Urothelial bladder carcinoma metastasizing to the eye: a systematic review and case report

The eye is a rare site for disseminated malignancies; nevertheless, several tumors may metastasize to ocular structures. Few cases of urothelial and bladder cancer with eye involvement have been described in the literature thus far. The rarity of metastatic ocular localization implies an accurate differential diagnosis among the possible primary tumor sites. However, a specific diagnostic algorithm is not currently available, nor a defined therapeutic approach. Eye metastases are associated with advanced disease and poor prognosis. Physicians should be made aware of the possibility of eye involvement in patients with a past medical history of urothelial bladder cancer associated with ocular symptoms. The present case reports discusses the first documented case, to the best of our knowledge, of an urothelial bladder cancer metastasizing to the retro bulbar region that infiltrates the lacrimal gland. Furthermore, the report provides a systematic qualitative review of the current literature on eye metastases from urothelial bladder cancer using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses

Short and medium term functional capacity after single cycle of controlled physical training in subjects with claudication

BACKGROUND. Previous studies have shown the positive effect of exercise rehabilitation in patients with claudication, but uncertainties remain surrounding the optimal exercise program strategy and the persistence of the benefits over time. The purpose of the present study has been to prospectively assess the feasibility of short-course intensive supervised exercise training beyond pain threshold and to verify the maintenance of walking capacity during a medium term follow-up. METHODS. Ninety patients with intermittent claudication due to peripheral artery disease were enrolled in a supervised intensive exercise training. Seventy six of them (67 ± 7 years, 64 male and 12 female, 48 with bilateral claudication) performed a graded treadmill testing at baseline and after 3 months. Sixty patients completed also a specific questionnaire (Walking Impairement Questionnarie). After a mean follow-up of 2.6 years, fifty six patients repeated treadmill testing and 24 patients repeated the questionnaire. RESULTS. After training, the patients showed a 91% and 53% increase in the initial and absolute claudication distance time, respectively (p=0.0000). At follow-up there was no change in the initial claudication distance time, whereas absolute claudication distance time was reduced by only 13% (p=0.0001). All items of the questionnaire showed a statistically significant improvement after training (from 30 to 71%) and remained unchanged at follow-up. Sixty seven percent of the patients were considered responder, 15% partial responder and 18% no-responder to exercise training, whereas at follow- up these percentages were 55%, 13% and 32%, respectively. These results after training and at follow-up were independent from age, sex, smoke, hypertension, coronary artery disease and diabetes. CONCLUSIONS. Our findings confirm that a short supervised exercise therapy in the form of walking out over pain threshold is effective in maximizing the walking time of the majority of patients with intermittent claudication, independently of demographic data and their associated cardiac risk factors or comorbidities. After a mean follow-up of 2.6 years there was only a minor reduction of absolute claudication distance time and no modification of initial claudication distance time and questionnaire’s score, despite the fact that none of these patients were contacted by the rehabilitation centre after their physical training period

Molecular Mechanisms Mediating Antiangiogenic Action of the Urokinase Receptor-Derived Peptide UPARANT in Human Retinal Endothelial Cells

n/

Measurement of a urinary marker (8-hydroxydeoxy-guanosine, 8-OHdG) of DNA oxidative stress in epidemiological surveys: a pilot study

Background: 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) is a commonly used marker of DNA oxidative stress in epidemiological studies. The aim of this study was to establish whether the urinary concentration of 8-OHdG varies during the first part of the day, when clinical tests are usually performed, and whether it can therefore be measured without bias in spot urine samples. Material and methods: Spot urine samples were collected using a convenience sample. A linear mixed-effects model for repeated measurements was used to analyze 8-OHdG levels. Results: A significant increasing trend in time in the 8-OHdG concentration was found among smokers, but not in the case of nonsmokers. Conclusions: In epidemiological studies on oxidative stress, all participants should collect their early morning urine specimens – before their first cigarette if they are smokers – to gather information on individual background oxidation levels

A 60-Year-Old Woman with Primary Biliary Cholangitis and Crohn's Ileitis Following the Suspension of Ursodeoxycholic Acid

BACKGROUND There is a recognized association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and hepatobiliary autoimmune disease, particularly primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). There have been fewer reported cases of IBD and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), which is treated with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). This report presents the case of a 60-year-old woman with PBC who was diagnosed with Crohn's ileitis after suspension of UDCA treatment. CASE REPORT A 66-year-old female patient with PBC was admitted to our department for irrepressible chronic diarrhea and recurrent abdominal pain. PBC was diagnosed on the basis of serological data: chronic (>6 months) increase in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) associated with positivity for specific anti-nuclear antibodies (sp100 and gp210), without requiring a liver biopsy and a magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography to rule out PSC. Given the intolerance and non-responsiveness according to the Toronto criteria (ALP <1.67 times the normal limit after 2 years) to UDCA at 15 mg/kg/day, an oral monotherapy treatment using obeticholic acid at 5 mg/day was prescribed. The patient complained of abdominal pain and upper gastrointestinal symptoms. The endoscopic/histologic and radiologic examinations supported the diagnosis of Crohn's ileitis. Given the potential benefits to PBC patients of what is described as off-label therapy, budesonide at a dosage of 9 mg/day p.o. was also administered. One month after discharge, an improvement was observed both in the cholestasis indices and in gastrointestinal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS This report presents a case of PBC in which the patient was diagnosed with Crohn's ileitis after cessation of treatment with UDCA, and highlights the importance of recognizing the association between autoimmune hepatobiliary disease and IBD

Estimating and correcting interference fringes in infrared spectra in infrared hyperspectral imaging

Short-term acclimation response of individual cells of Thalassiosira weissflogii was monitored by Synchrotron FTIR imaging over the span of 75 minutes. The cells, collected from batch cultures, were maintained in a constant flow of medium, at an irradiance of 120 μmol m−2 s−1 and at 20 °C. Multiple internal reflections due to the micro fluidic channel were modeled, and showed that fringes are additive sinusoids to the pure absorption of the other components of the system. Preprocessing of the hyperspectral cube (x, y, Abs(λ)) included removing spectral fringe using an EMSC approach. Principal component analysis of the time series of hyperspectral cubes showed macromolecular pool variations (carbohydrates, lipids and DNA/RNA) of less than 2% after fringe correction

Iodine status and supplementation in pregnancy: an overview of the evidence provided by meta-analyses

Iodine supplementation during pregnancy in areas with mild-moderate defciency is still a matter of debate. The present study aimed at systematically reviewing currently available evidences provided by meta-analyses with the aim to further clarify controversial aspects regarding the need of iodine supplementation in pregnancy as well as to provide guidance on clinical decision-making, even in areas with mild-moderate defciency. Medline, Embase and Cochrane search from 1969 to 2022 were performed. For the purpose of this review, only studies containing meta-analytic data were selected. A total of 7 meta-analyses were retrieved. Four meta-analyses evaluated the relationship between iodine status during pregnancy and neonatal and maternal outcomes suggesting the existence of a U-shaped correlation between iodine status and several maternal and neonatal consequences, especially if iodine status is evaluated at the beginning of pregnancy. Three meta-analyses evaluating the results of intervention trials failed to provide straightforward conclusions on the benefts of iodine supplementation in pregnant women in areas with mild-moderate iodine defciency. Although evidence coming from meta-analyses suggests a role of iodine status during pregnancy in determining maternal and child outcomes, results of meta-analyses of intervention trials are still controversial. Several factors including, degree of iodine defciency, and pooling studies conducted in areas with diferent iodine intake, may account for the lack of benefts reported by metaanalyses of intervention trials. More high-quality, randomized, controlled trials including information on timing, dose and regimen of iodine supplementation are needed to further elucidate this issue

SNPs inFAM13AandIL2RBgenes are associated with FeNO in adult subjects with asthma

Nitric oxide has different roles in asthma as both an endogenous modulator of airway function and a pro-inflammatory mediator. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a reliable, quantitative, non-invasive, simple, and safe biomarker for assessing airways inflammation in asthma. Previous genome-wide and genetic association studies have shown that different genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are linked to FeNO. We aimed at identifying SNPs in candidate genes or gene regions that are associated with FeNO in asthma. We evaluated 264 asthma cases (median age 42.8 years, female 47.7%) who had been identified in the general adult population within the Gene Environment Interactions in Respiratory Diseases survey in Verona (Italy; 2008-2010). Two hundred and twenty-one tag-SNPs, which are representative of 50 candidate genes, were genotyped by a custom GoldenGate Genotyping Assay. A two-step association analysis was performed without assuming ana priorigenetic model: step 1) a machine learning technique [Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM)] was used to select the 15 SNPs with the highest variable importance measure; step 2) the GBM-selected SNPs were jointly tested in a linear regression model with natural log-transformed FeNO as the normally distributed outcome and with age, sex, and the SNPs as covariates. We replicated our results within an independent sample of 296 patients from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey III. We found that SNP rs987314 in family with sequence similarity 13 member A (FAM13A) and SNP rs3218258 in interleukin 2 receptor subunit beta (IL2RB) gene regions are significantly associated with FeNO in adult subjects with asthma. These genes are involved in different mechanisms that affect smooth muscle constriction and endothelial barrier function responses (FAM13A), or in immune response processes (IL2RB). Our findings contribute to the current knowledge on FeNO in asthma by identifying two novel SNPs associated with this biomarker of airways inflammation

Servidor de comunicaciones convergentes

Esta línea de investigación aplicada persigue el análisis y estudio de tecnologías de convergencia entre la telefonía convencional y la telefonía de voz sobre protocolo Internet (VoIP). El proyecto tiene la finalidad de desarrollar un prototipo de servidor de comunicaciones para uso móvil y de rápido despliegue, que permita dar soporte de comunicaciones a un sistema de comando y control montado para hacer frente a desastres naturales o antrópicos. La particularidad de este sistema reside en cumplir con la necesidad de integrar organizaciones que cuentan con distintas doctrinas de trabajo y equipos de comunicaciones heterogéneos, pero que deben actuar en forma conjunta para responder a distintas situaciones de emergencias, catástrofes o crisis, donde participan organizaciones como fuerzas armadas, bomberos, rescatistas, defensa civil, diversas Organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONGs), entre otros.Eje: Arquitectura, Redes y Sistemas OperativosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Servidor de comunicaciones convergentes

Esta línea de investigación aplicada persigue el análisis y estudio de tecnologías de convergencia entre la telefonía convencional y la telefonía de voz sobre protocolo Internet (VoIP). El proyecto tiene la finalidad de desarrollar un prototipo de servidor de comunicaciones para uso móvil y de rápido despliegue, que permita dar soporte de comunicaciones a un sistema de comando y control montado para hacer frente a desastres naturales o antrópicos. La particularidad de este sistema reside en cumplir con la necesidad de integrar organizaciones que cuentan con distintas doctrinas de trabajo y equipos de comunicaciones heterogéneos, pero que deben actuar en forma conjunta para responder a distintas situaciones de emergencias, catástrofes o crisis, donde participan organizaciones como fuerzas armadas, bomberos, rescatistas, defensa civil, diversas Organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONGs), entre otros.Eje: Arquitectura, Redes y Sistemas OperativosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI