Alcoholic liver cirrhosis, more than a simple hepatic disease – A brief review of the risk factors associated with alcohol abuse

Liver cirrhosis is a significant public health problem, being an important cause of mortality and morbidity, responsible for approximately 1.8% of the total number of deaths in Europe. Chronic alcohol consumption is the most common cause of liver cirrhosis in developed countries. Europe has the highest level of alcohol consumption among all the global World Health Organisation (WHO) regions. In this paper, we briefly review major factors leading to excessive alcohol consumption in order to draw attention to the fact that alcoholic liver cirrhosis is more than a simple liver disease, and if those risk/causal factors can be prevented, the incidence of this disease could be reduced greatly. Although excessive alcohol consumption is regarded as the cause of alcoholic liver cirrhosis, the etiology is complex, involving multiple factors that act in synchrony, and which, if prevented, could greatly reduce the incidence of this disease. Children of addicts are likely to develop an alcohol-related mental disorder; however, there is no “gene for alcoholism”

Hepatitis C virus: host, environmental and viral factors promoting spontaneous clearance

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a pathogenic entity which determines inflammation and liver damage through complex immune mechanisms. Although progress has been made in managing the disease course, chronic infection still remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality to this day. Because both acute and chronic infection are often asymptomatic, chronic infection is frequently diagnosed when its complications have developed. In a small proportion of cases, the chronic infection does not develop, the immune system managing to cleanse the body from this silent pathogen in the absence of specific treatment, a process called spontaneous viral clearance, which occurs rarely, in about 20-30 % of cases. A competent immune response that manages to eliminate the virus from the organism was associated with IL-28B genetic polymorphism, female gender, young age, which often lead to clinical manifestations of acute hepatitis after initial exposure. Environmental factors such as limited viral exposure also play an important role. These factors and the mechanisms underlying spontaneous clearance are not fully understood but their action is complementary. In this paper, we review the concept of spontaneous clearance of HCV and assess the factors that have been associated with this clinical outcome of the infection

Alcoholic liver cirrhosis, more than a simple hepatic disease – A brief review of the risk factors associated with alcohol abuse

Liver cirrhosis is a significant public health problem, being an important cause of mortality and morbidity, responsible for approximately 1.8% of the total number of deaths in Europe. Chronic alcohol consumption is the most common cause of liver cirrhosis in developed countries. Europe has the highest level of alcohol consumption among all the global World Health Organisation (WHO) regions. In this paper, we briefly review major factors leading to excessive alcohol consumption in order to draw attention to the fact that alcoholic liver cirrhosis is more than a simple liver disease, and if those risk/causal factors can be prevented, the incidence of this disease could be reduced greatly. Although excessive alcohol consumption is regarded as the cause of alcoholic liver cirrhosis, the etiology is complex, involving multiple factors that act in synchrony, and which, if prevented, could greatly reduce the incidence of this disease. Children of addicts are likely to develop an alcohol-related mental disorder; however, there is no “gene for alcoholism”

Challenges in Dental Imaging – Edge and Texture Analysis in Caries Detection

One of the most frequent diseases all over the world is represented by dental caries, hence it is of utmost importance to detect them as early as possible, in order to prevent massive tooth decay. Next to clinical examination, radiographic images are essential in identifying caries, especially for lesions located on the contact surface between the posterior teeth. Incipient caries are difficult to identify, sometimes even for specialists, so segmentation and detection through various image processing techniques may be useful. This paper presents an analysis of edge and texture parameters in X-rays containing caries, based on Sobel and Canny operators, Gabor filters and local binary pattern (LBP) operator. Our study set consisted in 80 X-rays from Bitewing Radiography Caries Detection Challenge 2015. Final results align with literature results and confirm the fact that caries segmentation in X-rays is a difficult task, with an average of less than 35% edge pixels correctly identified and poor results for texture segmentation; they also motivate us to refine our work in search of new algorithms and methods for caries segmentation and detection

Colchicine versus Physical Therapy in Knee Osteoarthritis

Background: The treatment of osteoarthritis remains a major challenge due to the unavailability of a disease-modifying medication and the limitations of current therapeutic perspectives, which mainly target the symptoms, not the disease itself. The purpose of our study is to compare the efficacy of colchicine treatment versus physical therapy. Methods: The study included 62 patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis (KOA) according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, hospitalized within the time frame of October 2020–March 2022 in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy of the Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Craiova. The participants were randomly divided into two groups. The observation period was 16 weeks long. The first group (31 patients) received colchicine at a dosage of 1 mg/day together with analgesics (acetaminophen < 2 g/day), while the second group (31 patients) received analgesics (acetaminophen < 2 g/day) together with a 16-week plan of physiotherapy. Results: Group II, in which patients underwent physical therapy, demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in both left (p < 0.001) and right (p = 0.012) knee VAS and WOMAC (p = 0.038) scores at 16 weeks, compared to the group treated with colchicine. Regarding the MSUS examination at 16 weeks, there were no significant changes in the structural abnormalities and no improvement in cartilage aspect or thickness. Higher BMI was associated with higher WOMAC score (p = 0.012), but not with higher VAS score (p = 0.062). Cholesterol and triglyceride levels were associated with high WOMAC (p < 0.001; p = 0.021) and high VAS (p = 0.023; p < 0.001) scores. Conclusions: Our study monitored VAS and WOMAC scores in two groups of patients with KOA, showing that physical therapy is more effective than colchicine in reducing symptoms. We found no statistically significant difference in musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) feature improvement during the 16-week study

CRPS DIAGNOSIS BASED ON INFLAMMATION MARKER ANALYSIS

Objectives. The biological markers that can indicate specifically and sensitively the absence or presence of a certain condition or its state can be used for diagnostic support and disease monitoring. Thus, this research set out to study the changes in neuropeptides (substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide) pro-inflammatory (TNFα, IL-1β and IL-6) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokine levels in the blood of patients with CRPS. Material and methods. Sixty patients were enlisted from the local Rheumatology Clinic of the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova and split into two groups (acute and chronic). CRPS related symptoms were estimated by means of the Neuropathic Pain Questionnaire. The quantification of cytokines and neuropeptides in blood was achieved using the high sensitivity colorimetric ELISA method. Outcomes. Cytokine analysis led to statistically insignificant results, while for the neuropeptides we obtained significantly increased values in the patient groups. ROC curves were used to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the neuropeptides both returning good AUC values. Conclusions. Our results indicate that the neuropeptide (substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide) profile has a good diagnostic sensitivity. A limitation of the study is the low number of patients in the acute group, including more patients in this phase might offer more insights on the cytokines’ role, as they could be increased in comparison to chronic patients, due to their short half-life and low acting concentrations

A Novel Nutraceutical Formulation Can Improve Motor Activity and Decrease the Stress Level in a Murine Model of Middle-Age Animals

Ageing is a genetically programmed physiological process that is modulated by numerous environmental factors, associated with decreasing physiological function, decreasing reproductive rate and increasing age-related mortality rate. Maintaining mobility performance and physical function in the elderly is the main objective of the successful ageing concept. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the beneficial effect of a novel nutraceutical formulation containing Centella asiatica L. extract, vitamin C, zinc and vitamin D3 (as cholecalciferol) on motor activity and anxiety with the use of a murine model of old animals, as a means of providing proof for clinical use in the elderly, for enhancing physical strength and improving life quality. Eighteen Sprague Dawley 18 months old male rats were divided into three groups and received corn oil (the control group) or 1 capsule/kg bw Reverse supplement (treatment group 1) or 2 capsules/kg bw Reverse supplement (treatment group 2), for a period of 3 months. The Reverse supplement (Natural Doctor S.A, Athens, Greece) contains 9 mg Centella asiatica L. extract, vitamin C (200 mg as magnesium ascorbate), zinc (5 mg as zinc citrate), vitamin D3 (50 µg as cholecalciferol) per capsule. Before and after the treatment, the motor function and behavioral changes for anxiety and depression were evaluated using the open-field test, elevated plus-maze test and rotarod test. The supplementation with Reverse (Natural Doctor S.A) supplement can improve the locomotor activity in old rats in a dose-dependent manner, as demonstrated by an increase in the latency to leave from the middle square, in the number of rearings in the open field test, in the time spent in the open arms and time spent in the center in the elevated plus-maze test and the latency to all in all three consecutive trials in the rotarod test. Stress also decreased significantly in a dose-dependent manner, following the treatment with Reverse supplement, as was demonstrated by the decrease in the number of groomings at the open field test and time spent in the dark and the number of groomings at the elevated plus-maze test

A Novel Nutraceutical Formulation Can Improve Motor Activity and Decrease the Stress Level in a Murine Model of Middle-Age Animals

Ageing is a genetically programmed physiological process that is modulated by numerous environmental factors, associated with decreasing physiological function, decreasing reproductive rate and increasing age-related mortality rate. Maintaining mobility performance and physical function in the elderly is the main objective of the successful ageing concept. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the beneficial effect of a novel nutraceutical formulation containing Centella asiatica L. extract, vitamin C, zinc and vitamin D3 (as cholecalciferol) on motor activity and anxiety with the use of a murine model of old animals, as a means of providing proof for clinical use in the elderly, for enhancing physical strength and improving life quality. Eighteen Sprague Dawley 18 months old male rats were divided into three groups and received corn oil (the control group) or 1 capsule/kg bw Reverse supplement (treatment group 1) or 2 capsules/kg bw Reverse supplement (treatment group 2), for a period of 3 months. The Reverse supplement (Natural Doctor S.A, Athens, Greece) contains 9 mg Centella asiatica L. extract, vitamin C (200 mg as magnesium ascorbate), zinc (5 mg as zinc citrate), vitamin D3 (50 µg as cholecalciferol) per capsule. Before and after the treatment, the motor function and behavioral changes for anxiety and depression were evaluated using the open-field test, elevated plus-maze test and rotarod test. The supplementation with Reverse (Natural Doctor S.A) supplement can improve the locomotor activity in old rats in a dose-dependent manner, as demonstrated by an increase in the latency to leave from the middle square, in the number of rearings in the open field test, in the time spent in the open arms and time spent in the center in the elevated plus-maze test and the latency to all in all three consecutive trials in the rotarod test. Stress also decreased significantly in a dose-dependent manner, following the treatment with Reverse supplement, as was demonstrated by the decrease in the number of groomings at the open field test and time spent in the dark and the number of groomings at the elevated plus-maze test