The non-invasive biopsy: will urinary proteomics make the renal tissue biopsy redundant?

Proteomics is a rapidly advancing technique which gives a functional insight into gene expression in living organisms. Urine is an ideal medium for study as it is readily available, easily obtained and less complex than other bodily fluids. Considerable progress has been made over the last 5 years in the study of urinary proteomics as a diagnostic tool for renal disease. The advantages of this technique over the traditional renal biopsy include accessibility, safety, the possibility of serial sampling, and the potential for non-invasive prognostic and diagnostic monitoring of disease and an individual’s response to treatment. Urinary proteomics is now moving from a discovery phase in small studies to a validation phase in much larger numbers of patients with renal disease. Whilst there are still some limitations in methodology, which are assessed in this review, the possibility of urinary proteomics replacing the invasive tissue biopsy for diagnosis of renal disease is becoming increasingly realistic

Radiotherapy and hyperthermia for treatment of primary locally advanced cervix cancer: results in 378 patients.

Contains fulltext : 81774.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)PURPOSE: To report response rate, pelvic tumor control, survival, and late toxicity after treatment with combined radiotherapy and hyperthermia (RHT) for patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma (LACC) and compare the results with other published series. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From 1996 to 2005, a total of 378 patients with LACC (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics Stage IB2-IVA) were treated with RHT. External beam radiotherapy (RT) was applied to 46-50.4 Gy and combined with brachytherapy. The hyperthermia (HT) was prescribed once weekly. Primary end points were complete response (CR) and local control. Secondary end points were overall survival, disease-specific survival, and late toxicity. Patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics predictive for the end points were identified in univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Overall, a CR was achieved in 77% of patients. At 5 years, local control, disease-specific survival, and incidence of late toxicity Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Grade 3 or higher were 53%, 47%, and 12%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, number of HT treatments emerged as a predictor of outcome in addition to commonly identified prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: The CR, local control, and survival rates are similar to previously observed results of RHT in the randomized Dutch Deep Hyperthermia Trial. Reported treatment results for currently applied combined treatment modalities (i.e., RT with chemotherapy and/or HT) do not permit definite conclusions about which combination is superior. The present results confirm previously shown beneficial effects from adding HT to RT and justify the application of RHT as first-line treatment in patients with LACC as an alternative to chemoradiation

Effect of topical anaesthesia on corneal epithelial fragility

The effect of topical anaesthetics on human corneal integrity was assessed by measurement of the alterations they cause in corneal damage threshold. The anaesthetics investigated were 1.0% Amethocaine HCl, assessed immediately after instillation and after delays of 20 min and 60 min, and 0.5% Amethocaine HCl and 0.4% Benoxinate HCl, assessed 20 min after instillation. At 20 min after instillation of 1.0% Amethocaine HCl, the corneal damage threshold was significantly decreased. At other times for this anaesthetic, and for 0.5% Amethocaine HCl and 0.4% Benoxinate HCl, the corneal damage threshold was unaltered

Continuum source catalog for the first APERTIF data release

The first data release from Apertif survey contains 3074 radio continuum images, covering a thousand square degrees of the sky. The observations were performed between August 2019 and July 2020. The continuum images were produced at a central frequency 1355 MHz, with a bandwidth of ~150 MHz and angular resolution of up to 10âà  ³. In this work, we introduce and apply a new method to obtain a primary beam model based on a machine-learning approach, namely, Gaussian process regression. The primary beam models obtained with this method have been published, along with the data products for the first Apertif data release. We applied the method to the continuum images, carried out a mosaicking process on their basis, and extracted the source catalog. The catalog contains 249672 radio sources, many of which have been detected for the first time at these frequencies. We cross-matched the coordinates with the NVSS, LOFAR/DR1/value-Added, and LOFAR/DR2 catalogs a resulting in 44523, 22825, and 152824 common sources, respectively. The first sample provides a unique opportunity for detecting long-Term transient sources, which have significantly changed their flux density over the past 25 yr. A combination of the second and the third samples provides valuable information on the spectral properties of the sources in addition to redshift estimates

Continuum source catalog for the first APERTIF data release

The first data release from Apertif survey contains 3074 radio continuum images, covering a thousand square degrees of the sky. The observations were performed between August 2019 and July 2020. The continuum images were produced at a central frequency 1355 MHz, with a bandwidth of ~150 MHz and angular resolution of up to 10âà  ³. In this work, we introduce and apply a new method to obtain a primary beam model based on a machine-learning approach, namely, Gaussian process regression. The primary beam models obtained with this method have been published, along with the data products for the first Apertif data release. We applied the method to the continuum images, carried out a mosaicking process on their basis, and extracted the source catalog. The catalog contains 249672 radio sources, many of which have been detected for the first time at these frequencies. We cross-matched the coordinates with the NVSS, LOFAR/DR1/value-Added, and LOFAR/DR2 catalogs a resulting in 44523, 22825, and 152824 common sources, respectively. The first sample provides a unique opportunity for detecting long-Term transient sources, which have significantly changed their flux density over the past 25 yr. A combination of the second and the third samples provides valuable information on the spectral properties of the sources in addition to redshift estimates