Long-Term Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide and Ozone and Mortality: Update of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis on long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO) and ozone (O) with mortality, to expand evidence that informed 2021 the WHO Air Quality Guidelines and guide the Health Risks of Air Pollution in Europe project.

Methods: We included cohorts investigating NO and O mortality from all-causes, respiratory diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI); and NO mortality from circulatory, ischemic heart, cerebrovascular diseases and lung cancer. We pooled estimates by random-effects models and investigated heterogeneity.

Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Matter and Mortality: An Update of the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objectives: For the development of the 2021 global air quality guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses to assess the association between exposure to air pollution and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. One of these reviews, which we aim to update, focused on the effects of long-term exposure to PM and PM on all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: The protocol for this study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023425327).

Choices of morbidity outcomes and concentration-response functions for health risk assessment of long-term exposure to air pollution.

Background: Air pollution health risk assessment (HRA) has been typically conducted for all causes and cause-specific mortality based on concentration-response functions (CRFs) from meta-analyses that synthesize the evidence on air pollution health effects. There is a need for a similar systematic approach for HRA for morbidity outcomes, which have often been omitted from HRA of air pollution, thus underestimating the full air pollution burden. We aimed to compile from the existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses CRFs for the incidence of several diseases that could be applied in HRA.

Nutritional attributes and microbial metagenomic profile during solid-state fermentation of soybean meal inoculated with Lactobacillus acidophilus under non-sterile conditions.

Background: Soybean meal (SBM) is used widely in animal feed but it contains anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) such as protease inhibitors - immunogenic proteins that limit its utilization. Fermentative processes could help to reduce these ANFs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional attributes, bacterial community dynamics, and microbial metagenomic profile during the solid-state fermentation of SBM using a strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus with or without pre-autoclaving treatment.

Update of the WHO global air quality guidelines: Systematic reviews - An introduction.

This paper aims to serve as an introduction to the Special Issue in Environment International entitled "Update of the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines: Systematic Reviews". The article has two main objectives. One is to provide the context to this Special Issue, related to (a) policy context, overall exposure to air pollution, and burden of disease attributable to air pollution, and the other is to describe (b) the WHO guideline development process, with special emphasis on the systematic reviews.

Effect of hypo- and hypersaline stress conditions on physiological, metabolic, and immune responses in the oyster Crassostrea corteziensis (Bivalvia: Ostreidae).

Salinity in the oceans is changing due to climate change and global warming. Intense rainfalls and freshwater runoff decrease salinity along the coastal areas. In contrast, intense drought seasons and river damming have certainly increased salinity in lagoons and estuaries.

The role of burden of disease assessment in tracking progress towards achieving WHO global air quality guidelines.

Objectives: More than 90% of the global population live in areas exceeding the PM air quality guidelines (AQGs). We provide an overview of the ambient PM-related burden of disease (BoD) studies along with scenario analysis in the framework of the WHO AQG update on the estimated reduction in the BoD if AQGs were achieved globally.

Methods: We reviewed the literature for large-scale studies for the BoD attributed to ambient PM.

HTA and decision-making processes in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe: Results from a survey.

Objective: To gain knowledge and insights on health technology assessment (HTA) and decision-making processes in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe (CESEE) countries.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed. Based on the literature, a questionnaire was developed in a multi-stage process.

Adoption of trastuzumab for breast cancer in four emerging countries in the use of health technology assessment: a case study.

Aim: To describe processes for the adoption of trastuzumab in four countries in the use of health technology assessment (HTA): Poland, Albania, Brazil and Colombia.

Materials & Methods: Mixed methods were used for collection and triangulation of data. Data were examined following a conceptual framework connecting HTA process steps and key principles.

A cost-utility analysis of alternative drug regimens for newly diagnosed severe lupus nephritis patients in Thailand.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the value of four drug regimens for newly diagnosed severe LN from a societal perspective.

Methods: A model-based cost-utility analysis was devised to measure lifetime costs and health outcomes. Current treatment options consisting of different combinations of i.

Efficiency or equity: value judgments in coverage decisions in Thailand.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the roles of social values in the reform of coverage decisions for Thailand's Universal Health Coverage (UC) plan in 2009 and 2010.

Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative techniques, including document review and personal communication, were employed for data collection and triangulation. All relevant data and information regarding the reform and three case study interventions were interpreted and analysed according to the thematic elements in the conceptual framework.

Systematic review of economic evaluations of preparedness strategies and interventions against influenza pandemics.

Background: Although public health guidelines have implications for resource allocation, these issues were not explicitly considered in previous WHO pandemic preparedness and response guidance. In order to ensure a thorough and informed revision of this guidance following the H1N1 2009 pandemic, a systematic review of published and unpublished economic evaluations of preparedness strategies and interventions against influenza pandemics was conducted.

Methods: The search was performed in September 2011 using 10 electronic databases, 2 internet search engines, reference list screening, cited reference searching, and direct communication with relevant authors.

Usefulness of Video-EEG monitoring in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: To evaluate the characteristics of patients on whom long-term Video-EEG monitoring is performed in a specialist centre and to assess its suitability to study refractory epilepsy patients.

Methods: A prospective analysis and study of Video-EEG monitoring was performed in a series of 100 refractory epilepsy patients from a single centre. The analysis included demographic data, the time until the first seizure, the methods used to provoke seizures, and the outcome (usefulness, change in the management, pharmacological and surgical improvement).

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor use in a large British hospital: comparison with published experience.

Unlabelled: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF) are high-cost agents recommended as prophylaxis of febrile neutropenia or as adjunctive treatment of severe neutropenic sepsis. Their use in high-risk situations such as acute myeloid leukaemia, acute lymphocytic leukaemia, myelodysplastic syndrome and stem cell transplantation is also indicated.

Objective: This audit assessed the use of G-CSF within the Oncology and Haematology Service Delivery Unit at Guy's and St.

[Abdominal splenosis: an often underdiagnosed entity].

Splenosis is defined as the heterotopic autotransplantation of splenic tissue because of a ruptured spleen due to trauma or surgery. It is a benign and incidental finding, although imaging tests may sometimes orient toward malignancy simulating renal tumors, abdominal lymphomas, endometriosis, among other. We report the case of a 42-year old male in whom a MRI was performed after a study due to abdominal pain.

Review of granulocyte colony-stimulating factors in the treatment of established febrile neutropenia.

Purpose: To assess the value of granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF) in promoting recovery from established episodes of febrile neutropenia (FN) after chemotherapy in cancer patients.

Method: The literature was searched using the MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, and IPA databases. Reference lists from the retrieved papers and hand searches of relevant journals complemented the search.

[Interstitial nephritis demonstrated by 67Ga-citrate scintigraphy within a diagnosis of fever of unknown origin].

We present a clinical case of a 54-year-old woman that was admitted in our hospital with the diagnosis of fever of unknown origin. All the laboratory tests and imaging techniques did not manage to establish the fever's aetiology until a (67)Ga-citrate scan was performed and kidney uptake was observed, which lead to the clinical suspicion of drug-induced interstitial nephritis. The renal biopsy confirmed the diagnosis.

[Diagnosis of vascular parkinsonism: correlation of the symptoms with neuroimaging and utility of SPECT with 123I-ioflupane].

Introduction: The concept of vascular parkinsonism (VP) has evolved since it was introduced by Critchley. The relationships between the clinical manifestations and neuroimagining of patients with VP to determine the utility of SPECT in its diagnosis have been established.

Material And Methods: Retrospective study of patients with suspicion of VP according to Ziljmans 2004 criteria.

[Bone scintigraphy and somatostatin receptor scintigraphy in pediatric patients with bone involvement in Langerhans cell histiocytosis].

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a granulomatous disease which can involve multiples sites of the body. Diagnostic imaging is of utmost importance in the management of these patients. Up to now radiographic skeletal survey and bone scintigraphy (BS) have been used to assess bone involvement (both with low specificity).

Hodgkin's disease. Prognostic value of Gallium-67 scintigraphy.

Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the clinical impact of gallium-67 scintigraphy, before and after treatment, in patients with Hodgkin's disease, and to compare the overall survival between the patients whose gallium studies after treatment were negative and those whose studies remained positive.

Methods: We have studied 75 patients (40 women, 35 men) with Hodgkin's disease. All the patients underwent (67)Ga scintigraphy at the moment of the diagnosis (basal study) and in the case that basal study was positive (abnormal hyper-uptake focus) we performed follow-up studies after the treatment.

[Quantification of bone scintigraphy as an objective method in the follow-up of radioisotopic synoviorthesis].

This work tries to provide the clinicians an objective tool that can contribute to the assessment of the results of radioisotopic synoviorthesis (RS). This study aims to assess the value of the quantification of bone scintigraphy in blood pool and late phase of the affected joints treated with 90Y silicate, in order to observe the clinical improvement experienced by most of these patients. A total of 69 bone scintigraphies (BS) in blood pool and late phase have been quantified.

[Check-ups with brain SPECT in electroconvulsive therapy in patients with severe drug-resistant depressive episodes and Parkinson's disease].

We have studied three women (66,72 and 72 years) with Parkinson's disease of 11, 6 and 21 years of evolution and drug-resistant severe depressive episodes treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). We have performed a brain SPECT (99mTc-HMPAO) before and after the ECT. The clinical improvement of the severe depressive episodes were measured using the Hamilton score.

[Bone scintigraphy in two cases of primary vertebral osteosarcoma in adults].

The primary vertebral osteosarcoma in adults is a rare tumor which represents less than 2% of all osteosarcomas. We present the cases of two men (40 and 33 years old) who began with pain and neurological compression symptoms. The imaging methods used to study the tumors were X-rays, CT, MRI and bone scintigraphy with 99mTc-HMDP.