Repair of Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm after Cardiac Arrest: a Case Report

The management of abdominal aortic aneurysms, especially ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms, continues to challenge vascular surgeons. A ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm is associated with a high mortality rate. If cardiopulmonary resuscitation is required before surgical repair, mortality rates are said to be even higher. However, cardiac arrest in patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm does not accurately predict a nonsalvageable state or preclude functional survival. In these cases, agressive management may be the only hope for survival, and cardiac arrest should not as such contraindicate repair. The objective of this study is to present a successful case of repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm after cardiac arrest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhanced sweet taste perception in obesity: joint analysis of gustatory data from multiple studies

Copyright © 2022 Ribeiro, Torres, Fernandes, Camacho, Branco, Martins, Raimundo and Oliveira-Maia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Introduction: While sweet taste perception is a potential determinant of feeding behavior in obesity, the supporting evidence is inconsistent and is typically associated with methodological limitations. Notably, possible associations between sweet taste perception and measures of food reward remain undetermined. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis comparing 246 individuals with severe obesity and 174 healthy volunteers using a validated method for taste perception assessment. We included gustatory variables, namely intensity and pleasantness ratings of sour, salt, sweet, and bitter tastants, and taste thresholds assessed by electrogustometry. Reward-related feeding behavior, including hedonic hunger, food addiction, feeding behavior traits, and acceptance of foods and alcohol, was evaluated using self-rated scales for comparison with gustatory measures. Result: In logistic regressions adjusted for age, gender, educational level, and research center, we found that a greater likelihood of belonging to the obesity group was associated with higher sweet intensity ratings (OR = 1.4, P = 0.01), hedonic hunger, food addiction symptoms, restrained and emotional eating (1.7 < OR ≤ 4.6, all P ≤ 0.001), and lower alcohol acceptance (OR = 0.6, P = 0.0002). Using principal component analysis, we found that while hedonic hunger, food addiction, and emotional eating were strongly interrelated, they were not associated with sweet intensity perception that, in turn, had a closer relationship with alcohol acceptance and restrained eating. Conclusion: We found that individuals with obesity report higher sweet taste intensity ratings than healthy controls. Furthermore, while psychological measures of reward-related feeding behavior assess a common construct, sweet intensity perception may represent a different obesity-related dimension.AJO-M was supported by grants from the BIAL Foundation (176/10), from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through a Junior Research and Career Development Award from the Harvard Medical Portugal Program (HMSP/ICJ/0020/2011), and by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 950357). ST was funded by the Center for Psychology at the University of Porto (FCT UIDB/00050/2020). AF was funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from FCT (SFRH/BPD/880972/2012). GR was funded by doctoral fellowships from Universidade de Lisboa (BD/2015Call) and FCT (SFRH/BD/128783/2017).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhanced sweet taste perception in obesity: joint analysis of gustatory data from multiple studies

Copyright © 2022 Ribeiro, Torres, Fernandes, Camacho, Branco, Martins, Raimundo and Oliveira-Maia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Introduction: While sweet taste perception is a potential determinant of feeding behavior in obesity, the supporting evidence is inconsistent and is typically associated with methodological limitations. Notably, possible associations between sweet taste perception and measures of food reward remain undetermined. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis comparing 246 individuals with severe obesity and 174 healthy volunteers using a validated method for taste perception assessment. We included gustatory variables, namely intensity and pleasantness ratings of sour, salt, sweet, and bitter tastants, and taste thresholds assessed by electrogustometry. Reward-related feeding behavior, including hedonic hunger, food addiction, feeding behavior traits, and acceptance of foods and alcohol, was evaluated using self-rated scales for comparison with gustatory measures. Result: In logistic regressions adjusted for age, gender, educational level, and research center, we found that a greater likelihood of belonging to the obesity group was associated with higher sweet intensity ratings (OR = 1.4, P = 0.01), hedonic hunger, food addiction symptoms, restrained and emotional eating (1.7 < OR ≤ 4.6, all P ≤ 0.001), and lower alcohol acceptance (OR = 0.6, P = 0.0002). Using principal component analysis, we found that while hedonic hunger, food addiction, and emotional eating were strongly interrelated, they were not associated with sweet intensity perception that, in turn, had a closer relationship with alcohol acceptance and restrained eating. Conclusion: We found that individuals with obesity report higher sweet taste intensity ratings than healthy controls. Furthermore, while psychological measures of reward-related feeding behavior assess a common construct, sweet intensity perception may represent a different obesity-related dimension.AJO-M was supported by grants from the BIAL Foundation (176/10), from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through a Junior Research and Career Development Award from the Harvard Medical Portugal Program (HMSP/ICJ/0020/2011), and by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 950357). ST was funded by the Center for Psychology at the University of Porto (FCT UIDB/00050/2020). AF was funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from FCT (SFRH/BPD/880972/2012). GR was funded by doctoral fellowships from Universidade de Lisboa (BD/2015Call) and FCT (SFRH/BD/128783/2017).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Non-standard interactions versus non-unitary lepton flavor mixing at a neutrino factory

The impact of heavy mediators on neutrino oscillations is typically described by non-standard four-fermion interactions (NSIs) or non-unitarity (NU). We focus on leptonic dimension-six effective operators which do not produce charged lepton flavor violation. These operators lead to particular correlations among neutrino production, propagation, and detection non-standard effects. We point out that these NSIs and NU phenomenologically lead, in fact, to very similar effects for a neutrino factory, for completely different fundamental reasons. We discuss how the parameters and probabilities are related in this case, and compare the sensitivities. We demonstrate that the NSIs and NU can, in principle, be distinguished for large enough effects at the example of non-standard effects in the $\mu$-$\tau$-sector, which basically corresponds to differentiating between scalars and fermions as heavy mediators as leading order effect. However, we find that a near detector at superbeams could provide very synergistic information, since the correlation between source and matter NSIs is broken for hadronic neutrino production, while NU is a fundamental effect present at any experiment.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures. Final version published in JHEP. v3: Typo in Eq. (27) correcte

Geografia e saúde: o lugar como premissa da atividade informacional da Atenção Básica do Sistema Único de Saúde

Resumo O presente artigo visa chamar a atenção para a necessidade de se considerar o lugar como uma variável importante da atividade de informação em saúde na Atenção Básica do Brasil. Enquanto processo normatizado e fundamentado no centralismo do Estado e numa metodologia restrita de se enxergar a saúde, a atividade informacional, como é concebida hoje, acaba por minar novas possibilidades de compreender os lugares do país de uma maneira emancipatória, autônoma e que dê voz às forças ascendentes que habitam o cotidiano. Nesse sentido, alertamos para a necessidade de se compreender a saúde na sua relação com os lugares e da influência destes em todos os processos da vida social. Uma nova atividade informacional deve, entretanto, ser capaz de capturar as realidades locais e suas geografias, sendo assim mais susceptível de sucesso, no que diz respeito a garantir a saúde e a vida de todos

Multicenter double blind trial of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell transplantation through intracoronary injection post acute myocardium infarction – MiHeart/AMI study

Background: Myocardial infarction remains as a major cause of mortality worldwide and a high rate of survivors develop heart failure as a sequel, resulting in a high morbidity and elevated expenditures for health system resources. We have designed a multicenter trial to test for the efficacy of autologous bone marrow (ABM) mononuclear cell (MC) transplantation in this subgroup of patients. The main hypothesis to be tested is that treated patients will have a significantly higher ejection fraction (EF) improvement after 6 months than controls. Methods: A sample of 300 patients admitted with ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) and left ventricle (LV) systolic dysfunction, and submitted to successful mechanical or chemical recanalization of the infarct-related coronary artery will be selected for inclusion and randomized to either treated or control group in a double blind manner. The former group will receive 100 x 106 MC suspended in saline with 5% autologous serum in the culprit vessel, while the latter will receive placebo (saline with 5% autologous serum). Implications: Many phase I/II clinical trials using cell therapy for STEMI have been reported, demonstrating that cell transplantation is safe and may lead to better preserved LV function. Patients with high risk to develop systolic dysfunction have the potential to benefit more. Larger randomized, double blind and controlled trials to test for the efficacy of cell therapies in patients with high risk for developing heart failure are required.Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT)/The Financing Agency for Studies and Projects (FINEP

Evaluation of the genetic diversity of Histoplasma capsulatum var. capsulatum isolates from north-eastern Brazil

Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of histoplasmosis cases in Ceara, a state in north-east Brazil. The lack of epidemiological data on the genotypes circulating in the north-east region shows the importance of more detailed studies on the molecular epidemiology of Histoplasma capsulatum var. capsulatum in this region. Different molecular techniques have been used to better characterize the genetic profile of H. capsulatum var. capsulatum strains. The aim of this study was to analyse the genetic diversity of H. capsulatum var. capsulatum isolates in Fortaleza, the capital of Ceara, through the sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)1-5.8S-ITS2 region, and establish the molecular profile of these isolates, along with strains from south-east Brazil, by RAPD analysis, featuring the different clusters in those regions. The isolates were grouped into two clusters. Cluster 1 included strains from the south-east and north-east regions with separation of isolates into three distinct subgroups (subgroups 1a, 1 b and 1 c). Cluster 2 included only samples from north-east Brazil. Sequencing of the ITS1 -5.8S-ITS2 region allowed the detection of two major clades, which showed geographical correlation between them and their subgroups. Therefore, it can be concluded that the H. capsulatum var. capsulatum isolates from Ceara have a high degree of genetic polymorphism. The molecular data also confirm that populations of this fungus are composed of different genotypes in Brazil and worldwide.National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)[562296/2010-7, 552161/2011-0, 304779/2011-3, 473025/2012-4]Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) [2103/2009