concordance and time estimation of store and forward mobile teledermatology compared to classical face to face consultation

Smartphones have overcome the limitations of image quality seen in older devices and opened a new field of telemedicine called "mobile teledermatology". Technological advances and the need to reduce health service costs will strongly promote the development of telemedicine. For this reason, we evaluated the concordance be tween store-and-forward mobile teledermatology and the classical face-to-face dermatological visit. We also measured the time taken to submit a teleconsultation using a smartphone. Before conventional face-to-face visit, a final-year resident of the 3-year course for general practitioners collected medical history, took digital images of skin diseases with a smartphone and, measuring the time required to complete this operation, transmitted them to an expert teledermatologist. In 391 patients we obtained a concordance between face-to-face and store-and-forward diagnosis of 91.05% (Cohen κ coefficient = 0.906). On average only few minutes needs to be added to a no

Dietary thiols: A potential supporting strategy against oxidative stress in heart failure and muscular damage during sports activity

Moderate exercise combined with proper nutrition are considered protective factors against cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders. However, physical activity is known not only to have positive effects. In fact, the achievement of a good performance requires a very high oxygen consumption, which leads to the formation of oxygen free radicals, responsible for premature cell aging and diseases such as heart failure and muscle injury. In this scenario, a primary role is played by antioxidants, in particular by natural antioxidants that can be taken through the diet. Natural antioxidants are molecules capable of counteracting oxygen free radicals without causing cellular cytotoxicity. In recent years, therefore, research has conducted numerous studies on the identification of natural micronutrients, in order to prevent or mitigate oxidative stress induced by physical activity by helping to support conventional drug therapies against heart failure and muscle damage. The aim of this review is to have an overview of how controlled physical activity and a diet rich in antioxidants can represent a “natural cure” to prevent imbalances caused by free oxygen radicals in diseases such as heart failure and muscle damage. In particular, we will focus on sulfur-containing compounds that have the ability to protect the body from oxidative stress. We will mainly focus on six natural antioxidants: Glutathione, taurine, lipoic acid, sulforaphane, garlic and methylsulfonylmethane

The Biological Role of Vitamins in Athletes’ Muscle, Heart and Microbiota

Physical activity, combined with adequate nutrition, is considered a protective factor against cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and intestinal dysbiosis. Achieving optimal performance requires a significantly high energy expenditure, which must be correctly supplied to avoid the occurrence of diseases such as muscle injuries, oxidative stress, and heart pathologies, and a decrease in physical performance during competition. Moreover, in sports activities, the replenishment of water, vitamins, and minerals consumed during training is essential for safeguarding athletes’ health. In this scenario, vitamins play a pivotal role in numerous metabolic reactions and some muscle biochemical adaptation processes induced by sports activity. Vitamins are introduced to the diet because the human body is unable to produce these micronutrients. The aim of this review is to highlight the fundamental role of vitamin supplementation in physical activity. Above all, we focus on the roles of vitamins A, B6, D, E, and K in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disorders, muscle injuries, and regulation of the microbiome

Exercise, immune system, nutrition, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases during COVID-19: A complex combination

Coronaviruses (CoVs) represent a large family of RNA viruses that can infect different living species, posing a global threat to human health. CoVs can evade the immune response, replicate within the host, and cause a rapid immune compromise culminating in severe acute respiratory syndrome. In humans, the immune system functions are influenced by physical activity, nutrition, and the absence of respiratory or cardiovascular diseases. This review provides an in-depth study between the interactions of the immune system and coronaviruses in the host to defend against CoVs disease

Childhood obesity: An overview of laboratory medicine, exercise and microbiome

In the last few years, a significant increase of childhood obesity incidence unequally distributed within countries and population groups has been observed, thus representing an important public health problem associated with several health and social consequences. Obese children have more than a 50% probability of becoming obese adults, and to develop pathologies typical of obese adults, that include type 2-diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension. Also environmental factors, such as reduced physical activity and increased sedentary activities, may also result in increased caloric intake and/or decreased caloric expenditure. In the present review, we aimed to identify and describe a specific panel of parameters in order to evaluate and characterize the childhood obesity status useful in setting up a preventive diagnostic approach directed at improving health-related behaviors and identifying predisposing risk factors. An early identification of risk factors for childhood obesity could definitely help in setting up adequate and specific clinical treatments

Synthetic long non-coding RNAs [SINEUPs] rescue defective gene expression in vivo

Non-coding RNAs provide additional regulatory layers to gene expression as well as the potential to being exploited as therapeutic tools. Non-coding RNA-based therapeutic approaches have been attempted in dominant diseases, however their use for treatment of genetic diseases caused by insufficient gene dosage is currently more challenging. SINEUPs are long antisense non-coding RNAs that up-regulate translation in mammalian cells in a gene-specific manner, although, so far evidence of SINEUP efficacy has only been demonstrated in in vitro systems. We now show that synthetic SINEUPs effectively and specifically increase protein levels of a gene of interest in vivo. We demonstrated that SINEUPs rescue haploinsufficient gene dosage in a medakafish model of a human disorder leading to amelioration of the disease phenotype. Our results demonstrate that SINEUPs act through mechanisms conserved among vertebrates and that SINEUP technology can be successfully applied in vivo as a new research and therapeutic tool for gene-specific up-regulation of endogenous functional proteins