Restoring bottom-up communication in brain-heart interplay after trauma-focused psychotherapy in breast cancer patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

BACKGROUND: The psychological impact of breast cancer (BC) is substantial, with a significant number of patients (up to 32 %) experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Exploring the emotional aspects of PTSD through the functional brain-heart interplay (BHI) offers valuable insights into the condition. BHI examines the functional interactions between cortical and sympathovagal dynamics. This study aims to investigate changes in functional directional BHI after trauma-focused (TF) psychotherapy, specifically Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), in comparison to treatment as usual (TAU) among BC patients with PTSD. To our knowledge, this study represents the first examination of such changes. METHODS: We enrolled thirty BC patients who met the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis, with fourteen receiving EMDR and fifteen receiving TAU over a two- to three-month period. We analyzed changes in the emotional response during a script-driven imagery setting. Quantification of the functional interplay between EEG and sympathovagal dynamics was achieved using the synthetic data generation model (SDG) on electroencephalographic (EEG) and heartbeat series. Our focus was on the difference in the BHI index extracted at baseline and post-treatment. RESULTS: We found statistically significant higher coupling in the heart-to-brain direction in patients treated with EMDR compared to controls. This suggests that the flow of information from the autonomic nervous system to the central nervous system is restored following EMDR-induced recovery from PTSD. Furthermore, we observed a significant correlation between improvements in PTSD symptoms and an increase in functional BHI after EMDR treatment. CONCLUSIONS: TF psychotherapy, particularly EMDR, appears to facilitate the restoration of the bottom-up flow of interoceptive information, which is dysfunctional in patients with PTSD. The application of BHI analysis to the study of PTSD not only aids in identifying biomarkers of the disorder but also enhances our understanding of the changes brought about by TF treatments.

Understanding the influence of buckwheat bran on wheat dough baking performance: Mechanistic insights from molecular and material science approaches.

A molecular and material science approach is used to describe the influence of coarse and fine buckwheat bran on wheat dough properties and bread textural quality. Focus is given on (i) gluten solvation and structural arrangements in presence of bran as studied by front-face fluorescence; (ii) thermo-mechanical behavior of dough during heating studied by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and (iii) texture of bread crumb analyzed in terms of a cellular solid. The thermo-mechanical behavior of dough was found to be largely related to starch phase transitions during heating. The use of thermodynamic approaches to biopolymer melting revealed that key transitions such as the onset of starch gelatinization were function of the interplay of water and bran volume fractions in the dough. Front-face fluorescence studies in wheat dough revealed that gluten solvation and structural arrangements were delayed by increasing bran addition level and reduction in particle size, as indicated by the drastic decrease in the protein surface hydrophobicity index. Variations in gluten structure could be strongly related to dough baking performance, i.e. specific volume. With regards to texture, the approach revealed that crumb texture was controlled by variations in density, moisture and bran volume fractions. Overall, this study elucidates a number of physical mechanisms describing the influence of buckwheat bran addition to dough and bread quality. These mechanisms strongly pointed at the influence of bran on water partitioning among the main polymeric components. In the future, these mechanisms should be investigated with bran material of varying source, composition and structure.

The response of the different soybean metallothionein isoforms to cadmium intoxication.

Cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal for both plants and animals. The presence of Cd in agricultural soils is of major concern regarding its entry into the food chain, since Cd compounds are readily taken up by plants, and accumulated in edible parts due to their high solubility. In this study, we first demonstrate the high capacity for Cd concentration of soybean grains. Consequently, we considered the study and characterization of the molecular determinants of Cd accumulation -such as metallothioneins (MT)- to be of major practical importance. We report here the first characterization of the soybean MT system, with the identification of nine genes (one of which is a truncated pseudogene), belonging to the four plant MT types. The most highly expressed of each type was chosen for further function analysis. All of them are expressed at high levels in soybean tissues: GmMT1, GmMT2 and GmMT3 in roots, shoots and seeds, and GmMT4 only in seeds. The corresponding recombinant soybean MTs, synthesized in Escherichia coli cells cultured in metal supplemented media, exhibit greater cadmium than zinc binding capacity. These results suggest a definite role of GmMTs in Cd(II) accumulation as one of the main responses of soybean to an overload of this metal.

Food-specific IgG4 lack diagnostic value in adult patients with chronic urticaria and other suspected allergy skin symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Specific IgG4 dosing against food is proposed to the public by a lot of commercial laboratories as a reliable method to diagnose food intolerance. Actually, few data on IgG4 responses to foods in adults are available in the literature. In this study we evaluated the clinical utility of specific IgG4 dosing against food in adult patients with suspected food allergy/intolerance. METHODS: A case series of 73 adult patients with suspected food allergy and clinical manifestations of chronic urticaria or other allergy-supposed skin symptoms were tested for specific IgG4 against foods. An open food challenge was carried out for all IgG4-positive food. All positive open tests were controlled by double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge. RESULTS: Forty-five patients (62%) were IgG4 positive for a number of foods, mainly egg, milk, casein and wheat. None of the patients with IgG4-positive testing showed adverse reactions, neither immediate nor delayed, to the corresponding food. CONCLUSIONS: In adult patients, testing for specific IgG4 lacks clinical utility for the diagnosis of food allergy or intolerance. Dosing of IgG4 should not be part of the diagnosis and therapy of adult patients with allergy-like skin diseases.

Macromolecular interactions and rheological properties of buckwheat-based dough obtained from differently processed grains.

The physicochemical properties of the protein and starch fractions of flour obtained from buckwheat grains that were previously dehulled or puffed after dehulling were investigated. Dehulling removed most of the nonprotein, nonstarch components of the grain, without affecting the chemical and structural features of the protein and starch components, as made evident by microstructural and spectroscopic measurements. Puffing resulted in extensive modifications of the interprotein network as well as in most of the properties of the buckwheat starch. Flours obtained from dehulled or puffed after dehulling grains were blended with 60-80% wheat flour and tested for their dough-making ability. Blends containing dehulled and puffed buckwheat flours gave dough of much lower quality than dehulled, but had water-holding properties that may be of interest for the shelf life of baked products.

Classification of cereal flours by chemometric analysis of MIR spectra.

Different kinds of cereal flours submitted to various technological treatments were classified on the basis of their mid-infrared spectra by pattern recognition techniques. Classification in the wavelet domain was achieved by using the wavelet packet transform for efficient pattern recognition (WPTER) algorithm, which allowed singling out the most discriminant spectral regions. Principal component analysis (PCA) on the selected features showed an effective clustering of the analyzed flours. Satisfactory classification models were obtained both on training and test samples. Furthermore, mixtures of varying composition of the studied flours were distributed in the PCA space according to their composition.

Mapping pathological (99m)Tc-d,l-hexamethylpropylene amine oxime uptake in Alzheimer's disease and frontal lobe dementia with SPECT.

Seventeen patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), 7 patients with frontal lobe dementia (FLD) and 19 control subjects (NOR) were examined by (99m)Tc-d,l- hexamethylpropylene amine oxime ((99m)Tc-HMPAO) SPECT. Images were standardised in the same 3D space and averaged within each group. After normalisation, the three sets of images were analysed in all cerebral lobes, hippocampus, thalamus and basal ganglia. In AD, the (99m)Tc-HMPAO uptake values were significantly reduced, as compared to NOR, in the parietal, temporal and insular lobes. In patients with FLD, the uptake was altered in all lobes with the exception of the parietal lobe. The uptake in the nucleus caudatus decreased significantly in both AD and FLD as compared to NOR. The uptake in the anterior cingulate cortex was significantly reduced in FLD. Subtraction images highlighted all significantly decreased areas. In conclusion, standardising SPECT in a common space and subtracting data from a control group improves the visual interpretation of images. In this study, the typical temporo-parietal and fronto-parietal (99m)Tc-HMPAO uptake reductions were found in AD and FLD, respectively. The uptake in the nucleus caudatus was found to decrease significantly in AD and FLD and the one in the anterior cingulate cortex was reduced in FLD.

[Persistent scalp infestation by Dermanyssus gallinae in an Emilian country-woman]. / Infestazione persistente del cuoio capelluto da Dermanyssus gallinae in una contadina emiliana.

A case of persistent infestation of the scalp due to Dermanyssus gallinae.--Infestation due to Dermanyssus gallinae, the common red mite of poultry, in a country-woman aged 69 years from Crevalcore (Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy), is described. The case was unusual either for its location, the scalp, and for its persistence, 9 months. Specimens of the mite were also found in the henhouse adjacent to the patient's house. Apparently the woman recovered by means of daily washing of camomile tea.

A controlled study of the effects of mental relaxation on autonomic excitatory responses in healthy subjects.

OBJECTIVE: Circumstantial evidence indicates that, in the presence of a suitable substratum, sudden, behaviorally induced increases in sympathetic drive to the cardiovascular system might play an important physiopathological role in various conditions, ranging from arterial hypertension to sudden coronary death. Accordingly, it might be useful to study the effects of behavioral interventions, such as mental relaxation, that might be capable of blunting excitatory autonomic responses. It would also be preferable to study healthy subjects in whom autonomic control is not modified by the presence of disease, and to use noninvasive approaches to minimize the possible emotional impact produced by invasive recordings. METHODS: We examined healthy subjects who were either subjected to relaxation training (N = 13) or sham relaxation (N = 12). An additional group, treated with beta-adrenergic blockade (N = 12), was also examined. Spectral and cross-spectral analysis of RR interval and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) variabilities provided quantitative markers of sympathovagal balance modulating the sinoatrial (SA) node, of sympathetic vasomotor modulation, and of the gain of the arterial pressure/heart period baroreflex (index alpha). Subjects were studied at rest, during standing, and during mental arithmetic. RESULTS: Data indicate that both beta-adrenergic blockade and relaxation training significantly blunted the excitatory autonomic responses to standing and to mental arithmetic. Indices of sympathetic modulation also seemed reduced by beta blockade at rest. No changes were observed with sham training. CONCLUSIONS: Frequency domain analysis of cardiovascular variabilities, using a totally noninvasive approach, indicates that relaxation training significantly blunts the excitatory autonomic changes produced by standardized behavioral laboratory stimuli.

Immunological reactivity in ranitidine factory workers.

The involvement of immunological reactivity to ranitidine base (R-b) and ranitidine hydrochloride (R-HCl) in the development of occupationally related symptomatology was analyzed in 40 subjects employed in a pharmaceutical plant producing ranitidine and in 33 nonexposed controls, using a specific dose-response lymphocyte proliferative test (lymphocyte transformation test: LTT). Of the 40 workers, 11 (28%) gave positive reactions to LTT: 3/11 to R-b, 4/11 to R-HCl, and 4/11 to both compounds. None of the controls gave positive reactions. Cutaneous, oculonasal, or respiratory work-related symptoms were cited by 23 of the 40 (58%) subjects; ten of these 23 subjects (43%) were LTT positive. One asymptomatic case was LTT positive. The present results indicate that specific immune reactivity to ranitidine, analyzed by LTT, is associated with the presence of occupational symptomatology; R-HCl and R-b seem to share some antigenic determinants, because of the partial cross-reactivity shown by the examined compounds. Nonimmunological, probably irritative, mechanisms are also present in some of the symptomatic subjects.

[Gallbladder calculi: what therapy of choice?]. / Calcolosi della colecisti: quale terapia in elezione?

The Authors have analyzed all different methods for the treatment of gallbladder stones which are performed today: the non invasive treatment of the gallstones (oral dissolution therapy and the extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy), the minimally invasive procedures (contact dissolution therapy and the cholecystolithotomy) and at the end the new surgical techniques (the "minicholecystectomy" and the laparoscopic cholecystectomy). From this study and their experience, based upon 1346 standard cholecystectomy, the Authors have reached the following conclusions: 1) the cholecystectomy remains the only definitive therapy for the gallbladder stones and it is the gold standard to which must be compared the other alternative therapies; 2) the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, even though introduced recently, would become the only method used for cholecystectomy.