Electrical impedance mammography in the diagnostics of mammary gland diseases

Лечебный факультет, университет Коменского, Братислава, Словакия, Онкологический инститит св. Елизаветы, Братислава, Словакия, Словацкий медицинский университет, Братислава, СловакияProblems related to early detection of mammary gland diseases involve application of a rational diagnostics system, selection of methods capable of recognizing early symptoms of the disease and stratification of patients at increased risk. Today the most commonly used diagnostic methods such as the native mammography, digital mammography and ultrasonography have some limitations and sometimes are low-informatives. For this reason new methods of diagnostics have been initiated. Electrical impedance mammography is a non-invasive screening technique capable to determine and to visualize spatial distribution of the electrical properties of tissues inside the body thus providing valuable diagnostic information about changes in breast tissue structures.Проблематика раннего выявления заболеваний молочной железы нуждается в применении более рациональных методов диагностики, а также выбора методов, способных распознавать ранние симптомы болезни и формировать группы пациентов повышенного риска. На сегодняшний день такие широко применяемые методы диагностики как нативная маммография, цифровая маммография и ультрасонография имеют ряд ограничений и иногда оказываются малоинформативными. По этой причине в практику вводятся новые методы диагностики. Электроимпедансная маммография даёт возможность неинвазивным способом визуализировать распределение электропроводности биологических тканей, там самым предоставляя ценную диагностическую информацию о изменениях в структуре тканей

Electrical impedance mammography in the diagnostics of mammary gland diseases

Лечебный факультет, университет Коменского, Братислава, Словакия, Онкологический инститит св. Елизаветы, Братислава, Словакия, Словацкий медицинский университет, Братислава, Словакия, Conferinţa Naţională în cadrul Asociaţiei Ortopezilor – Traumatologi din Republica Moldova ”Actualităţi în microchirurgia reconstructivă”, Chișinău, Republica MoldovaProblems related to early detection of mammary gland diseases involve application of a rational diagnostics system, selection of methods capable of recognizing early symptoms of the disease and stratification of patients at increased risk. Today the most commonly used diagnostic methods such as the native mammography, digital mammography and ultrasonography have some limitations and sometimes are low-informatives. For this reason new methods of diagnostics have been initiated. Electrical impedance mammography is a non-invasive screening technique capable to determine and to visualize spatial distribution of the electrical properties of tissues inside the body thus providing valuable diagnostic information about changes in breast tissue structures. Проблематика раннего выявления заболеваний молочной железы нуждается в применении более рациональных методов диагностики, а также выбора методов, способных распознавать ранние симптомы болезни и формировать группы пациентов повышенного риска. на сегодняшний день такие широко применяемые методы диагностики как нативная маммография, цифровая маммография и ультрасонография имеют ряд ограничений и иногда оказываются малоинформативными. По этой причине в практику вводятся новые методы диагностики. Электроимпедансная маммография даёт возможность неинвазивным способом визуализировать распределение электропровод- ности биологических тканей, там самым предоставляя ценную диагностическую информацию о изменениях в структуре тканей

Sulfuric acid speleogenesis and surface landform evolution along the Vienna Basin Transfer Fault : Plavecký Karst, Slovakia

Hypogene caves in the Plavecký hradný vrch Hill (Western Slovakia, Central Europe) were formed by waters ascending along faults in fractured Triassic carbonates related to the horst-graben structure at the contact of the Malé Karpaty Mountains and the NE part of the Vienna Basin. The Plavecká jaskyňa and Pec caves mostly contain horizontal passages and chambers with flat corrosion bedrock floors, fissure discharge feeders, wall water-table notches, replacement pockets, as well as a few other speleogens associated with sulfuric acid speleogenesis. The low-temperature sulfuric acid development phases of the Plavecká Jaskyňa are also indicated by the presence of sulfate minerals (i.e., gypsum and jarosite).Subaerial calcite popcorn rims were precipitated from water condensation at the edges of feeding fissures that were still active as thermal vents when the water table dropped. Hydrogen sulfide involved in the sulfuric acid speleogenesis was likely derived from anhydrites and/or hydrocarbon reservoirs with sulfate-saline connate waters in the fill of the adjacent Vienna Basin. It ascended to the surface along deep-rooted sub-vertical fault zones at the contact of the Vienna Basin with neighboring mountains. Three cave levels at 295 to 283 m asl in the Pec Cave, and five levels at 225 to 214 m asl in the Plavecká jaskyňa corresponded to phases of stable local erosional base levels in the bordering part of the Vienna Basin, most likely during periods of strongly decelerated and/or interrupted subsidence. Cave levels separated by vertical differences of only a few meters may also be related to the Pleistocene climatic cycles. The subhorizontal parts of the Pec Cave are probably of late Early Pleistocene age (˃0.99–1.07 Ma?). The two highest levels of the Plavecká jaskyňa developed during the early Middle Pleistocene (˃600 ka). Fine-grained sediments in the passage at 225 m asl with normal magnetic polarity contain jarosite. The middle level of the Plavecká jaskyňa at 220 m asl was formed in the mid-Middle Pleistocene, while the lower and lowermost levels formed in the late Middle Pleistocene (˃270 ka). The water table in the lowermost cave level probably dropped after the tectonic reactivation of the Podmalokarpatská zníženina Depression just in the front of a marginal horst structure of the Malé Karpaty Mountains

Pyruvate kinases have an intrinsic and conserved decarboxylase activity

The phosphotransfer mechanism of pyruvate kinases (PYKs) has been studied in detail, but the mechanism of the intrinsic decarboxylase reaction catalysed by PYKs is still unknown. 1H NMR was used in this work to follow oxaloacetate (OAA) decarboxylation by trypanosomatid and human PYKs confirming that the decarboxylase activity is conserved across distantly related species. Crystal structures of Trypanosoma brucei PYK (TbPYK) complexed with the product of the decarboxylase reaction (pyruvate), and a series of substrate analogues (D-malate, α-ketoglutarate and oxalate) show that the OAA analogues bind to the kinase active site with similar binding modes, confirming that both decarboxylase and kinase activities share a common site for substrate binding and catalysis. Decarboxylation of OAA as monitored by NMR for TbPYK is relatively slow with turn-over values of 0.86 s-1 and 1.47 s-1 in the absence and presence of fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (F26BP), respectively. Human M1PYK has a measured turn-over value of 0.50 s-1. The X-ray structures explain why the decarboxylation activity is specific for OAA and is not general for α-keto acid analogues. Conservation of the decarboxylase reaction across divergent species is a consequence of piggybacking on the conserved kinase mechanism which requires a stabilised enol intermediate

Sex difference and intra-operative tidal volume: Insights from the LAS VEGAS study

BACKGROUND: One key element of lung-protective ventilation is the use of a low tidal volume (VT). A sex difference in use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) has been described in critically ill ICU patients.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether a sex difference in use of LTVV also exists in operating room patients, and if present what factors drive this difference.DESIGN, PATIENTS AND SETTING: This is a posthoc analysis of LAS VEGAS, a 1-week worldwide observational study in adults requiring intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery in 146 hospitals in 29 countries.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women and men were compared with respect to use of LTVV, defined as VT of 8 ml kg-1 or less predicted bodyweight (PBW). A VT was deemed 'default' if the set VT was a round number. A mediation analysis assessed which factors may explain the sex difference in use of LTVV during intra-operative ventilation.RESULTS: This analysis includes 9864 patients, of whom 5425 (55%) were women. A default VT was often set, both in women and men; mode VT was 500 ml. Median [IQR] VT was higher in women than in men (8.6 [7.7 to 9.6] vs. 7.6 [6.8 to 8.4] ml kg-1 PBW, P < 0.001). Compared with men, women were twice as likely not to receive LTVV [68.8 vs. 36.0%; relative risk ratio 2.1 (95% CI 1.9 to 2.1), P < 0.001]. In the mediation analysis, patients' height and actual body weight (ABW) explained 81 and 18% of the sex difference in use of LTVV, respectively; it was not explained by the use of a default VT.CONCLUSION: In this worldwide cohort of patients receiving intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery, women received a higher VT than men during intra-operative ventilation. The risk for a female not to receive LTVV during surgery was double that of males. Height and ABW were the two mediators of the sex difference in use of LTVV.TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01601223

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements