Brief Tale of a Bacteraemia by Rhodococcus equi, With Concomitant Lung Mass: What Came First, the Chicken or The Egg?

Rhodococcus equi is an uncommon Gram positive, variably acid-fast pathogen, that appears as hard to treat mostly owing to the establishment of intracellular niches. Lack of interpretive criteria for susceptibility testing may lead to under-reporting or overestimation of resistances, whereas knowledge about this pathogen’s clinical impact may be affected by erroneous phenotype-based characterization at a genus and species level

Immediate loading on single NobelDirect implant. Case report.

A problem associated with implant-prosthetic rehabilitation on single implant is the unscrewing or fracture of the connecting screw. In this study the authors evaluate clinical results of the immediate loading on single NobelDirect implant. This innovative implant introduced by NobelBiocare is a single-piece implant including fixture and abutment in a single piece of Titanium in order to eliminate the problem of unscrewing or fracture of the connecting screw

Evaluating Mitigation Effects of Urban Heat Islands in a Historical Small Center with the ENVI-Met® Climate Model

Urban morphology and increasing building density play a key role in the overall use of energy and promotion of environmental sustainability. The urban environment causes a local increase of temperature, a phenomenon known as Urban Heat Island (UHI). The purpose of this work is the study of the possible formation of an UHI and the evaluation of its magnitude, in the context of a small city, carried out with the ENVI-met® software. For this purpose, a simulation was needed, and this simulation is preparatory for a monitoring campaign on site, which will be held in the immediate future. ENVI-met® simulates the temporal evolution of several thermodynamics parameters on a micro-scale range, creating a 3D, non-hydrostatic model of the interactions between building-atmosphere-vegetation. The weather conditions applied simulate a typical Italian summer heat wave. Three different case-studies have been analyzed: Base Case, Cool Case and Green Case. Analysis of the actual state in the Base Case shows how even in an area with average building density, such as the old town center of a small city, fully developed UHI may rise with strong thermal gradients between built areas and open zones with plenty of vegetation. These gradients arise in a really tiny space (few hundreds of meters), showing that the influence of urban geometry can be decisive in the characterization of local microclimate. Simulations, carried out considering the application of green or cool roofs, showed small relevant effects as they become evident only in large areas heavily built up (metropolis) subject to more intense climate conditions

p53 expression in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A marker of disease progression and poor prognosis

We have analyzed by immunocytochemistry (ICC) the frequency of p53 protein expression in 181 cases of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) followed at a single institution to assess the relationship between p53 and the clinical and morphological features of the disease, as well as the possible involvement of this protein in the pathogenesis of the more aggressive forms of CLL. The overall frequency of p53 protein positivity in CLL was 15% (27 of 181 cases). There were no significant differences in age, sex, absolute lymphocyte count, or lymphocyte doubling time between p53-positive and -negative patients. By contrast, p53-positive patients had a significantly higher percentage of prolymphocytes (P = .002) and a significantly lower percentage of residual CD3-positive T lymphocytes (P = .0001). No correlation was found between the percentage of p53-positive cells and the percentage of cells in cycle assessed by the monoclonal antibody Ki-67. When the percentage of p53 positivity was correlated with the clinical stage of the disease, the proportion of p53-positive cases increased significantly from Binet's stage A (8 of 108; 7.4%), to stage B (12 of 49; 24.4%) and C (7 of 24; 29.2%) (P = .002). p53 positivity correlated also with the phase of the disease, showing a low expression at diagnosis (8 of 112; 7.1%) and a significantly higher expression in patients studied during the course of the disease (7 of 35; 20%) and, to a further extent, with disease progression (12 of 34; 35.3%) (P = .0001). The association of p53 protein expression with mutations in the gene was confirmed by direct sequence of the entire cDNA in 15 of the 17 ICC positive cases tested (88%). A significantly shorter treatment-free interval from diagnosis (P = .003) and a poorer response to therapy (P = .007) was observed in p53-positive compared with p53-negative patients. Overall survival from the time of diagnosis, as well as from the time of p53 protein analysis, was significantly shorter in patients with p53 protein expression (P = .03 and .0001, respectively). Moreover, in multivariate analysis, p53 expression and stage C were independently associated with a short survival. The results of this study indicate that in CLL the expression of the p53 protein, analyzed by a simple and reliable immunocytochemical method, is strongly associated with p53 gene mutations, a morphological variant (CLL with >10% prolymphocytes), advanced clinical stage, progressive disease, poor response to therapy, and short survival. (C) 1998 by The American Society of Hematology

Y3+ embedded in polymeric nanoparticles: Morphology, dimension and stability of composite colloidal system

Radiolabeled nanoparticles are promising tools in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Moreover, yttrium-90 (90Y) is a good candidate as suitable β− emitting radioisotope for a new approach to radio-guided surgery (RGS) proposed by some researchers of our group. In this work, we developed new composite nanoparticles, based on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and poly(methylmethacrylate-co-acrylic acid), P(MMA/AA), embedded with yttrium ion (89Y3+), as a first step for the development of new 90Y3+ based nanocomposites. The composite nanoparticles were synthesised by emulsion polymerization technique, in the presence of potassium persulfate (KPS) as radical initiator, toluene as cosolvent, diethylenetriamine penta acetic acid dianhydride (DTPA) as chelating agent, using different MMA/89Y3+ molar ratios. The yttrium doped polymeric nanoparticles were characterized by means of FTIR spectroscopy, SEM-EDX, AFM, and DLS measurements. The influence of experimental parameters, such as cosolvent and reaction time, on morphology and dimension of composite nanoparticles was investigated, and monodispersed nanospheres with diameters from 20 nm to 400 nm were obtained. The composite material was purified and studied by means of DLS to confirm the colloid stability in water solution at different temperatures (25 °C and 37 °C) up to 3 weeks. © 2017 Elsevier B.V

Mass spectrometry characterization of DOTA-Nimotuzumab conjugate as precursor of an innovative β − tracer suitable in radio-guided surgery

The aim of the present work has been the mass spectrometry characterization of the Nimotuzumab (NIM) antibody chemically modified with the bifunctional chelating agent para-S-2-(4-isothiocyanatobenzyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraaza cyclododecanetetraacetic acid (p-SCN-Bn-DOTA). The conjugate, upon labeling with the pure β−-emitter 90Y3+ , could represent a promising candidate as radiotracer for an innovative radio-guided surgery (RGS) technique, developed and patented by researchers of our group, which uses a probe system for intraoperative detection of tumor residues exploiting the selective uptake of β−-emitting tracers. The results reported in this study show that multiple DOTA molecules bind to lysine residues of both light and heavy chains of the antibody and, probably, some of them are linked to the variable region of antibody. Moreover, the new mass spectrometric analysis highlights the presence of unreacted NIM in the final product. The information obtained by this work is of fundamental importance in the perspective to utilize this conjugate as a radiocompound after its labeling with 90Y3+ radioisotope. Indeed, the conjugation efficiency and the presence of unreacted NIM affect the specific activity of the final radiotracer which binds specific receptor. © 201

The UFD1L rs5992403 polymorphism is associated with age at onset of schizophrenia

Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Disciplina Genet, Dept Morfol & Genet, BR-04023900 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psiquiatria, BR-04023900 São Paulo, BrazilFed Univ Para, Lab Genet Humana & Med, BR-66059 Belem, Para, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Disciplina Genet, Dept Morfol & Genet, BR-04023900 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psiquiatria, BR-04023900 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Feasibility of beta-particle radioguided surgery for a variety of “nuclear medicine” radionuclides

Purpose Beta-particle radioguided tumor resection may potentially overcome the limitations of conventional gamma-ray guided surgery by eliminating, or at least minimizing, the confounding effect of counts contributed by activity in adjacent normal tissues. The current study evaluates the clinical feasibility of this approach for a variety of radionuclides. Nowadays, the only β- radioisotope suited to radioguided surgery is 90Y. Here, we study the β- probe prototype capability to different radionuclides chosen among those used in nuclear medicine. Methods The counting efficiency of our probe prototype was evaluated for sources of electrons and photons of different energies. Such measurements were used to benchmark the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of the probe behavior, especially the parameters related to the simulation of the optical photon propagation in the scintillation crystal. Then, the MC simulation was used to derive the signal and the background we would measure from a small tumor embedded in the patient body if one of the selected radionuclides is used. Results Based on the criterion of detectability of a 0.1 ml tumor for a counting interval of 1 s and an administered activity of 3 MBq/kg, the current probe yields a detectable signal over a wide range of Standard Uptake Values (SUVs) and tumor-to-non-tumor activity-concentration ratios (TNRs) for 31Si, 32P, 97Zr, and 188Re. Although efficient counting of 83Br, 133I, and 153Sm proved somewhat more problematic, the foregoing criterion can be satisfied for these isotopes as well for sufficiently high SUVs and TNRs. © 2017 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medic