Superficial parasternal intercostal plane block for sternal fractures in the emergency department.

In uncomplicated sternal fractures, one of the first priorities is to treat pain in order to avoid secondary complications due to hospital admission or reduced mobility. We wanted to study the safety and the efficacy of ultrasound-guided superficial parasternal intercostal plane (SPIP) block in pain control in these kinds of patients in the emergency department (ED). SPIP block has proven to be a safe and practical technique in pain control in the operatory room e.

High-performance diesel biodegradation using biogas digestate as microbial inoculum in lab-scale solid supported bioreactors.

Industrial anaerobic digestion (AD) produces biogas and a digestate that is usually applied as a biofertilizer. However, the study and application of this by-product in terms of its rich microbial diversity and high metabolic activity have been barely investigated. In this work, the digestate regarded as an inoculum-without any further manipulation-was faced to a target hydrocarbon (i.

Early-stage response in anaerobic bioreactors due to high sulfate loads: Hydrogen sulfide yield and other organic volatile sulfur compounds as a sign of microbial community modifications.

In this work, the early-stage response of six lab-scale biogas bioreactors fed with different amounts of a sulfate-rich organic agro-industrial effluent was investigated. Biogas characterization, gas chromatography selective for sulfur compounds and high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene were performed. Hydrogen sulfide (HS) yield went from transient to steady state in ∼ 2 weeks for all the studied conditions.

Biomechanical properties of optic nerve and retrobulbar structures with 2D and 3D shear wave elastography in patients affected by glaucoma.

This study consists of an elastosonography evaluation of both eyes of 40 glaucomatous patients and 40 healthy subjects. We used shear wave elastography with a one-dimensional-array probe to capture two-dimensional images in order to study the optic nerve near the papilla, chorioretinal complex, lateral rectus muscle, and periorbital fat tissue. Furthermore, we used a two-dimensional array probe to capture three-dimensional images to study the optic nerve in toto with multilevel sampling.

Incidentally discovered well-differentiated retroperitoneal liposarcoma with inguinal canal herniation: report of 2 cases.

Well-differentiated retroperitoneal liposarcomas are slow growing and low-grade tumors, reaching usually huge size before being symptomatic and so diagnosed, therefore with increase of the surgical risk and of the probability of dedifferentiation. Inguinal location of these tumors is unusual and rarely diagnosed.

Expression of the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kB ligand in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with acute Charcot neuroarthropathy.

The receptor activator of nuclear factor-kB (RANK), ligand (RANK-L) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) are implicated in the pathogenesis of acute Charcot neuroarthropathy (CN). This study aimed to investigate the expression of RANK-L and OPG in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with acute CN. We found that the expression of RANK-L was lower in patients with acute CN as compared with diabetic control subjects and healthy control participants; whereas OPG expression was not detected in patients and in both control groups.

Value of strain-ratio on thyroid real-time sonoelastography.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of elastosonography in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules using a qualitative [evaluation of the stiffness score (SS)] and quantitative assessment [evaluation of the strain ratio (SR)].

Materials And Methods: In our single-centre retrospective study, 368 patients were enroled between December 2010 and March 2012 (134 men, 234 women, mean age 56.1 ± 14.