Treatment of osteolytic solitary painful osseous metastases with radiofrequency ablation or cryoablation: a retrospective study by propensity analysis

The present study aimed to measure the improvement in pain relief and quality of life in patients with osteolytic solitary painful bone metastasis treated by cryoablation (CA) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Fifty patients with solitary osteolytic painful bone metastases were retrospectively studied and selected by propensity analysis. Twenty-five patients underwent CA and the remaining twenty-five underwent RFA. Pain relief, in terms of complete response (CR), the number of patients requiring analgesia and the changes in self-rated quality of life (QoL) were measured following the two treatments. Thirty-two percent of patients treated by CA experienced a CR at 12 weeks versus 20% of patients treated by RFA. The rate of CR increased significantly with respect to baseline only in the group treated by CA. In both groups there was a significant change in the partial response with respect to baseline (36% in the CA group vs. 44% in the RFA group). The recurrence rate in the CA and RFA groups was 12% and 8%, respectively. The reduction in narcotic medication requirements with respect to baseline was only significant in the group treated by CA. A significant improvement in self-rated QoL was observed in both groups. The present study seems to suggest that CA only significantly improves the rate of CR and decreases the requirement of narcotic medications. Both CA and RFA led to an improvement in the self-rated QoL of patients after the treatments. However, the results of the present study should be considered as preliminary and to serve as a framework around which future trials may be designed

mArtifact: an Artifact-driven Process Monitoring Platform

Traditionally, human intervention is required to monitor a business process. Operators notify when manual activities are executed, and manually restart the monitoring whenever the process is not executed as expected. This paper presents mArtifact, an artifact-driven process monitoring platform. mArtifact uses the E-GSM artifact-centric language to represent the process. This way, when a violation occurs, it can flag the affected activities without halting the monitoring. By predicating on the conditions of the physical artifacts participating in a process, mArtifact autonomously detects when activities are executed and constraints are violated. The audience is expected to be familiar with business process monitoring and artifact-centric modeling languages

Rehabilitative devices for a top-down approach

In recent years, neurorehabilitation has moved from a "bottom-up" to a "top down" approach. This change has also involved the technological devices developed for motor and cognitive rehabilitation. It implies that during a task or during therapeutic exercises, new "top-down" approaches are being used to stimulate the brain in a more direct way to elicit plasticity-mediated motor re-learning. This is opposed to "Bottom up" approaches, which act at the physical level and attempt to bring about changes at the level of the central neural system. Areas covered: In the present unsystematic review, we present the most promising innovative technological devices that can effectively support rehabilitation based on a top-down approach, according to the most recent neuroscientific and neurocognitive findings. In particular, we explore if and how the use of new technological devices comprising serious exergames, virtual reality, robots, brain computer interfaces, rhythmic music and biofeedback devices might provide a top-down based approach. Expert commentary: Motor and cognitive systems are strongly harnessed in humans and thus cannot be separated in neurorehabilitation. Recently developed technologies in motor-cognitive rehabilitation might have a greater positive effect than conventional therapies

Treatment of Solitary Painful Osseous Metastases with Radiotherapy, Cryoablation or Combined Therapy: Propensity Matching Analysis in 175 Patients

aim of this study was to identify outcomes in pain relief and quality of life in patients with a solitary painful osseous metastasis treated by radiotherapy, cryoablation or the combination using a propensity score matching study design

Evaluation and treatment of the infertile women with Asherman syndrome: an updated review focusing on the role of hysteroscopy

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Experimental validation of auxetic stent designs: three-point bending of 3D printed Titanium prototypes

IntroductionNumerical simulations have demonstrated the superior bending flexibility of auxetic stents compared to conventional stent designs for endovascular procedures. However, conventional stent manufacturing techniques struggle to produce complex auxetic stent designs, fueling the adoption of additive manufacturing techniques.MethodsIn this study, we employed DMLS additive manufacturing to create Titanium Ti64 alloy stent prototypes based on auxetic stent designs investigated in a previous study. These prototypes were then subjected to experimental three-point bending tests.ResultThe experimental results were replicated using a finite element model, which showed remarkable accuracy in predicting the bending flexibility of four auxetic stents and two conventional stents.DiscussionAlthough this validation study demonstrates the promising potential of DMLS and other additive manufacturing methods for fabricating auxetic stents, further optimization of current stent design limitations and the incorporation of post-processing techniques are essential to enhance the reliability of these additive manufacturing processes

Evaluation and treatment of infertile women with Asherman syndrome: an updated review focusing on the role of hysteroscopy

Asherman syndrome is a rare acquired clinical condition resulting in the obliteration of the uterine cavity causedby the presence of partial or complete fibrous intrauterine adhesions involving at least two-thirds of the uterine cavity potentially obstructing the internal cervical orifice. Common reported symptoms of the disease are alterations of the menstrual pattern with decreased menstrual bleeding leading up to amenorrhoea and infertility. Hysteroscopy is currently considered the gold standard diagnostic and therapeutic approach for patients with intrauterine adhesions. An integrated approach, including preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative therapeutic measures, however, are warranted owing to the complexity of the syndrome. This review aims to summarize the most recent evidence on the recommended preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative procedures to restore the uterine cavity and a functional endometrium, as well as on the concomitant use of adjuvant therapies to achieve optimal fertility outcomes

A novel approach for the purification and proteomic analysis of pathogenic immunglobulin free light chains from serum

An excess of circulating monoclonal free immunoglobulin light chains (FLC) is common in plasma cell disorders. A subset of FLC, as amyloidogenic ones, possess intrinsic pathogenicity. Because of their complex purification, little is known on the biochemical features of serum FLC, possibly related to their pathogenic spectrum. We developed an immunopurification approach to isolate serum FLC from patients with monoclonal gammopathies, followed by proteomic characterization. Serum monoclonal FLC were detected and quantified by immunofixation and immunonephelometry. Immunoprecipitation was performed by serum incubation with agarose beads covalently linked to polyclonal anti-κ or λ FLC antibodies. Isolated FLC were analyzed by SDS-PAGE, 2D-PAGE, immunoblotting, mass spectrometry (MS). Serum FLC were immunoprecipitated from 15 patients with ALλ amyloidosis (serum λ FLC range: 98-2350mg/L), 5 with ALκ amyloidosis and 1 with κ light chain (LC) myeloma (κ FLC range: 266-2660mg/L), and 3 controls. Monoclonal FLC were the prevalent eluted species in patients. On 2D-PAGE, both λ and κ FLC originated discrete spots with multiple pI isoforms. The nature of eluted FLC and coincidence with the LC sequence from the bone marrow clone was confirmed by MS, which also detected post-translational modifications, including truncation, tryptophan oxidation, cysteinylation, peptide dimerization. Serum FLC were purified in soluble form and adequate amounts for proteomics, which allowed studying primary sequence and detecting post-translational modifications. This method is a novel instrument for studying the molecular bases of FLC pathogenicity, allowing for the first time the punctual biochemical description of the circulating forms

Precursor and mature NGF live tracking: one versus many at a time in the axons

The classical view of nerve growth factor (NGF) action in the nervous system is linked to its retrograde axonal transport. However, almost nothing is known on the trafficking properties of its unprocessed precursor proNGF, characterized by different and generally opposite biological functions with respect to its mature counterpart. Here we developed a strategy to fluorolabel both purified precursor and mature neurotrophins (NTs) with a controlled stoichiometry and insertion site. Using a single particle tracking approach, we characterized the axonal transport of proNGF versus mature NGF in living dorsal root ganglion neurons grown in compartmentalized microfluidic devices. We demonstrate that proNGF is retrogradely transported as NGF, but with a lower flux and a different distribution of numbers of neurotrophins per vesicle. Moreover, exploiting a dual-color labelling technique, we analysed the transport of both NT forms when simultaneously administered to the axon tips