Assessing the Consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods in People with Diabetes: Is a Specific NOVA Questionnaire Always Necessary?

Background/objectives: Despite the accumulating evidence on the detrimental impact of UPFs on health, a common limit of the available studies concerns the instruments used to collect information about the consumption of processed foods. Recently, a specific NOVA-FFQ was proposed for the evaluation of ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, but it does not allow the simultaneous assessment of energy and nutrient intake. We evaluate the concordance between the NOVA-FFQ and a common questionnaire (EPIC-FFQ) when assessing (1) the intake of foods with different degrees of processing and (2) the relationship between diet composition and cardiometabolic profile.

Association between Dietary Habits and Severity of Symptoms in Premenstrual Syndrome.

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a set of physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms that occur during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The etiopathogenesis of this condition is not fully understood, and several studies suggest a possible role of environmental factors, such as diet. The aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between dietary habits and the occurrence and severity of PMS.

Loss of Stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 leads to cardiac dysfunction and lipotoxicity.

Diets high in carbohydrates are associated with type 2 diabetes and its co-morbidities, including hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, obesity, hepatic steatosis and cardiovascular disease. We used a high-sugar diet to study the pathophysiology of diet-induced metabolic disease in Drosophila melanogaster. High-sugar diets produce hyperglycemia, obesity, insulin resistance and cardiomyopathy in flies, along with ectopic accumulation of toxic lipids, or lipotoxicity.

ValveTech: A Novel Robotic Approach for Minimally Invasive Aortic Valve Replacement.

Objective: Aortic valve disease is the most common heart disease in the elderly calling for replacement with an artificial valve. The presented surgical robot aims to provide a highly controllable instrument for efficient delivery of an artificial valve by the help of integrated endoscopic vision.

Methods: A robot (called ValveTech), intended for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and consisting of a flexible cable driven manipulator, a passive arm, and a control unit has been designed and prototyped.

European Immunogenicity Platform 11th Open Scientific Symposium on immunogenicity of biopharmaceuticals.

Given the expanding number of complex therapeutic protein drugs and advanced therapy medicinal products that are being developed, improving our ability to assess the potential immunogenicity of biologics is critical to ensuring treatment efficacy and patient safety. In this context, the European Immunogenicity Platform annual meeting provides opportunities for experts from industry and academia, regulators and clinicians to convene and discuss immunogenicity assessment methods and tools. This report summarizes the key messages on immunogenicity testing, prediction, clinical relevance and advanced therapy medicinal products discussed at the 11th Open Scientific European Immunogenicity Platform Symposium on Immunogenicity of Biopharmaceuticals, Lisbon, Portugal, 17-19 February 2020.

ESPRESSO: A novel device for laser-assisted surgery of the anterior eye segment.

Introduction: Merging robotics with laser eye surgery could enhance precision, repeatability and automation. During some eye laser procedures the patient is awake, thus eye stabilization is desired to avoid movements that could affect the treatment.

Material And Methods: The ESPRESSO platform has a two-stage actuation system to position a stabilization tool on the eye, a proximity sensing unit to monitor the stabilization tool position, and a sensing unit to monitor the pressure exerted on the eye.

A miniaturized robotic platform for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery: in vivo validation.

Background: Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) involves accessing the abdominal cavity via one of the body natural orifices for enabling minimally invasive surgical procedures. However, the constraints imposed by the access modality and the limited available technology make NOTES very challenging for surgeons. Tools redesign and introduction of novel surgical instruments are imperative in order to make NOTES operative in a real surgical scenario, reproducible and reliable.

A novel robotic system for single-port laparoscopic surgery: preliminary experience.

Background: The concept of single-access procedures has gained greater attention from general surgeons during the past 5 years. Despite this wide momentum, these procedures pose several changes for the surgeon, such as impaired eye-hand coordination and restricted manipulation. In this context, robotic-assisted surgery represents a promising technology to enhance the dexterity of laparoscopic surgeons.

Extraction Of Transvenous ICD Leads In An Over-ninety Years Old Patient.

There is a general consensus that once a part of an implanted cardiac device becomes infected, it is usually impossible to cure the infection without completely removing all prosthetic material from the body. Consequently the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) included the pocket infection or erosion as a class I indication for pacemaker lead exctraction. However, the procedure still carries a high risk of life-threatening complications due to fibrotic attachments between leads, veins, valves or other endocardial structures, notwithstanding specific tools and techniques that have been developed to assist the lead removal, preventing tissue laceration.

A magnetic internal mechanism for precise orientation of the camera in wireless endoluminal applications.

Background And Study Aims: The use of magnetic fields to control operative devices has been recently described in endoluminal and transluminal surgical applications. The exponential decrease of magnetic field strength with distance has major implications for precision of the remote control. We aimed to assess the feasibility and functionality of a novel wireless miniaturized mechanism, based on magnetic forces, for precise orientation of the camera.

Wireless steering mechanism with magnetic actuation for an endoscopic capsule.

This paper illustrates the design, development and testing of a miniature mechanism to be integrated in endoscopic capsules for precise steering capabilities (Magnetic Internal Mechanism, MIM). The mechanism consists of an electromagnetic motor connected to a couple of small permanent magnets and immersed in a static magnetic field produced by an external permanent magnet or a by an electromagnetic coil. The overall steering capsule, integrating the magnetic steering mechanism and the vision system is 15.

Wireless therapeutic endoscopic capsule: in vivo experiment.

Background And Study Aim: Capsule endoscopy is becoming well established as a diagnostic technique for the gastrointestinal tract. Nevertheless swallowable capsule devices that can effectively perform surgical and therapeutic interventions have not yet been developed. Such devices would also be a valuable support for natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES).

Hand-held robotic instrument for dextrous laparoscopic interventions.

Background: Surgical instruments used in many types of minimally invasive procedures are rigid or only limitedly flexible. Some common tasks like suturing, require precise and dextrous movements that are difficult to perform by means of instruments with limited degrees of freedom (DOF).

Methods: A hand-held lightweight and ergonomic robotic instrument with a 3-DOF roll-pitch-roll end-effector has been developed, which can be controlled by the surgeon with one hand like a conventional instrument.

Accuracy of multidetector spiral computed tomography in detecting significant coronary stenosis in patient populations with differing pre-test probabilities of disease.

Aim: To investigate the clinical impact of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in patients with a low versus a high pre-test likelihood of coronary artery disease (CAD).

Materials And Methods: A cohort of 120 patients with suspected CAD, scheduled for conventional coronary angiography, underwent MDCT. Using the American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology (ACC) guidelines, the population was divided into two groups: patients with a low (group 1) and a high (group 2) likelihood of CAD.

Diagnostic accuracy of multidetector computed tomography coronary angiography in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

Objectives: The purpose of this work was to assess the safety, feasibility, and diagnostic accuracy of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) of unknown etiology.

Background: Multidetector computed tomography is an appropriate noninvasive tool for coronary artery disease (CAD) detection, particularly in patients with low probability of the disease, such as patients with DCM of unknown origin.

Methods: We studied 61 unknown origin DCM patients (ejection fraction: 33.

Feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of 16-slice multidetector computed tomography coronary angiography in 500 consecutive patients: critical role of heart rate.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of multidetector computed tomography coronary (MDCT) angiography applied to an unselected heart-disease population, to identify all causes of unfeasibility of exams, the distribution of artifacts in every coronary segment and their influence on diagnostic accuracy of examination.

Materials And Methods: We evaluated 500 patients with different indications for invasive coronary angiography. All underwent coronary MDCT and ICA.

Severe degenerative aortic stenosis: when a senile patient is a candidate for surgery.

Senile aortic stenosis is characterized by calcific degeneration of the valve that prevents the full opening of the cusps in systole. The disease may be silent for many years despite the presence of severe flow obstruction and generally is associated with aortic regurgitation and calcification of the coronary arteries. The continuous increase of the aged population with aortic stenosis entails difficult decisions in selecting the candidates for aortic valve replacement in order to optimize the timing for surgery.

Comparison of feasibility and accuracy of transthoracic echocardiography versus computed tomography in patients with known ascending aortic aneurysm.

Aortic valve diseases, hypertension, and connective tissue disorders may be causes of ascending aortic aneurysms. Aortic enlargement monitoring is essential for surgical timing and for operative design. In this regard, several imaging techniques may have limitations: magnetic resonance is not widespread and is expensive, computed tomography uses radiation, and transesophageal echocardiography is a semi-invasive method.

When should asymptomatic patients with combined severe aortic stenosis and aortic insufficiency undergo valve replacement? A clinical case.

Indications to prosthetic aortic valve implantation in patients with aortic stenosis or aortic regurgitation or both stenotic or regurgitant aortic valve, who present without symptoms, are controversial. We present the case of an asymptomatic patient with combined severe aortic stenosis and an equally important insufficiency, undergoing surgery for valve substitution with a bileaflet prosthesis. After surgery he was treated with warfarin according to the doses recommended and underwent follow-up with clinical and echocardiographic exams.

Omega-3 polyunsatured fatty acids role in postmyocardial infarction therapy.

Largely initiated by studies among Eskimos in the early 1970s, great attention has been given to possible effects of omega-3 polyunsatured fatty acids (PUFA) in cardiovascular diseases. A series of positive effects on pathogenetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease has been discovered from laboratory studies in cell cultures, animal models and in humans. omega-3 PUFA can reduce platelets and leucocytes activities as well as plasma triglycerides.

Fibroblasts of patients affected by Down's syndrome oversecrete amyloid precursor protein and are hyporesponsive to protein kinase C stimulation.

The present study investigates the ability of the pharmacologic activation of protein kinase C (PKC) to modulate amyloid precursor protein (APP) secretion in human skin fibroblasts from patients affected by Down's syndrome (DS). We assessed DS subjects at the Hospital Institute of Sospiro, Cremona, and at the Alzheimer's Disease Unit of the Sacred Heart Hospital in Brescia, and we subdivided them into nondemented (NDS) and demented (DDS) patients. All DS patients were trisomy 21 karyotype.

[Importance of the determination of fructosamine in monitoring diabetic patients].

Protein glycosylation plays a role in the metabolic control and in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications; indeed it has an important role in the process leading to micro- and macroangiography in diabetes. In an attempt to determine the clinical value of fructosamine assay for monitoring type II diabetic patients, the correlation of fructosamine and HbA1c, glycemia, cholesterol and triglycerides was studied. The results show that fructosamine is a good index for short-term metabolic control of diabetic patients.

[Clinical use of growth hormone and clonidine in growth disorders].

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the recombinant human growth hormone and of the alpha-2 adrenergic agonist clonidine in three groups of prepuberal children with growth disorders. Three children with GH-deficiency were treated with 0.5 U kg/week i.