnd ) .
the program s principal aims were to introduce free public screening for breast , cervical , and colorectal cancers , as well as to procure investment in polish oncology centers in order to provide equipment for radiotherapy and advanced tumor diagnosis .
additionally , one part of the program coordinated by wroclaw medical university and implemented from 2006 was to improve the quality of oncological instruction at the undergraduate level .
under the npcnd program launched in 2005 , short - term financial and organizational supports were planned for the years 20062007 to improve the quality of undergraduate oncology education at all medical universities . after promising results in the first 2 years and recognizing the continued importance of the problem , the npcnd board decided to extend financial support until 2010 .
the polish academic oncology community has determined [ 4 , 6 , 7 ] that the most important tools for improving undergraduate oncology education in poland include the following : development of integrated oncology institutions ( radiotherapy + chemotherapy + oncologic surgery + oncologic gynecology ) within the structures of medical universitiesbuilding and maintaining a well - trained multidisciplinary staff of academic teachers at each medical universityintroduction... | cancer patient treatment in poland remains unsatisfactory when compared to that in other countries . in 2005 , this alarming situation prompted the polish government to launch the national program for combating neoplastic diseases ( npcnd ) .
one part of this project was to improve the quality of oncology instruction at the undergraduate level over the years 2006 and 2007 ( subsequently extended until 2010 thanks to promising results and the relatively small financial outlay ) .
the program s main aims were to improve existing oncology therapy and to ameliorate the quality of undergraduate oncology education . to evaluate the changes in the quality of undergraduate education as a result of the npcnd program ,
medical universities were asked to fill out a questionnaire .
responses indicate that the program had a major positive impact on the quality of cancer education mainly as a result of the introduction of a uniform program of training and an increase in the number of classes devoted to oncology .
the main unresolved problem is that university hospitals seldom have integrated units catering in - house for surgery , radiotherapy , chemotherapy , etc . , and most such hands - on teaching still has to be done externally . |
6,988 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the study took place at a 300-bed community hospital that is the primary hospital for an acgme - accredited 3-year internal medicine residency with 36 residents , approved by the institutional review board .
as a mandatory part of the residency curriculum , all residents had received formal training in clue as detailed elsewhere ( 16 , 22 , 23 ) .
the clue involves acquisition of six quick - look views and recognition of six evidence - based signs and can typically be performed within 2 min .
the clue is designed to augment the physical examination for accuracy and diagnostic synthesis by providing more accurate detection of left ventricular dysfunction ( cardiac dysfunction sign ) , left atrial enlargement ( left atrial enlargement sign ) , interstitial edema ( ultrasonic lung comet - tail sign ) , pleural effusions ( effusion sign ) , right ventricular enlargement ( subcostal right ventricular enlargement sign ) , and elevation of central venous pressures through plethora of the inferior vena cava ( subcostal inferior vena cava sign ) ( 22 ) . as a part of the general residency curriculum ,
all residents participate in a night hospitalist rotation for 2 weeks , twice during their second and third years of residency , in which they solely admit patients in an independent fashion over a 12-h nocturnal shift .
consecutive senior residents were provided with a pocket - sized ultrasound device ( vscan with duoprobe , ge healthcare , wauwatosa , wi , usa ) during this rotation , in which they were instructed to use the device to perform the clue independently and autonomously , whenever they felt it was necessary to provide
good patient care. a convenience sample of 542 patients was obtained over 14 months by meeting with the post - call resident on monday and friday mornings after their admitting shifts .
use of the device by the residents was tabulated to better understand the value of providing the device during an admitting shift in a community hospital .
it is a retrospective review , and analysis of this... | backgroundin actual clinical practice as opposed to published studies , the application of bedside ultrasound requires a perception of need , confidence in one 's skills , and convenience.objectiveas the frequency of ultrasound usage is evidence to its perceived value in patient care , we observed the pattern of autonomous use of a pocket - sized device ( psd ) by ultrasound - trained residents during a night hospitalist rotation.methodsconsecutive internal medicine residents ( n=24 ) , trained in a cardiac limited ultrasound examination ( clue ) as a mandatory part of their curriculum , were sampled on their psd use after their admitting nights , regarding perceived necessity , deterring factors , detected abnormalities , and imaging difficulties .
a detailed analysis was performed with one resident who used a psd on every admission to compare the proportion of abnormal clues and utility in patients with and without a perceived need.resultsresidents admitted 542 patients ( mean age : 5517 years , range : 1795 years ) during 101 shifts and performed clue on 230 patients ( 42% , range : 1785% ) .
residents elected not to scan 312 ( 58% ) patients due to 1 ) lack of perceived necessity ( 231 , 74% ) , 2 ) time constraints ( 44 , 14% ) , and 3 ) patient barriers ( 37 , 12% ) . in the detailed analysis ( n=71 ) , the resident felt clue was necessary in 32 ( 45% ) patients versus unnecessary in 39 ( 55% ) patients , with abnormality rates of 50% versus 20.5% ( p=0.01 ) and utility rates of 28.1% versus 15.4% ( p=0.25 ) , respectively.conclusionwhen unbiased residents acting as hospitalists are provided with a psd to augment initial cardiac examination , usage is frequent and suggests clinical value in hospital medicine . |
6,989 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the human environment together with the biological processes contributes significantly to free radical production . when these free radicals overwhelm the antioxidant defense mechanisms , oxidative stress sets in with its deleterious effects that lead to cell injury , degenerative diseases , and compromised immune system .
antioxidants and immune boosting therapy have become very popular in the treatment of many disease conditions .
however , in many rural communities , antioxidant and immune boosting drugs are usually expensive , inadequately accessible , and usually associated with side effects .
high reliance on natural products for health care maintenance is therefore very common in many communities and has led to increased search for readily available , cheap , and safe natural products with antioxidant and immune boosting properties .
gongronema latifolium benth ( asclepiadaceae ) is a climber that is widely distributed in tropical africa .
it is commonly known as utazi in south eastern nigeria while in ghana , senegal , and sierra leone , it is called akan - asantes , gasub , and ndondo - polole , respectively .
the ethanol leaf extract has been shown to normalize renal oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in diabetic rats . also , the leaf extract has hepatoprotective effect against acetaminophen .
the hypoglycemic , hypolipidemic , anti - inflammatory , and antioxidant activities of the leaf extract have all been reported [ 810 ] .
the chemical composition of the leaf extract shows it has abundance of essential amino acids and fatty acids . in south eastern nigeria ,
the fruit is very popular as a remedy for diabetes and high blood pressure , for maintaining healthy living , and in general body healing , yet no scientific study has been done to evaluate these folkloric uses .
this study evaluated the antioxidant , immunomodulatory activities and safety of the ethanol extract and fractions of g. latifolium fruit .
the fruits of g. latifolium were collected from nsukka , enugu state , nigeria , in... | gongronema latifolium fruit has wide application in ethnomedicine , especially in maintaining healthy living and general body healing .
we therefore investigated the antioxidant , immunomodulatory activities , and safety of its ethanol extract and fractions .
the in vitro antioxidant activities of the extract and fractions were determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl ( dpph ) test while in vivo activities were determined using carbon tetrachloride ( ccl4 ) induced oxidative stress .
cell and humoral mediated immune responses were also evaluated together with toxicity studies .
the extract , ethyl acetate , and methanol fractions showed inhibition of dpph radical with ic50s 120 , 90 , and 60 g / ml , respectively .
methanol fraction at 200 mg / kg produced significant ( p < 0.05 ) inhibition of lipid peroxidation ( mda conc .
1.2
mol / l ) compared to control ( 2.8 mol / l ) .
both ethyl acetate and methanol fractions at 200 mg / kg produced significant ( p < 0.05 ) phagocytic index of 0.021 and 0.025 , respectively , compared with control ( 0.01 ) .
significant ( p < 0.05 ) elevations of white blood cells , aspartate aminotransferase , alanine aminotransferase , and alkaline phosphatase were noticed on the 91st day at higher doses .
generally , this study justified the traditional use of g. latifolium fruit for general body healing and maintenance of healthy living .
long term administration is safe on the haematological and biochemical systems especially at lower doses and its toxicity at higher doses is reversible . |
6,990 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: sexual health education ( she ) has been recognized by international organizations as a human right , a necessity for development , and a promoter of equity . nevertheless , most young people do not receive sufficient education for their sexual lives .
worldwide , earlier sexual maturity and marriage at later ages may cause earlier premarital sex .
this exposes adolescents to serious threats including sexual coercion , unwanted pregnancy , unsafe abortion , and sexually transmitted infections ( stis)/hiv .
many studies have demonstrated that equipping adolescents with appropriate sexual information promotes their sexual health .
this is achieved by delaying or abstaining sexual debut as well as establishing safe sex .
schools are unique settings which have so many advantages and strengths to provide school - based she including having an existing infrastructure , easy access to adolescents and parents , and also opportunities for long - term programs .
nonetheless , unaids reported that more than half of the students throughout the world do not receive any school - based education for hiv prevention .
there is convincing evidence that adolescents access to information and services is not always effective in delaying sex , reducing pregnancy , or stis .
it is likely that the health messages are not tailored properly for the target audiences .
a recent review found that effective programs were those which possessed specific characteristics in developing and implementing curriculum , and identifying curriculum content ; in all of these levels , they involved youth themselves .
sexual health services and information for adolescents should meet adolescents needs rather than organizers preferences .
entitled adults as gatekeepers of sexual education and services for adolescents , because they define the content and design of services .
there are some differences between adults and adolescents perspectives regarding sex topics that should be taught .
previous research demonstrated deep gaps between students... | background : despite so many unmet sexual health education ( she ) needs of adolescents , socio - cultural challenges have caused this issue to be ignored in different scoieties .
this study investigated iranian female adolescents experiences and perceptions with respect to she that they received at schools , and what they really needed , expected , and preferred.materials and methods : in this qualitative study , seven focus group discussions ( 44 adolescents ) and 13 individual in - depth interviews were conducted among female adolescents aged 14 - 18 in mashhad and ahvaz , iran , to explore adolescents experiences and perceptions towards she in iranian schools .
data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.results:analyzing adolescents perspectives and experiences revealed their great dissatisfaction with she in schools .
emerged categories included : lack of obligation and priority for she , sexual reticence and evading , making adolescents frightened of sexual issues , inconsistency of she with adolescents needs , unqualified educators , and lack of appropriate educational materials.conclusion:this study found some similarities between expectations of iranian adolescents and those of adolescents from other cultures about an she program .
adolescents showed great abilities to appraise health services delivered for them , and so any program for sexual health promotion in adolescents ought to address adolescents needs , demands , and aspirations .
their contribution can provide insights for tailoring she programs for adolescents . |
6,991 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: however , the exact mechanisms of vasoconstriction of pulmonary vessels during hypoxia ( hpv ) have not been identified yet .
many investigators have reported the role of reactive oxygen species ( ros ) in hpv . however , there are conflicting results on whether ros decreases or increases during hpv . furthermore , the contribution of ros in the acute and sustained phases of hpv is still arguable .
superoxide anion ( o2 ) is one of the oxygen free radicals which is supposedly involved in hpv .
therefore , it should be eliminated from the cells by a carrier or an anion channel .
so far , no special carrier is known for o2 . however , the rate of o2 release from the isolated pulmonary rat artery increases during short - term hypoxia in the presence of bicarbonate buffer .
furthermore , inhibition of cl - hco3 exchanger ( anion exchanger , ae ) prevents the release of o2 in rat s pulmonary artery and isolated rabbit lung .
two isoforms of ae , na - dependent , and na - independent were detected in the pulmonary vessels .
na - dependent ae leads hco3 anions to enter the cells in exchange for chloride anions .
the activity of this transporter increases during hypoxia and leads to intracellular alkalinization in the pulmonary smooth muscle cells .
therefore , hco3 may enter into the smooth muscle cells in exchange for o2 instead of chloride anion during hypoxic condition .
some studies have reported the role of extracellular hco3 on the regulation of pulmonary vascular tone .
hypercapnia with normal ph ( corrected by bicarbonate ) is indicated to increase pulmonary artery wall tension in rats . also ,
pulmonary artery pressure increases during hypoxia and hypercapnia with ph adjusted by hco3 in the isolated perfused rabbit lung .
a few studies have addressed the role of ae on the regulation of pulmonary vascular resistance .
dids , acetazolamide ( carbonic anhydrase inhibitor ) , and sodium - free buffer decrease pulmonary vascular tone during hypercapnia with normal ph , which suggests the role of na - dependent... | background : the mechanism of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction ( hpv ) is still debatable . it has been proposed that reactive oxygen species ( ros ) might be involved in hpv .
however , there is no special transporter for superoxide anion in the cell membrane and it may release from the cells via anion exchanger .
therefore , the aim of this study was to investigate the interaction of ros and anion exchanger in acute hpv.methods:the present study was performed in the isolated rabbit lung .
after preparation , the lungs were divided into four hypoxic groups of control , trolox ( antioxidant)-treated , 4,4-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonic acid ( dids , anion exchanger inhibitor)-treated , and trolox+dids - treated . pulmonary artery pressure , left atrial pressure , and lung weight were continuously registered and pvr was then calculated .
po2 , pco2 , hco3- , ph , and no metabolites of the perfusate were measured during steady - state and at the end of experiments ( 30 minutes ) .
all data were compared with anova and t - test and significance was considered when p<0.05.results : ventilation of the lungs with hypoxic gas induced hpv in the control group .
dids did not have a further effect on hpv compared with the control group .
the combination of trolox and dids decreased hpv rather than trolox per se at 5 minutes .
furthermore , hpv was abolished in both the trolox and trolox+dids groups at 30 minutes .
concentrations of no metabolites in the trolox+dids group were more than other groups.conclusion:the present study indicates a possible interaction between ros and anion exchanger in acute hpv .
it also suggests the modulatory effect of no at above condition . |
6,992 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: osteoblastoma is a rare benign tumor that accounts for less than 1% of all bone tumors and most commonly involves the spine and sacrum of young individuals .
less than 10% of osteoblastoma are localized to skull and nearly half of these cases affecting the mandible , especially the posterior segments .
the first well - documented case of osteoblastoma of the jaw bones is attributed to borello and sedano in 1967 .
the osteoblastoma nomenclature has had a wide synonymy since its discovery by jaffe and mayer in 1932 , when it was named osteoblastic osteoid tissue forming tumor .
other names have been proposed , such as giant osteogenic fibroma and giant osteoid osteoma . in 1956 ,
the lesion was definitely separated from osteoid osteoma and recognized as an entity by jaffe and lichtenstein , in separate reports , under the name of benign osteoblastoma .
this is the name that has been adopted by the world health organization classification of bone tumors and the armed forces institute of pathology .
this central bone tumor usually occurs in young adults , with a mean age of 20 years ; with a male to female ratio of 2:1 . the lesion is characterized clinically by pain , which is traditionally said to be unresponsive to pain and swelling at the tumor site , the duration being just a few weeks to a year or a more .
radiographically the lesion may appear as radiolucent that can be either ill or well defined containing variable amounts of mineralization .
although , conventional radiography play an important role in diagnosis ; however , the final diagnosis can only be confirmed after histopathological examination .
this report describes a case of aggressive osteoblastoma in posterior segment of mandible , in a 26-year old female .
a 26-year old female reported with the chief complaint of a slowly growing painful swelling with respect to right mandibular posterior region of 3 years duration . pain associated with the swelling was mild and intermittent in nature .
extra - oral examination revealed a 3 cm 3 cm smooth -... | the clinical facts and radiologic findings are very important in the diagnostic evaluation of jaw swellings , and must be considered along with histologic findings .
osteoblastoma , an uncommon primary lesion of the bone that occasionally arises in the jaws , is one such lesion causing a localized jaw swelling . clinically , osteoblastoma can be symptomatic or even remain symptom - free , and may be diagnosed only on routine radiographic examination .
histologically and clinically , differential diagnosis for osteoblastoma ranges from a variety of benign and malignant tumors that poses a diagnostic dilemma . stressing the importance of the correct diagnosis of such lesions , this report discusses a case of aggressive osteoblastoma of the mandible posing as a diagnostic dilemma . |
6,993 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: over
500 000 gene sequences have been discovered encoding
glycoside hydrolases that are grouped into more than 130 families
according to the carbohydrate active enzyme classification ( cazy : www.cazy.org ) .
endo--1,2-mannosidases
are eukaryotic proteins involved in n - linked glycan maturation , folding ,
and quality control and are of clinical significance as they provide a means for viruses
and cancer to evade the effect of exo - glucosidase
inhibitors.endo--1,2-mannanases
are produced by bacteroides spp . , bacterial residents
of the gut microbiota .
they facilitate
the degradation of dietary yeast mannan consumed in bread and fermented
foods , facilitating the breakdown of these complex carbohydrates ,
with beneficial effects on the gastrointestinal tract and , possibly ,
mitigating the symptoms of crohn s disease . given the importance of family gh99 enzymes in n - linked
glycan maturation and carbohydrate processing by the microbiota , the
development of inhibitors has been of particular importance to allow
assessment and manipulation of their roles in these complex processes .
in this work ,
we investigate several mechanism - inspired inhibitor
design concepts for family gh99 endo--1,2-mannanases
from the gut microbiota constituents bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and bacteroides xylanisolvens ; btgh99 and bxgh99 , respectively .
our results cast light
on the importance of structural mimicry of shape and charge of species
along the reaction coordinate for achieving potent inhibition of this
enzyme family .
glycosidases that cleave their substrates with
retention of anomeric
configuration typically operate through a two - step mechanism that
proceeds via a covalent glycosyl - enzyme intermediate .
such enzymes
utilize enzymatic amino acid residues that in the first step act as
general acid and nucleophile to assist in departure of the anomeric
substituent while simultaneously substituting the anomeric group ;
in the second step the first... | inhibitor
design incorporating features of the reaction coordinate
and transition - state structure has emerged as a powerful approach
for the development of enzyme inhibitors .
such inhibitors find use
as mechanistic probes , chemical biology tools , and therapeutics .
endo--1,2-mannosidases and endo--1,2-mannanases ,
members of glycoside hydrolase family 99 ( gh99 ) , are interesting targets
for inhibitor development as they play key roles in n - glycan maturation
and microbiotal yeast mannan degradation , respectively .
these enzymes
are proposed to act via a 1,2-anhydrosugar epoxide
mechanism that proceeds through an unusual conformational itinerary .
here
, we explore how shape and charge contribute to binding of diverse
inhibitors of these enzymes .
we report the synthesis of neutral dideoxy ,
glucal and cyclohexenyl disaccharide inhibitors , their binding to
gh99 endo--1,2-mannanases , and their structural
analysis by x - ray crystallography .
quantum mechanical calculations
of the free energy landscapes reveal how the neutral inhibitors provide
shape but not charge mimicry of the proposed intermediate and transition
state structures . building upon the knowledge of shape and charge
contributions to inhibition of family gh99 enzymes , we design and
synthesize -man-1,3-noeuromycin , which is revealed to be the
most potent inhibitor ( kd 13 nm for bacteroides xylanisolvens gh99 enzyme ) of these enzymes
yet reported .
this work reveals how shape and charge mimicry of transition
state features can enable the rational design of potent inhibitors . |
6,994 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a previously healthy teenage girl , who had immigrated to oregon from mexico as an infant , sought care in january 2000 for progressively severe headaches of several months duration .
autopsy showed no evidence of trauma , and results of a toxicology screening were negative .
examination of the brain showed obstructive hydrocephalus , bilateral uncal herniation , flattening of the cerebral gyri , and an intact cysticercus compressing the inferior 4th ventricle ( figure 1 ) .
a ) coronal section of brain showing dilation of ventricles , flattening of the cerebral gyri , and uncal herniation .
we searched the oregon hospital discharge database to identify oregon hospitals that had discharged patients with the icd-9-cm code for neurocysticercosis ( 123.1 ) from january 1995 through december 2000 and requested the medical records of these patients .
we searched the oregon death certificate database for additional neurocysticercosis deaths during the same period .
a case of neurocysticercosis was defined as any person with a hospital discharge code of 123.1 or death certificate diagnosis of neurocysticercosis during the study period , and a record of imaging studies or pathology reports consistent with neurocysticercosis .
an incident case was defined as one for which no reference to any previous diagnosis of neurocysticercosis was found in the medical record .
incidence rates were calculated by using u.s . census bureau yearly population estimates for oregon as the denominator ( 2,3 ) .
data were analyzed with epiinfo , version 6.04d ( centers for disease control and prevention , atlanta , ga ) .
we found 89 hospital discharges coded for neurocysticercosis during the study period among 18 hospitals in 10 counties .
review of these records confirmed the diagnosis of neurocysticercosis for 59 persons ( 17 were admitted more than once ) .
thus , including the death described above , we found 61 persons who met the case definition for neurocysticercosis ; 43 ( 70% ) of these were incident cases .
the mean annual... | the unexpected death of a teenager from neurocysticercosis prompted an investigation of this disease in oregon .
we found 89 hospitalizations , 43 newly diagnosed cases , and 6 deaths from 1995 to 2000 .
at least five cases occurred in persons who had not traveled or lived outside the united states .
enhanced surveillance for neurocysticercosis is warranted . |
6,995 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pact suicides are those wherein two or more individuals mutually agree and execute to terminate their lives together .
the usual profile of persons involved in pact suicides includes those females , older , married and of high social class . if one relies on the media reports , whenever two or more deaths occur together , one of whom is a child ; it is usually considered as a homicide - suicide without the consent of the child . for establishing that the suicides were an outcome of suicide pact , objective evidence in the form of a suicide note
is required to establish that the deaths were an outcome of suicide pact . in indian context ,
pact suicides generally involve issueless couples , disappointed lovers , unmarried sisters , frustrated individuals or a woman ending her own life and that of her children due to family circumstances or financial difficulties .
this usually occurs in the religious , political or military reasons . in our literature search ,
we did not come across a pact suicide involving four persons ( quadruple pact suicide ) . in this report
, we describe a family ( of four persons , three of whom were adolescents ) , which entered into a pact suicide due to the social reasons .
a man and his three children were brought to the emergency department by their neighbors .
he and two of the children had allegedly consumed celphos ( aluminum phosphide ) tablets , which is a commonly used insecticide in this part of india .
the father was found to have respiratory distress and had to be immediately intubated and ventilated .
detail information was obtained from the neighbors who had brought them and the third child .
he was managing a nuclear family with his wife and three children of ages 14 ( girl ) , 12 ( boy ) and 11 ( boy ) years .
two days prior to the alleged suicidal attempt , the man came to know about the extra - marital relationship of his wife . according to the informants , the fact that she was having and extra - marital relationship was true and the extra - marital relationship was... | pact suicides involving families have been reported in the scientific literature , but reports have been few from india .
we report the case of a family , in which the father and three children had entered into a suicidal pact and executed it due to social reasons . a 41-year - old man , with no past psychiatric or substance use history ,
had reportedly come to know that his wife had been involved in an extra - marital affair . as expressed by him in a suicide note
, he could not bear the humiliation due to this and also did not want his children to face disrespect from the society .
he along with his daughter and 2 sons , aged 14 , 12 and 11 years respectively , thus entered into a suicide pact to end their lives and wrote a suicide note .
man and two of his children consumed aluminum phosphide .
however , the youngest son did not consume the poison and raised alarm , following which they were rushed for medical care .
the father died , but the three children recovered completely .
the case highlights the rare phenomenon of suicide pacts involving an adult and children . |
6,996 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: to report a case of corneal perforation associated with oral administration of erlotinib and its spontaneous healing after temporary discontinuation of drug treatment .
a 65-year - old man with metastatic lung cancer was treated with erlotinib ( 150 mg / day ) , a specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor .
he was referred to our corneal service for the treatment of bilateral corneal disorders , diagnosed with mild aqueous - deficient dry eye , and treated by insertion of punctal plugs .
his corneal epithelial disorders initially improved , but subsequently worsened , as manifested by the development of bilateral corneal ulceration with corneal perforation in the right eye .
the oral administration of erlotinib was interrupted in preparation for tectonic keratoplasty , but 2 days later the corneal perforation of the right eye and the bilateral epithelial defects had healed spontaneously .
treatment with erlotinib was resumed at half the initial dose , and the cornea of both eyes has remained apparently healthy .
the development of corneal epithelial disorders in patients receiving this drug may be reversed by reducing its dose .
a 65-year - old japanese man was diagnosed in april 2010 with stage iv lung adenocarcinoma , manifesting multiple metastases in the lung , adrenal gland and brain .
he received 31 gy of basicranial radiation for the brain metastases . given that he was found to harbor an epidermal growth factor receptor ( egfr ) mutation ,
he was also treated with the egfr - specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor ( tki ) gefitinib ( 250 mg / day ) . as a result of the development of adverse effects including fatigue , dermatitis , and liver dysfunction ,
however , the dose of gefitinib was initially reduced by half and treatment with the drug was subsequently discontinued after a total of 2 months . computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed that the size of the original lesion and the number of brain metastases had increased .
treatment with the... | purposeto report a case of corneal perforation associated with oral administration of erlotinib and its spontaneous healing after temporary discontinuation of drug treatment.case reporta 65-year - old man with metastatic lung cancer was treated with erlotinib ( 150 mg / day ) , a specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor .
he was referred to our corneal service for the treatment of bilateral corneal disorders , diagnosed with mild aqueous - deficient dry eye , and treated by insertion of punctal plugs .
his corneal epithelial disorders initially improved , but subsequently worsened , as manifested by the development of bilateral corneal ulceration with corneal perforation in the right eye .
the oral administration of erlotinib was interrupted in preparation for tectonic keratoplasty , but 2 days later the corneal perforation of the right eye and the bilateral epithelial defects had healed spontaneously .
treatment with erlotinib was resumed at half the initial dose , and the cornea of both eyes has remained apparently healthy.discussionerlotinib may be secreted into tear fluid and thereby adversely affect the corneal epithelium .
the development of corneal epithelial disorders in patients receiving this drug may be reversed by reducing its dose . |
6,997 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 23-year - old healthy female was admitted to our hospital with a new - onset tender bulge in her left groin , associated with subjective fevers and chills .
four days prior to presentation , she noted a sudden protrusion in her left groin with associated pain . given worsening pain and intermittent nausea , she presented to our emergency room . on admission , physical examination revealed a soft , non - distended abdomen that was tender to palpation in the left lower quadrant . a soft , mobile , exquisitely tender , and non - reducible mass
laboratory data were notable for a leukocyte count of 6.7 , a hematocrit of 36.9 and a lactate of 1.4 in the setting of normal electrolytes .
an outside ultrasound showed an avascular complex cystic lesion measuring 2.1 cm in the left groin .
a subsequent computed tomography scan of the abdomen and pelvis revealed a tubular cystic structure along the left inguinal canal , coursing along the expected path of the round ligament , without surrounding fat stranding or herniation of bowel loops .
given her symptoms and the unclear etiology of the hernia , she was admitted to the hospital and taken to the operating room for exploration ( fig . 1 ) .
in the operating room , a 6-cm dark purple cystic structure was visualized within the sac of an indirect inguinal hernia , travelling along the round ligament down toward the mons pubis ( fig . 2 ) .
the cystic structure was dissected away from the round ligament and the cyst was opened and noted to contain clear liquid .
ultimately , the patient underwent left indirect inguinal hernia repair , with gore bio a absorbable mesh , and excision of a left inguinal hydrocele of the round ligament .
final pathology revealed fibromuscular tissue lined by mesothelium consistent with a hernia sac and a hydrocele with concordant endometriosis .
the patient 's post - operative course was uneventful and she was discharged home on post - operative day 1 .
figure 2:purple cystic structure within the sac of an indirect inguinal hernia ,... | endometriosis is a common gynecologic disorder wherein ectopic endometrial glands and stroma are found at extrauterine sites .
extrapelvic endometriosis is a well - documented , yet rare , disease entity that can affect almost any organ system .
inguinal endometriosis is an extremely rare disease entity characterized by tender inguinal swelling . here
we report a case of a sudden - onset and acutely painful left inguinal hernia with concordant endometriosis .
a review of the literature is presented .
the presence of isolated endometriosis contained within a left - sided inguinal hernia sac has , to our knowledge , never been reported .
often diagnosed incidentally or on histologic examination , general surgeons should consider inguinal endometriosis in the differential diagnosis of inguinal masses , even in the absence of catamenial symptoms .
surgical excision , with gynecologic follow - up , is locally curative and the treatment of choice for inguinal endometriosis . |
6,998 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | cell culture systems are instrumental in elucidating regulation of normal function and mechanisms of its perturbation by toxic substances . to this end
, three applications of epithelial cells cultured with 3t3 feeder layer support are described .
first , treatment of the premalignant human epidermal keratinocyte line scc-12f2 with the tumor promoter 12-o - tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate suppressed cell growth and differentiation .
this agent produced a biphasic growth response greatly inhibiting cell growth at 1 to 10 nm , but much less above 100 nm .
expression of the differentiated functions involucrin and transglutaminase was found to be inhibited markedly at concentrations above 10 nm .
second , 3-methylcholanthrene toxicity was surveyed in a variety of rat epithelial cell types .
the two most sensitive to growth inhibition were epidermal and mammary epithelial cells , while those from bladder , prostate , thyroid , and endometrium were insensitive to growth inhibition .
great differences were evident even among those cells derived from stratified squamous epithelia ( epidermal , esophageal , vaginal , forestomach ) despite their expression of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activities to similar degrees . finally ,
expression of estrogen receptors in rat endometrial cells was shown to be stimulated by the camp - elevating agent forskolin .
maximal stimulation of 3- to 6-fold occurred in 6 hr , compatible with a requirement for protein synthesis .
although expressing keratinocyte character ( transglutaminase activity and envelope forming ability ) , the cells thus retain some hormonal character that may be modulated by camp - dependent kinase activity .
pursuit of such results will aid in understanding differences in response among cell types and species , in elucidating mechanisms of action of known toxic substances and , ultimately , in predicting toxicity of less well understood agents.imagesfigure 1.figure 4 . |
6,999 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: lactic acid bacteria ( lab ) isolated from dairy products have received increased attention as a potential food preservative due to their antagonistic activity against many food born pathogen such as listeria monocytogenes .
lab are widely distributed in the nature , they are typically involved in a large number of the spontaneous food fermentation , and they have been extensively studied .
some members of lab produce bacteriocins and bacteriocins - like substances which may inhibit growth of spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms .
bacteriocins from lab are bioactive peptides or proteins with antimicrobial activity toward gram positive bacteria , including closely related strains and/or spoilage and pathogenic bacteria .
bacteriocins are ribosomaly synthesized and extracellulary released bioactive peptides or peptide complexes which have bactericidal or bacteriostatic effect .
use of either the bacteriocins or the bacteriocin - producing lab like starter cultures for food preservation has received a special attention .
moreover , bacteriocins are innocuous due to proteolytic degradation in the gastrointestinal tract [ 7 , 8 ] .
s. thermophilus is a lactic acid bacterium of major importance in food industry like the manufacture of yoghourt .
some of s. thermophilus strains produce a bacteriocin named thermophilin which is active against several lab and food spoilage bacteria such as clostridium sporogenes . in view of its technological and biochemical properties
some of other lab like enterococcus , lactococcus , and pediococcus are also widely used as natural preservatives , due to the potential production of metabolites with antimicrobial activity such as organic acids , hydrogen peroxide , antimicrobial enzymes and bacteriocins .
the aim of the present study is to assess antimicrobial activity of some lactic acid bacteria strains isolated from traditional fermented dairy products prepared from raw milk , raib , which is obtained after spontaneous curdling of raw milk within 24 to 36 hours at ambient... | in the present study , the antibacterial effect of 20 lactic acid bacteria isolates from a traditional cheese was investigated .
6 isolates showed antibacterial effect against gram positive bacteria .
streptococcus thermophilus t2 strain showed the wide inhibitory spectrum against the gram positive bacteria .
growth and bacteriocin production profiles showed that the maximal bacteriocin production , by s. thermophilus t2 cells , was measured by the end of the late - log phase ( 90 au ml1 ) with a bacteriocine production rate of 9.3 ( au ml1 ) h1 .
in addition , our findings showed that the bacteriocin , produced by s. thermophilus t2 , was stable over a wide ph range ( 48 ) ; this indicates that such bacteriocin may be useful in acidic as well as nonacidic food .
this preliminarily work shows the potential application of autochthonous lactic acid bacteria to improve safety of traditional fermented food . |
7,000 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: coronary artery disease ( cad ) is a leading cause of death throughout the world ( 1 ) . over the four decades
, a significant decrease has been observed in age - related mortality caused by cardiovascular disease ( 2 ) .
people in developing countries suffer from cad at a relatively younger age and about half of mi occurs under the age of fifty years ( 3 ) .
inadequate perfusion due to atherosclerosis is a common cause of coronary artery stenosis ( 2 ) .
ischemic chest pain in young adults is usually related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy , congenital coronary abnormalities , tachyarrhythmia , myocarditis , aortic stenosis , dissection , or coarctation ( 4 ) .
age , male sex , hypertension , smoking , diabetes , dyslipidemia , and obesity are considered as established risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis ( 5 , 6 ) .
these agents are used currently to increase protein synthesis and muscle growth in athletes ( 7 ) . since the use of anabolic steroids has been increased , different types of them produced ( 8) .
mostly people start using the anabolic steroids in school time ( 9 ) . according to the statistics , 0.9% of men and 0.1% of women use these agents during their lifetime ( 10 ) . in this review ,
a 23-year - old male body builder was reported , with myocardial infarction ( mi ) following use of trenbolone acetate .
a 23-year - old man was referred to the emergency room with epigastric pain since the last day .
he was an athlete and his previous medical history was negative . due to the absence of risk factors for heart disease ,
symptomatic treatment was done for him and his pain decreased so that the patient was discharged from the emergency department .
but , after 3 days the patient presented again to ed with the same complaint .
the pain radiated to the left arm accompanied by nausea . after obtaining the accurate history of the patient
, it was elucidated that he has been using the trenbolone acetate in his daily diet since last year .
the patient 's vital signs were included... | over the four decades , a significant decrease has been observed in age - related mortality caused by cardiovascular disease .
people in developing countries suffer from cad at a relatively younger age and about half of mi occurs under the age of fifty years .
abuse of anabolic steroids is one of the less common causes of atherosclerosis . in this report
, a 23-year - old body builder male referred to emergency department ( ed ) with myocardial infarction ( mi ) following chronic trenbolone acetate consumption .
it seems that a comprehensive history of steroid consumption in young patients referred to ed with the chief complaint of chest pain or its equivalents is necessary in adjunct to other cardiac risk factors . |
7,001 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: during the last decade , of the definition of the optimal treatment in high risk prostate cancer ( pca ) is among the topics that are of most interest to the urological community , but consensus in this field is still not reached .
up until a decade ago , most t3 pca patients underwent radiotherapy ( rt ) or androgen deprivation therapy ( adt ) or a combination of both , while only about 36% were initially treated by surgery .
recent publications have revealed that in selected cases of locally advanced and high - grade tumors , surgery as monotheraphy or as part of a multimodality treatment may be used instead of rt .
the high risk pca population , usually described as having prostate specific antigen ( psa ) > 20 ng / ml , biopsy gleason score 8 or an advanced clinical stage ( t3a - b ) is however not homogeneous .
recent studies have shown that treatment outcomes can vary widely , depending on whether patients present with only one , or rather a combination of those high - risk factors , with the latter patients having the worst outcomes [ 47 ] .
it is still unclear which patients , according to the accepted predictors of aggressive disease behavior , are the best candidates for surgery , mostly due to the lack of data on long - term oncologic outcomes and randomized clinical trials . according to the european association of urology guidelines ,
surgery is optional in patients presenting with ct3a , gleason score 8 - 10 or psa > 20 ng / ml , and life expectancy of more than 10 years . even in highly selected patients with ct3b or cn1 pca ,
we believe that radical prostatectomy is indeed an appropriate treatment for more aggressive pca , but data for confirming that are still insufficient . the purpose of this study is to present the oncologic outcomes of patients having pt3a pca after surgery , including overall survival ( os ) , disease progression free survival ( dpfs ) , cancer specific survival ( css ) and biochemical progression free survival ( bpfs ) .
during the period 2002 - 2007 , 840 radical... | introductionthe aim of this study is to present the oncologic outcomes and to determine prognostic parameters of overall ( os ) , cancer specific survival ( css ) , disease progression free survival ( dpfs ) and biochemical progression free survival ( bpfs ) after surgery for pt3a prostate cancer ( pca).material and methodsbetween 2002 and 2007 , a pt3a stage after radical prostatectomy was detected in 126 patients at our institution .
kaplan - meier analysis was used to calculate os , css , dpfs and bpfs .
cox regression was used to identify predictive factors of survival.resultsfive-year os , css , dpfs and bpfs rates were 96% , 98.7% , 97.3% and 60% , respectively . among patients with prostate specific antigen ( psa ) < 10 ng / ml and psa > 20 ng / ml the 5-year os was 98.8% and 80% , respectively , whereas 5-year bpfs was 66% and 16.6% , respectively .
survival was different when comparing surgery gleason score 7 and 8 .
5-year os and bpfs were 98% vs. 80% , and 62.6% vs. 27.3% , respectively .
specimen gleason score and preoperative psa were significant predictors of bpfs .
the risk of biochemical progression increased up to 2-fold when a gleason score 8 was present at final pathology.conclusionsin locally advanced pt3 pca , surgery can yield very good cancer control and survival rates especially in cases with psa < 10 ng / ml and gleason score 7 .
psa and gleason score after surgery are the most significant predictors of outcomes after radical prostatectomy . |
7,002 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: fear of hypoglycaemia and gain in body weight are barriers for initiation of insulin therapy .
modern insulin analogues are a convenient new approach or tool to glycaemic control , associated with low number of hypoglycaemia and favourable weight change .
a1chieve , a multinational , 24-week , non - interventional study , assessed the safety and effectiveness of insulin analogues in people with t2 dm ( n = 66,726 ) in routine clinical care . this short communication presents the results for patients enrolled from abu dhabi .
please refer to editorial titled : the a1chieve study : mapping the ibn battuta trail .
the patient characteristics for the entire cohort divided as insulin - nave and insulin users is shown in the table 1 .
other groups were insulin aspart ( n = 13 ) , basal insulin plus insulin aspart ( n = 42 ) , biphasic insulin aspart ( n = 134 ) and other insulin combinations ( n = 41 ) . after 24 weeks of treatment , overall hypoglycaemic events reduced from 2.0 events / patient - year to 0.2 events / patient - year in insulin user group whereas hypoglycaemia increased from 0.1 events / patient - year to 0.5 events / patient - year in insulin naive group . however , this hypoglycaemia incidence in insulin naive group at 24 weeks was still lower than that observed in insulin users at baseline .
major hypoglycaemic events remained same as that of baseline ( 0.1 events / patient - year ) in insulin nave group whereas it reduced from 0.1 events / patient - year to 0.0 events / patient - year in insulin users .
blood pressure decreased and overall lipid profile improved at week 24 in the cohort [ tables 2 and 3 ] .
overall demographic data all parameters of glycaemic control improved from baseline to study end in the total cohort .
more than one third of patients achieved hba1c < 7.0% at week 24 [ table 4 ] .
overall efficacy data of the total cohort , 134 patients started on biphasic insulin aspart ogld , of which 84 ( 62.7% ) were insulin nave and 50 ( 37.3% ) were insulin users .
after 24 weeks of... | background : the a1chieve , a multicentric ( 28 countries ) , 24-week , non - interventional study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of insulin detemir , biphasic insulin aspart and insulin aspart in people with t2 dm ( n = 66,726 ) in routine clinical care across four continents.materials and methods : data was collected at baseline , at 12 weeks and at 24 weeks . this short communication presents the results for patients enrolled from abu dhabi.results:a total of 383 patients were enrolled in the study .
four different insulin analogue regimens were used in the study .
study patients had started on or were switched to biphasic insulin aspart ( n = 134 ) , insulin detemir ( n = 152 ) , insulin aspart ( n = 13 ) , basal insulin plus insulin aspart ( n = 42 ) and other insulin combinations ( n = 41 ) . at baseline
glycaemic control was poor for both insulin nave ( mean hba1c : 9.4% ) and insulin user ( mean hba1c : 9.1% ) groups . after 24 weeks of treatment , both groups showed improvement in hba1c ( insulin nave : 2.1% , insulin users : 1.8% ) .
sadrs did not occur in any of the study patients .
major hypoglycaemic events remained same as that of baseline ( 0.1 events / patient - year ) for insulin nave group whereas major hypoglycaemia reduced from 0.1 events / patient - year to 0.0 events / patient - year in insulin users.conclusion:starting or switching to insulin analogues was associated with improvement in glycaemic control with a low rate of hypoglycaemia . |
7,003 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: osteoporosis is a common metabolic bone disease characterized by low bone mass , microarchitectural weakening leading to bone fragility , and increased fracture risk .
osteoporosis affects one in three women and one in five men over the age of 50 and may not be detected until symptoms or fractures occur .
white women over the age of 50 have a 50% chance of fracturing in their lifetime and these fractures result in increased morbidity and mortality risks .
approximately 40% of the patients with osteoporotic hip fractures die within 5 years after their fractures occur .
osteoporosis is a preventable and treatable disease ; but because of no signs present prior to a fracture , many people are not being diagnosed in time to receive effective therapy .
the national osteoporosis foundation has identified many risk and predisposing factors for osteoporosis and related fractures in postmenopausal women .
some of the important factors are : history of fractures in adulthood , smoking , estrogen deficiency at an early age , low body weight , poor health , low calcium intake , physical inactivity , little exposure to sunlight , alcohol abuse , and use of oral glucocorticoid therapy for more than 3 months .
osteoporosis predominantly affects elderly women . while bone loss starts at about 35 years of age , the rate of bone loss increases after menopause in women .
women show an estrogen - related bone loss starting at menopause , predominantly in trabecular bone , followed by a slower loss of both trabecular and cortical bones 48 years later . after this period ,
changes related to age generally consist of disconnections of the trabecular network ; but in men , thinning of the trabeculae is seen . since osteoporotic fractures are a health burden worldwide , resulting in reduced physical activity , increased risk of mortality , and increased medical costs , health promotion strategies focus on identifying subjects at a high risk of the disease .
before a fracture occurs , osteoporosis is characterized by decreased bone... | osteoporosis is a major health problem affecting one in three women over the age of 50 and may not be detected until fractures occur .
since osteoporotic fractures are a health burden worldwide , identifying subjects with a high risk of osteoporosis and preventing osteoporosis - related mortality and morbidity are a very important health strategy .
women show an estrogen - related bone loss starting at menopause , predominantly occurring in trabecular bone .
diagnosis of osteoporosis is usually based on the bone mineral density measurement , but this is not a practical and economical technique for early detection .
therefore , investigators are interested in the possibility of detecting osteoporosis from the panoramic radiographs .
mandibular cortical bone undergoes resorptive activity in osteoporotic patients , leading to a decreased thickness and more porous inferior border .
therefore , studies have demonstrated the usefulness of cortical width and shape , determined from panoramic radiographs , in identifying elderly individuals with undetected osteoporosis , especially postmenopausal women . in conclusion , postmenopausal women with c3 category , mental index ( mi ) <3 mm , and panoramic mandibular index ( pmi ) < 0.3 may be considered for further osteoporosis investigation . |
7,004 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: antimitotic agents such as the taxanes are used widely to treat various cancers . to address limitations with these agents , a new generation of inhibitors that disrupt mitosis without affecting microtubule dynamics
however , we still have limited understanding of the mechanisms that dictate cell fate in response to mitotic disruption . here
we show that myc drives expression of an apoptotic network that sensitizes breast , ovarian , lung , and colon cancer cells to drugs that both activate and override the spindle assembly checkpoint .
moreover , we show that myc promotes both p53-independent death in mitosis and p53-dependent post - mitotic responses .
our results raise opportunities to explore biomarkers and combination therapies aimed at enhancing antimitotic efficacy .
antimitotic drugs are frontline treatments for breast , ovarian , and lung cancer , as well as various hematological malignancies ( dumontet and jordan , 2010 ) .
these drugs bind tubulin and inhibit microtubule dynamics , and although many cancers initially respond well , some are intrinsically resistant and others acquire resistance ( murray et al . , 2012 ) .
predicting which cancers will respond is hampered by our limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for patient benefit ( gascoigne and taylor , 2009 ; weaver , 2014 ) . at high concentrations , antimitotic drugs disrupt spindle assembly , leading to mitotic arrest by persistent activation of the spindle assembly checkpoint ( sac ) ( lara - gonzalez et al . , 2012 ) .
sac activation blocks the anaphase promoting complex / cyclosome ( apc / c ) , thereby preventing ubiquitination and degradation of cyclin b1 , in turn maintaining the mitotic state . following prolonged arrest ,
cells either die in mitosis or undergo slippage , returning to interphase without completing cell division ( brito and rieder , 2006 ) .
following slippage , p53-dependent post - mitotic responses then induce cell cycle arrest , senescence , or apoptosis ( rieder and maiato , 2004 ) .... | summarytaxol and other antimitotic agents are frontline chemotherapy agents but the mechanisms responsible for patient benefit remain unclear . following a genome - wide sirna screen , we identified the oncogenic transcription factor myc as a taxol sensitizer . using time - lapse imaging to correlate mitotic behavior with cell fate ,
we show that myc sensitizes cells to mitotic blockers and agents that accelerate mitotic progression .
myc achieves this by upregulating a cluster of redundant pro - apoptotic bh3-only proteins and suppressing pro - survival bcl - xl .
gene expression analysis of breast cancers indicates that taxane responses correlate positively with myc and negatively with bcl - xl .
accordingly , pharmacological inhibition of bcl - xl restores apoptosis in myc - deficient cells .
these results open up opportunities for biomarkers and combination therapies that could enhance traditional and second - generation antimitotic agents . |
7,005 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: high blood pressure is a major cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide , and recent studies showed that there is a linear correlation between blood pressure and cardiovascular disease . in recent decades rapid social and economic changes
have led to the increment in prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure in mediterranean and middle eastern countries . additionally , according to what different studies report , the prevalence of hypertension has been reported to be 10 to 17% in these region countries .
, it can be said that 25 to 35 percent of adults are affected by hypertension .
because of its high prevalence , this disease is important ; however , its importance has been doubled due to the fact that hypertension is an uncontrolled disease .
one of the most important factors which play a prominent role in controlling the disease is patient 's adherence .
the world health organization defines adherence as the agreement between an individual 's medication - related behaviors and following nutritional and lifestyle changes recommended by health care providers .
adherence or orders and information compliance are influenced by patient 's beliefs and their health conditions .
however , if the patient thinks that hypertension is a controllable disease , following the recommendations may be more likely . meanwhile
, some studies have reported that trivializing the illness of patient is one of the reasons behind uncontrolled blood pressure [ 10 , 11 ] and self - care is not satisfactory in these patients [ 1214 ] .
the role of nutrition in disease control is undeniable and diet is one of the most effective nonpharmacological strategies and studies evidenced that healthy nutrition has beneficial effects on cardiometabolic parameters [ 1517 ] , but behavior change and maintenance are not easy because the greatest responsibility in dietary adherence is on the patients .
but , unfortunately , there are several conflicting evidences and most of the patients do not pay attention to dietary... | introduction and objectives . nutritional knowledge of the patients is important in dietary adherence . this study aimed to determine the relationship between illness perceptions and nutritional knowledge with the amounts of sodium intake among rural hypertensive patients
. methods . in a cross - sectional study ,
671 hypertensive patients were selected in a multistage random sampling from the rural areas of ardabil city , iran , in 2013 .
data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of four sections and were analyzed using pearson correlation and multiple linear regressions by spss-18 .
results .
the mean of sodium intake in the uncontrolled hypertensive patients was 3599 258 mg / day and significantly greater than controlled group ( 2654 540 mg / day ) ( p < 0.001 ) .
knowledge and illness perceptions could predict 47.2% of the variation in sodium intake of uncontrolled group .
a significant negative relationship was found between knowledge and illness perceptions of uncontrolled hypertensive patients with dietary sodium intake ( r = 0.66 , p < 0.001 and r = 0.65 , p < 0.001 , resp . ) . conclusion .
considering the fact that patients ' nutritional knowledge and illness perceptions could highly predict their sodium intake , the importance of paying more attention to improve patients ' information and perceptions about hypertension is undeniable , especially among the uncontrolled hypertensive patients . |
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