Recovery of smell sense loss by mepolizumab in a patient allergic to dermatophagoides and affected by chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) frequently presents with dysfunction or loss of the sense of smell, resulting in a signifcant impairment in quality of life. The medical treatments currently available may improve the olfactory function in patients with CRSwNP, but such an outcome is generally only transitory. We report the case of a patient with CRSwNP who completely recovered from smell sense loss by treatment with mepolizumab. Case presentation: The patient was a 62-year-old female who has severe asthma induced by allergy to Dermatophagoides and concomitant CRSwNP. Any treatment for the latter, including oral and injective corticosteroids, was unsuccessful in the loss of smell. Due to the satisfaction of admission criteria to mepolizumab treatment for severe asthma, treatment was initiated on March 2018, resulting in good clinical control of both asthma and CRSwNP, and particularly in complete recovery of the smell loss after 4 months of treatment and still persisting. Conclusion: In this case report, the treatment with mepolizumab in a patient allergic to Dermatophagoides and afected by CRSwNP was associated with an improvement of anosmia. That fnding may be explained by a reduction of the nasal obstruction by nasal polyp

Topical use of tranexamic acid in coronary artery bypass operations: A double-blind, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study

AbstractObjectives: We sought to investigate the effect of topical application of tranexamic acid into the pericardial cavity in reducing postoperative blood loss in coronary artery surgery. Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-blind investigation with parallel groups was performed. Forty consecutive patients undergoing primary coronary surgery were randomly assigned to group 1 (tranexamic acid group) or group 2 (placebo group). Tranexamic acid (1 g in 100 mL of saline solution) or placebo was poured into the pericardial cavity and over the mediastinal tissues before sternal closure. The drainage of mediastinal blood was measured hourly. Results: Chest tube drainage in the first 24 hours was 485 ± 166 mL in the tranexamic acid group and 641 ± 184 mL in the placebo group (P = .01). Total postoperative blood loss was 573 ± 164 mL and 739 ± 228 mL, respectively (P = .01). The use of banked donor blood products was not significantly different between the two groups. Tranexamic acid could not be detected in any of the blood samples blindly collected from 24 patients to verify whether any systemic absorption of the drug occurred. There were no deaths in either group. None of the patients required reoperation for bleeding. Conclusions: Topical application of tranexamic acid into the pericardial cavity after cardiopulmonary bypass in patients undergoing primary coronary bypass operations significantly reduces postoperative bleeding. Further studies must be carried out to clarify whether a more pronounced effect on both bleeding and blood products requirement might be seen in procedures with a higher risk of bleeding. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2000;119:575-80

Three oncoming editorials with some suggestions on statistical analysis for authors and readers

Theditorial presents three manuscript on statistical reportin

Cell Cycle and Tumor Growth in Membrane Systems with Peripheral Proteins

AbstractMembrane systems with peripheral proteins are essentially standard membrane systems with the possibility of having multisets of objects (proteins) embedded in the membranes and with the presence of rules that control the transport and the change of configurations of these proteins. The model intends to abstract the activities of the receptors embedded in the cellular membranes. In this paper we use an extension of this paradigm to model and simulate some of the mechanisms underlying cell cycle and breast tumor growth. In particular we have defined a membrane system that abstracts the G2/M cell cycle phase transition and extends the corresponding Reactome model. The model has been then simulated by using the software Cyto-Sim and we have monitored the interplay between activators and inhibitors of the cell cycle

Compression of the inferior vena cava in bowel obstruction

INTRODUCTION: We investigated whether (a) the inferior vena cava (IVC) is compressed in bowel obstruction and (b) some tracts are more compressed than others. METHODS: Two groups of abdominal computed tomography (CT) examinations were collected retrospectively. Group O (N = 69) scans were positive for bowel obstruction, group C (N = 50) scans were negative for diseases. IVC anteroposterior and lateral diameters (APD, LAD) were assessed at seven levels. RESULTS: In group C, IVC section had an elliptic shape (APD/LAD: .76 \ub1 .14), the area of which increased gradually from 1.9 (confluence of the iliac veins) to 3.1\u2009cm\ub2/m\ub2 of BSA (confluence of the hepatic veins) with a significant narrowing in the hepatic section. In group O, bowel obstruction caused a compression of IVC (APD/LAD: .54 \ub1 .17). Along its course, IVC section area increased from 1.3 to 2.5\u2009cm\ub2/m\ub2. At ROC curve analysis, an APD/LAD ratio lower than 0.63 above the confluence of the iliac veins discriminated between O and C groups with sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 96%. CONCLUSIONS: Bowel obstruction caused a compression of IVC, which involved its entire course except for the terminal section. APD/LAD ratio may be useful to monitor the degree of compression

Requirements for acquiring a high-quality house dust mite extract for allergen immunotherapy

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A year in review in Minerva Anestesiologica 2019. Anesthesia, analgesia, and perioperative medicine

Innovations in anesthesia and perioperative pain management have animated the debate the last year

A year in review in Minerva Anestesiologica 2014

Year in revie

In vivo PET Imaging of Gliogenesis After Cerebral Ischemia in Rats

In vivopositron emission tomography of neuroinflammation has mainly focused on the evaluation of glial cell activation using radiolabeled ligands. However, the non-invasive imaging of neuroinflammatory cell proliferation has been scarcely evaluated so far.In vivoandex vivoassessment of gliogenesis after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats was carried out using PET imaging with the marker of cell proliferation 3 '-Deoxy-3 '-[18F] fluorothymidine ([F-18]FLT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescence immunohistochemistry. MRI-T2W studies showed the presence of the brain infarction at 24 h after MCAO affecting cerebral cortex and striatum.In vivoPET imaging showed a significant increase in [F-18]FLT uptake in the ischemic territory at day 7 followed by a progressive decline from day 14 to day 28 after ischemia onset. In addition, immunohistochemistry studies using Ki67, CD11b, and GFAP to evaluate proliferation of microglia and astrocytes confirmed the PET findings showing the increase of glial proliferation at day 7 after ischemia followed by decrease later on. Hence, these results show that [F-18]FLT provides accurate quantitative information on the time course of glial proliferation in experimental stroke. Finally, this novel brain imaging method might guide on the imaging evaluation of the role of gliogenesis after stroke.The authors would like to thank A. Leukona, X. Rios-Anglada, and V. Salinas for technical support in the radiosynthesis. This study was funded by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science/FEDER RYC-2017-22412, SAF2016-75292-R, PID2019-107989RB-I00, the Basque Government (IT1203/19, BIO18/IC/006) and CIBERNED. Maria Ardaya holds a fellowship from the University of Pais Vasco. Ana Joya acknowledges funding from Fundacio La Marato de TV3 (17/C/2017). Part of the work has been performed under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program from the Spanish State Research Agency (Grant No. MDM-2017-0720)