Background:
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global health problem. As it progresses to end stages, renal replacement therapy is required but ultimately, the best treatment is transplantation. ...Decreased renal function has been associated with an inflammatory state associated to primary CKD and in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs).
Objective:
To establish how the serum concentrations of some cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-2, IL-8, IL-22, IL-17α, interferon-gamma, IL-4, and transforming growth factor-β, correlate with various CKD stages.
Methods:
One hundred and forty-one KTRs between the ages of 18 and 75 years were included in the study. We also included 112 live kidney donors, 37 CKD PGCKD+3, and 76 GPhealthy. Participants were grouped according to their glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and their circulating cytokine levels, previously quantified by ELISA.
Results:
By linear regression analysis, we established the relation of each cytokine with the GFR. Transforming growth factor-β correlated positively with the GFR in the study population, except in healthy individuals. A negative correlation of IL-8 and IL-17α and GFR was found in all cases.
Conclusions:
Whether these cytokines (IL-8 and IL-17α) could be used as inflammatory biomarkers indicating CKD progression, regardless of the type of population, remains to be prospectively determined.
The Solar Orbiter magnetometer Horbury, T. S.; O’Brien, H.; Carrasco Blazquez, I. ...
Astronomy & astrophysics,
10/2020, Volume:
642
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The magnetometer instrument on the Solar Orbiter mission is designed to measure the magnetic field local to the spacecraft continuously for the entire mission duration. The need to characterise not ...only the background magnetic field but also its variations on scales from far above to well below the proton gyroscale result in challenging requirements on stability, precision, and noise, as well as magnetic and operational limitations on both the spacecraft and other instruments. The challenging vibration and thermal environment has led to significant development of the mechanical sensor design. The overall instrument design, performance, data products, and operational strategy are described.
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FMFMET, NUK, UL, UM, UPUK
Helicobacter pylori has been recognized as a major gastric pathogen. The objective of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of common clinical tests to detect
H. pylori infection, by ...comparison with PCR. Serum and gastric biopsy specimens from 106 dyspeptic patients were examined. Serology was performed with Pyloriset Dry test, and biopsies were examined histologically, for rapid urease activity and PCR amplification of an
ureA gene segment of
H. pylori. PCR primers were specific for
H. pylori and required at least 1.47 pg of
H. pylori DNA, corresponding to about 800 bacterial cells. According to serology, histology, rapid urease, and PCR, positive results were respectively found in 56%, 86%, 64%, and 85% of dyspeptic patients, primarily with gastritis. Relative to PCR, the sensitivity (and specificity) was 55% (38%) for serology, 86% (13%) for histology, 70% (69%) for urease. When combining histology and urease, Bayesian analysis of data indicated no advantage of using combined methods over rapid urease test alone. Histology should not any longer be considered a gold standard test for
Helicobacter pylori. Urea breath test still seems the first option for non invasive diagnostic. If an invasive diagnostic is justified, highly specific and sensitive molecular methods should be used to examine specimens.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
In the maize and tortilla industry, it is important to characterize the color of maize (
Zea mays
L.) grain, as it is one of the attributes that directly affect the quality of the tortillas consumed ...by the population. For this reason, the availability of alternative techniques for assessing and improving the quality of grain is valued. Photoacoustic spectroscopy has proven to be a useful tool for characterizing maize grain. So, the objective of the present study was to determine the optical absorption coefficient
β
of the maize grain used to make tortillas from two regions of Mexico: (a) Valles Altos, 2012–2013 production cycle and (b) Guasave, Sinaloa, 2013–2014 production cycle. Traditional reflectance measurements, physical characteristics of the grain and nutrient content were also calculated. The experimental results show different characteristics for maize grains.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The work climate (WC) affects the performance of service providers and has an impact on the care provided to users. This is important in the case of conditions that affect the quality of life, as is ...the case of chronic kidney disease (CKD) treated with haemodialysis. In Mexico, the demand for the care of CKD cases is increasing and the haemodialysis offer is limited. The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the WC in public, private and social security haemodialysis units in Mexico and to validate a tool to measure WC in haemodialysis units (HU).
372 professionals from 84 HU in 27 states were interviewed using a questionnaire. This included questions about the WC, quality of care and structure and organisation of the HU. Variables were compared by type of institution and profession.
Significant correlations were observed between the WC and indicators of the quality of care. Nine out of fourteen variables presented important differences by type of unit, with a better perception of WC in private units and a poorer perception in social security ones.
The perception of WC relies on the organisation and planning of the institutions, as well as on their infrastructure. In the case of Social Security HU in Mexico, these appear to be the areas that require improvement in order to encourage a better work climate.
Although guidelines exist for advanced and variant bladder cancer management, evidence is limited/conflicting in some areas and the optimal approach remains controversial.
To bring together a large ...multidisciplinary group of experts to develop consensus statements on controversial topics in bladder cancer management.
A steering committee compiled proposed statements regarding advanced and variant bladder cancer management which were assessed by 113 experts in a Delphi survey. Statements not reaching consensus were reviewed; those prioritised were revised by a panel of 45 experts before voting during a consensus conference.
Online Delphi survey and consensus conference.
The European Association of Urology (EAU), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), experts in bladder cancer management.
Statements were ranked by experts according to their level of agreement: 1–3 (disagree), 4–6 (equivocal), 7–9 (agree). A priori (level 1) consensus was defined as ≥70% agreement and ≤15% disagreement, or vice versa. In the Delphi survey, a second analysis was restricted to stakeholder group(s) considered to have adequate expertise relating to each statement (to achieve level 2 consensus).
Overall, 116 statements were included in the Delphi survey. Of these, 33 (28%) statements achieved level 1 consensus and 49 (42%) statements achieved level 1 or 2 consensus. At the consensus conference, 22 of 27 (81%) statements achieved consensus. These consensus statements provide further guidance across a broad range of topics, including the management of variant histologies, the role/limitations of prognostic biomarkers in clinical decision making, bladder preservation strategies, modern radiotherapy techniques, the management of oligometastatic disease and the evolving role of checkpoint inhibitor therapy in metastatic disease.
These consensus statements provide further guidance on controversial topics in advanced and variant bladder cancer management until a time where further evidence is available to guide our approach.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In maize plant breeding aimed at producing a hybrid, it is necessary to characterize the parents and hybrids by their agronomic aspects and grain quality so that the processing industry may offer ...consumers a quality product and also improve its efficiency. This study evaluated the viscoelastic parameters of masa and the chemical and texture properties of tortillas obtained from parent lines (M-54, M55, and CML-242), two single crosses (M54xM55 and M55xM54), and one hybrid (H-70). The morphology of the maize grains and tortillas was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. The firmness of masa obtained from CML-242 and H-70 maize was higher than that from the other maize genotypes. M-54 tortillas showed the lowest crude fiber content. Otherwise, tortillas obtained from the M55xM54 hard grain had the lowest fat content and extensibility, while H-70 tortillas showed an intermediate breaking point and extensibility. M-54 and M54xM55 tortillas were softer due to their more swollen starch granules. In contrast, rigid tortillas were obtained from CML-242 and H-70. Grain hardness causes different morphology in starch and tortilla of maize genotypes. However, grain hardness did not influence the characteristics of texture in tortillas.
Background Pemphigus is an autoimmune disease characterized by the formation of intra‐epidermal blisters. Patients develop auto‐antibodies against desmoglein 1 and 3 proteins and induce ...acantholysis.
Objective This work addresses the issue of whether the Fas pathway mediates acantholysis. Furthermore, the possible suppliers of the Fas pathway were investigated.
Methods Seventeen biopsies of pemphigus patients were studied by haematoxylin and eosin staining, and apoptosis was defined by TUNEL. The expression of Fas, FasL and caspase 3 was studied by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Cell infiltrates were studied by immunofluorescence with monoclonal anti‐CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19 and CD69.
Results All of the biopsies showed intra‐epidermal blisters, acantholytic cells and inflammatory infiltrates. The blisters expressed Fas, FasL and caspase 3. Cell infiltrates were composed of CD8 and a few CD4+CD69+ cells. Additionally, CD19+ cells were detected. Interestingly, the Fas expression was increased in acantholytic cells and perilesional keratinocytes. Incidentally, these cells exhibited apoptotic features. Interestingly, the CD8 cells expressed FasL.
Conclusion This paper presents the morphological evidence that apoptosis and acantholysis are linked. Therefore, the Fas pathway is associated with CD8 cells in pemphigus lesions.
Conflicts of interest
None declared.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
To develop a deep learning algorithm for the analysis of patch testing.
A retrospective case series between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2020, was constructed to develop a deep learning model ...for the classification of patch test results from photographs. The performance of human expert readers reviewing the same photographs blinded to the original clinical physical examination findings was measured to benchmark model performance.
Model performance on the independent test set (n=5070 test site locations from 37 patients) achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.89 (95% CI, 0.86-0.91) and an F1 score of 37.1. The optimal cutoff had a sensitivity of 70.1% (136/194; 95% CI, 63.1%-76.5%) and a specificity of 91.7% (4472/4876; 95% CI, 90.9%-92.5%).
We demonstrated proof-of-concept utility for detecting allergic contact dermatitis using an automated deep learning approach.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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