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Introduction A high level of surgical ability is required to perform endoscopic knot tying. Barbed sutures help in avoiding this procedure, thus reducing intraoperative time and lowering blood loss and hospitalization time when compared to traditional sutures. Some cases of bowel occlusion following the use of barbed sutures have been described in literature. All of them are characterized by the entanglement of an intestinal loop in wire barbs with bowel occlusion symptoms. Case Presentation We report two more cases which occurred in our Institute in 2020 and review those which have been reported in the literature by searching on Pubmed, Scopus, and Embase. We used the search terms “Barbed,” “Suture,” “Bowel,” and “Obstruction.” We examined in the literature the surgical procedures, the type of complications, the time to onset of the complications, and the type of barbed suture. Discussion Twenty-two cases in total were reported in the literature from 2011 to 2020, and bowel complications were largely subsequent to interventions such as hernia surgical repair and myomectomy. In order to take advantage of barbed sutures while minimizing the risk of adverse events, such as intestinal occlusion, some precautions may be considered, such as the shortening of thread tails and use of antiadhesive barriers. Moreover, performing a few stitches backwards when ending the suture might be a useful suggestion. Further studies in this field may be useful in order to assess whether it might be better avoiding barbed suture application on serosal tissues to prevent bowel damage.Patients often opt for implantation of testicular prostheses following orchidectomy for cancer or torsion. Recipients of testicular prostheses report issues regarding firmness, shape, size, and position, aspects of which relate to current limitations of silicone materials used and manufacturing methods for soft prostheses. We aim to create a 3D printable testicular prosthesis which mimics the natural shape and stiffness of a human testicle using a lattice infill structure. Porous testicular prostheses were engineered with relative densities from 0.1 to 0.9 using a repeating cubic unit cell lattice inside an anatomically accurate testicle 3D model. These models were printed using a multi-jetting process with an elastomeric material and compared with current market prostheses using shore hardness tests. Additionally, standard sized porous specimens were printed for compression testing to verify and match the stiffness to human testicle elastic modulus (E-modulus) values from literature. The resulting 3D printed testicular prosthesis of relative density between 0.3 and 0.4 successfully achieved a reduction of its bulk compressive E-modulus from 360 KPa to a human testicle at 28 Kpa. Additionally, this is the first study to quantitatively show that current commercial testicular prostheses are too firm compared to native tissue. 3D printing allows us to create metamaterials that match the properties of human tissue to create customisable patient specific prostheses. This method expands the use cases for existing biomaterials by tuning their properties and could be applied to other implants mimicking native tissues.Endurance athletes commonly experience lower gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms similar to those of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Previous research on the restriction of fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAP), a diet-based mitigation strategy initially developed for IBS, has shown promise for application in athlete populations. Athlete’s dietary strategies surrounding exercise have not been formally assessed in relation to FODMAP content of foods or sports nutrition products. Additionally, the FODMAP content of athlete’s habitual diets has not been examined in larger sample sizes. This research aims to investigate the FODMAP content of endurance athlete diets by examining these three areas, in conjunction with GI symptoms. Dietary habits surrounding exercise and GI symptoms were examined in 430 endurance athletes using a previously validated Endurance Athlete Questionnaire. A subset of athletes (n = 73) completed a FODMAP-specific food frequency questionnaire for habilow in FODMAP. Exploratory analyses showed higher intake of some FODMAP types among athletes exhibiting various lower GI symptoms. Overall, this study demonstrated that FODMAP intake by endurance athletes is high both surrounding exercise and habitually, and may be contributing to GI symptoms experienced during exercise. This information can be utilized when analyzing athlete diets and selecting foods to decrease GI symptoms.Background Clinical handovers have been identified as high-risk situations for medical treatment errors. It has been shown that handover checklists lead to a reduced rate of medical errors and mortality. However, the influence of handover checklists on essential patient outcomes such as prevalence of sepsis, mortality, and length of hospitalization has not yet been investigated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Objectives The aim of the present pilot study was to estimate the effect of two different handover checklists on the 48 h sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA) score and the feasibility of a respective clinical RCT. Methods Outcome parameters and feasibility were investigated implementing and comparing an intervention with a control checklist. Design Single center two-armed cluster randomized prospective crossover pilot study. Setting The study took place over three 1-month periods in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting at the University Hospital Aachen. Patients/Participants Data from nded for following RCTs, in which medical treatment errors should also be investigated as an additional variable. The use of control checklists is discouraged due to lower acceptance and compliance among healthcare practitioners. Measures should be undertaken to increase compliance with the use of checklists. Clinical outcome parameters should be carefully selected. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier [NCT03117088]. Registered April 14, 2017.Atherosclerosis can be originated from the accumulation of modified cholesterol-rich lipoproteins in the arterial wall. The electronegative LDL, LDL(-), plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis once this cholesterol-rich lipoprotein can be internalized by macrophages, contributing to the formation of foam cells, and provoking an immune-inflammatory response. Herein, we engineered a nanoformulation containing highly pure surface-functionalized nanocapsules using a single-chain fragment variable (scFv) reactive to LDL(-) as a ligand and assessed whether it can affect the LDL(-) uptake by primary macrophages and the progression of atherosclerotic lesions in Ldlr -/- mice. The engineered and optimized scFv-anti-LDL(-)-MCMN-Zn nanoformulation is internalized by human and murine macrophages in vitro by different endocytosis mechanisms. Moreover, macrophages exhibited lower LDL(-) uptake and reduced mRNA and protein levels of IL1B and MCP1 induced by LDL(-) when treated with this new nanoformulation. In a mouse model of atherosclerosis employing Ldlr -/- mice, intravenous administration of scFv-anti-LDL(-)-MCMN-Zn nanoformulation inhibited atherosclerosis progression without affecting vascular permeability or inducing leukocytes-endothelium interactions. Together, these findings suggest that a scFv-anti-LDL(-)-MCMN-Zn nanoformulation holds promise to be used in future preventive and therapeutic strategies for atherosclerosis.Replacement of fluconazole by echinocandins as the first-line therapy for yeast-related fungemia could have an impact on both the mortality rate and the epidemiology of yeast species responsible for candidemia. We analyzed the individual clinical and microbiological data collected through the active surveillance program on yeast fungemia (YEASTS program, 2004-2016, Paris area, France) within 14 University Hospitals. The cohort included 3,092 patients [malefemale ratio 1.56; median age 61.0 years (IQR 23.8)]. The mean mortality rate within 30 days was 38.5% (1,103/2,868) and significantly higher in intensive care units (690/1,358, 50.8%) than outside (413/1,510, 27.4%, p less then 0.0001) without significant change over time. The yeast species distribution [Candida albicans (n = 1,614, 48.0%), Candida glabrata (n = 607, 18.1%), Candida parapsilosis (n = 390, 11.6%), Candida tropicalis (n = 299, 8.9%), Candida krusei (n = 96, 2.9%), rare species (n = 357, 10.6%)], minimal inhibitory concentration distribution, and the distribution between the patient populations (hematological malignancies, solid tumors, without malignancy) did not change either while the proportion of patients ≥60-years increased from 48.7% (91/187) in 2004 to 56.8% (133/234) in 2017 (p = 0.0002). Fluconazole as first-line therapy dramatically decreased (64.4% in 2004 to 27.7% in 2017, p less then 0.0001) with a corresponding increase in echinocandins (11.6% in 2004 to 57.8% in 2017, p less then 0.0001). Survival rates did not differ according to the first antifungal therapy. The progressive replacement of fluconazole by echinocandins as the first-line antifungal therapy was not associated with change in global mortality, regardless of species involved and antifungal susceptibility profiles. Other factors remain to be uncovered to improve the prognosis of yeast fungemia.Objective To determine the trend of incidence rate of total knee arthroplasty (TKA), total hip arthroplasty (THA), and TKA or THA (major joint arthroplasty, MJA) among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) population and compared them with general population (GP) in Taiwan. Methods Incidence rates and trends of TKA, THA, and MJA were determined over a 14-year period (2000-2013) among RA patients and compared them with GP. RA of patients was diagnosed based on the ACR 1987 criteria and extracted from GP. Subanalyses of incidences of TKA, THA, and MJA by year, 10-year age group, and gender were further conducted for demographic analysis. MYCi361 in vitro Patient profiles were extracted from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) for interrupted time-series analysis and cohort studies. Results Patients enrolled were 168,457 receiving TKA, 64,543 receiving THA, and 228,191 receiving MJA surgery. Incidences of TKA, THA, and MJA in RA patients were significantly lower by 49.0, 41.5, and 41.0% compared with concomitantly rises in GP by 131.0, 25.1, and 90.0% among the GP during the study period. The dominant age population for TKA, THA, and MJA were those aged 70-79 years in both GP and RA groups. Conclusions We found an opposing trend in incidence of TKA, THA, and MJA between RA patients and the GP. The possible influence of pharmacological treatment is implicated for the lower incidence rates of TKA, THA, and MJA surgeries among RA patients.Platelets have recently emerged as important immune modulators in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), in addition to their role in thrombosis and cardiovascular disease. However, studies investigating mean platelet volume (MPV) in SLE are often scarce, conflicting and cross-sectional. In this study, MPV was measured in clinical routine throughout a defined time-period to quantify both individual MPV fluctuations and investigate if such variations are associated with disease activity and clinical phenotypes of SLE. Of our 212 patients, 34 patients had only one MPV value reported with the remaining 178 patients having between 2 and 19 visits with recorded MPV values. The intra-individual MPV variation was low, with a median variation of 0.7 fL. This was further supported by the finding that 84% of patients stayed within their reference interval category (i.e., small, normal or large) over time. In our cohort, no correlation between disease activity and MPV neither cross-sectionally nor longitudinally was found.