Embolización de arterias uterinas para manejo de miomato sis: experiencia con 200 pacientes

Objetivos: Evaluar la eficacia y seguridad de la embolización de arterias uterinas en la reducción del volumen uterino, tamaño de miomas, signos y síntomas relacionados a la enfermedad y la satisfacción del paciente. Diseño: Estudio clínico, retrospectivo y longitudinal. Locación: Instituto de Radiología Intervencionista Brazzini. Participantes: Doscientos pacientes sometidos a EAU bilateral. Intervención: Embolización de arterias uterinas realizado con partículas de polyvinyl alcohol de 355 a 500 μm y micro esferas embolizantes de 500 a 900 micras. El seguimiento fue de tres, seis, doce y hasta setenta y dos meses, que incluyeron ecografías uterinas pre y post embolización, reporte de mejoría sintomatológica por pacientes (EAV 0 a 10), satisfacción postratamiento, complicaciones y datos epidemiológicos relevantes. Resultados: De los 200 pacientes estudiados, los síntomas que impulsaron la consulta fueron, en primer lugar y con 42%, los trastornos menstruales, y en segundo lugar con 17%, la anemia. El tipo de mioma más frecuente fue, con 54%, el mioma intramural. La reducción media en el tamaño uterino y del mioma dominante fue 43,4% y 59%, respectivamente. De las pacientes, 56,5% tenía indicación de histerectomía al llegar a la consulta (N° 113), y de estos, luego del tratamiento, dos pacientes fueron sometidas a este procedimiento (1,02%). Las mujeres refirieron mejoría de sus síntomas en la escala análoga visual (0 a 10) de 6,7 puntos (Pre: 9 puntos, Post: 2,3 puntos). La mayoría (95%) refirió estar satisfecha con el procedimiento realizado. Conclusiones: La EAU redujo el tamaño de los miomas, el tamaño total de útero y como resultado del tratamiento se evidenció una disminución significativa de los síntomas. Las pacientes intervenidas refirieron estar satisfechas con el procedimiento, tenían una mejor calidad de vida y estaban contentas de haber evitado someterse a un procedimiento quirúrgico mayor.Objectives: To determine safety and efficacy of uterine artery embolization (UAE) for uterine volume reduction, leiomyoma size, symptoms relief and patient satisfaction. Design: Clinical retrospective and longitudinal study. Setting: Brazzini Interventional Radiology Institute. Participants: Two hundred patients who underwent a UAE. Interventions: Bilateral UAE with hydrogel microspheres and polyvinyl alcohol particles sized 500-900 microns were applied to 200 women. Follow-up was from three, six, twelve and up to 72 months, and included pre and post embolization uterine ultrasound, complications, and relevant epidemiological data. Results: The most common symptoms were menstrual abnormalities (42%) and anemia (17%), among others. Most common type of leiomyoma was intramural (54%). Median uterine and dominant fibroid volume reductions were 43.4% and 59%, respectively. Out of the 200 women, 113 had previous indication of hysterectomy, and 2 patients were treated surgically (1.02%). Visual analog scale assessment showed improvements of 6.7 points (0 to 10). 95% of the studied and treated population reported satisfaction with the treatment. Conclusions: UAE reduced uterine total volume and fibroids size, resulting in significant symptom relief. Treated patients reported improvements in quality of life and treatment satisfaction

Can the common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, influence human culture?

The latent prevalence of a long-lived and common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, explains a statistically significant portion of the variance in aggregate neuroticism among populations, as well as in the ‘neurotic’ cultural dimensions of sex roles and uncertainty avoidance. Spurious or non-causal correlations between aggregate personality and aspects of climate and culture that influence T. gondii transmission could also drive these patterns. A link between culture and T. gondii hypothetically results from a behavioural manipulation that the parasite uses to increase its transmission to the next host in the life cycle: a cat. While latent toxoplasmosis is usually benign, the parasite's subtle effect on individual personality appears to alter the aggregate personality at the population level. Drivers of the geographical variation in the prevalence of this parasite include the effects of climate on the persistence of infectious stages in soil, the cultural practices of food preparation and cats as pets. Some variation in culture, therefore, may ultimately be related to how climate affects the distribution of T. gondii, though the results only explain a fraction of the variation in two of the four cultural dimensions, suggesting that if T. gondii does influence human culture, it is only one among many factors

Improving survival with deferiprone treatment in patients with thalassemia major: A prospective multicenter randomised clinical trial under the auspices of the Italian Society for Thalassemia and Hemoglobinopathies

The prognosis for thalassemia major has dramatically improved in the last two decades. However, many transfusion-dependent patients continue to develop progressive accumulation of iron. This can lead to tissue damage and eventually death, particularly from cardiac disease. Previous studies that investigated iron chelation treatments, including retrospective and prospective non-randomised clinical trials, suggested that mortality, due mainly to cardiac damage, was reduced or completely absent in patients treated with deferiprone (DFP) alone or a combined deferiprone–deferoxamine (DFP–DFO) chelation treatment. However, no survival analysis has been reported for a long-term randomised control trial. Here, we performed a multicenter, long-term, randomised control trial that compared deferoxamine (DFO) versus DFP alone, sequential DFP–DFO, or combined DFP–DFO iron chelation treatments. The trial included 265 patients with thalassemia major, with 128 (48.3%) females and 137 (51.7%) males. No deaths occurred with the DFP-alone or the combined DFP–DFO treatments. One death occurred due to graft versus host disease (GVHD) in a patient that had undergone bone marrow transplantation; this patient was censored at the time of transplant. Only one death occurred with the DFP–DFO sequential treatment in a patient that had experienced an episode of heart failure one year earlier. Ten deaths occurred with the deferoxamine treatment. The main factors that correlated with an increase in the hazard ratio for death were: cirrhosis, arrhythmia, previous episode of heart failure, diabetes, hypogonadism, and hypothyroidism. In a Cox regression model, the interaction effect of sex and age was statistically significant (p-value <0.013). For each increasing year of age, the hazard ratio for males was 1.03 higher than that for females (p-value<0.013). In conclusion, the results of this study show that the risk factors for predicting mortality in patients with thalassemia major are deferoxamine-treatment, complications, and the interaction effect of sex and ag

Impact of nucleic acid testing for hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus on the safety of blood supply in Italy: A 6-year survey

BACKGROUND: Nucleic acid testing (NAT) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been implemented in several European countries and in the United States, while hepatitis B virus (HBV) NAT is still being questioned by opinions both in favor and against such an option, depending on the HBV endemicity, health care resources, and expected benefits. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This survey was aimed to assess the NAT impact in improving the safety of blood supply in Italy, 6 years after implementation. The study involved 93 Italian transfusion centers and was carried out in 2001 through 2006. A total of 10,776,288 units were tested for the presence of HCV RNA, 7,932,430 for HIV RNA, and 3,405,497 for HBV DNA, respectively. RESULTS: Twenty-seven donations or 2.5 per million tested were HCV RNA-positive/anti-HCV-negative; 14 or 1.8 per million units tested were HIV RNA-positive/anti-HIV-negative; and 197 or 57.8 per million donations tested were HBV DNA-positive/hepatitis B surface antigen-negative. Of the latter, 8 (2.3/10(6)) were collected from donors in the window phase of infection and 189 (55.5/10(6)) from donors with occult HBV. Sixty-eight percent of the latter donors had hepatitis B surface antibody, 74.5 percent of whom with concentrations considered protective (>= 10 mIU/mL). CONCLUSION: NAT implementation has improved blood safety by reducing the risk of entering 2.5 HCV and 1.8 HIV infectious units per million donations into the blood supply. The yield of NAT in detecting infectious blood before transfusion was higher for HBV than for HCV or HIV. However, the benefit of HBV NAT in terms of avoided HBV-related morbidity and mortality in blood recipients needs to be further evaluated