Arch Med Sci
-
Mortality from variceal bleeding remains high despite the therapeutic progress in severe cirrhosis. Understanding the predictive factors of failure to control bleeding (FTB) and mortality will lead to better future therapies. Comorbidities are thought to be important prognostic factors for variceal bleeding. The aim of the study was to assess the factors associated with FTB and with 42-day mortality and to evaluate the influence of comorbidities on these patients' prognosis. ⋯ The severity of cirrhosis is an important prognostic factor for FTB and 42-day mortality. Identifying the factors associated with early mortality may help selecting patients needing more than conventional therapy.
-
More than half of the world's population is infected with Helicobacter pylori, which may cause gastritis, peptic ulcer and even gastric cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that H. pylori infection is a class I carcinogen and hence eradication of it is highly important. Bovine milk contains caseins, which can be digested by various enzymes in the human stomach to produce antibacterial peptides. ⋯ This study identified the anti-H. pylori effects of casecidin 17 and β-casein 207-224, which may help in developing therapeutic agents to modulate the effect of antibiotics on H. pylori infections.
-
A single measurement of any biomarker may not reflect its full biological meaning. The kinetics of fibrosis-linked microRNAs and their relationship with extracellular matrix (ECM) fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) have not been explored. ⋯ Regardless of ECM fibrosis status or duration of the disease, 12-month patterns of circulating microRNAs are similar in DCM. Correlations between microRNAs, measured at 3 and 12 months, are lower than expected. In this study, regardless of the time point, circulating microRNAs were not able to differentiate between DCM patients with versus without fibrosis.
-
Cardiac rehabilitation is a component of heart failure (HF) management, but its effect on ventricular arrhythmias is not well understood. We analyzed the antiarrhythmic effect of a 9-week hybrid comprehensive telerehabilitation (HCTR) program and its influence on long-term cardiovascular mortality in HF patients taken from the TELEREHabilitation in Heart Failure Patients (TELEREH-HF) trial. ⋯ Significant improvement in physical capacity after 9 weeks of HCTR did not correlate with the antiarrhythmic effect in terms of incidence of nsVT or PVCs ≥ 10. An antiarrhythmic effect after the 9-week HCTR affected long-term cardiovascular mortality in HF patients.
-
There is an urgent need to find novel stable cell-free fetal (cff-) RNA in the maternal circulation to facilitate the advance of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) to more effectively avoid birth defects. ⋯ We demonstrated the presence of cff-circRNA in the maternal circulation, which may shed new light on the development of NIPT.