Verhandelingen - Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van België
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Verh. K. Acad. Geneeskd. Belg. · Jan 2004
Review[Predictive models for the early diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy].
In the past patients with acute abdominal pain and presumably suffering from an ectopic pregnancy often required an immediate surgical intervention. The diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy has become more frequent during the last decades but the incidence of ectopic pregnancy rupture has declined. This decline is due to quantitative hCG measurements, minimally invasive surgery and transvaginal ultrasonography. ⋯ The usual biochemical procedures for diagnosing ectopic pregnancy have been developed for pregnancies associated with abdominal pain and abnormal bleeding and not for asymptomatic pregnant women with a much lower pre-test probability of ectopic pregnancy. For this reason new diagnostic procedures and criteria had to be developed and tested to detect ectopic pregnancies in women with PUL, without exerting any deleterious effect on early intra-uterine pregnancies. In our experience the hCG-ratio and our new mathematical model seem to be the best method to satisfy these criteria.
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Verh. K. Acad. Geneeskd. Belg. · Jan 2004
ReviewFluorescent molecules as tools to study Ca2+ signaling, mitochondrial dynamics and synaptic function in enteric neurons.
The enteric nervous system (ENS) controls different tasks in the gastrointestinal tract. One of the ganglionated networks, the myenteric plexus is situated between longitudinal and circular muscle layers of the gut wall and basically controls intestinal motility. Several studies using micro-electrode recordings have generated invaluable information on neuronal subtypes, membrane conductances and simple synaptic inputs. ⋯ In this report we summarize the results of different fluorescent imaging techniques to investigate important cellular and subcellular characteristics of enteric neurons. Because optical methods provide both spatial and temporal information they can be used to study activity and patterns in neuronal networks. Imaging is applicable to multi-layered intestinal preparations; therefore it provides a useful and promising tool to further expand our understanding of gastro-intestinal motility control and enteric neuroscience in general.