Publications by authors named "Whiteley M"

Background: Pelvic venous disorders (PeVD), previously "Pelvic congestion syndrome (PCS)" is usually defined as a female health problem. However, it is our impression that gynaecologists rarely recognise this condition, and most of the research interest appears to be by vascular and venous surgeons, and radiologists. The aim of this study was to investigate if there was evidence to support this view.

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  • Reproducibility is crucial in science as it boosts confidence in findings and enables comparison of data, yet evaluating it can be challenging, especially with RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) where multiple steps can introduce variance.
  • This study specifically examines the reproducibility of gene expression data from bacteria in cystic fibrosis models, utilizing samples from three labs and different sequencing pipelines to draw comparisons.
  • The results indicate high reproducibility of gene expression across labs, despite some variance introduced by different sequencing methods, with both pipelines detecting over 80% of the same differentially expressed genes, confirming the validity of RNA-seq data comparisons.
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Unlabelled: (MAB) causes lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis (pwCF), and infecting strains show significant genetic variability both between and within individuals. MAB isolates can be divided into dominant clonal clusters (DCCs) or non-clustering groups and can present as smooth or rough colonies on agar plates. Both DCCs and the rough colony morphology have been linked to increased pathogenicity, but the mechanisms are unclear.

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Unlabelled: Grapes have been cultivated for wine production for millennia. Wine production involves a complex biochemical process where sugars in grape must are converted into alcohol and other compounds by microbial fermentation, primarily by the yeast . Commercially available strains are often used in winemaking, but indigenous (native) strains are gaining attention for their potential to contribute unique flavors.

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  • The study investigates how interactions between two oral bacteria affect their resilience to environmental changes and competition from other microbes, using a biofilm model.
  • It was found that one bacterium's ability to utilize L-lactate improved its fitness in co-culture but didn't significantly help resist environmental stress, and its catabolism could even be harmful under antibiotic conditions.
  • While one bacterium produced HO, which negatively affected both species, it also provided a protective effect against antibiotics, showing that microbial interactions can significantly impact community health depending on the environment.
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Biofilms are complex microbial communities that have a critical function in many natural ecosystems, industrial settings as well as in recurrent and chronic infections. Biofilms are highly heterogeneous and dynamic assemblages that display complex responses to varying environmental factors, and those properties present substantial challenges for their study and control. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing improved biofilm models to offer more precise and comprehensive representations of these intricate systems.

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Laboratory models are central to microbiology research, advancing the understanding of bacterial physiology by mimicking natural environments, from soil to the human microbiome. When studying host-bacteria interactions, animal models enable investigators to examine bacterial dynamics associated with a host, and in the case of human infections, animal models are necessary to translate basic research into clinical treatments. Efforts toward improving animal infection models are typically based on reproducing host genotypes/phenotypes and disease manifestations, leaving a gap in how well the physiology of microbes reflects their behavior in a human host.

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Microbes rarely exist in isolation and instead form complex polymicrobial communities. As a result, microbes have developed intricate offensive and defensive strategies that enhance their fitness in these complex communities. Thus, identifying and understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling polymicrobial interactions is critical for understanding the function of microbial communities.

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Essential gene products carry out fundamental cellular activities in interaction with other components. However, the lack of essential gene mutants and appropriate methodologies to link essential gene functions with their partners poses significant challenges. Here, we have generated deletion mutants in 32 genes previously identified as essential, with 23 mutants showing extremely slow growth in the SK36 strain of .

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Background: The rapid development of less invasive and traumatic medical procedures has resulted in a mixture of terms used to describe them, without any agreed definition for each. This is confusing to both medical professionals and patients and can lead to unrealistic patient expectations. The aim of this article is to show the current confused nomenclature and to suggest a new, simple classification based on access and invasiveness (AI) that can be applied to any medical procedure.

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Background: Inadvertent intra-arterial injection of sclerosants is an uncommon adverse event of both ultrasound-guided and direct vision sclerotherapy. This complication can result in significant tissue or limb loss and significant long-term morbidity.

Objectives: To provide recommendations for diagnosis and immediate management of an unintentional intra-arterial injection of sclerosing agents.

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Objective: To identify the effects of patient risk factors and pelvic venous reflux (PVR) patterns on treatment outcomes of Pelvic Vein Embolisation (PVE) for Pelvic Venous Disorder (PeVD).

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort review assessing population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes (PICO) for women undergoing PVE for PVR January 2017-January 2021. We identified 190 patients who had completed both questionnaires and who had given consent for their information to be used for research (Median age 46, IQR 40-52).

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Introduction: Endovenous therapy is the first choice management for symptomatic varicose veins in NICE guidelines, with 56-70 000 procedures performed annually in the UK. Venous thromboembolism (VTE), including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a known complication of endovenous therapy, occurring at a rate of up to 3.4%.

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The ESKAPEE pathogen is a common cause of chronic wound and cystic fibrosis lung infections, as well as acute burn and nosocomial infections. Many of these infections are recalcitrant to conventional antibiotic therapies due to both traditional antibiotic resistance mechanisms and antimicrobial tolerance. Recent successes with bacteriophage (phage) therapy to treat chronic human infections have led to a renewed interest in isolating and characterizing new phages.

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  • The study aimed to find equivalent parameters for Endovenous Microwave Ablation (EMWA) compared to Endovenous Laser Ablation (EVLA) for effectively treating incompetent truncal veins, using a validated porcine liver model.
  • Different power settings (35-75 W) and pullback speeds (4-9 s/cm) were tested with EMWA, showing that EMWA requires significantly higher Linear Endovenous Energy Densities (LEEDs) (3.9-5.8 times) than EVLA for similar tissue ablation results.
  • The findings indicate that while EMWA operates at higher power settings, the identified parameters can achieve comparable tissue ablation to EVLA
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is a leading cause of medical device-associated biofilm infections. This is influenced by the ability of biofilm to evade the host immune response, which is partially driven by the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10). Here, we show that treatment of human monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDMs) with IL-10 enhanced biofilm formation, suggesting that macrophage anti-inflammatory programming likely plays an important role during the transition from planktonic to biofilm growth.

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A 42-year-old man presented with very large lower limb varicose veins bilaterally and an 8-month history of fainting when standing up from a squatting position. He had been investigated for syncope by a cardiologist with no abnormality found on electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, 24-h electrocardiogram or 48-h blood pressure monitoring. Venous duplex ultrasonography showed bilaterally great saphenous vein reflux, with each vein having a diameter of 23.

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Microbes produce a large array of extracellular molecules, which serve as signals and cues to promote polymicrobial interactions and alter the function of microbial communities. This has been particularly well studied in the human oral microbiome, where key metabolites have been shown to impact both health and disease. Here, we used an untargeted mass spectrometry approach to comprehensively assess the extracellular metabolome of the pathogen and the commensal during mono- and co-culture.

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is an opportunistic pathogen that is responsible for infections in people living with chronic respiratory conditions, such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF bronchiectasis (NCFB). Traditionally, in people with chronic respiratory disorders, infection has been managed with a combination of inhaled and intravenous antibiotic therapies. However, due in part to the prolonged use of antibiotics in these people, the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains is a growing concern.

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We present here a new systems-level approach to decipher genetic factors and biological pathways associated with virulence and/or antibiotic treatment of bacterial pathogens. The power of this approach was demonstrated by application to a well-studied pathogen PAO1. Our gene co-expression network-based approach unraveled known and unknown genes and their networks associated with pathogenicity in PAO1.

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Objective: The aim was to retrieve and analyse the serious adverse events of venous occlusion systems used in cyanoacrylate adhesive closure (CAC) submitted to regulatory agencies.

Methods: The (TPLC) database of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the (DAEN) of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), and the database of the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) were reviewed. Three Freedom of Information (FOI) requests had to be submitted to the MHRA to obtain data.

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Background: Cellulite affects 80-90% of post-pubertal females and, although cosmetic, has proven adverse psychological effects. A new compression garment with patented "vari-pad" technology has been developed, aiming to stimulate lymphatic return from the buttocks and thighs. The primary aim of this small pilot study was to assess participant satisfaction after using this garment in the short term and secondarily, to look for any objective improvements.

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The ability to switch between different lifestyles allows bacterial pathogens to thrive in diverse ecological niches. However, a molecular understanding of their lifestyle changes within the human host is lacking. Here, by directly examining bacterial gene expression in human-derived samples, we discover a gene that orchestrates the transition between chronic and acute infection in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

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Laboratory models are critical to basic and translational microbiology research. Models serve multiple purposes, from providing tractable systems to study cell biology to allowing the investigation of inaccessible clinical and environmental ecosystems. Although there is a recognized need for improved model systems, there is a gap in rational approaches to accomplish this goal.

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Pathogenic microbial ecosystems are often polymicrobial, and interbacterial interactions drive emergent properties of these communities. In the oral cavity, Streptococcus gordonii is a foundational species in the development of plaque biofilms, which can contribute to periodontal disease and, after gaining access to the bloodstream, target remote sites such as heart valves. Here, we used a transposon sequencing (Tn-Seq) library of S.

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