Introduction
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common form of liver disease worldwide affecting all ages and ethnic groups and it has become a consistent threat even in ...young people. Our aim was to estimate the effect of a Low Glycemic Index Mediterranean Diet (LGIMD) on the NAFLD score as measured by a Liver Ultrasonography (LUS).
Design
NUTRIzione in EPAtologia (NUTRIEPA) is a population-based Double-Blind RCT. Data were collected in 2011 and analyzed in 2013-14.
Setting/participants
98 men and women coming from Putignano (Puglia, Southern Italy) were drawn from a previous randomly sampled population-based study and identified as having moderate or severe NAFLD.
Intervention
The intervention strategy was the assignment of a LGIMD or a control diet.
Outcome measures
The main outcome measure was NAFLD score, defined by LUS.
Results
After randomization, 50 subjects were assigned to a LGIMD and 48 to a control diet. The study lasted six months and all participants were subject to monthly controls/checks. Adherence to the LGIMD as measured by Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI) showed a median of 10.1. A negative interaction between time and LGIMD on the NAFLD score (-4.14, 95% CI -6.78,-1.49) was observed, and became more evident at the sixth month (-4.43, 95%CI -7.15, -1.71). A positive effect of the interaction among LGIMD, time and age (Third month: 0.07, 95% CI 0.02, 0.12; Sixth month: 0.08, 95% CI 0.03,0.13) was also observed.
Conclusions
LGIMD was found to decrease the NAFLD score in a relatively short time. Encouraging those subjects who do not seek medical attention but still have NAFLD to follow a LGIMD and other life-style interventions, may reduce the degree of severity of the disease. Dietary intervention of this kind, could also form the cornerstone of primary prevention of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease.
Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is characterized by the delivery of high doses of ionizing radiation in few fractions. It is highly effective in achieving local control, and, due to the high ...biological effective dose administered, it seems to overcome the radioresistance of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Thus, SBRT could constitute a treatment option for the management of localized RCC in patients who are not surgical candidates. In this paper, we report an overview about data from the current evidence about SBRT in patients affected by localized RCC.
A non-systematic review was performed, including data from both retrospective and prospective studies focusing on the use of SBRT for localized RCC and its biological rationale. Furthermore, ongoing trials on this issue are reported.
Currently, SBRT might be considered a treatment alternative in inoperable patients affected by primary RCC. Currently, dose-escalation to 48 Gy in 3–4 fractions are effective and well tolerated. Emerging role of immune therapies in RCC patients warrant further studies to explore interactions between SBRT and immune response.
Cognitive and motor performance can be supported, especially in older subjects, by different types of brain activations, which can be accurately studied by functional magnetic resonance imaging ...(fMRI). Vascular risk factors (VRFs) are extremely important in the development of cognitive impairment, but few studies have focused on the fMRI cortical activation characteristics of healthy subjects with and without silent cerebrovascular disease including white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and carotid stenosis (CS) performing cognitive tasks.
Thirty-five volunteers with and without asymptomatic unilateral carotid stenosis above 70% and variable degrees of WMH underwent performance of a simple motor and cognitive task during an fMRI session.
While the performance of the motor task resulted in a cortical activation dependent of age but not of WMH and carotid stenosis, performance of the cognitive task was accompanied by a significantly increased activation independently correlated with age, presence of WMH as well as of carotid stenosis.
in this study, cognitive domains regulating attention and working memory appear to be activated with a pattern influenced by the presence of carotid stenosis as well as by white matter hyperintensities. The impairment of these cognitive abilities is of high relevance in Alzheimer's disease pathology. The fMRI pattern shown in patients with asymptomatic but significant carotid stenosis might be related to chronic cerebrovascular hypoperfusion, a critical pathophysiological mechanisms in AD. In these patients, carotid endoarterectomy should be considered also for AD prevention and might be recommended.
Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era, driven by the economic and population growth. In the last decades, significant efforts have been made to ...develop cleaner and more efficient technologies able to control GHG emissions. In the field of combustion burners, this commitment strongly relies on the development of new and detailed numerical models, which allow a deep investigation of complex burner performance and a significant reduction of full-scale experimental costs. The knowledge previously acquired on the TEA-C coal burner CFD study is here expanded in the framework of the Be4GreenS project, targeting to the development of a new generation of burners. The new implemented model accounts for the detailed chemical and kinetic characterization of the pulverized coal together with the exact inner volume geometry of the experimental combustion chamber and the actual extension of the heat exchanging and refractory surfaces. In addition, the secondary and tertiary air registers are here numerically investigated. The outcome from the CFD analysis is validated against the experimental data. The NOx formation analysis is also provided.
In the present in vitro electrophysiological study, the acute effects of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from multiple sclerosis (MS) and control subjects were measured on the axonal conduction of rat ...optic nerve, a central tract that is commonly affected in MS. Optic nerve compound action potential (CAP) amplitude was insensitive to the application of CSF obtained from the whole population of non‐MS patients and from seven of 15 MS CSF. In the remaining eight MS cases, conversely, a time‐dependent depression of CAP amplitude was observed. The reversible blockade of ion channels by soluble substances might account, at least in part, for the transient symptoms often seen in MS patients.
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