Reliability, validity and psychometric properties of the Greek translation of the Major Depression Inventory

BACKGROUND: The Major Depression Inventory (MDI) is a brief self-rating scale for the assessment of depression. It is reported to be valid because it is based on the universe of symptoms of DSM-IV and ICD-10 depression. The aim of the current preliminary study was to assess the reliability, validity and psychometric properties of the Greek translation of the MDI. METHODS: 30 depressed patients of mean age 23.41 (± 5.77) years, and 68 controls patients of mean age 25.08 (± 11.42) years, entered the study. In 18 of them, the instrument was re-applied 1–2 days later and the Translation and Back Translation made. Clinical diagnosis was reached with the use of the SCAN v.2.0 and the International Personality Disorders Examination (IPDE). The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) and the Zung Depression Rating Scale (ZDRS) were applied for cross-validation purposes. Statistical analysis included ANOVA, the Spearman Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, Principal Components Analysis and the calculation of Cronbach's α. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity were 0.86 and 0.94, respectively, at 26/27. Cronbach's α for the total scale was equal to 0.89. The Spearman's rho between MDI and CES-D was 0.86 and between MDI and ZDRS was 0.76. The factor analysis revealed two factors but the first accounted for 54% of variance while the second only for 9%. The test-retest reliability was excellent (Spearman's rho between 0.53 and 0.96 for individual items and 0.89 for total score). CONCLUSION: The current study provided preliminary evidence concerning the reliability and validity of the Greek translation of the MDI. Its properties are similar to those reported in the international literature, but further research is necessary

Influence of trichoderma harzianum and glomus mycorrhiza on biomass and essential oil yield of organic ocimum basilicum cultivation

The growing interest in dealing with the cultivation of aromatic – medicinal plants requires the study of factors related to the production process, which includes the development of plants in field, as well as their processing and the receipt of essential oils. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two organic formulations, Trichoderma harzianum (T22), and Glomus mycorrhiza (G), in the cultivation of seedlings of Ocimum basilicum variety "Genovese" fresh and dry weight, as well as essential oil content and its quality characteristics. For the purposes of the study a field experiment was conducted in 2018 and 2019, using a factorial experimental design, with two factors: a) control, b) Trichoderma harzianum (T22) and c) Mycorizas Glomus (G) under four replicates. There was found statistically significantly difference between the two harvests occurred in each year on fresh and dry weight while no significant difference was recorded through the tested treatments. Furthermore, there was recorded a decrease in the essential oil yield between the cultivating years (approximately 14%), and also between annual cuts. Finally, the most remarkable finding was that although the different treatments did not show significant differences in the quantitative characteristics of sweet basil in the case of quality characteristics with mycorrhiza treatments essential oil having 40 identified ingredients instead of 21 that identified in control. Therefore, the use of these organic formulations is suggested to be used only in case of essential oil production where a predetermined quality of essential oil will be known. © 2020, University of Montenegro. All rights reserved

Distal ulnar implant arthroplasty as a definitive treatment of a recurrent giant-cell tumor

Giant-cell tumors of the distal ulna are frequently recurrent and difficult to treat. A Darrach-type resection can lead to functional impairments of the wrist and hand. A case of a 42-year-old man, who underwent a distal ulna arthroplasty for recurrent giant-cell tumor of the distal ulna, is presented. The patient had two previous operations in an attempt to curette the cavity, either alone or filled with allograft bone chips. En bloc resection and distal ulnar implant arthroplasty provided a good functional outcome without any evidence of tumor recurrence at a 2-year follow-up evaluation

Ankle and foot osteomyelitis: Treatment protocol and clinical results

Introduction A management protocol for ankle and foot osteomyelitis and the outcome in 84 patients treated in a unit with special interest in musculoskeletal infection, is presented Patients and methods Patients' mean age was 507 +/- 165 years and mean follow-up 31 5 +/- 18 2 months Systemic antibiotics were administered initially empirically, and later according to cultures Surgical treatment included surgical debridement and bead-pouch technique, minor amputation (ray or toe), below knee amputation, and joint fusion "Second-look" procedures were per formed after 48-72 h Vascularised grafts or Ilizaiov's technique were used for bone defect reconstruction Soft tissues were managed according the 'reconstructive ladder' concept Results Host-type (Cierny's classification) was A in 25. B in 53 and C in 6 patients Seventy-six infections were chronic Causes were: open trauma without fracture (45/84), open fractures (9/84). ORIF of closed fractures (25/84) and elective surgery (5/84) Patients underwent 30 +/- 15 (range 1-10) operative procedures and spent 148 +/- 122 (range 3-60) days in hospital Two (host-C) patients died. Complications requiring reoperations occurred in 20/84 (2/25 host-A. 16/53 host-B, 2/6 host-C: significant difference between host-A versus host-B and -C patients, p < 0.001) Infection recurrence occurred in 12 (none host-A, significant difference between host-A versus host-B and -C patients. p < 0001) Multiple organisms were isolated in 39/84 Ankle arthrodesis using external fixation was performed in 9 (fusion rate 8/9) The free vascularised fibula graft was used in 2 and distraction osteogenesis in 8 patients with a mean bone defect of 5.4 cm (range 3-13) Below knee amputations were performed in 5/84 (3/53 host-B. 2/6 host-C) and foot ray amputations in 8/84(6/53 host-B, 2/6 host-C). Soft tissue coverage required free muscle flap transfer in 6/84, reverse soleus flap in 1/84. local fasciocutaneous flaps in 7/84, split thickness skin grafts in 5/84, and vacuum assisted closure in 5/84 patients Eighty-two surviving patients, including amputees. were able to mobilise independently and were satisfied with the result of treatment Conclusions Host-B and -C patients had more complications and infection recurrences and occasionally required amputations Reconstructive procedures were performed for limb salvage in patients with soft tissue and bone defects and restoration of a functional limb was achieved (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserve

Studying the Human Gut Microbiota in the Trans-Omics Era - Focus on Metagenomics and Metabonomics

The human gut microbiota comprises a diverse microbial consortium closely co-evolved with the human genome and diet. The importance of the gut microbiota in regulating human health and disease has however been largely overlooked due to the inaccessibility of the intestinal habitat, the complexity of the gut microbiota itself and the fact that many of its members resist cultivation and are in fact new to science. However, with the emergence of 16S rRNA molecular tools and "post-genomics" high resolution technologies for examining microorganisms as they occur in nature without the need for prior laboratory culture, this limited view of the gut microbiota is rapidly changing. This review will discuss the application of molecular microbiological tools to study the human gut microbiota in a culture independent manner. Genomics or metagenomics approaches have a tremendous capability to generate compositional data and to measure the metabolic potential encoded by the combined genomes of the gut microbiota. Another post-genomics approach, metabonomics, has the capacity to measure the metabolic kinetic or flux of metabolites through an ecosystem at a particular point in time or over a time course. Metabonomics thus derives data on the function of the gut microbiota in situ and how it responds to different environmental stimuli e. g. substrates like prebiotics, antibiotics and other drugs and in response to disease. Recently these two culture independent, high resolution approaches have been combined into a single "transgenomic" approach which allows correlation of changes in metabolite profiles within human biofluids with microbiota compositional metagenomic data. Such approaches are providing novel insight into the composition, function and evolution of our gut microbiota