Identifying and reaching women at higher risk for cervical cancer is all-important for achieving the ambitious endpoints set in 2020 by the WHO for global cervical cancer control by 2030. HPV-based (vaginal) self-sampling (SS) represents a cost-effective screening strategy, which has been successfully implemented during the last decade both in affluent and constrained settings. Among other advantages, SS strategies offer convenience, diminished costs, flexibility to obtain a sample in the office or home, avoiding a pelvic exam and uncomfortable appointment with a healthcare professional, as well as social and cultural acceptability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildren (Basel)
November 2022
Background: is known as the microcephalin gene (OMIM: *607117), of which the encoding protein is a basic regulator of chromosome condensation (BCRT-BRCA1 C-terminus). The microcephalin protein is made up of three BCRT domains and conserved tandem repeats of interacting phospho-peptides. There is a strong connection between mutations of the gene and reduced brain growth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Caesarean scar pregnancy (CSP) refers to placental implantation on or in the scar of a previous caesarean section and represents a potentially life-threatening condition. CSP is considered a diagnostic challenge in obstetrics, with the diagnosis relying mainly on transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) and the management depending upon case presentation and available healthcare infrastructures. : We present a case of 34-year-old G3P2 with a history of two-previous caesarean sections referred to the outpatient gynaecology clinic of our Department at the 7th week (7/40) of gestation with abnormal early pregnancy TVS findings, illustrating the gestational sac attached to the caesarean scar and a foetal pole with evidence of foetal cardiac activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfection with SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) during pregnancy has been associated with several complications. Increasing evidence suggests that COVID-19 infection leaves tell-tale signs of placental injury. During ultrasound examination and placental evaluation of COVID-19 infected pregnancies, we recorded signs of placental involvement, with findings indicating malperfusion, chorangiosis, deciduitis, and subchorionitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBreastfeeding rates remain extremely low in Greece and women with gestational diabetes mellitus and hypothyroidism may experience additional difficulties. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of a structured individualized lactation educational intervention by a midwife on increasing breastfeeding rates in women with endocrine disorders and low-risk women compared to women receiving standard care, 24 months after delivery. Two-hundred women made up the study population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFΙnformation on the role of adiponectin in human ovarian steroidogenesis is limited. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of different doses of adiponectin on the secretion of estradiol and progesterone by human luteinized granulosa cells in culture. Granulosa cells, obtained from women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, were pre-incubated for 24 h and then cultured for 48 h.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is an unprecedented global situation, and all countries have adopted their own measurements to mitigate the spread of the virus in the first as well as in the subsequent waves of infection. All measures, especially in the first wave of the pandemic, were in combination with recommendations provided by professional and scientific organizations. Similar measures were applied to specific procedures, such as the management of infertility, including in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing the economic complexity methodology on data for disease prevalence in 195 countries during the period of 1990-2016, we propose two new metrics for quantifying the disease space of countries. With these metrics, we analyze the geography of diseases and empirically investigate the effect of economic development on the health complexity of countries. We show that a higher income per capita increases the complexity of countries' diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is no consensus on how much and at what diameters the blood flow velocity changes in the female microcirculation during normal pregnancy.
Methods: A non-contact, digital slit-lamp biomicroscopy system was used to measure axial blood velocity (Vax) and diameter (D) in the conjunctival microcirculation of 28 normal non-pregnant women (Control Group), 17 women in the first semester of their normal pregnancy (Group 1) and 16 women in the third trimester of their normal pregnancy (Group 2). Blood volume flow (Q) was estimated from Vax and D.
Cancer Prev Res (Phila)
October 2019
Self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is an alternative to physician sampling particularly for cervical cancer screening nonattenders. The GRECOSELF study is a nationwide observational cross-sectional study aiming to suggest a way to implement HPV-DNA testing in conjunction with self-sampling for cervical cancer screening in Greece, utilizing a midwifery network. Women residing in remote areas of Greece were approached by midwives, of a nationwide network, and were provided with a self-collection kit (dry swab) for cervicovaginal sampling and asked to answer a questionnaire about their cervical cancer screening history.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInformation on the role of resistin on steroidogenesis is limited to animal studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of various doses of resistin on estradiol and progesterone secretion from human luteinized granulosa cells in culture. Granulosa cells were obtained from follicular fluid aspirated from 50 women undergoing fertilization (IVF) treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTaxation policies can explain the differences in countries' capacity to produce and export more sophisticated products. We develop a theoretical model considering elements from standard models of economic growth to highlight that a country's productive structure is implied by the appropriate fiscal policy that is necessary for the development of sophisticated products. We show that economies that rely less on capital relative to labor taxation tend to produce more complex products, while countries that rely more heavily on capital relative to labor taxation produce simple products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman papillomavirus (HPV) infection alone is not sufficient to explain the development of cervical cancer. Genetic variants have been linked to the development of precancerous lesions and cervical cancer. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the Fas cell surface death receptor (), trinucleotide repeat containing 6C (), transmembrane channel like 8 (), DNA meiotic recombinase 1 (), deoxyuridine triphosphatase (), sulfatase 1 (), 2'-5-oligoadenylate synthetase 3 (), general transcription factor IIH subunit 4 () and interferon gamma () genes with susceptibility to precancerous lesions and cervical cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To investigate the effect of metformin on endometrial receptivity in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Methods: Twenty volunteer women with polycystic ovaries and oligomenorrhea were prospectively investigated. All women were treated with exogenous estradiol and progesterone to simulate a normal menstrual cycle (28-day duration) after GnRH-induced pituitary desensitization.
Gonadotropin surge-attenuating factor (GnSAF) is a nonsteroidal ovarian substance, which attenuates the endogenous LH surge in superovulated women. Different molecular sequences have been found, but only one of them has shown substantial homology to a known substance of the human genome. A molecular mass of 12.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHoloprosencephaly (HPE) spectrum disorder is the most common congenital malformation of the human brain with absence of or incomplete midline cleavage. Its cause is heterogenic, making genetic counseling a challenge. In this case report, a pregnancy affected by alobar HPE is described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerein we present two cases of pregnant women with placenta percreta and severe hematuria during the 24th and 35th weeks of pregnancy, respectively. A timely sonographic diagnosis was feasible in the first case and cesarean section was performed during the 29th week. During the operation, the placenta was invading the bladder wall and concomitant hysterectomy with cystotomy and bladder wall reconstruction was performed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: An inhibitory effect of ghrelin on gonadotrophin secretion has been reported in normally menstruating women possibly modulated by endogenous oestrogen. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of ghrelin on gonadotrophin and prolactin (PRL) secretion in oestrogen-deprived postmenopausal women.
Design: Prospective intervention study.
Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol
October 2016
Infertility is a global medical problem of the reproductive system which may affect the quality of a woman's life. Whether infertility provision varies between different European countries has not been investigated in the context of a comparative study. There are, however, differences in legislation between different countries, which encourage "infertility tourism".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe study the influence of risk diversification on cascading failures in weighted complex networks, where weighted directed links represent exposures between nodes. These weights result from different diversification strategies and their adjustment allows us to reduce systemic risk significantly by topological means. As an example, we contrast a classical exposure diversification (ED) approach with a damage diversification (DD) variant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe analyze the controllability of a two-layer network, where driver nodes can be chosen randomly only from one layer. Each layer contains a scale-free network with directed links and the node dynamics depends on the incoming links from other nodes. We combine the in-degree and out-degree values to assign an importance value w to each node, and distinguish between peripheral nodes with low w and central nodes with high w.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInterstitial deletions of the long arm of chromosome 11 are rare, and they could be assumed as non-recurrent chromosomal rearrangements due to high variability of the size and the breakpoints of the deleted region. The exact region of the deletion was difficult to be determined before the use of molecular cytogenetic techniques such as array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH). Here, a 13-year old boy with severe learning difficulties, mental retardation and mild heart defects is described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
August 2015
We study the two-particle annihilation reaction A+B→∅ on interconnected scale-free networks, using different interconnecting strategies. We explore how the mixing of particles and the process evolution are influenced by the number of interconnecting links, by their functional properties, and by the interconnectivity strategies in use. We show that the reaction rates on this system are faster than what was observed in other topologies, due to the better particle mixing that suppresses the segregation effect, in line with previous studies performed on single scale-free networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCounterparty risk denotes the risk that a party defaults in a bilateral contract. This risk not only depends on the two parties involved, but also on the risk from various other contracts each of these parties holds. In rather informal markets, such as the OTC (over-the-counter) derivative market, institutions only report their aggregated quarterly risk exposure, but no details about their counterparties.
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