Laryngeal amyloidosis: An uncommon cause of dysphonia

Introduction: Amyloidosis is used to describe a range of disorders deined by extracellular deposition of abnormal protein ibrils. The larynx is the most common site of localized amyloidosis in the head and neck region and constitutes less than 1% of benign laryngeal lesions. Hoarseness is the most common symptom. Objective: Prospective clinical evaluation of patients with localized laryngeal amyloidosis. Clinical cases: Presented are 4 cases of patients with localized laryngeal amyloidosis who were treated at the Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Department at the “Dr. José Eleuterio González” University Hospital in Monterrey, Mexico. Three patients underwent phonomicrosurgery by direct microlaryngoscopy with the removal of the amyloid implantation using a cold knife excision with great results. In each patient the major site of involvement was the supraglottis with a small focus on the false vocal cord. A medical work-up, including a complete blood count (CBC), a basic metabolic panel, urinalysis, liver function test, chest X-ray and physical examination were performed to rule out the presence of systemic disease; no amyloidosis or signs of systemic disease were found. Congo red staining conirms the diagnosis of amyloidosis in all surgical specimens. Conclusions: In laryngeal amyloidosis, the treatment should be directed toward the improvement of the voice and the maintenance of the airway

Influence of preparation procedures on the phenolic content, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities of green and black teas

The influence of common tea preparation procedures (temperature, infusion time, consumption time interval and tea bag/loose-leaf) and the type of water used, on the total phenolic content (TPC), the radical scavenging activity and the alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity were assessed. Higher TPC and antioxidant activity were obtained when using lower mineralized waters. Tea bags also evidenced higher antioxidant activity than loose-leaf samples. Under the same conditions (90 degrees C and five minutes of infusion time) green tea contains almost twice the quantity of polyphenols and the free radical scavenging ability of black tea. In the alpha-glucosidase assay all infusions were active (97-100 %). Furthermore, HPLC allowed to identify some of the polyphenols present in both teas and to monitor their composition change with time. After twenty-four hours, the antioxidant activity was maintained without significant changes, but a small decrease in enzyme inhibition was observed, although this activity was still very high.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in children and adolescents with diabetes mellitus

To establish the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), as well as the predisposing risk factors, in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) attending the Service of Endocrino-Pediatrics and Otolaryngology Department of the ‘‘Dr. José Eleuterio González’’ University Hospital and the Materno-Infantil Hospital, from January 2011 to December 2012. Material and methods: A total of 84 children with T1DM, with ages between 6 and 18 years old, were studied. Values of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were assessed and Tonal audiometry and Speech audiometry tests were performed. Results: A total of 84 patients with a diagnosis of T1DM were studied, out of which 12 (14.3%) presented SNHL. Fifty percent of patients with hearing loss were in the age range of 10---13 years old. Regarding time of evolution with the disease (T1DM), 33% of patients with more than 5 years with T1DM presented SNHL, and nearly 88.9% of the patients with less than 5 years with T1DM presented normal hearing (p = 0.011). Moreover, 65.47% of the patients presented complications due to poor glycemic control at some point in the evolution of their disease. All (100%) diabetic patients with SNHL and 91% of the patients without SNHL had HbA1c values greater than 6%. In patients with hearing impairments, 83.3% suffered mild and 16.4% suffered moderate hearing loss. Most presented bilateral hearing loss, with the right ear dominating. Acute frequencies, mainly 8000 kHz, were the most affected

Olfactory dysfunction in young smokers J.

To establish the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in smoking and non-smoking students of our Faculty who attend the Department of Otolaryngology (ENT) of our Hospital. Materials and method: Students (smokers and non-smokers) that do and do not suffer from olfactory dysfunction. We applied a questionnaire and a pocket smell test for screening all of the students. Results: We evaluated 207 students, between 18 and 30 years old; 50.7% (n=105) were women and 49.3% (n=102) were men. The smokers among them smoked up to 6 packs per year. One hundred twenty three students were non-smokers and 84 students were smokers. Of the 84 students who were smokers, 67 (79.7%) answered the Pocket Smell Test correctly (3/3) and 17 (20.2%) students had one or more errors. We had 123 non-smoker students and 103 (83.7%) students answered the Pocket Smell Test correctly and 20 (16.2%) answered with one or more errors. The prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in young smokers with a 95% conidence interval would be 32.8%. Conclusions: This study informed us about olfactory dysfunctions in our student population and their smoking habits. We corroborate that the Pocket Smell Test is reliable with the questionnaire; nevertheless it is a screening test. We have a population of young people who smoke one cigarette per day and who didn’t have a signiicant alteration in their ability of smell at the time of the study. This is consistent with medical literature. More studies should be conducted in order to expand this information

Experience with the use of Rituximab for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in a tertiary Hospital in Spain: RITAR study

There is evidence supporting that there are no relevant clinical differences between dosing rituximab 1000 mg or 2000 mg per cycle in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in clinical trials, and low-dose cycles seem to have a better safety profile. Our objective was to describe the pattern of use of rituximab in real-life practice conditions. Methods: Rituximab for RA in clinical practice (RITAR) study is a retrospective cohort study from 2005 to 2015. Eligibility criteria were RA adults treated with rituximab for active articular disease. Response duration was the main outcome defined as months elapsed from the date of rituximab first infusion to the date of flare. A multivariable analysis was performed to determine the variables associated with response duration. Results: A total of 114 patients and 409 cycles were described, 93.0% seropositive and 80.7% women. Rituximab was mainly used as second-line biological therapy. On demand retreatment was used in 94.6% of cases versus fixed 6 months retreatment in 5.4%. Median response duration to on demand rituximab cycles was 10 months (interquartile range, 7–13). Multivariable analysis showed that age older than 65 years, number of rituximab cycles, seropositivity, and first- or second-line therapy were associated with longer response duration. The dose administered at each cycle was not significantly associated with response duration. Conclusions: Our experience suggests that 1000 mg rituximab single infusion on demand is a reasonable schedule for long-term treatment of those patients with good response after the first cycles, especially in seropositive patients and when it is applied as a first- or second-line biological therap

Fragment Dissolved molecular dynamics: A systematic and efficient method to locate binding sites.

Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) has been popular in the last decade, but some drawbacks, such as protein denaturation or ligand aggregation, have not yet clearly overcome in the framework of biomolecular simulations. In this work a systematic and semi-automatic method is presented as a novel proposal, named fragment dissolved Molecular Dynamics (fdMD), to improve research in future FBDD projects. Our method employs simulation boxes of solvated small fragments, adding a repulsive Lennard-Jones potential term to avoid aggregation, which can be easily used to solvate the object of interest. This method has the advantage of solvating the target with a low number of ligands, thus preventing this way denaturation of the target, while simultaneously generating a database of ligand-solvated boxes that can be used with other targets. A number of scripts are made available to analyze the results and obtain the descriptors proposed as a means of trustfully discard spurious binding sites. To test our method, four sets of different complexity have been solvated with ligand boxes and four molecular dynamics runs of 200 ns length have been run for each system, which have been extended up to 1 μs when needed. The reported results point that the selected number of replicas are enough to identify the correct binding sites irrespective of the initial structure, even in the case of proteins having several close binding sites for the same ligand. Among the proposed descriptors, average MMGBSA and average KDEEP energies emerge as the most robust ones

Interrelationship between different loads in resisted sprints, half-squat 1RM, and kinematic variables in trained athletes

Resisted sprint running is a common training method for improving sprint-specific strength. It is well-known that an athlete's time to complete a sled-towing sprint increases linearly with increasing sled load. However, to our knowledge, the relationship between the maximum load in sled-towing sprint and the sprint time is unknown, The main purpose of this research was to analyze the relationship between the maximum load in sled-towing sprint, half-squat maximal dynamic strength and the velocity in the acceleration phase in 20-m sprint. A second aim was to compare sprint performance when athletes ran under different conditions: un-resisted and towing sleds. Twenty-one participants (17.86±2.27 years; 1.77±0.06 m and 69.24±7.20 kg) completed a one repetition maximum test (1 RM) from a half-squat position (159.68±22.61 kg) and a series of sled-towing sprints with loads of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30% body mass (Bm) and the maximum resisted sprint load. No significant correlation (P<0.05) was found between half-squat 1 RM and the sprint time in different loaded conditions. Conversely, significant correlations (P<0.05) were found between maximum load in resisted sprint and sprint time (20-m sprint time, r=−0.71; 5% Bm, r=−0.73; 10% Bm, r=−0.53; 15% Bm, r=−0.55; 20% Bm, r=−0.65; 25% Bm, r=−0.44; 30% Bm, r=−0.63; MaxLoad, r= 0.93). The sprinting velocity significantly decreased by 4–22% with all load increases. Stride length (SL) also decreased (17%) significantly across all resisted conditions. In addition, there were significant differences in stride frequency (SF) with loads over 15% Bm. It could be concluded thatthe knowledge of the individual maximal load in resisted sprint and the effects on the sprinting kinematic with different loads, could be interesting to determinate the optimal load to improve the acceleration phase at sprint running.Actividad Física y Deport

Evolutionary feature selection to estimate forest stand variablesusing LiDAR

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has become an important tool in forestry. LiDAR-derived models are mostly developed by means of multiple linear regression (MLR) after stepwise selection of predictors. An increasing interest in machine learning and evolutionary computation has recently arisen to improve regression use in LiDAR data processing. Although evolutionary machine learning has already proven to be suitable for regression, evolutionary computation may also be applied to improve parametric models such as MLR. This paper provides a hybrid approach based on joint use of MLR and a novel genetic algorithm for the estimation of the main forest stand variables. We show a comparison between our genetic approach and other common methods of selecting predictors. The results obtained from several LiDAR datasets with different pulse densities in two areas of the Iberian Peninsula indicate that genetic algorithms perform better than the other methods statistically. Preliminary studies suggest that a lack of parametric conditions in field data and possible misuse of parametric tests may be the main reasons for the better performance of the genetic algorithm. This research confirms the findings of previous studies that outline the importance of evolutionary computation in the context of LiDAR analisys of forest data, especially when the size of fieldwork datatasets is reduced.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2007- 68084-C-00Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2011-28956-C02Xunta de Galicia 09MRU022291PXunta de Galicia CGL2011-30285-C02-02Xunta de Galicia FP7-SME-2011-BS

PET, CT, and MR image registration of the rat brain and skull

Spatially registered positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance (MR) images of the same small animal offer potential advantages over PET alone: CT images should allow accurate, nearly noise-free correction of the PET image data for attenuation; the CT or MR images should permit more certain identification of structures evident in the PET images; and CT images provide a priori anatomical information that may be of use with resolution-improving image-reconstruction algorithms that model the PET imaging process. However, image registration algorithms effective in human studies have not been characterized in the small-animal setting. Accordingly, the authors evaluated the ability of the automated image registration (AIR) and mutual information (MI) algorithms to register PET images of the rat skull and brain to CT or MR images of the same animal. External fiducial marks visible in all three modalities were used to estimate residual errors after registration. The AIR algorithm registered PET bone-to-CT bone images with a maximum error of less than 1.0 mm, The registration errors for PET brain-to-CT brain images, however, were greater, and considerable user intervention was required prior to registration. The AIR algorithm either failed or required excessive user intervention to register PET and MR brain images. In contrast, the MI algorithm yielded smaller registration errors in all scenarios with little user intervention. The MI algorithm thus appears to be a more robust method for registering PET, CT, and MR images of the rat headPublicad