Henningsenmclaughlin1613
The role of arterial stiffness in the pathophysiology of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is unclear. The cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is a novel arterial stiffness index reflecting stiffness of the arterial tree from the origin of the aorta to the ankle, independent from blood pressure at the time of measurement. CAVI reflects functional stiffness, due to smooth muscle cell contraction or relaxation, and organic stiffness, due to atherosclerosis. Here, we report the case of a patient with an increased CAVI due to CTEPH and the improvement after riociguat administration and balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA).
A 65-year-old man suffered from dyspnea on exertion, and he was diagnosed with distal CTEPH. The mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) was 51 mmHg, and the initial CAVI was 10.0, which is high for patient's age. In addition to right ventricular dysfunction, left ventricular dysfunction was observed as reduced global longitudinal strain (GLS-LV). After riociguat administrat obscure; however, riociguat administration and BPA might improve the pathophysiology of CTEPH partly by decreasing CAVI.
Opportunistic infections are an illness that exists more frequently and is more severe in people with HIV. In HIV/AIDS patients, opportunistic infections still cause morbidity and mortality even after the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and most patients die as direct or indirect complications of opportunistic infections. This study was aimed to identify the determinants for the occurrence of opportunistic infections in HIV-positive patients having HAART follow-up in DBRH, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia.
A total of 339 study subjects were involved under institution-based unmatched case-control study design and simple random sampling technique. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were entered using Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed for descriptive and logistic regression models by SPSS version 21.
-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
After adjusting potential confounders, drinking alcohol (AOR=3.12, 95% CI 1.07-9.06), BMI <18.5 (AOR= 3.36, 95% CI 1.49-7.55), previous history of opportunistic infections (AOR= 2.96, 95% CI 1.51-5.8) were independent predictors of opportunistic infections in people living with HIV/AIDS on HAART.
In this study, the poor clinical and biochemical status, and behavioral factors were being the predictors of the occurrence of opportunistic infections. HIV/AIDS patients must be assessed and screened for opportunistic infections.
In this study, the poor clinical and biochemical status, and behavioral factors were being the predictors of the occurrence of opportunistic infections. HIV/AIDS patients must be assessed and screened for opportunistic infections.The role of patient adherence in improving the efficacy of any treatment is widely accepted, as well as its impact in optimizing the use of healthcare resources and associated costs. Adherence is particularly affected in chronic conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), requiring long-term therapies and a commitment of the patient to manage his/her disease. Fluvastatin Methotrexate (MTX) is one of the mainstays of treatment for several immune-mediated inflammatory joint and skin diseases, especially RA. link2 The use of parenteral MTX, particularly when administered as a subcutaneous (SC) injection, has recently raised a great interest to overcome the limitations of oral MTX. For addressing this issue, new optimized self-injection systems have been developed to improve the ease of use of SC MTX. Increasing evidence shows how patients tend to opt for autoinjectors over prefilled syringes or conventional syringes in terms of easiness of use, preference and satisfaction, regardless of whether the treatment is a biologic or MTX. Additionally, positive views and beliefs of patients about treatment may contribute to increasing expectations of effectiveness and treatment adherence. Similarly, the implementation of prefilled pens in clinical practice might be a way to facilitate and simplify the self-injection of SC MTX delivery, optimizing adherence and treatment outcomes as a consequence. This article aimed to review the available literature data on the use of MTX autoinjectors and their impact on treatment adherence and patients' perceptions.
To evaluate the diagnostic performance of
F-FDG PET/MR in detecting recurrent or metastatic disease in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) who have increased thyroglobulin (Tg) levels but a negative
I whole-body scan (WBS). The relationship between
F-FDG PET/MR and serum Tg levels was explored. We also evaluated the therapeutic impact of PET/MR on patient clinical management.
Twenty-nine DTC patients with a negative
I-WBS of the last post-therapeutic and increased Tg levels under thyroid-stimulating hormone suppression treatment who underwent
F-FDG PET/MR examination were retrospectively analyzed.
Of those 29 patients,
F-FDG PET/MR findings were true positive, true negative, false positive, and false negative in 18, 7, 2, and 2 patients, respectively. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 90.0%, 77.8%, and 86.2%, respectively. We noticed significant differences in serum Tg levels between the PET/MR-positive and PET/MR-negative patient groups (
=0.049). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that a Tg level of 2.4 ng/mL was the optimal cut-off value for predicting PET/MR results. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of PET/MR were higher in patients with Tg levels greater than 2.4 ng/mL than in patients with lower levels. By detecting recurrent or metastatic disease,
F-FDG PET/MR altered the clinical management in 7 patients (24.1%) of the overall population.
F-FDG PET/MR has high diagnostic accuracy for detecting recurrent or metastatic diseases in DTC patients and is useful for clinical management.
18F-FDG PET/MR has high diagnostic accuracy for detecting recurrent or metastatic diseases in DTC patients and is useful for clinical management.
Androgens acting through the androgen receptor play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of acne. This study aimed to identify whether two key genes (
and
) involved in the synthesis and metabolism of androgens were associated with Pillsbury III-IV severe acne vulgaris.
We carried out a standard questionnaire survey about acne and enlisted 600 Pillsbury III-IV severe acne vulgaris patients and 652 healthy controls of Han Chinese descent from Yunnan, China in the study. Twenty-two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped by SNaPshot assay and analyzed for association with severe acne.
There was no significant difference in gender between the two groups (
= 0.085), and the age of the acne case group was significantly lower than that of the control group (
< 0.001). Our results revealed that only two SNPs, rs6474 (p.Arg102Lys) (
= 0.001) and rs6465 (
= 0.025) of the
gene were significantly associated with severe acne among the Han Chinese. When subjects were divided into males for male patients. Future studies using independently verified datasets from a broader geographical spectrum will be valuable in identifying the causal and functional variants responsible for severe acne vulgaris within the CYP19A1 and CYP21A2 genes.
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been reported as a deleterious factor in male fertility potential, associated with hypogonadism, impaired spermatogenesis, decreased sperm concentration and motility, and increased sperm DNA damage. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of MetS in men from infertile couples and evaluate its effect on semen analysis (SA).
A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in men from infertile couples diagnosed based on the World Health Organization 2010 criteria and treated at the Hue Center for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Vietnam. General information included medical history, lifestyle, MetS factors, SA, and sperm DNA fragmentation test were collected. Based on the diagnostic criteria of the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for Asian men, the study population was divided into two groups MetS and non-MetS groups. The outcomes were analyzed for any relationship between MetS and the SA index and the DNA fragmentanificantly associated with abnormal sperm head and DFI.
The pancreatic islet specific microRNA-375 (miR-375) is overexpressed in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients suppressing the glucose-induced insulin secretion. Thus, miR-375 may serve as a biomarker for the early prediction of T2DM among high-risk individuals. We conducted this clinical study to assess the significance of miR-375 among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and their first-degree relatives.
We included 56 Han Chinese individuals (N NGT = 21, T2DM = 10, FD-NGT =13 and FD-T2DM = 12) who received medical health check-ups from January 2018 to September 2018 at The Third Hospital of Yunnan Province, China. They were categorized as normal glucose tolerance (NGT), T2DM, first-degree relatives with normal glucose tolerance (FD-NGT) and first-degree relatives with T2DM (FD-T2DM). OGTT, C-peptide and Insulin tests were performed to confirm the diagnosis. The miR-375 levels were determined by Quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR).
The OGTT test showed a significant difference in T2DM and M and FD-T2DM compared with NGT and FD-NGT groups. A significantly higher miR-375 expression was also observed in T2DM and FD-T2DM groups compared with NGT and FD-NGT and thus, miR-375 may serve as a stable biomarker for the early prediction of T2DM among high-risk individuals.
To investigate the expression of serum miR-155 in children with
pneumonia (MPP).
A total of 100 children at our hospital with pneumonia caused by
infection were enrolled as a study group, including 45 cases in the acute phase (acute phase group) and 55 in the recovery phase (recovery phase group). An additional 30 healthy children were enrolled during the same period as the control group. The expression levels of miR-155, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-8 (IL-8), IL-10, IL-13, immunoglobulin (Ig) G, IgA, complements (C3 and CH50), and T lymphocyte subsets (CD
, CD
, CD
, and CD
/CD
) were determined. link3 Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors affecting MPP in children.
miR-155, IL-10, IgG, IgA, CD
, CD
, and CD
/CD
were poorly expressed in children with MPP, and their expression in the acute phase group was significantly lower than that in the recovery phase group. TNF-α, IL-13, C3, and CH50 were highly expressed in the children, and their expression was significantly higher in the acute phase group than in the recovery phase group. In the acute phase group, the expression of IL-8 was significantly higher than that in the control and recovery phase groups but without any significant differences between the recovery phase and control groups. Age, season, low complement state, epidemiological contact history, and antibiotic use time were independent risk factors affecting MPP in children.
Serum miR-155 is poorly expressed in children with MPP, and it can regulate inflammatory disorders and immune responses.
Serum miR-155 is poorly expressed in children with MPP, and it can regulate inflammatory disorders and immune responses.
