Neuropsychological contribution to predict conversion to dementia in patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease

Background: Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) confirmed by biomarkers allows the patient to make important life decisions. However, doubt about the fleetness of symptoms progression and future cognitive decline remains. Neuropsychological measures were extensively studied in prediction of time to conversion to dementia for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients in the absence of biomarker information. Similar neuropsychological measures might also be useful to predict the progression to dementia in patients with MCI due to AD. Objective: To study the contribution of neuropsychological measures to predict time to conversion to dementia in patients with MCI due to AD. Methods: Patients with MCI due toADwere enrolled from a clinical cohort and the effect of neuropsychological performance on time to conversion to dementia was analyzed. Results: At baseline, converters scored lower than non-converters at measures of verbal initiative, non-verbal reasoning, and episodic memory. The test of non-verbal reasoning was the only statistically significant predictor in a multivariate Cox regression model. A decrease of one standard deviation was associated with 29% of increase in the risk of conversion to dementia. Approximately 50% of patients with more than one standard deviation below the mean in the z score of that test had converted to dementia after 3 years of follow-up. Conclusion: In MCI due to AD, lower performance in a test of non-verbal reasoning was associated with time to conversion to dementia. This test, that reveals little decline in the earlier phases of AD, appears to convey important information concerning conversion to dementia.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT)Portuguese Foundation for Science and TechnologyEuropean Commission [PTDC/MED-NEU/27946/2017

Feeding behaviour and digestion physiology in larval fish – current knowledge and gaps and bottlenecks in research

Food uptake follows rules defined by feeding behaviour that determines the kind and quantity of food ingested by fish larvae as well as how live prey and food particles are detected, captured and ingested. Feeding success depends on the progressive development of anatomical characteristics and physiological functions and on the availability of suitable food items throughout larval development. The fish larval stages present eco-morpho-physiological features very different from adults and differ from one species to another. The organoleptic properties, dimensions, detectability, movements characteristics and buoyancy of food items are all crucial features that should be considered, but is often ignored, in feeding regimes. Ontogenetic changes in digestive function lead to limitations in the ability to process certain feedstuffs. There is still a lack of knowledge about the digestion and absorption of various nutrients and about the ontogeny of basic physiological mechanisms in fish larvae, including how they are affected by genetic, dietary and environmental factors. The neural and hormonal regulation of the digestive process and of appetite is critical for optimizing digestion. These processes are still poorly described in fish larvae and attempts to develop optimal feeding regimes are often still on a ‘trial and error’ basis. A holistic understanding of feeding ecology and digestive functions is important for designing diets for fish larvae and the adaptation of rearing conditions to meet requirements for the best presentation of prey and microdiets, and their optimal ingestion, digestion and absorption. More research that targets gaps in our knowledge should advance larval rearing

Using PET with 18F-AV-45 (florbetapir) to quantify brain amyloid load in a clinical environment

International audiencePURPOSE: Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of brain amyloid load has been suggested as a core biomarker for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of using PET imaging with (18)F-AV-45 (florbetapir) in a routine clinical environment to differentiate between patients with mild to moderate AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from normal healthy controls (HC). METHODS: In this study, 46 subjects (20 men and 26 women, mean age of 69.0 ± 7.6 years), including 13 with AD, 12 with MCI and 21 HC subjects, were enrolled from three academic memory clinics. PET images were acquired over a 10-min period 50 min after injection of florbetapir (mean ± SD of radioactivity injected, 259 ± 57 MBq). PET images were assessed visually by two individuals blinded to any clinical information and quantitatively via the standard uptake value ratio (SUVr) in the specific regions of interest, which were defined in relation to the cerebellum as the reference region. RESULTS: The mean values of SUVr were higher in AD patients (median 1.20, Q1-Q3 1.16-1.30) than in HC subjects (median 1.05, Q1-Q3 1.04-1.08; p = 0.0001) in the overall cortex and all cortical regions (precuneus, anterior and posterior cingulate, and frontal median, temporal, parietal and occipital cortex). The MCI subjects also showed a higher uptake of florbetapir in the posterior cingulate cortex (median 1.06, Q1-Q3 0.97-1.28) compared with HC subjects (median 0.95, Q1-Q3 0.82-1.02; p = 0.03). Qualitative visual assessment of the PET scans showed a sensitivity of 84.6% (95% CI 0.55-0.98) and a specificity of 38.1% (95% CI 0.18-0.62) for discriminating AD patients from HC subjects; however, the quantitative assessment of the global cortex SUVr showed a sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 90.5% with a cut-off value of 1.122 (area under the curve 0.894). CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that PET with florbetapir is a safe and suitable biomarker for AD that can be used routinely in a clinical environment. However, the low specificity of the visual PET scan assessment could be improved by the use of specific training and automatic or semiautomatic quantification tools

Endometriose profunda infiltrativa: distribuição anatômica e tratamento cirúrgico Deep infiltrating endometriosis: anatomical distribution and surgical treatment

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a distribuição anatômica das lesões de endometriose profunda infiltrativa (EPI) em uma amostra de mulheres do Sul do Brasil. MÉTODOS: Foi conduzida uma análise prospectiva das mulheres submetidas a tratamento cirúrgico de EPI durante o período entre janeiro de 2010 e janeiro de 2012. As lesões foram classificadas em oito localizações principais, da menos para a mais grave: ligamento redondo, serosa uterina anterior/reflexão peritonial vesicouterina, ligamento uterossacro, região retrocervical, vagina, bexiga, intestino e ureter. O número e a localização das lesões de EPI foram estudados para cada paciente de acordo com os critérios acima e, também, de acordo com o acometimento isolado ou múltiplo. A análise estatística foi conduzida com o programa Statistica versão 8.0. Os valores pPURPOSE: To evaluate the anatomical distribution of deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) lesions in a sample of women from the South of Brazil. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted on women undergoing surgical treatment for DIE from January 2010 to January 2012. The lesions were classified according to eight main locations, from least serious to worst: round ligament, anterior uterine serosa/vesicouterine peitoneal reflection, utero-sacral ligament, retrocervical area, vagina, bladder, intestine, ureter. The number and location of the DIE lesions were studied for each patient according to the above-mentioned criteria and also according to uni- or multifocality. The statistical analysis was performed using Statistica version 8.0. The values p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 143 women presented 577 DIE lesions: uterosacral ligament (n=239; 41.4%), retrocervical (n=91; 15.7%), vagina (n=50; 8.7%), round ligament (n=50; 8,7%), vesico-uterine septum (n=41; 7.1%), bladder (n=12; 2.1%), and intestine (n=83; 14.4%), ureter (n=11; 1.9%). Multifocal disease was observed in the majority of patients (p<0.0001), and the mean number of DIE lesions per patient was 4. Ovarian endometrioma was present in 57 women (39.9%). Sixty-five patients (45.4%) presented intestinal infiltration on histological examination. A total of 83 DIE intestinal lesions were distributed as follows: appendix (n=7), cecum (n=1) and rectosigmoid (n=75). The mean number of intestinal lesions per patient was 1.3. CONCLUSIONS: DIE has a multifocal pattern of distribution, a fact of fundamental importance for the definition of the complete surgical treatment of the disease

Spontaneous Healing of a Rectovaginal Fistula Developing after Laparoscopic Segmental Bowel Resection for Intestinal Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis

The surgical treatment of intestinal deep infiltrating endometriosis has an associated risk of major complications such as dehiscence of the intestinal anastomosis, pelvic abscess, and rectovaginal fistula. The management of postoperative rectovaginal fistula frequently requires a reoperation and the construction of a stoma for temporary fecal diversion. In this paper we describe a 27-year-old woman undergoing laparoscopic treatment of deep infiltrating endometriosis (extramucosal cystectomy, resection of the uterosacral ligaments, resection of the posterior vaginal fornix, and segmental bowel resection) complicated by a rectovaginal fistula, which healed spontaneously with nonsurgical conservative treatment