Considerations regarding the selection, sampling, extraction, analysis, and modelling of biomarkers in exhaled breath for early lung cancer screening.

Lung cancer (LC) is the deadliest cancer due to the lack of efficient screening methods that detect the disease early. This review, covering the years 2011 - 2025, summarizes state-of-the-art LC screening through analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath. All fundamental parts of the methodology are covered, i.

Is acupuncture effective in the treatment of pain in endometriosis?

Introduction: Endometriosis is a multifactorial, estrogen-dependent, inflammatory gynecological condition - often with long-lasting visceral pelvic pain of different origin, and infertility among women. Current management options for patients' are often inadequate, with side effects for many for whom acupuncture techniques could be an alternative. Earlier studies have discussed the efficacy of acupuncture, but not its methodological aspects.

Immediate effect of three different electroacupuncture protocols on fasting blood glucose in obese patients: a pilot study.

Background: Obesity is an increasing global health problem, and current methods of management are limited. Preliminary research data suggest that acupuncture may have an influence on metabolic parameters related to obesity.

Objective: To determine the electroacupuncture (EA) protocol to be used in a future clinical trial examining the effect of acupuncture on metabolic parameters related to obesity and to examine whether a single EA treatment can change fasting blood glucose in obese subjects.

Differential brain effects of laser and needle acupuncture at LR8 using functional MRI.

Objective: While needle acupuncture is a well-accepted technique, laser acupuncture is being increasingly used in clinical practice. The differential effects of the two techniques are of interest. We examine this in relation to brain effects of activation of LR8, a putative acupuncture point for depression, using functional MRI (fMRI).

A promise in the treatment of endometriosis: an observational cohort study on ovarian endometrioma reduction by N-acetylcysteine.

Urged by the unmet medical needs in endometriosis treatment, often with undesirable side effects, and encouraged by N-acetylcysteine (NAC) efficacy in an animal model of endometriosis and by the virtual absence of toxicity of this natural compound, we performed an observational cohort study on ovarian endometriosis. NAC treatment or no treatment was offered to 92 consecutive Italian women referred to our university hospital with ultrasound confirmed diagnosis of ovarian endometriosis and scheduled to undergo laparoscopy 3 months later. According to patients acceptance or refusal, NAC-treated and untreated groups finally comprised 73 and 72 endometriomas, respectively.

International Spinal Cord Injury Pain (ISCIP) Classification: Part 2. Initial validation using vignettes.

Study Design: International validation study using self-administered surveys.

Objectives: To investigate the utility and reliability of the International Spinal Cord Injury Pain (ISCIP) Classification as used by clinicians.

Methods: Seventy-five clinical vignettes (case histories) were prepared by the members of the ISCIP Classification group and assigned to a category by consensus.

International spinal cord injury pain classification: part I. Background and description. March 6-7, 2009.

Study Design: Discussion of issues and development of consensus.

Objective: Present the background, purpose, development process, format and definitions of the International Spinal Cord Injury Pain (ISCIP) Classification.

Methods: An international group of spinal cord injury (SCI) and pain experts deliberated over 2 days, and then via e-mail communication developed a consensus classification of pain after SCI.

Gastrointestinal symptoms of infantile colic and their change after light needling of acupuncture: a case series study of 913 infants.

Background: Infantile colic is a common painful clinical condition associated with signs of distended intestines and an increase in colon peristalsis. However, clinical documentation of observed gastrointestinal functions in the condition is still lacking. Even though the ailment is common, no clear treatment guidelines exist.

Acupuncture and massage therapy for neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury: an exploratory study.

Objective: The study sought to explore the possibility of using acupuncture and massage therapy for relieving neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: 30 individuals with SCI and neuropathic pain were assigned to treatment of either massage or acupuncture, with 15 individuals in each group. Both groups received treatment twice weekly for 6 weeks.

On the threshold - evaluation of variability in effects of acupuncture in a gender perspective.

Variable results of pain alleviation in response to acupuncture have been reported, complicating its interpretation. Sources of variability are probably multi-factorial, including the contribution of gender related effects. Gender related variation in perceived pain has been discussed frequently, but documented effects of acupuncture referring to gender are sparse.

More than antioxidant: N-acetyl-L-cysteine in a murine model of endometriosis.

N-acetyl-L-cysteine exerts a complex action on endometrial cells, involving regulation of gene expression and protein activity and location, all converging into a decreased proliferation and a switch toward a differentiating, less invasive, and less inflammatory phenotype. Also considering the lack of undesired side effects, including unaffected fertility potential, this suggests a beneficial use of NAC in endometriosis clinical treatment.

Thiol redox transitions in cell signaling: a lesson from N-acetylcysteine.

The functional status of cells is under the control of external stimuli affecting the function of critical proteins and eventually gene expression. Signal sensing and transduction by messengers to specific effectors operate by post-translational modification of proteins, among which thiol redox switches play a fundamental role that is just beginning to be understood. The maintenance of the redox status is, indeed, crucial for cellular homeostasis and its dysregulation towards a more oxidized intracellular environment is associated with aberrant proliferation, ultimately related to diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Is placebo acupuncture what it is intended to be?

Randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials are recommended for evaluation of a treatment's efficacy with the goal of separating the specific effects (verum) from the non-specific ones (placebo). In order to be able to carry out placebo-controlled acupuncture trials, minimal/sham acupuncture procedures and a sham acupuncture needle has been used with the intention of being inert. However, clinical and experimental results suggest that sham/minimal acupuncture is not inert since it is reported that both verum acupuncture and sham/minimal acupuncture induce a significant alleviation of pain.

Treatment recommendations should take account of individual patient variation not just group responses.

Recommendations for treatment are commonly based on results evaluating variation in systematic effects (group responses) from randomised controlled trials without taking the individual patient's variation into account. In the evaluation of acupuncture-related treatment effects, the trial design and statistical analysis used are a challenge since the assessed variables commonly have subjective properties and are based on the person's own self-report. Thus, the results that are seen are often varied, most likely due to inter-individual variation in rating of the actual variable such that the treatment effects are expressed more (or less) in some individuals than in others.

Tramadol in neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objectives: To assess the efficacy and safety of tramadol for relieving neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: Thirty-six patients with SCI and neuropathic pain were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, and 35 patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis based on all patients taking at least 1 dose of study medication. Of the intention-to-treat population, 23 were randomized to treatment with tramadol and 12 to placebo.

Minimal acupuncture is not a valid placebo control in randomised controlled trials of acupuncture: a physiologist's perspective.

Placebo-control of acupuncture is used to evaluate and distinguish between the specific effects and the non-specific ones. During 'true' acupuncture treatment in general, the needles are inserted into acupoints and stimulated until deqi is evoked. In contrast, during placebo acupuncture, the needles are inserted into non-acupoints and/or superficially (so-called minimal acupuncture).

The Emperors sham - wrong assumption that sham needling is sham.

During the last five years a large number of randomised controlled clinical trials (RCTs) have been published on the efficacy of acupuncture in different conditions. In most of these studies verum is compared with sham acupuncture. In general both verum and sham have been found to be effective, and often with little reported difference in outcome.

Acupuncture for preconditioning of expectancy and/or Pavlovian extinction.

Both specific and non-specific factors, as well as the therapist, may play a role in acupuncture therapy. Recent results suggest that verum acupuncture has specific physiological effects and that patients expectations and belief regarding a potentially beneficial treatment modulate activity in the reward and self-appraisal systems in the brain. We suggest that acupuncture treatment may partly be regarded and used as an intervention that preconditions expectancy, which results in both conditional reflexes and conditioning of expected reward and self-appraisal.

Tail skin temperatures reflect coping styles in rats.

This study was carried out to elucidate the predictive value of tail skin temperatures (TSTs) assessed in naïve rats as a non-invasive pre-experimental method of classification of coping style. Male Lewis rats were classified according to tail skin temperatures (TST), and relative size within cage-groups. TSTs were monitored over two-hour periods following exposure to physical and emotional stressors.

Effects of minimal acupuncture in children with infantile colic - a prospective, quasi-randomised single blind controlled trial.

Background: Colic causes crying in 10-30% of infants and is one of the primary reasons parents seek health care. Treatments are generally not totally effective and some cause side effects. In this study we aimed to test the effect of light needling (minimal acupuncture) on crying.