Managing anxiety disorders with the neuro-biofeedback method of Brain Boy Universal Professional.

Background: Biofeedback is a non-invasive therapeutic method used independently or as an adjunct alongside other methods.

Objective: This study evaluated the efficacy of biofeedback in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Methods: The sample consisted of 85 individuals with anxiety symptoms who underwent neuro-biofeedback therapy using Brain Boy Universal Professional.

Can dysglycemia in OGTT be predicted by baseline parameters in patients with PCOS?

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is considered a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, which is the most appropriate way to evaluate dysglycemia in women with PCOS and who are at increased risk are as yet unclear.

Aim Of The Study: To determine the prevalence of T2DM, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in PCOS women and potential factors to identify those at risk.

The prognostic role of micronutrient status and supplements in COVID-19 outcomes: A systematic review.

Micronutrients constitute an adjuvant treatment for respiratory viral infections. Since there is no effective antiviral therapy for COVID-19 yet, adjuvant intervention for the survival of critically ill patients may be significant. Search of the PubMed, CINAHL and Cochrane databases was carried out to find human studies investigating the prognostic role of micronutrient status and the effects of micronutrient supplementation intervention in COVID-19 outcomes of adult patients.

Artificial intelligence for imaging-based COVID-19 detection: Systematic review comparing added value of AI versus human readers.

Purpose: A growing number of studies have examined whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can support imaging-based diagnosis of COVID-19-caused pneumonia, including both gains in diagnostic performance and speed. However, what is currently missing is a combined appreciation of studies comparing human readers and AI.

Methods: We followed PRISMA-DTA guidelines for our systematic review, searching EMBASE, PUBMED and Scopus databases.

Insulin resistance, androgens, and lipids are gradually improved in an age-dependent manner in lean women with polycystic ovary syndrome: insights from a large Caucasian cohort.

Purpose: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), considered a lifelong condition, manifests mainly as a cluster of hyperandrogenic symptoms during the early reproductive years, with the affected woman gradually developing an adverse cardiometabolic profile over the years. However, some data point to the possibility of differences in the evolution of PCOS according to a woman's weight. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the metabolic and hormonal profiles of women with PCOS over time.

Assessing the safety and efficacy of TAVR compared to SAVR in low-to-intermediate surgical risk patients with aortic valve stenosis: An overview of reviews.

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was initially introduced to treat patients with aortic valve stenosis (AS) at high-risk for surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). Today, there is ample evidence supporting TAVR in high-risk groups. However, in recent years TAVR has been extended to low-to intermediate risk groups and relevant clinical evidence is still emerging, leaving some uncertainties.

Publisher Correction: Genome-wide association of polycystic ovary syndrome implicates alterations in gonadotropin secretion in European ancestry populations.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Oral contraceptives increase platelet microparticle levels in normal-weight women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Purpose: Platelet microparticles (PMPs), which are microvesicles shed from platelets, participate in inflammation, vascular homeostasis, and thrombosis. PMPs are increased in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Agents that modulate hormonal aspects of PCOS could affect the levels of PMPs.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with insulin resistance and lipid accumulation product in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Study Question: What are the most relevant factors associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)?

Summary Answer: Insulin resistance (IR) and lipid accumulation product (LAP) are independently associated with NAFLD in PCOS.

What Is Known Already: Obesity and IR are frequently present in both women with PCOS and subjects having NAFLD. The coexistence of PCOS and NAFLD might synergistically increase the risk for both type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Association of Calpain (CAPN) 10 (UCSNP-43, rs3792267) gene polymorphism with elevated serum androgens in young women with the most severe phenotype of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Objectives: To highlight a possible association of Calpain (CAPN 10) gene UCSNP-43 polymorphism with hormonal and metabolic traits of young women with different phenotypes of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Design: PCOS women were genotyped for the CAPN 10 gene UCSNP-43 polymorphism. A comparison of clinical and biochemical features of women with PCOS stratified on the basis of the CAPN 10 gene UCSNP-43 variants was assessed.

Genome-wide association of polycystic ovary syndrome implicates alterations in gonadotropin secretion in European ancestry populations.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common, highly heritable complex disorder of unknown aetiology characterized by hyperandrogenism, chronic anovulation and defects in glucose homeostasis. Increased luteinizing hormone relative to follicle-stimulating hormone secretion, insulin resistance and developmental exposure to androgens are hypothesized to play a causal role in PCOS. Here we map common genetic susceptibility loci in European ancestry women for the National Institutes of Health PCOS phenotype, which confers the highest risk for metabolic morbidities, as well as reproductive hormone levels.

Associations of menstrual cycle irregularities with age, obesity and phenotype in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: Limited data suggest that menstrual cycle abnormalities are more pronounced in younger and more obese patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). We aimed to evaluate the association between menstrual cycle pattern and age, obesity and PCOS phenotype in a large population of women with PCOS.

Design: We studied 1,297 women with PCOS and divided them according to: a) age in ≤ 20, 21-30 and > 30 years old, b) body mass index in normal weight, overweight and obese and c) PCOS phenotype in phenotype 1 (anovulation, hyperandrogenemia and polycystic ovaries), 2 (anovulation and hyperandrogenemia without polycystic ovaries), 3 (hyperandrogenemia and polycystic ovaries without anovulation) and 4 (anovulation and polycystic ovaries without hyperandrogenemia).

Lipid accumulation product is associated with metabolic syndrome in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: There is a need for a simple and accurate method for the assessment of cardiovascular risk in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Lipid accumulation product (LAP) is based on the assessment of waist circumference and serum triglycerides that yield an estimation of lipid overaccumulation. We aimed to determine whether LAP is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Caucasian women with PCOS.

Gene variants associated with age at menopause are also associated with polycystic ovary syndrome, gonadotrophins and ovarian volume.

Study Question: Is there a relationship between the genetic risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and genetic variants that influence timing of menopause?

Summary Answer: The genetic risk score, which sums the contribution of variants at all menopause loci, was associated with PCOS.

What Is Already Known: Ovarian parameters and anti-Mullerian hormone levels suggest that women with PCOS should have a later age at menopause.

Study Design, Size, Duration: The study was a case-control examination of genetic variants associated with age at menopause in a discovery cohort of women with PCOS (n = 485) and controls (n = 407) from Boston recruited from 2003 to 2012.

Han Chinese polycystic ovary syndrome risk variants in women of European ancestry: relationship to FSH levels and glucose tolerance.

Study Question: Are PCOS risk variants identified in women of Han Chinese ethnicity also associated with risk of PCOS or the phenotypic features of PCOS in European women?

Summary Answer: One variant, rs2268361-T, in the intron of FSHR was associated with PCOS and lower FSH levels, while another variant rs705702-G near the RAB5B and SUOX genes was associated with insulin and glucose levels after oral glucose testing in women with PCOS of European ethnicity.

What Is Known Already: Three of the eleven variants associated with PCOS in the Han Chinese genome-wide association studies were also associated with PCOS in at least one European population when corrected for multiple testing (DENND1A, THADA and YAP1). However, additional replication is needed to establish the importance of these variants in European women and to determine the relationship to PCOS phenotypic traits.

Excess Metabolic and Cardiovascular Risk is not Manifested in all Phenotypes of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Implications for Diagnosis and Treatment.

Aim: To assess the potential differences in the metabolic and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk between the distinct phenotypes of the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) according to the Rotterdam definition regardless of body mass index (BMI).

Patients-methods: The study included 300 women; 240 women with PCOS, according to the Rotterdam criteria and 60 controls without PCOS. All women were further subdivided, according to their BMI, into normal-weight and overweight/obese and PCOS women were furthermore subdivided to the 4 phenotypes of the syndrome.

The benefit-to-risk ratio of common treatments in PCOS: effect of oral contraceptives versus metformin on atherogenic markers.

Objective: To compare the effects of oral contraceptives (OCPs) and metformin on atherogenic markers, including serum levels of advanced glycated end products (AGEs) and C-reactive protein (CRP), in lean women (Body Mass Index below 25 kg/m(2)) with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), defined by NIH criteria.

Design: Prospective open-label study.

Results: One hundred and twenty women with PCOS were treated for 6 months with one of the following treatments: ethinylestradiol plus cyproterone acetate (OCP 1, n=40) or ethinylestradiol plus drospirenone (OCP2, n=40) or metformin (MET, n=40).

Effect of 5-HT7 receptor blockade on liver regeneration after 60-70% partial hepatectomy.

Background: Serotonin exhibits a vast repertoire of actions including cell proliferation and differentiation. The effect of serotonin, as an incomplete mitogen, on liver regeneration has recently been unveiled and is mediated through 5-HT2 receptor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of 5-HT7 receptor blockade on liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy.

The influence of combined oral contraceptives containing drospirenone on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity and glucocorticoid receptor expression and function in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: Most women with PCOS have increased adrenal androgen production, enhanced peripheral metabolism of cortisol and elevation in urinary excretion of its metabolites. Increased cortisol clearance in PCOS is followed by a compensatory overdrive of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. We hypothesized that oral contraceptives containing ethinylestradiol and drospirenone (EE-DRSP) could modulate glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and function and thus affect HPA axis activity in PCOS patients.

Effect of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on glutathione peroxidase activity in non-obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: In order to gain deeper insight into molecular mechanisms underlying oxidative stress (OS) and its relation to insulin resistance and hyperandrogenemia, plasma markers of OS and antioxidant glutathione-peroxidase (GPX) activity were studied in non-obese polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) women via the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp.

Design: In 36 PCOS women, plasma nitrotyrosine, thiol groups, uric acid (UA) and GPX activity were studied during OGTT and clamp. Insulin resistance was assessed by the homeostasis model (HOMA-IR), quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI) and M/I ratio.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: assessment of non-invasive indices predicting hepatic steatosis and fibrosis.

Objective: Insulin resistance contributes to the pathogenesis of both polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The main aim of the present study was the evaluation of non-invasive indices of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in PCOS women with or without metabolic syndrome (MetS).

Design: In this cross-sectional study, three non-invasive indices for hepatic steatosis [NAFLD liver fat score, lipid accumulation product (LAP) and hepatic steatosis index (HIS)] and four for fibrosis [FIB-4, aspartate aminotransferase (AST)-to-Platelet Ratio Index (APRI), body mass index (BMI)-Age-Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)-Triglycerides (BAAT) and BMI AST/ALT Ratio Diabetes (BARD)] were calculated in 314 PCOS women (77 with, 237 without MetS) and 78 controls.

Diverse impacts of aging on insulin resistance in lean and obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome: evidence from 1345 women with the syndrome.

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) represents a moving spectrum of hormonal to metabolic abnormalities, as women with the syndrome are aging. Hormonal abnormalities, anovulation, and hyperandrogenic signs were predominant during the early years of PCOS and fade away with the years. Metabolic abnormalities and insulin resistance (IR) remain throughout the PCOS life cycle; however, it is unclear as to how they change, as women with the syndrome are aging.

Elevated serum androstenedione is associated with a more severe phenotype in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Objective: To evaluate the impact of elevated serum Δ4A levels on the hormonal and metabolic features of the different phenotypes of PCOS.

Design: 1276 women with PCOS according to the Rotterdam criteria were included, in whom serum hormonal levels were determined.

Results: In PCOS women as a whole, as well as in patients presenting clinical and/or biochemical hyperandrogenemia (phenotypes I and II), Δ4A levels >3.