Comparisons of cumulative live birth rates after embryo transfers at day 2/3 versus day 5/6: a French national study.

Research Question: Are there significant differences between cumulative live birth rates (CLBR) after short or extended embryo culture when comparisons are performed per cycle?

Design: This French national study included all IVF cycles performed from January 2016 to December 2019 with at least one cleaved embryo at day 2. The day 2/3 and day 5/6 groups were identified using the National Biomedicine Agency register. Only attempts involving the vitrification method were included.

Contribution of medico-administrative databases to health vigilance: example of post-oocyte retrieval infections.

Study Question: Can we monitor post-oocyte retrieval infections in the French national health data system to complement the French ART vigilance system?

Summary Answer: Medico-administrative databases provide a more comprehensive view of post-oocyte retrieval infections and can be used to detect abnormal increases in frequency and outlier ART centers as a complementary tool to the ART vigilance system.

What Is Known Already: The various studies of ART complications are reassuring, showing relatively low overall complication rates. Nonetheless, the European Union has set up a vigilance system to monitor these complications.

Lessons of the month 3: Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis following COVID-19 vaccination (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19).

A 36-year-old woman presented to hospital 9 days after receiving her first dose of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine with fever, myalgia and a sore throat. She was previously fit and well with no prior vaccine reactions.There was no clinical response to initial treatment with intravenous (IV) antibiotics.

Exposure of the French population to bisphenols, phthalates, parabens, glycol ethers, brominated flame retardants, and perfluorinated compounds in 2014-2016: Results from the Esteban study.

Background: As part of the French Human Biomonitoring (HBM) programme, the Esteban study described, among other things, biomarkers levels of various chemicals in adults (18-74 years old) and children (6-17 years old). This paper describes the design of the study and provides, for the first time, data on the biological exposure of the general French population to a wide range of contaminants posing a threat to human health which are currently found in domestic environments.

Methods: Esteban is a cross-sectional study conducted on a nationwide sample of the French general population.

Do distance-delivery group interventions improve depression in people with epilepsy?

About one-third of people with epilepsy experience comorbid depression. The present study examined outcomes of a distance-delivery group intervention program designed to improve emotional well-being. Participants were 55 adults with epilepsy and self-reported depressive symptoms who were randomly assigned to take part in either a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program (UPLIFT, n = 20), an epilepsy information and self-management program (EpINFO, n = 24) that served as an active control group, or a wait-list control (WLC) group (n = 11).

Setting up school-based diabetes clinics to engage adolescents who frequently 'were not brought to clinic' and improve self-management.

Optimising attendance rates in outpatient's clinics is important to ensure good clinical care and to avoid waste of scarce medical resources. We identified a cohort of teenagers that frequently were not brought (WNB) to the paediatric diabetes multidisciplinary clinics, compromising patient care and reducing compliance with National Padiatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) standards. As these teenagers attend five local secondary schools, we initiated a quality improvement project to test the benefit of taking clinics into schools.

TNF- Autocrine Feedback Loops in Human Monocytes: The Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Roles of the TNF- Receptors Support the Concept of Selective TNFR1 Blockade .

Selective TNFR1 blockade in inflammatory diseases is emerging as a clinical strategy. We studied the roles of the two TNF- receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2, in human monocytes, the principal producer of TNF- and central to many TNF- driven diseases. We hypothesised that TNF- has pro- and anti-inflammatory effects on monocytes, occurring differentially via TNFR1 and TNFR2.

The rs361525 polymorphism does not increase production of tumor necrosis factor alpha by monocytes from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficient subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - a pilot study.

Background: Polymorphisms in the TNF-A gene have been associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in some case-control studies. Previous work has shown that COPD/chronic bronchitis subjects with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency with the rs361525 TNF-α single nucleotide polymorphism have 100 times more TNF-in spontaneous sputum than disease matched controls. Our objective was to determine if the presence of this polymorphism increased TNF-α production by blood monocytes from COPD subjects.

Regulating hippocampal hyperexcitability through GABAB Receptors.

Abstract Disturbances of GABAergic inhibition are a major cause of epileptic seizures. GABA exerts its actions via ionotropic GABAA receptors and metabotropic G protein-coupled GABAB receptors. Malfunction of GABAA inhibition has long been recognized in seizure genesis but the role of GABAB receptors in controlling seizure activity is still not well understood.

Leukotriene receptor antagonists in allergic eye disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Allergic eye diseases are common and cause significant morbidity. Leukotrienes are implicated in the pathogenesis of seasonal and perennial allergic conjunctivitis (AC), commonly seen in conjunction with allergic rhinitis, and in vernal keratoconjunctivitis and atopic keratoconjunctivitis.

Objectives: To assess the available evidence for an effect of leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) on the ocular symptoms of allergic eye diseases.

Novel anticonvulsive effects of progesterone in a mouse model of hippocampal electrical kindling.

Progesterone is a known anticonvulsant, with its inhibitory effects generally attributed to its secondary metabolite, 5α,3α-tetrahydroprogesterone (THP), and THP's enhancement of GABAA receptor activity. Accumulating evidence, however, suggests that progesterone may have non-genomic actions independent of the GABAA receptor. In this study, we explored THP/GABAA-independent anticonvulsive actions of progesterone in a mouse model of hippocampal kindling and in mouse entorhinal slices in vitro.

A reliable method for intracranial electrode implantation and chronic electrical stimulation in the mouse brain.

Background: Electrical stimulation of brain structures has been widely used in rodent models for kindling or modeling deep brain stimulation used clinically. This requires surgical implantation of intracranial electrodes and subsequent chronic stimulation in individual animals for several weeks. Anchoring screws and dental acrylic have long been used to secure implanted intracranial electrodes in rats.

Mechanisms of neutrophil transmigration across the vascular endothelium in COPD.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common and important disease. Neutrophils have been shown to play a fundamental role in its development and progression. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the trafficking of neutrophils across the vascular endothelium into the lung could potentially allow the development of targeted biological treatments.

Information required to provide informed consent for endoscopy: an observational study of patients' expectations.

Background And Study Aims: The aim of this study was to determine how much information patients require about the risk of complications in order to provide informed consent to undergo endoscopy.

Patients And Methods: Endoscopic complications and their consequences were discussed with consecutive patients who had undergone endoscopy. The patients were asked how common each complication would have to be for them to require information about the complication before providing adequately informed consent.

Motion detection and correction using multi-rotation 180 degrees single-photon emission tomography for thallium myocardial imaging.

Patient and organ motion is a potentially limiting factor in gamma camera single-photon emission tomography (SPET) imaging, as highlighted in stress thallium myocardial SPET, where the heart may exhibit a systematic axial motion (cardiac creep) following stress. Multi-rotation SPET has previously been described as a means of obtaining better raw data for motion detection and correction. This study describes the validation of a computerised motion detection algorithm applied to multi-rotation SPET, and reports measured motions in thallium myocardial stress SPET studies from a single-headed gamma camera.

Dipyridamole stress thallium-201 perfusion abnormalities in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Relationship to clinical presentation and outcome.

Aims: Thallium-201 perfusion abnormalities are common in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and may be associated with an adverse prognosis in the young. The aim of this study was to prospectively determine the relationship between thallium-201 defects during dipyridamole stress to clinical presentation and outcome in a large consecutive series of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Methods/results: Thallium-201 single photon computed tomography was performed in 216 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy during dipyridamole stress (0.

Quantification of inflammatory bowel disease activity using technetium-99m HMPAO labelled leucocyte single photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT).

Technetium-99m HMPAO labelled white cell bowel uptake was quantified in 23 patients with suspected colitis by means of the novel technique of single photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT) using a standard gamma-camera. Uptake in colon segments was quantified on transaxial images and expressed as a fraction of marrow uptake (SPECT score). Segmental histological disease activity was assessed at colonoscopy (20) or at surgery (3).

Regional thallium-201 washout and myocardial hypertrophy in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and its relation to exertional chest pain.

The mechanism of exertional chest pain in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is uncertain, but may relate to myocardial ischemia. To study the mechanism of exertional chest pain in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dipyridamole-stress thallium-201 single-photon emission computed tomography was performed in 82 consecutive patients, and the 3-hour washout of thallium in relation to the tomographic image, regional wall thickness on echocardiography, and other clinical findings was analyzed. There was a weak inverse correlation of regional washout and wall thickness in 298 analyzed quadrant areas (r = -0.

Abnormal lymph drainage in patients with chronic venous leg ulcers.

Background: Edema often occurs in association with venous leg ulcers.

Objective: Our purpose was to assess lymphatic function in the legs of patients with venous leg ulcers.

Methods: Quantitative lymphoscintigraphy was performed in 22 normal control subjects, 32 patients with venous leg ulcers, and 7 patients with varicose veins only.

Asymmetry of cardiac [123I] meta-iodobenzyl-guanidine scans in patients with ventricular tachycardia and a "clinically normal" heart.

Objective: Patients with exercise induced ventricular tachycardia associated with a "clinically normal" heart may have an abnormality of the regional distribution of the cardiac sympathetic nerve supply. In this study the regional distribution of the myocardial nerve supply in patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) and control subjects was examined by [123] meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scanning.

Patients And Design: Eight patients with exercise induced VT and seven patients with VT unrelated to exercise with "clinically normal" hearts were studied and compared with a control group of six subjects with atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia not related to exercise and eight patients with angiographically normal left ventricular function and normal coronary anatomy who had thallium scans without evidence of ischaemia or fixed perfusion deficits.

Investigation of the swollen limb with isotope lymphography.

The usefulness of isotope lymphography was evaluated in patients with chronic lower leg swelling. Forty patients (15 male, 25 female, age range 5 months-67 years) were assigned one of six clinical diagnoses based on clinical assessments, venography and lymphography. All the patients and seven normal controls were examined with bilateral isotope lymphography involving subcutaneous injection of 0.

Fecal leukocytosis, indium-111-labelled autologous polymorphonuclear leukocyte abdominal scanning, and quantitative fecal indium-111 excretion in acute gastroenteritis and enteropathogen carriage.

Abdominal scintiscans were performed and three-day fecal indium-111 radioactivity measured, following injection of indium-111-labeled polymorphonuclear leukocytes, in patients with acute gastroenteritis, enteropathogen carriage, exacerbations of chronic inflammatory bowel disease, and patients without gastrointestinal symptoms. The colon was more commonly inflamed than the small intestine in acute gastroenteritis. Fecal indium-111 radioactivity excretion was elevated in gastroenteritis and in chronic inflammatory bowel disease.