Effects of non-invasive ventilation on renal and endothelial function in patients with respiratory failure.

OBJECTIVE: Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIV) is now an indispensable safeguard in the management of many pathologies. However, sometimes the positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) showed harmful effects on renal function, although effects on renal hemodynamic are unclear. We aimed at evaluating the effects of NIV on renal and endothelial function, in patients with chronic or acute respiratory failure. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a longitudinal, prospective, interventional study. We enrolled 17 hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients (11 males) with indication to NIV and stable hemodynamic parameters. Patients were treated with NIV and followed up at T0, at T1 (at the end of the NIV cycle) and at T2 (fifteen days after). RESULTS: 17 patients (11 males) with a mean age of 71.94 ± 14.89 years were enrolled. A significant increase in flow mediated dilation (FMD) was found (p = 0.004). We showed a significant improvement, after NIV, in the values of pH (p = 0.0002), pCO2 (p = 0.0001), pO2 (p = 0.04), lactates (p = 0.04), sO2 (p = 0.02) and in the P/F Ratio (p = 0.004). We also showed a significant reduction of serum glucose (p = 0.01) and a significant increase of serum chlorine (p = 0.047), while we did not report a significant increase of creatinine (p = 0.297) or a significant change in diuresis. CONCLUSIONS: In our study NIV has no significant effects on renal function in patients with respiratory failure. Probably these patients required low PEEP values, which were less harmful to lung parenchyma and not effective on systemic hemodynamic. Furthermore, NIV has improved endothelial function in the short term, likely by reducing oxidative stress, as improvements of the gas-analysis parameters showed. Therefore, NIV could help to reduce cardiovascular risk of patients improving endothelial function.

Strong and parallel salinity-induced phenotypic plasticity in one generation of threespine stickleback.

Phenotypic plasticity is a major factor contributing to variation of organisms in nature, yet its evolutionary significance is insufficiently understood. One example system where plasticity might have played an important role in an adaptive radiation is the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a fish that has diversified after invading freshwater lakes repeatedly from the marine habitat. The parallel phenotypic changes that occurred in this radiation were extremely rapid. This study evaluates phenotypic plasticity in stickleback body shape in response to salinity in fish stemming from a wild freshwater population. Using a split-clutch design, we detected surprisingly large phenotypically plastic changes in body shape after one generation. Fish raised in salt water developed shallower bodies and longer jaws, and these changes were consistent and parallel across families. Although this work highlights the effect of phenotypic plasticity, we also find indications that constraints may play a role in biasing the direction of possible phenotypic change. The slopes of the allometric relationship of individual linear traits did not change across treatments, indicating that plastic change does not affect the covariation of traits with overall size. We conclude that stickleback have a large capacity for plastic phenotypic change in response to salinity and that plasticity and evolutionary constraints have likely contributed to the phenotypic diversification of these fish.

Adaptation and constraint in a stickleback radiation.

The evolution of threespine sticklebacks in freshwater lakes constitutes a well-studied example of a phenotypic radiation that has produced numerous instances of parallel evolution, but the exact selective agents that drive these changes are not yet fully understood. We present a comparative study across 74 freshwater populations of threespine stickleback in Norway to test whether evolutionary changes in stickleback morphology are consistent with adaptations to physical parameters such as lake depth, lake area, lake perimeter and shoreline complexity, variables thought to reflect different habitats and feeding niches. Only weak indications of adaptation were found. Instead, populations seem to have diversified in phenotypic directions consistent with allometric scaling relationships. This indicates that evolutionary constraints may have played a role in structuring phenotypic variation across freshwater populations of stickleback. We also tested whether the number of lateral plates evolved in response to lake calcium levels, but found no evidence for this hypothesis.

Relación entre el largo del fémur fetal y la edad gestacional en la población Venezolana: estudio ultrasonográfico de 1465 casos / Relationship between of the fetal femur lenght and gestational age in Venezuelan population: ultrasonographic study of 1465 cases

Em 1.465 pacientes embarazadas, representando una sección transversal de la población venezolana, se estudió el largo del fémur desde la l4ª hasta la 41ª semana de gestación y se contruyó una curva de crecimiento del mismo, que repite la tendencia general observada en la literatura mundial, pero presenta, respecto a éstas, una mayor dispersión de los valores al comienzo del embarazo. La curva de la desviación estandard presenta luego un decurso paralelo al promedio y no es sino a la 38ª semana cuando muestra una moderada abertura alcanzando valores comparables a los de la literatura. Se discuten las causas que puedan explicar esta diferencia

[Cystic glandular hyperplasia of endometrium associated with intramural adenomyosis - singular results following progestational therapy]. / Iperplasia ghiandolare cistica dell'endometrio associata con adenomiosi intramurale-singolare risposta con trattamento progestinico.

In this report Authors point out two singular cases of marked progestational changes of stroma and glands in adenomyotic foci. They were two 65 years' old women to whom gestonorone caproato was administered for cystic glandular hyperplasia of endometrium hystologically seen.