Case report: intra-tendinous ganglion of the anterior cruciate ligament in a young footballer

A 20-year-old male medical student and keen rugby player presented with a 12-month history of progressively worsening right knee pain and stiffness with no history of trauma. Clinical examination revealed effusion and posterior knee pain exacerbated by end range movement and an extension lag of 15 degrees. Physiotherapy to improve the range of motion proved unsuccessful. Magnetic resonance imaging showed that the ACL was grossly thickened and displaced by material reported as mucoid in nature. There were also areas of focally high signal in relation to its tibial attachment and intra osseous small cysts. Arthroscopic examination revealed a ganglion related to the tibial attachment of the ACL and gross thickening and discoloration of the ACL. Biopsies were taken showing foci of mucoid degeneration in the ACL. A large intra-ACL mass of brownish coloured tissue was excised arthroscopically. Already at 2 weeks follow up the patient had greatly improved range of movement and was pain free. However, upon returning to rugby, joint instability was noticed and a tear of the ACL was confirmed. This rare clinical condition can be diagnosed with MRI and arthroscopic debridement effectively relieves symptoms. This case report illustrates that augmentation or reconstruction may end up being the definitive treatment for athletes. It may also offer some support to the argument that mucoid degeneration and ganglion cyst formation share a similar pathogenesis to intra-osseous cyst formation

Estudio experimental de la consolidación de fracturas en la desnutrición proteica: utilización de calcitonina en ratas desnutrida

Los autores estudian el papel de la Calcitonina en la consolidación de fracturas experimentales producidas en la tibia izquierda de 65 ratas albinas adultas. Los animales se dividían en cuatro grupos. El grupo A compuestos por 20 animales con una dieta normal y recibiendo 5 U/Kg de peso de Calcitonina diaria por vía intramuscular; el grupo B por 20 animales alimentados con una dieta no proteica y recibiendo Calcitonina diariamente y a la misma dosis que en el grupo A; el grupo C es el grupo de control, compuesto por 15 animales alimentados con dieta normal y sin medicación; por último el grupo D, también de control, compuesto por 10 animales alimentados con dieta no proteica y sin medicación. A los componentes de la dieta no proteica se añadió fécula de maíz (MaizenaR ) que fue el origen calórico. Las fracturas fueron protocolizadas de forma que fueron similares en lo que respecta a su loralización en diálisis así como su forma y trazo; se escogieron las tibias para nuestro estudio debido a la facilidad con que dichas fracturas podían realizarse a mano. En todos los grupos los 2 animales fueron sacrificados a las 3 semanas de provocada la fractura. Durante este intervalo, los animales fueron alimentados con la dieta asignada a cada uno de los grupos, con o sin la administración de inyecciones intramusculares de calcitonina. Los animales de cada grupo se situaron en la misma caja, con agua «ad libitum» y sin restricción de movimientos. El hueso fue estudiado macroscópicamente, radiológicamente y microscópicamente mediante técnicas histoló- gicas e histomorfométricas con piezas teñidas con hematoxilina-eosina. Todas las preparaciones fueron estudiadas por microscopía óptica. Los resultados llevaron a los autores a la conclusión de que la curación de la fractura en hueso largo curaba más rápido y el callo era cualitativamente mejor en animales tratados con Calcitonina, cuando eran comparados con los grupos de control.The authors studied the role of Calcitonin in the consolidation of experimental fractures produced in the left tibiae of 65 adult Albino rats. The animals were divided in four groups: Group A: 20 animals on a normal diet, receiving Calcitonin 5 U/kg body weight, intramuscular daily; Group B: 20 animals fed on a no-protein diet and receiving Calcitonin in the same dosage as Group A and daily; Group C: Control group- 15 animals on normal diet and without any medication; and Group D: Control group- 10 animals on no-protein diet and without any medication. To the components of the non-protein diet was added maize starch (MaizenaR ) which was the calory-source. The fractures were standardized to meet the conditions of the experiment such as fractures should be similar concerning both their localization in the diaphyses and their shape and trace; tibiae were chosen for our study due to the readiness with which handmade fractures can be produced. In all groups the animals were killed three weeks after the fractures had been carried out. During this interval, animals were fed on the diet assigned to their respective groups, with or without administration of intramuscular injections of Calcitonin. Animals in each group were placed in the same cage, with water ad libitum and no restriction to movements. The bone healing was studied macroscopically, radiologically, and microscopically through histologic and histomorphometric techniques with the samples stained with hematoxilin-eosin. AD slices were studied by optic microscopy. The results led the authors to the conclusion that long bone fracture healing progressed faster and the calli were qualitatively better in animals treated with Calcitonin, when compared to the controls

Left Ventricular Diastolic Function in Hypertension: Methodological Considerations and Clinical Implications

The assessment of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function should be an integral part of a routine examination of hypertensive patient; indeed when LV diastolic function is impaired, it is possible to have heart failure even with preserved LV ejection fraction. Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) occurs frequently and is associated to heart disease. Doppler echocardiography is the best tool for early LVDD diagnosis. Hypertension affects LV relaxation and when left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) occurs, it decreases compliance too, so it is important to calculate Doppler echocardiography parameters, for diastolic function evaluation, in all hypertensive patients. The purpose of our review was to discuss about the strong relationship between LVDD and hypertension, and their relationship with LV systolic function. Furthermore, we aimed to assess the relationship between the arterial stiffness and LV structure and function in hypertensive patients

Inflammatory and Autoimmune Reactions in Atherosclerosis and Vaccine Design Informatics

Atherosclerosis is the leading pathological contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. As its complex pathogenesis has been gradually unwoven, the regime of treatments and therapies has increased with still much ground to cover. Active research in the past decade has attempted to develop antiatherosclerosis vaccines with some positive results. Nevertheless, it remains to develop a vaccine against atherosclerosis with high affinity, specificity, efficiency, and minimal undesirable pathology. In this review, we explore vaccine development against atherosclerosis by interpolating a number of novel findings in the fields of vascular biology, immunology, and bioinformatics. With recent technological breakthroughs, vaccine development affords precision in specifying the nature of the desired immune response—useful when addressing a disease as complex as atherosclerosis with a manifold of inflammatory and autoimmune components. Moreover, our exploration of available bioinformatic tools for epitope-based vaccine design provides a method to avoid expenditure of excess time or resources

When should cardiovascular prevention begin? The importance of antenatal, perinatal and primordial prevention

Cardiovascular diseases represent a major health problem, being one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Therefore, in this scenario, cardiovascular prevention plays an essential role although it is difficult to establish when promoting and implementing preventive strategies. However, there is growing evidence that prevention should start even before birth, during pregnancy, aiming to avoid the onset of cardiovascular risk factors, since events that occur early in life have a great impact on the cardiovascular risk profile of an adult. The two pillars of this early preventive strategy are nutrition and physical exercise, together with prevention of cardio-metabolic diseases during pregnancy. This review attempts to gather the growing evidence of the benefits of antenatal, perinatal and primordial prevention, discussing also the possibility to reverse or to mitigate the cardiovascular profile developed in the initial stages of life. This could pave the way for future research, investigating the optimal time and duration of these preventing measures, their duration and maintenance in adulthood, and the most effective interventions according to the different age and guiding in the next years, the best clinical practice and the political strategies to cope with cardiovascular disease

Preclinical atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome and risk of cardiovascular events

Atherosclerotic disease is a chronic disorder developing insidiously throughout the life and usually progressing to an advanced stage by the time symptoms occur. In order to realize cardiovascular (CV) prevention, the detection of asymptomatic but diseased patients is crucial for an early intervention, since in these subjects there are opportunities to alter the progression of disease and the outcome (1). However, the simply analysis of risk factors don’t permits to identify always these subjects since it doesn’t informs about the effect that risk factors (RF) had already provoked and may more provoke on the individual vasculature. Besides, the risk factors known predict can explain only the 90 percent of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and traditional algorithms for prediction of CV risk failed to predict a proportion of cardiovascular events (CVE), realizing a “risk factors prediction gap” (2). It may be explained by several reasons: the epidemiology-derived models, based on the prediction of long-term risk, may not accurately predict short-term events, they don’t take into consideration emerging and novel risk factors; risk algorithms don’t identify, among patients with neither a previous history of CVD nor an high risk for atherosclerotic disease, those who will develop acute myocardial infarction and/or sudden coronary death as first CVD manifestation, and this may be due to the fact that the factors responsible of plaque formation and growth are not necessarily the same responsible of its instability and rupture, being the latter related to inflammation, thrombosis and plaque morphology (3).So, a possible approach to evaluate the individual global cardiovascular risk with more accurateness is to identify risk factors combination that more easily produces vascular damage, or alternatively, to evaluate directly the arterial wall and its damage degree. The former approach is performed by the evaluation of metabolic syndrome, the latter by the non-invasive study of pre-ATS markers

Ventricular-vascular coupling in hypertension: methodological considerations and clinical implications

The present review is addressed to analyse the complex interplay between left ventricle and arterial tree in hypertension. The different methodological approaches to the analysis of ventricular vascular coupling in the time and frequency domain are discussed. Moreover, the role of hypertension-related changes of arterial structure and function (stiffness and wave reflection) on arterial load and how ventricular-vascular coupling modulates the process of left ventricular adaptation to hypertension are analysed.The different interplay between vascular bed and left ventricle emerges as the pathophysiological basis for the development of the multiple patterns of ventricular structural adaptation in hypertension and provides a pathway for the interpretation of systolic and diastolic functional abnormalities observed in hypertensive patients. Targeting the therapeutic approach to improve ventricular-vascular coupling may have relevant impact on reversing left ventricular hypertrophy and improving systolic and diastolic dysfunctio

Understanding protection from SARS-CoV-2 using metabolomics

The COVID-19 pandemic is still raging in most countries. Although the recent mass vaccination campaign has opened a new chapter in the battle against SARS-CoV-2, the world is still far from herd immunity. There is an urgent need to identify healthy people at high risk of contracting COVID-19, as well as supplements and nutraceuticals that can reduce the risk of infection or mitigate symptoms. In the present study, a metabolic phenotype that could protect individuals from SARS-CoV-2 infection or predispose them to developing COVID-19 was investigated. Untargeted metabolomics was performed on serum samples collected from 51 healthcare workers who were in good health at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, and who were later exposed to the same risk of developing COVID-19. Half of them developed COVID-19 within three weeks of the blood collection. Our results demonstrate the presence of a specific signature associated with protection from SARS-CoV-2. Circulating monolaurin, which has well-known antiviral and antibacterial properties, was higher in protected subjects, suggesting a potential defensive role against SARS-CoV-2 infection; thus, dietary supplements could boost the immune system against this infection. In addition, our data demonstrate that people with higher levels of cholesterol are at higher risk of developing COVID-19. The present study demonstrates that metabolomics can be of great help for developing personalized medicine and for supporting public healthcare strategies. Studies with larger cohorts of subjects are necessary to confirm our findings

Do the Current Guidelines for Heart Failure Diagnosis and Treatment Fit with Clinical Complexity?

Heart failure (HF) is a clinical syndrome defined by specific symptoms and signs due to structural and/or functional heart abnormalities, which lead to inadequate cardiac output and/or increased intraventricular filling pressure. Importantly, HF becomes progressively a multisystemic disease. However, in August 2021, the European Society of Cardiology published the new Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic HF, according to which the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) continues to represent the pivotal parameter for HF patients’ evaluation, risk stratification and therapeutic management despite its limitations are well known. Indeed, HF has a complex pathophysiology because it first involves the heart, progressively becoming a multisystemic disease, leading to multiorgan failure and death. In these terms, HF is comparable to cancer. As for cancer, surviving, morbidity and hospitalisation are related not only to the primary neoplastic mass but mainly to the metastatic involvement. In HF, multiorgan involvement has a great impact on prognosis, and multiorgan protective therapies are equally important as conventional cardioprotective therapies. In the light of these considerations, a revision of the HF concept is needed, starting from its definition up to its therapy, to overcome the old and simplistic HF perspective