Population-based mammography screening below age 50: balancing radiation-induced vs prevented breast cancer deaths

Introduction:Exposure to ionizing radiation at mammography screening may cause breast cancer. Because the radiation risk increases with lower exposure age, advancing the lower age limit may affect the balance between screening benefits and risks. The present study explores the benefit-risk ratio of screening before age 50.Methods:The benefits of biennial mammography screening, starting at various ages between 40 and 50, and continuing up to age 74 were examined using micro-simulation. In contrast with previous studies that commonly used excess relative risk models, we assessed the radiation risks using the latest BEIR-VII excess abso

Neural correlates of perceiving emotional faces and bodies in developmental prosopagnosia:An event-related fMRI-study

Many people experience transient difficulties in recognizing faces but only a small number of them cannot recognize their family members when meeting them unexpectedly. Such face blindness is associated with serious problems in everyday life. A better understanding of the neuro-functional basis of impaired face recognition may be achieved by a careful comparison with an equally unique object category and by a adding a more realistic setting involving neutral faces as well facial expressions. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neuro-functional basis of perceiving faces and bodies in three developmental prosopagnosics (DP) and matched healthy controls. Our approach involved materials consisting of neutral faces and bodies as well as faces and bodies expressing fear or happiness. The first main result is that the presence of emotional information has a different effect in the patient vs. the control group in the fusiform face area (FFA). Neutral faces trigger lower activation in the DP group, compared to the control group, while activation for facial expressions is the same in both groups. The second main result is that compared to controls, DPs have increased activation for bodies in the inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) and for neutral faces in the extrastriate body area (EBA), indicating that body and face sensitive processes are less categorically segregated in DP. Taken together our study shows the importance of using naturalistic emotional stimuli for a better understanding of developmental face deficits

Young-onset atrial fibrillation:Sex differences in clinical profile, progression rate and cardiovascular outcome

Background: Women are underrepresented in major atrial fibrillation (AF) trials. In addition, data regarding clinical profile and outcome in young AF patients is limited. Therefore we aimed to investigate the clinical profile, AF progression rate and cardiovascular outcome between sexes in patients with young-onset AF. Methods: A total of 497 patients with AF-onset Results: Of 497 patients, 125 (25%) patients were women. Women had more often familial AF (34% versus 22%, P= 0.012) and obesity (26% versus 18%, P= 0.03). Men had more often coronary artery disease (11% versus 5%, P = 0.04), a longer PR interval [163 (148-180) versus 150 (138-167) ms, P <0.001] and higher left ventricular mass index [82 (71-96) versus 72 (61-83) g/m(2), P <0.001]. During a median follow-up of 7.0 (2.7-10.0) years AF progression rate was comparable (HR 2.03 for men versus women, 95%CI 0.924.48; P = 0.08), and no difference in cardiovascular events was observed between women and men (Log rank P-value = 0.07). Conclusions: In young patients with AF, clinical patient profile is different between the sexes but did not result in differences in cardiovascular outcome. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Evidence on continuous flow peritoneal dialysis: A review

Clinical application of continuous flow peritoneal dialysis (CFPD) has been explored since the 1960s, but despite anticipated clinical benefits, CFPD has failed to gain a foothold in clinical practice, among others due to the typical use of two catheters (or a dual-lumen catheter) and large dialysate volumes required per treatment. Novel systems applying CFPD via the existing single-lumen catheter using rapid dialysate cycling may solve one of these hurdles. Novel on-demand peritoneal dialysate generation systems and sorbent-based peritoneal dialysate regeneration systems may considerably reduce the storage space for peritoneal dialysate and/or the required dialysate volume. This review provides an overview of current evidence on CFPD in vivo. The available (pre)clinical evidence on CFPD is limited to case reports/series with inherently nonuniform study procedures, or studies with a small sample size, short follow-up, and no hard endpoints. Small solute clearance appears to be higher in CFPD compared to conventional PD, in particular at dialysate flows ≥100 mL/min using two single-lumen catheters or a double-lumen catheter. Results of CFPD using rapid cycling via a single-lumen catheter are too preliminary to draw any conclusions. Continuous addition of glucose to dialysate with CFPD appears to be effective in reducing the maximum intraperitoneal glucose concentration while increasing ultrafiltration efficiency (mL/g absorbed glucose). Patient tolerance may be an issue since abdominal discomfort and sterile peritonitis were reported with continuous circulation of the peritoneal dialysate. Thus, well-designed clinical trials of longer duration and larger sample size, in particular applying CFPD via the existing catheter, are urgently required

Het nieuwe telen Gerbera - Teeltseizoen: 2009-2010

De doelstelling van het project Het Nieuwe Telen Gerbera is het realiseren van een aanzienlijke energiebesparing met gelijkblijvende productie en kwaliteit. Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd door de Flori Consult Group en WUR Glastuinbouw bij GreenQ-Improvement Centre in Bleiswijk