Bratisl Med J
-
SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with inflammation, decrease in antioxidants and oxidative damage. We aimed to investigate whether ubiquinol, reduced form of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), with mountain spa rehabilitation (MR) will contribute to recovering of patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome. ⋯ Accelerated recovery of patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome was proven after mountain spa rehabilitation and ubiquinol supplementation. Increased systemic and cellular CoQ10 concentration alleviated clinical symptoms and improved antioxidant protection of the patients. We draw attention to the importance of monitoring and ensuring adequate levels of CoQ10 in post-COVID-19 syndrome (Tab. 2, Fig. 1, Ref. 45). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: COVID-19, mountain spa rehabilitation, ubiquinol, coenzyme Q10, vitamins, TBARS.
-
Betulinic acid is pentacyclic triterpenoid known to exert antitumor effects by modulating many cellular pathways in various human malignancies. However, its modulatory role in autophagy in renal cell carcinoma remains unclear. Here, we observed how betulinic acid affects autophagy in renal cell carcinoma cells. ⋯ In our preliminarily study, it was concluded that the role of autophagy may differ in renal cell carcinoma cells depending on their origin and that the effects of betulinic acid on autophagy in these cells may vary accordingly (Fig. 4, Ref. 40). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: betulinic acid, autophagy, kidney, cancer, cell.
-
We investigated various methods for image segmentation and image processing for the segmentation of MRI of human medical data, as well as bioinformatics for the segmentation of brain cell details, in this work. The goal is to demonstrate and bring various mathematical analyses for medical and biological image analysis. We proposed new software and methods for improving the segmentation of biological and medical data. ⋯ As a result, we improved biological and medical data segmentation to obtain better boundaries and sharper edges on the objects. There is still space to extend these methods to other medical and biological applications (Tab. 1, Fig. 34, Ref. 46). Keywords: segmentation; image processing; fuzzy segmentation, GrabCut, deep learning.
-
Microvascular free‑flap monitoring is crucial to the early detection of flap failure and increases the chance of early intervention in case of disruption of perfusion to a flap. Many clinical alternatives to classical clinical flap monitoring have been proposed, such as color duplex ultrasonography, handheld Doppler, flap thermometry, or implantable Doppler flowmetry. Early detection of critical changes in tissue oxygenation can lead to successful surgical intervention when problems with flap nutrition arise. ⋯ In our study, the continuous NIRS monitoring securely detected the early stages of arterial and venous thromboses or pedicle compression. The most important aspects of monitoring the flaps´ microvascular perfusion and vitality by means of NIRS lie in its function of recording the dynamics of changes in the values of absolute oxygen saturation (StO2> 50%) alongside with detecting a 30% decrease in tissue saturation over a 60‑minute interval (60 min StO2 >30%) before the clinical changes in the microvascular flap become observable. In cases of pedicle compression, the average time of appearance of signs of StO2 values dropping below the reference interval (as detected by NIRS) was 1:29:02 hour (SD= 0:58:42 h) prior to the occurrence of any clinical signs, while in cases of microvascular anastomosis complications, it was 0:35:23 hour (SD=0:08:30 h) (SD = 0:08:30 h) (Tab. 3, Fig. 7, Ref. 42).
-
Evidence suggest immunity abnormalities and inflammation might play an important role in the pathophysiology of depression. This study explored the relationship between inflammation and depression using neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) as inflammatory markers. ⋯ Increased MON, MLR and SII, as signs of inflammatory response, were not different among three subtypes of depressive disorders, and may be biological indictors of depressive disorders (Tab. 1, Ref. 17). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: depression, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII).