The clinical effectiveness of transurethral incision of the prostate : a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

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Systematic review and meta-analysis of Transurethral Needle Ablation in symptomatic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

BACKGROUND: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) constitutes a major clinical problem. Minimally invasive therapies for the treatment of symptomatic BPH include Transurethral Needle Ablation (TUNA), but it is unclear what impact this technique has on the disease and its role among other currently available therapeutic options. The objective of this study is to ascertain the efficacy and safety of TUNA in the treatment of BPH. METHODS: Systematic review of the literature until January 2005 and meta-analysis of clinical studies assessing TUNA in symptomatic BPH. Studies were critically appraised. Estimates of effect were calculated according to the random-effects model. RESULTS: 35 studies (9 comparative, 26 non-comparative) were included. Although evidence was limited by methodological issues, the analysis of relevant outcomes indicates that while TUNA significantly improves BPH parameters with respect to baseline, it does not reach the same level of efficacy as TURP in respect to all subjective and objective variables. Further, its efficacy declines in the long-term with a rate of secondary-treatment significantly higher than of TURP [OR: 7.44 (2.47, 22.43)]. Conversely, TUNA seems to be a relatively safe technique and shows a lower rate of complications than TURP [OR:0.14 (0.05, 0.14)] with differences being particularly noteworthy in terms of postoperative bleeding and sexual disorders. Likewise, TUNA has fewer anesthetic requirements and generates a shorter hospital stay than TURP [WMD: -1.9 days (-2.75, -1.05)]. Scarce data and lack of replication of comparisons hinder the assessment of TUNA vs. other local therapies. No comparisons with medical treatment were found. CONCLUSION: The body of evidence on which TUNA has been introduced into clinical practice is of only moderate-low quality. Available evidence suggest that TUNA is a relatively effective and safe technique that may eventually prove to have a role in selected patients with symptomatic BPH. TUNA significantly improves BPH parameters with respect to baseline values, but it does not reach the same level of efficacy and long-lasting success as TURP. On the other hand, TUNA seems to be superior to TURP in terms of associated morbidity, anesthetic requirements and length of hospital stay. With respect to the role of TUNA vis-à-vis other minimally invasive therapies, the results of this review indicate that there are insufficient data to define this with any degree of accuracy. Overall cost-effectiveness and the role of TUNA versus medical treatment need further evaluation

Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use in early acute respiratory distress syndrome : Insights from the LUNG SAFE study

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Concerns exist regarding the prevalence and impact of unnecessary oxygen use in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We examined this issue in patients with ARDS enrolled in the Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE (LUNG SAFE) study. Methods: In this secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE study, we wished to determine the prevalence and the outcomes associated with hyperoxemia on day 1, sustained hyperoxemia, and excessive oxygen use in patients with early ARDS. Patients who fulfilled criteria of ARDS on day 1 and day 2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were categorized based on the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 100 mmHg) on day 1, sustained (i.e., present on day 1 and day 2) hyperoxemia, or excessive oxygen use (FIO2 ≥ 0.60 during hyperoxemia). Results: Of 2005 patients that met the inclusion criteria, 131 (6.5%) were hypoxemic (PaO2 < 55 mmHg), 607 (30%) had hyperoxemia on day 1, and 250 (12%) had sustained hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use occurred in 400 (66%) out of 607 patients with hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use decreased from day 1 to day 2 of ARDS, with most hyperoxemic patients on day 2 receiving relatively low FIO2. Multivariate analyses found no independent relationship between day 1 hyperoxemia, sustained hyperoxemia, or excess FIO2 use and adverse clinical outcomes. Mortality was 42% in patients with excess FIO2 use, compared to 39% in a propensity-matched sample of normoxemic (PaO2 55-100 mmHg) patients (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use are both prevalent in early ARDS but are most often non-sustained. No relationship was found between hyperoxemia or excessive oxygen use and patient outcome in this cohort. Trial registration: LUNG-SAFE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073publishersversionPeer reviewe

Use of high hydrostatic pressure to inactivate natural contaminating microorganisms and inoculated E. coli O157:H7 on Hermetia illucens larvae

Financial support of the project AGL2013-48993-C2-2-R and AGL2017-86840-C2-2-R from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness and FEDER funds and acknowledge BioFlyTech, S.L. (Alicante, Spain) for rearing insects and supplying the samples.Peer reviewe

Thermal stabilization of probiotics by adsorption onto porous starches

Industrial processing factors, such as temperature, compromise the viability of probiotic cells. Objective was to develop a system to thermally stabilize probiotic bacteria based on porous starches and using biopolymers as coating materials (gelatinized starch, guar gum and xanthan gum). Porous starches from corn and rice starches, having controlled number and size of porous were used as supporting material. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed the adsorption of the microorganism, leading microcapsules with corn starch but aggregates with rice starch. Surface pores of rice starch increased the encapsulation yield of rice starch around 10%, but that effect was not observed in porous corn starch. The highest encapsulation yield was obtained with porous starches coated with gelatinized starch, which ranged from 92 to 100%. Microencapsulates made with porous starches with small pores, like the ones obtained with α-amylase, and coated with gelatinized starch resulted in the highest thermal resistance at 55 °C.Authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project AGL2014-52928-C2-1-R), the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo 2017/189). Y. Benavent-Gil would like to thank predoctoral fellowship from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.Peer reviewe

Risk of Bacillus cereus in Relation to Rice and Derivatives

Rice is a very popular food throughout the world and the basis of the diet of the citizens of many countries. It is used as a raw material for the preparation of many complex dishes in which different ingredients are involved. Rice, as a consequence of their cultivation, harvesting, and handling, is often contaminated with spores of Bacillus cereus, a ubiquitous microorganism found mainly in the soil. B. cereus can multiply under temperature conditions as low as 4 °C in foods that contain rice and have been cooked or subjected to treatments that do not produce commercial sterility. B. cereus produces diarrhoeal or emetic foodborne toxin when the consumer eats food in which a sufficient number of cells have grown. These circumstances mean that every year many outbreaks of intoxication or intestinal problems related to this microorganism are reported. This work is a review from the perspective of risk assessment of the risk posed by B. cereus to the health of consumers and of some control measures that can be used to mitigate such a risk.We want to thank TRACE-RICE project, Reference number AMD-1934-1 the support for this articlePeer reviewe

Antimicrobial potential of macro and microalgae against pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms in food

Algae are a valuable and never-failing source of bioactive compounds. The increasing efforts to use ingredients that are as natural as possible in the formulation of innovative products has given rise to the introduction of macro and microalgae in food industry. To date, scarce information has been published about algae ingredients as antimicrobials in food. The antimicrobial potential of algae is highly dependent on: (i) type, brown algae being the most effective against foodborne bacteria; (ii) the solvent used in the extraction of bioactive compounds, ethanolic and methanolic extracts being highly effective against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria; and (iii) the concentration of the extract. The present paper reviews the main antimicrobial potential of algal species and their bioactive compounds in reference and real food matrices. The validation of the algae antimicrobial potential in real food matrices is still a research niche, being meat and bakery products the most studied substrates.This work was supported by funds provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) [project reference AGL2013-48993-C2-2-R], and with FEDER funds. The present study was carried out actively by the planning, review of literature and supervision of M.C. Pina-Pérez, postdoctoral researcher contracted with funds provided by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness at the Advanced Centre of Food Microbiology in the Polytechnic University of Valencia (CAMA-UPV) under the Juan de la Cierva program.Peer reviewe

Optimization of no‐wait flowshop scheduling problem in bakery production with modified pso, neh and sa

In bakery production, to perform a processing task there might be multiple alternative machines that have the same functionalities. Finding an efficient production schedule is challenging due to the significant nondeterministic polynomial time (NP)‐hardness of the problem when the number of products, processing tasks, and alternative machines are higher. In addition, many tasks are performed manually as small and medium‐size bakeries are not fully automated. Therefore, along with machines, the integration of employees in production planning is essential. This paper presents a hybrid no‐wait flowshop scheduling model (NWFSSM) comprising the constraints of common practice in bakeries. The schedule of an existing production line is simulated to examine the model and is optimized by performing particle swarm optimization (PSO), modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO), simulated annealing (SA), and Nawaz‐Enscore‐Ham (NEH) algorithms. The computational results reveal that the performance of PSO is significantly influenced by the weight distribution of exploration and exploitation in a run time. Due to the modification to the acceleration parameter, MPSO outperforms PSO, SA, and NEH in respect to effectively finding an optimized schedule. The best solution to the real case problem obtained by MPSO shows a reduction of the total idle time (TIDT) of the machines by 12% and makespan by 30%. The result of the optimized schedule indicates that for small‐ and medium‐sized bakery industries, the application of the hybrid NWFSSM along with nature‐inspired optimization algorithms can be a powerful tool to make the production system efficient.This research has been funded by the EIT Food of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for the project entitled “Optimization of bakery processes by a computational tool together with consumer feedback to minimize ecological footprint and food waste: Making baking more efficient”.Peer reviewe

Caenorhabditis elegans as an in vivo model to assess fucoidan bioactivity preventing Helicobacter pylori infection

Currently, Helicobacter pylori is the unique biological carcinogenic agent. The search for antimicrobial alternatives to antibiotics against this pathogen has been categorized as a priority due to the drastic failure associated with current applied antibiotic therapy. The present study assessed the bioactive antimicrobial capability of fucoidan (“Generally Recognized as Safe” approval – European Commission December 2017) from different species of Phaeophyceae algae (Fucus vesiculosus, Undaria pinnatifida, Macrocystis pyrifera) against H. pylori. All the studied fucoidans showed bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects at the studied concentrations [5–100] μg ml−1 and exposure times [0–7 days]. The most effective anti-H. pylori fucoidan was validated in Caenorhabditis elegans as an in vivo model. C. elegans feed was supplemented with Undaria pinnatifida [0–100] μg ml−1 fucoidan, resulting in a significant improvement in lifespan, lowered H. pylori concentration in the digestive tract, and increased egg-laying pattern. New research lines proposing this compound as an active agent in nutraceutical and preventive novel therapies should be opened.The present research work has been supported by the funds provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under both projects with reference AGL2014-53875-R and AGL2017-86840-C2-2-R. M. C. Pina-Pérez is also grateful to the EC providing a H2020 MSCA – IF Grant Agreement No. 748314.Peer reviewe

Bioactivity of Fucoidan as an Antimicrobial Agent in a New Functional Beverage

Seaweeds are a sustainable source of novel functional ingredients with applicability in pharmaceutics, biotechnology, and food science. The bioactivity of most of these marine compounds has scarcely been studied. The present study overviews the bioactivity of the polysaccharide fucoidan derived from Fucus vesiculosus brown algae as an antimicrobial agent against Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. The results obtained in vitro in reference medium reveal a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect of fucoidan against both pathogens, this bioactivity being significantly dependent (p-value ≤ 0.05) on the concentration, 5–1000 µg/mL, temperature, 8–37 ◦C, and exposure time, 0–12 days. The results were validated in the formulation of a new functional pasteurized apple beverage to be commercialized under refrigeration. Fucoidan added at 25–100 µg/mL was highly effective against both pathogens. These results increase knowledge for the future formulation of new functional beverages that include marine compounds (high content in fibre, high content in protein; prebiotic and antioxidant properties), additionally revealing antimicrobial potential.This research was funded by the [Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO] and [FEDER] grant number [AGL2013-48993-C2-2-R]. The present research work was funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and with FEDER funds through project AGL2013-48993-C2-2-R. Maria Consuelo Pina-Pérez is grateful to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for providing a postdoctoral contract under the Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación programme at the Centre of Advanced Food Microbiology, Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Excelencia Profesional de Maestría en Ciencias Agropecuarias SENACYT-IFARHU program, and also to the European Commission for the funds provided to her under the H2020 MSCA programme, reference EU 748314.Peer reviewe