Analysis of 16S rRNA Gene Sequence of Nasopharyngeal Exudate Reveals Changes in Key Microbial Communities Associated with Aging.

Functional or compositional perturbations of the microbiome can occur at different sites, of the body and this dysbiosis has been linked to various diseases. Changes in the nasopharyngeal microbiome are associated to patient's susceptibility to multiple viral infections, supporting the idea that the nasopharynx may be playing an important role in health and disease. Most studies on the nasopharyngeal microbiome have focused on a specific period in the lifespan, such as infancy or the old age, or have other limitations such as low sample size.

VALIDA project: Validation of allergy diagnostics assays (Tools and recommendations for the assessment of tests in the diagnosis of allergy).

allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) detection and quantification tests are routinely performed in clinical laboratories to diagnose patients with a suspected allergy. Numerous commercial assays are available to test for allergies, but the results can vary widely, thereby influencing both diagnosis and treatment. Given the challenges posed by differences in the various assays for determination of specific IgE, a group of experts has compiled in a document a series of recommendations on the implications that the use of a certain technique may have and the impact on the management of the allergic patient that the differences between the various techniques represent.

Pretarsal blepharospasm: Clinical and electromyographic characteristics.

Objective: To describe the clinical and electromyographic characteristics of blepharospasm caused by selective involvement of the pars pretarsalis of the orbicularis oculi muscle.

Methods: Clinical assessment and simultaneous electromyographic recordings from levator palpebrae superioris and pars orbitaria and pretarsalis of orbicularis oculi muscles were performed in patients with blepharospasm and primary failure to botulinum toxin injections. Patients with selective abnormal electromyographic activity of the pars pretarsalis of the orbicularis oculi muscle were identified and treated with selective pretarsal injections of botulinum toxin.

A new optical density granulometry-based descriptor for the classification of prostate histological images using shallow and deep Gaussian processes.

Background And Objective: Prostate cancer is one of the most common male tumors. The increasing use of whole slide digital scanners has led to an enormous interest in the application of machine learning techniques to histopathological image classification. Here we introduce a novel family of morphological descriptors which, extracted in the appropriate image space and combined with shallow and deep Gaussian process based classifiers, improves early prostate cancer diagnosis.

Serological study of Trypanosoma cruzi, Strongyloides stercoralis, HIV, human T cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) and syphilis infections in asymptomatic Latin-American immigrants in Spain.

Objective: We aimed to perform a serological screening for T. cruzi, Strongyloides stercoralis, HIV, human T cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) and syphilis in Latin American immigrants admitted to hospital in Spain.

Methods: We have carried out a cross-sectional study of Latin American immigrants admitted to the Hospital General Universitario Alicante (Spain) from June 2012 to May 2014, where screening of Chagas disease, strongyloidiasis, HTLV, HIV and syphilis was performed by serology.

Acute effects of dipyrone on renal function in patients with cirrhosis: a randomized controlled trial.

Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in cirrhosis has been associated with impairment of renal function based on its ability to inhibit the renal production of prostaglandins. Renal effects of dipyrone in patients with cirrhosis have not been evaluated. We aimed to assess the renal effect of therapeutic doses of dipyrone used for short periods of time in patients with cirrhosis.

Merging person-specific bio-markers for predicting oral cancer recurrence through an ontology.

One of the major problems related to cancer treatment is its recurrence. Without knowing in advance how likely the cancer will relapse, clinical practice usually recommends adjuvant treatments that have strong side effects. A way to optimize treatments is to predict the recurrence probability by analyzing a set of bio-markers.

Regional variations in test requiring patterns of general practitioners in Spain.

Objective: To analyze the requesting patterns for a range of laboratory tests ordered in 2009 from eight laboratories providing services to eight health areas, using appropriate indicators.

Design: Indicators measured every test request per 1,000 inhabitants, and indicators that measured the number of tests per related test requested by general practitioners were calculated. The savings generated, if each Health Care Department achieved the appropriate indicator standard, were also calculated.

Evaluation of PSA testing by general practitioners: regional study in the autonomic Community of Valencia.

Objectives: The aim of the study is to compare the use of PSA testing among general practitioners (GPs).

Methods: The number of PSA tests ordered by general practitioners in the years 2008-2009 was examined in a cross-sectional study of nine health districts of Spain. The percentage of PSA ordered to men younger than 50 (PSA<50/PSAtotal) and 40 years (PSA<40/PSAtotal) was calculated.

[An evaluation of glycosylated hemoglobin requesting patterns in a primary care setting: a pilot experience in the Valencian Community (Spain)].

Objective: To assess the pattern of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)) requests by clinicians from eight health departments by calculating indicators of demand appropriateness.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of the number of HbA(1c) requests by primary care clinics in 2008 and 2009. The indicator of demand appropriateness was the proportion of HbA(1c) values lower than 6.

[Critical illness myopathy. Neurophysiological and muscular biopsy assessment in 33 patients].

Introduction: Critical illness patients may show marked weakness acquired in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There are some disagreements about the myopathic versus neuropathic damage in this condition, presumably due to the lack of reliable diagnostic criteria.

Aims: To report the neurophysiological findings in critical patients, to classify them in groups according to the electro-physiological data of myopathy, and to ascertain the rapport between the neurophysiological classification of myopathy and the muscle biopsy results.

Sonographic measurement of cross-sectional area of the median nerve in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome: correlation with nerve conduction studies.

Purpose: To assess the usefulness of sonographic measurement of the median nerve cross-sectional area (CSA) in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and grading of its severity using nerve conduction (NC) studies as the standard.

Method: The CSA of the median nerve was measured at the tunnel inlet and outlet using the ellipse formula and automatic tracing in 72 hands with suspicion of CTS.

Result: The lack of inter-reader reliability led to excluding CSA measurements obtained at the tunnel outlet.

Experimental and DFT studies on the transmission mechanisms of analogous NMR JCH and JCC couplings in 1-X- and 1-X-3-methylbicyclo[1.1.1]-pentanes.

The main aim of this work is to compare the transmission mechanisms for the Fermi contact term of spin-spin couplings, SSCCs, in series 1-X-bicyclo[1.1.1]-pentane, (1), and 1-X-3-methylbicyclo[1.

Brain edema and inflammatory activation in bile duct ligated rats with diet-induced hyperammonemia: A model of hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhosis.

Studies of the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy are hampered by the lack of a satisfactory animal model. We examined the neurological features of rats after bile duct ligation fed a hyperammonemic diet (BDL+HD). Six groups were studied: sham, sham pair-fed, hyperammonemic, bile duct ligation (BDL), BDL pair fed, and BDL+HD.

Experimental and theoretical study of hyperconjugative interaction effects on NMR 1J(CH) scalar couplings.

Hyperconjugative and electrostatic interactions effects on 1J(CH) spin-spin coupling constants (SSCCs) are critically studied from both theoretical and experimental points of view. A qualitative model is used to predict how the former affect such SSCCs, while electrostatic interactions are modeled with a point charge placed in the vicinity of the corresponding sigma(CH) bond. Hyperconjugative interactions are calculated using the "natural bond orbital" approach, and using the point-charge model, it is shown how intertwined are both types of interactions.

Influence of sigma-hyperconjugative interactions on 13C substituent chemical shifts: experimental and theoretical study in 1-X,3-CH3-bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes.

(13)C chemical shifts were measured for 18 1-X,3-CH(3)-bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes and the corresponding (13)C substituent chemical shifts (SCSs) were compared with those measured previously for the corresponding 1-X-bicyclo[1.

A study of intestinal permeability in relation to the inflammatory response and plasma endocab IgM levels in patients with acute pancreatitis.

Background: There is scarce information regarding intestinal permeability (IP) in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) and its relationship with systemic inflammatory response and bacterial translocation (BT).

Aims: To study IP in patients with mild and severe forms of AP as compared with controls and the presumed correlations between IP, the inflammatory response, and endotoxin.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-eight patients with AP and 13 healthy controls were included.

Eyelid movements in health and disease. The supranuclear impairment of the palpebral motility.

The eyelid movements are mediated mainly by the orbicularis oculi (OO) and the levator palpebrae superioris (LPS) muscles. Dissociated upper lid functions exhibit different counterbalanced action of these muscles, and in blinking they show a strictly reciprocal innervation. The disturbance of this close LPS-OO relationship likely leads to many of the central lid movement disorders.

Intestinal permeability is increased in patients with advanced cirrhosis.

Background/aims: The dysfunction of the intestinal barrier is a factor that has been related to bacterial translocation from lumen to extra-intestinal sites and consequently to the development of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. The aim of this study was to investigate if the alterations of the intestinal barrier in cirrhosis are related with the degree of liver failure and associated with other clinical complications.

Methodology: Intestinal permeability was assessed by means of the lactulose/mannitol test in 79 cirrhotic and 25 controls subjects.

Lopinavir plasma concentrations and changes in lipid levels during salvage therapy with lopinavir/ritonavir-containing regimens.

Objective: To determine whether an association existed between lopinavir (LPV) plasma concentrations and changes in lipid levels.

Design: A prospective, nonrandomized study.

Subjects: HIV-infected subjects with virologic failure on protease inhibitor-containing regimens.

[Prognostic value of serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in patients with heart failure].

Introduction And Objective: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha is an inflammatory cytokine which rises in heart failure and has prognostic value in severe cases. Its value is less established in moderate cases. Our aim was to determine its prognostic value in cases from a community hospital.

Effect of a glutamine-enriched enteral diet on intestinal permeability and infectious morbidity at 28 days in critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome: a randomized, single-blind, prospective, multicenter study.

We investigated the effect of a glutamine-enriched enteral diet on intestinal permeability and infectious morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients who developed systemic inflammatory response syndrome after an acute event. Eleven intensive care units in tertiary-care hospitals participated in a prospective, randomized, single blind, multicenter trial. Eighty-four patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome of any etiology were randomly allocated to receive a glutamine-enriched enteral diet or a control diet without glutamine.