All Articles in december, 2019

The main disturbing situation faced by any individual is obesity nowadays. Obesity occurs because of overweight and this has several reasons to gain weight like hereditary, diabetes, diet, aging, PCOS in women, stress, and tiredness. It is a major, sustaining, worsening condition of energy regulation with severe hereditary and early life natural causes. However, there are ways that we can treat obesity, but the complication emerges with the side effects. One way of treating obese by using lifestyle intervention involving exercise, maintaining a proper diet, and pharmacotherapy. Following this method does not affect much as mostly it includes lifestyle intervention. However, by using lifestyle intervention we could reduce weight to a certain extent only.

Parry-Romberg syndrome is an uncommon condition, self-limiting with slow progressive hemifacial atrophy. This syndrome can lead to several progressive congenital and developmental deformities. It can cause severe facial asymmetry and subsequently lead to esthetic and psychological problems and adversely affect patient’s quality of life, so its treatment holds great importance. Still, there is no exact treatment protocol for this disease, treatment approaches are bounded and patient’s response to the treatment is imponderable. However, most of the patients can benefit from conservative treatments. In this paper, we have reported a moderate case of Parry-Romberg syndrome, with no familial history of any syndromes. We also have discussed about present anomalies and the steps of exerted conservative treatments.

The role of human papillomavirus infection as etiological factor for cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions and cervical cancer is well established. However, the presence of this virus is not sufficient condition for developing of cervical cancer. Currently, the contribution of other viral, environmental and host cofactors in triggering of this neoplasm is being investigated. Some metabolic risk factors have been associated with the development of several gynecological cancers such as endometrium, ovary and cervix. However, the mechanisms through which these factors contribute to carcinogenesis are complex and not fully elucidated. Few interventions regarding host metabolic factors have been performed on women at risk of developing cervical cancer. Some specific treatments and or changes in lifestyles could be carried out to avoid or delay progression to this kind of cancer. This paper aims to enlarge and update this topic based on the article ¨Association between components of the metabolic syndrome and degree of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions in Cuban women¨, with emphasis on possible mechanisms that explain the link between central adiposity, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia with risk of premalignant lesions and cervical cancer. 

Objective: The liver is the second most common site of distant metastases from breast cancer. We investigated the risk factor liver metastasis in patients with breast cancer. Methods: We studied Age, Menopausal status, Histologic Type, Tumor size, Number of cancerous axillary lymph nodes, in two groups with liver metastases with logistic regression to identify independent liver metastasis risk factors in breast cancer patients. Results: Age, menopausal status, number of cancerous axillary lymph nodes and tumor size are the independent risk factors liver metastases in patients with breast cancer. Conclusion: The increase number of cancerous axillary lymph nodes and tumor size may be diagnostic markers for liver metastases from breast cancer.

In this article different numerical techniques for solving optimal control problems is introduced, the aim of this paper is to achieve the best accuracy for the Optimal Control Problem (OCP) which has the objective of minimizing the size of tumor cells by the end of the treatment. An important aspect is considered, which is, the optimal concentrations of drugs that not affect the patient’s health significantly. To study the behavior of tumor growth, a mathematical model is used to simulate the dynamic behavior of tumors since it is difficult to prototype dynamic behavior of the tumor. A tumor-immune model with four components, namely, tumor cells, active cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs), helper T-cells, and a chemotherapeutic drug is used. Two general categories of optimal control methods which are indirect methods and direct ones based on nonlinear programming solvers and interior point algorithms are compared. Within the direct optimal control techniques, we review three different solutions techniques namely (i) multiple shooting methods, (ii) trapezoidal direct collocation method, (iii) Hermit- Simpson’s collocation method and within the indirect methods we review the Pontryagin’s Maximum principle with both collocation method and the backward forward sweep method. Results show that the direct methods achieved better control than indirect methods.

 62-year-old female with a history of arterial hypertension, attended the emergency department due to pain in the left flank. On physical examination no showed signs of peritoneal irritation. Urinalysis was indicated, that reported microscopic hematuria and negative abdominal ultrasound.

Background: With the advancement of cell therapy research, there is an increasing need for healthy volunteers (HV) to donate small volumes (30 ml) of human bone marrow (BM). The BM procedure required to procure small volumes is invasive, although short-lived (25 seconds), is not without risk. To ensure a sustainable supply of BM for research and cell therapy, greater information of the risks and factors that motivate HV to donate small volumes of BM will help optimize the procedure and HV enrolment, ensuring donors are fully informed of the potential risks. Objective: To identify the adverse events (AE) experienced by HV during and after small volume BM procedure and understand the motivating factors that influence HV to donate BM for research. Method: HV (n = 55) who donated BM (30 ml) for scientific research and provided informed consent were administered a questionnaire to identify the type, duration and severity of AE experienced during and post-BM aspiration; and to determine the motivating factors that influenced their willingness to donate BM. Results: Pain was experienced by 89% of participants during the BM procedure with moderate grade reported by 40%. One/more of the following AE were experienced by 73% of the volunteers post-BM procedure: pain, fatigue, site reaction, nausea and transient hypotension. AE resolved within an average of three days. The reported motivational factors ranked in the following order: first, to advance research for the benefit of future patients; compensation for participation; free medical check-up; lastly, the research question was interesting. Conclusion: Young HV, motivated primarily by altruism and financial compensation, risk the occurrence of transient AE following donation of small-volume BM for research.