[Hand robotic devices in neurorehabilitation: A systematic review on the feasibility and effectiveness of stroke rehabilitation]. / Dispositivos robóticos de mano en neurorrehabilitación: revisión sistemática sobre viabilidad y efectividad en la rehabilitación del ictus.

Robot-assisted therapy is a relatively new intervention, increasingly used in the rehabilitation treatment of stroke patients. It allows to increase the number of repetitions in the performance of specific tasks movements. For this review, a search was carried out between August and October 2021 in the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, PEDro and OTseeker databases, selecting a total of six randomized controlled trials where robot-assisted hand therapy was used in stroke rehabilitation. Studies agree that robot-assisted hand therapy has benefits in all phases of stroke rehabilitation that translate into motor and functional improvements of the upper limb and improvements in hemispatial neglect.

The number of risk factors is the strongest predictor of prostate cancer mortality: multi-institutional outcomes of an extreme-risk prostate cancer cohort.

PURPOSE: To report treatment outcomes in a cohort of extreme-risk prostate cancer patients and identify a subgroup of patients with worse prognosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Extreme-risk prostate cancer patients were defined as patients with at least one extreme-risk factor: stage cT3b-cT4, Gleason score 9-10 or PSA > 50 ng/ml; or patients with 2 or more high-risk factors: stage cT2c-cT3a, Gleason 8 and PSA > 20 ng/ml. Overall survival (OS), cause-specific survival (CSS), clinical-free survival (CFS), and biochemical non-evidence of disease (bNED) survival are the four outcomes of interest in a population of 1341 patients. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 71.5 months, 5- and 10-year bNED survival, CFS, CSS and OS for the entire cohort were 77.1 % and 57.0, 89.2 and 78.9 %, 97.4 and 93.6 %, and 92.0 and 71.3 %, respectively. On multivariate analysis, PSA and clinical stage were associated with bNED survival. PSA and Gleason score predicted for CFS, whereas only Gleason score predicted for OS. When a simplified model was performed using the "number of risk factors" variable, this model provided the best distinction between patients with ≥2 extreme-risk factors and patients with 2 high-risk factors, showing a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.737 (p = 0.0003) for bNED survival, HR 1.743 (p = 0.0448) for OS and an HR of 3.963 (p = 0.0039) for the CSS endpoint. CONCLUSIONS: Patients presenting at diagnosis with two extreme-risk criteria have almost fourfold higher risk for prostate cancer mortality. Such patients should be considered for more aggressive multimodal treatments.

o-Phthalaldelhyde-N-acetylcysteine polyamine derivatives: formation and stability in solution and in C18 supports.

A comparative study of different derivatization procedures has been performed in order to improve the stability of the reaction products o-phthalaldehyde-N-acetylcysteine (OPA-NAC) polyamines. Procedures such as solution derivatization, solution derivatization followed by retention on a packing support, derivatization on different packing supports and on-column derivatization, have been optimized and compared. The degradation rate constant (k) of the derivative was dependent on the procedure used and on the analyte. For the spermine (the most unstable isoindol tested) k was 8 +/- 2 x 10(-2) min(-1) in solution versus 7.7 +/- 1.1 x 10(-4) min(-1) on the (C18) solid support. The results obtained showed that forming the derivative on the packing support (C18) gave the best results following this procedure: conditioning the cartridges with borate buffer (1 ml, 0.5 M, pH 8), retention of the analyte, addition of 0.8 ml of OPA-NAC reagent, 0.2 ml borate buffer 0.8 M (pH 8) and elution of the isoindol with 3 ml of MeOH-borate buffer (9:1). The different derivatization procedures have been used to study the stability of the reaction products OPA-NAC polyamines formed in urine matrix using spermine as model compound. Similar results were obtained for standard solutions and urine samples.

Urine polyamines determination using dansyl chloride derivatization in solid-phase extraction cartridges and HPLC.

The derivatization of biogenic amines such as putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine and spermine with dansyl chloride in solid phase extraction cartridges is described. Different types of filling materials were tested in order to have the highest retention of the different analytes. The best results were obtained by using C18 cartridges. The optimal conditions were: amine solution buffered at pH 12, 2 mM dansyl chloride (acetone-bicarbonate solution 20 mM (pH 9-9.5), 2 + 3 v/v) as reagent concentration, room temperature and 30 min reaction time. The developed procedure was applied to the determination of these polyamines in urine samples from healthy controls and cancer patients using HPLC with 1,7-diaminoheptane as internal standard. The concentrations ranged from 0.5 to 5 micrograms mL-1 and the detection limits were 10 ng mL-1 for all polyamines. By concentrating the urine extracts, the detection limits were improved down to 2 ng mL-1. The accuracy and the precision of the method were tested. The proposed dansylation method is advantageous with respect to solution dansylation. It improves the total analysis time, avoids high temperatures that can affect the thermal stability of the derivatives and could make possible the automation of the procedure.