Purpose
Interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS) is a chronic pain syndrome and a chronic inflammatory condition prevalent in women that leads to urgency, sleep disruption, nocturia ...and pain in the pelvic area, to the detriment of the sufferer’s quality of life. The aim of this review is to highlight the newest diagnostic strategies and potential therapeutic techniques.
Methods
A comprehensive literature review was performed on MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane databases gathering all literature about “Interstitial cystitis” and “Painful Bladder Syndrome”. Visual analogue scales, epidemiological strategies, pain questionnaires and similar techniques were not included in this literature survey.
Results
The etiology, exact diagnosis and epidemiology of IC/PBS are still not clearly understood. To date, its prevalence is estimated to be in the range of 45 per 100,000 women and 8 per 100,000 men, whereas joint prevalence in both sexes is 10.6 cases per 100,000. There are no “gold standards” in the diagnosis or detection of IC/PBS, therefore, several etiological theories were investigated, such as permeability, glycosaminoglycans, mast cell, infection and neuroendocrine theory to find new diagnostic strategies and potential biomarkers.
Conclusion
Due to the fact that this disease is of an intricate nature, and that many of its symptoms overlap with other concomitant diseases, it could be suggested to classify the patients with emphasis on the phenotype, as well as their symptom clusters, to tailor the diagnostic and management choices according to the observed biomarkers.
This paper describes the simulation framework of the extreme energy events (EEE) experiment. EEE is a network of cosmic muon trackers, each made of three multi-gap resistive plate chambers (MRPC), ...able to precisely measure the absolute muon crossing time and the muon integrated angular flux at the ground level. The response of a single MRPC and the combination of three chambers have been implemented in a GEANT4-based framework (GEMC) to study the telescope response. The detector geometry, as well as details about the surrounding materials and the location of the telescopes have been included in the simulations in order to realistically reproduce the experimental set-up of each telescope. A model based on the latest parametrization of the cosmic muon flux has been used to generate single muon events. After validating the framework by comparing simulations to selected EEE telescope data, it has been used to determine detector parameters not accessible by analysing experimental data only, such as detection efficiency, angular and spatial resolution.
Ovarian cancer is one of the most frequent solid tumor that shows clearly biphasic behaviour in response to chemotherapy, with the majority of patients who achieved complete remission after the first ...cycle of chemotherapy, and subsequently present a relapse which, in most cases, leads to death. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) arises as a consequence of genetic alterations that affect the cells of the ovarian surface, which leads to changes that occur through the activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. The progression of EOC is characterized by a series of combined epigenetic aberrations, including the most important of those determined by the loss of methylation of certain regions of DNA encoding genes such as Ras-association domain-containing family 1 (RASSF1A) tumor suppressor, death-associated protein kinase (DAPK) protein kinase associated with the regulation of apoptosis, human sulfa- tase-I (hSulf-1) sulfatase, which plays a key role in the regulation of apoptosis, breast cancer 1 gene (BRCA1) tumor suppressor gene, involved in the processes of DNA repair, and HOXAI0 (gene required to promote many transcription factors). To date, accumulating evidence suggests that the initial clinical response is due primarily to the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy against differentiated can- cer cells that constitute the bulk of the tumor, whereas the high rate of recurrence is thought to be due to remaining drug-resistant cells, biologically distinct, identified as cancer stem cells (CSC). Current efforts are focusing on genetic and cytological definition of CSC, to guide the development of new diagnostic, and therapeutic perspectives.
The aim of this study was to assess women preference about pain and duration of labour applying a standardized questionnaire.
A prospective multicentre large cohort study was carried out in two ...different University Hospitals. A standardized questionnaire was proposed before active labour and the day after delivery in order to investigate whether women preferred low pain intensity for a longer labour duration or greater pain intensity for a shorter labour duration. The studied population was divided and analysed in two groups according to Epidural Analgesia (EA) administration. A multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to assess which variables were able to influence the opinion about the pain perception after birth.
EA group showed an increased risk of episiotomy (p = 0.004), of longer duration of labour (Stage I, p < 0.001; Stage II, p = 0.002) and of oxytocin augmentation (P = 0.030). No statistical differences were found about the route of delivery between the two groups. Rates of pre-labour scores significantly differed from rates of post labour scores (p < 0.001). In the multivariable linear regression analysis, pre-labour score was directly related to post-labour score (p = 0.013). The EA was indirectly related to higher pain levels for a longer duration preference (p = 0.001), whereas oxytocic infusion in labour was directly related with preference for higher pain for a shorter duration (p = 0.011).
Patients’ preferences about labour are focused on both pain relief and labour duration. The standardized questionnaire could be a useful tool to screen patients eligible for EA.
Citron-kinase (Citron-K) has been proposed by in vitro studies as a crucial effector of Rho in regulation of cytokinesis. To further investigate in vivo its biologic functions, we have inactivated
...Citron-K gene in mice by homologous recombination.
Citron-K
−/− mice grow at slower rates, are severely ataxic, and die before adulthood as a consequence of fatal seizures. Their brains display defective neurogenesis, with depletion of specific neuronal populations. These abnormalities arise during development of the central nervous system due to altered cytokinesis and massive apoptosis. Our results indicate that Citron-K is essential for cytokinesis in vivo but only in specific neuronal precursors. Moreover, they suggest a novel molecular mechanism for a subset of human malformative syndromes of the CNS.
The whole Extreme Energy Events (EEE) array is composed of 61 telescopes installed in Italian High Schools, built and operated by students and teachers, constantly supervised by researchers. The muon ...telescope of the EEE Project is made by 3 Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC). The unconventional working sites are a unique test field for checking the robustness and the low-ageing features of the MRPC technology for particle tracking and timing purposes. The MRPCs are fluxed with a standard mixture (98% C
2
H
2
F
4
- 2% SF
6
) of greenhouse gases (GHG) phasing out of production. The EEE Collaboration is currently studying alternative mixtures environmentally and economically sustainable. The EEE Collaboration actions to reduce the Global Warming Potential (GWP) in the MRPC array of the EEE experiment are progressing.
Abstract
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of an adverse pregnancy outcome. The aim of this study was to analyze the serum levels of high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1) in obese ...pregnant women, to assess the role of this protein in the pathogenesis of this disease and to evaluate its possible function as a diagnostic marker for obesity-related complications in obese women.
Study participants were randomly selected, from a cohort of pregnant women afferent to our department. A total of 120 women were enrolled in this study: 60 pregnant women had normal body mass index (BMI) and 60 women resulted obese. Pre-pregnancy BMI, weight increase and HMGB1 levels were evaluated for each pregnant woman enrolled. Matching serum HMGB1 levels in two groups, our data evidenced higher levels in the obese women, with a statistically significant difference (p = 0.0023). A significant positive univariate correlation was observed between serum HMGB1 levels and BMI in obese women. HMGB1 serum levels may therefore represent a predictive marker of disease in pregnant women (r = 20.9 and p = 0.0001). Further studies are needed in order to validate the role of this cytokine, with the aim of making it possible to use in clinical practice not only for diagnostic purposes, but especially for the early recognition of complications related to it.
Chinese abstract
肥胖与不良妊娠结局风险的升高相关。本研究的目的在于分析妊娠女性血清中高速泳动族蛋白族蛋白B1（HMGB1）水平，评估此蛋白与肥胖发病机制的相关性，判断其作为肥胖女性的肥胖相关并发症诊断标志物的可能性。
本研究受试者从我科室就诊的妊娠女性中随机抽取。研究共纳入120名女性：60名身体质量指数（BMI）正常的妊娠女性，60名肥胖妊娠女性。研究评估了每名受试者妊娠前BMI、体重增加情况及HMGB1水平。研究将血清HMGB1水平匹配为2组，数据表明肥胖组HMGB1水平更高，差异有统计学意义（p = 0.0023）。肥胖组血清HMGB1水平与BMI之间存在显著单变量相关性。因此，血清HMGB1水平也许可以作为预测妊娠女性相关疾病的指标（r = 20.9, p = 0.0001）。关于该细胞因子的作用还需进一步研究证实，进而使其在临床上不仅用于诊断肥胖这一疾病，还可用于识别早期相关并发症。
To investigate whether combined trunk and gluteal neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) alters seated posture and improves pelvic tissue health in persons with a spinal cord injury.
...Intervention study; case series.
Research laboratory, medical center.
Seven persons with spinal cord injury recruited from a group of experienced implanted lower extremity NMES system users.
Combined trunk and gluteal NMES in the sitting position. Five minutes of preintervention sitting was assessed, followed by 5 minutes of NMES application, and then 5 minutes of postintervention.
Pelvic tissue health was evaluated by concurrently measuring transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPO2) bilaterally over the ischia and the seating interface pressure (IP). TcPO2 data were binned into low (<10 mm Hg), medium (10-30 mm Hg), and high (>30 mm Hg) ranges, and the percentage time that TcPO2 was in each range was calculated. Ischial and sacral regions of interest were defined and the maximum region of interest and mean IP were determined, together with the maximum IP gradient for the entire contact area. Initial seating postures varied; 4 persons were initially sacral sitters. Tissue health responses to NMES were reviewed for sacral and nonsacral sitters.
For sacral sitters, the sacral region IP and the maximum IP gradient tended to decrease during NMES and increased again after the intervention. Mean ischial TcPO2 increased during NMES and remained elevated after the intervention, increasing high TcPO2 percentage time for 50% of the sacral sitters both during and after the intervention. Nonsacral sitters showed few changes in tissue health as the result of the application of NMES.
Trunk and gluteal stimulation acutely corrects anterior/posterior IP distribution, improving regional tissue health for sacral sitters. This correction requires constant application of NMES. The potential for positive changes in tissue health would be maximized by regular NMES use incorporating weight shifting.
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