Sexual function after surgically corrected menstrual outflow obstruction due to congenital anomalies.

Objectives: To enhance evidence-based knowledge about sexual function and the prevalence of sexual dysfunction after surgical therapy for congenital anomalies with menstrual outflow obstruction.

Materials And Methods: In this long-term case-control study, all patients underwent surgical correction of an obstructive Müllerian anomaly between 1980 and 2013. At the start of the case-control study, patients were at least 18 years old and were two years post their initial operation.

Inflammatory Cytokine Levels in Patients with Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease.

Key Points: Higher levels of IL-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, TNF-, and IFN- in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease highlight inflammation's role in disease progression. Elevated inflammatory markers in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease could serve as biomarkers for progression and targets for therapy.

Background: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a genetic ciliopathy that causes adult-onset progressive renal failure.

Fueling the success of transplantation through nutrition: recent insights into nutritional interventions, their interplay with gut microbiota and cellular mechanisms.

Purpose Of Review: The role of nutrition in organ health including solid organ transplantation is broadly accepted, but robust data on nutritional regimens remains scarce calling for further investigation of specific dietary approaches at the different stages of organ transplantation. This review gives an update on the latest insights into nutritional interventions highlighting the potential of specific dietary regimens prior to transplantation aiming for organ protection and the interplay between dietary intake and gut microbiota.

Recent Findings: Nutrition holds the potential to optimize patients' health prior to and after surgery, it may enhance patients' ability to cope with the procedure-associated stress and it may accelerate their recovery from surgery.

Relevant parameters for laser surgery of soft tissue.

In recent years, the laser has become an important tool in hospitals. Laser surgery in particular has many advantages. However, there is still a lack of the understanding of the influence of the relevant parameters for laser surgery.

DKK3 as a potential novel biomarker in patients with autosomal polycystic kidney disease.

Backgound: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common inherited kidney disease, and leads to a steady loss of kidney function in adulthood. The variable course of the disease makes it necessary to identify the patients with rapid disease progression who will benefit the most from targeted therapies and interventions. Currently, magnetic resonance imaging-based volumetry of the kidney is the most commonly used tool for this purpose.

Characterization of Verona Integron-Encoded Metallo-β-Lactamase-Type Carbapenemase-Producing Isolates Collected over a 16-Year Period in Bolzano (Northern Italy).

Multidrug-resistant , particularly carbapenemase producers, are a major source of concern. This study aims to investigate the long-term epidemiology of Verona integron-encoded metallo-β-lactamase (VIM)-producing in the health district of Bolzano, Northern Italy, by examining the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of 26 isolates obtained during 2005-2020. Isolates were identified with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight, susceptibility testing was by Vitek 2, Sensititre, and Etest; carbapenemase activity was confirmed by Etest and Carbapenemase Inactivation Method (CIM) test; and the VIM-antigen was identified by the NG-Test CARBA 5.

Long-term effects of surgically corrected menstrual outflow obstruction: A case-control study.

Objective: To enhance evidence-based knowledge on long-term sequalae in patients with surgically corrected obstructing Müllerian anomalies.

Methods: This long-term case-control study included patients with menstrual outflow obstruction due to congenital anomalies of the uterus or vagina, who were at least 18 years old, and for whom 2 years had elapsed since the first surgery at the start of this study. The control group consisted of women without current gynecological problems.

High RIPK3 expression is associated with a higher risk of early kidney transplant failure.

Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is associated with reduced allograft survival, and each additional hour of cold ischemia time increases the risk of graft failure and mortality following renal transplantation. Receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) is a key effector of necroptosis, a regulated form of cell death. Here, we evaluate the first-in-human RIPK3 expression dataset following IRI in kidney transplantation.

Threshold behavior and tunability of a diffusive random laser.

In this study, it is shown that the dynamics of the lasing threshold and the intensity saturation of a diffusive random laser can be visualized by one spectral feature: the peak wavelength shift (tunability). The varied ink concentration and pump energy were utilized to experimentally induce the peak shift and the lasing threshold dynamics. It was found that the peak wavelength progressively turns from blueshift to redshift upon crossing the lasing threshold.

TurnerFertility trial: fertility preservation in young girls with Turner syndrome by freezing ovarian cortex tissue-a prospective intervention study.

Objective: To evaluate which girls with Turner syndrome (TS) could benefit from fertility preservation by ovarian tissue cryopreservation on the basis of karyotype, puberty status, and hormonal data.

Design: Prospective intervention study; participants were included between 2018 and 2020.

Setting: Tertiary hospital in the Netherlands.

[Children and adolescents with gender questions: dilemmas in the hormonal treatment by multidisciplinary teams].

In the Netherlands but also in many other countries, there is an increasing social discussion about gender identity and gender diversity, and an increasing number of children and adolescents are seeking medical help because of questions about their gender identity. The cause of this increase is still unknown. Gender questions are diverse and require an individual approach by a multidisciplinary team.

Charitable giving: The role of framing and information.

We investigate how different levels of information influence the allocation decisions of donors who are entitled to freely distribute a fixed monetary endowment between themselves and a charitable organization in both giving and taking frames. Participants donate significantly higher amounts, when the decision is described as taking rather than giving. This framing effect becomes smaller if more information about the charity is provided.

Ageing-associated changes in transcriptional elongation influence longevity.

Physiological homeostasis becomes compromised during ageing, as a result of impairment of cellular processes, including transcription and RNA splicing. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to the loss of transcriptional fidelity are so far elusive, as are ways of preventing it. Here we profiled and analysed genome-wide, ageing-related changes in transcriptional processes across different organisms: nematodes, fruitflies, mice, rats and humans.

Organ Protection by Caloric Restriction Depends on Activation of the De Novo NAD+ Synthesis Pathway.

Significance Statement: AKI is a major clinical complication leading to high mortality, but intensive research over the past decades has not led to targeted preventive or therapeutic measures. In rodent models, caloric restriction (CR) and transient hypoxia significantly prevent AKI and a recent comparative transcriptome analysis of murine kidneys identified kynureninase (KYNU) as a shared downstream target. The present work shows that KYNU strongly contributes to CR-mediated protection as a key player in the de novo nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide biosynthesis pathway.

A novel TNFRSF1A mutation associated with TNF-receptor-associated periodic syndrome and its metabolic signature.

Objective: We describe a family with a novel mutation in the TNF Receptor Superfamily Member 1A (TNFRSF1A) gene causing TNF receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) with renal AA amyloidosis.

Methods: Case series of affected family members. We further investigated the plasma metabolome of these patients in comparison with healthy controls using mass spectrometry.

Properties and Applications of Random Lasers as Emerging Light Sources and Optical Sensors: A Review.

In a random laser (RL), optical feedback arises from multiple scattering instead of conventional mirrors. RLs generate a laser-like emission, and meanwhile take advantage of a simpler and more flexible laser configuration. The applicability of RLs as light sources and optical sensors has been proved.

Experimental Validation of Shifted Position-Diffuse Reflectance Imaging (SP-DRI) on Optical Phantoms.

Numerous diseases such as hemorrhage, sepsis or cardiogenic shock induce a heterogeneous perfusion of the capillaries. To detect such alterations in the human blood flow pattern, diagnostic devices must provide an appropriately high spatial resolution. Shifted position-diffuse reflectance imaging (SP-DRI) has the potential to do so; it is an all-optical diagnostic technique.

The role of the basal ganglia and cerebellum in adaptation to others' speech rate and rhythm: A study of patients with Parkinson's disease and cerebellar degeneration.

Background: Spoken language is constantly undergoing change: Speakers within and across social and regional groups influence each other's speech, leading to the emergence and drifts of accents in a language. These processes are driven by mutual unintentional imitation of the phonetic details of others' speech in conversational interactions, suggesting that continuous auditory-motor adaptation takes place in interactive language use and plasticity of auditory-motor representations of speech persists across the lifespan. The brain mechanisms underlying this large-scale social-linguistic behavior are still poorly understood.

Development and evaluation of a scoring system for assessing incisions in laser surgery.

The idea of laser surgery is nearly as old as the laser itself. From the first trials to modern laser surgery systems, it was and is the aim to selectively cut the tissue in the focus spot without causing harm to surrounding structures. This is only possible when the correct parameters for the surgical laser are chosen.

Primary Amenorrhea with Apparently Absent Uterus: A Report of Three Cases.

Background: The apparent absence of a uterus upon imaging women with primary amenorrhea appears to lead to a high risk of misdiagnosis, which will lead to significant mental distress in patients.

Case: Three young females with primary amenorrhea were referred with a diagnosis of Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome based on radiological findings of an apparently absent uterus. In two patients, the absence of the uterus could be confirmed, but with various diagnoses.

High-resolution label-free mapping of murine kidney vasculature by raster-scanning optoacoustic mesoscopy: an ex vivo study.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global burden affecting both children and adults. Novel imaging modalities hold great promise to visualize and quantify structural, functional, and molecular organ damage. The aim of the study was to visualize and quantify murine renal vasculature using label-free raster scanning optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM) in explanted organs from mice with renal injury.

The kidney in hantavirus infection-epidemiology, virology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis and management.

Hantavirus-induced diseases are emerging zoonoses with endemic appearances and frequent outbreaks in different parts of the world. In humans, hantaviral pathology is characterized by the disruption of the endothelial cell barrier followed by increased capillary permeability, thrombocytopenia due to platelet activation/depletion and an overactive immune response. Genetic vulnerability due to certain human leukocyte antigen haplotypes is associated with disease severity.

Caloric restriction reduces the pro-inflammatory eicosanoid 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid to protect from acute kidney injury.

Acute kidney injury is a frequent complication in the clinical setting and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Preconditioning with short-term caloric restriction is highly protective against kidney injury in rodent ischemia reperfusion injury models. However, the underlying mechanisms are unknown hampering clinical translation.