El plagio y las revistas depredadoras como amenaza a la integridad científica

This article presents an analysis of the concept of plagiarism in order to show the wide spectrum of manifestations that can be considered as such when committing a transgression of intellectual property, carried out with the intention of deceiving the authors’ true contribution and the originality and novelty of the information.The article describes the concurrent circumstances in intentional plagiarism, and the damage that this misconduct causes in the credibility of the scientific system, in which authorship credit is the foundation of the academic career, of the prestige of the author in the scientific community, and the basis for research funding.Some circumstances are favouring this fraud: the pressure exerted on researchers by the criteria used for promotion and reward that prioritise the quantity of works on their quality, the existence of a market for the purchase and sale of scientific articles, and the proliferation of predatory journals that operate without or minimal ethical standards.Finally, the paper highlights the convenience of the adoption of criteria that prioritise the intrinsic quality of the work versus its quantity, including the active involvement of the institutions in the development of active policies for the prevention, detection, and punishment of the cases of potential fraud, and emphasize that, in the end, the prevention of fraud relies on the individual adoption of an ethical and responsible behaviour.     

Low fecal calprotectin predicts clinical remission in Crohn's disease patients: the simple answer to a challenging question

Background and aim: Fecal calprotectin (FC) is a noninvasive marker of intestinal inflammation. Predicting relapses in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients can allow earlier changes in therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of FC in predicting relapse in CD patients in clinical remission within six months follow-up.

Methods: Patients with CD who were in clinical remission at least ≥3 months were included in this study. The first FC sample during the remission period was evaluated and was used as the baseline value. Relapse was defined as an unexpected escalation in therapy, hospitalization or need for surgery for active CD. The accuracy and optimal cutoff FC values for predicting clinical relapse at six months were assessed by the area under the ROC curve (AUC).

Results: One hundred and forty-four patients were evaluated, with mean age of 38.4 years. Of these, 13 (9%) had a relapse during the follow-up period. The mean FC value was significantly lower for non-relapsers (203.2?μg/g) than for relapsers (871.3?μg/g), p?<?.001. The AUC for predicting relapse by using FC values was 0.924. The optimal cutoff FC value to predict relapse was 327?μg/g; with values of sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and positive predictive value were 92.3%, 82.4%, 99.1% and 34.3%, respectively.

Conclusions: FC is more useful in predicting remission maintenance than relapse in patients with CD in clinical remission. Values of FC ≤327?μg/g can exclude relapse at least at six months follow-up period.     

Calidad de vida en personas con depresión y comorbilidad física desde una perspectiva de género

ObjetivoEl objetivo del estudio es describir la percepción de la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud de personas con depresión y comorbilidad física bajo una perspectiva de género. Se incluyeron 380 individuos mayores de 49 años con, al menos, una patología de las siguientes: diabetes, enfermedad obstructiva pulmonar crónica y cardiopatía isquémica, reclutadas en 31 equipos de atención primaria de Cataluña. La calidad de vida se midió con la escala EuroQol (EQ-5D). Además, se recogieron variables sociodemográficas, gravedad de depresión, índice de privación económica y ámbito de residencia. Se evaluó la relación ajustada entre el sexo y las dimensiones de calidad de vida, mediante una regresión logística multivariante.ResultadosEl 81,3% fueron mujeres; la media de edad fue de 68,4 años (DE: 8,8), La media de la escala visual analógica fue de 57,8 (DE: 17,4) en hombres y 55,8 (DE: 18,6) en mujeres. La media del EQ-Health Index fue de 0,74 (DE: 0,17) en hombres y 0,65 (DE: 0,21) en mujeres (p = 0,001). La probabilidad de presentar problemas en las dimensiones del EQ-5D mostró el sexo como factor de más peso (mujer = 1/hombre = 0) en: autocuidado OR: 2,29 (IC 95% 1,04 a 5,07) y actividades cotidianas OR: 3,09 (IC 95% 1,67 a 5,71). La movilidad se asoció con la edad OR: 1,87 (IC 95% 1,22 a 2,86), el ámbito de residencia con el dolor OR: 2,51 (IC 95% 1,18 a 5,34) y el Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) con la ansiedad/depresión OR: 4,77 (IC 95% 1,77 a 12,88).ConclusiónLa percepción en la calidad de vida de las mujeres con depresión y comorbilidad física es inferior a la de los hombres, siendo en ambos casos inferior a la de población general.Palabras clave: Calidad de vida, Depresión, Comorbilidad física, Género, Atención Primaria     

Sexual dimorphism in hepatic lipids is associated with the evolution of metabolic status in mice

Ectopic lipid accumulation in the liver is implicated in metabolic disease in an age‐ and sex‐dependent manner. The role of hepatic lipids has been well established within the scope of metabolic insults in mice, but has been insufficiently characterized under standard housing conditions, where age‐related metabolic alterations are known to occur. We studied a total of 10 male and 10 female mice longitudinally. At 3, 7 and 11 months of age, non‐invasive ¹H‐magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H‐MRS) was used to monitor hepatic lipid content (HLC) and fatty acid composition in vivo, and glucose homeostasis was assessed with glucose and insulin challenges. At the end of the study, hepatic lipids were comprehensively characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometric analyses of liver tissue samples. In males, HLC increased from 1.4 ± 0.1% at 3 months to 2.9 ± 0.3% at 7 months (p < 0.01) and 2.7 ± 0.3% at 11 months (p < 0.05), in correlation with fasting insulin levels (p < 0.01, r = 0.51) and parameters from the insulin tolerance test (ITT; p < 0.001, r = –0.69 versus area under the curve; p < 0.01, r = –0.57 versus blood glucose drop at 1 h post‐ITT; p < 0.01, r = 0.55 versus blood glucose at 3 h post‐ITT). The metabolic performance of females remained the same throughout the study, and HLC was higher than that of males at 3 months (2.7 ± 0.2%, p < 0.01), but comparable at 7 months (2.2 ± 0.2%) and 11 months (2.2 ± 0.1%). Strong sexual dimorphism in bioactive lipid species, including diacylglycerols (higher in males, p < 0.0001), phosphatidylinositols (higher in females, p < 0.001) and omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (higher in females, p < 0.01), was found to be in good correlation with metabolic scores at 11 months. Therefore, in mice housed under standard conditions, sex‐specific composition of bioactive lipids is associated with metabolic protection in females, whose metabolic performance was independent of hepatic cytosolic lipid content.     

Complications hépatobiliaires associées à l’insuffisance intestinale chez l’adulte et l’enfant

The treatment of chronic intestinal failure, of which the main cause is the short bowel syndrome, is based on parenteral nutrition. Intestinal failure-associated liver disease, which may worsen toward cirrhosis, is the most threatening intestinal failure-associated complication. Risk factors for intestinal failure-associated liver disease are related to parenteral nutrition modalities and to the underlying disease. Bowel rest and short bowel syndrome are risk factors for biliary lithiasis. Steatosis is mainly secondary to nutritional factors (excess of glucose and/or lipids, continuous parenteral nutrition). The main risk factors of cholestasis are intestinal resection, intestinal bacterial overgrowth, excess of long-chain polyunsaturated ω6 fatty acids and phytosterols from some lipid emulsions. Liver chronic inflammation, another risk factor for intestinal failure-associated liver disease, is related to recurrent infections, bacterial or toxinic translocation, high intake of long-chain polyunsaturated ω6 fatty acids as precursors of inflammatory mediators. Fibrosis, secondary to any lesions, could progress toward cirrhosis with portal hypertension and liver failure. In such condition, the only life-saving treatment is a combined liver-intestinal transplantation. The prevention is based on the identification of patients with high risk of complicated liver disease, and on the optimal management of both underlying disease and parenteral nutrition. Routine surveillance is based on biological markers of variable sensitivity and specificity, and ultrasonography. Liver biopsy is required to diagnose fibrosis, especially prior to decide for an isolated intestinal transplantation or combined intestine-liver transplantation.