Current Health Sciences Journal最新文献

Patients with cirrhosis often develop malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, leading to a worse prognosis and increased mortality. Our purpose was to assess the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies especially calcium and phosphorus in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis (LC). This was a retrospective study including 143 consecutive patients hospitalized for acute decompensation of cirrhosis, most of them with alcoholic etiology along with viral B or viral C and autoimmune induced cirrhosis. A blood test including minerals was performed on admission. Lower serum calcium levels were found in patients with a more severe forms of LC and also the ones diagnosed with viral and alcoholic LC rather than autoimmune induced LC. Peritoneal ascitic fluid was observed in 51 patients with hypocalcemia and only 24 patients with normal calcium levels had fluid accumulation. Low levels of phosphorus were noted in patients with a more severe form of LC (chi-square: 20.2504; p-value 0.000446). Ascitic fluid was found in patients with low values of phosphorus as well as in those with hypocalcemia (chi-square 5.235; p-value 0.022137). In conclusion, this study confirmed that patients with advanced liver disease had lower values of calcium and phosphorus and a more severe form of LC can be associated with hypocalcemia and hypophosphatemia.

Background: Due to their minimally invasive high-quality adhesive, aesthetic and mechanical qualities, composite resins are the most frequently used materials in modern restorative dentistry. However, polymerization shrinkage and cytotoxicity are still unresolved drawbacks associated with these biomaterials.

Purpose: The present study aimed to assess the cytotoxicity of some restorative resin-based materials on gingival mesenchymal stromal cells (gMSCs), assuming that no differences in their behavior will be highlighted.

Material and methods: The cytotoxicity of the tested materials was evaluated by comparing the behavior of gMSCs cultured in normal conditions and in association with disc-shaped material samples indirectly through functionality tests (colony-forming unit-fibroblast assay, migratory potential) and directly through the MTT assay. The results were statistically analyzed with the ANOVA test and Tukey's Honest Significant Difference test.

Results: According to the MTT assay, there are no statistically significant differences regarding the viability of gMSCs cultured in normal conditions or in the presence of resin-based material samples. On the other hand, the present study identified a significantly reduced number of colonies formed by the gMSCs cultured in association with BF and B discs, compared to that of gMSCs cultured in normal conditions. Also, the migratory potential was significantly lower for control gMSCs when compared to ZE-gMSCs and significantly higher for ZE-gMSCs when compared to BF-gMSCs or BFL-gMSCs.

Conclusions: The results of the present study highlight a possible risk of cytotoxicity when using resin based-materials in dental practice, but they cannot be directly extrapolated to in vivo situations.

Gastric adenocarcinomas are lesions that raise important issues in clinical practice, due to their incidence and biological behavior. Over time, various systems have been used for classifying and grading of gastric adenocarcinomas, in the hope of increasing the diagnostic accuracy. In this study we statistically analyzed 112 cases of gastric adenocarcinomas in relation to different classification and grading systems, in order to identify their efficacy and concordance in the histopathological diagnosis. The results indicated a significant association of the Lauren and World Health Organization 2019 classifications and also between these and the three-tier and two-tier grading systems, which supports their practical utility in establishing the diagnosis and assessment of the tumor aggressiveness, for the differentiated therapy.

Gastric cancer continues to be a significant malignancy worldwide, accounting for approximately one million new cases in 2020. Scientists are focusing on the cancerous cells' plasma membrane (PM) as a potential therapeutic target in cancer because it functions as the cell's interface with its environment through a variety of mechanisms. The capacity of membrane shape and its structures to influence biological processes frequently occurs through the regulation of enzymes or preferential protein binding to membranes via membrane shape changes. We aimed here to assess the morphological irregularities of the cellular membranes in gastric adenocarcinoma tumors, and to find any putative differences from normal gastric mucosae epithelial cells. We analyzed the pattern of E-cadherin at the level of the cell membrane using the fractal dimension (FD) analysis on fluorescence immunohistochemistry samples labeled with E-cadherin in gastric well/moderate and solid gastric adenocarcinoma from patients without any associated chemotherapeutic treatment or radiotherapy. Images were binarized based on a fixed threshold of the E-cadherin fluorescence channel, and then the FD of the binarized image outlines has been calculated in order to assess the ruggedness of the cellular membranes. Overall assessment of the FD revealed that the subtle membrane variations were evident enough to deem a statistically significant difference and the complexity of the membrane roughness was clearly higher for adenocarcinoma cases. We intended to evaluate if separating adenocarcinoma cases as low grade (G1 and G2) and high grade (G3 and solid), FD analysis could still differentiate membrane patterns and check if the available clinical parameters like age, gender, tumor location, lymph ganglia involved might correlate with FD values for adenocarcinoma patients. Altogether, the morphological analysis of a simple marker for the cell membrane can identify and distinguish tumor cells. Although there was a limited correlation between this analysis and the main clinical and pathological indicators of the disease, it will be very useful in the future for automatic computer-assisted diagnosis on slides, as well as for evaluating cellular adhesion and inter-cellular trafficking in cancer cells.

Anesthesia is essential during colonoscopy because it provides patients with necessary sedation to perform the investigation safely and nonetheless to obtain the highest quality of the results. We aimed here to evaluate and establish which of the combinations of anesthetic drugs most frequently used for sedation purposes for gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures performed in the ambulatory best covers the needs of the patient and the gastroenterologist. This is a prospective, randomized, double-blind study carried out on a total of 100 patients, aged between 18 and 80 years, who meet the conditions for inclusion in the study. Patients were randomly allocated into either group A (Propofol) or group B (Midazolam plus Propofol). Evaluation of the dose of Propofol used in the 2 groups, awakening time, anesthetic induction, as well as the occurrence of episodes of bradycardia and hypotension represented the parameters followed in the study. In group A, 50 patients received on average 218.6mg of Propofol in bolus of 10-20mg. In group B, 50 patients received 0.1mg/kg Midazolam and an average of up to 129.2mg of Propofol in bolus of 10-20mg. Awakening time was shorter in group A-3.18 minutes, than in group B-15.7 minutes. Bradycardia and hypotension were met in a larger number in group B than in group A. The quality of the endoscopic evaluation was similar in both groups. The conclusion of our study was that the group to which only Propofol was administered had the best results from all aspects (rapid anesthetic induction, stability of vital functions, lower cost, awakening time much faster) compared to the combination of Propofol with Midazolam.

Due to rapid technology advancement and increasing diagnostic expertise, fetal medicine is rapidly improving. Prenatal diagnostic advancements made it possible to identify structural abnormalities in fetuses as early as the first trimester of pregnancy. However, to validate the echocardiographic diagnosis that led to the pregnancy termination, the termination of pregnancy owing to severe fetal deformities should be audited in accordance with a correct anatomic diagnosis. Following the PRISMA declaration, a systematic literature search was done to find articles on post-mortem first trimester human fetal heart evaluation. Thirteen suitable studies were found using the search method. It is theoretically possible to examine the human fetal heart after death in early pregnancy however these methods are not widely available due the costs associated with the procedure and the equipment, the effects of tissue coloration and distortion brought on by the fixation and contrasting processes (for micro-CT), the current requirement for a skilled operator to acquire, reconstruct, and process the images, and data storage requirements greater than those of conventional clinical scans.

Introduction: A growth in the number of patients admitted to forensic psychiatric services has been reported worldwide. At the same time, an increase in the length of hospital stay of these patients was observed.

Objectives: To identify the factors that influence the length of hospital stay in a Romanian forensic psychiatric sample, as well as to compare the socio-demographic, clinical and criminological features of the "long stay" and "shorter stay" patients.

Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study that included all patients admitted to Săpoca Psychiatry and Safety Measures Hospital according to article 110 of the Penal code (n=650) over a period of 11 years (2008-2018). Long stay was considered as a period of hospitalization greater than 5 years.

Results: The average length of hospital stay in the sample was 3.20 years. Approximately one quarter (n=154) of the patients were classified as "long stay". The variables that were significantly associated with length of stay included the main psychiatric diagnosis, social support, the severity of the offence and the perpetration of violence.

Conclusions: Overall, our findings are in line with observations made by researchers from other countries. Our study highlights the need for further, more detailed research on the patients admitted to forensic psychiatric units in Romania.

Mesenchymal hamartoma of liver (MHL) is a benign liver tumour that occurs mainly in children, especially those under 2 years old. The pathogenesis of this tumor is still unknown. It is believed that MHL is derived from the Ito cells and either a developmental malformation of primitive hepatic mesenchyme; result of toxic or ischemic insult; or a true neoplasm. It is amenable to treatment and has a good prognosis but presents with varied clinical, imaging and histological findings. However, it can be confused with other hepatic tumors and can mimic malignancy. Therefore, it is important to recognize this rare entity to avoid unnecessary over management. We present a case of MHL in a 3-year-old boy with abdominal distension. Based on the clinical presentation, laboratory and radiological findings a diagnosis of complex cyst of liver was made. A final diagnosis of MHL was given after histopathological examination.