Molecular insights of Hippo signaling in the chick developing lung.

Hippo signaling pathway and its effector YAP have been recognized as an essential growth regulator during embryonic development. Hippo has been studied in different contexts; nevertheless, its role during chick lung branching morphogenesis remains unknown. Therefore, this work aims to determine Hippo role during early pulmonary organogenesis in the avian animal model.

Ultrasound Assessment in a Pregnant Woman? Not just for the Fetus.

Pericarditis is a relatively common diagnosis worldwide; however, there are few data published on the frequency, diagnosis, and management of pericardial diseases in pregnant women. Ultrasonography has established its utmost importance and is worldwide recognized in pregnancy and fetal evaluation. Moreover, point-of-care ultrasonography of pregnant women, guided by clinical examination and history, can play an equally fundamental role.

Clinical Characteristics and Mortality-Associated Factors in COVID-19 Critical Patients in a Portuguese ICU.

Introduction: Severe COVID-19 is associated with serious complications and poor outcomes. Older age and underlying comorbidities are known risk factors for severe COVID-19, but a better understanding of baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients with severe COVID-19 is urgently needed.

Methods: This study was a retrospective case series of 227 consecutive patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at our institution between March 2020 and December 2021.

Robotic Biofeedback for Post-Stroke Gait Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review.

This review aims to recommend directions for future research on robotic biofeedback towards prompt post-stroke gait rehabilitation by investigating the technical and clinical specifications of biofeedback systems (BSs), including the complementary use with assistive devices and/or physiotherapist-oriented cues. A literature search was conducted from January 2019 to September 2022 on Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, PEDro, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Data regarding technical (sensors, biofeedback parameters, actuators, control strategies, assistive devices, physiotherapist-oriented cues) and clinical (participants' characteristics, protocols, outcome measures, BSs' effects) specifications of BSs were extracted from the relevant studies.

A Review on Locomotion Mode Recognition and Prediction When Using Active Orthoses and Exoskeletons.

Understanding how to seamlessly adapt the assistance of lower-limb wearable assistive devices (active orthosis (AOs) and exoskeletons) to human locomotion modes (LMs) is challenging. Several algorithms and sensors have been explored to recognize and predict the users' LMs. Nevertheless, it is not yet clear which are the most used and effective sensor and classifier configurations in AOs/exoskeletons and how these devices' control is adapted according to the decoded LMs.

A multi-camera and multimodal dataset for posture and gait analysis.

Monitoring gait and posture while using assisting robotic devices is relevant to attain effective assistance and assess the user's progression throughout time. This work presents a multi-camera, multimodal, and detailed dataset involving 14 healthy participants walking with a wheeled robotic walker equipped with a pair of affordable cameras. Depth data were acquired at 30 fps and synchronized with inertial data from Xsens MTw Awinda sensors and kinematic data from the segments of the Xsens biomechanical model, acquired at 60 Hz.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection: a country dissemination experience and outcomes.

Objective: An increasing use of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has been reported in Western countries, although some differences in training schemes and outcomes have been described. We aimed to report the training model, implementation, and outcomes of ESD in Portugal.

Methods: All endoscopists trained at our center from our country (n = 9) were invited to a survey regarding: (a) training period; (b) ESD outcomes and (c) implementation of ESD in each respective center.

Low quantity and quality of anti-spike humoral response is linked to CD4 T-cell apoptosis in COVID-19 patients.

In addition to an inflammatory reaction, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected patients present lymphopenia, which we recently reported as being related to abnormal programmed cell death. As an efficient humoral response requires CD4 T-cell help, we hypothesized that the propensity of CD4 T cells to die may impact the quantity and quality of the humoral response in acutely infected individuals. In addition to specific immunoglobulins (Ig)A, IgM, and IgG against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N), membrane (M), and spike (S1) proteins, we assessed the quality of IgG response by measuring the avidity index.

Interstitial nephritis secondary to treatment with pembrolizumab, a rare complication in two patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPi) have become nowadays one of the most widely prescribed anticancer treatments. Pembrolizumab is a highly selective monoclonal immunoglobulin approved as a first-line monotherapy treatment in adult patients with untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with programmed cell death 1 (PD-L1) expression greater than 50% and lack of mutations. ICPi can precipitate immune-related adverse events.

Low Memory T Cells Blood Counts and High Naïve Regulatory T Cells Percentage at Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the peripheral immune system of newly diagnosed patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and compare it to healthy controls (HC).

Methods: This cross-sectional study involves 30 treatment-naïve newly diagnosed patients with RRMS and 33 sex- and age-matched HC. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were analyzed regarding: i) thymic function surrogates [T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) and recent thymic emigrants (RTEs)]; ii) naïve and memory CD4 and CD8 T cells subsets; iii) T helper (Th) phenotype and chemokine receptors expression on CD8 T cells subsets; iv) regulatory T cell (Tregs) phenotype; and exclude expression of activating/inhibitory receptors by natural killer (NK) and NKT cells.

Do all patients with suspicious prostate cancer need Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging before prostate biopsy?

Objectives: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) is a useful tool to diagnose prostate cancer (PCa) but its cost is not negligible. In order to reduce costs and minimize time to diagnosis, it is necessary to establish which patients benefit the most from doing mpMRI prior to prostate biopsy (PB). Our aim was to test if mpMRI still predicts PCa and clinically significant PCa (csPCa) in patients with high clinical suspicion of cancer, defined as prostate specific antigen (PSA) > 10 ng/ml, PSA-Density (PSAD) > 0.

Detection of bladder cancer with feature fusion, transfer learning and CapsNets.

This paper confronts two approaches to classify bladder lesions shown in white light cystoscopy images when using small datasets: the classical one, where handcrafted-based features feed pattern recognition systems and the modern deep learning-based (DL) approach. In between, there are alternative DL models that had not received wide attention from the scientific community, even though they can be more appropriate for small datasets such as the human brain motivated capsule neural networks (CapsNets). However, CapsNets have not yet matured hence presenting lower performances than the most classic DL models.

Constipation: Prevalence in the Portuguese community using Rome IV-Associated factors, toilet behaviours and healthcare seeking.

Background: Chronic constipation (CC) is a major public health condition and CC management remains challenging.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the CC (and subtypes) prevalence in a Southern Europe Mediterranean country using Rome IV criteria, and to assess related factors, toilet and healthcare seeking behaviours.

Methods: Cross-sectional epidemiological survey, conducted in general community and representing the Portuguese population according to sex and age.

Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis in a Portuguese Patient With Neurofibromatosis Type 1.

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a frequent genetic neurocutaneous syndrome and multiple sclerosis (MS) is an acquired demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The association of both these diseases is rare. In this case report, we describe a 25-year-old man with gait impairment, upper limbs tremor, slurred speech, and urinary symptoms in the form of urinary urgency and incontinence.

T cell apoptosis characterizes severe Covid-19 disease.

Severe SARS-CoV-2 infections are characterized by lymphopenia, but the mechanisms involved are still elusive. Based on our knowledge of HIV pathophysiology, we hypothesized that SARS-CoV-2 infection-mediated lymphopenia could also be related to T cell apoptosis. By comparing intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU COVID-19 patients with age-matched healthy donors, we found a strong positive correlation between plasma levels of soluble FasL (sFasL) and T cell surface expression of Fas/CD95 with the propensity of T cells to die and CD4 T cell counts.

Developmental Pathways Underlying Lung Development and Congenital Lung Disorders.

Lung organogenesis is a highly coordinated process governed by a network of conserved signaling pathways that ultimately control patterning, growth, and differentiation. This rigorously regulated developmental process culminates with the formation of a fully functional organ. Conversely, failure to correctly regulate this intricate series of events results in severe abnormalities that may compromise postnatal survival or affect/disrupt lung function through early life and adulthood.

ATENA-A Novel Rapidly Manufactured Medical Invasive Ventilator Designed as a Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Testing Protocol, Safety, and Performance Validation.

The urgent need for mechanical ventilators to support respiratory insufficiency due to SARS-CoV-2 led to a worldwide effort to develop low-cost, easily assembled, and locally manufactured ventilators. The ATENA ventilator project was developed in a community-based approach targeting the development, prototyping, testing, and decentralized manufacturing of a new mechanical ventilator. This article aims to demonstrate ATENA's adequate performance and safety for clinical use.

Lung branching morphogenesis is accompanied by temporal metabolic changes towards a glycolytic preference.

Background: Lung branching morphogenesis is characterized by epithelial-mesenchymal interactions that ultimately define the airway conducting system. Throughout this process, energy and structural macromolecules are necessary to sustain the high proliferative rates. The extensive knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary development contrasts with the lack of data regarding the embryonic lung metabolic requirements.

Sampling Methods and Risk Stratification Regarding Environmental Contamination by SARS-CoV-2.

Introduction: Transmission of COVID-19 through close contact and droplets is well established, but the influence of aerosol and surface contamination remains to be determined. Literature is scarce and inconsistent about the viable virus particles free-distance from infected patients, as well as about different swabbing methods for surface contamination evaluation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the most sensitive method for the assessment of surface contamination, classify the likelihood of environmental contamination in risk zones and compare the environmental contamination between oxygenation and ventilatory support.

Vibrotactile biofeedback devices in Parkinson's disease: a narrative review.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is often associated with a vast list of gait-associated disabilities, for which there is still a limited pharmacological/surgical treatment efficacy. Therefore, alternative approaches have emerged as vibrotactile biofeedback systems (VBS). This review aims to focus on the technologies supporting VBS and identify their effects on improving gait-associated disabilities by verifying how VBS were applied and validated with end-users.

Assessing treatment response after intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin induction cycle: are routine bladder biopsies necessary?

Purpose: To determine the need for routine bladder biopsies (BBs) in assessing response to the induction cycle of intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) for high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Methods: Our prospectively maintained NMIBC database was queried to identify patients with high-risk disease (carcinoma in situ, high-grade Ta/T1) who underwent BBs after BCG induction cycle. Urine cytology, cystoscopy, and BBs findings were evaluated.