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Comparability of minimal kVp CT as well as dual-energy CT for the evaluation of hypervascular hepatocellular carcinoma.
To date, diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is included in routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols for several cancers. The real additive role of DWI lies in the "functional" information obtained by probing the free diffusivity of water molecules into intra and inter-cellular spaces that in tumors mainly depend on cellularity. iCRT3 antagonist Although DWI has not gained much space in some oncologic scenarios, this non-invasive tool is routinely used in clinical practice and still remains a hot research topic it has been tested in almost all cancers to differentiate malignant from benign lesions, to distinguish different malignant histotypes or tumor grades, to predict and/or assess treatment responses, and to identify residual or recurrent tumors in follow-up examinations. In this review, we provide an up-to-date overview on the application of DWI in oncology.Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), due to their biodegradable and biocompatible nature and their ability to be formed in complex structures, are excellent candidates for fabricating scaffolds used in tissue engineering. By introducing inorganic compounds, such as bioactive glasses (BGs), the bioactive properties of PHAs can be further improved. In addition to their outstanding bioactivity, BGs can be additionally doped with biological ions, which in turn extend the functionality of the BG-PHA composite. Here, different PHAs were combined with 45S5 BG, which was additionally doped with copper in order to introduce antibacterial and angiogenic properties. The resulting composite was used to produce scaffolds by the salt leaching technique. By performing indirect cell biology tests using stromal cells, a dose-depending effect of the dissolution products released from the BG-PHA scaffolds could be found. In low concentrations, no toxic effect was found. Moreover, in higher concentrations, a minor reduction of cell viability combined with a major increase in VEGF release was measured. This result indicates that the fabricated composite scaffolds are suitable candidates for applications in soft and hard tissue engineering. However, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand the release kinetics and the resulting long-term effects of the BG-PHA composites.Background The pandemic of Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is challenging, given the large number of hospitalized patients. Cardiovascular co-morbidities are linked to a higher mortality risk. Thus, patients with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) might represent a high-risk population. Nevertheless, no data about them are available, yet. Hence, we conducted a nationwide survey to assess clinical characteristics and outcomes in patients with congenital heart disease affected by COVID-19. Methods and results This is a multi-centre, observational, nationwide survey, involving high-volume Italian CHD centres. COVID-19 diagnosis was defined as either "clinically suspected" or "confirmed", where a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) test had been performed and was positive. Cardiovascular comorbidities were observed among adult patients-atrial fibrillation (seven; 9%), hypertension (five; 7%), obesity (seven; 9%) and diabetes (one; 1%)-but were absent among children. Cardiovascular complications were mainly observed in the "confirmed" COVID-19+ group, consisting of heart failure (9%), palpitations/arrhythmias (3%), stroke/TIA (3%) and pulmonary hypertension (3%). Cardiovascular symptoms such as chest pain (1%), myocardial injury (1%) and pericardial effusion (1%) were also recorded. On the contrary, CHD patients from the clinically suspected COVID-19 group presented no severe symptoms or complications. Conclusions Despite previous reports pointing to a higher case-fatality rate among patients with cardiovascular co-morbidities, we observed a mild COVID-19 clinical course in our cohort of CHD patients. Although these results should be confirmed in larger cohorts to investigate the underlying mechanisms, the findings of low cardiovascular complications rates and no deaths are reassuring for CHD patients.This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of frailty among Thai older persons. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a representative sample of 1806 older persons aged 60 years or older. Frailty was assessed by Fried's frailty phenotypes, which consists of five criteria, namely, unintended weight loss, exhaustion, slow walking, weak handgrip and decreased physical activity. Older people who met 3 in 5, 1-2 in 5, and none of the criteria were considered frail, pre-frail and non-frail respectively. The prevalence was calculated and multinomial logistic regression was performed. Prevalence rates of frailty, pre-frailty and non-frailty were 13.9% (95% CI 9.9 to 18.8), 50.9% (95% CI 47.5 to 54.1) and 35.1% (95% CI 31.5 to 39.9), respectively. Increasing age, lower education, having no spouse, poorer health perception, increasing number of comorbidities, osteoarthritis and smaller mid-arm circumference increased the risk of frailty (p less then 0.001). The prevalence of geriatric frailty syndrome in this study was much higher than that of developed countries but was lower than that of less developed countries. Factors associated with frailty reflect common characteristics of disadvantaged older persons in Thailand.The coronavirus COVID-19 has recently started to spread rapidly in Malaysia. The number of total infected cases has increased to 3662 on 05 April 2020, leading to the country being placed under lockdown. As the main public concern is whether the current situation will continue for the next few months, this study aims to predict the epidemic peak using the Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model, with incorporation of the mortality cases. The infection rate was estimated using the Genetic Algorithm (GA), while the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model was used to provide short-time forecasting of the number of infected cases. The results show that the estimated infection rate is 0.228 ± 0.013, while the basic reproductive number is 2.28 ± 0.13. The epidemic peak of COVID-19 in Malaysia could be reached on 26 July 2020, with an uncertain period of 30 days (12 July-11 August). Possible interventions by the government to reduce the infection rate by 25% over two or three months would delay the epidemic peak by 30 and 46 days, respectively.
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