Capsule endoscopy in hemodialysis versus non-hemodialysis patients with suspected small bowel bleeding: a prospective cross-sectional study.

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is common among hemodialysis (HD) patients. Endoscopic examination of the upper and lower GI tract often fails to identify hemorrhagic lesions in anemic HD patients. The study aims to evaluate lesions of the small bowel mucosa in HD vs non-HD patients with suspected small-bowel bleeding (SSBB) using capsule endoscopy (CE) after negative upper and lower GI endoscopies.

Neutrophil-fibroblast crosstalk drives immunofibrosis in Crohn's disease through IFNα pathway.

Introduction: Crohn's disease (CD) is characterized by chronic inflammation and intestinal fibrosis leading to lifelong complications. However, the disease pathogenesis remains elusive, and the therapeutic options are limited. Here, we investigated the interaction between neutrophils and intestinal fibroblasts in the development of CD immunofibrosis, a disease mechanism predisposing to inflammatory and fibrotic complications.

OPTORER: A Dynamic Routing and Touring Service for Indoors and Outdoor Tours.

This paper introduces a new routing and touring service both for outdoor and indoor places of touristic and cultural interest designed to be used in the wider area of Attica, Greece. This service is the result of the work performed in OPTORER (OPTORER: OPtimal rouTing and explOration of touRistic and cultural arEas of interest within Attica given personalized adaptive preferences, promoted underlying purpose, and interactive experience), project, and it aspires to offer a range of innovative and thematic routes to several specified points of interest in the selected area of Attica, encouraging the combination of indoor and outdoor routes in a single tour. The aim is to optimize the user experience while promoting specific, user-centric features, with safety and social welfare being a priority for every designed tour, resulting in enhancing the touristic experience in the area.

HERACLIS-HDV cohort for the factors of underdiagnosis and prevalence of hepatitis D virus infection in HBsAg-positive patients.

Background And Aims: Hepatitis D virus (HDV) underdiagnosis remains common. We assessed the HDV screening and prevalence rates in HBsAg-positive patients seen at tertiary liver centres throughout Greece as well as factors affecting HDV diagnosis.

Methods: All adult HBsAg-positive patients seen within the last 5 years were included.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) Infection in Hemodialysis Patients: A Multicenter Epidemiological Cohort Study in North-Eastern Greece.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV), a common cause of viral hepatitis in developing countries, is mainly transmitted via the fecal-oral route, but also may be a prevalent hospital-transmitted agent among patients on regular hemodialysis due to parenteral transmission. Previous epidemiological studies among hemodialysis patients in Greece, using different diagnostic techniques, gave conflicting results. Τhe present study aimed to measure the exposure rate of hemodialysis patients of north-eastern Greece to HEV by estimating the overall seroprevalence, and to identify potential risk factors.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease-related Spondyloarthritis: The Last Unexplored Territory of Rheumatology.

The Spondyloarthritides (SpA) are a group of chronic inflammatory d iseases a ffecting th e spine, peripheral joints and entheses, as well as extra-skeletal structures, including the gastrointestinal tract. On the other hand, inflammatory b owel d isease (IBD), e ither Crohn's d isease o r ulcerative colitis, often affects extra-intestinal sites, including the axial and/or peripheral skeleton. IBD-related arthritis is the type of SpA that occurs in patients affected by IBD, with an incidence up to 50% during the IBD course.

Complement C3 inhibition in severe COVID-19 using compstatin AMY-101.

Complement C3 activation contributes to COVID-19 pathology, and C3 targeting has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy. We provide interim data from ITHACA, the first randomized trial evaluating a C3 inhibitor, AMY-101, in severe COVID-19 (PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 300 mmHg). Patients received AMY-101 ( = 16) or placebo ( = 15) in addition to standard of care.

Combined administration of inhaled DNase, baricitinib and tocilizumab as rescue treatment in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory failure.

Aiming to reduce mortality in COVID-19 with severe respiratory failure we administered a combined rescue treatment (COMBI) on top of standard-of-care (SOC: dexamethasone/heparin) consisted of inhaled DNase to dissolve thrombogenic neutrophil extracellular traps, plus agents against cytokine-mediated hyperinflammation, namely anti-IL-6-receptor tocilizumab and JAK1/2 inhibitor baricitinib. Patients with PaO2/FiO2 < 100 mmHg were analysed. COMBI group (n = 22) was compared with similar groups that had received SOC alone (n = 26) or SOC plus monotherapy with either IL-1-receptor antagonist anakinra (n = 19) or tocilizumab (n = 11).

Deep Learning Empowered Wearable-Based Behavior Recognition for Search and Rescue Dogs.

Search and Rescue (SaR) dogs are important assets in the hands of first responders, as they have the ability to locate the victim even in cases where the vision and or the sound is limited, due to their inherent talents in olfactory and auditory senses. In this work, we propose a deep-learning-assisted implementation incorporating a wearable device, a base station, a mobile application, and a cloud-based infrastructure that can first monitor in real-time the activity, the audio signals, and the location of a SaR dog, and second, recognize and alert the rescuing team whenever the SaR dog spots a victim. For this purpose, we employed deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) both for the activity recognition and the sound classification, which are trained using data from inertial sensors, such as 3-axial accelerometer and gyroscope and from the wearable's microphone, respectively.