Medicina
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Background and Objectives: This systematic review reports the evidence from the literature concerning the potential for using an automated vocal analysis, the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA, LENA Research Foundation, Boulder, CO, USA) in the screening process for children at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). ASD and D/HH have increased comorbidity, but current behavioral diagnostic and screening tools have limitations. The LENA Language Autism Screen (LLAS) may offer an additional tool to disambiguate ASD from D/HH in young children. ⋯ There is some evidence of vocal differentiation between ASD, D/HH, and typically-developing children warranting use of the LLAS, but additional empirical evidence is needed to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. Conclusions: The findings reported here warrant further, more substantive, methodologically-sound research that is fully powered to show a reliable difference. Findings may be useful for both clinicians and researchers in better identification and understanding of communication disorders.
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Background and objectives: Different scoring systems are used to stratify patients with chronic total coronary artery occlusions (CTO) according to disease complexity to predict the success of the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Comparison among different CTO scoring systems and long-term outcome for patients with CTO after PCI has not been well established. The objectives of the study were to assess the ability of different disease severity scoring systems to predict, first, procedural success and, second, overall survival in patients with a successful procedure. ⋯ After adjustment for baseline characteristics, patients having high PROGRESS score had almost twice higher risk of death (HR 1.81(95% CI 1.19-2.75)), and those with high and intermediate CASTLE score experienced almost four (HR 3.68(95% CI 1.50-9.05)) and two (HR 2.15, (95% CI 1.42-3.23)) times higher risk of death than the low score patients, respectively. Conclusions: All four CTO scoring systems had moderate ability to predict procedural success. More complex CTO PCI patients, assessed by PROGRESS and CASTLE scores, has worse all-cause survival in six to seven years after a successful procedure; whereas J CTO and CL scores had no association with survival.
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Background and Objectives:Legionella is one of the most important water-related pathogens. Inside the water supply systems and the biofilms, Legionella interact with other bacteria and free-living amoeba (FLA). Several amoebas may serve as hosts for bacteria in aquatic systems. ⋯ Conclusions: The data obtained in our study can help to focus on the extensive distribution, close interaction, and long-term persistence of Legionella and FLA. Lack of Legionella risk management plans and control procedures may promote further spread of Legionella in water supply systems. In addition, the high incidence of Legionella-related FLA suggests that traditional monitoring methods may not be sufficient for Legionella control.
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Background and objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10) measured once at the baseline with changes in nutritional status of patients with traumatic head injury (THI) assessed at three consecutive times (24 h after admission, day 6 and day 13) during hospital stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). Materials and Methods: Sixty-four patients with THI were recruited for the current study (over 10 months). The nutritional status of the patients was determined within 24 h after admission and on days 6 and 13, using actual body weight, body composition analysis, and anthropometric measurements. ⋯ Results: The current study found a significant reduction in BMI, FBM, LBM, MAUAC, and APM, of THI patients with high serum levels the cytokines, over the course of time from the baseline to day 7 and to day 13 in patients staying in the ICU (p < 0.001). It was also found that patients with low levels of some studied cytokines had significant improvement in their nutritional status and clinical outcomes in term of MAUAC, APM, APACHE II score and SOFA score (p < 0.001 to p < 0.01). Conclusion: THI patients who had high serum levels of studied cytokines were more prone to develop a reduction of nutritional status in terms of BMI, FBM, LBM MAUAC and APM over the course of time from patient admission until day 13 of ICU admission.
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Sedentary life style is considered to be an independent risk factor for many disorders, including development of type 2 diabetes, obesity, immune dysfunction, asthma, and neurological or coronary heart disease. Irisin is released from myocytes during physical activity, and acts as a link between muscles and other tissues and organs. This myokine is produced as a result of proteolytic cleavage of FNDC5 protein present in the membrane of myocytes. ⋯ It suppresses the expression and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in obese individuals and attenuates inflammation in adipose tissue. The impact of irisin on cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion has also been demonstrated in numerous studies, which proves its role in carcinogenesis. Owing to these pleiotropic and beneficial properties, irisin may be a potential option to prevent and treat civilization-related diseases which are, nowadays, considered to be the major health problems in Western societies.