Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and other blood cell component counts are not associated with the development of postmolar gestational trophoblastic neoplasia.

Objective: To relate preevacuation platelet count and leukogram findings, especially neutrophil/lymphocyte ratios (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratios with the occurrence of gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) after complete hydatidiform mole (CHM) among Brazilian women.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of patients with CHM followed at Rio de Janeiro Federal University, from January/2015-December/2020. Before molar evacuation, all patients underwent a medical evaluation, complete blood count and hCG measurement, in addition to other routine preoperative tests.

Fast Sampling of the Cellular Metabolome.

Obtaining meaningful snapshots of the metabolome of microorganisms requires rapid sampling and immediate quenching of all metabolic activity, to prevent any changes in metabolite levels after sampling. Furthermore, a suitable extraction method is required ensuring complete extraction of metabolites from the cells and inactivation of enzymatic activity, with minimal degradation of labile compounds. Finally, a sensitive, high-throughput analysis platform is needed to quantify a large number of metabolites in a small amount of sample.

Human Lectins, Their Carbohydrate Affinities and Where to Find Them.

Lectins are a class of proteins responsible for several biological roles such as cell-cell interactions, signaling pathways, and several innate immune responses against pathogens. Since lectins are able to bind to carbohydrates, they can be a viable target for targeted drug delivery systems. In fact, several lectins were approved by Food and Drug Administration for that purpose.

Renal sinus lipomatosis of the kidney.

A 62 year old man with a history of weight loss and left flank pain did a renal ultrasound that showed a heterogeneous formation involving the left kidney compatible with a solid lesion...

Rare Case of Cocaine-Induced Aortic Aneurysm: A Near Dissection Event.

Cocaine use has been associated with cardiovascular complications such as coronary atherosclerosis, coronary artery spasm, cardiac arrhythmias, acute myocardial infarction, myocarditis, and dilated cardiomyopathies. Aortic dissection is a rare but life-threatening complication of cocaine use. Cocaine and stimulant use can cause aortic aneurysm by increasing the aortic wall stress, and the most feared complications are dissection, rupture, and death.

Paratesticular Leiomyosarcoma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Paratesticular sarcomas are rare. Most cases reported in the literature are depending on retrospective analysis of case reports, small series, literature reviews, and expert opinion and they show different outcomes depending on several variables. The majority indicate that this may be an indolent tumor with a potential for cure if treated early.

Laparoscopic approach in complicated diverticular disease.

Aim: To analyze the results of laparoscopic colectomy in complicated diverticular disease.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at an academic teaching hospital. Data were collected from a database established earlier, which comprise of all patients who underwent laparoscopic colectomy for diverticular disease between 2000 and 2013.

Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage Due to Malignant Arterial Hypertension - an Unusual Manifestation of a Common Disease.

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage is a clinicopathological syndrome that often leads to respiratory failure, with associated hemoptysis and anemia. Chest radiograph presents non-specific findings of perihilar infiltrates, while computed tomography shows ground-glass attenuation or areas of consolidation with interlobular septal thickening. Bronchoalveolar lavage is used to confirm the clinical and radiological suspicion.

Can the adrenergic system be implicated in the pathophysiology of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis? A clinical and experimental study.

Aims: To evaluate sympathetic system activity in bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) patients and to investigate if chronic adrenergic stimulation in intact rats induces BPS/IC-like bladder modifications.

Methods: Clinical study--In BPS/IC patients and aged and body mass index matched volunteers TILT test was undertaken and catecholamines were measured in plasma and 24 hr urine samples. Experimental study--Phenylephrine was injected subcutaneously (14 days) to female Wistar rats.

Inferring differences in the distribution of reaction rates across conditions.

Elucidating changes in the distribution of reaction rates in metabolic pathways under different conditions is a central challenge in systems biology. Here we present a method for inferring regulation mechanisms responsible for changes in the distribution of reaction rates across conditions from correlations in time-resolved data. A reversal of correlations between conditions reveals information about regulation mechanisms.

Fast sampling of the cellular metabolome.

Obtaining meaningful snapshots of the metabolome of microorganisms requires rapid sampling and immediate quenching of all metabolic activity, to prevent any changes in metabolite levels after sampling. Furthermore, a suitable extraction method is required ensuring complete extraction of metabolites from the cells and inactivation of enzymatic activity, with minimal degradation of labile compounds. Finally a sensitive, high-throughput analysis platform is needed to quantify a large number of metabolites in a small amount of sample.

Development of quantitative metabolomics for Pichia pastoris.

Accurate, reliable and reproducible measurement of intracellular metabolite levels has become important for metabolic studies of microbial cell factories. A first critical step for metabolomic studies is the establishment of an adequate quenching and washing protocol, which ensures effective arrest of all metabolic activity and removal of extracellular metabolites, without causing leakage of metabolites from the cells. Five different procedures based on cold methanol quenching and cell separation by filtration were tested for metabolomics of Pichia pastoris regarding methanol content and temperature of the quenching solution as key parameters.

Global test for metabolic pathway differences between conditions.

In many metabolomics applications there is a need to compare metabolite levels between different conditions, e.g., case versus control.

Quantitative profiling of tryptophan metabolites in serum, urine, and cell culture supernatants by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

A sensitive, selective, and comprehensive method for the quantitative determination of tryptophan and 18 of its key metabolites in serum, urine, and cell culture supernatants was developed. The analytes were separated on a C18 silica column by reversed-phase liquid chromatography and detected by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry in positive ion multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, except for indoxyl sulfate which was measured in negative ion MRM mode in a separate run. The limits of detection and lower limits of quantification were in the range of 0.

An in vivo data-driven framework for classification and quantification of enzyme kinetics and determination of apparent thermodynamic data.

Kinetic modeling of metabolism holds great potential for metabolic engineering but is hindered by the gap between model complexity and availability of in vivo data. There is also growing interest in network-wide thermodynamic analyses, which are currently limited by the scarcity and unreliability of thermodynamic reference data. Here we propose an in vivo data-driven approach to simultaneously address both problems.

Integrated multilaboratory systems biology reveals differences in protein metabolism between two reference yeast strains.

The field of systems biology is often held back by difficulties in obtaining comprehensive, high-quality, quantitative data sets. In this paper, we undertook an interlaboratory effort to generate such a data set for a very large number of cellular components in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a widely used model organism that is also used in the production of fuels, chemicals, food ingredients and pharmaceuticals. With the current focus on biofuels and sustainability, there is much interest in harnessing this species as a general cell factory.

Laparoscopic approach to colonic perforation due to colonoscopy.

Background: Iatrogenic perforation due to colonoscopy is the most serious complication of this procedure. Usually, resolution of this event requires segmental resection. The laparoscopic approach could be an option to minimize the outcome of this complication.

Time-dependent regulation of yeast glycolysis upon nitrogen starvation depends on cell history.

In this study, the authors investigated how the glycolytic flux was regulated in time upon nitrogen starvation of cells with different growth histories. We have compared cells grown in glucose-limited chemostat cultures under respiratory conditions (low dilution rate of 0.1/h) to cells grown under respirofermentative conditions (high dilution rate of 0.

Perforation of Meckel's diverticulum by a chicken bone mimicking acute appendicitis. Case report.

Meckel's diverticulum (MD) is a congenital disorder that results from an incomplete obliteration of the vitelline duct. MD may give rise to bleeding, intestinal obstruction and inflammation; however its perforation by a foreign body is an extremely rare life-threatening complication. We report on a 52 years-old Brazilian Amazon man presenting symptoms and signs of acute abdomen with an initial suspicion of acute appendicitis.

Thoracic high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in asthma.

Introduction: High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is a widespread medical imaging method for the study of thoracic diseases. In asthma it is very useful particularly when it is difficult to achieve an effective control of disease, and in severe deterioration.

Aim: It was intended to evaluate the imaging changes by HRCT in asthmatic patients and to assess the expression according to the symptoms and duration of disease.

Measuring enzyme activities under standardized in vivo-like conditions for systems biology.

Realistic quantitative models require data from many laboratories. Therefore, standardization of experimental systems and assay conditions is crucial. Moreover, standards should be representative of the in vivo conditions.

Quantitative evaluation of intracellular metabolite extraction techniques for yeast metabolomics.

Accurate determination of intracellular metabolite levels requires well-validated procedures for sampling and sample treatment. Several methods exist for metabolite extraction, but the literature is contradictory regarding the adequacy and performance of each technique. Using a strictly quantitative approach, we have re-evaluated five methods (hot water, HW; boiling ethanol, BE; chloroform-methanol, CM; freezing-thawing in methanol, FTM; acidic acetonitrile-methanol, AANM) for the extraction of 44 intracellular metabolites (phosphorylated intermediates, amino acids, organic acids, nucleotides) from S.