Current Health Sciences Journal最新文献

Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) represent a category of chronic diseases of gastrointestinal tract with a long-term evolution which includes flares and periods of remission. The aim of the study is to identify and quantify the relationship between IBD status, perceived stress, coping mechanisms, and patients QOL.

Methods: Cross-sectional study on two samples consisting of 70 IBD patients monitored in the Gastroenterology Department of the Emergency Clinical County Hospital Craiova, Romania, respectively 70 healthy volunteers. Collected data include socio-demographic details, personal and familial medical history, clinical status, presumed risk factors, perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale-PSS), coping strategies (COPE questionnaire) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL-SF-36 scale).

Results: Perceived stress was considerably higher on IBD subjects (p<0.0001). The assessment of HRQOL has shown that patients had the best perception over their physical and emotional domains of SF-36 (p<0.0001), while the most often coping mechanisms used are those from the problem-focused category.

Conclusions: There is a significant relationship between increased activity of IBD and higher level of stress, that led to the development of problem-focused coping strategies. We did not find a strong correlation between lower HRQOL levels and the items considered as potential risk factors.

Starting from December 2020, vaccination against COVID-19 became available in Romania. There are a lot of uncertainties regarding the kinetics of immunity and its persistance over time. This is a small prospective study developed between January-September 2021 in the Infectious Diseases Clinic from Craiova and comprising 61 subjects immunised with BNT162b2 (Comirnaty). We have found that after two doses of vaccine there is a strong humoral response, but the immunity lowers six months later. Subjects with a diagnosis of COVID-19, previously or in between the two doses, have had the most significant immunological response, but, also, the sharpest decline in antibody titer. The immune response seems to be the same, regardless the gender of the subjects. There are a variety of responses at the individual level, but overall vaccine effectiveness is 96.72% two weeks following immunisation and 88.52% after six months; however for those who have been in contact with the virus, they all had an antibody titer well above the laboratory limit.

Gastric cancer remains a health problem, with treatment indications varying with the TNM stage. We aimed in this study to highlight the role of EUS in GC patients and also to calculate the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of EUS for T and N staging in our group of patients with this disease. In this study, we included 41 GC patients, and individual values for every T stage accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, correct staging, understaging, and overstaging were calculated. EUS overall accuracy for T staging was 58.53%, with the highest sensitivity reached for the T4 stage, 95.83%. For N+vs. N-staging, EUS accuracy was 68.29%, with a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 44.44%. The positive and negative predicted values for the presence or absence of nodal disease were 82.75%, respectively 33.33%. In conclusion, this study confirmed the importance of EUS for the assessment of GC T and N stage and highlighted the role of this tool in the detection of liver micrometastasis unrevealed by other imaging techniques like abdominal ultrasound or MSCT.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequently occurring malignancies which associates increasing mortality and morbidity rates. According to data provided by the World Health Organization, colorectal cancer deaths account for approximately 13% of all cancer fatalities. The carcinogenesis of this type of malignancy is a very complex process characterized by various molecular changes which in turn are influenced by factors likes sex, diet, intestinal microbiota, exposure to environmental factors, hosts' immune response and also genetic factors. Our study looked at a total number of 1024 patients, which were all diagnosed with colorectal cancer in a hospital in the north of England, a country that is known for both a high prevalence of this type of cancer but also its robust screening programmers. In our analyses, we concluded that this type of malignancies affected mostly males, aged between 60 and 80. The most commonly affected regions were the rectum, the sigmoid colon and also the cecum. The majority of colorectal cancers (51%) were diagnosed by GPs (general practitioners) or other medical specialties; 43.55% of all cases presented as surgical emergencies and 5.47% were diagnosed through national screening programs. Majority of tumors were diagnosed in late stages, mainly T3 and T4 whilst in was observed that rectal cancers were mainly diagnosed in T2 and T3 stages.

Osteoarthritis is one of the most debilitating diseases in Europe affecting the lower limb joints, especially the hip and knee, having a bad influence on gait in the long run as well. Rehabilitation physicians use gait in order for the whole body to be seen in ensemble, and through midstance as moment of gait to also take predilection to falls into consideration. Goniometry is the quantifiable measure of a rehabilitation treatment by measuring the range of motion of each treated joint and studied during time. The patients that volunteered to be part of this study have been divided into four groups, depending on the level of osteoarthritis present at the lower limb joints: hip, knee, both hip and knee osteoarthritis or control group with no osteoarthritis, have been asked to walk for a few times and the video recordings were uploaded into the Angles App where we measured the lower limb joint angles during midstance. Patients with knee osteoarthritis present a more extended hip on both dominant and non-dominant sides compared to the ones with hip osteoarthritis, hip and knee osteoarthritis or control group. The results can be explained through the body's kinematic chains that link the knee and hip, hip and pelvis during the midstance phase in the sagittal plane. A physician can use a video goniometry app in order for him to thoroughly evaluate an osteoarthritic patient as well as follow him or her during the entire course of treatment.

Objective: Patients with chronic hepatitis C are subjected to a greater risk of cardiovascular disease and difficult to control diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) comparatively to people that have never contracted Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). We aimed to investigate the impact of T2DM on HCV patients with the help of Fibromax test results compared to nonT2DM patients, and the metabolic differences between the 2 study groups. Our long term goals are to observe the long term impact of achieving systemic virusologic response (SVR) by means of Direct-Acting antivirals (DAA) between the 2 cohorts.

Research design and methods: We selected a lot of 200 patients with HCV that will undergo interferon-free DAA-based antiviral treatment for HCV and we used the results of the Fibromax Test to compare the biological parameters of T2DM and nonT2DM patients. RESULTS Among patients with T2DM compared to NonT2DM there is a significant correlation on Steatotest, NashTest, GGT, Glycemia, body weight, height and BMI. Test also showed that 15,5% of the test group had elevated glycemia, indicating the probability of developing diabetes in the future.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that HCV patients that also have T2DM are subjected to a combined higher risk of accelerated steatosis development, steatohepatitis, added difficulty in controlling glycemic levels. All these previous elements combined with a prevalence for patients to be overweight have a negative metabolic impact. Eradication of HCV with the help of DAA is important in order to help improving the metabolic impact of diabetes on steatosis, steatohepatitis. An added benefit is better management of glycemic control by decreasing insulin use and eliminating one risk factor of T2DM.

The central nervous system tumors are the most common solid tumors in adults.. Unlike other types of cancers, brain cancer is much difficult to treat because of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that prevents drug substances from crossing it and accessing the brain. Different types of methods to overcome BBB have been used in vivo and in vitro, of which the use of nanoparticle-mediated delivery of therapeutic drugs is particularly promising. In the present study, we used iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) as carrier system for helianthin (He/NPs) to treat cancer cells derived from glioblastoma. An early passage cell cultures (GB1B), established in our laboratory from tissue obtained from a patient diagnosed with glioblastoma, was used. The cells were treated with different concentrations of NPs or HeNPs and then cell proliferation was measured at 24, 48 and 72 hours. Our results showed that the treatment with NPs was well tolerated by glioblastoma cells, the viability of the cells increased very slightly after the treatment. Furthermore, we demonstrated that helianthin loaded Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles induced cytotoxicity in human glioblastoma cells. The treatment with HeNPs induced dose and time dependent.

A 29-year-old man with severe haemophilia A developed right lower quadrant pain. He was diagnosed with jejuno-jejunal intussusception, and he was managed conservatively with an infusion of plasmatic factor VIII, resulting in resolution of symptoms, and reduction of the jejuno-jejunal intussusception, and complete regression of hematoma. This case highlights a rare clinical manifestation in patients with haemophilia, and also indicates the effectiveness of factor VIII instead of exploratory surgery for intramural hematoma.

Hepatitis C virus represents one of the most important public health problems nowadays. Several epidemiological studies have shown a continuous increasing rate of prevalence and incidence with severe consequences in terms of mortality. During the last decades, the treatment of the liver infection has evolved, and now there are available new therapies with better side-effect' profiles and bigger efficiency. The needs for more therapeutically efficacy also stand behind the numerous comorbidities associated to the liver disease, and also for assuring better quality of life for patients and their families.

Smoking is the most important factor affecting the oral cavity by components born in the tobacco combustion process and acting directly on the oral mucous membranes, dental arch and indirectly on the teeth support. Recent studies show the tobacco action on the oral cavity, manifestations in the form of gingivitis, bacterial plaque, dental plaque, papillary bleeding at drilling, periodontitis.

Purpose of the study: In this study, we have set out to assess the macroscopic modifications of oral cavity on smokers.

Materials and methods: The participants in the study were divided into two groups, the first group of smokers with a smoking period over 5 years and the control group of nonsmokers. The patients in the two groups underwent a physical examination and an objective clinical examination, the resulting data being compared with the control group.

Results: For the bacterial plaque indicatorin the smoker group there was obtained a mean value of 35.68±12.45, compared to a mean value of 16.32±6.61 for the nonsmoker group, the dental plaque indicatorfor the smoker group had a mean value of 2.24±1.02, higher than the one in the nonsmoker group, namely 0.94±0.68, and for the drilling bleeding indicator we obtained a mean value of 19.54±7.89 in the nonsmoker group, which is lower than that in the smoker group, namely 42.86±14.93.

Conclusions: Smoking is a cause that maintains and aggravates the periodontal disease, including the risk of periodontitis, allowing the aggravation of gingivitis, considered a reversible surface inflammation of the gum mucosa which, by accumulation of dental plaque, the dental plaque accompanied by incorrect oral hygiene, favors the progression to periodontitis.