Autoimmune Thyroid Disease and Pregnancy: The Interaction Between Genetics, Epigenetics and Environmental Factors.

Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is the leading cause of thyroid dysfunction globally, characterized primarily by two distinct clinical manifestations: Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD). The prevalence of AITD is approximately twice as high in women compared to men, with a particularly pronounced risk during the reproductive years. Pregnancy exerts profound effects on thyroid physiology and immune regulation due to hormonal fluctuations and immune adaptations aimed at fostering maternal-fetal tolerance, potentially triggering or exacerbating AITD.

Age estimation through sternal fusion and costal cartilage ossification using MSCT in a Croatian population: model development and application.

This study aimed to test age-related changes in sternal fusion and sternal-rib cartilage ossification on multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) images of the Croatian population. The additional aim was to develop models to estimate age and provide an interface for the model's application and validation. This retrospective study was conducted on 144 MSCT images of the sternal region, and the developed models were tested on 36 MSCT images.

The Importance of Acromegaloid Physical Features for Clinical Practice.

Acromegaly and gigantism are hormonal disorders which develop as a consequence of chronic growth hormone hypersecretion. The prefix pseudo- is used to describe a certain clinical condition without a clearly proven characteristic of pathophysiological mechanism and basic biochemical features; pseudoacromegaly or acromegaloidism match the definition from above. In this case reports, we will try to provide a concise overview of diagnostic evaluation of acromegaloid physical appearance, while discussing two cases of patients who have similar clinical acromegaloid features as the first sign of the disease but have completely different etiologic backgrounds of their acromegalic appearance.

Young stroke patient with patent foramen ovale and intracranial stenosis-a case report.

The prevalence of patent foramen ovale is approximately 20% in the global population. In patients under the age of 55 years, it has been proven as a cause of acute ischemic embolic stroke of otherwise undetermined source. We present a case of a 25-year-old patient who experienced an acute stroke of dominant hemisphere due to internal carotid artery occlusion.

Opportunistic measures of bone mineral density at multiple skeletal sites during whole-body CT in polytrauma patients.

Unlabelled: Whole-body CT in polytrauma patients revealed bone mineral density variations throughout the skeleton. Bone density was the highest in cranial bones and the lowest in proximal extremities and pelvis. Skeletal age-related changes were generally more pronounced than sex-related changes.

A RARE PRESENTATION OF GENITOURINARY TUBERCULOSIS MIMICKING ABDOMINAL TUMOR.

Genital tuberculosis is a rare and unexpected disease in European countries including Croatia. Diagnosis of female genital tract tuberculosis is challenging and is rarely pin-pointed by clinical symptoms because of their low specificity. The authors decided to present a case of genitourinary tuberculosis in a young, immunocompetent fertile woman with high clinical suspicion of abdominal tumor mass.

Metabolomic profiling relates tianeptine effectiveness with hippocampal GABA, myo-inositol, cholesterol, and fatty acid metabolism restoration in socially isolated rats.

Rationale: Discovering biomarkers of major depressive disorder (MDD) can give a deeper understanding of this mood disorder and improve the ability to screen for, diagnose, and treat MDD.

Objectives: In this study, metabolomics was used in unraveling metabolite fluctuations of MDD and drug outcome by creating specific metabolomic fingerprints. We report metabolomic patterns of change of the hippocampus of adult male Wistar rats following chronic social isolation (CSIS) (6 weeks), an animal model of depression, and/or chronic tianeptine (Tian) treatment (10 mg kg per day) (lasting 3 weeks of 6-week CSIS), monitored by using comprehensive GC × GC-MS.

Clinical Evaluation of Two Non-Invasive Genetic Tests for Detection and Monitoring of Urothelial Carcinoma: Validation of UroVysion and Xpert Bladder Cancer Detection Test.

A variety of commercially available urinary molecular markers have been introduced for detecting and monitoring urothelial carcinoma (UC). We prospectively evaluated the UroVysion Bladder Cancer Kit (FISH) and the Xpert® Bladder Cancer Detection (Xpert) test. Both tests were performed on voided urine samples after negative cystoscopy and negative abdominal ultrasound (US) and/or negative computed tomography urography (CTU).

Effects of Electromyographic Biofeedback on Functional Recovery of Patients Two Months after Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The incidence of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is steadily increasing worldwide. Therefore, it is crucial to develop efficient rehabilitation protocols and investigate the innovations in medical technology, which could improve rehabilitation outcomes. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of adding electromyographic biofeedback (EMG-BF) to the conventional program of rehabilitation after TKA on quality of life, intensity of pain, and functional performance.

Predictive semiology of psychogenic non-epileptic seizures in an epilepsy monitoring unit.

Introduction: The diagnosis of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) is a common clinical dilemma. We sought to assess the diagnostic value of four ictal signs commonly used in differentiating PNES from epileptic seizures (ES).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed consecutive adult video-electroencephalogram (VEM) studies conducted at a single tertiary epilepsy center between May 2009 and August 2016.

Tianeptine modulates synaptic vesicle dynamics and favors synaptic mitochondria processes in socially isolated rats.

Deregulation of synaptic function and neurotransmission has been linked with the development of major depression disorder (MDD). Tianeptine (Tian) has been used as antidepressant with anxiolytic properties and recently as a nootropic to improve cognitive performance, but its mechanism of action is unknown. We conducted a proteomic study on the hippocampal synaptosomal fractions of adult male Wistar rats exposed to chronic social isolation (CSIS, 6 weeks), an animal model of depression and after chronic Tian treatment in controls (nootropic effect) and CSIS-exposed rats (lasting 3 weeks of 6-week CSIS) (therapeutic effect).

Efficacy and safety of Cerebrolysin after futile recanalisation therapy in patients with severe stroke.

Introduction: Golden standard of acute stroke treatment is recanalisation therapy. However, opening the occluded blood vessel sometimes does not show the expected clinical result or leads to haemorrhagic complications. As neuroinflammation and neurotoxicity play an important role in the pathophysiology of stroke, neuroprotective agents might preserve brain tissue after futile recanalisation.

Mental Health and Physical Activity in Health-Related University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to increased negative emotional states among students. Physical activity is known to have positive impacts on mental health and well-being. However, due to the closure of gyms and other recreational facilities as a restrictive measure, students' physical activity levels may decrease.

Evidencing the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Imposed Lockdown Measures on Fitness Status in Adolescents: A Preliminary Report.

It was established that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in decreased physical activity levels, potentially leading to reduced physical fitness. The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on fitness indices in adolescents. We observed high school adolescents (33% girls; aged 15-17 years) divided into two cohorts.

Fluoxetine exerts subregion/layer specific effects on parvalbumin/GAD67 protein expression in the dorsal hippocampus of male rats showing social isolation-induced depressive-like behaviour.

The molecular background of depression is intensively studied in terms of alterations of inhibitory circuits, mediated by gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) signalization. We investigated the effects of chronic social isolation (CSIS) and chronic fluoxetine (Flx) treatment (15 mg/kg/day) (3 weeks), on Parvalbumin (PV) and GAD67 expression in a layer-specific manner in rat dorsal hippocampal subregions. CSIS-induced depressive- and anxiety-like behaviours were confirmed with decrease in sucrose preference and increase in marble burying during behavioural testing, while Flx antagonized these effects.

Pre-Planned and Non-Planned Agility in Patients Ongoing Rehabilitation after Knee Surgery: Design, Reliability and Validity of the Newly Developed Testing Protocols.

Background: Due to its association with the risk of falling and consequent injury, the importance of agility is widely recognized, but no study so far has examined the different facets of agility in an untrained/clinical population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability, validity, and correlates of newly developed tests of non-planned agility (NPA) and pre-planned agility (PPA) in an untrained/clinical sample.

Methods: The sample comprised 38 participants older than 40 years (22 females, age: 56.

Hippocampal synaptoproteomic changes of susceptibility and resilience of male rats to chronic social isolation.

The susceptibility of an individual to chronic social isolation (CSIS) stress may cause major depression (MD) whereby some individuals are resistant to the stress. Recent studies relate MD with altered expression of synaptic proteins in specific brain regions. To explore the neurobiological underpinnings and identify candidate biomarkers of susceptibility or resilience to CSIS, a comparative proteomic approach was used to map hippocampal synaptic protein alterations of rats exposed to 6 weeks of CSIS, an animal model of depression.

Tianeptine Enhances Energy-related Processes in the Hippocampal Non-synaptic Mitochondria in a Rat Model of Depression.

Tianeptine (Tian) has been widely used in treating mood and anxiety disorders, and recently as a nootropic to improve cognitive performance. However, its mechanisms of action are insufficiently clear. We used a comparative proteomic approach to identify sub-proteome changes in hippocampal cytosol and non-synaptic mitochondria (NSM) following chronic Tian treatment (3 weeks, 10 mg/kg/day) of adult male Wistar rats and rats exposed to chronic social isolation stress (CSIS) (6 weeks), an animal model of depression.

Fluoxetine modulates neuronal activity in stress-related limbic areas of adult rats subjected to the chronic social isolation.

Antidepressant fluoxetine (Flx) is the first therapeutic choice for the treatment of major depression (MD), however neuroanatomical spots of its action remain unclear. Immunohistochemical detection of c-Fos protein expression has been used for mapping activated neuronal circuits upon various stressors and drugs. We investigated the effect of 3 weeks of Flx treatment (15 mg/kg/day) on changes in neuronal activity, by mapping the number of c-Fos cells, in several brain subregions in adult male rats of control and following 3 weeks of chronic social isolation (CSIS), an animal model of depression.

Social isolation stress-resilient rats reveal energy shift from glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation in hippocampal nonsynaptic mitochondria.

Aims: To examine the differences in the hippocampal proteome profiles of resilience or susceptibility to chronic social isolation (CSIS), animal model of depression, and to identify biomarkers that can distinguish the two.

Main Methods: Comparative subproteomic approach was used to identify changes in hippocampal cytosol and nonsynaptic mitochondria (NSM) of CSIS-resilient compared to CSIS-sensitive or control rats. The resilient and sensitive phenotypes of CSIS rats were distinguished based on their sucrose preference values.

Testosterone, cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during a handball match; analysis of dynamics and associations.

This study evaluated dynamics of testosterone, cortisol and alpha-amylase during a handball match in high-level male players. Ten male professional players (24.1 ± 3.

Clozapine increased c-Fos protein expression in several brain subregions of socially isolated rats.

Chronic social stress and/or pharmacological treatments differentially modulate the expression of c-Fos, a marker of neuronal activity, in subregions of the rat brain. Here, we examined the effect of the atypical antipsychotic Clozapine (Clz) (20 mg/kg/day for 3 weeks) on the neuronal activation pattern of c-Fos protein expression in stress-relevant brain subregions of adult male Wistar rats exposed to chronic social isolation (CSIS: 3 weeks), an animal model of depression and schizophrenia, and controls. The protein expression of c-Fos was also used to map neuronal populations in brain subregions activated by CSIS alone.