Diagnostic criteria of chronic conjunctivitis: atopic keratoconjunctivitis and vernal keratoconjunctivitis.

Purpose Of Review: Chronic ocular allergies, vernal (VKC) and atopic keratoconjunctivitis (AKC) are relatively rare conditions that require definite diagnostic criteria to the most appropriate therapeutical approach.

Recent Findings: The diagnosis of both VKC and AKC is generally based on clinical history, signs and symptoms, and the results of allergic tests, which allow to identify the different diseases phenotypes. However, other subtypes of the two diseases and/or overlaps may occur making the diagnosis non always so clear, such as VKC and AKC overlaps or adult-like VKC disease.

Role of Renin-Angiotensin System Blockers on BCG Response in Nonmuscle Invasive, High Risk Bladder Cancer.

Introduction: The gold standard treatment for high-risk NMIBC is BCG immunotherapy. Some studies suggested an immomodulatory effects for commonly used drugs (ie, ACE-I and ARBs). We aimed to determine whether these drugs impact the prognosis of patients with high-risk NMIBC treated with BCG.

Possible Strategies to Optimize a Biomarker Discovery Approach to Correlate with Neurological Outcome in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Study.

The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients is a severe obstacle in development and testing of new therapies, and it also impairs appropriate rehabilitation care. The sparse available data on the biochemical composition of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during the acute and/or chronic phase of the lesion provide, up until now, inconsistent results. In this pilot study, we then explored the possibility of combining a multi-parametric and bioinformatic analysis of CSF for its biological properties tested on different cells types, suitable for investigating inflammation and re-myelination.

Predicting return to work after acute myocardial infarction: Socio-occupational factors overcome clinical conditions.

Objectives: Return to work after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), a leading cause of death globally, is a multidimensional process influenced by clinical, psychological, social and occupational factors, the single impact of which, however, is still not well defined. The objective of this study was to investigate these 4 factors on return to work (RTW) within 365 days after AMI in a homogeneous cohort of patients who had undergone an urgent coronary angioplasty.

Participants: We studied 102 patients, in employment at the time of AMI (88.

Successful treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia in pregnancy with single-agent all-trans retinoic acid.

Purpose: The diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in pregnancy is an uncommon, life-threatening emergency. Choice of treatment and management of complications are challenging.

Methods: We report the case of a patient with diagnosis of APL at gestational age (GA) 24 + 4.

Variable RBE in proton therapy: comparison of different model predictions and their influence on clinical-like scenarios.

Background: In proton radiation therapy a constant relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of 1.1 is usually assumed. However, biological experiments have evidenced RBE dependencies on dose level, proton linear energy transfer (LET) and tissue type.