The consequences of cardiac autonomic nervous system modulation during pulmonary vein isolation: A review.

Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is a well-established treatment modality for atrial fibrillation (AF). Apart from the desired effect regarding the arrhythmic substrate within the left atrium, PVI commonly leads to modulation of the intrinsic cardiac autonomic nervous system (ICANS). Using the available literature, this article presents the anatomy of ICANS and describes methods of assessing its function, mainly focusing on heart rate (HR) variability metrics.

Risk factors for local and nodal recurrence in patients with head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in a high-reference oncological center in Poland.

Background: The behavior of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) of the head and neck remains poorly understood. There is much controversy regarding the risk of local and nodal recurrences, as well as individual/environmental factors that increase the risk, such as tumor size, perineural invasion, and the state of the immune system. The objective was to analyze factors influencing local and/or regional lymph node recurrence in patients with cSCC in the head and neck region.

Senescence in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: relationship between senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) mRNA expression level and clinicopathological features.

Background: Cellular senescence is a state characterized by cell-cycle arrest and apoptotic resistance. Senescence in cancer may be induced by oncogenes or therapy. While cellular senescence might play an important role in protection against cancer development, elevated and uncontrolled senescent cells accumulation may promote carcinogenesis by secreting a collection of pro-inflammatory factors, collectively termed the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP).

The effects of P2Y adenosine receptors' inhibitors on central and peripheral chemoreflexes.

The most common side effect of ticagrelor is dyspnea, which leads to premature withdrawal of this life-saving medication in 6.5% of patients. Increased chemoreceptors' sensitivity was suggested as a possible pathophysiological explanation of this phenomenon; however, the link between oversensitization of peripheral and/or central chemosensory areas and ticagrelor intake has not been conclusively proved.