A systematic review of health service interventions to improve linkage with or retention in HIV care

The importance of early linkage to and continuing retention in HIV care is increasingly recognised, particularly in light of the implications poor linkage and retention rates have for the effectiveness of HIV treatment as prevention strategies. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the effectiveness of healthcare interventions in improving patient linkage to or retention in HIV care. We systematically searched PubMed (MEDLINE and PubMed-only citations) and EMBASE databases for articles reporting the original results of randomised controlled trials, and used a standard data collection form to extract information on study characteristics and outcome data. Five articles met the inclusion criteria, of which two articles focused on linkage to care and three on retention in care. The methodological quality, both of internal and external validity, of most of the trials was suboptimal. Wide variation in the interventions and outcome measures meant synthesis of the results using meta-analysis was not appropriate. This review shows evidence that interventions based on supporting patient self-management improves linkage to, and possibly retention in, care. Interventions aimed at delivery service design may also be effective, although evidence in this review was limited. It is vital that interventions are developed to improve patient engagement in HIV care. The dearth of research identified by this review highlights the need for well-designed trials of interventions in this area in the future.     

Incremental value of amyloid-PET versus CSF in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging - To compare the incremental diagnostic value of amyloid-PET and CSF (Aβ42, tau, and phospho-tau) in AD diagnosis in patients with...     

Toxicity of ayahuasca after 28 days daily exposure and effects on monoamines and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in brain of Wistar rats

Metabolic Brain Disease - Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage that affects the serotonergic system and have therapeutic potential for many diseases and disorders, including depression and drug...     

The effects of strength,aerobic, and concurrent exercise on skeletal muscle damage in rats

Introduction: In this study we examined oxidative stress and skeletal muscle damage resulting from acute strength, aerobic, or concurrent exercise in rats. Methods: The animals were divided into control (C), strength (SE), aerobic (AE), and combined (CE) exercise groups. They were euthanized at 3 different time‐points (6, 24, and 48 h) after acute exercise. Results: SE exercise rats had increased dichlorofluorescein oxidation at 6 h post‐exercise and decreased superoxide dismutase activity at all time‐points. Glutathione peroxidase activity and sulfhydryl levels were increased in the AE group at 48 h post‐exercise. Serum lactate dehydrogenase activity was increased in the SE and CE groups at 24 h and in the AE group at 48 h. Echo intensity was elevated at 24 h for all groups. Conclusions: Forty‐eight hours was sufficient for complete recovery from oxidative stress and muscle damage in the SE and CE groups, but not in the AE group. Muscle Nerve 50 : 79–86, 2014     

Clinical hematological and biochemical parameters in Swiss,BALB/c,C57BL/6 and B6D2F1 Mus musculus

BackgroundAnimal models are widely used in scientific research in order to obtain information from a whole organism under a specific set of experimental conditions. Various lineages of mice have been used to investigate diseases and new therapeutic strategies, and, consequently, hematological and biochemical tests in these laboratory animals are essential to validate scientific studies. Our study seeks to establish reference values for hematological and biochemical parameters of four lineages of mice.MethodsWe evaluated the hematological and biochemical profiles of 20 males and 20 females from the lineages Swiss (heterogeneous), BALB/c and C57BL/6 (isogenic), and B6D2F1 (hybrid), totaling 160 mice. Analysis were standardized using the systems pocH‐100iV Diff™ for 19 hematological parameters and VITROS^® 350 for 12 biochemical parameters.ResultsResults are shown as means and standard deviation, grouped by lineage and genre. Comparing the values obtained in this study with the values from previous studies, some variations were detected, which could be explained by differences in methodologies or individual variability.ConclusionThus our study shows that knowledge and disclosure of the values of physiological parameters of laboratory animals is necessary, and emphasises the importance of considering variations influenced by gender, lineage and genotype in the choice of the best experimental model.     

Fas,FasL, and cleaved caspases 8 and 3 in glioblastomas: A tissue microarray-based study

This investigation analyzed the immunoexpression of FasL, Fas, cleaved caspase-8, and cleaved caspase-3 in glioblastomas. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded glioblastoma tissues and control brain tissues from 97 patients were analyzed by tissue microarrays and immunohistochemistry. Patients with glioblastomas that were negative or weakly stained (<50% of cells positive) for cleaved caspase-8 had worse cancer-specific overall survival (median = 8.5 months) than did patients with tumors that highly expressed cleaved caspase-8 (median = 11.7 months; P = 0.0325), independent of clinical variables. There was no association of other markers with survival, treatment, sex, age, tumor size, and primary site. Among the tumors, there were reasonable to good positive correlations between the expression of FasL and Fas (r = 0.47) and between Fas and cleaved caspase-8 (r = 0.41), and there were poor positive correlations between Fas and cleaved caspase-3 (r = 0.26), FasL and cleaved caspase-8 (r = 0.22), and cleaved caspase-8 and -3 (r = 0.31). Our results suggest that Fas-Fas-ligand signal transduction could be inhibited, especially at the stage of caspase-8 activation, thereby establishing a major mechanism for evasion of apoptosis by these tumors. The absence or low expression of cleaved caspase-8 in the tumors was a negative prognostic indicator for patient survival.     

Do nanofill or submicron composites show improved smoothness and gloss? A systematic review of in vitro studies

Objectives

Despite nanofill and submicron composites’ aim to provide high initial polishing combined with superior smoothness and gloss retention, the question still remains whether clinicians should consider using these new materials over traditional microhybrids. The aim of this paper was to systematically review the literature on how nanofills and submicrons react to polishing procedures and surface challenges in vitro compared with microhybrids. The paper has also given an overview of the compositional characteristics of all resin composites and polishing systems whose performance was presented herein.

Data

The database search for the effect of filler size on surface smoothness and gloss of commercial composites retrieved 702 eligible studies. After deduplication, 438 records were examined by the titles and abstracts; 400 studies were excluded and 38 articles were assessed for full-text reading. An additional 11 papers were selected by hand-searching. In total, 28 articles met inclusion criteria and were included in the study.

Sources

The databases analyzed were MEDLINE/PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and SciVerse Scopus.

Study selection

Papers were selected if they presented a comparison between nanofill or submicron and microhybrid composites with quantitative analysis of smoothness and/or gloss on baseline and/or after any aging protocol to assess smoothness and gloss retention. Only in vitro studies written in English were included.

Conclusions

There is no in vitro evidence to support the choice for nanofill or submicron composites over traditional microhybrids based on better surface smoothness and/or gloss, or based upon maintenance of those superficial characteristics after surface challenges.