Intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus conventional in vitro fertilization in infertile couples with normal total sperm count and motility: does sperm morphology matter?

Study Question: Among couples with infertility and normal total sperm count and motility, can sperm morphology be used as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over conventional IVF (c-IVF) on fertility outcomes?

Summary Answer: Based on this secondary analysis of a large randomized clinical trial (RCT), sperm morphology has limited value as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over c-IVF on live birth, ongoing pregnancy, clinical pregnancy or total fertilization failure.

What Is Known Already: Our recent RCT showed that ICSI did not result in higher live birth rates in couples with normal total sperm count and motility. It is unclear whether sperm morphology can be used as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over c-IVF in this population.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering-Based Multimodal Techniques: Advances and Perspectives.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy is a versatile molecular fingerprinting technique with rapid signal readout, high aqueous compatibility, and portability. To translate SERS for real-world applications, it is pertinent to overcome inherent challenges, including high sample variability and heterogeneity, matrix effects, and nonlinear SERS signal responses of different analytes in complex (bio)chemical matrices with numerous interfering species. In this perspective, we highlight emerging SERS-based multimodal techniques to address the key roadblocks to improving the sensitivity, specificity, and reliability of (bio)chemical detection, bioimaging, theragnosis, and theragnostic.

Low shear-induced fibrillar fibronectin: comparative analyses of morphologies and cellular effects on bovine aortic endothelial cell adhesion and proliferation.

Wall shear stress (WSS) is a critical factor in vascular biology, and both high and low WSS are implicated in atherosclerosis. Fibronectin (FN) is a key extracellular matrix protein that plays an important role in cell activities. Under high shear stress, plasma FN undergoes fibrillogenesis; however, its behavior under low shear stress remains unclear.

Hormone-free vs. follicle-stimulating hormone-primed infertility treatment of women with polycystic ovary syndrome using biphasic in vitro maturation: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To compare oocyte maturation rates and pregnancy outcomes in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) undergoing biphasic in vitro maturation (capacitation in vitro maturation [CAPA-IVM]) with vs. without follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) priming.

Design: Randomized, controlled, assessor-blinded trial.

The effectiveness of Paraffin oil and Mineral oil for day-5 embryo culture in couples undergoing in vitro fertilisation.

Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of Paraffin oil versus Mineral oil for day-5 embryo culture in couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART).

Methods: We performed a multi-centre, retrospective cohort study at IVFMD (My Duc Hospital) and IVFMD Phu Nhuan (My Duc Phu Nhuan Hospital) from January 2019 to September 2019. We studied couples treated by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), using fresh, ejaculated semen and undergoing day-5 embryo transfer.

Antipsychotic treatment patterns in Alzheimer's disease patients with agitation: a cohort study using the UK clinical practice research datalink.

Objectives: There is a lack of robust epidemiological evidence on antipsychotic (AP) use in patients with agitation in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Authors studied AP use in patients with AD and agitation and compared their use with patients with other or no neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS).

Methods: A retrospective cohort study in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, included patients with AD between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2017.

Standardizing definitions and reporting guidelines for the infertility core outcome set: an international consensus development study† ‡.

Study Question: Can consensus definitions for the core outcome set for infertility be identified in order to recommend a standardized approach to reporting?

Summary Answer: Consensus definitions for individual core outcomes, contextual statements and a standardized reporting table have been developed.

What Is Known Already: Different definitions exist for individual core outcomes for infertility. This variation increases the opportunities for researchers to engage with selective outcome reporting, which undermines secondary research and compromises clinical practice guideline development.

Reduced levels of biomarkers of exposure in smokers switching to the Carbon-Heated Tobacco Product 1.0: a controlled, randomized, open-label 5-day exposure trial.

In addition to smoking cessation, for those who would otherwise continue to smoke, replacing cigarettes with less harmful alternatives can reduce the harms of smoking. Heating instead of burning tobacco reduces, or eliminates, the formation of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHC) that are found in cigarette smoke. The Carbon-Heated Tobacco Product (CHTP), a heat-not-burn tobacco product, mimics the cigarette smoking ritual.

Exposure to harmful and potentially harmful constituents decreased in smokers switching to Carbon-Heated Tobacco Product.

Background: "Heat-not-burn" tobacco products are designed to heat processed tobacco instead of combusting it, thus significantly reducing the formation of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) found in cigarette smoke, and ultimately reducing the risk of smoking-related diseases. The Carbon-Heated Tobacco Product (CHTP), a heat-not-burn tobacco product similar in appearance and use ritual to cigarettes, has been developed for smokers who would otherwise continue smoking as an alternative to cigarettes. To evaluate reduced risk of harm potential of CHTP, it is critical to quantify exposure to HPHCs and consequent biological pathway disturbances involved in disease onset in smokers who switch to CHTP.

Biological and Functional Changes in Healthy Adult Smokers Who Are Continuously Abstinent From Smoking for One Year: Protocol for a Prospective, Observational, Multicenter Cohort Study.

Background: The harm of smoking results mainly from long-term exposure to harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) generated by tobacco combustion. Smoking cessation (SC) engenders favorable changes of clinical signs, pathomechanisms, and metabolic processes that together could reduce the harm of smoking-related diseases to a relative risk level approximating that of never-smokers over time. In most SC studies, the main focus is on the quitting rate of the SC program being tested.

What do we need beyond hemoglobin A1c to get the complete picture of glycemia in people with diabetes?

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is currently the most commonly used marker for the determination of the glycemic status in people with diabetes and it is frequently used to guide therapy and especially medical treatment of people with diabetes. The measurement of HbA1c has reached a high level of analytical quality and, therefore, this biomarker is currently also suggested to be used for the diagnosis of diabetes. Nevertheless, it is crucial for people with diabetes and their treating physicians to be aware of possible interferences during its measurement as well as physiological or pathological factors that contribute to the HbA1c concentration without being related to glycemia, which are discussed in this review.

Somatosensory-evoked potential asymmetry in medullary ischemia during cervical spine surgery.

This report describes how somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) can detect acute medullary ischemia during cervical spine surgery. This article describes how asymmetric SEP intraoperative monitoring changes can localize medullary ischemia. Localization of change was validated by postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The DDAH/ADMA/NOS pathway.

An increasing number of reports in the literature indicate that endogenously produced inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), particularly asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) regulate nitric oxide generation in numerous disease states. Two dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) enzymes metabolise ADMA. We and others have postulated that activity of DDAH is a key determinant of ADMA levels in vivo.

all-trans-Retinoic acid increases nitric oxide synthesis by endothelial cells: a role for the induction of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase.

all-trans-Retinoic acid (atRA) has important effects on the developing and mature cardiovascular system. Nitric oxide (NO) production has been associated with the atRA-induced differentiation of neuronal cells, and we hypothesized that NO may also mediate certain actions of atRA in the cardiovascular system. We studied the effects of atRA on NO production by endothelial cells and determined whether regulation of enzymes responsible for metabolism of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) contributed to the effects seen.