Candida Bezoars with Urinary Tract Obstruction in Two Women without Immunocompromising Conditions

More than half of the cases of fungal infections of the urinary tract are caused by Candida sp., but occurrence of obstructive uropathy caused by mycetomas or fungus balls (urobezoars) is extremely rare. The latter are conglomerates of fungal hyphae. Diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression, chronic disease, and malignancies are known predisposing factors. Preoperative imaging is not pathognomonic; blood clots, radiolucent urinary calculi, air bubbles, and inflammatory debris can mimic urobezoars. We report on two otherwise healthy women presenting with urinary tract obstruction caused by candidal mycetomas of the renal pelvis that mimicked matrix lithiasis

Comparison of Body Composition to Strength, Balance, and Function in Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study

PURPOSE: To determine the relationship between body composition and strength, balance, and function in people with Parkinson\u27s disease (PD). METHODS: All subjects signed written consent to participate in this IRB approved study. Twelve subjects with PD underwent dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) followed by strength, balance, and functional measures: 1 repetition maximum (RM) leg press, 30 second chair stand (30 CST), the Fullerton Advanced Balance test (FAB), and the MiniBestest (MB) in a randomized order. An independent t-test was used for outcomes between gender. Pearson’s correlation was used to determine a relationship between body composition and all outcome measures. Significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: Six men (65.7 ± 5.9), and 6 women (72.7 ± 5.1) were analyzed. There was no significant difference in the MB, FAB, or 30 CST between gender (p = 0.69, p = 0.902, p = 0.361). In men, there was a strong negative correlation between body fat % (BF%) and the MB (-0.926, p = 0.008) and FAB scores (-0.743, p = 0.09). A moderate negative correlation between BF% and TUG (0.428, p = 0.397) and 30 CST (-0.495, p = 0.318). No correlation was found between total lean body mass (LBM) and the MB, TUG, or FAB, but a moderate correlation between LBM and 30 CST (0.253, p = 0.628) was found. In women, there was a moderate negative correlation between BF% and the TUG (-0.479, p = 0.337), and a low negative correlation between BF% and the MB (-0.218, p = 0.678), FAB (-0.246, p = 0.638), and 30 CST (-0.239, p = 0.649). A moderate negative correlation was found between LBM and the TUG (-0.475, p = 0.341), FAB (-0.539, p = 0.27), and 1RM (-0.457, p = 0.362). CONCLUSION: Body fat % in both genders showed negative effects on strength, balance and function, where LBM has mixed results by gender. These findings highlight the importance of body composition in assessing and managing strength, balance, and function in people with PD

The Decrease of Uch-L1 Activity Is a Common Mechanism Responsible for Aβ 42 Accumulation in Alzheimer's and Vascular Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial pathology causing common brain spectrum disorders in affected patients. These mixed neurological disorders not only include structural AD brain changes but also cerebrovascular lesions. The main aim of the present issue is to find the factors shared by the two pathologies. The decrease of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (Uch-L1), a major neuronal enzyme involved in the elimination of misfolded proteins, was observed in ischemic injury as well as in AD, but its role in the pathogenesis of AD is far to be clear. In this study we demonstrated that Uch-L1 inhibition induces BACE1 up-regulation and increases neuronal and apoptotic cell death in control as well as in transgenic AD mouse model subjected to Bengal Rose, a light-sensitive dye inducing that induces a cortical infarction through photo-activation. Under the same conditions we also found a significant activation of NF-κB. Thus, the restoration of Uch-L1 was able to completely prevent both the increase in BACE1 protein levels and the amount of cell death. Our data suggest that the Uch-L1-mediated BACE1 up-regulation could be an important mechanism responsible for Aβ peptides accumulation in vascular injury and indicate that the modulation of the activity of this enzyme could provide new therapeutic strategies in AD

Municipal solid waste management under Covid-19: Challenges and recommendations

Covid-19 is proving to be an unprecedented disaster for human health, social contacts and the economy worldwide. It is evident that SARS-CoV-2 may spread through municipal solid waste (MSW), if collected, bagged, handled, transported or disposed of inappropriately. Under the stress placed by the current pandemic on the sanitary performance across all MSW management (MSWM) chains, this industry needs to re-examine its infrastructure resilience with respect to all processes, from waste identification, classification, collection, separation, storage, transportation, recycling, treatment and disposal. The current paper provides an overview of the severe challenges placed by Covid-19 onto MSW systems, highlighting the essential role of waste management in public health protection during the ongoing pandemic. It also discusses the measures issued by various international organisations and countries for the protection of MSWM employees (MSWEs), identifying gaps, especially for developing countries, where personal protection equipment and clear guidelines to MSWEs may not have been provided, and the general public may not be well informed. In countries with high recycling rates of MSW, the need to protect MSWEs' health has affected the supply stream of the recycling industry. The article concludes with recommendations for the MSW industry operating under public health crisis conditions