Quality of life, sexual function, and bariatric surgery: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with numerous comorbidities and affects various aspects of life, including quality of life (QOL) and sexual function (SF). Bariatric surgery (BS) is an effective treatment for obese people. Also QOL and SF after BS in the people are not well known. AIMS: To provide insight in the available prospective evidence regarding the short and long-term effects of BS on QOL and SF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic multi-database search was conducted for ‘quality of life’, ‘Sexual function’ and ‘Bariatric surgery’. Only prospective studies with QOL or SF before and after BS were included. The ‘quality assessment tool for before–after studies with no control group’ was used to assess the methodological quality. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies were assessed to be of ‘fair’ to ‘good’ methodological quality. Seven different questionnaires were used to measure both QOL and SF. A significant increase in QOL after BS and light increase in SF were found in all studies (P≤0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both QOL and SF are increased after BS on both the short and long term. However, due to the heterogeneity of the studies and the generality of the questionnaires are them hard to make a distinction among different BS and difficult to see a relation with medical profit. Therefore, designing QOL and SF measurements to the post BS population are recommended as the focus of future studies

The systemic lupus erythematosus IRF5 risk haplotype is associated with systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a fibrotic autoimmune disease in which the genetic component plays an important role. One of the strongest SSc association signals outside the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region corresponds to interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 5 (IRF5), a major regulator of the type I IFN pathway. In this study we aimed to evaluate whether three different haplotypic blocks within this locus, which have been shown to alter the protein function influencing systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility, are involved in SSc susceptibility and clinical phenotypes. For that purpose, we genotyped one representative single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of each block (rs10488631, rs2004640, and rs4728142) in a total of 3,361 SSc patients and 4,012 unaffected controls of Caucasian origin from Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom. A meta-analysis of the allele frequencies was performed to analyse the overall effect of these IRF5 genetic variants on SSc. Allelic combination and dependency tests were also carried out. The three SNPs showed strong associations with the global disease (rs4728142: P = 1.34×10<sup>−8</sup>, OR = 1.22, CI 95% = 1.14–1.30; rs2004640: P = 4.60×10<sup>−7</sup>, OR = 0.84, CI 95% = 0.78–0.90; rs10488631: P = 7.53×10<sup>−20</sup>, OR = 1.63, CI 95% = 1.47–1.81). However, the association of rs2004640 with SSc was not independent of rs4728142 (conditioned P = 0.598). The haplotype containing the risk alleles (rs4728142*A-rs2004640*T-rs10488631*C: P = 9.04×10<sup>−22</sup>, OR = 1.75, CI 95% = 1.56–1.97) better explained the observed association (likelihood P-value = 1.48×10<sup>−4</sup>), suggesting an additive effect of the three haplotypic blocks. No statistical significance was observed in the comparisons amongst SSc patients with and without the main clinical characteristics. Our data clearly indicate that the SLE risk haplotype also influences SSc predisposition, and that this association is not sub-phenotype-specific

Insights from the STICH trial: Change in left ventricular size after coronary artery bypass grafting with and without surgical ventricular reconstruction

ObjectiveThe present analysis of the Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure randomized trial data examined the left ventricular volumes at baseline and 4 months after surgery to determine whether any magnitude of postoperative reduction in end-systolic volume affected survival after coronary artery bypass grafting alone compared with bypass grafting plus surgical ventricular reconstruction.MethodsOf the 1000 patients randomized, 555 underwent an operation and had a paired imaging assessment with the same modality at baseline and 4 months postoperatively. Of the remaining 455 patients, 424 either died before the 4-month study or did not have paired imaging tests and were excluded, and 21 were not considered because they had died before surgery or did not receive surgery.ResultsSurgical ventricular reconstruction resulted in improved survival compared with coronary artery bypass grafting alone when the postoperative end-systolic volume index was 70 mL/m2 or less. However, the opposite was true for patients achieving a postoperative volume index greater than 70 mL/m2. A reduction in the end-systolic volume index of 30% or more compared with baseline was an infrequent event in both treatment groups and did not produce a statistically significant survival benefit with ventricular reconstruction.ConclusionsIn patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting plus surgical ventricular reconstruction, a survival benefit was realized compared with bypass alone, with the achievement of a postoperative end-systolic volume index of 70 mL/m2 or less. Extensive ventricular remodeling at baseline might limit the ability of ventricular reconstruction to achieve a sufficient reduction in volume and clinical benefit

ECMO for COVID-19 patients in Europe and Israel

Since March 15th, 2020, 177 centres from Europe and Israel have joined the study, routinely reporting on the ECMO support they provide to COVID-19 patients. The mean annual number of cases treated with ECMO in the participating centres before the pandemic (2019) was 55. The number of COVID-19 patients has increased rapidly each week reaching 1531 treated patients as of September 14th. The greatest number of cases has been reported from France (n = 385), UK (n = 193), Germany (n = 176), Spain (n = 166), and Italy (n = 136) .The mean age of treated patients was 52.6 years (range 16–80), 79% were male. The ECMO configuration used was VV in 91% of cases, VA in 5% and other in 4%. The mean PaO2 before ECMO implantation was 65 mmHg. The mean duration of ECMO support thus far has been 18 days and the mean ICU length of stay of these patients was 33 days. As of the 14th September, overall 841 patients have been weaned from ECMO support, 601 died during ECMO support, 71 died after withdrawal of ECMO, 79 are still receiving ECMO support and for 10 patients status n.a. . Our preliminary data suggest that patients placed on ECMO with severe refractory respiratory or cardiac failure secondary to COVID-19 have a reasonable (55%) chance of survival. Further extensive data analysis is expected to provide invaluable information on the demographics, severity of illness, indications and different ECMO management strategies in these patients

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

La renovación de la palabra en el bicentenario de la Argentina : los colores de la mirada lingüística

El libro reúne trabajos en los que se exponen resultados de investigaciones presentadas por investigadores de Argentina, Chile, Brasil, España, Italia y Alemania en el XII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Lingüística (SAL), Bicentenario: la renovación de la palabra, realizado en Mendoza, Argentina, entre el 6 y el 9 de abril de 2010. Las temáticas abordadas en los 167 capítulos muestran las grandes líneas de investigación que se desarrollan fundamentalmente en nuestro país, pero también en los otros países mencionados arriba, y señalan además las áreas que recién se inician, con poca tradición en nuestro país y que deberían fomentarse. Los trabajos aquí publicados se enmarcan dentro de las siguientes disciplinas y/o campos de investigación: Fonología, Sintaxis, Semántica y Pragmática, Lingüística Cognitiva, Análisis del Discurso, Psicolingüística, Adquisición de la Lengua, Sociolingüística y Dialectología, Didáctica de la lengua, Lingüística Aplicada, Lingüística Computacional, Historia de la Lengua y la Lingüística, Lenguas Aborígenes, Filosofía del Lenguaje, Lexicología y Terminología

MEME - Centro de Pesquisa do Movimento em Porto Alegre-RS

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Relaciones entre clínica e investigación: Aportes al proceso diagnóstico de un niño con problemas de aprendizaje.

El presente artículo se propone abordar las múltiples interrelaciones entre clínica e investigación en el análisis de los problemas de aprendizaje de niños/as y adolescentes. Se trata de un trabajo de revisión teórica, en el cual se analiza el modo de generar aportes teóricos desde un recorte de objeto específico. El mismo reside en los procesos psíquicos complejos y heterogéneos comprometidos en la producción simbólica de niños/as y jóvenes. Para ello, se lleva a cabo el análisis cualitativo de un proceso psicodiagnóstico realizado en el Servicio de Asistencia Psicopedagógica de la cátedra de Psicopedagogía Clínica de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. El propósito de este artículo es reseñar de manera breve los intensos procesos de trabajo de pensamiento que incita este recorte de objeto. La investigación, la clínica y la construcción de teorías funcionan de manera absolutamente ligadas, conducidas por el objetivo principal de trabajar en función del alivio del sufrimiento psíquico de aquellos niños/as y adolescentes con dificultades de aprendizaje.Palabras clave: Clínica – Investigación – Aprendizaje – Psicopedagogí

Effects of prolonged exposure to cisplatin on cytotoxicity and intracellular drug concentration

The present study was designed to analyse the cytotoxic effect of cisplatin in vitro as a function of various exposure times (up to 120 h), keeping constant the parameter C × T (product of the drug concentration per time). Intracellular drug concentrations were measured in parallel following analysis of cisplatin influx and efflux characteristics. A head and neck cancer cell line was selected to represent the spectrum of cisplatin antitumour activity. The IC50 values (μg/ml) for 1, 2, 11 and 121 h were, respectively 4.51, 2.73, 0.27 and 0.151. Reduction of the IC50 was clearly not linearly related to prolongation of the cisplatin exposure time. The kinetics of cisplatin incorporation into CAL 27 cells was investigated as a function of different cisplatin concentrations. A plateau was reached after 16 h of contact. For the extracellular cisplatin concentrations of 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 μg/ml, the average intracellular Pt concentrations at the plateau were, respectively (ng/106 cells): [mean (S.D.)] 12.8 (0.98), 31.11 (5.12), 71.38 (6.03) and 136.7 (16.5). Intracellular Pt concentrations were linearly related to the extracellular drug concentration (r = 0.99). The drug left the cells following a two-slope kinetics pattern with an α half-life of 1.29 h and a β half-life of 94.4 h. The cytotoxic effect for a given C × T clearly differed for the different cisplatin exposure times. The longest exposure time (121 h) gave the least pronounced cytotoxicity. The intracellular Pt concentrations were linearly related to the C × T values. Cisplatin levels were much lower after the 121 h exposure. These data may prove valuable in establishing a rationale which can aid in selection of optimal modes of clinical cisplatin administration. © 1992.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Membrane technology: the core of more sustainable processes?

Membrane technology is widely accepted as an energy-efficient technology. The use of membranes typically brings a reduction of energy consumption in comparison with conventional technology such as distillation, evaporation, absorption, etc. However, being more energy efficient does not ensure an advance towards a more sustainable process. Two main questions will be discussed during this presentation: 1) Can an energy-efficient technology also be an energy-intensive technology? And, 2) Is an energy-efficient technology more water intensive, and vice versa? Membranes play a critical role in the development of novel sustainable processes, but the design of the overall process has to be intelligent and consider the water-energy-food nexus. A multidisciplinary approach is thus essential