Minimum clinically important difference of the health-related quality of life scales in adult spinal deformity calculated by latent class analysis: is it appropriate to use the same values for surgical and nonsurgical patients?

BACKGROUND CONTEXT

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) parameters have been shown to be reliable and valid in patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD). Minimum clinically important difference (MCID) has become increasingly important to clinicians in evaluating patients with a threshold of improvement that is clinically relevant.

The legislation of CIS countries on the issue of genetically modified products

Genetic engineering is a fast-moving research field that produces many achievements, including genetically modified organisms, which are used during the production of food products. Recent decades have shown that scientists, policy makers and the general public cannot reach a consensus about the benefits and hazards of genetically modified food products. Opinions are so different, and both sides are so well-grounded, that it is not easy to reach a conclusion about this scientific achievement. Nevertheless, food security is one of the main objectives of the state, which is responsible for providing safe food products to its own citizens in the marketplace. This is why states are interested in reviewing these scientific achievements, in terms of the state's national interests and the security of its citizens. This article sets forth: (1) the main advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified products; (2) the role of national legislation in the control of food security; and (3) the attitude toward genetically modified products in the national legislatures of CIS countries. Taking these points into account, the authors come to the conclusion that actual Azerbaijan law is not responding to the changes, which have taken place in recent decades, in development of the world market and technological conditions in the production of food products. This provides the basis to conclude that, in actual conditions, the rights ofAzerbaijan citizens to the safety of food products are not well protected. At the end of this article, the authors make recommendations about the necessity of amendments to the legislation in their own country, towards the goal of greater control over such products in Azerbaijan.     

Analysis of factors affecting baseline SF-36 Mental Component Summary in Adult Spinal Deformity and its impact on surgical outcomes

Objectives

To identify the factors that affect SF-36 mental component summary (MCS) in patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD) at the time of presentation, and to analyse the effect of SF-36 MCS on clinical outcomes in surgically treated patients.

Fetal hydrops and anemia as signs of Down syndrome

Before the 20th week of gestation, the most common cause of nonimmune hydrops fetalis is chromosomal abnormalities. Herein, we report a case of fetal hydrops, anemia, and intrauterine growth retardation that presented at 27 weeks of gestation with a negative chromosomal abnormality screening. Cordocentesis and karyotype analysis revealed fetal pancytopenia and Down syndrome. Down syndrome rarely presents with fetal hydrops and anemia. Therefore, when hydrops and anemia are diagnosed, especially in the second trimester of gestation, the possibility of Down syndrome should be kept in mind. In addition, if the pregnancy results in a live birth, the baby should be examined for transient abnormal myelopoiesis.     

Vaginal Vault Leiomyoma: 25 Years After Total Abdominal Hysterectomy

Leiomyomas are benign, mesenchymal, monoclonal tumors that typically originate from myometrium smooth-muscle cells, although atypical sites such as the vagina, lungs, vascular structures, and retroperitoneal area have been reported. We present the case of a leiomyoma that originated from the vaginal cuff in a 70-year-old woman, 25 years after total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salphingo-oophorectomy.     

The effects of metallothionein 2A polymorphism on placental cadmium accumulation: is metallothionein a modifiying factor in transfer of micronutrients to the fetus?

Metallothionein affects the metabolism, transport and storage of micronutrients such as zinc, copper and iron, and the detoxification of heavy metals, especially cadmium. Cd is a common, highly toxic environmental pollutant that accumulates in human placenta, elevated concentrations of which are associated with impaired zinc transfer to the fetus. This prospective study investigated the effects of metallothionein 2A (MT2A) -5 A/G single nucleotide polymorphism on the accumulation of Cd in human placenta and micronutrient transfer to the fetus in 95 pregnant women and their newborns. Venous blood from the mother was collected to investigate Cd, Zn, Cu, Fe levels and MT2A polymorphism. Cord blood from the neonate and placenta was collected for metal levels. MT2A polymorphism was determined by the standard PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. Metal levels were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). Maternal blood Cd levels were statistically higher for mothers with a heterozygote genotype compared with a homozygote genotype (P<0.05). In contrast, placental Cd levels were significantly higher in mothers with a homozygote rather than a heterozygote genotype (P<0.05). No difference existed in cord blood Cd, Zn and Cu levels. However, cord blood Fe levels of newborns with heterozygote genotype mothers were higher than in others. Placental Cd levels of heterozygote genotype mothers were negatively associated with Zn in cord blood. Cd exposure at environmental levels may be associated with alteration of the umbilical cord micronutrient levels for newborns with mothers of a heterozygote genotype.     

Medical Image Tamper Detection Based on Passive Image Authentication

Telemedicine has gained popularity in recent years. Medical images can be transferred over the Internet to enable the telediagnosis between medical staffs and to make the patient’s history accessible to medical staff from anywhere. Therefore, integrity protection of the medical image is a serious concern due to the broadcast nature of the Internet. Some watermarking techniques are proposed to control the integrity of medical images. However, they require embedding of extra information (watermark) into image before transmission. It decreases visual quality of the medical image and can cause false diagnosis. The proposed method uses passive image authentication mechanism to detect the tampered regions on medical images. Structural texture information is obtained from the medical image by using local binary pattern rotation invariant (LBPROT) to make the keypoint extraction techniques more successful. Keypoints on the texture image are obtained with scale invariant feature transform (SIFT). Tampered regions are detected by the method by matching the keypoints. The method improves the keypoint-based passive image authentication mechanism (they do not detect tampering when the smooth region is used for covering an object) by using LBPROT before keypoint extraction because smooth regions also have texture information. Experimental results show that the method detects tampered regions on the medical images even if the forged image has undergone some attacks (Gaussian blurring/additive white Gaussian noise) or the forged regions are scaled/rotated before pasting.     

Alcohol Consumption in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Path through the Immune System

Benefits and harms of different components of human diet have been known for hundreds of years. Alcohol is one the highest consumed, abused, and addictive substances worldwide. Consequences of alcohol abuse are increased risks for diseases of the cardiovascular system, liver, and nervous system, as well as reduced immune system function. Paradoxically, alcohol has also been a consistent protective factor against the development of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, we focused on summarizing current findings on the effects of alcohol, as well as of its metabolites, acetaldehyde and acetate, on the immune system and RA. Heavy or moderate alcohol consumption can affect intestinal barrier integrity, as well as the microbiome, possibly contributing to RA. Additionally, systemic increase in acetate negatively affects humoral immune response, diminishing T_FH cell as well as professional antigen-presenting cell (APC) function. Hence, alcohol consumption has profound effects on the efficacy of vaccinations, but also elicits protection against autoimmune diseases. The mechanism of alcohol’s negative effects on the immune system is multivariate. Future studies addressing alcohol and its metabolite acetate’s effect on individual components of the immune system remains crucial for our understanding and development of novel therapeutic pathways.     

Amniotic fluid levels of selected trace elements and heavy metals in pregnancies complicated with neural tube defects

The aims of this study were to determine the levels of trace elements and heavy metals, namely aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), molybdenum (Mo), cadmium (Cd), tin (Sn), antimony (Sb), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb), in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women, and to investigate their relationship with neural tube defects (NTDs). The study included 36 pregnant women whose fetuses were complicated with NTDs (study group) and 39 pregnant women with unaffected healthy fetuses (control group), who were matched for body mass index and gestational weeks. The amniotic fluid levels of trace elements and heavy metals were measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and compared between the two groups. Significantly lower mean levels of Zn and Mo and significantly higher levels of Al, Sn, Sb, and Hg in the study group than in the healthy control group were observed, which implied that these elements are possibly correlated with risk factors for the occurrence of NTDs. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the levels of Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Pb between the groups (P ≥ .05).