Identification of IL-6 Signalling Components as Predictors of Severity and Outcome in COVID-19.

IL-6 is one of the major mediators of the hyper-inflammatory responses with complex biological functions as it can signal different modes of action. IL-6 by classical signalling has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities, while trans-signalling mediates pro-inflammatory effects. The net biological effect of IL-6 is established by multiple factors beyond its absolute concentration.

Increasing access to hematopoietic cell transplantation in Latin America: results of the 2018 LABMT activity survey and trends since 2012.

A total of 5642 hematopoietic cell transplants (HCT) in 5445 patients (2196-40% allogeneic and 3249-60% autologous) were reported by 127 teams in 14 Latin American countries that answered the 2018 LABMT/WBMT Global Transplant Activity survey. The transplant rate (defined as the number of first transplants per 10 million inhabitants per year) was 85 (51 autologous and 34 allogeneic) in 2018. The main indications for allogeneic HCT were acute leukemias (60%), while plasma cell disorders and lymphomas were the most common conditions warranting autologous HCT (50 and 36%, respectively).

Long-term efficacy of gliflozins versus gliptins for Type 2 Diabetes after metformin failure: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

After metformin failure in treatment for diabetes type 2, there is no trivial option for adjuvant medication. The last two oral class medications, gliflozins and gliptins, have different mechanisms of action but have never been compared in long run studies. The aim of the present meta-analysis is to assess the overall long-term efficacy of these drugs after metformin failure.

Psychological profiles in patients undergoing orthognathic surgery or rhinoplasty: a preoperative and preliminary comparison.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess, identify, and compare the personality traits and psychosocial status of two groups of patients undergoing orthognathic surgery and rhinoseptoplasty respectively.

Study Design: This prospective study recruited patients referred for orthognathic surgery and for rhinoseptoplasty. The research protocol included the administrations of questionnaires to the patients during their last visit before surgery, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the tree drawing test (or Baum test), and the BC Scale.

Narrative empathy and illness memoirs: Arthur Frank's and Kathlyn Conway's .

This article analyses the concept of narrative empathy in illness memoirs. These texts negotiate the narrative identity of an autobiographer as he or she recounts the disruptive experience of illness, an experience in which physical and emotional traces dramatically and definitively shape our sense of self. While narrative emotions are certainly deployed in these autobiographies in order to connect with the readers and promote social change, this empathic connection is not so much aimed at arousing compassion but rather more positive emotions on the experience of illness.

Surface chemistry and effects on bone regeneration of a novel biomimetic synthetic bone filler.

The paper presents results of physico-chemical and biological investigations of a surface-engineered synthetic bone filler. Surface analysis confirms that the ceramic phosphate granules present a collagen nanolayer to the surrounding environment. Cell cultures tests show that, in agreement with literature reports, surface-immobilized collagen molecular cues can stimulate progression along the osteogenic pathway of undifferentiated human mesenchymal cells.

Diet and colorectal cancer.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common diagnosed cancer in men and the second in women. Dietary factors and lifestyle may contribute to the increasing CRC incidence, making these issues interesting for both the general population and the medical oncology community.

Objective: The aim of this report is to present a review of the published epidemiologic research to date reflecting the most current scientific evidence related to diet and CRC risk.

The distraction osteogenesis in midfacial hypoplasia.

Distraction osteogenesis (DO) can generate new bone in a gap between 2 vascularized bone surfaces in response to application of graduated tensile stress across the bone gap. The authors present the clinical result in a cleft patient with severe maxillary deficiency treated by a rigid external distraction (RED) device. A boy complained of both masticatory and psychological problems because of cleft with severe midfacial retrusion.

Intraoperative decrease in amplitude of somatosensory-evoked potentials of the lower extremities with interbody fusion cage placement during lumbar fusion surgery.

Study Design: A retrospective analysis was performed.

Objective: To characterize neurophysiological data of patients who had a decrease in amplitude of somatosensory-evoked potentials (SSEP) of the lower extremities secondary to interbody fusion cage placement during lumbar fusion surgery with no alert of the electromyography (EMG).

Summary Of Background Data: The most consistently used and studied modalities of neurophysiological monitoring during spine surgery are SSEPs, motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), and EMG.

Assessment of prognostic factors in patients with metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC) from solid tumor after surgery plus radiotherapy: a single institution experience.

Purpose: To identify potential prognostic factors predicting functional outcome and survival after surgery followed by radiotherapy for metastatic spinal cord compression due to solid tumors.

Methods: 531 consecutive patients with metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC) were treated at our institution. Surgery followed by radiation therapy was performed in 151 patients (30%) with various histological diagnoses.

Vertebral metastases reirradiation with volumetric-modulated arc radiotherapy.

Purpose: To assess the feasibility, acute toxicity, clinical improvement, local control and survival for spinal metastatic patients re-irradiated using volumetric-modulated-arc-radiotherapy (VMAT).

Methods And Materials: Between February 2009 and November 2010, 31 patients were treated. Surgery was performed in six before re-irradiation.

Early surgical experience with minimally invasive percutaneous approach for patients with metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC) to poor prognoses.

Purpose: This study was designed to assess the impact of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for the treatment of patients with metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC) and vertebral body fracture, in terms of feasibility, clinical improvement, and morbidity.

Methods: Twenty-five consecutive patients with diagnosis of MESCC from solid primary tumors were treated between January 2008 and June 2010 at our institution. All patients, after multidisciplinary assessment, were considered with poor prognosis because of their disease's extension and/or other clinical conditions.

Surgery followed by radiotherapy for the treatment of metastatic epidural spinal cord compression from breast cancer.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis of breast cancer patients with metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC) undergoing surgery and radiation therapy.

Objective: To assess feasibility and clinical outcome of multidisciplinary approach in breast cancer patients with MESCC.

Summary Of Background Data: Studies so far published in the setting of surgery and/or radiotherapy in the management of MESCC usually included many malignancies, without considering the different primary histology.

Gene expression of markers of osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal cells on collagen I-modified microrough titanium surfaces.

Microrough, doubly acid etched titanium surfaces (Ti) were further modified by amination and covalent coupling of fibrillar collagen type I (ColTi). Human Mesenchymal Cells (HMC) adhesion and growth, and relevant osteogenic differentiation in nonosteogenic (basal) medium were evaluated by fluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and RT-PCR for a three-week period. Results show strongly enhanced HMC adhesion and cell density at short experimental time on ColTi, together with complete spreading of the cell body over the microrough surface topography.

A role for the transcription factor HEY1 in glioblastoma.

Abstract Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the highest-grade glioma, is the most frequent tumour of the brain with a very poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Although little is known about the molecular mechanisms that underlie glioblastoma formation, a number of signal transduction routes, such as the Notch and Ras signalling pathways, seem to play an important role in the formation of GBM. In the present study, we show by in situ hybridization on primary tumour material that the transcription factor HEY1, a target of the Notch signalling pathway, is specifically up-regulated in glioma and that expression of HEY1 in GBM correlates with tumour-grade and survival.

Fractal dimension as a quantitator of the microvasculature of normal and adenomatous pituitary tissue.

It is well known that angiogenesis is a complex process that accompanies neoplastic growth, but pituitary tumours are less vascularized than normal pituitary glands. Several analytical methods aimed at quantifying the vascular system in two-dimensional histological sections have been proposed, with very discordant results. In this study we investigated the non-Euclidean geometrical complexity of the two-dimensional microvasculature of normal pituitary glands and pituitary adenomas by quantifying the surface fractal dimension that measures its space-filling property.

Calvarial metastases as clinical presentation of renal cell carcinoma: report of two cases and review of the literature.

Calvarium is a frequent target site of involvement for common neoplasms. Some cases of calvarial metastases have been reported in literature as secondary lesions from renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but only five cases have been described concerning calvarial mass as the first clinical presentation of this kind of tumor. In this report, we discuss the clinical aspects of two further cases we observed, in which the renal cell carcinoma was found thanks to the histological examination of a calvarial mass after surgery.

The role of the vagus nerve in hypertonic resuscitation of hemorrhagic shocked dogs.

Previous studies have suggested a critical role for the vagi during the hypertonic resuscitation of hemorrhagic shocked dogs. Vagal blockade prevented the full hemodynamic and metabolic recovery and increased mortality. This interpretation, however, was challenged on the grounds that the blockade also abolished critical compensatory mechanisms and therefore the animals would die regardless of treatment.

Effects of metabolic control on vitamin E nutritional status in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of the metabolic control of the insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) on the nutritional status of vitamin E.

Methods: A total of 47 children with IDDM and a mean age of 11.91+/-1.

Vitamin A, retinol binding protein and lipids in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: A case-control study was conducted to evaluate the effects of type 1 diabetes mellitus (IDDM) on plasma levels of vitamin A (retinol) and serum levels of retinol-binding protein (RBP) and their relationship with the atherogenic indicators.

Subjects: A total of 47 randomised IDDM children were recruited from those treated at the Endocrinology Unit of the University Hospital of Granada (Spain). They were matched for age and sex with 16 healthy children.

Role of intrapartum hypoxia in carnitine nutritional status during the early neonatal period.

We analyze markers of carnitine insufficiency and deficiency, lysine (LYS) and methionine (MET), in 39 neonates with intrapartum hypoxia (selection criteria: umbilical artery pH <7.20, lactate >1.8 mmol/l and PaO2 <25 mm Hg), and in 35 healthy newborn infants (control group) in the early neonatal period (1-7 days of life).

Effects of combined postischemic hypothermia and delayed N-tert-butyl-alpha-pheylnitrone (PBN) administration on histopathologicaland behavioral deficits associated with transient global ischemia in rats.

Previous cerebral ischemia studies have reported the limitations of restricted periods of postischemic hypothermia in producing long-term neuroprotection. The present experiment attempts to determine whether delayed treatment with the free radical scavenger N-tert-butyl-a-phenylnitrone (PBN) is protective at 2 months following transient global forebrain ischemia, and whether additive effects can be observed when PBN is administered in combination with moderate hypothermia. For this aim rats were subjected to 10 min of two-vessel forebrain ischemia followed by (a) 3 h of postischemic normothermia (37 degrees C); (b) 3 h of postischemic hypothermia (30 degrees C); (c) normothermic procedures combined with delayed injections of PBN (100 mg/kg) on days 3, 5 and 7 post-insult; (d) postischemic hypothermia combined with delayed PBN treatment; or (e) sham procedures.

Tetramicra brevifilum (Matthews & Matthews, 1980) (Microsporida: Tetramicriidae) in a new fish host, Lophius budegassa (Spinola, 1807) in Spain.

Tetramicra brevifilum, a microsporidian parasite of Scophthalmus maximus, was found in Lophius budegassa for the first time. This parasite was detected in 5 of 199 hosts captured in the coastal waters of Barcelona (Northwest Mediterranean), which enlarges the geographic distribution of this microsporidian. Affected fish did not show any external sign of disease, and cysts of T.

Hyperthermia delayed by 24 hours aggravates neuronal damage in rat hippocampus following global ischemia.

We investigated whether moderate, transient whole-body hyperthermia (approximately 39.6 degrees C), if imposed 1 day following a brief episode of forebrain ischemia, would affect the neuropathologic outcome. Forty-two Wistar rats were subjected to either a 5- or 7-minute period of bilateral common carotid artery occlusion plus hypotension (50 mm Hg), or to the equivalent sham procedure.