Publications by authors named "Munoz F"

Introduction: Pregnancy outcome identification and precise estimates of gestational age (GA) are critical in drug safety studies of pregnant women. Validated pregnancy outcome algorithms based on the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification/Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-CM/PCS) have not previously been published.

Methods: We developed algorithms to classify pregnancy outcomes and estimate GA using ICD-10-CM/PCS and service codes on claims in the 2016-2018 IBM MarketScan Explorys Claims-EMR Data Set and compared the results with ob-gyn adjudication of electronic medical records (EMRs).

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Background: Although performance-based assessment of early childhood development is preferred, there are a number of limitations to this methodology in low resource settings (LRSs). Hence, clinicians and researchers often rely on caregiver report screening tools. The Ages and Stages Questionnaire 3 (ASQ) is one of the most widely used caregiver report measures globally.

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Background: Rapid assessment of COVID-19 vaccine safety during pregnancy is urgently needed.

Methods: We conducted a rapid systematic review, to evaluate the safety of COVID-19 vaccines selected by the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access-Maternal Immunization Working Group in August 2020, including their components and their technological platforms used in other vaccines for pregnant persons. We searched literature databases, COVID-19 vaccine pregnancy registries, and explored reference lists from the inception date to February 2021 without language restriction.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a frequent infection in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR), with a study showing 23% of cases developed CMV DNAemia, mostly after the end of primary prophylaxis.
  • While 5% of SOTR experienced CMV disease, the rates were low due to effective universal prophylaxis, but there were still serious outcomes, including three deaths linked to lung transplants.
  • High-risk patient categories and lung transplants were more likely to show CMV DNAemia; however, there was no significant connection to graft failure or increased mortality, indicating a need for continued improvement in preventive strategies.
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Background: Direct-acting antivirals can cure hepatitis C virus (HCV). Persons with HCV/HIV and living with substance use are disadvantaged in benefiting from advances in HCV treatment.

Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, participants with HCV/HIV were randomized between February 2016 and January 2017 to either care facilitation or control.

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Mitochondria play key roles in ATP supply, calcium homeostasis, redox balance control and apoptosis, which in neurons are fundamental for neurotransmission and to allow synaptic plasticity. Their functional integrity is maintained by mitostasis, a process that involves mitochondrial transport, anchoring, fusion and fission processes regulated by different signaling pathways but mainly by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC-1α). PGC-1α also favors Ca homeostasis, reduces oxidative stress, modulates inflammatory processes and mobilizes mitochondria to where they are needed.

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Purpose: Performing a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the evidence of intra-arterial therapies in liver metastatic breast cancer (LMBC) patients.

Methods: A systemic literature search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS for studies regarding intra-arterial therapies in LMBC patients. Full text studies of LMBC patients (n ≥ 10) published between January 2010 and December 2020 were included when at least one outcome among response rate, adverse events or survival was available.

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Background: Immunization with tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine in pregnancy is increasingly recommended. We determined the effect of Tdap immunization in pregnancy on infants' vaccine responses.

Methods: Individual-participant data meta-analysis of ten studies (n=1884) investigating infants' antibody response to routine immunizations following Tdap immunization in pregnancy was performed.

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An emerging approach with potential in improving the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors is the use of focused ultrasound (FUS) to bypass the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in a non-invasive and localized manner. A large body of pre-clinical work has paved the way for the gradual clinical implementation of FUS-induced BBB opening. Even though the safety profile of FUS treatments in rodents has been extensively studied, the histological and behavioral effects of clinically relevant BBB opening in large animals are relatively understudied.

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Objectives: a) to analyze the evidence available about poor adherence/non-adherence, including prevalences, associated factors, and interventions in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients; b) to provide a framework to improve poor adherence/non-adherence.

Methods: a qualitative approach was used. A literature review was performed using Medline.

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Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (group I mGluRs) have been implicated in several central nervous system diseases including chronic pain. It is known that activation of group I mGluRs results in the production of inositol triphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol that leads to activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) and an increase in neuronal excitability, but how group I mGluRs mediate this process remains unclear. We previously reported that Orai1 is responsible for store-operated calcium entry and plays a key role in central sensitization.

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Given that pregnant women are now included among those for receipt coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, it is important to ensure that information systems can be used (or available) for active safety surveillance, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The aim of this study was to build consensus about the use of existing maternal and neonatal data collection systems in LMICs for COVID-19 vaccines active safety surveillance, a basic set of variables, and the suitability and feasibility of including pregnant women and LMIC research networks in COVID-19 vaccines pre-licensure activities. A three-stage modified Delphi study was conducted over three months in 2020.

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Intravenous lipid emulsions (IL) are an important part of parenteral nutrition (PN) to meet essential fatty acid (EFA) requirements and metabolic demands of neonates and preterm infants. Some critically-ill neonates may not metabolize IL effectively which can lead to hypertriglyceridemia. Risks associated with this include increased pulmonary vascular resistance, displaced bilirubins, and platelet or macrophage dysfunction.

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Background: Baseline urinary incontinence (UI) strongly modulates UI recovery after adjuvant/salvage radiotherapy (ART/SRT), inducing clinicians to postpone it "as much as possible", maximizing UI recovery but possibly reducing efficacy. This series aims to analyze the trend of UI recovery and its predictors at radiotherapy start.

Methods: A population of 408 patients treated with ART/SRT enrolled in a cohort study (ClinicalTrials.

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Fs-laser induced element redistribution (FLIER) has been a subject of intensive research in recent years. Its application to various types of glasses has already resulted in the production of efficient optical waveguides, tappers, amplifiers and lasers. Most of the work reported on FLIER-based waveguides refers to structures produced by the cross-migration of alkali (Na, K) and lanthanides (mostly La).

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In Chile, the Immunization Department of the Ministry of Health has carried out the seasonal influenza vaccination campaign annually since 1982 in collaboration with the national health services, regional health offices, and primary health care centres. With the aim of preventing deaths and serious morbidity in high-risk groups and preserving the integrity of health services, the seasonal influenza campaign had been the largest implemented in Chile until 2020, since in 2021 the vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2 is expected to become the largest ever implemented. In response to local demographic and epidemiological changes, and taking into account the new scientific evidence on the safety and immunogenicity of vaccines, the influenza vaccines available in Chile would increase annually as a result of campaign planning.

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Syntactic processing has often been considered an utmost example of unconscious automatic processing. In this line, it has been demonstrated that masked words containing syntactic anomalies are processed by our brain triggering event related potential (ERP) components similar to the ones triggered by conscious syntactic anomalies, thus supporting the automatic nature of the syntactic processing. Conversely, recent evidence also points out that regardless of the level of awareness, emotional information and other relevant extralinguistic information modulate conscious syntactic processing too.

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Objectives: The purpose of this experimental in vivo investigation was to evaluate the influence of modifying the implant surface by adding a monolayer of multi-phosphonate molecules on the de novo bone formation and osseointegration.

Material And Methods: The study was designed as an animal preclinical trial with intra-animal control and two healing periods, 2 and 8 weeks, to compare implants with an identical macro-design but with two different surfaces. Eight female Beagle dogs participated in the study.

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Background: Nasopharyngeal (NP) specimen testing by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the standard of care for detecting SARS-CoV-2. Data comparing the sensitivity and specificity of the NP specimen to the less invasive, mid-turbinate (MT) nasal specimen in children are limited.

Methods: Paired clinical NP and research MT specimens were collected from children <18 years with respiratory symptoms and tested by molecular assays to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

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A phosphate glass NaO-NbO-PO (NPP) is incorporated into NaNbO (NN) ceramics to examine its impact on the density, rearrangement of structural units, dielectric and energy storage features of the elaborated composites. The sodium niobate ceramic (NN) is prepared using the solid state process, whereas, the NaO-NbO-PO (NPP) glasses are produced using the method of conventional melt quenching. The glass (NPP) is added to the ceramic (NN) according to the composition (100-x) NN-xNNP; (x = 0, 2.

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Deciphering the effect of neutral and deterministic processes on community assembly is critical to understand and predict diversity patterns. The information held in community trait distributions is commonly assumed as a signature of these processes, but empirical and modelling attempts have most often failed to untangle their confounding, sometimes opposing, impacts. Here, we simulated the assembly of trait distributions through stochastic (dispersal limitation) and/or deterministic scenarios (environmental filtering and niche differentiation).

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Background: Pregnant women with COVID-19 are at an increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness as well as adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. Many countries are vaccinating or considering vaccinating pregnant women with limited available data about the safety of this strategy. Early identification of safety concerns of COVID-19 vaccines, including their components, or their technological platforms is therefore urgently needed.

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Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate have been proposed due to their physiological and functional benefits in the management of osteoarthritis in companion animals. However, the scientific evidence for their use is still controversial. The purpose of this review was to critically elucidate the efficacy of these nutraceutical therapies in delaying the progression of osteoarthritis, evaluating their impact on the synovial knee joint tissues and biochemical markers in preclinical studies by systematically reviewing the last two decades of peer-reviewed publications on experimental osteoarthritis.

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Oxysterols are assumed to be the driving force behind numerous neurodegenerative diseases. In this work, we aimed to study the ability of 7β-hydroxycholesterol (7β-OHC) to trigger oxidative stress and cell death in human neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) then the capacity of Nigella sativa and Milk thistle seed oils (NSO and MTSO, respectively) to oppose 7β-OHC-induced side effects. The impact of 7β-OHC, associated or not with NSO or MTSO, was studied on different criteria: cell viability; redox status, and apoptosis.

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