Effect of recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor on testis tissue xenotransplants from prepubertal boys: a three-case study

Research question Does recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-165) improve the efficiency of human immature testis tissue (ITT) xenotransplantation? Design ITT fragments from three prepubertal boys were cultured for 5 days with VEGF-165 or without (control) before xenotransplantation into the testes of immunodeficient mice. Xenotransplants were recovered at 4 and 9 months after transplantation, and vascularization, seminiferous tubule integrity, number of spermatogonia and germ cell differentiation were evaluated by histology and immunohistochemistry. Results Transplants from donor 1 and donor 2 treated with VEGF demonstrated higher vascular surface (P = 0.004) and vessel density (P = 0.011) overall and contained more intact seminiferous tubules (P = 0.039) with time, compared with controls. The number of spermatogonia was increased over time (P < 0.001) irrespective of treatment and donor, whereas, for the VEGF-treated transplants, the increase was even higher over time (P = 0.020). At 9 months, spermatocytes were present in the xenotransplants, irrespective of treatment. No transplants could be recovered from donor 3, who had already received treatment with cyclosporine for aplastic anaemia before biopsy. Conclusions In-vitro pre-treatment of human prepubertal testis tissue with VEGF improved transplant vascularization in two out of three cases, resulting in improved seminiferous tubule integrity and spermatogonial survival during xenotransplantation. Although further studies are warranted, we suggest VEGF be considered as a factor for improving the efficiency of immature testis tissue transplantation in the future

The Quality of EBM Sources Perceived By Belgian Family Physicians

BACKGROUND: Belgian family physicians use several local and international sources for evidence-based medicine (EBM). AIM: This study aims to investigate the quality of these EBM sources according to the Belgian family physicians. METHODS: A sample of Belgian family physicians completed a digital survey on the quality of EBM sources. RESULTS: Respondents evaluated the quality of the information for the major part of the local and international EBM sources good to excellent. More than 50% of the respondents found in the major part of the sources an answer to the question. More than half of the respondents found the necessary information in less than 5 minutes in most of the sources. Younger participants self-evaluated their search skills better than older participants. CONCLUSION: The quality of most frequently used EBM sources in Belgium is evaluated as good and client-friendly. More than half of the respondents found an answer to their questions in most of the sources and this within 5 minutes

Not dominance but the loss of binocularity determines the success of monovision

Purpose: To determine whether ocular dominance strength influences success of monovision&nbsp;Design: Single-center, prospective, double blind crossover. Subjects received contact lenses with reading addition added to the left eye in the first trial period and to the right eye in the second period so that the type of monovision was randomized and blinded for the test subject and the investigator.Methods: 17 presbyopic subjects, aged 50-65, received conventional and crossed monovision, each for 2 weeks. Satisfaction, stereopsis (TNO, Titmus) and Snellen visual acuity were measured. Ocular dominance was examined according to Haidinger and +1D test.&nbsp;Results: Pearson correlation coefficient between strength of ocular dominance and subject satisfaction was ρ=0.088 for the conventional and ρ=0.000 for the crossed group. 93% of subjects were most satisfied with the type of monovision that yielded the highest Titmus score. For the TNO test this was only 64%. A statistical significant interaction effect was shown for this relationship (ρ=0.019).Conclusion: A significant correlation between dominance strength, refraction error and satisfaction could not be found. However, we observed that the highest stereopsis score according to the Titmus test was more likely to yield a higher satisfaction when comparing conventional and crossed monovision. When a physician opts for monovision correction, the Titmus test can be performed with test spectacles or contact lenses to decide which eye should be corrected for distance vision. The choice should be in favor of the correction that yields the best Titmus score.&nbsp;</p

Detecting User Profiles in Collaborative Ontology Engineering Using a User's Interactions

peer reviewe

Chasing map plasticity in neuropathic pain: Case report

OBJECTIVE: Recently, somatosensory cortex stimulation has been proposed as a possible treatment for neuropathic deafferentation pain, based on a simple 4-step concept: (1) pain is associated with increased activity in the somatosensory cortex, (2) allodynia evoked BOLD fMRI activation depicts the area involved in the pain, (3) if fMRI guided neuronavigation based TMS can transiently suppress the pain, (4) an extradural electrode can be implanted targeting the same area. CASE DESCRIPTION: A patient who was successfully treated for over 6 years for trigeminal anesthesia dolorosa associated with a subjectively malpositioned eye after multiple recurrent facial skin tumor removals with this approach develops new pain after more extensive surgery. Reprogramming the implanted electrode is unsuccessful. The presence of the electrode yields too many artifacts on a renewed fMRI and therefore a PET scan is performed under evoked allodynia. Fusing the previous fMRI with the new PET images depicts 2 novel targets for stimulation, 1 anterior and 1 posterior of the previous target and beyond the spatial configuration of the implant. After the addition of 2 new electrodes the pain can again be controlled in a placebo controlled way, but only when the 2 electrodes are activated. CONCLUSION: Combining fMRI and PET scanning can potentially demonstrate continuing map plasticity under progressive somatosensory deafferentation. The functional imaging data can be used as target for pathophysiology based somatosensory cortex stimulation.status: publishe

Analysis of parental contribution for aneuploidy detection (APCAD): a novel method to detect aneuploidy and mosaicism in preimplantation embryos

Research question: Can (mosaic) aneuploidy be reliably detected in preimplantation embryos after multiple displacement amplification and single nucleotide polymorphism detection, independent of haplotyping and copy number detection, with a new method 'analysis of parental contribution for aneuploidy detection' or 'APCAD'? Design: This method is based on the maternal contribution, a parameter that reflects the proportion of DNA that is of maternal origin for a given chromosome or chromosome segment. A maternal contribution deviating from 50% for autosomes is strongly indicative of a (mosaic) chromosomal anomaly. The method was optimized using cell mixtures with varying ratios of euploid and aneuploid (47,XY,+21) lymphocytes. Next, the maternal contribution was retrospectively measured for all chromosomes from 349 Karyomapping samples. Results: Retrospective analysis showed a skewed maternal contribution (63.6%) in 57 out of 59 autosome meiotic trisomies and all autosome monosomies (n = 57), with values close to theoretical expectation. Thirty-two out of 7436 chromosomes, for which no anomalies had been observed with Karyomapping, showed a similarly skewed maternal contribution. Conclusions: APCAD was used to measure the maternal contribution, which is an intuitive parameter independent of copy number detection. This method is useful for detecting copy number neutral anomalies and can confirm diagnosis of (mosaic) aneuploidy detected based on copy number. Mosaic and complete aneuploidy can be distinguished and the parent of origin for (mosaic) chromosome anomalies can be determined. Because of these benefits, the APCAD method has the potential to improve aneuploidy detection carried out by comprehensive preimplantation genetic testing methods.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Women's view on shared decision making and autonomy in childbirth:cohort study of Belgian women

BACKGROUND: Health care providers have an important role to share evidence based information and empower patients to make informed choices. Previous studies indicate that shared decision making in pregnancy and childbirth may have an important impact on a woman’s birth experience. In Flemish social media, a large number of women expressed their concern about their birth experience, where they felt loss of control and limited possibilities to make their own choices. The aim of this study is to explore autonomy and shared decision making in the Flemish population. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional, non-interventional study to explore the birth experience of Flemish women. A self-assembled questionnaire was used to collect data, including the Pregnancy and Childbirth Questionnaire (PCQ), the Labor Agentry Scale (LAS), the Mothers Autonomy Decision Making Scale (MADM), the 9-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM–Q9) and four questions on preparation for childbirth. Women who gave birth two to 12 months ago were recruited by means of social media in the Flemish area (Northern part of Belgium). Linear mixed-effect modelling with backwards variable selection was applied to examine relations with autonomy in decision making. RESULTS: In total, 1029 mothers participated in this study of which 617 filled out the survey completely. In general, mothers experienced moderate autonomy in decision-making, both with an obstetrician and with a midwife with an average on the MADM score of respectively 18.5 (± 7.2) and 29.4 (±10.4) out of 42. The linear mixed-effects model showed a relationship between autonomy in decision-making (MADM) for the type of healthcare provider (p < 0.001), the level of self-control during labour and birth (LAS) (p = 0.003), the level of perceived quality of care (PCQ) (p < 0.001), having epidural analgesia during childbirth (p = 0.026) and feeling to have received sufficient information about the normal course of childbirth (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Childbearing women in Flanders experience moderate levels of autonomy in decision- making with their health care providers, where lower autonomy was observed for obstetricians compared to midwives. Future research should focus more on why differences occur between obstetrics and midwives in terms of autonomy and shared decision-making as perceived by the mother