Search results for "Potential"

Murine genetic deficiency of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS-/-) and interstitial cells of Cajal (W/Wv): Implications for achalasia?

2014

Background and aim Nitric oxide (NO) is an important inhibitory mediator of esophageal function, and its lack leads to typical features of achalasia. In contrast, the role of intramuscular interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC-IM) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in lower esophageal sphincter (LES) function is still controversial. Therefore, we examined the function and morphology of the LES in vivo in NO-deficient (nNOS(-/-) ), ICC-IM-deficient (W/W(v) )-, and wild-type (WT) mice. Methods Esophageal manometry was performed with a micro-sized transducer catheter to quantify LES pressure, swallow evoked LES relaxation, and esophageal body motility. The LES morphology was examined by semiqu…

A Semi-automatic Multi-seed Region-Growing Approach for Uterine Fibroids Segmentation in MRgFUS Treatment

2013

Fibroids are benign tumors growing in the uterus. Most of fibroids do not require treatment unless they are causing symptoms. Traditional surgery treatments, like myomectomy and hysterectomy, are very invasive therapeutic approaches which not always preserves reproductive potential of the woman. MRgFUS, performed with Insightec ExAblate 2100 equipment, is a new and noninvasive technique for uterine fibroids treatment, not requiring hospitalization and recovery time for patients. An initial assessment of MRgFUS treatment is made by computing the ablated volume of uterine fibroid. In this paper a semi-automatic approach, based on region-growing segmentation technique, is proposed. The impleme…

Detrimental noise effects on brain's speech functions.

2009

Background noise has become part of our everyday life in modern societies. Its presence affects both the ability to concentrate and communicate. Some individuals, like children, the elderly, and non-native speakers have pronounced problems in noisy environments. Here we review evidence suggesting that background noise has both transient and Sustained detrimental effects on central speech processing. Studies on the effects of noise on neural processes have demonstrated hemispheric reorganization in speech processing in adult individuals during background noise. During noise, the well-known left hemisphere dominance in speech discrimination became right hemisphere preponderant. Furthermore, l…

Psychophysical and electrofunctional contrast sensitivity in cataractous patients treated with bendazac-lysine salt

1990

The clinical progression of the cataract may be influenced by drugs which reduce the denaturation of lens proteins. One of the most promising drugs is the bendazac-lysine salt. The drug was used in a double-blind study of a group of patients with initial cortical cataract in order to evaluate the changes in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity by means of a psychophysical and an electrophysiological method. After 6 months of treatment with bendazac the mean values of visual acuity showed a statistically significant increase in respect to baseline values, as well as an improvement of the threshold of contrast for most spatial frequencies. In the eyes treated with placebo there was no stati…

Potential Risks and Factors of Women’s Health Promotion

2020

In addition to diseases shared by both sexes, there are a number of illnesses and injuries that are primarily associated with women [...]

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway: A potential mechanism involved in PAFIYAMA syndrome?

2016

Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) measured at birth predict later language development in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

2005

We report associations between brain event-related potentials (ERPs) measured from newborns with and without familial risk for dyslexia and these same children's later language and verbal memory skills at 2.5, 3.5, and 5 years of age. ERPs to synthetic consonant-vowel syllables (/ba/, /da/, /ga/; presented equiprobably with 3,910-7,285 msec interstimulus intervals) were recorded from 26 newborns at risk for familial dyslexia and 23 control infants participating in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. The correlation and regression analyses showed that the at-risk type of response pattern at birth (a slower shift in polarity from positivity to negativity in responses to /ga/ at 540-…

Lysine triggers apoptosis through a NADPH oxidase-dependent mechanism in human renal tubular cells

2012

Progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in lysinuric protein intolerance (LPI), a primary inherited aminoaciduria characterized by massive Lysine excretion in urine. However, by which mechanisms Lysine may cause kidney damage to tubule cells is still not understood. This study determined whether Lysine overloading of human proximal tubular cells (HK-2) in culture enhances apoptotic cell loss and its associated mechanisms. Overloading HK-2 with Lysine levels reproducing those observed in urine of patients affected by LPI (10 mM) increased apoptosis (+30%; p < 0.01 vs.C), as well as Bax and Apaf-1 expressions (+30-50% p < 0.05), while downregulated Bcl-2 (-40% p < 0.05). Apoptosis …

Differential effects of MDMA and cocaine on inhibitory avoidance and object recognition tests in rodents.

2017

Introduction Drug addiction continues being a major public problem faced by modern societies with different social, health and legal consequences for the consumers. Consumption of psychostimulants, like cocaine or MDMA (known as ecstasy) are highly prevalent and cognitive and memory impairments have been related with the abuse of these drugs. Aim The aim of this work was to review the most important data of the literature in the last 10 years about the effects of cocaine and MDMA on inhibitory avoidance and object recognition tests in rodents. Development: The object recognition and the inhibitory avoidance tests are popular procedures used to assess different types of memory. We compare th…

Novel non-invasive Adjunctive Techniques for Early Oral Cancer Diagnosis and Oral Lesions Examination

2012

Oral cancer is a potentially fatal disease with an increasing incidence and an unchanged 5-year mortality rate. Unfortunately, oral cancer is often still late diagnosed, which leads to an increase in the likelihood of functional impairment due to treatment and mortality rate. Definitive diagnosis of oral cancer must be confirmed by scalpel biopsy and histological assessment. However despite its benefits, scalpel biopsy is invasive and it is burdened by a potential morbidity. Furthermore, previous studies have suggested a high degree of intraobserver and interobserver variability regarding the histological evaluation of malignancy. As a consequence, in recent years there has been a growing a…