Alterations of lipid metabolism in chronic nephropathies: mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment.

Nephropathic subjects show an increased tendency to develop cardiovascular diseases, mainly as the consequence of several risk factors including increased oxidative stress, inflammation, physical inactivity, anemia, vascular calcification, and endothelial dysfunction. The alterations in lipid metabolism represent a relatively lesser important cause of genesis and progression of atherosclerosis. Unfortunately, in these patients the atherogenic potential of dyslipidemia may depend more on apolipoproteins than on lipid abnormalities, and may not always be recognized by measurement of plasma lipids alone. The aim of this review was therefore to analyze the main lipid alterations that can occur in nephropathic patients, as well as their causes and their effects on the cardiovascular system. The clinical evidence and recommendations for the use of lipid-regulating drugs in patients with chronic kidney disease, nephrotic syndrome, in patients undergoing hemo- and peritoneal dialysis and in transplanted patients was also reviewed. Moreover, we analyzed the link between dyslipidemia and kidney disease onset and progression and the role of statins in preventing it

Development and Testing of Piezoresistive and Inertial-Based Chest Bands for Breathing Monitoring

This work proposes the development of two BLE-connected chest bands for monitoring breathing activity. The first relies on a custom strain sensor based on a piezoresistive fabric and a low-power conditioning and acquisition section. This last process the gathered information jointly to inertial data provided by an integrated IMU for extracting the respiration rate (RR). Also, the second band uses an inertial-based detection method through a dual-accelerometer approach for deriving the respiratory signal. In detail, two IMUs are placed on the user’s chest and back for extracting the differential inertial signal, containing information related to the breathing activity regardless of the body movements. Both chest bands integrate a BLE module to remotely transmit the acquired information to a host device. Several tests were carried out to determine the performances of the two respiratory monitoring systems. The performance comparison demonstrates the effectiveness of the dual-inertial solution, obtaining a -0.4 BrPM mean difference (MD) and +1.21 and -2.01 BrPM limits of agreement (LoA)

Hydrothermal treatment at low temperature of Sardinian clinoptilolite-bearing ignimbrites for increasing cation exchange capacity

Two clinoptilolite-bearing ignimbrites belonging to Tertiary Sardinian volcanism and out-cropping in different localities were treated with 2M NaOH, 3M NaOH and 2M NaOH + AI(OH), at 100, 80 and 70 degrees C in order to enhance their cation exchange capacity. Bronze Teflon-lined autoclaves and a reactor equipped with magnetic stirrer were used for hydrothermal interactions, with interaction times ranging from 30 minutes to 36 hours. In all experimental cycles, clinoptilolite dissolution was followed by Na-P1 zeolite crystallization. The newly-formed zeolite changes from typical ball-shaped morphology to star-shaped grains with interaction increasing. The best interacting solution was 2M NaOH+Al(OH)(3). The cation exchange capacities (CEC) of the reacted products were higher than those of the raw materials (up to 2.5 times, i.e., from 88 to 268 meq/100 g). The use of a reactor equipped with magnetic stiffer strongly reduces interaction times for complete clinoptilolite dissolution and Na-P1 crystallization. (e.g. < 6 hours at 80 degrees C)