Background: We evaluated a novel simulation-based cesarean section training program to teach critical techniques for cesarean section and hemorrhage management. Methods: This was a prospective educational intervention. After Institutional Review Board approval, we recruited Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, and General Surgery residents at three hospitals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study is to report a case of choroidal congestion after trabeculectomy. This is a retrospective case report. An 85-year-old male with advanced open-angle glaucoma underwent trabeculectomy in both eyes and during follow-up he complained of visual impairment in the right eye.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci
March 2017
Objective: Flutamide (FLU) is a non-steroidal antiandrogen drug approved for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. While this indication limits the use to male patients, FLU is widely prescribed to women, off-label, for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome (POCS) related hirsutism and acne. According to the literature, its assumption is associated with a higher incidence of adverse events in women than in male patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLung adenocarcinomas are characterized by a variety of genetic and epigenetic changes that lead to activation of specific signaling pathways. This allowed the classification of lung adenocarcinomas according to genetic alterations and the clinical development of novel anticancer agents that affect the activity of specific oncoproteins. In such a context, chromosomal rearrangements that cause constitutive activation of ALK gene define a category of lung adenocarcinomas that is amenable to targeted therapy with ALK inhibitors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To show the presence of an active neovascular membrane in age-related macular degeneration even if optical coherence tomography (OCT) does not detect intra- or subretinal edema.
Methods: This is a retrospective case report. During the follow-up after the intravitreal injection, 3 patients showed no intraretinal or subretinal edema by OCT; however, there was a progressive reduction in their visual acuity; thus, a fluorangiography (FA) examination was performed.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by extremely variable clinical course indicating substantial differences in the biology of the disease. Molecular characterization provides new insights useful for treatment decision making. We report on a patient diagnosed with CLL, whose disease was characterized by episodes of rapid progression and disease stabilization, and in which a SRSF2 gene mutation was identified in the absence of other commonly known mutations of CLL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare effects of training on conventional and underwater treadmills on fiber properties and metabolic responses of the superficial digital flexor (SDF) and gluteal muscles to high-speed exercise in horses.
Sample: 6 unconditioned Quarter Horse-type horses.
Procedures: 6 horses were walked on underwater and conventional treadmills for 5 d/wk (maximum, 40 min/d) for 8 weeks in a randomized crossover design (60-day detraining period).
The effect of high doses of intravenous (sodium) ascorbate (ASC) in the treatment of cancer has been controversial although there is growing evidence that ASC in high (pharmacologic) concentrations induces dose-dependent pro-apoptotic death of tumor cells, in vitro. Very few data are available on the role of ASC in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Ascorbate behaves as an antioxidant at low (physiologic), and as pro-oxidant at pharmacologic, concentrations, and this may account for the differences reported in different experimental settings, when human myeloid cell lines, such as HL60, were treated with ASC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate optical coherence tomography changes in patients with retinal thinning at the posterior pole.
Methods: In this cross-sectional and retrospective study, 648 files were reviewed, and 67 patients were selected. Optical coherence tomography images that showed an area with a retinal thickness reduction at the macular region by using the Asymmetry Analysis Map in Heidelberg Spectralis were selected.
Somatic mutations of the spliceosome machinery have been recently identified by whole genome analysis in hematologic diseases, such as myelodysplastic syndrome, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myeloproliferative neoplasms, acute myeloid leukemia, and advanced forms of mastocytosis, and also in nonhematologic conditions. SRSF2 is a member of the serine/arginine-rich family pre-mRNA splicing factors that plays a role in mRNA export from the nucleus and translation. We describe a high-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis to screen for SRSF2 hotspot mutations in a fast, sensitive, and reliable way.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate if paracentral hyperautofluorescence (HAF) retinal regions, which can be occasionally found and analyzed by optical coherence tomography (OCT), were related to retinal layer changes and to detect which layer was involved.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional and retrospective study. 648 OCT files were revised.
Oxidative stress involvement has been strongly hypothesized among the possible pathogenic mechanisms of motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The intracellular redox balance is finely modulated by numerous complex mechanisms critical for cellular functions, among which the nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-like 2 (NFE2L2/Nrf2) pathways. We genotyped, in a cohort of ALS patients (n = 145) and healthy controls (n = 168), three SNPs in Nrf2 gene promoter: -653 A/G, -651 G/A, and -617 C/A and evaluated, in a subset (n = 73) of patients, advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), iron-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), and plasma thiols (-SH) as oxidative damage peripheral biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMediterr J Hematol Infect Dis
January 2013
We report a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in whom a leukemic involvement of prostate and penis occurred in the advanced phase of his disease. Obstructive urinary symptoms were indicative of prostatic CLL infiltration, followed by the occurrence of an ulcerative lesion on the glans. Histologic examination confirmed the neoplastic B-cell infiltration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProblems/objectives: Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumours are uncommon soft tissue tumours originating from Schwann cells or nerve sheath cells. Malignant epithelioid schwannoma is an aggressive variant of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour, and unfortunately is related with a high rate of recurrence and poor prognosis.
Methodology: In this study we present a rare case of malignant epithelioid schwannoma of the parotid gland and we discuss its origin, unusual presentation, and possible treatments options.
Mastocytosis is a neoplastic disease of mast cells and their CD34+ precursors, including a heterogeneous group of disorders. It is characterized by abnormal growth and accumulation of mast cells in one or more organ systems. Mast cell sarcoma is an extremely rare and aggressive disease characterized by local proliferation of atypical mast cells, destructive growth and poor prognosis, without systemic involvement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReasons For Performing Study: Flexor tendon injury may be due to flexor muscle fatigue, contributing to fetlock joint hyperextension and tendon damage. A water treadmill provides resistance training on flexor tendon muscles, which might reduce the risk of tendon injury.
Objective: To determine the effect of water treadmill training on the properties of the gluteal and superficial digital flexor (SDF) muscles and on cardiocirculatory response to a standardised exercise test.
Dedifferentiation confers more aggressive malignant behaviour than would be otherwise shown by the original tumor if present alone. This phenomenon has been described in several tumors, both mesenchymal and epithelial. Dedifferentiated endometrioid carcinoma either ovarian or endometrial is the latest addition to this family of tumors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to determine whether the glycaemic/insulinaemic responses to hay with non-structural carbohydrate (NSC, soluble carbohydrate) of 17% (HC), 10% (MC) or 4% (LC) differs in control horses and whether these responses differ between control and horses with polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM). Five clinically normal control horses and seven PSSM horses, all unfit and of Quarter Horse breeding (age 9.4 ± 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To evaluate effects of fats with odd and even numbers of carbon atoms on muscle metabolism in exercising horses with polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM).
Animals: 8 horses with PSSM (6 females and 2 males; mean +/- SD age, 6.3 +/- 3.
In this study we examined a family of Quarter Horses with Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM) with a dominant mutation in the skeletal muscle glycogen synthase (GYS1) gene. A subset of horses within this family had a more severe and occasionally fatal PSSM phenotype. The purpose of this study was to identify a modifying gene(s) for the severe clinical phenotype.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study is to investigate whether an active immunoprophylactic approach combining specific antigens and adjuvant stimuli would be able to inhibit prostate carcinogenesis in transgenic TRAMP mice. A vaccine consisting of allogeneic large T antigen (TAg)-positive SV40-transformed cells combined with systemic recombinant IL-12 was administered to TRAMP mice, starting from when they were still tumor-free at 5-6 weeks of age. The combined vaccine significantly inhibited prostate carcinogenesis, giving a more than doubled median latency time of prostatic tumors (53 weeks in comparison to 26 weeks in control mice).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Endocrinol Invest
August 2006
Extraterrestrial exploration has gone on for decades before reversible testicular failure was shown to be a consequence of space flight in humans and animals at the end of the XXth century. This phenomenon was initially thought to depend on the psycho-physical stress expected to derive from a decidedly unusual environment, but the lack of consistent data concerning cortisol increase and/or gonadotrophin suppression pointed to the possibility of a primary defect. This was indirectly confirmed by the observation that a continuum of testicular androgen secretion potential exists from microgravity to centrifuge-derived hypergravity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of one intravitreal injection of 25 mg of triamcinolone acetonide as primary treatment for diffuse diabetic macular edema.
Methods: Intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection was performed in 30 eyes with previously untreated diabetic macular edema. The main outcome measures were logMAR visual acuity (VA) and central macular thickness (CMT) at 1, 3, and 6 months.
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of one intravitreal injection of 25 mg of triamcinolone acetonide as primary treatment for diffuse diabetic macular edema.
Methods: Intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection was performed in 30 eyes with previously untreated diabetic macular edema. The main outcome measures were logMAR visual acuity (VA) and central macular thickness (CMT) at 1, 3, and 6 months.