Quality of life after Uphold (TM) Vaginal Support System surgery for apical pelvic organ prolapse-A prospective multicenter study

Objective: To study the effects on quality of life in women operated for apical pelvic organ prolapse using the Vaginal Uphold (TM) System. Study design: In this prospective cohort study, women (n = 207) with symptomatic apical prolapse, with or without cystocele, were operated using the Uphold (TM) Vaginal Support System. Follow-up for quality of life was performed at 12 months after surgery, and assessed by the PFDI-20, and PFIQ-7, and sexual function by the PISQ-12. We used odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for outcome association analyses using logistic regression. Results: At one-year follow-up majority of women experienced an overall postoperative improvement in quality of life (p <0.001). One year after surgery Uphold (TM) operation alone increased the risk for prolapse related bother as compared to Uphold (TM) combined with anterior colporraphy (POP-IQ-7; OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.01-4.3). The frequency of dyspareunia decreased postoperatively (p = 0.004), however, after one-year, overall sexual function deteriorated significantly (p <0.001). The worsening in sexual function scores was mainly attributed to the partner related domain, whereas the behavioral-emotive and physical domains showed no significant changes. Conclusion: Apical prolapse repair using Uphold (TM) improved quality of life among our patients but worsened overall sexual function postoperatively. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

“I really thought nothing could be done”: help-seeking behaviour among women with urinary incontinence

Background: This study explores help-seeking behaviour among women with Urinary Incontinence (UI). Help-seeking behaviour is interpreted as the result of a process which is influenced by several factors, such as the appraisal of symptoms, individual characteristics, experiences within the health-care system, especially with regard to health professionals’ reactions to personal needs, social norms, and information about health issues.Methods: The study was carried out between 2012 and 2014 in Northern Germany and followed an exploratory qualitative study design. Four semi-structured focus group interviews were undertaken with women affected by involuntary loss of urine. 49 women, aged 41 to 86 years old, participated in the focus groups. Thorough sampling of study participants was carried out to warrant demographic and cultural variation and, resultantly, the completeness of perspectives relevant to this field. The verbatim transcripts of the interviews were analyzed following the content analysis method of Mayring. The analysis combined deductive and inductive approaches.  Results: Important barriers to seeking medical help were identified: women’s interpretation of UI as a non-medical problem, the lack of knowledge about the causes and treatment of UI, shame and taboo, and the problem of naming “it”. Also, the study results showed factors which supported women’s decision to seek medical help, notably the severity of symptoms or the women’s feeling of losing control of her bodily functions and significant parts of everyday life.Conclusion: The results of the study allow recommendations about measures that can be taken to improve the situation of women affected with UI.

Infusion reactions after receiving the broadly neutralizing antibody VRC01 or placebo to reduce HIV-1 acquisition : results from the Phase 2b antibody-mediated prevention randomized trials

Presented at Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections; March 06–10, 2021.BACKGROUND : The antibody-mediated prevention (AMP) studies (HVTN 703/HPTN 081 and HVTN 704/HPTN 085) are harmonized phase 2b trials to assess HIV prevention efficacy and safety of intravenous infusion of anti-gp120 broadly neutralizing antibody VRC01. Antibodies for other indications can elicit infusion-related reactions (IRRs), often requiring premedication and limiting their application. We report on AMP study IRRs. METHODS : From 2016 to 2018, 2699 HIV-uninfected, at-risk men and transgender adults in the Americas and Switzerland (704/085) and 1924 at-risk heterosexual women in sub-Saharan Africa (703/081) were randomized 1:1:1 to VRC01 10 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg, or placebo. Participants received infusions every 8 weeks (n = 10/participant) over 72 weeks, with 104 weeks of follow-up. Safety assessments were conducted before and after infusion and at noninfusion visits. A total of 40,674 infusions were administered. RESULTS : Forty-seven participants (1.7%) experienced 49 IRRs in 704/085; 93 (4.8%) experienced 111 IRRs in 703/081 (P < 0.001). IRRs occurred more frequently in VRC01 than placebo recipients in 703/081 (P < 0.001). IRRs were associated with atopic history (P = 0.046) and with younger age (P = 0.023) in 703/081. Four clinical phenotypes of IRRs were observed: urticaria, dyspnea, dyspnea with rash, and “other.” Urticaria was most prevalent, occurring in 25 (0.9%) participants in 704/085 and 41 (2.1%) participants in 703/081. Most IRRs occurred with the initial infusion and incidence diminished through the last infusion. All reactions were managed successfully without sequelae. CONCLUSIONS : IRRs in the AMP studies were uncommon, typically mild or moderate, successfully managed at the research clinic, and resolved without sequelae. Analysis is ongoing to explore potential IRR mechanisms.Clinical trial funding from Janssen Vaccines.http://www.jaids.comhj2023School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH

Triangle Singularity as the Origin of the a1(1420)

The COMPASS Collaboration experiment recently discovered a new isovector resonancelike signal with axial-vector quantum numbers, the a(1)(1420), decaying to f(0)(980)(pi). With a mass too close to and a width smaller than the axial-vector ground state a(1)(1260), it was immediately interpreted as a new light exotic meson, similar to the X, Y, Z states in the hidden-charm sector. We show that a resonancelike signal fully matching the experimental data is produced by the decay of the a(1) (1260) resonance into K* (-> K pi) (K) over bar and subsequent rescattering through a triangle singularity into the coupled f(0)(980)p channel. The amplitude for this process is calculated using a new approach based on dispersion relations. The triangle-singularity model is fitted to the partial-wave data of the COMPASS experiment. Despite having fewer parameters, this fit shows a slightly better quality than the one using a resonance hypothesis and thus eliminates the need for an additional resonance in order to describe the data. We thereby demonstrate for the first time in the lightmeson sector that a resonancelike structure in the experimental data can be described by rescattering through a triangle singularity, providing evidence for a genuine three-body effect

Double J/ψJ/\psi production in pion-nucleon scattering at COMPASS

We present the study of the production of double $J/\psi$ mesons using COMPASS data collected with a 190 GeV/$c$ $\pi^-$ beam scattering off NH$_{3}$, Al and W targets. Kinematic distributions of the collected double $J/\psi$ events are analysed, and the double $J/\psi$ production cross section is estimated for each of the COMPASS targets. The results are compared to predictions from single- and double-parton scattering models as well as the pion intrinsic charm and the tetraquark exotic resonance hypotheses. It is demonstrated that the single parton scattering production mechanism gives the dominant contribution that is sufficient to describe the data. An upper limit on the double intrinsic charm content of pion is evaluated. No significant signatures that could be associated with exotic tetraquarks are found in the double $J/\psi$ mass spectrum.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure