Texture and color enhancement imaging versus high definition white-light endoscopy for detection of colorectal neoplasia: a randomized trial.

Background:  Texture and color enhancement imaging (TXI) was recently proposed as a substitute for standard high definition white-light imaging (WLI) to increase lesion detection during colonoscopy. This international, multicenter randomized trial assessed the efficacy of TXI in detection of colorectal neoplasia.

Methods:  Consecutive patients aged ≥ 40 years undergoing screening, surveillance, or diagnostic colonoscopies at five centers (Italy, Germany, Japan) between September 2021 and May 2022 were enrolled.

Integrating primary care into a community mental health center.

Our initiation of a reverse-integration practice model revealed numerous advantages and rewards, as well as many challenges, for which we found solutions.

Evaporative water loss in seven species of fossorial rodents: Does effect of degree of fossoriality and sociality exist?

In terrestrial endotherms, evaporation is a significant mechanism of water loss in hot environments. Although water is passively lost by evaporation, individuals can regulate it at different levels. Inhabiting a relatively stable environment characterized by mild ambient temperature (T) and high humidity can ensure a balanced water budget.

Diet effect on osmoregulation in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum.

Water conservation requires osmoregulatory skills, sometimes limited by the environment and/or physiological and behavioral characteristics acquired along the evolutionary history of the species. Fossoriality had probably emerged as a survival mechanism to face increasing aridity, as suggested for Ctenomys, a genus that radiated to different environments. Ctenomys talarum (tuco-tuco) is an herbivorous subterranean rodent that lives in coastal grasslands inside humid burrows that reduce evaporation.

Thermogenic capacity in subterranean Ctenomys: Species-specific role of thermogenic mechanisms.

One way to understand ecological patterns of species is to determine their physiological diversity on a large geographic and/or temporal scales, in a context of hierarchical biodiversity framework. In particular, macrophysiological studies analyze how environmental factors affect the physiology and therefore the distribution of species. Subterranean species are an excellent model for evaluating the large-scale effects of ambient temperature (T) conditions on thermal physiology and distribution, due to their extensive use of burrows that provide a relatively thermal stable environment.

Do subterranean mammals use the Earth's magnetic field as a heading indicator to dig straight tunnels?

Subterranean rodents are able to dig long straight tunnels. Keeping the course of such "runways" is important in the context of optimal foraging strategies and natal or mating dispersal. These tunnels are built in the course of a long time, and in social species, by several animals.

Different regulation of cortisol and corticosterone in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum: Responses to dexamethasone, angiotensin II, potassium, and diet.

When harmful environmental stimuli occur, glucocorticoids (GCs), cortisol and corticosterone are currently used to evaluate stress status in vertebrates, since their secretions are primarily associated to an increased activity of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis. To advance in our comprehension about GCs regulation, we evaluated the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum to assess cortisol and corticosterone response to (1) the negative feedback of the HPA axis using the dexamethasone (DEX) suppression test, (2) angiotensin II (Ang II), (3) potassium (K) intake, and (4) different diets (vegetables, grasses, acute fasting). Concomitantly, several indicators of individual condition (body mass, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, blood glucose, triglycerides and hematocrit) were measured for diet treatments.

Expanding the actions of cortisol and corticosterone in wild vertebrates: A necessary step to overcome the emerging challenges.

We conducted a review of scientific articles published between 2000 and 2014 and evaluated how frequently various aspects of cortisol and corticosterone (CORT) actions have been considered in studies on wild vertebrates. Results show that (1) the notion that CORT are stress-responsive hormones is central in our theoretical frameworks and it is reflected by the fact that several articles refer to CORT as "stress hormones". (2) The large majority of studies do not contemplate the possibility of decrease and no change in CORT levels in response to chronic stressors.

Effect of ambient temperature on evaporative water loss in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum.

Subterranean rodents face unique thermoregulatory challenges. Evaporative water loss (EWL) is a crucial mechanism for maintaining heat balance in endotherms subjected to heat stress but also leads to potential dehydration. EWL depends on gradients of temperature and humidity between the surface of the individual and the surrounding environment.

Serum regenerating islet-derived 3-alpha is a biomarker of mucosal enteropathies.

Background: The clinical presentation of organic and functional intestinal disorders can overlap and clinicians often rely on invasive and time-consuming procedures to make a final diagnosis. Regenerating islet-derived 3-alpha (Reg3α) is detectable in the circulation of patients with intestinal graft-versus host disease and patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Aim: To determine whether serum Reg3α testing is useful for discriminating mucosal enteropathies from functional intestinal disorders.

Thermoregulatory development and behavior of Ctenomys talarum pups during brief repeated postnatal isolation.

In altricial mammals, the role of the mother and siblings throughout pup's early ontogeny is critical to determine "normal" development in neonates. It has been reported that variations in parental investment during pups' development affect thermoregulatory capacity, growth patterns, brain development and behavior during lifetime, such as spatial learning and memory in adults. Ctenomys talarum (tuco-tuco) is a solitary subterranean rodent, who inhabits complex burrows and exhibits developed spatial orientation abilities.

High expression of the "A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease" 19 (ADAM19), a sheddase for TNF-α in the mucosa of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Background: Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) plays a major role in the tissue-damaging immune response in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). The tissue concentration of TNF-α is related to the activity of "A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease" (ADAMs), enzymes that process membrane-bound TNF-α and liberate the TNF-α trimer into the extracellular environment. Although IBD-related inflammation is associated with high ADAM17 levels, the contribution of other members of the ADAMs family is not known.

Maximal thermogenic capacity and non-shivering thermogenesis in the South American subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum.

Subterranean rodents inhabit closed tunnel systems that are hypoxic and hypercapnic and buffer aboveground ambient temperature. In contrast to other strictly subterranean rodents, Ctenomys talarum exhibits activity on the surface during foraging and dispersion and hence, is exposed also to the aboveground environment. In this context, this species is a valuable model to explore how the interplay between underground and aboveground use affects the relationship among basal metabolic rate (BMR), cold-induced maximum metabolic rate (MMR), shivering (ST), and non-shivering thermogenesis (NST).

[Dronedarone: a real innovation or a mere second-best choice? How to find the way among guidelines, regulatory agencies and daily clinical practice].

Dronedarone is the antiarrhythmic drug with the most complete and wide literature preceding its marketing. Most of these studies showed a good efficacy along with an excellent risk profile, especially in low- and medium-risk patients. Recently, updates of European, American and even Italian guidelines gave dronedarone its own spot into the antiarrhythmic armamentarium, recommending its use both for rhythm control and rate control in non-permanent atrial fibrillation.

Differential responses of cortisol and corticosterone to adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in a subterranean rodent (Ctenomys talarum).

We aimed to evaluate the responses of cortisol, corticosterone, and blood glucose to adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in males and females of the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum and addressed interannual variations in the plasma levels of both hormones. The most important results indicate that: (1) cortisol positively responds to the ACTH signal but corticosterone does not, even though corticosterone levels were higher than cortisol concentrations, (2) plasma corticosterone concentrations in free-living animals were 20 times higher compared to values reported for the same population during previous annual periods and, as cortisol levels were similar, this resulted in much lower cortisol/corticosterone ratios, (3) cortisol and corticosterone differentiated in their relative proportions in plasma in free-living males and females. These results indicate that cortisol and corticosterone are differentially regulated in our study species and emphasize that a remarkable temporal variation in the relative proportions of these hormones may occur in natural populations.

Validation of a radioimmunoassay for measuring testosterone concentrations in plasma samples of the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum: outstandingly elevated levels in the wild and the effect of captivity.

We validated the Coat-a-Count radioimmunoassay (RIA) kit for measuring testosterone in plasma samples of the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum and evaluated testosterone levels in free-living and captive individuals. The performance of the assay was evaluated by the assessment of parallelism, accuracy and precision. Moreover, the high specificity of the assay antibody was confirmed by high-pressure liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detector, followed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.

Cortisol and corticosterone exhibit different seasonal variation and responses to acute stress and captivity in tuco-tucos (Ctenomys talarum).

In this work we aimed to evaluate variations in plasma glucocorticoids (GCs, cortisol and corticosterone) levels throughout an annual cycle in free-living male tuco-tucos (Ctenomys talarum) and compare their responses to acute and chronic stressors (trapping, manipulation, immobilization, confinement in a novel environment, transference to captivity). In addition, we used leukocyte profiles to allow discrimination between basal and stress-induced seasonal changes in GC concentrations. Our results showed that cortisol and corticosterone are differently affected by environmental stimuli in C.

Mounting a specific immune response increases energy expenditure of the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum (tuco-tuco): implications for intraspecific and interspecific variation in immunological traits.

It was recently hypothesised that specific induced defences, which require substantial time and resources and are mostly beneficial against repeated infections, are more likely to be favoured in 'slow-living-pace' species. Therefore, understanding how different types of immune defences might vary with life history requires knowledge of the costs and benefits of defence components. Studies that have explored the energetic costs of immunity in vertebrates have done so with a focus primarily on birds and less so on mammals, particularly surface-dwelling rodents.

Effect of diet quality and soil hardness on metabolic rate in the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum.

The present work is aimed to establish, in Ctenomys talarum, the physiological and behavioral adjustments undergone by individuals when they are allowed to dig burrows in soils with different hardness and fed with diets of different quality. For each soil-diet combination, we estimated: resting metabolic rate (RMR), body temperature (T(b)), body mass, digestibility, food consumption rate, transit time, reingestion rate, feces production and time devoted to feeding, resting, locomotor activity and coprophagy. Soil type and diet quality affected RMR, but response to soil hardness was verified later.

Comparative energetics of the subterranean Ctenomys rodents: breaking patterns.

Subterranean mammals show lower mass-independent basal metabolic rates (BMRs). Several competing hypotheses were suggested to explain how microenvironmental conditions and underground life affect subterranean mammalian energetics. Two of these are the thermal stress and the cost-of-burrowing hypotheses.

Decreased glucose tolerance but normal blood glucose levels in the field in the caviomorph rodent Ctenomys talarum: the role of stress and physical activity.

Hystricomorph rodents have a divergent insulin molecule with only 1-10% of the biological activity in comparison to other mammalian species. In this study, we used the subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum as a model and performed blood glucose tolerance tests (GTTs) with trained and untrained individuals to evaluate blood glucose regulation and the possible role of physical activity as a compensatory mechanism. Additionally, we evaluated the variations in blood glucose during acute and chronic stress and gathered data in the field to evaluate natural-occurring variations in blood glucose levels.

[The need for invasive diagnostic investigations (coronaro-ventriculography), interventions using extracorporeal circulation and coronary angioplasty in a defined population of Emilia-Romagna].

Working on a limited and controlled population of 100,000 living in the territory of Imola, in northern Italy, we tried to determine the need for coronary arteriography examinations, CABG interventions and PTCA procedures (similarly to the 1980 Minnesota survey). Indications for diagnosis or treatment were made according to agreement criteria of published data in 1990. In the 3 year time (1989-91) of this survey, indication to coronary arteriography was done in 433 pts.