[Diabetic neuropathy and diabetic foot syndrome (update 2023)].

These are the guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of diabetic neuropathy and diabetic foot.The position statement summarizes characteristic clinical symptoms and techniques for diagnostic assessment of diabetic neuropathy, including the complex situation of the diabetic foot syndrome. Recommendations for the therapeutic management of diabetic neuropathy, especially for the control of pain in sensorimotor neuropathy, are provided.

Bariatric surgery prevents carotid wall thickness progression.

Background: Bariatric surgery is a treatment option for patients with severe obesity and improves parameters of cardiovascular and/or metabolic disease. Carotid intima media thickness (C-IMT) is a surrogate measure of subclinical atherosclerosis. Previous studies showed short to mid-term arrest and even regression of C‑IMT progression following bariatric surgery.

Stereotactic Radiofrequency Ablation of an Unresectable Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (ICC): Transforming an Aggressive Disease into a Chronic Condition.

In 2010, we reported on a 72-year-old patient with a large, unresectable cholangiocarcinoma with intrahepatic metastases, which was treated by stereotactic radiofrequency ablation (SRFA) in three consecutive sessions. Within the last nine years, the same patient has received seven additional ablation sessions for a total of ten recurrent intrahepatic lesions. One year after the last SRFA, the patient's liver function is still within the physiological range, suggesting that this approach is not only sufficient for locally controlling tumor disease, but also for sparing healthy tissue.

[Diabetic neuropathy and diabetic foot syndrome (Update 2019)].

These are the guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of diabetic neuropathy and diabetic foot. Diabetic neuropathy comprises a number of mono- and polyneuropathies, plexopathies, radiculopathies and autonomic neuropathy.The position statement summarizes characteristic clinical symptoms and techniques for diagnostic assessment of diabetic neuropathy, including the complex situation of the diabetic foot syndrome.

Neuropsychological effects of occupational exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls.

In the context of a health surveillance program for former PCB-exposed workers of a transformer and capacitor recycling company in Germany, their family members, employees of surrounding companies and area residents a broad range of cognitive functions covering attention, executive processing, reasoning, memory and motor performance was examined. The study aimed at identifying potential adverse effects of PCB load on cognitive functions. Detailed analysis of PCB burden of the participants revealed rather high correlations of lower and higher chlorinated as well as dioxin-like PCBs.

Ex vivo reversal of effects of rivaroxaban evaluated using thromboelastometry and thrombin generation assay.

Background: In major bleeding events, the new direct oral anticoagulants pose a great challenge for physicians. The aim of the study was to test for ex vivo reversal of the direct oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban with various non-specific reversal agents: prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC), activated prothrombin complex concentrate (aPCC), recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa), and fibrinogen concentrate (FI).

Methods: Blood was obtained from healthy volunteers and from patients treated with rivaroxaban.

Visual analytics for concept exploration in subspaces of patient groups : Making sense of complex datasets with the Doctor-in-the-loop.

Medical doctors and researchers in bio-medicine are increasingly confronted with complex patient data, posing new and difficult analysis challenges. These data are often comprising high-dimensional descriptions of patient conditions and measurements on the success of certain therapies. An important analysis question in such data is to compare and correlate patient conditions and therapy results along with combinations of dimensions.

[The diabetic foot].

These are the guidelines for preventive care, diagnosis and treatment of the diabetic foot syndrome. Diabetic periphery neuropathy, peripheral vascular disease, bone deformity and altered biomechanics are foot-related risk conditions. The position statement is focused on screening methods and recommendations for clinical care for diabetics, who currently have no foot ulcers.

Incidence of Gallstone Formation and Cholecystectomy 10 Years After Bariatric Surgery.

Purpose: Rapid weight loss is a risk factor for gallstone formation, and postoperative treatment options for gallstone formation are still part of scientific discussion. No prospective studies monitored the incidence for gallstone formation and subsequent cholecystectomy after bariatric surgery longer than 5 years. The aim of the study was to determine the incidence of gallstone formation and cholecystectomy in bariatric patients over 10 years.

The role of crossmodal competition and dimensional overlap in crossmodal attention switching.

Crossmodal selective attention was investigated in a cued task switching paradigm using bimodal visual and auditory stimulation. A cue indicated the imperative modality. Three levels of spatial S-R associations were established following perceptual (location), structural (numerical), and conceptual (verbal) set-level compatibility.

Emotional valence and spatial congruency differentially modulate crossmodal processing: an fMRI study.

Salient exogenous stimuli modulate attentional processes and lead to attention shifts-even across modalities and at a pre-attentive level. Stimulus properties such as hemispheric laterality and emotional valence influence processing, but their specific interaction in audio-visual attention paradigms remains ambiguous. We conducted an fMRI experiment to investigate the interaction of supramodal spatial congruency, emotional salience, and stimulus presentation side on neural processes of attention modulation.

Comparison of cerebral blood flow acquired by simultaneous [15O]water positron emission tomography and arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging.

Until recently, no direct comparison between [(15)O]water positron emission tomography (PET) and arterial spin labeling (ASL) for measuring cerebral blood flow (CBF) was possible. With the introduction of integrated, hybrid magnetic resonance (MR)-PET scanners, such a comparison becomes feasible. This study presents results of CBF measurements recorded simultaneously with [(15)O]water and ASL.

Determinants of symptomatic vulvovaginal candidiasis among human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infected women in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Introduction: We sought to determine the association between HIV-induced immunosuppression, virologic correlates, and vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC).

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study, where HIV infected and uninfected women were studied with VVC being the primary outcome. Ninety-seven HIV-infected and 101 HIV-uninfected women were enrolled between June and December 2011.

Menstrual cycle effects on selective attention and its underlying cortical networks.

It was the aim of the present study to investigate menstrual cycle effects on selective attention and its underlying functional cerebral networks. Twenty-one healthy, right-handed, normally cycling women were investigated by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging using a go/no-go paradigm during the menstrual, follicular and luteal phase. On the behavioral level there was a significant interaction between visual half field and cycle phase with reaction times to right-sided compared to left-sided stimuli being faster in the menstrual compared to the follicular phase.

Combined space and alertness related therapy of visual hemineglect: effect of therapy frequency.

The combined efficacy of space- and alertness related training in chronic hemineglect was tested behaviorally and in a longitudinal fMRI study. Earlier results had shown that both space as well as alertness related training as single intervention methods lead to short term improvement which, however, is not stable for longer time periods. The neurobiological data obtained in these studies revealed differential cortical reorganization patterns for the two training approaches thereby leading to the hypothesis that a combination of both trainings might result in stronger and longer lasting effects.

Effect of forced aeration on citric acid production by Aspergillus sp. mutants in SSF.

Citric acid (CA) is one of the most important products of fermentation in the world. A great variety of agro-industrial residues can be used in solid state fermentation. Aspergillus niger parental strain (CCT 7716) and two strains obtained by mutagenesis (CCT 7717 and CCT 7718) were evaluated in Erlenmeyer flasks and glass columns using citric pulp (CP) as substrate/support, sugarcane molasses and methanol.

Long-term effects of weight loss after bariatric surgery on functional and structural markers of atherosclerosis.

Objective: Pronounced weight loss after bariatric surgery was demonstrated to have significant beneficial effects on surrogates of early atherosclerosis. The aim of this prospective examination was to investigate whether these improvements of endothelial function and vascular structure are persistent in the long-term.

Design And Methods: A total of 52 obese adults were examined before and 5 years after bariatric surgery.

Does valence in the visual domain influence the spatial attention after auditory deviants? Exploratory data.

The auditory mismatch responses are elicited in absence of directed attention but are thought to reflect attention modulating effects. Little is known however, if the deviants in a stream of standards are specifically directing attention across modalities and how they interact with other attention directing signals such as emotions. We applied the well-established paradigm of left- or right-lateralized deviant syllables within a dichotic listening design.

Comparison of fMRI activation patterns for test and training procedures of alertness and focused attention.

Purpose: Behavioural studies of attention training after brain damage have shown that only training procedures specifically related to the impaired attention function lead to significant improvements in the respective attention domain when using psychometric tests addressing these functions. The main objective of this fMRI study was to investigate specific as well as common neural correlates of alertness and focused attention and to assess the degree of neural overlap for two different tasks of the same attention function.

Methods: To investigate how different attention functions are processed, we tested 32 healthy participants using fMRI.

The novel insulin resistance parameters RBP4 and GLP-1 in patients treated with valproic acid: just a sidestep?

Valproic acid (VPA), as one of the most widely prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AED) for many types of epilepsy in adults and children, is associated with weight gain, alteration of adipocytokine homeostasis, insulin resistance and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) and Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) are considered as important new targets in modern type 2 diabetes mellitus therapy linked to insulin resistance, NAFLD and visceral obesity acting via peripheral or central mechanisms. We herein demonstrate the lack of an influence of VPA treatment on RBP4 and GLP-1 in otherwise healthy patients.