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Topic Review
Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis for Pregnant
Pregnancy is a time of significant changes occurring in the composition of a woman’s body in order to provide support for the growth and development of the fetus. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is used to assess the body composition and hydration status. This technique represents a non-invasive, reliable, and fast clinical approach, which is well tolerated by patients. A segmental impedance measurement might be advantageous in pregnant women, particularly in late pregnancy.
  • 631
  • 25 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Cardiovascular Risk Factors on the Course of COVID-19
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is spreading around the world and becoming a major public health crisis. All coronaviruses are known to affect the cardiovascular system. There is a strong correlation between cardiovascular risk factors and severe clinical complications, including death in COVID-19 patients. All the above-mentioned risk factors are widespread and constitute a significant worldwide health problem. Some of them are modifiable and the awareness of their connection with the COVID-19 progress may have a crucial impact on the current and possible upcoming infection.
  • 630
  • 11 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Hypoxia (Medical)
Hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level. Hypoxia may be classified as either generalized, affecting the whole body, or local, affecting a region of the body. Although hypoxia is often a pathological condition, variations in arterial oxygen concentrations can be part of the normal physiology, for example, during hypoventilation training or strenuous physical exercise. Hypoxia differs from hypoxemia and anoxemia in that hypoxia refers to a state in which oxygen supply is insufficient, whereas hypoxemia and anoxemia refer specifically to states that have low or zero arterial oxygen supply. Hypoxia in which there is complete deprivation of oxygen supply is referred to as anoxia. Generalized hypoxia occurs in healthy people when they ascend to high altitude, where it causes altitude sickness leading to potentially fatal complications: high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). Hypoxia also occurs in healthy individuals when breathing mixtures of gases with a low oxygen content, e.g. while diving underwater especially when using closed-circuit rebreather systems that control the amount of oxygen in the supplied air. Mild, non-damaging intermittent hypoxia is used intentionally during altitude training to develop an athletic performance adaptation at both the systemic and cellular level. In acute or silent hypoxia, a person's oxygen level in blood cells and tissue can drop without any initial warning, even though the individual's chest x-ray shows diffuse pneumonia with an oxygen level below normal. Doctors report cases of silent hypoxia with COVID-19 patients who did not experience shortness of breath or coughing until their oxygen levels had plummeted to such a degree that the patients risked acute respiratory distress (ARDS) and organ failure. In a The New York Times opinion piece (April 20, 2020), emergency room doctor Richard Levitan reports: "A vast majority of Covid pneumonia patients I met had remarkably low oxygen saturations at triage—seemingly incompatible with life—but they were using their cellphones as we put them on monitors." Hypoxia is a common complication of preterm birth in newborn infants. Because the lungs develop late in pregnancy, premature infants frequently possess underdeveloped lungs. To improve lung function, doctors frequently place infants at risk of hypoxia inside incubators (also known as humidicribs) that provide warmth, humidity, and oxygen. More serious cases are treated with CPAP. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza in recognition of their discovery of cellular mechanisms to sense and adapt to different oxygen concentrations, establishing a basis for how oxygen levels affect physiological function.
  • 629
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Extracellular Vesicles in Cancer Nanomedicine
Fast diagnosis and more efficient therapies for cancer surely represent one of the huge tasks for the worldwide researchers’ and clinicians’ community. In the last two decades, our understanding of the biology and molecular pathology of cancer mechanisms, coupled with the continuous development of the material science and technological compounds, have successfully improved nanomedicine applications in oncology. 
  • 627
  • 24 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Natural Compounds and Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer (PCa) represents a major cause of cancer mortality among men in developed countries. Patients with recurrent disease initially respond to androgen-deprivation therapy, but the tumor eventually progresses into castration-resistant PCa; in this condition, tumor cells acquire the ability to escape cell death and develop resistance to current therapies. Thus, new therapeutic approaches for PCa management are urgently needed. In this setting, natural products have been extensively studied for their anti-PCa activities, such as tumor growth suppression, cell death induction, and inhibition of metastasis and angiogenesis.
  • 626
  • 04 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Catheter Ablation in Treating Persistent Atrial Fibrillation
Catheter Ablation (CA) is an effective therapeutic option in treating atrial fibrillation (AF). Persistent AF represents the advanced stage during the progression of AF. “AF begets AF” is recognized as a main mechanism for the persistence of AF: a complex situation involving triggers and substrate (i.e., structural, electrical, and autonomic remodeling). Previous meta-analysis of RCTs including 809 persistent AF patients (mean age 60 years, mean LAD 46 mm) has already shown that PVI based CA is superior to AADs in preventing recurrence of atrial tachyarrhythmia among patients with persistent AF.
  • 625
  • 12 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Vitamin D—Practical Considerations and Clinical Guidance
Empirical evidence establishes the connection between exposure and clinical outcomes. Clinical studies show that chronic diseases and infections can be prevented by proactively correcting vitamin D deficiency in individuals who are vitamin D deficient, and in the community. In RCTs, with proper daily or once-a-week vitamin D supplementation in the intervention group, the serum 25(OH)D concentration must be meaningfully increased to the above pre-planned level to ensure the validity of the clinical study. Clinical outcomes correlate well with the serum 25(OH)D concentrations but not necessarily with the administered doses. It is a common error by researchers and healthcare workers to assume that the amount taken automatically produces the stipulated serum levels.
  • 624
  • 01 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Diabetic Patients
Roughly 3% of patients worldwide with a new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) already have an overt nephropathy at diagnosis and about 20–30% of the remaining ones develop a complication of this kind later in life. The early identification of kidney disease in diabetic patients is important as it slows its progression, which is important not only because this reduces the need for renal replacement therapy, but also because it decreases the high rate of mortality and morbidity associated with a reduction in kidney function. 
  • 623
  • 16 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Primary Aldosteronism
Primary aldosteronism, mainly caused by aldosterone producing adenomas or bilateral adrenal hyperplasia,  is the most common cause of endocrine hypertension. Information on the role of transcriptomics, epigenetics and metabolomics in the pathophysiology of this disease is summarized herein.
  • 622
  • 23 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Viral Vector-Based Melanoma Gene Therapy
Gene therapy applications of oncolytic viruses represent an attractive alternative for cancer treatment. A broad range of oncolytic viruses, including adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, alphaviruses, herpes simplex viruses, retroviruses, lentiviruses, rhabdoviruses, reoviruses, measles virus, Newcastle disease virus, picornaviruses and poxviruses, have been used in diverse preclinical and clinical studies for the treatment of various diseases, including colon, head-and-neck, prostate and breast cancer as well as squamous cell carcinoma and glioma. The majority of studies have focused on immunotherapy and several drugs based on viral vectors have been approved. However, gene therapy for malignant melanoma based on viral vectors has not been utilized to its full potential yet.
  • 619
  • 30 Jun 2021
Topic Review
HDAC Inhibitors and Prostate Cancer
Novel treatment regimens are required for castration-resistant prostate cancers (CRPCs) that become unresponsive to standard treatments, such as docetaxel and enzalutamide. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors showed promising results in hematological malignancies, but they failed in solid tumors such as prostate cancer, despite the overexpression of HDACs in CRPC. Four HDAC inhibitors, vorinostat, pracinostat, panobinostat and romidepsin, underwent phase II clinical trials for prostate cancers; however, phase III trials were not recommended due to a majority of patients exhibiting either toxicity or disease progression. In this entry, the pharmacodynamic reasons for the failure of HDAC inhibitors were assessed and placed in the context of the advancements in the understanding of CRPCs, HDACs and resistance mechanisms. 
  • 619
  • 01 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Pathophysiology of Septic Cardiomyopathy
Septic cardiomyopathy may be broadly defined as an acute cardiac dysfunction unrelated to ischemia that manifests in different ways: arrhythmias, left and/or right ventricular impairment during systole or diastole, with or without reduction in cardiac output. Endothelial, metabolic, and immune response abnormalities are generally involved in the pathogenesis of ventricular dysfunction and arrhythmias during sepsis, whereas the potential role of myocardial ischemia seems limited. Impaired blood flow autoregulation in coronary microcirculation and altered metabolism of lactate, free fatty acid, and glucose likely play a leading role. 
  • 617
  • 14 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Nrf2 and NF-κB for Cancer
Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) and NF-κB (nuclear factor–kappa B) signaling pathways play a central role in suppressing or inducing inflammation and angiogenesis processes. Therefore, they are involved in many steps of carcinogenesis through cooperation with multiple signaling molecules and pathways. Targeting both transcription factors simultaneously may be considered an equally important strategy for cancer chemoprevention and therapy.
  • 616
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Intrinsic Kidney Pathology Following COVID-19 Infection in Children
COVID-19 infections resulting in pathological kidney manifestations have frequently been reported in adults since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019. Gradually, there have been an increased number of COVID-19-associated intrinsic kidney pathologies in children and adolescents reported as well. The pathophysiological mechanisms between COVID-19 and the onset of kidney pathology are not fully known in children; it remains a challenge to distinguish between intrinsic kidney pathologies that were caused directly by COVID-19 viral invasion, and cases which occurred as a result of multisystem inflammatory syndrome due to the infection. 
  • 616
  • 20 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Bone Health in Patients with Dyslipidemias
Despite the high heterogeneity and the variable quality of evidence, dyslipidemia, mainly high TC and LDL-C and, to a lesser extent, TG concentrations, seems to be associated with low bone mass and increased fracture risk. This detrimental effect may be mediated directly through the increased oxidative stress and systemic inflammation that dyslipidemia is associated with, leading to increased osteoclastic activity and reduced bone formation, or through the atherosclerotic process, which affects bone’s vascularization. Other mechanisms, such as low estrogen, vitamin D and K status, and increased concentrations of PTH, homocysteine, and lipid oxidation products, may also contribute to this interplay. Regarding the effect of lipid-lowering therapy on bone metabolism, statins may slightly increase BMD, with a tendency to reduce fracture risk as shown in case-control and cohort studies, although available RCTs have not shown any effect of statins on fracture risk. This is also the case for omega-3 FA, whereas inconsistent or insufficient evidence exists for other commonly used lipid-lowering medications, such as ezetimibe, fibrates, and niacin. There is an exigent need for prospective, well-designed studies in males and females to elaborate on the putative association between lipids and bone strength.
  • 613
  • 14 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Gestalt Practice
Gestalt Practice is a contemporary form of personal exploration and integration developed by Dick Price at the Esalen Institute. The objective of the practice is to become more fully aware of the process of living within a unified field of body, mind, relationship, earth and spirit. Gestalt is a German word that denotes form, shape or configuration, and connotes wholeness. Practice is an ongoing program or process of development. Gestalt Practice is an ongoing process of integrating human awareness across a broad spectrum of consciousness. Initially, Gestalt was used as a psychological term in Gestalt psychology. Then Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman applied it to psychotherapy when they developed Gestalt therapy, upon which Gestalt Practice was partially based. Alan Watts, who was a mentor of Dick Price, suggested combining practices from the cultures of East and West. The writings of Nyanaponika Thera and the nearby presence of Zen Roshi Shunryu Suzuki[notes 1] were sources of Buddhist meditation practice for Price. Gestalt Practice was the term he used to describe his combination of these Eastern and Western traditions. This term distinguished the practice Price taught from both Gestalt therapy and Buddhist practice.:172
  • 613
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Brief Introduction
Nearly a billion adults around the world are affected by a disease that is characterized by upper airway collapse while sleeping called obstructive sleep apnea or OSA. The progression and lasting effects of untreated OSA include an increased risk of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, stroke, and heart failure. There is often a decrease in quality-of-life scores and an increased rate of mortality in these patients. 
  • 611
  • 17 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy
The cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) is a talking therapy, a synthesis model of interpersonal and cognitive and behavioral therapies developed (and patented) by James P. McCullough Jr [2000, 2006] of Virginia Commonwealth University specifically for the treatment of all varieties of DSM-IV chronic depression. CBASP is often mistakenly labeled a variant of cognitive therapy (CT) or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) but it is not. McCullough writes that chronic depression (i.e., depressive disorder in adults that lasts continuously for two or more years; one year continuously in adolescents), particularly the type beginning during adolescence (early-onset), is essentially a refractory "mood disorder" arising from traumatic experiences or interpersonal psychological insults delivered by the patient's significant others (nuclear or extended family). The chronic depression mood disorder, at the core, is fueled by a generalized fear of others resulting in a lifetime history of interpersonal avoidance. The disorder rarely remits without proper treatment. Some basic assumptions underlying McCullough's approach to chronic depression and its treatment as a mood disorder are briefly described below.
  • 611
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Dyslipidemia
Dyslipidemia is a significant threat to public health worldwide and the identification of its pathogenic mechanisms, as well as novel lipid-lowering agents, are warranted. Magnesium (Mg) is a key element to human health and its deficiency has been linked to the development of lipid abnormalities and related disorders, such as the metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, or cardiovascular disease.
  • 610
  • 07 May 2021
Topic Review
Biological Clock in Liver Cancer
The biological clock controls at the molecular level several aspects of mammalian physiology, by regulating daily oscillations of crucial biological processes such as nutrient metabolism in the liver. Disruption of the circadian clock circuitry has recently been identified as an independent risk factor for cancer and classified as a potential group 2A carcinogen to humans. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the prevailing histological type of primary liver cancer, one of the most important causes of cancer-related death worldwide. HCC onset and progression is related to B and C viral hepatitis, alcoholic and especially non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)-related milieu of fibrosis, cirrhosis, and chronic inflammation.
  • 610
  • 13 Aug 2021
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