A gluten metabolism study in healthy individuals shows the presence of faecal glutenasic activity.

Purpose: To study the gluten metabolism in healthy individuals and its effect over the intestinal microbial activity.

Methods: The faeces of eleven healthy subjects were analysed under 4 diet regimens: their normal gluten diet, a strict gluten-free diet (GFD), a GFD with a supplemental intake of 9 g gluten/day and a GFD with a supplemental intake of 30 g gluten/day. Gluten content, faecal tryptic activity (FTA), short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and faecal glutenasic activity (FGA) were analysed in faecal samples.

Update on geographic atrophy in age-related macular degeneration.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the main cause of legal blindness in older patients in developed countries, and geographic atrophy (GA) represents the advanced form of dry AMD. Although it accounts for one third of the cases of late AMD and is responsible for 20% of the cases of severe visual loss due to the disorder. GA currently lacks effective treatment, whereas antiangiogenic therapies have been shown to be successful in managing choroidal neovascularization, the other form of late AMD.

[The transvaginal approach in acute appendicitis].

Introduction: The purpose of this work is to present 8 minilaparoscopic-assisted transvaginal appendectomies using rigid instruments in patients with acute appendicitis.

Material And Methods: Eight minilaparoscopic-assisted transvaginal appendectomies were performed from the 10th of August 2009 to the 30th of June 2010. The inclusion criteria were women between 18 and 65 years of age with a diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

One-year results of a flexible regimen with ranibizumab therapy in macular degeneration: relationship with the number of injections.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a flexible regimen with intravitreal injections of ranibizumab in patients with naive choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration and to determine whether the final outcome is related to the number of injections.

Methods: Prospective, noncomparative, consecutive case series study. We included 90 eyes of 88 patients that were initially treated with 3 consecutive monthly intravitreal injections of ranibizumab, and thereafter, follow-up visits were progressively spread out to a maximum of 8 weeks apart in the absence of visual acuity loss and signs of lesion activity.

[Bullous retinal detachment in chronic central serous chorioretinopathy treated with photodynamic therapy].

Case Report: We describe a case of serous retinal detachment as an atypical presentation of bilateral chronic central serous chorioretinopathy,

Discussion: We present its differential diagnosis and therapeutical management with low-fluence photodynamic therapy, achieving satisfactory anatomical and functional results.

Dynamics of non-conventional intraepithelial lymphocytes-NK, NKT, and γδ T-in celiac disease: relationship with age, diet, and histopathology.

Background: Intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) are a heterogeneous population of lymphocytes raised in celiac disease (CD), whose role in CD pathogenesis remains to be defined.

Aims: To investigate how the age of diagnosis, diet, and the severity of the histological lesions are related to the changes observed in unconventional IEL populations.

Methods: Prospective analysis of 101 confirmed celiac patients from a single center, including 66 at diagnosis (45 children, 21 adults) and 112 non-celiac controls (12 children, 100 adults).

Real-time electrical impedance-based measurement to distinguish oral cancer cells and non-cancer oral epithelial cells.

In this study, electrical impedance-based measurements were used to distinguish oral cancer cells and non-cancer oral epithelial cells based on their cellular activities on the microelectrodes in a real-time and label-free manner. CAL 27 and Het-1A cell lines were used as the models of oral cancer cells and non-cancer oral epithelial cells, respectively. Various cellular activities, including cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation were monitored.

Adverse events associated with pandemic influenza vaccines: comparison of the results of a follow-up study with those coming from spontaneous reporting.

Prior to marketing of pandemic influenza vaccines, the only safety data were those from clinical trials. The objective of this study was to compare information coming from spontaneous reporting with that systematically collected in a formal observation study; this also permits to further evaluate safety of pandemic influenza vaccines in the targeted patients' population. Out of a sample of 507 vaccinated subjects, 103 (20.

Handgrip strength as a simple indicator of possible malnutrition and inflammation in men and women on maintenance hemodialysis.

Objective: To assess the validity of handgrip strength (HGS) as a simple screening instrument for malnutrition and inflammation in patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) by correlating it with malnutrition-inflammation score (MIS).

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of the Prospective Study of the Prognosis in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients (PROHEMO).

Setting: Satellite dialysis units in the city of Salvador, Brazil.

Tip variant of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis: outcome and comparison to 'not otherwise specified' variant.

Background: The clinical significance of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) tip variant remains unclear. With the aim to determine its clinical and histological features, and natural history, we studied our cases of patients with this glomerular lesion.

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis.

Intravitreal infliximab in patients with macular degeneration who are nonresponders to antivascular endothelial growth factor therapy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety of intravitreal infliximab in the treatment of choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration in patients who are nonresponders to antivascular endothelial growth factor therapy.

Methods: Prospective, noncomparative, interventional case series. The primary inclusion criteria for patients consisted of previous treatment with five or more intravitreal injections of bevacizumab and/or ranibizumab, visual loss, angiographic leakage, and intraretinal and/or subretinal fluid on spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

Near-membrane dynamics and capture of TRPM8 channels within transient confinement domains.

Background: The cold and menthol receptor, TRPM8, is a non-selective cation channel expressed in a subset of peripheral neurons that is responsible for neuronal detection of environmental cold stimuli. It was previously shown that members of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels are translocated toward the plasma membrane (PM) in response to agonist stimulation. Because the spatial and temporal dynamics of cold receptor cell-surface residence may determine neuronal activity, we hypothesized that the movement of TRPM8 to and from the PM might be a regulated process.

Sub-cellular distribution and translocation of TRP channels.

Cellular electrical activity is the result of a highly complex processes that involve the activation of ion channel proteins. Ion channels make pores on cell membranes that rapidly transit between conductive and non-conductive states, allowing different ions to flow down their electrochemical gradients across cell membranes. In the case of neuronal cells, ion channel activity orchestrates action potentials traveling through axons, enabling electrical communication between cells in distant parts of the body.

As-needed treatment with ranibizumab 0.5 mg in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Purpose: To describe the results obtained in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration treated with ranibizumab 0.5 mg on an as-needed basis from the start after 1 year of follow-up.

Methods: Retrospective, consecutive interventional case series of patients with all angiographic types of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (mean baseline size, 3.

Twelve-month outcome after one intravitreal injection of bevacizumab to treat myopic choroidal neovascularization.

Purpose: To report the changes during a 1-year follow-up in visual acuity and macular thickness in a series of highly myopic eyes with choroidal neovascularization treated with bevacizumab.

Methods: Retrospective and multicenter study including 107 highly myopic eyes from 107 patients (mean age, 55 years) with subfoveal or juxtafoveal choroidal neovascularization. All cases were treated by one intravitreous injection of 1.

A novel positioning technique for the agitated patient after electroconvulsive therapy: gravitational restraint.

We present a novel positioning technique to assist in the gentle and safe management of the postictal agitated patient.

[Detection of renin in chromophobe renal cell carcinomas].

Aim: To evaluate frequency of renin detection in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, and if this expression was associated to systemic high blood pressure.

Material And Methods: A descriptive retrospective study. All the cases with confirmed diagnosis of chromophobe carcinoma and resected between 1990 and 2004 were included in our study: 31 cases from 31 patients.

C4D immunostaining in surveillance endomyocardial biopsies from well-functioning heart allografts.

Objective: The meaning of biopsy C4d detection in heart allografts without dysfunction or morphologic changes suggesting antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is not clear. The aim of this study was to search for an association between C4d detection in allograft biopsies of well-functioning hearts without changes suggestive of AMR, and clinical outcomes.

Methods: Endomyocardial protocol biopsies from 44 heart transplant patients with well-functioning grafts and without changes suggesting AMR were performed at 1 month and 1 year after transplantation and analyze the presence of C4d deposition using immunohistochemistry.

Renin expression in adult renal epithelial tumors with granular cells.

Renal cell tumors have been shown to be associated with secretory products, including renin, but the frequency of renin expression is not known. To investigate renin expression in epithelial renal neoplasms, we examined a series of 89 adult renal tumors with granular cells using a monoclonal antiserum to detect the hormone by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and their association with hypertension. We found that 25 of 89 tumors (28.

Treatment of retinal pigment epithelial detachment with antiangiogenic therapy.

Purpose: Evaluate the efficacy of pegaptanib, a selective anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agent, and bevacizumab, a nonselective anti-VEGF agent, for retinal pigment epithelial detachment (PED) associated with occult choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods: Prospective, comparative, nonrandomized pilot study included patients with PED comprising >50% of total lesion in subfoveal location with visual acuity (VA) 20/40-20/400 and lesions either previously untreated or treated only with photodynamic therapy/verteporfin. Seven patients received pegaptanib 0.

Ranibizumab in the treatment of choroidal neovascularization on the border of an inferior staphyloma associated with tilted disc syndrome.

Purpose: To describe a case of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) on the border of an inferior staphyloma associated with tilted disc syndrome treated with intravitreal ranibizumab.

Patients: Observational case report.

Methods: A patient with CNV on the border of an inferior staphyloma associated with tilted disc syndrome was imaged using fluorescein angiography, autofluorescence and spectral domain optical coherence tomography, and treated with intravitreal injections of ranibizumab.

Real-time electrical impedance detection of cellular activities of oral cancer cells.

In this study, the electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) system was used to study the cellular activities of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells in a real-time and label-free manner. Various cellular activities, including cell adhesion, spreading, proliferation, and drug-induced apoptosis and inhibition of apoptosis, were monitored. A linear relationship was found between the impedance-based cell index and the cell number in the range of 3500 to 35,000 cells/well.