Study of Faraday cups for fast ion beams provided by a LIS source

Faraday cups are widely utilized to characterize ion and electrons beams. Owing to the secondary electron emission (SEE) induced by the collision of beams with collectors, wrong measurements could emerge from these detectors. To overcome this problem a polarized grid is utilized in front the cup collector at a negative voltage with respect to the collector. Unfortunately, the high voltage connection of the Faraday cups is hard to obtain. Then, in this work we want to study the secondary emission on different Al ion collector designs having tilted surfaces with respect to beam axis. Tests were performed using ion beams accelerated by a power supply up to 40 kV. The results by the modified collector surfaces were compared to the ones performed with a simple flat collector. The results we obtained point out that the secondary electron emission enhanced on incident beam energy and on the angle with respect to the normal direction of the surface. The ratio of the SEE to angle value results constant for the accelerating voltage and the possibility to design an ion collector able to reset the SEE seems not to be reached

Guidelines for the assessment of efficacy of clinical hypnosis applications

Research on the efficacy of hypnosis applications continues to grow, but there remain major gaps between the science and clinical practice. One challenge has been a lack of consensus on which applications of hypnosis are efficacious based on research evidence. In 2018, 6 major hypnosis organizations collaborated to form the Task Force for Establishing Efficacy Standards for Clinical Hypnosis. This paper describes a Guideline for the Assessment of Efficacy of Clinical Hypnosis Applications developed by the Task Force, which makes 10 specific recommendations. The guideline is intended to be a tool for those who want to assess the quality of existing evidence on the efficacy of clinical hypnosis for any particular indication. The paper also discusses methodological issues in the interpretation and implementation of these guidelines. Future papers will report on the other products of the Hypnosis Efficacy Task Force, such as best practice recommendations for outcomes research in hypnosis and an international survey of researchers and clinicians on current practice and attitudes about hypnosis

detection of hepatitis c virus rna in saliva from chronically hcv infected patients

n/

Serum Total Tryptase Level Confirms Itself as a More Reliable Marker of Mast Cells Burden in Mast Cell Leukaemia (Aleukaemic Variant)

Mast cell leukemia (MCL) is a very rare form of systemic mastocytosis (SM) with a short median survival of 6 months. We describe a case of a 65-year-old woman with aleukaemic variant of MCL with a very high serum total tryptase level of 2255 μg/L at diagnosis, which occurred following an episode of hypotensive shock. She fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of SM, with a bone marrow smear infiltration of 50–60% of atypical mast cells (MCs). She tested negative for the KIT D816V mutation, without any sign of organ damage (no B- or C-findings) and only few mediator-related symptoms. She was treated with antihistamine alone and then with imatinib for the appearance of anemia. She maintained stable tryptase level and a very indolent clinical course for twenty-two months; then, she suddenly progressed to acute MCL with a serum tryptase level up to 12960 μg/L. The patient died due to haemorrhagic diathesis twenty-four months after diagnosis. This clinical case maybe represents an example of the chronic form of mast cell leukemia, described as unpredictable disease, in which the serum total tryptase level has confirmed itself as a reliable marker of mast cells burden regardless of the presence of other signs or symptoms

PERIODONTITIS AND EARLY MORTALITY IN ADULTS WITH KIDNEY FAILURE TREATED WITH HEMODIALYSIS: A MULTINATIONAL OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Introduction and Aims: Periodontitis is associated with cardiovascular mortality in the general population and adults with chronic diseases, however prognostic data for periodontitis in the setting of kidney failure are sparse. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether periodontitis was prognostic for all-cause and cardiovascular-related death in adults with kidney failure. Methods: ORALD is a multinational cohort study in adults with kidney failure treated with haemodialysis in Europe (France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain) and Argentina. Periodontitis was measured at baseline according to the World Health Organization Community Periodontal Index. The outcomes were all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Analyses were conducted using a fixed-effect Cox proportional hazards analysis and additionally using a random effects model fitted using shared frailty to account for clustering within countries. Results: Periodontitis was evaluable in 3338 dentate participants of which 1355 (40.6%) had moderate to severe periodontitis. During 6150 person-years of follow-up, 650 deaths occurred of which 325 were cardiovascular. In multivariable analyses, moderate to severe periodontitis was associated with a lower hazard of all-cause (HR 0.76, 95% confidence interval 0.64 to 0.90) and cardiovascular (0.69, 0.54 to 0.87) mortality. There was evidence of decreasing mortality risks with more severe periodontal disease (P≤0.001 for trend). However, when analyses accounted for clustering of participants within countries, the associations between periodontitis and all-cause (0.92, 0.75 to 1.11) and cardiovascular (0.83, 0.63 to 1.09) mortality were not significant. Similar results were observed in analyses restricted to participants with 12 or more teeth and when competing risks for cardiovascular death were considered. Conclusions: Unlike in the general population, there is limited evidence that periodontitis is independently associated with increased all-cause or cardiovascular mortality in adults with kidney failure

Clinical Relevance of Liver Involvement in the Clinical Course of Systemic Sclerosis

Liver involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc) is rare. We evaluated the prevalence of liver fibrosis and hepatic autoimmunity in SSc patients in a retrospective observational cohort (97 SSc or mixed connective tissue disease with sclerodermic manifestations patients undergoing transient elastography, evaluating liver stiffness (LS) and controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), due to clinical indications along with biochemistry assessments and major antibodies associated to liver autoimmunity). Among them, 11 had LS ≥ 7.5 kPa and 5 showed an LS compatible with cirrhosis (LS ≥ 12.5 kPa). Predictors of LS ≥ 7.5 fibrosis were alcohol consumption (>14 or >7 alcoholic units/week for men and women, respectively), waist circumference (>102 or >88 cm for men and women, respectively), elevated alkaline phosphatase, and anti-La and anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA) positivity. Six patients had CAP values compatible with severe steatosis (≥280 dB/m). Waist circumference, body mass index and diabetes mellitus were significant predictors of steatosis. Out of 97 patients, 19 were positive for AMA, 4 for anti-Sp100, 1 for anti-Gp210 and 7 were diagnosed with primary biliary cholangitis. Among SSc patients, hepatic fibrosis biomarkers and AMA prevalence are relatively high, suggesting the opportunity of performing a transient elastography and a screening for hepatic autoimmunity at diagnosis and/or during disease progression

Classification performance for covid patient prognosis from automatic ai segmentation—a single-center study

Background: COVID assessment can be performed using the recently developed individual risk score (prediction of severe respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with SARS-COV2 infection, PREDI-CO score) based on High Resolution Computed Tomography. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of automatizing this estimation using semi-supervised AI-based Radiomics, leveraging the possibility of performing non-supervised segmentation of ground-glass areas. Methods: We collected 92 from patients treated in the IRCCS Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Policlinic and public databases; each lung was segmented using a pre-trained AI method; ground-glass opacity was identified using a novel, non-supervised approach; radiomic measurements were collected and used to predict clinically relevant scores, with particular focus on mortality and the PREDI-CO score. We compared the prediction obtained through different machine learning approaches. Results: All the methods obtained a well-balanced accuracy (70%) on the PREDI-CO score but did not obtain satisfying results on other clinical characteristics due to unbalance between the classes. Conclusions: Semi-supervised segmentation, implemented using a combination of non-supervised segmentation and feature extraction, seems to be a viable approach for patient stratification and could be leveraged to train more complex models. This would be useful in a high-demand situation similar to the current pandemic to support gold-standard segmentation for AI training

Dolor posoperatorio en craneotomía

In the postoperative period, 47% to 75% of the patients report some degree of pain. This study aimed to evaluate pain in the pre and postoperative period of patients submitted to craniotomy. This prospective research was carried out at the neurosurgery unit of a large Brazilian hospital. For a quantitative evaluation of pain, the verbal numeric 0 - 10 rating scale was used. Forty patients with a mean age of 36 years were evaluated. In the preoperative period, 34 (85%) patients indicated headache as the main cause of pain. In the postoperative period, 37 (93%) patients complained of pain while three (7%) reported absence of pain. Pain peaks were observed on the 2nd postoperative day, when 12 (32%) of the patients reported severe pain and 10 (27%) moderate pain. Absence of severe pain occurred after the 8th postoperative day. It was concluded that protocols of analgesia in craniotomy are needed, such as training nurses to better evaluate and handle pain.En el periodo postoperatorio, entre el 47% y el 75% de los pacientes relatan algún grado de dolor. Los objetivos de este trabajo fueron evaluar el dolor en el pre y postoperatorio de pacientes sometidos a craneotomía. Este estudio prospectivo fue realizado en la unidad de neurocirugía del Hospital São Paulo, Brasil. Para una evaluación cuantitativa del dolor se utilizó la escala numérica verbal graduada de 0 a 10. Fueron evaluados 40 pacientes con edad mediana de 36 años. En el preoperatorio 34 (85%) pacientes, reportaran cefalea como la principal causa del dolor. En el postoperatorio, 37 (93%) pacientes se quejaron de dolor, mientras 3 (7%) pacientes indicaron ausencia de dolor. El pico de dolor fue observado en el segundo día postoperatorio, cuando 12 (32%) pacientes reportaron dolor grave y 10 (27%) moderado. La ausencia de dolor grave ocurrió después del 8º día postoperatorio. Se concluyó que son necesarios protocolos de analgesia en craneotomía, tales como el entrenamiento de enfermeros para mejor evaluar y manejar el dolor.No pós-operatório, 47 a 75% dos pacientes relatam algum grau de dor. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a dor no pré e pós-operatório de pacientes submetidos a craniotomia. Estudo prospectivo, realizado na unidade de neurocirurgia do Hospital São Paulo. Para avaliação quantitativa de dor, foi utilizada a escala numérica verbal, graduada de 0 a 10. Foram avaliados 40 pacientes, com idade mediana de 36 anos. No pré-operatório, 34 (85%) pacientes relataram cefaléia como a principal causa de dor. No pós-operatório, 37 (93%) pacientes queixaram-se de dor e 3 (7%) pacientes referiram ausência de dor. O pico da dor foi observado no 2º pós-operatório, quando 16 (40%) dos pacientes referiram dor intensa e 11 (28%) queixaram-se de dor moderada. Ausência de dor intensa ocorreu após 6º pós-operatório. Concluí-se que há necessidade de protocolos de analgesia em craniotomia, como treinamento para os enfermeiros para melhor avaliação e manejo da dor.Hospital Israelita Albert EinsteinUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)UNIFESPSciEL