Arch Med Sci
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Urinary incontinence in the general population occurs in 7% of non-pregnant women under 39 years old, 17% of those 40 to 59 years old, and 23-32% of those over 60 years old. In athletes the prevalence is higher, especially in high-impact training and gravity sports. Pelvic floor muscles (PFM) have two important roles; they serve as the support for abdominal organs and are crucial for closure of the urethra, vagina and rectum. ⋯ Pelvic floor sonography is discussed as the only objective method for pelvic floor examination among sportswomen and a tool which should be used routinely by urophysiotherapists and urogynecologists. A multidisciplinary individualized approach to stress urinary incontinence among athletes is presented including: physiotherapy, diagnostic imaging, use of a pessary, tampons, pharmacologic and surgical treatment. We present guidelines for stress urinary incontinence treatment in sportswomen of different age.
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Adequate analgosedation is important in infants treated in pediatric/neonatal intensive care units (P/NICUs), because both too deep and insufficient analgosedation is disadvantageous. To assess the severity of pain, several behavioral and behavioral-physiological scales are used, but their usefulness is limited. It is therefore justified to search for additional methods to assess the adequacy of analgosedation in these patients. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the usefulness of Newborn Infant Parasympathetic Evaluation (NIPE) in the assessment of analgosedation quality in infants requiring mechanical ventilation, who are treated in P/NICUs. ⋯ The NIPE indexes are significantly higher in patients whose assessment on the behavioral scale indicates deep analgosedation as compared to those in whom it indicates moderate or insufficient analgosedation. Allowing continuous monitoring, the NIPE device may be a valuable assisting tool in the assessment of analgosedation quality in mechanically ventilated newborns and infants.
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Due to the lack of highly specific and sensitive methods for diagnosing ovarian cancer at advanced stages (according to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) classification stage III-IV), new noninvasive biomarkers are urgently needed. This study aims to investigate how the levels of plasma bioactive sphingolipids (ceramides, sphingosine-1-phosphate, sphingosine and sphinganine) are altered in serum, erythrocytes and platelets of patients with advanced serous ovarian cancer. ⋯ Plasma concentrations of C16, C18.1 and C18 correlated with the progression of ovarian cancer (FIGO staging and grading). Plasma levels of C16-Cer and C18:1-Cer and erythrocyte C18:1-Cer levels could be used to distinguish patients with advanced serous ovarian cancer.
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With the implementation of the universal two-child policy, the number of pregnant women of advanced maternal age (AMA) will increase steadily. We aimed to investigate whether the effect of gestational weight gain on insulin resistance (IR) before delivery was mediated by serum adipokine concentrations in AMA. ⋯ Taken together, our findings suggest that the relationship between WG during the third trimester and IR was mediated by serum leptin concentrations in AMA, but not serum adiponectin concentrations.
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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Despite the therapeutic advances in HCC in the past few decades, the mortality rate of HCC is still high. Hepatitis C (HCV) infection is one of the major etiological risk factors of HCCs. However, the underlying mechanisms of HCV-induced hepatocarcinogenesis remain largely unclear. ⋯ We believe that this study can provide novel potential therapeutic and prognostic biomarkers for HCV-positive HCC.