Medicina
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Background and objectives: Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common disease in the meridian of life. Although surgical discectomy is commonly used to treat LDH, there are several different strategies. We compared the outcomes of uniportal full-endoscopic discectomy (FED) with those of microendoscopic discectomy (MED) in treating LDH. ⋯ The median (IQR Q25-75) DHI ratios of FED and MED were 0.94 (0.89-1.03) and 0.90 (0.79-0.95), respectively. The DHI ratio was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the FED group than in the MED group, and there was less blood loss; Conclusions: The pain-relieving effect of FED in treating LDH was almost identical to that of MED. However, FED was superior to MED in preventing disc height loss, which is one of the indicators of postoperative disc degeneration.
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Three broad organizing strategies have been used to study meditation practices: (1) consider meditation practices as using similar processes and so combine neural images across a wide range of practices to identify the common underlying brain patterns of meditation practice, (2) consider meditation practices as unique and so investigate individual practices, or (3) consider meditation practices as fitting into larger categories and explore brain patterns within and between categories. The first organizing strategy combines meditation practices defined as deep concentration, attention to external and internal stimuli, and letting go of thoughts. Brain patterns of different procedures would all contribute to the final averages, which may not be representative of any practice. ⋯ Grouping meditations by their described procedures yields defining neural imaging patterns within each category, and clear differences between categories. Grouping meditations by the EEG frequencies associated with their procedures yields an objective system to group meditations and allows practices to "move" into different categories as subjects' meditation experiences change over time, which would be associated with different brain patterns. Exploring meditations within theoretically meaningful categories appears to yield the most reliable picture of meditation practices.
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Coinfection with both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses seems to be a real and severe problem. However, coinfection is far from a simple matter, and cannot be considered having more unfavorable outcomes as a direct consequence. ⋯ Our reasoning is built around the various impacts that the whole range of risk groups, common immunological mechanisms, and complex interactions, such as influenza vaccination, will have on patients' prognosis. We show that the more flawed clinical course is due to managing only one of the infections (and, subsequently, neglecting the other condition).
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Review
CT Urography Findings of Upper Urinary Tract Carcinoma and Its Mimickers: A Pictorial Review.
Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the fourth most frequent tumor in Western countries and upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), affecting pyelocaliceal cavities and ureter, accounts for 5-10% of all UCs. Computed tomography urography (CTU) is now considered the imaging modality of choice for diagnosis and staging of UTUC, guiding disease management. Although its specificity is very high, both benign and malignant diseases could mimic UTUCs and therefore have to be well-known to avoid misdiagnosis. We describe CTU findings of upper urinary tract carcinoma, features that influence disease management, and possible differential diagnosis.
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The goal was to evaluate the association of dynamic retinal vessel analysis (DVA) with echocardiographic parameters assessing systolic and diastolic function of the left ventricle in hypertension (HT) patients with preserved left ventricle ejection fraction. ⋯ We revealed that systolic and diastolic function of the left ventricle in hypertensive patients is associated with retinal microvascular function.