Blood-cell-based inflammatory markers as a useful tool for early diagnosis in colorectal cancer

Background: Systemic inflammation seems to be involved in the pathogenetic pathways of colorectal cancer (CRC). Analytical markers that reflect the inflammatory status, such as neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) or systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), have been proposed as tools for the prognosis of CRC. Nevertheless, their use for diagnosis has been scarcely investigated. Aims: To analyze the ability of these markers and of a new marker combining SII and hemoglobin concentration, named NP/LHb = neutrophils x platelets]/lymphocytes x hemoglobin], as tools for CRC diagnosis. Furthermore, we studied their association with CRC-related variables. Methods: Case-control study including 214 CRC patients and 214 controls without CRC, matched by age (±5 years) and sex. We collected demographic, CRC-related and laboratory variables to calculate NLR, PLR, SII, and NP/LHb. In the case group, the laboratory variables were collected at two different period times, 6 months (IQR 4–8) before the CRC diagnosis and at the time of the diagnosis. ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the discriminatory accuracy of each index and we calculated Se, Sp, PPV, NPV, and OR to identify the diagnostic performance of each positive marker. Results: NP/LHb showed high Sp (92.06%) and PPV (87.50%) to diagnose patients with CRC. This index exhibited an OR of 14.52 (8.26–25.52) and the best area under the curve (AUC: 0.78) for a positive CRC diagnosis. We found significant differences in all indices according to the presence of CRC, observing the highest values in CRC patients at time of diagnosis, in comparison with the analysis performed in the previous months to diagnosis or with control patients. There were significant differences in all ratios according to TNM stages (p < 0.05). PLR, SII and NP/LHb (but not NLR) showed significant differences according to tumor location (p < 0.05). Right-sided colon cancers presented the highest values, in comparison with left-sided and rectal cancers. Conclusions: Systemic inflammatory cell ratios (especially NP/LHb) change over time with the development of CRC, so they could be useful in its early diagnosis. We suggest that they could be routinely measured in patients with suspicion of CRC, to identify those ones with a higher risk of cancer, considering the high positive predictive value they have shown in our study. Copyright © 2022 Hernandez-Ainsa, Velamazan, Lanas, Carrera-Lasfuentes and Piazuelo

Plans directeurs dans le Parc naturel de Sierra Espuña et le paysage protégé de Gebas (Murcie, Espagne). La planification participative au service du développement socio-économique et de la conservation écologique -

Le projet européen Qualigouv a pour objectif principal de renforcer l'interaction entre les gestionnaires et les populations, à travers la conception et l'expérimentation de stratégies et d'outils innovants pour améliorer la gouvernance et la gestion intégrée des forêts méditerranéennes dans les espaces protégés. C'est dans ce cadre-là, qu'un projet local a été développé dans la région de Murcie, en Espagne, à travers la mise en place de plans directeurs pour le développement socio-économique et la conservation écologique

Master Plans in Sierra Espuña Natural Park and Gebas Protected Landscape (Murcia, Spain). Participative planning for socio-economical development and ecological conservation -

The main objective of the European Project Qualigouv, is to strenghten the interaction between managers and people, through designing and testing strategies and innovative tools to improve governance and integral management of Mediterranean forest in protected areas. Within the framework of this program, a local project in Murcia (Spain) is focused in the Master Plans for socio-economical development and ecological conservation

Experimental magnetic form factors in Co3V2O8: A combined study of ab initio calculations, magnetic Compton scattering and polarized neutron diffraction

We present a combination of ab initio calculations, magnetic Compton scattering and polarized neutron experiments, which elucidate the density distribution of unpaired electrons in the kagome staircase system Co3V2O8. Ab initio wave functions were used to calculate the spin densities in real and momentum space, which show good agreement with the respective experiments. It has been found that the spin polarized orbitals are equally distributed between the t2g and the eg levels for the spine (s) Co ions, while the eg orbitals of the cross-tie (c) Co ions only represent 30% of the atomic spin density. Furthermore, the results reveal that the magnetic moments of the cross-tie Co ions, which are significantly smaller than those of the spine Co ions in the zero-field ferromagnetic structure, do not saturate by applying an external magnetic field of 2 T along the easy axis a, but that the increasing bulk magnetization originates from induced magnetic moments on the O and V sites. The refined individual magnetic moments are mu(Co_c)=1.54(4) mu_B, mu(Co_s)=2.87(3) mu_B, mu(V)=0.41(4) mu_B, mu(O1)=0.05(5) mu_B, mu(O2)=0.35(5) mu_B, and; mu(O3)=0.36(5) mu_B combining to the same macroscopic magnetization value, which was previously only attributed to the Co ions

LOE pancreática ¿otro caso de adenocarcinoma pancreático?

La tuberculosis continúa siendo la enfermedad infecciosa con mayor mortalidad a nivel mundial, con más de 1, 5 millo-nes de fallecimientos al año 1. Hasta el 12, 5% de los casos son extrapulmonares 2 y, aunque el páncreas es una localización poco frecuente, su diagnóstico está aumentando debido al incremento de pacientes inmunodeprimidos, así como la mejoría de las herramientas diagnósticas como la punción aspiración con aguja fina (PAAF) mediante ecoendoscopia. No existen hallazgos clínicos ni de imagen patognomónicos, por lo que el índice de sospecha debe ser alto para poderdiagnosticarla. Presentamos el caso de una mujer de 59 años, naturalde Venezuela, residente en España desde hace 10 años, sin viajes recientes a su país, sin antecedentes personales ni familiares de interés. Ingresa en planta de hospitalización por cuadro de inicio hace 6 meses consistente en dolor epigástrico progresivo y continuo, de intensidad moderada, aunque con episodios frecuentes de mayor intensidad, no claramente relacionado con la ingesta, que asociaba pérdida de peso reciente de unos 5 kg, náuseas y sensación distérmica o casional. En cuanto a las pruebas complementarias; analíticamente presentaba: GGT 180 U/l, FA 600 U/l, bilirrubina 2, 5 mg/dl, leucocitos 8.800/mm3, PCR 1, 49 mg/dl, CEA15 ng/ml, CA 19.9 240 U/ml, resto de bioquímica y coagulación normales. Se realizaron una ecografía y posteriormente una TAC (fig. 1) que informaba de: tumoración hipodensa en cuerpo y cabeza pancreática de 45 mm, que rodea vena porta y presenta límites mal definidos con área..

Enteritis secundaria a nivolumab, una causa creciente de diarrea

La inmunoterapia es una herramienta cada vez más utilizada en el campo de la oncología. Conviene conocerla debido a sus crecientes usos, entre los que se incluye el tratamiento de tumores del aparato digestivo (hepatocarcinoma1, adenocarcinoma colorrectal con alta inestabilidad en microsatelites2) así como por las reacciones adversas que con elevada frecuencia afectan al tubo digestivo. Presentamos el caso de un varón de 74 años, con antecedentes personales de enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica (EPOC) y melanoma con metástasis pulmonares. Debido a estas patologías tomaba de manera habitual inhaladores de salbutamol y había estado en tratamiento con nivolumab, suspendido hacía cuatro meses tras conseguir una respuesta radiológica completa de las metástasis pulmonares. El paciente refería cuadro diarreico de un mes de evolución, consistente en tres a cuadro deposiciones (Bristol 5-6) sin productos patológicos, que afectaban el descanso nocturno, asociaban molestias centroabdominales intermitentes y pérdida de peso de unos 3-4 kg. No había ingerido alimentos crudos, antibióticos o nuevas medicaciones. Tampoco había convivientes con la misma sintomatología ni había realizado viajes al extranjero. Negaba cualquier otra sintomatología y antecedentes familiares de interés. La exploración física era anodina a excepción de unas ligeras molestias a la palpación profunda en mesogastrio..

A method for the automated construction of 3d models of cities and neighborhoods from official cadaster data for solar analysis

3D city models are a useful tool to analyze the solar potential of neighborhoods and cities. These models are built from buildings footprints and elevation measurements. Footprints are widely available, but elevation datasets remain expensive and time-consuming to acquire. Our hypothesis is that the GIS cadastral data can be used to build a 3D model automatically, so that generating complete cities 3D models can be done in a short time with already available data. We propose a method for the automatic construction of 3D models of cities and neighborhoods from 2D cadastral data and study their usefulness for solar analysis by comparing the results with those from a hand-built model. The results show that the accuracy in evaluating solar access on pedestrian areas and solar potential on rooftops with the automatic method is close to that from the hand-built model with slight differences of 3.4% and 2.2%, respectively. On the other hand, time saving with the automatic models is significant. A neighborhood of 400, 000 m2 can be built up in 30 min, 50 times faster than by hand, and an entire city of 967 km2 can be built in 8.5 h. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Master Plans in Sierra Espuña Natural Park and Gebas Protected Landscape (Murcia, Spain). Participative planning for socio-economical development and ecological conservation -

International audienceThe main objective of the European Project Qualigouv, is to strenghten the interaction between managers and people, through designing and testing strategies and innovative tools to improve governance and integral management of Mediterranean forest in protected areas. Within the framework of this program, a local project in Murcia (Spain) is focused in the Master Plans for socio-economical development and ecological conservation

Plans directeurs dans le Parc naturel de Sierra Espuña et le paysage protégé de Gebas (Murcie, Espagne). La planification participative au service du développement socio-économique et de la conservation écologique -

International audienceLe projet européen Qualigouv a pour objectif principal de renforcer l'interaction entre les gestionnaires et les populations, à travers la conception et l'expérimentation de stratégies et d'outils innovants pour améliorer la gouvernance et la gestion intégrée des forêts méditerranéennes dans les espaces protégés. C'est dans ce cadre-là, qu'un projet local a été développé dans la région de Murcie, en Espagne, à travers la mise en place de plans directeurs pour le développement socio-économique et la conservation écologique