Optimal settings for childbirth.

Many studies highlight how health is influenced by the settings in which people live, work, and receive health care. In particular, the setting in which childbirth takes place is highly influential. The physiological processes of women's labor and birth are enhanced in optimal ("salutogenic," or health promoting) environments.

Optimal outcomes and women's positive pregnancy experience: a comparison between the World Health Organization guideline and recommendations in European national antenatal care guidelines.

Background: The publication of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on antenatal care in 2016 introduced the perspective of women as a necessary component of clinical guidelines in maternity care. WHO highlights the crucial role played by evidence-based recommendations in promoting and supporting normal birth processes and a positive experience of pregnancy. This paper aims to explore and critically appraise recommendations of national antenatal care guidelines across European countries in comparison with the WHO guideline.

Choroidal thickness in older patients with central serous chorioretinopathy.

Background: To investigate the choroidal thickness in older patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) compared to age-matched normal subjects.

Methods: Fifteen patients (30 eyes) with CSCR, all aged ≥60 years, and 21 age-matched normal subjects (21 eyes) underwent high-definition raster scanning using SD-OCT. Both eyes from CSCR patients were included in the analysis.

Use of Handheld Intraoperative Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography in a Variety of Vitreoretinal Diseases.

Background And Objective: The use of intraoperative optical coherence tomography (iOCT) has been described with a variety of imaging devices and techniques. The purpose of this investigation is to examine the role of iVue (Optovue, Fremont, CA), a commercially available, handheld spectral-domain iOCT system, in vitreoretinal surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS For this retrospective, observational case series, patients who underwent a vitreoretinal surgical procedure and were imaged with the iVue were identified.

DETECTION OF MICROVASCULAR CHANGES IN EYES OF PATIENTS WITH DIABETES BUT NOT CLINICAL DIABETIC RETINOPATHY USING OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY ANGIOGRAPHY.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of optical coherence tomography angiography to detect early microvascular changes in eyes of diabetic individuals without clinical retinopathy.

Methods: Prospective observational study of 61 eyes of 39 patients with diabetes mellitus and 28 control eyes of 22 age-matched healthy subjects that received imaging using optical coherence tomography angiography between August 2014 and March 2015. Eyes with concomitant retinal, optic nerve, and vitreoretinal interface diseases and/or poor-quality images were excluded.

Quantitative 3D-OCT motion correction with tilt and illumination correction, robust similarity measure and regularization.

Variability in illumination, signal quality, tilt and the amount of motion pose challenges for post-processing based 3D-OCT motion correction algorithms. We present an advanced 3D-OCT motion correction algorithm using image registration and orthogonal raster scan patterns aimed at addressing these challenges. An intensity similarity measure using the pseudo Huber norm and a regularization scheme based on a pseudo L0.

Analysis of short-term change in subfoveal choroidal thickness in eyes with age-related macular degeneration using optical coherence tomography.

Background And Objective: To measure the subfoveal choroidal thickness in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) over 6 months.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective, observational study of patients with AMD followed up for 6 months at the New England Eye Center. Baseline and 6-month follow-up subfoveal choroidal thickness was measured using spectral-domain OCT and compared.

Choroidal thickness in retinal pigment epithelial tear as measured by spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: To evaluate the choroidal thickness with spectral domain optical coherence tomography in subjects with retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) tear compared with the choroidal thickness of their fellow eye.

Methods: For this cross-sectional investigation, seven eyes of seven patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration and RPE tear in one eye imaged with spectral domain optical coherence tomography were identified. Choroidal thickness was measured from the posterior edge of the retinal pigment epithelium to the choroid/sclera junction at 500 μm intervals up to 2,500 μm temporal and nasal to the fovea in both the eye with the RPE tear and the eye with intact RPE.

Analysis of the morphology and vascular layers of the choroid in retinitis pigmentosa using spectral-domain OCT.

Background And Objective: To analyze choroidal morphology and vascular layers in eyes with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Patients And Methods: Cross-sectional, retrospective analysis of 14 patients (14 eyes) with RP and 33 healthy subjects (33 eyes) who underwent high-definition one-line raster scanning at a single center. Two independent raters evaluated the morphology, thickness, and vascular layers of the choroid in both groups.

Analysis of choroidal morphologic features and vasculature in healthy eyes using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Objective: To analyze the morphologic features and vasculature of the choroid in healthy eyes using spectral-domain (SD) optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Design: Cross-sectional retrospective review.

Participants: Forty-two healthy subjects (42 eyes) with no ocular disease who underwent high-definition scanning with Cirrus high-definition OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.

Choroidal imaging using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Background: A structurally and functionally normal choroidal vasculature is essential for retinal function. Therefore, a precise clinical understanding of choroidal morphology should be important for understanding many retinal and choroidal diseases.

Methods: PUBMED (http://www.

Choroidal thickness in patients with diabetic retinopathy analyzed by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: This study was designed to examine choroidal thickness in patients with diabetes using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography.

Methods: Forty-nine patients (49 eyes) with diabetes and 24 age-matched normal subjects underwent high-definition raster scanning using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography with frame enhancement software. Patients with diabetes were classified into 3 groups: 11 patients with mild or moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and no macular edema, 18 patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema, and 20 patients with treated proliferative diabetic retinopathy and no diabetic macular edema (treated proliferative diabetic retinopathy).

Reproducibility of choroidal thickness measurements across three spectral domain optical coherence tomography systems.

Purpose: To investigate the reproducibility of choroidal thickness measurements in normal subjects on 3 spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) instruments: Zeiss Cirrus HD-OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., Dublin, CA), Heidelberg Spectralis (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany), and Optovue RTVue (Optovue Inc., Fremont, CA).

The role of spectral-domain OCT in the diagnosis and management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) has emerged as the ancillary examination of choice to assist the diagnosis and management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). SD-OCT provides more detailed images of intraretinal, subretinal, and subretinal pigment epithelium fluid when compared to time-domain technology, leading to higher and earlier detection rates of neovascular AMD activity. Improvements in image analysis and acquisition speed make it important for decision-making in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Analysis of normal peripapillary choroidal thickness via spectral domain optical coherence tomography.

Purpose: To analyze the normal peripapillary choroidal thickness utilizing a commercial spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) device and determine the intergrader reproducibility of this method.

Design: Retrospective, noncomparative, noninterventional case series.

Participants: Thirty-six eyes of 36 normal patients seen at the New England Eye Center between April and September 2010.

[Complicated Spigelian hernia. A case report].

Prompted by the observation of a case of lateral ventral Spigelian hernia complicated by strangulation and manifested by symptoms of small intestine occlusion, the authors describe the anatomo-surgical characteristics of the abdominal site of this pathology. They analyse the various diagnostic and subsequently surgical options available to the surgeon when dealing with this pathology. This is achieved with reference to data reported in the current international literature on the subject.

[The use of the BAR-Valtrac-type pressure stapler in surgery of the large intestine].

A total of 148 patients underwent colon resection between June 1993 and November 1994 at the General Surgery Division of Busto Arsizio Hospital; anastomosis was performed using BAR Valtrac in 58 patients (39%), namely 28 males and 30 women with a mean age of 66.3 years. Surgery was elective in 90% of cases and in 84% of patients was secondary to neoplastic pathologies.

[Amyloid goiter].

Amyloid goitre, defined as diffuse hyperplasia of the thyroid due to infiltration of amyloid substance, has been rarely reported as in confirmed by the latest reviews of the literature. This paper reports the case of a 23-year-old patient with a long history of systemic amyloidosis probably secondary to a Mediterranean fever with diffuse lymphoadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly and chronic renal insufficiency, who was referred to our attention due to a struma which had increased in volume over the past few years. Aspirated needle biopsy showed the presence of amyloid and the patient underwent total thyroidectomy; the histological test confirmed amyloid struma.

[Diverticulitis of the right colon. Presentation of a clinical case].

The recent observation of one case of diverticulitis of the right colon led to an evaluation of clinical diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of this comparatively rare condition, on the basis of reported data. Preoperative diagnosis is very difficult because it clinically resembles acute appendicitis in many ways, or because of the objective observation of a mass in the right iliac fossa. Instrumental examinations require preparation times that are often incompatible with the degree of surgical urgency.

[Papillary carcinoma in thyroglossal duct cyst remnant: review of the literature and presentation of a clinical case].

The authors report a case of papillary carcinoma arising from thyroglossal duct remnant. It was the only case observed in the last 20 years among 9000 thyroidectomies performed. After a survey of Literature, the role of total thyroidectomy combined to Sistrunk's technique is underlined.