Decreased lipases and fatty acid and glycerol transporter could explain reduced fat in diabetic morbidly obese.

Objective: The possible differences were investigated in 32 morbidly obese patients depending on whether they were "healthy" or had dyslipidemia and/or type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Lipid metabolism and insulin resistance were analyzed in subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) before and during 6 and 12 months after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

Results: Significant differences have been found in lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) activities in SAT from the different obese group versus normal weight (control) but not between them.

EPICO 2.0 project. Development of educational therapeutic recommendations using the DELPHI technique on invasive candidiasis in critically ill adult patients in special situations.

Background: Although there has been an improved management of invasive candidiasis in the last decade, still controversial issues remain, especially in different therapeutic critical care scenarios.

Aims: We sought to identify the core clinical knowledge and to achieve high agreement recommendations required to care for critically ill adult patients with invasive candidiasis for antifungal treatment in special situations and different scenarios.

Methods: Second prospective Spanish survey reaching consensus by the DELPHI technique, conducted anonymously by electronic e-mail in the first phase to 23 national multidisciplinary experts in invasive fungal infections from five national scientific societies including intensivists, anesthesiologists, microbiologists, pharmacologists and infectious disease specialists, answering 30 questions prepared by a coordination group after a strict review of literature in the last five years.

Multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled phase III study of pyridoxalated hemoglobin polyoxyethylene in distributive shock (PHOENIX).

Objective: To compare the effectiveness and safety of the hemoglobin-based nitric oxide scavenger, pyridoxalated hemoglobin polyoxyethylene, against placebo in patients with vasopressor-dependent distributive shock.

Design: Multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, open-label study.

Setting: Sixty-one participating ICUs in six European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and United Kingdom).

Changing deliberative and affective responses to health risk: a meta-analysis.

Perceptions of risk for health outcomes are integral to many theories of health behaviour, and are often targeted in interventions. Evidence suggests that affective responses to risk, including worry, are empirically distinguishable from commonly used perceived risk measures such as perceived susceptibility. The aims of this meta-analysis were to (1) examine if perceived susceptibility and worry can be independently influenced, and what manipulation types are most effective at changing each construct and (2) examine the efficacy of interventions to change worry and perceived susceptibility.

Albumin administration in the acutely ill: what is new and where next?

Albumin solutions have been used worldwide for the treatment of critically ill patients since they became commercially available in the 1940s. However, their use has become the subject of criticism and debate in more recent years. Importantly, all fluid solutions have potential benefits and drawbacks.

Treatment with echinocandins during continuous renal replacement therapy.

Echinocandins are indicated as first-line treatment for invasive candidiasis in moderate to severe illness. As sepsis is the main cause of acute kidney injury, the combination of echinocandin treatment and continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is common. Optimizing antibiotic dosage in critically ill patients receiving CRRT is challenging.

Do violence dynamics matter?

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Intimate partner violence is a complex, non-linear phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to determine whether violence dynamics (pattern, degree of non-linearity, optimal non-linearity) contributed to outcomes in violent relationships.

Methods: The study was conducted in six primary care clinics, enrolling 200 adult women in violent relationships.

Multi-day recurrences of intimate partner violence and alcohol intake across dynamic patterns of violence.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Consistent links exist between male alcohol intake and male-perpetrated intimate partner violence (IPV) as well as female alcohol intake and female-perpetrated IPV. However, the nature of the relationship remains unclear. This study attempted to identify unique alcohol-violence patterns within three different types of relationship dynamics to better understand the alcohol-violence relationship and its role in violence dynamics.

Safely examining complex dynamics of intimate partner violence.

The overall goal of this study is to use complexity science to gain a deeper understanding of the nonlinear day-to-day dynamics of intimate partner violence, with implications for clinical interventions. This report describes research methods for gathering information about partner violence in real time and assesses recruitment and retention, adherence to study protocol, data validity, and participant safety. Research assistants enrolled 200 women in moderately violent intimate relationships and asked them to report about their relationships every day for 12 weeks.

A randomized controlled study of CPAP effect on plasma aldosterone concentration in patients with resistant hypertension and obstructive sleep apnea.

Objective: The high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with resistant hypertension could be mediated by an activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. This study assessed the impact of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC).

Methods: One hundred and twenty-four patients with resistant hypertension were assessed, and those who fulfilled inclusion criteria (n = 116) underwent full night polysomnography, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and PAC measurement.

Dynamics of violence.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Three behavioural models suggest different dynamic patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV). However, few studies permit assessment of IPV dynamics. The purpose of this study was to estimate the degree of non-linearity in daily violence between partners over a 3-month period, identify their specific dynamic patterns and determine whether measures of violence severity and dynamics are interrelated.

Haematological parameters and serum trace elements in "healthy" and "unhealthy" morbidly obese patients before and after gastric bypass.

Background & Aims: We have investigated the differences in plasma parameters and serum trace elements between "healthy" and unhealthy morbidly obese patients before and after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery.

Methods: A group of 32 morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery were divided into three groups. Group 1 subjects were free of dyslipidemia and type II diabetes mellitus (defined as "healthy" obese, DM-DL-); Group 2 subjects had only the presence of dyslipidemia (DM-DL+), while group 3 patients demonstrated the presence of both (DM + DL+).

Mode Effects in Assessing Cancer Worry and Risk Perceptions: Is Social Desirability Bias at Play?

Background: Risk perceptions and worry are important determinants of health behavior. Despite extensive research on these constructs, it is unknown whether people's self-reports of perceived risk and worry are biased by their concerns about being viewed negatively by others (social desirability).

Methods: In this study, we examined whether reports of perceived risk and worry about cancer varied across survey modes differing in the salience of social desirability cues.

Empiric antibiotic treatment reduces mortality in severe sepsis and septic shock from the first hour: results from a guideline-based performance improvement program.

Objectives: Compelling evidence has shown that aggressive resuscitation bundles, adequate source control, appropriate antibiotic therapy, and organ support are cornerstone for the success in the treatment of patients with sepsis. Delay in the initiation of appropriate antibiotic therapy has been recognized as a risk factor for mortality. To perform a retrospective analysis on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign database to evaluate the relationship between timing of antibiotic administration and mortality.

Distribution of methylene blue after injection into the epidural space of anaesthetized pregnant and non-pregnant sheep.

The aim of the study was to determine the distribution of different volumes of methylene blue solution injected into the epidural space in anaesthetized pregnant and non-pregnant sheep, to evaluate its cranial distribution and to compare between them. Fifteen pregnant and fifteen non-pregnant sheep were included in the study. Sheep were anaesthetized and received 0.

Bariatric surgery in morbidly obese patients improves the atherogenic qualitative properties of the plasma lipoproteins.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of weight loss induced in morbidly obese subjects by Roux-en-Y gastric bypass bariatric surgery on the atherogenic features of their plasma lipoproteins.

Methods: Twenty-one morbidly obese subjects undergoing bariatric surgery were followed up for up to 1 year after surgery. Plasma and lipoproteins were assayed for chemical composition and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity.

Blood culture differential time to positivity enables safe catheter retention in suspected catheter-related bloodstream infection: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical usefulness and safety of the differential-time-to-positivity (DTP) method for managing the suspicion of catheter-related bloodstream infection (CR-BSI) in comparison with a standard method that includes catheter removal in critically ill patients.

Methods-design: A prospective randomized study was carried out.

Setting: A 16-bed clinical-surgical ICU (July 2007-February 2009).

Two-step laser ionization schemes for in-gas laser ionization and spectroscopy of radioactive isotopes.

The in-gas laser ionization and spectroscopy technique has been developed at the Leuven isotope separator on-line facility for the production and in-source laser spectroscopy studies of short-lived radioactive isotopes. In this article, results from a study to identify efficient optical schemes for the two-step resonance laser ionization of 18 elements are presented.

Precancer risk perceptions predict postcancer subjective well-being.

Objective: The present study used longitudinal data to explore whether subjective well-being in cancer survivors was related to predisease judgments of their likelihood of getting cancer.

Method: Subjective well-being was assessed in terms of affective well-being (frequency of positive and negative affective states) and satisfaction with one's life overall. The sample consisted of 158 participants in the National Survey of Midlife Development in the U.

MicroRNA-23a mediates post-transcriptional regulation of CXCL12 in bone marrow stromal cells.

The chemokine CXCL12 regulates the interaction between hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and bone marrow stromal cells. Although its relevance in the bone marrow niche is well recognized, the regulation of CXCL12 by microRNA is not completely understood. We transfected a library of 486 microRNA in the bone marrow stromal cell line SCP-1 and studied the expression of CXCL12.

Clinically meaningful change: false positives in the estimation of individual change.

In applied research as well as in clinical practice, it is common to evaluate the change that patients experience as a consequence of the treatment they receive. Various methods designed to evaluate this change are reviewed in this study. This review has focused on a specific aspect that has not been given proper attention: the false positive rate.

Future options for (economically) sustainable research in sepsis.

The relentless increase in healthcare costs and the global economic crisis require us to rethink the way research is done. The heterogeneity of patients is a major challenge in designing and coordinating high-quality studies about sepsis. Studies on new treatments and devices, such as polymyxin B hemoperfusion, must be optimized not only for potential benefits for a specific population (i.

Measuring capability for healthy diet and physical activity.

Purpose: Patterns of diet and physical activity, major drivers of morbidity and mortality, are contingent on people's feasible opportunities to pursue healthy behaviors. Our objective for this mixed methods study was to develop measures of feasible opportunities for diet and activity.

Methods: The Capability Approach framework for evaluating people's real freedoms to pursue their values guided the research.

Metabolic syndrome in patients with prostate cancer undergoing androgen suppression.

Objectives: Cardiovascular mortality is the leading cause of death in patients with prostate cancer (PC), metabolic syndrome (MS) being related to it. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of MS in patients with CP undergoing androgen suppression (AS).

Material And Methods: We performed a retrospective study of cases and controls that included 159 patients.