Pubertal testicular volume references for ruler, orchidometer, and ultrasonography measurements based on a longitudinal follow-up.

Background: Testicular volume is a marker of male pubertal development. Various clinical conditions and their treatments may influence testicular growth.

Objectives: To create ruler-based age-dependent pubertal testicular volume references that enable calculation of standard deviation (SD) scores.

National treatment guidelines poorly achieved among older subjects with type 2 diabetes - call to action!

Objective: To assess risk factors and factors associated with nonachievement of the treatment target levels among 75-year-old Finns with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Outpatient.

Serum APOC1 levels are decreased in young autoantibody positive children who rapidly progress to type 1 diabetes.

Better understanding of the early events in the development of type 1 diabetes is needed to improve prediction and monitoring of the disease progression during the substantially heterogeneous presymptomatic period of the beta cell damaging process. To address this concern, we used mass spectrometry-based proteomics to analyse longitudinal pre-onset plasma sample series from children positive for multiple islet autoantibodies who had rapidly progressed to type 1 diabetes before 4 years of age (n = 10) and compared these with similar measurements from matched children who were either positive for a single autoantibody (n = 10) or autoantibody negative (n = 10). Following statistical analysis of the longitudinal data, targeted serum proteomics was used to verify 11 proteins putatively associated with the disease development in a similar yet independent and larger cohort of children who progressed to the disease within 5 years of age (n = 31) and matched autoantibody negative children (n = 31).

Senior Health Clinic for 75-year-old home-dwelling Finns - study design, clinic protocol and non-response analysis.

Background: In the Finnish policy on older people preventive activities, which maintain functional capacity and independent living, are emphasized. The Turku Senior Health Clinic, aimed at maintaining independent coping of all home-dwelling 75-year-old citizens in the city of Turku, was founded in the beginning of 2020. The aim of this paper is to describe design and protocol of the Turku Senior Health Clinic Study (TSHeC) and provide results of the non-response analysis.

Reproductive Markers of Testicular Function and Size During Puberty in Boys With and Without a History of Cryptorchidism.

Context: Longitudinal data on levels of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis hormones and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) during puberty in boys with a history of cryptorchidism are largely missing.

Objective: We aimed to compare pubertal hormone levels between boys with a history of congenital cryptorchidism who experienced spontaneous testicular descent or underwent orchiopexy and boys without a history of cryptorchidism.

Methods: This was a nested case-control study within a population-based birth cohort, with a prospective, longitudinal pubertal follow-up every 6 months (2005 to 2019).

Exploring Minimally Invasive Approach to Define Stages of Type 1 Diabetes Remotely.

New methods are pivotal in accurately predicting, monitoring, and diagnosing the clinical manifestation of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in high-risk children. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is a valuable tool for patients with T1D, but there is still a knowledge gap regarding its utility in the prediction of diabetes. The current study explored whether 10-day CGM or CGM during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) performed in the laboratory or at home (home-OGTT) could be accurate in detecting stages of T1D.

Beta cell function in participants with single or multiple islet autoantibodies at baseline in the TEDDY Family Prevention Study: TEFA.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to assess beta cell function based on an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in participants with single islet autoantibody or an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IvGTT) in participants with multiple islet autoantibodies.

Materials And Methods: Healthy participants in Sweden and Finland, between 2 and 49.99 years of age previously identified as positive for a single (n = 30) autoantibody to either insulin, glutamic acid decarboxylase, islet antigen-2, zinc transporter 8 or islet cell antibodies or multiple autoantibodies (n = 46), were included.

Experiences of safety among patients receiving home dialysis therapies.

Background: Dialysis patients' experience of safety can be seen positively connected with their wellbeing and successful outcomes of their treatment and care. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the factors promoting and weakening the safety experiences and create a basis for empowering interventions.

Objectives: Analyse patients' experiences of safety with dialysis and the factors promoting and weakening their safety.

Postnatal Testicular Activity in Healthy Boys and Boys With Cryptorchidism.

Cryptorchidism, or undescended testis, is a well-known risk factor for testicular cancer and impaired semen quality in adulthood, conditions which have their origins in early fetal and postnatal life. In human pregnancy, the interplay of testicular and placental hormones as well as local regulatory factors and control by the hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) axis, lead to testicular descent by term. The normal masculine development may be disrupted by environmental factors or genetic defects and result in undescended testes.

Respect and its associated factors as perceived by older patients.

Aims And Objectives: To investigate older hospital patients' perceptions of respect in a patient-nurse relationship and its associated factors.

Background: To be cared for with respect is fundamental to ethical nursing care. However, respect has seldom been a main topic of nursing research, and few of these studies have assessed older patients' perceptions of being respected by nurses alongside associated factors.

Patient's informational privacy in prehospital emergency care: Paramedics' perspective.

Background: As a fundamental human right in healthcare, informational privacy creates the foundation for patient's safety and the quality of care. However, its realization can be a challenge in prehospital emergency care, considering the nature of the work.

Objectives: To describe patient's informational privacy, its realization, and the factors related to the realization in prehospital emergency care from the perspective of paramedics.

Testis Development.

Production of sperm and androgens is the main function of the testis. This depends on normal development of both testicular somatic cells and germ cells. A genetic program initiated from the Y chromosome gene sex-determining region Y (SRY) directs somatic cell specification to Sertoli cells that orchestrate further development.

Being respected by nurses: Measuring older patients' perceptions.

Aim And Objective: To investigate older patients' perceptions of respect in hospital nursing care and to test a newly developed instrument measuring the phenomenon.

Background: Respect manifests itself in the older patient-nurse relationship in terms of nurses being with and doing for the patient. Empirical studies investigating respect from the older patients' perspective are rare.

Postnatal Changes in Testicular Position Are Associated With IGF-I and Function of Sertoli and Leydig Cells.

Context: Despite clinical guidelines calling for repetitive examination of testicular position during childhood, little is known of normal changes in testicular position during childhood, let alone factors that control it.

Objective: To assess changes in and factors associated with testicular position during childhood.

Design: Testicular position (the distance from the pubic bone to the upper pole of the testes) at birth, 3 months, 18 months, 36 months, and 7 years and reproductive hormones at 3 months were measured.

Testicular growth and development in puberty.

Purpose Of Review: To describe pubertal testicular growth in humans, changes in testicular cell populations that result in testicular growth, and the role of testosterone and gonadotrophins follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) in testicular growth. When human data were not available, studies in nonhuman primates and/or rodents were used as surrogates.

Recent Findings: Testicular growth in puberty follows a sigmoidal growth curve, with a large variation in timing of testicular growth and adult testicular volume.

Exposure Variation and Endocrine Disruption of the Male Reproductive System.

Exposure to endocrine disruptors varies geographically and temporally. Environmental levels of persistent organic pollutants have decreased after international regulation, whereas potential exposure to thousands of new chemicals has increased. The adverse effects of endocrine disruptors depend on susceptibility and timing of the exposure.

The association between positive-negative reactions of informal caregivers of people with dementia and health outcomes in eight European countries: a cross-sectional study.

Aim: To describe the associations between positive and negative reactions of informal caregivers of people with dementia and health outcomes across eight European Countries.

Background: Caring for someone with dementia may have implications for the caregiver's own health and for the care recipient. These consequences could be associated with caregivers' reactions to the process of care.

Manifestation of respect in the care of older patients in long-term care settings.

Background: Respect is fundamental to ethical nursing practice. However, respect in the care of older people is seldom investigated from the perspective of patients and their next of kin.

Aim: To describe the manifestation of respect in the care of older patients in long-term care settings from the perspective of older patients with memory disorders and their next of kin.

Older persons with dementia at risk for institutionalization in eight European countries: a cross-sectional study on the perceptions of informal caregivers and healthcare professionals.

Aims: To explore the perceptions of informal caregivers and healthcare professionals regarding potential reasons for the institutionalization of older persons with dementia in eight European countries.

Background: Healthcare professionals may have an important role in facilitating informal caregivers' decision-making regarding institutionalization. Little is known about the perceptions of informal caregivers and healthcare professionals prior to institutionalization.

Right for knowledge - the perspective of significant others of Persons with Memory Disorders.

Rationale: People have a fundamental right to know about care and services within health care. This right is also important for persons with memory disorders (PwMD) and their significant others (SO) for empowering them to manage with difficult situations at home and in institution.

Aim: This study explores the self-assessed level of received knowledge about care and services of the SOs of PwMDs and the understandability of that knowledge.