Publications by authors named "Joana Simoes"

Article Synopsis
  • Induction of labor (IOL) is increasingly common, particularly in high-income countries with more pregnant women facing health issues, raising concerns about higher cesarean section (CS) rates and the need for better delivery mode counseling.
  • The study aims to create a predictive model for vaginal delivery after IOL, as well as models for CS related to abnormal fetal heart rate and labor dystocia, using maternal clinical data and advanced computational techniques.
  • Results from a sample of 2,434 singleton pregnancies indicated the vaginal delivery model was quite effective (AUROC = 0.794), while the CS model was less discriminatory (AUROC = 0.590), highlighting the predictive power of certain labor-related factors.
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Objective: Dentofacial deformities (DFD) require orthodontic treatment, orthognathic surgery, and speech therapy for aesthetic and functional problems. This longitudinal study analyzed changes in masticatory function and three-dimensional (3D) facial soft tissue in patients with Class II and Class III DFD after orthognathic surgery. In addition, the study investigated the relationship between facial measurements, maximum bite force (MBF), and orofacial myofunctional status (OMS).

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Article Synopsis
  • - The combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors is becoming standard treatment for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma, but it raises concerns about severe side effects.
  • - A case study of a 78-year-old man highlights serious complications, including myositis and myocarditis, following treatment with pembrolizumab and axitinib, demonstrating the potential risks involved.
  • - Despite initial treatment with high-dose corticosteroids being ineffective, the patient's condition improved with additional therapies, although he ultimately suffered a cardiac arrest, indicating the complexity and dangers of these treatments.
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Providing adequate counseling on mode of delivery after induction of labor (IOL) is of utmost importance. Various AI algorithms have been developed for this purpose, but rely on maternal-fetal data, not including ultrasound (US) imaging. We used retrospectively collected clinical data from 808 subjects submitted to IOL, totaling 2024 US images, to train AI models to predict vaginal delivery (VD) and cesarean section (CS) outcomes after IOL.

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Purpose: This study aimed to investigate three-dimensional facial soft tissue dimensions, maximum bite force (MBF), and occlusal contact area in patients with DFD. In addition, we analyzed the relationship between MBF and the three-dimensional facial measurements.

Methods: Thirty-two patients with skeletal Class III DFD and 20 patients with Class II DFD underwent a soft tissue evaluation using surface laser scanning, as well as MBF and occlusal contact area assessments.

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Background: Hospitalized patients experience sleep disruption with consequential physiological and psychological effects. Surgical patients are particularly at risk due to surgical stress and postoperative pain. This systematic review aimed to identify non-pharmacological interventions for improving sleep and exploring their effects on sleep-related and clinical outcomes.

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Neuroendocrine breast cancer (NEBC) is a rare and heterogeneous entity. It most commonly presents a luminal phenotype and a worse prognosis. When diagnosed in an advanced stage, metastasis from another neuroendocrine tumor should be excluded.

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Introduction: HIV late presentation (LP) remains excessive in Europe. We aimed to analyze the factors associated with late presentation in the MSM population newly diagnosed with HIV in Portugal between 2014 and 2019.

Methods: We included 391 newly HIV-1 diagnosed Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), from the BESTHOPE project, in 17 countrywide Portuguese hospitals.

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Urothelial carcinoma is a significant global health concern that accounts for a substantial part of cancer diagnoses and deaths worldwide. The tumor microenvironment is a complex ecosystem composed of stromal cells, soluble factors, and altered extracellular matrix, that mutually interact in a highly immunomodulated environment, with a prominent role in tumor development, progression, and treatment resistance. This article reviews the current state of knowledge of the different cell populations that compose the tumor microenvironment of urothelial carcinoma, its main functions, and distinct interactions with other cellular and non-cellular components, molecular alterations and aberrant signaling pathways already identified.

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Decision making consists of gathering quality data in order to correctly assess a situation and determine the best course of action. This process is a fundamental part of medicine and is what enables practitioners to accurately diagnose diseases and select appropriate treatment protocols. Despite severe equine asthma (SEA) being a highly prevalent lower respiratory disease amongst equids, clinicians still struggle with the optimization of routine diagnostic procedures.

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Background: The clinical benefits of laparoscopic appendicectomy are well recognized over open appendicectomy. However, laparoscopic procedures are not frequently conducted in many low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) for several reasons, including perceived higher costs. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and cost of laparoscopic appendicectomy compared to open appendicectomy in Nigeria.

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The relationship between helminth infection and allergic diseases has long intrigued the scientific community. This interaction was previously studied in a horse family with high incidence of severe equine asthma and in non-related severely asthmatic horses from equine hospital referrals in Switzerland. Our aim was to determine if this interaction would also be observed in a group of non-related client-owned severely asthmatic horses living in a Mediterranean climate and recruited through a first-opinion veterinarian group.

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Background: Identification of patients at high risk of surgical-site infection may allow clinicians to target interventions and monitoring to minimize associated morbidity. The aim of this systematic review was to identify and evaluate prognostic tools for the prediction of surgical-site infection in gastrointestinal surgery.

Methods: This systematic review sought to identify original studies describing the development and validation of prognostic models for 30-day SSI after gastrointestinal surgery (PROSPERO: CRD42022311019).

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From previous studies, the International Society for Equitation Science has advised that further research be conducted on the physiological/psychological effects of less-exacerbated poll flexion angles. We aimed to evaluate the effects of two riding poll flexion positions with a difference of only 15° on the respiratory systems and behaviour of horses through an evaluation of dynamic airway collapse via over-ground endoscopy, the pharyngeal diameter, pleural pressure, arterial oxygenation and lactate, HR/RR, and the occurrence of conflict behaviours. Twenty high-level dressage and twenty show-jumping horses underwent a 40 min ridden test at a ground angle of 85°; 3 weeks later, they underwent a ridden test at a 100° ground angle (the angle between the ground and the line from the forehead to the muzzle) and in a cross-over design.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate stressful responses during a 6-week training protocol in young Lusitano horses used for dressage. The hypothesis was that the proposed training protocol would improve fitness and ensure the welfare of the animals by reducing stress predictors. Nine 4-year-old horses were evaluated before (M1) and six weeks after (M2) beginning a training protocol.

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A 73-year-old male patient presented to the Emergency Department with history of weight loss, dysphagia, and recurrent fever. The initial chest radiograph showed a mediastinal hypotransparency and to the complaints of dysphagia the patient did a barium swallow test that revealed a giant Zenker diverticulum. Apart from mildly elevated inflammatory markers and despite the extensive investigation of recurrent fever, no other relevant features were found either in blood analysis, microbiological cultures or computerized tomography.

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Introduction: Left ventricular thrombus commonly occurs as a complication of acute anterior myocardial infarction and nonischemic cardiomyopathies with severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Its frequency is still high despite medical advances. Current guidelines recommend the use of vitamin k antagonists as first-line therapy, however, the off-label use of direct oral anticoagulants is becoming more frequent and attractive, given the better pharmacological and clinical profile, with the improvement of the patient's quality of life.

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In the last 20 years, several contributions have been published on what concerns the conceptual and empirical connections between self-processes. However, only a limited number of publications addressed the viability of those processes to characterize mental health in neurotypical subjects with a normative pattern of neurodevelopment. Furthermore, even fewer experiments focused explicitly on the complexity of studying neurotypical phenomenal data.

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Objective: To describe and analyze transmitted drug resistance (TDR) between 2014 and 2019 in newly infected patients with HIV-1 in Portugal and to characterize its transmission networks.

Methods: Clinical, socioepidemiological, and risk behavior data were collected from 820 newly diagnosed patients in Portugal between September 2014 and December 2019. The sequences obtained from drug resistance testing were used for subtyping, TDR determination, and transmission cluster (TC) analyses.

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Severe equine asthma is a chronic respiratory disease of adult horses, occurring when genetically susceptible individuals are exposed to environmental aeroallergens. This results in airway inflammation, mucus accumulation and bronchial constriction. Although several studies aimed at evaluating the genetic and immune pathways associated with the disease, the results reported are inconsistent.

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Background: GlobalSurg is an international group of researchers whose purpose is to conduct and disseminate robust collaborative, international and multicenter studies.

Objective: To expose the necessary strategies and the barriers crossed in conducting massive multicenter studies in surgery.

Method: During the second semester of 2020, the study Surg-Week Prospective International Cohort Study was carried out.

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Organizing pneumonia (OP) is a sub-acute process of pulmonary tissue repair secondary to lung injury, defined histopathologically by intra-alveolar buds of granulation tissue within the lumen of distal pulmonary airspaces. It can be either cryptogenic or secondary (SOP) to different clinical conditions, namely infections. Despite being nonspecific, its diagnosis can be made by the association of clinical and imaging criteria.

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