Publications by authors named "Isabel Ramos"

Purpose: Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) is a rare and poorly understood malignant condition characterized by the accumulation of intra-abdominal mucin produced from peritoneal metastases. Currently, cytoreductive surgery remains the mainstay of treatment but disease recurrence and death after relapse frequently occur in patients with PMP. New therapeutic strategies are therefore urgently needed for these patients.

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Given the high prevalence of lung cancer, an accurate diagnosis is crucial. In the diagnosis process, radiologists play an important role by examining numerous radiology exams to identify different types of nodules. To aid the clinicians' analytical efforts, computer-aided diagnosis can streamline the process of identifying pulmonary nodules.

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Purpose: To establish Portuguese Diagnostic Reference Levels (DRLs), for six body fluoroscopy guided interventional procedures (FGIP).

Method: A retrospective study was conducted in five interventional departments most representative of Interventional Radiology (IR) practice. Dose values, in terms of air kerma area product (P in Gy.

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Background: Laparotomy is assumed to decrease cough strength due to three factors: abdominal muscle trauma, postoperative pain, and diaphragmatic dysfunction. However, the effect of trauma from laparotomy itself on strength (net of the other two factors) has not been measured to our knowledge. The aim of this study was to measure the effect of laparotomy on cough strength after first measuring the effect of epidural analgesia.

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Respiratory infections are frequent and life-threatening complications of surgery. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical, microbiological and treatment characteristics of severe postoperative pneumonia (POP) and tracheobronchitis (POT) in a large series of patients. This single-center, prospective observational cohort study included patients with POP or POT requiring intensive care unit admission in the past 10 years.

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The current study describes a new species of nematode, n. sp. (Atractidae), from the stomach and large intestine of Troschel, 1848 (Testudinidae), collected in the Tocantins and Xingu rivers in the Brazilian state of Pará.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has notably impacted healthcare systems and everyday life worldwide. Regulatory authorities have approved the emergency use of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines due to the rapid spread of the virus. However, during vaccination testing, pregnant and breastfeeding women were initially excluded, leading to a lack of evidence-based recommendations.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to compare two techniques of ultrasound-guided hydrodilatation—capsule-rupturing (CR) and capsule-preserving (CP)—for treating shoulder adhesive capsulitis (AC) in patients over a 6-month follow-up period.
  • A total of 149 patients were analyzed, with findings showing significant improvements in disability and pain scores (DASH and VAS) in both groups; however, the CP group consistently outperformed the CR group.
  • The results indicated that capsule rupture negatively impacted outcomes, and higher initial disability scores predicted poorer functionality after treatment, highlighting the benefits of using the capsule-preserving technique.
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Peritoneal metastases (PM) occur when cancer cells spread inside the abdominal cavity and entail an advanced stage of colorectal cancer (CRC). Prognosis, which is poor, correlates highly with tumour burden, as measured by the peritoneal cancer index (PCI). Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) in specialized centres should be offered especially to patients with a low to moderate PCI when complete resection is expected.

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Objectives: Prior research indicates that Latinas are at risk for experiencing high levels of anxiety during pregnancy. Pregnancy anxiety is a specific affective experience involving fears and worries about one's current pregnancy and it has been linked to heightened risk for preterm birth and developmental effects. Despite this concerning pattern, research has rarely examined Latina beliefs about the transition to motherhood and little is known about specific sources of pregnancy anxiety in Latinas, including whether fears are rooted in cultural concerns.

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Background: The aim of this study was to inspect the influence of patient-centered communication (PCC) with 4- to 10-year-old children on the use of anesthesia for magnetic resonance imaging exams (MRs). Methods: A total of thirty children received the PCC and pre-simulated the exam with an MR toy. Another 30 children received routine information about the MR and pre-simulated the exam with the toy.

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Objectives: Anxiety is prevalent in pregnancy and predicts risk of adverse birth outcomes. Many instruments measure anxiety in pregnancy, some of which assess defined as maternal concerns about a current pregnancy (e.g.

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Background/objective: Investigating trends in life expectancy and lifespan variation can highlight disproportionate mortality burdens among population subgroups. We examined inequalities in life expectancy and lifespan variation by race/ethnicity and by urbanicity in the US from 1990 to 2019.

Methods: Using vital registration data for 322.

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Article Synopsis
  • Maternal depression during pregnancy can affect how a baby's body responds to stress, specifically their cortisol levels.
  • The study looked at 174 pregnant women and found that as their depression increased during pregnancy, their babies showed higher cortisol reactivity at 1 and 6 months old.
  • It was also discovered that increased depression in mothers led to higher levels of a hormone related to stress (pCRH), which was linked to the babies' stress responses.
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Objectives: To compare the additive value of immediate post-procedural manipulation versus physiotherapy, following ultrasound (US)-guided hydrodistention of the glenohumeral joint (GHJ) in patients with adhesive capsulitis (AC) and define predictors of outcome.

Methods: Within a 19-month period, 161 consecutive patients with AC were prospectively enrolled and allocated to two groups according to treatment, based on patients' individual preferences: 1) group-I, US-guided hydrodistension plus immediate post-procedural manipulations and 2) group-II, US-guided hydrodistension plus supervised physiotherapy program. The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) questionnaire and a visual analog scale (VAS) were used for clinical assessment at baseline (immediately after treatment), 1, 3, and 6 months.

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Objective: High pregnancy anxiety is a consistent predictor of earlier labor and delivery. Placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (pCRH) predicts earlier delivery consistently and it has been identified as a biological mediator of the association between pregnancy anxiety and gestational length. However, studies have not examined whether changes in pregnancy anxiety are associated with earlier birth as mediated by changes in pCRH during pregnancy.

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To examine racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes between Hispanics and Whites across 27 US jurisdictions whose health departments are members of the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC). Using surveillance data from the BCHC COVID-19 dashboard as of mid-June 2021, we computed crude incidence, age-adjusted hospitalization and mortality, and full vaccination coverage rates for Hispanics and Whites by city. We estimated relative and absolute disparities cumulatively and for 2020 and 2021 and explored associations between city-level social vulnerability and the magnitude of disparities.

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Background: The French PRODIGE 7 trial, published on January 2021, has raised doubts about the specific survival benefit provided by HIPEC with oxaliplatin 460 mg/m (30 minutes) for the treatment of peritoneal metastases from colorectal cancer. However, several methodological flaws have been identified in PRODIGE 7, specially the HIPEC protocol or the choice of overall survival as the main endpoint, so its results have not been assumed as definitive, emphasizing the need for further research on HIPEC. It seems that the HIPEC protocol with high-dose mytomicin-C (35 mg/m) is the preferred regime to evaluate in future clinical studies.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Traditional Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) methods often miss important details by analyzing only small parts of medical images, whereas Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) considers multiple relevant segments for better clinical evaluation.
  • * This study utilized MIL to identify various lung pathologies in CT scans, achieving significant accuracy with Fibrosis and Emphysema (AUC of 0.89 and 0.72), and also predicted EGFR mutation status in lung cancer with an AUC of 0.69, demonstrating MIL's effectiveness in lung disease assessment.
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Advancements in the development of computer-aided decision (CAD) systems for clinical routines provide unquestionable benefits in connecting human medical expertise with machine intelligence, to achieve better quality healthcare. Considering the large number of incidences and mortality numbers associated with lung cancer, there is a need for the most accurate clinical procedures; thus, the possibility of using artificial intelligence (AI) tools for decision support is becoming a closer reality. At any stage of the lung cancer clinical pathway, specific obstacles are identified and "motivate" the application of innovative AI solutions.

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Maize and grass silages are important dietary components for ruminant livestock that influence the quality of animal products for human consumption, such as milk, in many parts of the world. Infection of plants by fungi able to produce mycotoxins, either in the field or post-harvest, can result in a decrease of silage nutritional quality and, consequently, in milk quality. In this study, 45 maize and grass silage samples were collected from 25 dairy farms located in the north of Portugal.

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Background: High levels of procalcitonin (PCT) have been associated with a higher risk of mortality in COVID-19 patients. We explored the prognostic role of early PCT assessment in critically ill COVID-19 patients and whether PCT predictive performance would be influenced by immunosuppression.

Methods: Retrospective multicentric analysis of prospective collected data in COVID-19 patients consecutively admitted to 36 intensive care units (ICUs) in Spain and Andorra from March to June 2020.

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Artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions have revolutionized our world, using extensive datasets and computational resources to create automatic tools for complex tasks that, until now, have been performed by humans. Massive data is a fundamental aspect of the most powerful AI-based algorithms. However, for AI-based healthcare solutions, there are several socioeconomic, technical/infrastructural, and most importantly, legal restrictions, which limit the large collection and access of biomedical data, especially medical imaging.

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