Background: Brachytherapy (BT) is routinely used in the treatment of various cancers. Current BT relies on the placement of large sources of radioactivity at the tumor site, requiring applicators that may cause local traumas and lesions. Further, they suffer from inflexibility in where they can be placed and some sources reside permanently in the body, causing potential long-term discomfort.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGrazing at near-natural stocking rates is increasingly rare, whereas abandonment and overgrazing is common, despite both leading to loss of threatened species. Here, we evaluate a biodiversity-promotion strategy of a beef-producing company involving livestock grazing for conservation. Using field surveys, a national biodiversity map, and farmer interviews, we evaluate the conservation potential of farmers committing to a conservation grazing scheme.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is the most widely used abdominal field block in colorectal surgery with a postoperative enhanced recovery pathway. We aimed to determine whether the laparoscopic-assisted and ultrasound-guided TAP (US-TAP) blocks provide superior pain relief compared with placebo. We separately investigated whether the laparoscopic-assisted technique was non-inferior to the ultrasound-guided technique in providing pain relief, with a non-inferiority margin of 10 mg morphine dose equivalents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer curing immune responses against heterogeneous solid cancers require that a coordinated immune activation is initiated in the antigen avid but immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). The plastic TME, and the poor systemic tolerability of immune activating drugs are, however, fundamental barriers to generating curative anticancer immune responses. Here, we introduce the CarboCell technology to overcome these barriers by forming an intratumoral sustained drug release depot that provides high payloads of immune stimulatory drugs selectively within the TME.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To map existing research on psychosocial aspects of adult-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D), including psychosocial health status, ways psychosocial aspects may affect management of T1D in everyday life, and interventions targeting management of adult-onset T1D.
Methods: We conducted a systematic search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycInfo. Search results were screened with predefined eligibility criteria, followed by data extraction of the included studies.
Local application of radioactive sources as brachytherapy is well established in oncology. This treatment is highly invasive however, due to the insertion of millimeter sized metal seeds. The authors report the development of a new concept for brachytherapy, based on gold-palladium (AuPd) alloy nanoparticles, intrinsically radiolabeled with Pd.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Low back pain is a leading cause of disability and sick days worldwide. This type of pain has a fluctuating and recurrent nature, and affects all aspects of a person's life, with profound psychosocial consequences.
Objectives: This study aims to explore the everyday life of individuals with low back pain over time and across various contexts.
Diagnostic imaging often outperforms the surgeon's ability to identify small structures during therapeutic procedures. Smart soft tissue markers that translate the sensitivity of diagnostic imaging into optimal therapeutic intervention are therefore highly warranted. This paper presents a unique adaptable liquid soft tissue marker system based on functionalized carbohydrates (Carbo-gel).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Healthcare contexts are rapidly changing, with growing demand for health services to accommodate an aging population and financial pressures. Assessment of context in healthcare settings has been the subject of increasing debate. The Context Assessment Index (CAI) examines three interconnected contextual elements derived from the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework to provide practitioners with an understanding of the context in which they work.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFData from previous experimental studies on the detection time of oxazepam and zopiclone in biological matrices are limited. The aim of this study was to examine the detection time in urine and oral fluid after single oral doses of oxazepam and zopiclone. Ten healthy volunteers received 25 mg of oxazepam in the evening of Day 1 and 7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBenzodiazepines are commonly seen in samples submitted for drug testing of patients, people involved in child welfare cases, work-place drug testing, as well as in drug-facilitated assaults. Limited previous experimental studies are available regarding the excretion of benzodiazepines in urine and oral fluid. The aim of this study was to investigate the concentrations of diazepam and alprazolam in oral fluid and urine for up to 2 weeks after ingestion of a single oral dose in healthy volunteers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The application of proteomics in chronic kidney disease (CKD) can potentially uncover biomarkers and pathways that are predictive of disease.
Experimental Design: Within this context, this study examines the relationship between the human plasma proteome and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) as measured by iohexol clearance in a cohort from Sweden (n = 389; GFR range: 8-100 mL min /1.73 m ).
Background/aims: Male patients with end-stage renal disease suffer from sexual disturbances and infertility. Disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis are one of the causes of this. Decreased testosterone synthesis in Leydig cells of the testes and hyperprolactinemia are common.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The manifestation of major depressive disorder (MDD) may include cognitive symptoms that can precede the onset of MDD and persist beyond the resolution of acute depressive episodes. However, little is known about how cognitive symptoms are experienced by MDD patients and the people around them.
Methods: In this international (Brazil, Canada, China, France, and Germany) ethnographic study, we conducted semi-structured interviews and observations of remitted as well as symptomatic MDD patients (all patients self-reported being diagnosed by an HCP and self-reported being on an antidepressant) aged 18-60 years with self-reported cognitive symptoms (N = 34).
Background/aims: Men with terminal renal failure are often infertile. Anti-müllerian hormone (AMH), a marker of Sertoli cell function, is decreased among men with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Recently, a microRNA, miR-155, has been shown to be a potential marker for subfertility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with psoriasis may have increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular (CV) events (MACE), and a family history of CV disease (CVD) is an independent risk factor for MACE.
Objective: We investigated the risk of first-time MACE in patients with psoriasis with or without a family history of CVD.
Methods: Between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2011, we identified 2,722,375 individuals, including 25,774 and 4504 patients with mild and severe psoriasis, through administrative registers.
Male patients with terminal renal failure are often infertile and exhibit an abnormal sex hormone pattern in plasma. We studied patients in all chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages to determine plasma levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), a Sertoli cell-derived marker, and other sex hormones. Seventy-eight male patients with CKD stages 1-5 and a median age of 40 years (22-50 years), as well as 20 healthy controls with a median age of 37 years (26-44 years), were enrolled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the western world, approximately 50% of all cancer patients receive radiotherapy alone or in combination with surgery or chemotherapy. Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) has in recent years been introduced to enhance precision of the delivery of radiation dose to tumor tissue. Fiducial markers are often inserted inside the tumor to improve IGRT precision and to enable monitoring of the tumor position during radiation therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAleutian disease (AD) is a severe disease characterized by hypergammaglobulinemia causing multiple symptoms such as acute renal failure, arteritis, reduced reproductive performance and pneumonia in mink. AD is caused by the parvovirus Aleutian mink disease virus (ADV) and diagnosed primarily based on ADV serology sometimes supplemented by organ PCR analysis. In Denmark, approximately 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Because of the nephrotoxic effects of aminoglycosides, the Danish guidelines on infective endocarditis were changed in January 2007, reducing gentamicin treatment in enterococcal infective endocarditis from 4 to 6 weeks to only 2 weeks. In this pilot study, we compare outcomes in patients with Enterococcus faecalis infective endocarditis treated in the years before and after endorsement of these new recommendations.
Methods And Results: A total of 84 consecutive patients admitted with definite left-sided E faecalis endocarditis in the period of 2002 to 2011 were enrolled.
Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis
October 2012
The increasing number of resistant bacterial strains in infective endocarditis (IE) emphasizes the need for a constant development of antimicrobials. Linezolid is an oxazolidinone with an effect on Gram-positive cocci. Only a few casuistic reports describe its utilization in the treatment of IE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Elevated cystatin C in blood reflects impaired glomerular filtration rate (GFR), but current cystatin C assays, based on polyclonal antibodies and immunoturbidimetric or nephelometric detection, have several limitations. We evaluated a new immunoassay based on monoclonal antibodies in samples from patients with and without chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Methods: The study enrolled 170 men without known CKD (Group A) and 104 men with CKD (Group B).
Treatment of infectious endocarditis (IE) comprises intravenously administered antibiotic medications given at high doses for 4-6 weeks--sometimes even longer. Approximately 50% of patients referred to tertiary care centres require additional surgical intervention. At present there are few papers describing the effects of oral antibiotic treatment in IE, and only in patients with right-sided endocarditis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Type: Diagnostic (exploratory cohort).
Level Of Evidence: 2b.
Objective: To assess variation of total prostate-specific antigen (tPSA), free PSA (fPSA), percent fPSA, human glandular kallikrein 2 (hK2) and intact PSA measured three times within 2 weeks.