Associations Between Parity and Cognition: Race/Ethnic Differences.

BACKGROUND: Race/ethnicity is associated with differences in reproductive history and cognition individually, yet it remains an understudied factor in the relationship between parity and later-life cognition. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if the association between parity and cognition differs between racial/ethnic groups. METHODS: Participants included 778 older, postmenopausal women from the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Latina: n = 178, Non-Latino Black [NLB]: n = 169, Non-Latino White [NLW]: n = 431) who self-reported at least one birth. Cognitive outcomes included working memory, learning memory, and verbal fluency. Covariates included age, education, cardiovascular and other reproductive health factors, adult socioeconomic status (SES) and depressive symptoms. We fit a series of linear models to examine a) whether parity was associated with cognitive functioning, b) if this association varied by race/ethnicity through parity by race/ethnicity interactions, and c) individual parity with cognition associations stratified by race/ethnicity. RESULTS: In the full sample, parity was significantly negatively associated with Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) performance (b = -0.70, p = 0.024) but not Animal Fluency or word-list learning and memory. Tests of race/ethnicity-by-parity interactions were not statistically significant (ps > 0.05). However, stratified analyses by race/ethnicity showed a differential effect of parity on DSST performance, such that parity was significantly negatively associated with DSST performance (b = -1.66, p = 0.007) among Latinas but not in NLWs (b = -0.16, p = 0.74) or NLBs (b = -0.81, p = 0.191). CONCLUSION: Among Latina, but not NLB or NLW women, greater parity was associated with worse processing speed/executive functioning later in life. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms driving racial/ethnic differences.

Enantioseparation and antioxidant activity of novel diarylpyrazoline derivatives.

Three chiral pyrazoline derivatives were synthesized by a flavanone ring-opening reaction followed by cyclocondensation with hydrazine hydrate to give better yields. Their enantiomeric resolution was achieved using polysaccharide chiral stationary phase columns consisting of cellulose (Chiralcel®OD-RH, Chiralcel®OZ-3) and amylose (Chiralpak®IA) by high-performance liquid chromatography. The separation was affected by the nature and concentration of the alcohol modifiers in the mobile phase. Taking 5-methoxy-2-(3-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)phenol (3a) as an example, the best separation was obtained by using the Chiralpak®IA column, with a separation factor α = 1.24 and Rs = 5.66 within an analysis time of <30 min. The diarylpyrazolines showed good antioxidant activity, studied by the DPPH method.

Prognostic Potential of Postoperative 18F-Fluorocholine PET/CT in Patients With High-Grade Glioma. Clinical Validation of FuMeGA Postoperative PET Criteria.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic performance of postoperative 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT in patients with high-grade glioma (HGG). METHODS: Patients with HGG who underwent preoperative and postoperative 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT were prospectively enrolled in the study. Postoperative MRI was classified as complete versus incomplete resection. Postoperative 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT was classified as negative (complete) or positive for metabolic residual tumor (incomplete resection) using a 5-point score system. The correlation of positive locations on PET/CT with the sites of subsequent tumor recurrence was evaluated. The concordance of postoperative imaging techniques (Cohen κ) and their relation with progression-free survival and overall survival were assessed using Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: Fifty-one studies, belonging to 47 patients, were assessed. Four patients underwent 2 postoperative 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT scans as they needed a second tumor resection for recurrence. In the follow-up, 42 patients progressed, and 37 died. Concordance between postoperative PET/CT and MRI assessment was poor. Resection grade on MRI did not show any significant association with prognosis. In multivariate analysis, only age and postoperative PET/CT showed significant association with progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR], 1.03 [1.01-1.06, P = 0.006] and 1.88 [0.96-3.71, P = 0.067], respectively) and overall survival (HR, 1.04 [1.01-1.07, P = 0.004] and 2.63 [1.22-5.68, P = 0.014], respectively). Postoperative positive 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT locations correlated with the sites of subsequent tumor recurrence in 81.82% of cases. CONCLUSION: Postoperative 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT seems superior to postoperative MRI in the outcome prediction of patients with HGG, outperforming it in the identification of the most probable location of tumor recurrence.

Low-Grade Versus High-Grade Glioma That Is the Question. 18F-Fluorocholine PET in the Detection of Anaplastic Focus.

Gliomas are characterized by intratumoral histological heterogeneity, coexisting foci of low and high grade. First, in low-grade gliomas, neoangiogenesis has not yet developed and cellularity is low, so alterations on perfusion MRI may not be present. Second, a non-negligible number of high-grade gliomas show none, patchy, or weak contrast enhancement on MRI, so they can be misdiagnosed as low-grade glioma, preventing their correct management. We present 4 cases of patients in which F-fluorocholine PET defined the anaplastic tumor component and therefore the tumor aggressiveness, solving the limitations of MRI.

Polimedication: applicability of a computer tool to reduce polypharmacy in nursing homes.

ABSTRACTBackground:The risks of polypharmacy can be far greater than the benefits, especially in the elderly. Comorbidity makes polypharmacy very prevalent in this population; thus, increasing the occurrence of adverse effects. To solve this problem, the most common strategy is to use lists of potentially inappropriate medications. However, this strategy is time consuming. METHODS: In order to minimize the expenditure of time, our group devised a pilot computer tool (Polimedication) that automatically processes lists of medication providing the corresponding Screening Tool of Older Persons' potentially inappropriate Prescriptions alerts and facilitating standardized reports. The drug lists for 115 residents in Santa Marta Nursing Home (Fundación San Rosendo, Ourense, Spain) were processed. RESULTS: The program detected 10.04 alerts/patient, of which 74.29% were not repeated. After reviewing these alerts, 12.12% of the total (1.30 alerts/patient) were considered relevant. The largest number of alerts (41.48%) involved neuroleptic drugs. Finally, the patient's family physician or psychiatrist accepted the alert and made medication changes in 62.86% of the relevant alerts. The largest number of changes (38.64%) also involved neuroleptic drugs. The mean time spent in the generation and review of the warnings was 6.26 minute/patient. Total changes represented a saving of 32.77 € per resident/year in medication. CONCLUSIONS: The application of Polimedication tool detected a high proportion of potentially inappropriate prescriptions in institutionalized elderly patients. The use of the computerized tool achieved significant savings in pharmaceutical expenditure, as well as a reduction in the time taken for medication review.

Utilization of blood by-products: An in silico and experimental combined study for BSA usage.

In order to exploit industrial discards, protein enzymatic hydrolysis is a currently popular methodology for obtaining bioactive peptides. However, once released, most promising peptides have to be selected from the mixture. In this work, the suitability of pepsin (EC 3.4.23.1) to hydrolyse serum albumin in order to obtain bioactive peptides was assessed. Then, a suitable process to obtain best separation of bioactive peptides was evaluated, using polyethersulfone membranes at different pH values. Serum albumin was easily hydrolysed by pepsin, reaching a DH value of the 65.64 ± 1.57% of the maximum possible. A 23.25% of the identified peptides possessed high bioactivity scores (greater than 0.5), and one of them had reported bioactivity (LLL). Charge mechanisms always predominated over the sieve effect, and best transmission was accomplished at pH values close to the peptides isoelectric points. Basic and neutral peptides with the highest scores were always the most transmitted. Membrane material had greater influence than NMWCO in determining peptide transmission. In order to obtain purified fractions rich in peptides with high bioactivity scores from serum albumin, polyethersulfone membranes (applicable to industrial scale) of 5 kDa MWCO should be used at basic pH values after pepsin digestion.

Influence of heat pre-treatment on BSA tryptic hydrolysis and peptide release.

In contrast with other food proteins, such as ß-lactoglobulin or caseins, intensely studied for bioactive peptide production, relatively little attention has been paid to serum albumin, the main blood protein, even though blood disposal is a severe problem for meat processors. In this study, serum albumin was hydrolysed with trypsin after several heat treatments and using different enzyme concentrations. The degree of hydrolysis reached and the peptide sequences released over time were evaluated. Large differences in enzyme-to-substrate ratios (1:50, 1:100 and 1:200) led to similar degree of hydrolysis values (31.92±1.43%, 31.08±3.09% and 26.21±0.71%), and did not alter the number of peptides released. However, thermal treatment enhanced significantly (p<0.05) both the degree of hydrolysis (up to 50.41±1.90%) and the number and amount of the majority of peptides obtained, all with potential bioactivity (28 peptides in the native hydrolysate, 39 in the thermally treated).

Calidad de vida y demencia / Quality of life and dementia

Fundamento: la promoción del bienestar y el mantenimiento de una buena calidad de vida resultan fundamentales en enfermedades crónicas tendentes a la dependencia como la demencia. Objetivo: exponer los criterios fundamentales acerca de la calidad de vida en las personas con demencia. Métodos: se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica en Infomed en las bases de datos SciELO y PUBMED, con los descriptores calidad de vida y demencia. Se utilizaron 29 referencias para realizar la revisión. Desarrollo: se revisó el término calidad de vida, sus orígenes y definiciones, así como la introducción de calidad de vida asociada a la salud como concepto. Se analizó la controversia en torno a la calidad de vida de las personas con demencia en diferentes estadios y los principales instrumentos existentes para medirla. Conclusiones: existen importantes desafíos en el estudio de la calidad de vida en la demencia, tanto en el terreno teórico como en el metodológico. Se cuenta ya con instrumentos creados específicamente para el estudio de la calidad de vida en estos pacientes, aunque la gran mayoría no cuenta con un modelo teórico común. El reto está en continuar mejorando las medidas específicas de calidad de vida en la demencia con el objetivo de crear un instrumento válido para todas las fases de la demencia, basado en un marco conceptual único de calidad de vida.

Background: the promotion of well-being and the maintenance of a good quality of life are essential in chronic diseases that tend to dependence like dementia. Objective: to present the fundamental criteria about the quality of life in people with dementia. Methods: a bibliographic review was made in Infomed, specifically in SciELO and PUBMED data bases with the descriptors quality of life and dementia. Twenty-nine references were used to make the review. Development: the term quality of life, its origins and definitions, as well as the introduction of this term associated to health as a concept, were reviewed. The controversy around the quality of life of people with dementia in different stages and the main instruments to measure it, were analyzed. Conclusions: there are significant challenges in the study of quality of life in dementia, in both theoretical and methodological fields. There are many instruments specifically created for the study of quality of life in these patients, although most of them do not have a common theoretical model. Continuing improving the specific measures of quality of life for dementia with the objective of creating a valid instrument for all the stages of the disease, based on an only conceptual framework of quality of life, is the challenge.

Validación histológica de un posible modelo de hiperplasia nodular prostática inducido con enantato de testosterona (100mg/ml) / Histological assessment of a possible model of nodular prostatic hyperplasia induced with testosterone enantate (100 mg/ml)

Estudio preclínico realizado en la Universidad Médica de Cienfuegos, Cuba, entre junio y diciembre de 2003, con el objetivo de validar desde el punto de vista histológico un posible modelo de hiperplasia prostática. Se utilizaron 15 ratas Sprague Dawley machos de 21 días de edad. El grupo I no se castró ni recibió, tratamiento con testosterona, mientras que los grupos II y III se orquiectomizaron y se les administró testosterona (25 mg/ml) a 3mg/kg subcutánea por veintiún días y enantato de testosterona (100 mg/ml) a 14 mg/kg en dosis única, respectivamente. La observación de los cortes histológicos se realizó en diez campos de 40X. La administración de enantato de testosterona causó una disminución del número de acinos e incrementó el número de capas epiteliales celulares, las aproximaciones interglandulares, las glándulas dilatadas y la presencia de pseudopapilas; el estroma se hizo más laxo y escaso. Los cambios histológicos hiperplásicos en estos animales fueron superiores cuantitativa y cualitativamente a los producidos por la administración de testosterona durante veintiún días.

Metástasis secundarias en testículos / Secondary metastasis in testis

La presente publicación tiene la finalidad de presentar dos (2) nuevos casos de Metástasis Testicular del Carcinoma de la Próstata, dado su baja frecuencia, repasar bibliografía y recordar sus posibles vías de Metástasis. Según PUIGUERT la pulpa testicular extirpada se remite al laboratorio para su examen histológico, de acuerdo al estado de las células germinales y las células intersticiales de LEYDIG se podría decidir el tratamiento estrogénico complementario. Pero la Anatomía Patológica de los Testículos, también sirve como en estos dos casos para la detección de Metástasis de un Carcinoma Prostático y cambiar el M como ocurrió con nuestro primer paciente