Category: Nevin Manimala

Cureus. 2023 Jun 26;15(6):e40972. doi: 10.7759/cureus.40972. eCollection 2023 Jun.

ABSTRACT

Background Seborrheic dermatitis is the most common, chronic inflammatory skin condition which is confined to the scalp, nasolabial folds, and regions rich in sebaceous glands for which no definitive cause has been found. Although the disease is more common, the comorbidities associated with it have not been studied in detail. This study aims to assess the prevalence of seborrheic dermatitis and its associated cutaneous and systemic comorbidities in adolescent and adult patients. Methodology This cross-sectional study was performed among 451 adolescent and adult female patients who visited the Department of Dermatology, Venereology, and Leprosy of R. Laxminarayanappa Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre, Kolar. Patients having symptoms such as scaly patches, inflamed skin, and stubborn dandruff were diagnosed with seborrheic dermatitis and included in the study. A detailed history was collected for assessing other cutaneous disorders. Results Out of the 451 female participants, 87% belonged to the age group of 21-30 years, with 60.9% having cutaneous and 28.3% having systemic comorbidities. Acne (13.3%) and diabetes mellitus (13.1%) were the most common cutaneous and systemic associated comorbidities, respectively. Conclusions Comorbidities of seborrheic dermatitis were more commonly seen in adult female patients, Some of the common cutaneous comorbidities were acne, alopecia areata, and folliculitis. Systemic comorbidities included diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. However, all of these comorbidities were not statistically significant.

PMID:37503468 | PMC:PMC10370423 | DOI:10.7759/cureus.40972

Mov Ecol. 2023 Jul 27;11(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s40462-023-00402-4.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Millions of birds travel every year between Europe and Africa detouring ecological barriers and funnelling through migratory corridors where they face variable weather conditions. Little is known regarding the response of migrating birds to mesoscale meteorological processes during flight. Specifically, sea-breeze has a daily cycle that may directly influence the flight of diurnal migrants.

METHODS: We collected radar tracks of soaring migrants using modified weather radar in Latrun, central Israel, in 7 autumns between 2005 and 2016. We investigated how migrating soaring birds adjusted their flight speed and direction under the effects of daily sea-breeze circulation. We analysed the effects of wind on bird groundspeed, airspeed and the lateral component of the airspeed as a function of time of day using Generalized Additive Mixed Models. To identify when birds adjusted their response to the wind over time, we estimated first derivatives.

RESULTS: Using data collected during a total of 148 days, we characterised the diel dynamics of horizontal wind flow relative to the migration goal, finding a consistent rotational movement of the wind blowing towards the East (morning) and to the South-East (late afternoon), with highest crosswind speed around mid-day and increasing tailwinds towards late afternoon. Airspeed of radar detected birds decreased consistently with increasing tailwind and decreasing crosswinds from early afternoon, resulting in rather stable groundspeed of 16-17 m/s. In addition, birds fully compensated for lateral drift when crosswinds were at their maximum and slightly drifted with the wind when crosswinds decreased and tailwinds became more intense.

CONCLUSIONS: Using a simple and broadly applicable statistical method, we studied how wind influences bird flight through speed adjustments over time, providing new insights regarding the flexible behavioural responses of soaring birds to wind conditions. These adjustments allowed the birds to compensate for lateral drift under crosswind and reduced their airspeed under tailwind. Our work enhances our understanding of how migrating birds respond to changing wind conditions during their long-distance journeys through migratory corridors.

PMID:37501209 | DOI:10.1186/s40462-023-00402-4

BMC Chem. 2023 Jul 27;17(1):89. doi: 10.1186/s13065-023-01001-5.

ABSTRACT

The environmentally friendly design of analytical methods is gaining interest in pharmaceutical analysis to reduce hazardous environmental impacts and improve safety and health conditions for analysts. The adaptation and integration of chemometrics in the development of environmentally friendly analytical methods is strongly recommended in the hope of promising benefits. Favipiravir and remdesivir have been included in the COVID-19 treatment guidelines panel of several countries. The main objective of this work is to develop green, tuned spectrophotometric methods based on chemometric based models for the determination of favipiravir and remdesivir in spiked human plasma. The UV absorption spectra of favipiravir and remdesivir has shown overlap to some extent, making simultaneous determination difficult. Three advanced chemometric models, classical least squares, principal component regression, and partial least squares, have been developed to provide resolution and spectrophotometric determination of the drugs under study. A five-level, two-factor experimental design has been used to create the described models. The spectrally recorded data of favipiravir and remdesivir has been reviewed. The noise region has been neglected as it has a negative impact on the significant data. On the other hand, the other spectral data provided relevant information about the investigated drugs. A comprehensive evaluation and interpretation of the results of the described models and a statistical comparison with accepted values have been considered. The proposed models have been successfully applied to the spectrophotometric determination of favipiravir and remdesivir in pharmaceutical form spiked human plasma. In addition, the environmental friendliness of the described models was evaluated using the analytical eco-scale, the green analytical procedure index and the AGREE evaluation method. The results showed the compliance of the described models with the environmental characteristics.

PMID:37501208 | DOI:10.1186/s13065-023-01001-5

BMC Med. 2023 Jul 27;21(1):278. doi: 10.1186/s12916-023-02993-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Meat-free diets may be associated with a higher risk of hip fracture, but prospective evidence is limited. We aimed to investigate the risk of hip fracture in occasional meat-eaters, pescatarians, and vegetarians compared to regular meat-eaters in the UK Biobank, and to explore the role of potential mediators of any observed risk differences.

METHODS: Middle-aged UK adults were classified as regular meat-eaters (n = 258,765), occasional meat-eaters (n = 137,954), pescatarians (n = 9557), or vegetarians (n = 7638) based on dietary and lifestyle information at recruitment (2006-2010). Incident hip fractures were identified by record linkage to Hospital Episode Statistics up to September 2021. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate associations between each diet group and hip fracture risk, with regular meat-eaters as the reference group, over a median follow-up time of 12.5 years.

RESULTS: Among 413,914 women, 3503 hip fractures were observed. After adjustment for confounders, vegetarians (HR (95% CI): 1.50 (1.18, 1.91)) but not occasional meat-eaters (0.99 (0.93, 1.07)) or pescatarians (1.08 (0.86, 1.35)) had a greater risk of hip fracture than regular meat-eaters. This is equivalent to an adjusted absolute risk difference of 3.2 (1.2, 5.8) more hip fractures per 1000 people over 10 years in vegetarians. There was limited evidence of effect modification by BMI on hip fracture risk across diet groups (p_interaction = 0.08), and no clear evidence of effect modification by age or sex (p_interaction = 0.9 and 0.3, respectively). Mediation analyses suggest that BMI explained 28% of the observed risk difference between vegetarians and regular meat-eaters (95% CI: 1.1%, 69.8%).

DISCUSSION: Vegetarian men and women had a higher risk of hip fracture than regular meat-eaters, and this was partly explained by their lower BMI. Ensuring adequate nutrient intake and weight management are therefore particularly important in vegetarians in the context of hip fracture prevention.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05554549, registered retrospectively.

PMID:37501206 | DOI:10.1186/s12916-023-02993-6

Microbiome. 2023 Jul 27;11(1):165. doi: 10.1186/s40168-023-01596-w.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: During development, elevated levels of maternal glucocorticoids (GCs) can have detrimental effects on offspring morphology, cognition, and behavior as well as physiology and metabolism. Depending on the timing of exposure, such effects may vary in strength or even reverse in direction, may alleviate with age, or may concern more stable and long-term programming of phenotypic traits. Maternal effects on gut bacterial diversity, composition, and function, and the persistence of such effects into adulthood of long-lived model species in the natural habitats remain underexplored.

RESULTS: In a cross-sectional sample of infant, juvenile, and adult Assamese macaques, the timing of exposure to elevated maternal GCs during ontogeny was associated with the gut bacterial community of the offspring. Specifically, naturally varying maternal GC levels during early but not late gestation or lactation were associated with reduced bacterial richness. The overall effect of maternal GCs during early gestation on the gut bacterial composition and function exacerbated with offspring age and was 10 times stronger than the effect associated with exposure during late prenatal or postnatal periods. Instead, variation in maternal GCs during the late prenatal or postnatal period had less pronounced or less stable statistical effects and therefore a weaker effect on the entire bacterial community composition, particularly in adult individuals. Finally, higher early prenatal GCs were associated with an increase in the relative abundance of several potential pro-inflammatory bacteria and a decrease in the abundance of Bifidobacterium and other anti-inflammatory taxa, an effect that exacerbated with age.

CONCLUSIONS: In primates, the gut microbiota can be shaped by developmental effects with strong timing effects on plasticity and potentially detrimental consequences for adult health. Together with results on other macaque species, this study suggests potential detrimental developmental effects similar to rapid inflammaging, suggesting that prenatal exposure to high maternal GC concentrations is a common cause underlying both phenomena. Our findings await confirmation by metagenomic functional and causal analyses and by longitudinal studies of long-lived, ecologically flexible primates in their natural habitat, including developmental effects that originate before birth. Video Abstract.

PMID:37501202 | DOI:10.1186/s40168-023-01596-w

Eur J Oral Sci. 2023 Jul 27:e12947. doi: 10.1111/eos.12947. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the effect of pretreatment with limonene and/or biosilicate on the bond strength of a universal adhesive system in self-etch mode to dentin. Occlusal cavities were prepared in 80 human molars and the teeth were randomly allocated to one of four groups (n = 20), according to the pretreatment regimens applied before the adhesive. The pretreatments were (i) Control, no pretreatment, (ii) LIM, 0.5% limonene; (iii) Bio, 10% biosilicate; and (iv) LIMBio, LIM + Bio. After adhesive application and restoration, the specimens were sectioned into sticks, separated, and stored in distilled water at 37°C for 24 h or 6 months. Microtensile bond strength test was carried out and measurements were compared across pretreatment groups and storage times. Fracture patterns and adhesive interfaces were observed. Loss of dry mass was calculated (n = 10). There was no statistically significant difference in the bond strength between the groups and the most prevalent fracture pattern was the non-adhesive. LIM and LIMBio resulted in more open dentinal tubules. LIM and Bio, whether separate or combined, showed particles of those substances, which decreased in size and number after 6 months. All groups lost mass weight after treatment, with no statistically significant differences between them. Limonene and biosilicate pretreatment did not affect the bond strength to dentin of the universal adhesive system, but resulted in more non-adhesive fractures, even after 6 months.

PMID:37501189 | DOI:10.1111/eos.12947

BMC Med Genomics. 2023 Jul 27;16(1):173. doi: 10.1186/s12920-023-01608-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer mortality is higher than other forms of cancer. Genetic tendencies in cancer patients have long been known. Given the link between A1ATD and numerous lung disorders, it is worth investigating if this genetic trait is linked to a higher risk of developing LC, as the lung is the most afflicted organ in individuals with severe A1ATD. This study is intended to investigate the possible association between AAT rs17580 and rs8004738 gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to non-small cell lung cancer for early prediction in Egyptians.

METHODS: A case-control study was performed on 124 NSCLC cases and 124 healthy controls from 2021 to 2022 in the oncology center of Mansoura University. Peripheral blood was used to obtain genomic DNA. ARMS-PCR was used to genotype SNPs and other chemical parameters. Windows SPSS Statistics was used to review, encode, and tabulate the acquired data.

RESULTS: A molecular study for A1AT rs17580 and rs8004738 genotypes showed that NSCLC cases were significantly associated with a higher proportion of mutant S (T) and mutant Z (A) alleles (p = 0.042, 0.041, respectively). Different A1AT genotypes (MS, MZ, SS, SZ, and ZZ) showed no significant association with NSCLC or NLR.

CONCLUSION: S and Z alleles might have significant impacts on NSCLC risk and can be useful for detecting and protecting individuals who may be vulnerable to carcinogens. Further research with larger sample sizes is needed to confirm the current findings.

PMID:37501182 | DOI:10.1186/s12920-023-01608-6

Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2023 Jul 27;9(1):131. doi: 10.1186/s40814-023-01360-9.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Postnatal depression (PND) affects over 12% of mothers, with numbers rising during COVID-19. Singing groups can support mothers with PND; however, online delivery has never been evaluated. SHAPER-PNDO, a single-arm clinical trial, evaluated the feasibility, clinical efficacy, and well-being outcomes of a 6-week online version of Breathe Melodies for Mums (M4M) singing intervention developed for mothers with PND during COVID-19 lockdowns.

METHODS: The primary objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of a group online singing intervention for new mothers with postnatal depression. This was ascertained through recruitment rates, study retention rates, attendance rates to the singing sessions, and study completion rates. The secondary objective of the study was to assess the clinical efficacy and well-being outcomes of the singing intervention. Specifically, we measured change in Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and Office for National Statistics Wellbeing Scale (ONS) scores from baseline to end-of-intervention (week 6); follow-up assessments were completed at weeks 3, 16, and 32. Mothers were eligible if they scored ≥10 on the baseline EPDS.

RESULTS: Eighty-seven percent of the 37 recruited mothers completed the study, attending, on average, 5 of the 6 group singing sessions. With regard to secondary outcomes, at end-of-treatment, mothers experienced significant reductions in depression (EPDS, 16.6 ± 3.7 to 11.2 ± 5.3, 95% CI [0.79,1.65]), anxiety (STAI-S, 48.4 ± 27.1 to 41.7 ± 26.8, 95% CI [4.96, 17.65]) and stress (PSS, 29.0 ± 5.7 to 19.7 ± 5.3, 95% CI [1.33, 7.07]); and, furthermore, significant improvements in life satisfaction (ONS, 50.5 ± 23.0 to 72.8 ± 11.7, 95% CI [- 39.86, – 4.64]) and feelings of worthwhileness (ONS, 51.7 ± 30.4 to 78.6 ± 15.1, 95% CI [- 52.79, – 0.85]). Reduction on the EPDS correlated with a reduction on the BDI and the STAI-S and maternal childhood maltreatment was predictive of a smaller treatment response.

CONCLUSIONS: M4M online was feasible to mothers who partook in the programme. Furthermore, M4M online supports the mental health and well-being of new mothers experiencing PND, especially when barriers to in-person treatment are present.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04857593 . Registered 22 April 2021, retrospectively registered.

PMID:37501172 | DOI:10.1186/s40814-023-01360-9

Trials. 2023 Jul 27;24(1):479. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07525-4.

NO ABSTRACT

PMID:37501161 | DOI:10.1186/s13063-023-07525-4

BMC Med. 2023 Jul 27;21(1):276. doi: 10.1186/s12916-023-02969-6.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The estimand for a clinical trial is a precise definition of the treatment effect to be estimated. Traditionally, estimates of treatment effects are based on either an ITT analysis or a per-protocol analysis. However, there are important clinical questions which are not addressed by either of these analyses. For example, consider a trial where patients take a rescue medication. The ITT analysis includes data after use of rescue, while the per-protocol analysis excludes these patients altogether. Neither of these analyses addresses the important question of what the treatment effect would have been if patients did not take rescue medication.

MAIN TEXT: Trial estimands provide a broader perspective compared to the limitations of ITT and per-protocol analysis. Trial treatment effects depend on how events occurring after treatment initiation such as use of alternative medication or discontinuation of the intervention are included in the definition. These events can be accounted for in different ways, depending on the clinical question of interest.

CONCLUSION: The estimand framework is an important step forward in improving the clarity and transparency of clinical trials. The centrality of estimands to clinical trials is currently not reflected in methods recommended by the Cochrane group or the CONSORT statement, the current standard for reporting clinical trials in medical journals. We encourage revisions to these guidelines.

PMID:37501156 | DOI:10.1186/s12916-023-02969-6