Bladder cancer index: cross-cultural adaptation into Spanish and psychometric evaluation

BACKGROUND: The Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) is so far the only instrument applicable across all bladder cancer patients, independent of tumor infiltration or treatment applied. We developed a Spanish version of the BCI, and assessed its acceptability and metric properties. METHODS: For the adaptation into Spanish we used the forward and back-translation method, expert panels, and cognitive debriefing patient interviews. For the assessment of metric properties we used data from 197 bladder cancer patients from a multi-center prospective study. The Spanish BCI and the SF-36 Health Survey were self-administered before and 12 months after treatment. Reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was assessed through the multi-trait multi-method matrix. The magnitude of change was quantified by effect sizes to assess responsiveness. RESULTS: Reliability coefficients ranged 0.75-0.97. The validity analysis confirmed moderate associations between the BCI function and bother subscales for urinary (r = 0.61) and bowel (r = 0.53) domains; conceptual independence among all BCI domains (r ≤ 0.3); and low correlation coefficients with the SF-36 scores, ranging 0.14-0.48. Among patients reporting global improvement at follow-up, pre-post treatment changes were statistically significant for the urinary domain and urinary bother subscale, with effect sizes of 0.38 and 0.53. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish BCI is well accepted, reliable, valid, responsive, and similar in performance compared to the original instrument. These findings support its use, both in Spanish and international studies, as a valuable and comprehensive tool for assessing quality of life across a wide range of bladder cancer patients

Osteogenesi imperfetta nell\u2019interpretazione del \u201cnon accidental injury\u201d : due casi a confronto

L\u2019osteogenesi imperfetta ha da sempre posto seri problemi di diagnosi differenziale con eventuali fratture di natura non accidentale, in quanto i soggetti affetti da tale condizione patologica tendono a sviluppare fratture multiple ed in epoche diverse, paragonabili ai casi di child physical abuse. Sebbene alcune forme di osteogenesi imperfetta siano riconoscibili anche clinicamente grazie ai diversi segni secondari associati, quali le sclere blu e la lassit\ue0 legamentosa, alcune forme, spesso di gravit\ue0 inferiore, mancano di tale obiettivit\ue0, e spesso si manifestano con una aspecifica fragilit\ue0 ossea. Risulta evidente in questi casi la difficolt\ue0 nel porre una diagnosi definitiva, che pu\uf2 essere eseguita efficacemente con l\u2019analisi del profilo di sintesi del collagene da colture di fibroblasti e i test genetici. L\u2019esistenza di forme di osteogenesi imperfetta caratterizzate unicamente dalla fragilit\ue0 ossea ha spinto alcuni autori a ipotizzare l\u2019esistenza di forme nosologiche transienti ad eziopatogenesi sconosciuta, come la TBBF (Temporary Brittle Bone Disease); il rischio dell\u2019utilizzo di forme nosologiche non ancora definite ed indimostrabili sul piano obiettivo \ue8 evidente, considerando l\u2019impatto di tale argomentazione in ambito giudiziario. Il presente studio ha l\u2019obiettivo di sottolineare le difficolt\ue0 legate alla diagnosi di lesione non accidentale nel contesto di un sospetto di osteogenesi imperfetta; nel primo, l\u2019evidenza di fratture multiple in epoche diverse ha fatto insorgere il sospetto dell\u2019origine non accidentale delle lesioni: la presenza dello stesso pattern fratturativo nella sorella gemella omozigote e l\u2019esecuzione dei test genetici ha consentito di evidenziare la diagnosi corretta di osteogenesi imperfetta. Nel secondo, l\u2019osservazione di multiple fratture ossee nel contesto di un ambiente familiare considerato non sospetto per child abuse ha posto in evidenza una possibile diagnosi di osteogenesi imperfetta, in assenza di qualsiasi altro segno secondario; l\u2019esito negativo delle indagini genetiche e colturali ha consentito di sostenere come ipotesi diagnostica l\u2019origine non accidentale. Dall\u2019analisi dei casi clinici esposti risulta pertanto di notevole importanza un approccio il pi\uf9 possibile aperto ad ogni ipotesi diagnostica in tali situazioni, oltre che il ruolo decisivo delle indagini genetiche e colturali per la diagnosi delle forme prive dei segni secondari, e pertanto non obiettivabili clinicamente

The use of Harmonia axyridis larvae (Coleoptera : Coccinellidae) against Macrosiphum rosae (Hemiptera : Sternorrhyncha : Aphididae) on rose bushes

International audienc

Modeling chlordecone toxicokinetics data in growing pigs using a nonlinear mixed-effects approach

International audienc

Morphosedimentary, Structural and Benthic Characterization of Carbonate Mound Fields on the Upper Continental Slope of the Northern Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean)

Carbonate mounds clustering in three fields were characterized on the upper continental slope of the northern Alboran Sea by means of a detailed analysis of the morphosedimentary and structural features using high-resolution bathymetry and parametric profiles. The contemporary and past benthic and demersal species were studied using ROV underwater imagery and some samples. A total of 325 mounds, with heights between 1 and 18 m, and 204 buried mounds were detected between 155 to 401 m water depth. Transparent facies characterize the mounds, which root on at least six erosive surfaces, indicating different growth stages. At present, these mounds are covered with soft sediments and typical bathyal sedimentary habitat-forming species, such as sea-pens, cerianthids and sabellid polychaetes. Nevertheless, remains of colonial scleractinians, rhodoliths and bivalves were detected and their role as potential mound-forming species is discussed. We hypothesized that the formation of these mounds could be related to favorable climatic conditions for cold-water corals, possibly during the late Pleistocene. The occurrence on top of some mounds of abundant rhodoliths suggests that some mounds were in the photic zone during minimum sea level and boreal guest fauna (e.g., Modiolus modiolus), which declined in the western Mediterranean after the Termination 1a of the Last Glacial (Late Pleistocene).En prensa1,42