Congenital aortocaval fistula between right aortic sinus of Valsalva and superior vena cava: A rare case report

Thoracic aortocaval fistula is a very rare cause of left to right shunt. Drainage of fistula into the superior vena cava (SVC) is very uncommon. Clinical symptoms depend on the size of the shunt. We report a rare case of an asymptomatic 27‐year‐old woman with congenital aortocaval fistula to the SVC with a small amount of left to right shunt that was considered for serial medical follow‐up.     

Food, culture, and family: exploring the coordinated management of meaning regarding childhood obesity

Increased rates of childhood obesity combined with more accessible information about the relationship between diet, physical activity and inactivity, and chronic diseases suggest the need for analyzing the complex process of receiving and transmitting messages related to child feeding practices. This study examined the perceptions of childhood obesity within 1 multiethnic community, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In particular, through the use of focus groups, individuals indicated that sociocultural, familial, and official nutritional messages were most influential to their health care behaviors. The coordinated management of meaning (CMM) theory was used to gain insight into how individuals negotiate competing messages occurring at different levels of meaning. Given its focus on cultural influences (parallel to the concepts of archetypes), CMM proved especially relevant for understanding child feeding beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices in diverse ethnic populations. Implications for future health communication research that might draw from a CMM approach were identified, as well as pragmatic endeavors that focus on the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally appropriate interventions in the prevention of childhood obesity.     

A prospective, randomized study comparing laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy versus fenestration and coagulation in patients with endometriomas

OBJECTIVE: To determine the difference between two laparoscopic methods for the management of endometriomas with regard to recurrence of signs and symptoms and pregnancy rate. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized clinical trial. SETTING: Infertility and gynecologic endoscopy units of two medical university hospitals. PATIENT(S): One hundred patients with endometriomas who had either infertility or pelvic pain. INTERVENTION(S): Patients were randomly divided into two groups; one group underwent cystectomy (group 1), and fenestration and coagulation were performed for the other (group 2). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): A comparison of recurrence of signs and symptoms of endometriomas and pregnancy rates in two groups. RESULT(S): Fifty-two patients were studied in group 1 and 48 in group 2. The recurrence of symptoms, such as pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea, was 15.8% in group 1 and 56.7% in group 2 after 2 years. The rate of reoperation was 5.8% in group 1 and 22.9% in group 2 and these differences were statistically significant. The cumulative pregnancy rate was significantly higher in group 1 (59.4%) than in group 2 (23.3%) at 1-year follow-up. CONCLUSION(S): Laparoscopic cystectomy of endometriomas is a better choice than fenestration and coagulation because the former technique leads to a lower recurrence of signs and symptoms and a lower rate of reoperation and a higher cumulative pregnancy rate than the latter.     

Therapeutic effects of curcumin on sepsis and mechanisms of action: A systematic review of preclinical studies

Sepsis is a complex disease that begins with an infectious disorder and causes excessive immune responses. Curcumin is considered as an active component of turmeric that can improve the condition in sepsis due to its anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant properties. PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched. Searching was not limited to a specific publication period. Only English‐language original articles, which had examined the effect of curcumin on sepsis, were included. At first, 1,098 articles were totally found, and 209 articles were selected after excluding duplicated data; 46 articles were remained due to the curcumin effects on sepsis. These included 23 in vitro studies and 23 animal studies. Our results showed that curcumin and various analogs of curcumin can have an inhibitory effect on sepsis‐induced complications. Curcumin has the ability to inhibit the inflammatory, oxidative coagulation factors, and regulation of immune responses in sepsis. Despite the promising evidence of the therapeutic effects of curcumin on the sepsis complication, further studies seem necessary to investigate its effect and possible mechanisms of action in human studies.     

A study of the value of trabecular bone score in fracture risk assessment of postmenopausal women

Objective

Trabecular Bone Score (TBS) is an index of bone microarchitecture that provides additional skeletal information to areal Bone Mineral Density (aBMD). Recently TBS data has been used to optimize the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) predictive value. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of TBS on FRAX algorithm.

Effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in improving the quality of life and psychological fatigue in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Introduction: Given the increasing prevalence of complications caused by the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) such as medical and psychological problems and also the chronicity of this disease, patients with the PCOS tend to experience lower quality of life and greater psychological fatigue similar to other patients with chronic diseases. This study was conducted to determine the effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on the quality of life and psychological fatigue in women with the PCOS.

Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial study, conducted from 2016 to 2017, enrolled 74 women aged between 18 and 35?years from the Iranian city of Saqqez. The participants were assigned to a CBT group and a control group via block randomization. The intervention group received 8 weekly CBT sessions between 45 and 60?minutes each. The Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (PCOSQ) and the Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) were completed by the patients before and after the intervention.

Results: No significant differences were observed between the two groups before the intervention in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and the mean scores of quality of life and psychological fatigue. After the intervention, the mean (standard deviation [SD]) of the quality of life score was 60.2 (13.3) in the intervention group and 24.4 (15) in the control group, with the mean score of quality of life being significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group (adjusted mean difference?=?33.1). The mean (SD) score of psychological fatigue was 28.2 (13.9) in the intervention group and 78.2 (37.1) in the control group, with the mean score of psychological fatigue being significantly lower in the intervention group than in the control group (?54.8).

Conclusions: The results showed that CBT was able to reduce fatigue and improve quality of life in our sample of women with the PCOS and ultimately boost their health.