Improving Weight Loss by Combination of Two Temporary Antiobesity Treatments.

BACKGROUND: It is generally accepted that the efficacy with an intragastric balloon decreases after the first 4 months of treatment. Aim of this study is to evaluate if the association of a very low-calorie ketogenic diet (VLCKD) can improve the results in terms of weight loss parameters and co-morbidities, as compared to usually prescribed low-calorie diet (LCD). METHODS: For the present study (January 2016-June 2017), 80 patients (20 M/60 F, mean age 37.8 ± 6.1 years; excess weight 56 ± 10 kg; mean BMI 37.2 ± 3.8 kg/m2) underwent Orbera positioning. After 4 months, they were randomized into two groups according to the type of treatment: group A (Bioenterics intragastric balloon - Orbera + VLCKD) (n = 40), and group B (Orbera + LCD) (n = 40). RESULTS: All patients completed the study with good adherence to diet therapy treatment allocation. After the 6-month treatment period, at time of Orbera removal, mean weight loss was 19 kg and 12 kg in groups A and B respectively (p < 0.05). Mean BMI was 28.9 ± 2.8 and 31.6 ± 3.1 kg/m2 (p < 0.05), and %EWL was 33.1 ± 3.3 and 21.1 ± 2.9 (p < 0.05) in groups A and B respectively. During the last 2 months in group A, the mean weight loss was 8 kg, while in Group B, the main weight loss was 3 kg (p < 0.001). The VLCKD treatment induced a more significant reduction of major comorbidities related to metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: This study clearly indicates the efficacy of the prescription of very low-calorie ketogenic diet improving the efficacy of intragastric balloon positioning.

The benefits of synchronous collaborative information visualization: evidence from an experimental evaluation.

A great corpus of studies reports empirical evidence of how information visualization supports comprehension and analysis of data. The benefits of visualization for synchronous group knowledge work, however, have not been addressed extensively. Anecdotal evidence and use cases illustrate the benefits of synchronous collaborative information visualization, but very few empirical studies have rigorously examined the impact of visualization on group knowledge work. We have consequently designed and conducted an experiment in which we have analyzed the impact of visualization on knowledge sharing in situated work groups. Our experimental study consists of evaluating the performance of 131 subjects (all experienced managers) in groups of 5 (for a total of 26 groups), working together on a real-life knowledge sharing task. We compare (1) the control condition (no visualization provided), with two visualization supports: (2) optimal and (3) suboptimal visualization (based on a previous survey). The facilitator of each group was asked to populate the provided interactive visual template with insights from the group, and to organize the contributions according to the group consensus. We have evaluated the results through both objective and subjective measures. Our statistical analysis clearly shows that interactive visualization has a statistically significant, objective and positive impact on the outcomes of knowledge sharing, but that the subjects seem not to be aware of this. In particular, groups supported by visualization achieved higher productivity, higher quality of outcome and greater knowledge gains. No statistically significant results could be found between an optimal and a suboptimal visualization though (as classified by the pre-experiment survey). Subjects also did not seem to be aware of the benefits that the visualizations provided as no difference between the visualization and the control conditions was found for the self-reported measures of satisfaction and participation. An implication of our study for information visualization applications is to extend them by using real-time group annotation functionalities that aid in the group sense making process of the represented data.