scholarly journals Presence of the Human Cytomegalovirus in Glioblastomas—A Systematic Review

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5051
Author(s):  
Inti Peredo-Harvey ◽  
Afsar Rahbar ◽  
Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér
Keyword(s):  
Human Cytomegalovirus ◽  
Standard Treatment ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Treatment Protocols ◽  
Blood Samples ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dismal Prognosis ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
Immunohistochemical Techniques

Glioblastoma is a malignant brain tumor with a dismal prognosis. The standard treatment has not changed in the past 15 years as clinical trials of new treatment protocols have failed. A high prevalence of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in glioblastomas was first reported in 2002. The virus was found only in the tumor and not in the surrounding healthy brain tissue. Many groups have confirmed the presence of the HCMV in glioblastomas, but others could not. To resolve this discrepancy, we systematically reviewed 645 articles identified in different databases. Of these, 81 studies included results from 247 analyses of 9444 clinical samples (7024 tumor samples and 2420 blood samples) by different techniques, and 81 articles included 191 studies that identified the HCMV in 2529 tumor samples (36% of all tumor samples). HCMV proteins were often detected, whereas HCMV nucleic acids were not reliably detected by PCR methods. Optimized immunohistochemical techniques identified the virus in 1391 (84,2%) of 1653 samples. These data suggest that the HCMV is highly prevalent in glioblastomas and that optimized immunohistochemistry techniques are required to detect it.

Renaissance of contact radiotherapy with RT 50 Papillon machine: A revival of new treatment option for early low rectal cancer?

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e14149-e14149
Author(s):  
Arthur Sun Myint ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rectal Cancer ◽  
Standard Treatment ◽  
Multimodality Treatment ◽  
Low Rectal Cancer ◽  
Major Surgery ◽  
Early Rectal Cancer ◽  
Permanent Stoma ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rectal Polyps ◽  
New Treatment

e14149 Background: Local contact radiotherapy for early rectal cancer is an accepted treatment in most centers but still controversial in some centres. However, the old Philips machine is obsolete and many centers are unable to continue treating patients using this technique. A new RT 50 Papillon machine is now commercially available and there is a new hope for elderly patients and others who whish to avoid major surgery or permanent stoma. Methods: Although contact radiotherapy has been in clinical use for the past 80 years it is still not regarded as standard treatment in many centers around the world. This is due to the fact that there were no large randomized trials to prove its efficacy against standard surgical treatment. ICONE group has launched CONTEM trials, which are observational trials that combine Contact RT with TEMS for various stages of malignant rectal polyps. Results: ICONE group meets annually and organized courses for contact radiotherapy. So far, 10 centers in Europe have now been trained. We hope to start the CONTEM trials later this year. The data from these trials will be collected centrally in Nice and updated annually. The results will be published later. Conclusions: At present approximately 30-50% of patients with early (T1N0) low rectal cancer (<6cm) are being over treated with APR. Revival of contact radiotherapy allows multimodality treatment for selected patients to avoid major surgery and permanent stoma. We hope the CONTEM trials will provide some evidence in this approach for suitable patients with early rectal cancer. [Table: see text]

scholarly journals New therapies for alopecia areata

2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (5) ◽  
pp. 251-258
Author(s):  
Adriána Evelin Csernus ◽  
◽  
Rolland Gyulai
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Alopecia Areata ◽  
Therapeutic Strategies ◽  
European Medicines Agency ◽  
Treatment Protocols ◽  
The Past ◽  
Emerging Therapies ◽  
Standardized Treatment ◽  
New Treatment

Over the past few years, better understanding of the explicit pathomechanism of alopecia areata provides new treatment opportunities for effective therapy of the disease, which may revolutionize therapeutic strategies. This exceedingly heterogeneous disease with unpredictable outcome, severely affects the quality of life. Currently, there are no standardized treatment protocols approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), resulting a challenge for the therapists in the choice of treatment.In this paper, the authors summarize recent and emerging therapies for severe cases of alopecia areata.

Non-viral aspects

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Roongruedee Chaiteerakij
Keyword(s):  
Autoimmune Hepatitis ◽  
Liver Diseases ◽  
Sclerosing Cholangitis ◽  
Promising Result ◽  
Primary Biliary Cholangitis ◽  
Second Line Therapy ◽  
Thai Population ◽  
The Past ◽  
Line Therapy ◽  
New Treatment

Autoimmuneliver diseases, particularly autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis,are not uncommon among the Thai population. This article summarizes main findings of studies of autoimmune liver diseases published during the past year, which included natural history and long-termoutcomes of primary biliary cholangitis treatment, a promising result of the new treatment for primary sclerosing cholangitis and outcomes of a second-line therapy of autoimmune hepatitis.

Isolation of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia from Clinical Samples in Some Hospitals in Shiraz, Iran

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Majid Baserisalehi ◽  
Samira Zarezadeh ◽  
Majid Baserisalehi ◽  
Saeed Shoa
Keyword(s):  
Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia ◽  
Enterobacter Aerogenes ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Bacillus Species ◽  
Microbiological Analysis ◽  
Blood Samples ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Phenotypic Methods

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is an emerging pathogenic non-fermentative Gram-negative Bacillus species. It has caused many nosocomial infections and can be isolated from various hospital wards and healthcare facilities. Research has shown that most of its strains are inherently resistant to many antibiotics and have multidrug resistance. This research intended to determine its occurrence frequency at some Hospitals in shiraz, Iran. The present study was conducted in six months (from early spring to late summer 2019). Clinical samples (Blood, Urine and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)) collected from 120 patients afflicted with various infections. The samples were transferred to the Laboratory and subjected to microbiological analysis. Identification of the isolates was carried out by phenotypic methods and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates verified using molecular methods. In total, various bacteria were isolated from 84 clinical samples. The isolates were Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was isolated from 17 (20.2%) positive samples and most of them were isolated from blood samples. Our finding indicated that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolated more from blood samples follow by CSF sample. In addition, our finding illustrated that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia can be considered as the common nosocomial agent at hospitals in Shiraz, Iran.

scholarly journals Creating Price Indexes for Measuring Productivity in Mental Health Care

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan H. Busch ◽  
Ernst R. Berndt ◽  
Richard G. Frank
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Major Depression ◽  
Price Index ◽  
Time Varying ◽  
Measurement Issues ◽  
The Past ◽  
Price Indexes ◽  
Treatment Technologies ◽  
New Treatment

Economists have long suggested that to be reliable, a preferred medical care price index should employ time-varying weights to measure outcomes-adjusted changes in the price of treating an episode of illness. In this article, we report on several years of research developing alternative indexes for the treatment of the acute phase of major depression, for the period 1991–1996. The introduction of new treatment technologies in the past two decades suggests well-known measurement issues may be prominent in constructing such a price index.We report on the results of four successively re

scholarly journals Prevalence of metallo-β-lactamase genes among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from various clinical samples in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wang ◽  
Xiaoya Wang
Keyword(s):  
Pseudomonas Aeruginosa ◽  
Antibiotic Susceptibility ◽  
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid ◽  
Carbapenem Resistance ◽  
Opportunistic Pathogen ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Routine Practice ◽  
Carbapenem Resistant ◽  
High Prevalence

AbstractBackgroundPseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen which is associated with nosocomial infections and causes various diseases including urinary tract infection, pneumonia, soft-tissue infection and sepsis. The emergence of P. aeruginosa-acquired metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) is most worrisome and poses a serious threat during treatment and infection control. The objective of this study was to identify antibiotic susceptibility, phenotypic detection of MBL production and to determine the prevalence of MBL genes in carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa isolated from different clinical samples.MethodsA total of 329 non-duplicate P. aeruginosa isolated from various clinical samples from two hospitals in China between September 2017 and March 2019 were included in this study. Phenotypic detection of MBL was performed by the combined detection method using imipenem and imipenem-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) discs. MBL-encoding genes including blaVIM-1, blaVIM-2, blaIMP-1, blaIMP-2, blaSPM-1, blaSIM, blaNDM-1 and blaGIM were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).ResultsOf the 329 P. aeruginosa, majority of the isolates were resistant to imipenem (77.5%) followed by meropenem (64.7%). Of the 270 P. aeruginosa isolates tested, 149 (55.2%) isolates were found to be positive for MBL detection. Of the different samples, 57.8% (n = 26) of P. aeruginosa isolated from blood were found to be positive for MBL production. Of the various MBL genes, blaIMP-1 (28.2%) was the most predominant gene detected followed by blaVIM-2 (18.8%), blaVIM-1 (16.1%), blaNDM-1 (9.4%), blaIMP-2 (6.7%), blaSIM (6.0%), blaSPM-1 (4.0%) and blaGIM (1.3%) genes.ConclusionsThe high resistance of P. aeruginosa toward imipenem and meropenem and the high prevalence of blaIMP-1 and blaVIM-2 set the alarm on the increasing, perhaps the increased, carbapenem resistance. In addition to routine antibiotic susceptibility testings, our results emphasize the importance of both the phenotypic and genotypic MBL detection methods in routine practice for early detection of carbapenem resistance and to prevent further dissemination of this resistant pathogen.

scholarly journals Anti-phospholipid syndrome and COVID-19 thrombosis: connecting the dots

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moon Ley Tung ◽  
Bryce Tan ◽  
Robin Cherian ◽  
Bharatendu Chandra
Keyword(s):  
Endothelial Dysfunction ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Molecular Mimicry ◽  
Thromboembolic Events ◽  
The Past ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Connecting The Dots ◽  
Anti Phospholipid Syndrome

Abstract As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is spreading rapidly worldwide, it has emerged as a leading cause of mortality, resulting in &gt;1 million deaths over the past 10 months. The pathophysiology of COVID-19 remains unclear, posing a great challenge to the medical management of patients. Recent studies have reported an unusually high prevalence of thromboembolic events in COVID-19 patients, although the mechanism remains elusive. Several studies have reported the presence of aPLs in COVID-19 patients. We have noticed similarities between COVID-19 and APS, which is an autoimmune prothrombotic disease that is often associated with an infective aetiology. Molecular mimicry and endothelial dysfunction could plausibly explain the mechanism of thrombogenesis in acquired APS. In this review, we discuss the clinicopathological similarities between COVID-19 and APS, and the potential role of therapeutic targets based on the anti-phospholipid model for COVID-19 disease.

scholarly journals Emergency management of the paediatric patient with convulsive status epilepticus

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Kyle C McKenzie ◽  
Cecil D Hahn ◽  
Jeremy N Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Status Epilepticus ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Treatment Algorithm ◽  
Position Statement ◽  
Convulsive Status Epilepticus ◽  
Pharmacological Management ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
New Evidence

Abstract This guideline addresses the emergency management of convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) in children and infants older than 1 month of age. It replaces a previous position statement from 2011, and includes a new treatment algorithm and table of recommended medications based on new evidence and reflecting the evolution of clinical practice over the past several years. This statement emphasizes the importance of timely pharmacological management of CSE, and includes some guidance for diagnostic approach and supportive care.

scholarly journals Massachusetts’ Findings from Statewide Newborn Screening for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Jaime E. Hale ◽  
Basil T. Darras ◽  
Kathryn J. Swoboda ◽  
Elicia Estrella ◽  
Jin Yun Helen Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Muscular Atrophy ◽  
Newborn Screening ◽  
New England ◽  
Screening Program ◽  
Muscular Atrophy ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Newborn Screening Program ◽  
Treatment Protocols ◽  
Screening Algorithm ◽  
New Treatment

Massachusetts began newborn screening (NBS) for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) following the availability of new treatment options. The New England Newborn Screening Program developed, validated, and implemented a screening algorithm for the detection of SMA-affected infants who show absent SMN1 Exon 7 by Real-Time™ quantitative PCR (qPCR). We screened 179,467 neonates and identified 9 SMA-affected infants, all of whom were referred to a specialist by day of life 6 (average and median 4 days of life). Another ten SMN1 hybrids were observed but never referred. The nine referred infants who were confirmed to have SMA were entered into treatment protocols. Early data show that some SMA-affected children have remained asymptomatic and are meeting developmental milestones and some have mild to moderate delays. The Massachusetts experience demonstrates that SMA NBS is feasible, can be implemented on a population basis, and helps engage infants for early treatment to maximize benefit.

scholarly journals Effects of Non-thermal Ultrasound on a Fibroblast Monolayer Culture: Influence of Pulse Number and Pulse Repetition Frequency

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5040
Author(s):  
Silvia Ronda Peñacoba ◽  
Mar Fernández Gutiérrez ◽  
Julio San Román del Barrio ◽  
Francisco Montero de Espinosa
Keyword(s):  
Short Pulse ◽  
Pulse Repetition Frequency ◽  
Pulse Number ◽  
Repetition Frequency ◽  
Pulse Repetition ◽  
Treatment Protocols ◽  
Culture Plate ◽  
New Treatment ◽  
Long Pulse

Despite the use of therapeutic ultrasound in the treatment of soft tissue pathologies, there remains some controversy regarding its efficacy. In order to develop new treatment protocols, it is a common practice to carry out in vitro studies in cell cultures before conducting animal tests. The lack of reproducibility of the experimental results observed in the literature concerning in vitro experiments motivated us to establish a methodology for characterizing the acoustic field in culture plate wells. In this work, such acoustic fields are fully characterized in a real experimental configuration, with the transducer being placed in contact with the surface of a standard 12-well culture plate. To study the non-thermal effects of ultrasound on fibroblasts, two different treatment protocols are proposed: long pulse (200 cycles) signals, which give rise to a standing wave in the well with the presence of cavitation (ISPTP max = 19.25 W/cm2), and a short pulse (five cycles) of high acoustic pressure, which produces a number of echoes in the cavity (ISPTP = 33.1 W/cm2, with Pmax = 1.01 MPa). The influence of the acoustic intensity, the number of pulses, and the pulse repetition frequency was studied. We further analyzed the correlation of these acoustic parameters with cell viability, population, occupied surface, and cell morphology. Lytic effects when cavitation was present, as well as mechanotransduction reactions, were observed.

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