Biodegradation of two new biomaterials

Introduction. As in the previous experiments the haemostatic swab Antema revealed the disadvantage of troublesome adhesion both to surgical instruments and to serous surfaces of internal organs, the addition of Matemo could speed up the haemostatic performances of both biomaterials reducing the adhesion. For that reason Antema pads were treated with Matemo obtaining new haemostatic swabs. A comparison between the Matemo and the Antema + Matemo pads was then performed to test the haemostatic power and the biodegradation of both biomaterials. Materials and methods. For the experimental protocol the dorsal skin of each anesthetized animal was shaved, incised and two pouches were performed inside the subcutaneous tissue of the back, to introduce a specimen (1 cm2 of size) of Matemo on the left side, and Matemo+Antema on the right side. The same operation was repeated in 3 animals, and 3 other rats were used as controls and treated only with the selected anesthetic without intervention. The treated animals were all killed after 90 days from the operation. All the animals were daily controlled and no accident happens during the post-operation time. After death the dorsal skin of each animal was inspected in the two sides of implant and the samples from the skin and the subcutaneous tissues were taken in both sides of the back, to submit to the histological studies. Results. The microscopic analysis of the histological sections showed that at the deadline of the experiment both biomaterials disappeared from the site of implant, but the two regions were very different. In the left side (Matemo) the subcutaneous tissue appeared quite normal and very poorly infiltrated by the inflammatory cells, without proliferation of new fibrous tissue, neither dermal adhesion to the musculature. In the right side (Antema + Matemo) indeed, a significant infiltration of inflammatory cells was jet detectable and many dense neo-proliferate connective tissue attached the dermal plane to the muscular layer. Then, this protocol confirmed the very interesting results obtained in these studies in which the new synthesized haemostatic biomaterial Matemo was compared with Tabotamp and Antema, both currently used surgical sponges. Also in this experiment Matemo revealed a significant decrease in bleeding time with an absorption rate of the blood very quick and fast and its biodegradation at the 90th day were almost perfect

In vivo biodegradation of new haemostatic biomaterials

Introduction. The new synthesized haemostatic biomaterial Matemo, is a protein meal produced by fractionation of human plasma. In previous studies it revealed its excellent haemostatic properties, so that it could become the best biomaterial to prefer in large surgical demolition. It also showed an excellent biocompatibility for its composition of human proteins, very similar to that of human tissues. This work now intended to study the in vivo biodegradation of this new biomaterial compared with another horse collagen-based haemostatic biomaterial (Antema) in order to find the best material to fill the empty cavities resulting after surgical resection of tumor masses. Materials and methods. For the experimental protocol the dorsal skin of each anesthetized animal was shaved, incised and two pouches were performed inside the subcutaneous tissue of the back, to introduce a specimen (1 cm2 of size) of Matemo on the left side, and on the right side the horse-collagen biomaterials (Antema). The same operation was repeated in 3 animals, and 3 other rats were used as controls and treated only with the selected anesthetic cocktail without intervention. The treated animals were killed all after 90 days from the operation. After death the dorsal skin of each animal was inspected in the two sides of implant and the samples from the skin and the subcutaneous tissues were taken in both sides of the back, to submit to the histological studies. Results The histological exams carried out in this experiment showed that at the 90th day post-implant both biomaterials were completely reabsorbed, but the sites of implantation were very different between them. In the side of the implanted Matemo the subcutaneous tissue showed a very poor infiltration of inflammatory cells, with a foreign body reaction fully resolved without proliferation of new fibrous tissue, neither dermal adhesion to the muscular plane. In the site of Antema implant, indeed, at the same dead line a significant infiltration of inflammatory cells jet persisted and much dense fibrous tissue attached the dermal plane to the underlying muscles

Safety, Efficacy and High-Quality Standards of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Procedures in Personalized Sedoanalgesia Managed by the Gastroenterologist: A Retrospective Study

Performing GI endoscopy under sedoanalgesia improves the quality-indices of the examination, in particular for cecal intubation and adenoma detection rates during colonoscopy. The implementation of procedural sedoanalgesia in GI endoscopy is also strongly recommended by the guidelines of the major international scientific societies. Nevertheless, there are regional barriers that prevent the widespread adoption of this good practice. A retrospective monocentric analytic study was performed on a cohort of 529 patients who underwent EGDS/Colonoscopy in sedoanalgesia, with personalized dosage of Fentanyl and Midazolam. ASA class, age and weight were collected for each patient. The vital parameters were recorded during, pre- and post-procedure. The rates of cecal intubation and of procedure-related complications were entered. The VAS scale was used to evaluate the efficacy of sedoanalgesia, and the Aldrete score was used for patient discharge criteria. No clinically significant differences were found between vital signs pre- and post-procedure. Both anesthesia and endoscopic-related complications occurring were few and successfully managed. At the end of examination, both the mean Aldrete score (89.56), and the VAS score (<4 in 99.1%) were suitable for discharge. For the colonoscopies, the cumulative adenoma detection rate (25%) and the cecal intubation rate in the general group (98%) and in the colorectal cancer screening group (100%) were satisfying. Pain control management is an ethical and medical issue aimed at increasing both patient compliance and the quality of the procedures. The findings of this work underscore that in selected patients personalized sedoanalgesia in GI endoscopy can be safely managed by gastroenterologists

Conditioned Text Generation with Transfer for Closed-Domain Dialogue Systems

International audienceScarcity of training data for task-oriented dialogue systemsis a well known problem that is usually tackled with costly and time-consuming manual data annotation. An alternative solution is to relyon automatic text generation which, although less accurate than humansupervision, has the advantage of being cheap and fast. Our contributionis twofold. First we show how to optimally train and control the generationof intent-specific sentences using a conditional variational autoencoder.Then we introduce a new protocol calledquery transferthat allows toleverage a large unlabelled dataset, possibly containing irrelevant queries,to extract relevant information. Comparison with two different baselinesshows that this method, in the appropriate regime, consistently improvesthe diversity of the generated queries without compromising their quality.We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our generation method as a dataaugmentation technique for language modelling tasks

Faster N Release, but Not C Loss, from Leaf Litter of Invasives Compared to Native Species in Mediterranean Ecosystems

Plant invasions can have relevant impacts on biogeochemical cycles, whose extent, in Mediterranean ecosystems, have not yet been systematically assessed comparing litter carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics between invasive plants and native communities. We carried out a one-year litterbag experiment in 4 different plant communities (grassland, sand dune, riparian and mixed forests) on 8 invasives and 24 autochthonous plant species, used as control. Plant litter was characterized for mass loss, N release, proximate lignin and litter chemistry by 13C CPMAS NMR. Native and invasive species showed significant differences in litter chemical traits, with invaders generally showing higher N concentration and lower lignin/N ratio. Mass loss data revealed no consistent differences between native and invasive species, although some woody and vine invaders showed exceptionally high decomposition rate. In contrast, N release rate from litter was faster for invasive plants compared to native species. N concentration, lignin content and relative abundance of methoxyl and N-alkyl C region from 13C CPMAS NMR spectra were the parameters that better explained mass loss and N mineralization rates. Our findings demonstrate that during litter decomposition invasive species litter has no different decomposition rates but greater N release rate compared to natives. Accordingly, invasives are expected to affect N cycle in Mediterranean plant communities, possibly promoting a shift of plant assemblages

Recent Developments in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery: Evolution or Revolution?

Intraluminal aortic clamping has been achieved until now by means of a sophisticated device consisting of a three-lumen catheter named Endoclamp, which allows at the same time occlusion of the aorta, antegrade delivering of cardioplegia, and venting through the aortic root. This tool has shown important advantages allowing aortic occlusion and perfusate delivering without a direct contact with ascending aorta reducing meanwhile the risk of traumatic and/or iatrogenic injuries. Recently, a new device (Intraclude catheter) with the same characteristics and properties has been proposed and introduced in clinical practice. The aim of this paper is to investigate the differences between Endoclamp and Intraclude catheters and to analyze the advantages advocated by this new device for intraluminal aortic occlusion since it is noticeable as these new technological tools are gaining more and more attractiveness due to their appraised clinical efficacy