The main goal of our phantom study was to compare the precision of adjustable periurethral balloons positioning depending whether the guidance was obtained by retrovision or rigid cystoscopy.
A ...navigation guidance system was used to localize the introduction mandrel which was equipped with tracking targets. Two ideal sites of implantation were predefined and recorded into the navigation system. The two points were placed symmetrically to the phantom reproducing the urethra. Four different users were asked to position the tip of the introduction mandrel as close as possible to the ideal site of implantation with the help of each method of guidance. For each attempt, the distance (mm) between the tip of the introduction mandrel and the ideal position was recorded by the navigation system.
For each method of guidance, a total of 20 attempts on each side were made by direct puncture on one side and a symmetrical contralateral puncture. For direct puncture, the median distances were 5.20 (±3.96) and 4.38 (±1.55) mm with rigid cystoscopy and retrovision respectively (P=0.29). For symmetrical contralateral puncture, the median distance were 7,19 (±3,78) and 6,86 (±2,76) mm with rigid cystoscopy and retrovision respectively (P=0,32) CONCLUSION: This study could not demonstrate any significant difference between the two guidance systems. Nevertheless, it showed that navigation guidance system could be used to compare the precision of surgical interventions.
4.
The incidence of brain metastases (BM) is apparently rising in patients with advanced breast cancer (ABC). We performed a case control study to define current features of breast cancer related to ...central nervous system (CNS) metastases.
From March 1999 to May 2006, we identified 72 patients with symptomatic BM of breast cancer. A comparison group was randomly selected assigning to each case two patients with primary breast cancer and no BM, matched for year of diagnosis, age and tumour stage (pT status and nodal status).
Cases had a significantly higher rate of negative estrogen receptors (ERs) (60% in cases vs. 29% in controls), negative progesterone receptors (PgRs) (79% vs. 43%), HER2/neu over expression (44% vs. 13%) and immunostaining for Ki-67 > or =20% (84% vs. 55%), with p-value <0.001 for all four parameters in univariate analyses. On multivariate analysis, HER2/neu over expression and Ki-67 -20% were independent predictive factors of brain relapse (Odds Ratio (OR) 2.55, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.10-5.94 and OR 2.97, 95% CI 1.01-8.73, respectively). Endocrine unresponsive tumours (both ER and PgR <10%) showed an increased risk of relapse with BM of borderline significance (OR 1.91, 95% CI 0.87-4.12).
Patients with ER and PgR negative tumours either with or without HER-2/neu over expression should be considered at higher risk of BM.
Abstract
:
We have previously demonstrated that wild‐type herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV‐1), as well as nonreplicating UV‐inactivated HSV‐1, promptly activates the nuclear factor‐
κ
B (NF‐
κ
B) in ...U937 monocytoid cells and that glycoprotein D (gD) of HSV‐1 is sufficient by itself to exert a similar effect.
We then investigated the signaling pathway used by HSV‐1 to initiate NF‐
κ
B activation and, particularly, whether our observation could be related to the capability of HSV‐1‐gD to directly stimulate NF‐
κ
B through its interaction with the herpes virus entry receptor A (HveA). Here we report that: (
a
) co‐cultivation of U937 cells with an adherent cell line expressing wild‐type gD on its surface led to increased NF‐
κ
B activation, while co‐cultivation with the same adherent cell line expressing a mutated form of gD, lacking the capability to bind HveA, did not cause the same effect; (
b
) exposure to UV‐inactivated HSV‐1 induced the activation of NF‐
κ
B in HveA‐expressing U937 and THP‐1 cells, but not in non‐HveA‐expressing HEp‐2 cells; and (
c
) activation of NF‐
κ
B in U937 and THP‐1 cells exposed to soluble gD was inhibited by an antibody able to interfere with gD–HveA interaction. These results suggest that HSV‐1‐gD–HveA interaction initiates a signal transduction pathway leading to NF‐
κ
B activation.
Administration of Lactobacillus reuteri CRL 1098 (104 cells/d) to mice for 7 d before inducing hypercholesterolemia (by feeding mice with a fat-enriched diet for the subsequent 7 d) was evaluated. At ...this low dose, L. reuteri was effective in preventing hypercholesterolemia in mice, producing a 17% increase in the ratio of high-density lipoprotein to low-density lipoprotein. Total cholesterol and triglycerides decreased by 22 and 33%, respectively, in the group that was not fed the lactobacilli. The hypocholesterolemic effect produced by L. reuteri CRL 1098 might be considered as indirect evidence of the permanency of the lactobacilli in the gut.
We present a search for a light sterile neutrino using three years of atmospheric neutrino data from the DeepCore detector in the energy range of approximately 10–60 GeV. DeepCore is the low-energy ...subarray of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The standard three-neutrino paradigm can be probed by adding an additional light (Δm412∼1 eV2) sterile neutrino. Sterile neutrinos do not interact through the standard weak interaction and, therefore, cannot be directly detected. However, their mixing with the three active neutrino states leaves an imprint on the standard atmospheric neutrino oscillations for energies below 100 GeV. A search for such mixing via muon neutrino disappearance is presented here. The data are found to be consistent with the standard three-neutrino hypothesis. Therefore, we derive limits on the mixing matrix elements at the level of |Uμ4|2<0.11 and |Uτ4|2<0.15 (90% C.L.) for the sterile neutrino mass splitting Δm412=1.0 eV2.
Swiss Albino mice were fed a diet enriched with fat to produce hypercholesterolemia. The further administration of Lactobacillus reuteri CRL 1098 (104 cells/d) to hypercholesterolemic mice for 7 d ...decreased total cholesterol by 38%, producing serum cholesterol concentrations similar to that of the control group (67.4 mg/ml). This low dose of L. reuteri caused a 40% reduction in triglycerides and a 20% increase in the ratio of high density lipoprotein to low density lipoprotein without bacterial translocation of the native microflora into the spleen and liver. These data suggest that L. reuteri CRL 1098 is an effective hypocholesterolemic adjuvant at a low cell concentration for mice.
ABSTRACT The IceCube Neutrino Observatory accumulated a total of 318 billion cosmic-ray-induced muon events between 2009 May and 2015 May. This data set was used for a detailed analysis of the ...sidereal anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays in the TeV to PeV energy range. The observed global sidereal anisotropy features large regions of relative excess and deficit, with amplitudes of the order of 10−3 up to about 100 TeV. A decomposition of the arrival direction distribution into spherical harmonics shows that most of the power is contained in the low-multipole ( ≤ 4) moments. However, higher multipole components are found to be statistically significant down to an angular scale of less than 10°, approaching the angular resolution of the detector. Above 100 TeV, a change in the morphology of the arrival direction distribution is observed, and the anisotropy is characterized by a wide relative deficit whose amplitude increases with primary energy up to at least 5 PeV, the highest energies currently accessible to IceCube. No time dependence of the large- and small-scale structures is observed in the period of six years covered by this analysis. The high-statistics data set reveals more details of the properties of the anisotropy and is potentially able to shed light on the various physical processes that are responsible for the complex angular structure and energy evolution.
Untreated hypothyroidism is associated with acquired von Willebrand syndrome, and hyperthyroidism is associated with increased thrombosis risk. However, the causal effects of thyroid function on ...hemostasis, coagulation, and fibrinolysis are unknown.
In a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study with genome-wide association variants, we assessed causality of genetically predicted hypothyroidism (
= 134,641), normal-range thyrotropin (TSH;
= 54,288) and free thyroxine (fT4) (
= 49,269), hyperthyroidism (
= 51,823), and thyroid peroxidase antibody positivity (
= 25,821) on coagulation (activated partial thromboplastin time, von Willebrand factor VWF, factor VIII FVIII, prothrombin time, factor VII, fibrinogen) and fibrinolysis (D-dimer, tissue plasminogen activator TPA, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) from the CHARGE Hemostasis Consortium (
= 2583-120,246). Inverse-variance-weighted random effects were the main MR analysis followed by sensitivity analyses. Two-sided
< 0.05 was nominally significant, and
< 0.0011 = 0.05/(5 exposures × 9 outcomes) was Bonferroni significant for the main MR analysis.
Genetically increased TSH was associated with decreased VWF β(SE) = -0.020(0.006),
= 0.001 and with decreased fibrinogen β(SE) = -0.008(0.002),
= 0.001. Genetically increased fT4 was associated with increased VWF β(SE) = 0.028(0.011),
= 0.012. Genetically predicted hyperthyroidism was associated with increased VWF β(SE) = 0.012(0.004),
= 0.006 and increased FVIII β(SE) = 0.013(0.005),
= 0.007. Genetically predicted hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism were associated with decreased TPA β(SE) = -0.009(0.024),
= 0.024 and increased TPA β(SE) = 0.022(0.008),
= 0.008, respectively. MR sensitivity analyses showed similar direction but lower precision. Other coagulation and fibrinolytic factors were inconclusive.
In the largest genetic studies currently available, genetically increased TSH and fT4 may be associated with decreased and increased synthesis of VWF, respectively. Since Bonferroni correction may be too conservative given the correlation between the analyzed traits, we cannot reject nominal associations of thyroid traits with coagulation or fibrinolytic factors.
Usual sleep duration is a heritable trait correlated with psychiatric morbidity, cardiometabolic disease and mortality, although little is known about the genetic variants influencing this trait. A ...genome-wide association study (GWAS) of usual sleep duration was conducted using 18 population-based cohorts totaling 47 180 individuals of European ancestry. Genome-wide significant association was identified at two loci. The strongest is located on chromosome 2, in an intergenic region 35- to 80-kb upstream from the thyroid-specific transcription factor PAX8 (lowest P=1.1 × 10(-9)). This finding was replicated in an African-American sample of 4771 individuals (lowest P=9.3 × 10(-4)). The strongest combined association was at rs1823125 (P=1.5 × 10(-10), minor allele frequency 0.26 in the discovery sample, 0.12 in the replication sample), with each copy of the minor allele associated with a sleep duration 3.1 min longer per night. The alleles associated with longer sleep duration were associated in previous GWAS with a more favorable metabolic profile and a lower risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these associations may help elucidate biological mechanisms influencing sleep duration and its association with psychiatric, metabolic and cardiovascular disease.
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