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Phentermine-Associated Atrial Fibrillation: A Case Report and Literature Review
Get PDFObesity has become a major public health problem with increased prevalence and is associated with cardiovascular mortality. Phentermine is approved for short-term obesity treatment in conjunction with lifestyle modifications. Palpitations are a well-documented side effect of phentermine, but atrial fibrillation (AF) is rarely reported. We present a case of new-onset AF in a healthy woman who had been recently started on phentermine for weight loss
Superficial Thrombophlebitis of the Penis following AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S Vaccination: A Rare Venous Thromboembolic Complication
Get PDFPenile Mondor’s disease is a rare condition characterised by superficial thrombophlebitis of the penis which is usually self-limiting. The cause is often unknown. The AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S vaccine has been found to cause a hypercoagulable state, which is well documented. This case report describes a man who presented with Mondor’s disease following ChAdOx1-S vaccination with no other risk factors
Swollen Finger – An Atypical Place for a Metastatic Lesion
Get PDFAcrometastasis, referring to metastases located distal to the elbow and knee, is a rare observation. The most common primary cancer site is the lungs, followed by colorectal, breast and genitourinary tract locations.We present a case of a 54-year-old woman with a 25-pack-year smoking history, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and squamous cell carcinoma of the lung diagnosed at age 50. Upon physical examination, in the distal phalanx of the fourth finger of the right hand, there was a hypervascularized swelling, purplish and painful. Distal amputation of the fourth finger was performed with pathological anatomy compatible with acrometastasis of primary squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. Clinicians should be aware of this type of metastasis because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish from tuberculous dactylitis and other types of osteomyelitis in patients with undiagnosed cancer. The presence of acrometastasis confers a poor prognosis
A Trilogy of Submassive Pulmonary Embolism, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Brain Metastasis, Kartagener’s Syndrome and its Management with Aspiration Thrombectomy
Get PDFVenous thromboembolism is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in cancer patients. Given the bleeding risks, determining treatment for malignancy-related thrombosis is challenging, especially in the case of submassive pulmonary embolism (PE) because the risk-benefit ratio in terms of bleeding risk is uncertain. Here we discuss the case of a 53-year-old man with Kartagener syndrome with situs inversus totalis and stage IV non-small cell lung cancer with a recent brain mass resection, presenting with dyspnoea and palpitations. The patient was diagnosed with a submassive PE and only underwent suction thrombectomy through the left internal jugular vein with excellent response. In conclusion, when treating submassive PE, aspiration thrombectomy without thrombolysis is preferable to thrombolysis, which may be contraindicated due to the higher risk of bleeding
Triple-Valve Infective Endocarditis: A Case with Unusual Features
Get PDFInfective endocarditis is a condition associated with high morbidity and mortality, usually with univalvular involvement. We describe the case of a 76-year-old woman with triple-valve endocarditis due to Streptococcus gallolyticus, complicated by perivalvular suppurative lesions, acute heart failure and acute kidney injury. Unfortunately, the patient died despite antibiotic therapy and emergent surgery. This case highlights uncommon triple-valve involvement in the absence of risk factors, posing a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge
Investigating nanoscale chromatin alterations involved in neuroblastoma transformation by optical nanoscopy
No full textNeuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood and is characterized by remarkable heterogeneity. This work aims to characterize changes in chromatin nanoscale architecture being associated with NB
transformation. We employed an NB cell line overexpressing the non-coding RNA NDM29, which promotes cell differentiation toward a neuronal phenotype. The nuclear shape, volume and architecture were assessed in both malignant and neuronlike cells by confocal microscopy. Moreover, heterochromatin and euchromatin organization was investigated by stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. The results showed that the nuclei of neuron-like cells have a reduced volume and a more elongated shape compared to those of malignant cells and a different spatial
arrangement of euchromatin and heterochromatin. Altogether these data point to an alteration of nuclear organization associated to NB, paving the way towards a better comprehension of the disease
Graphene functionalization for gas sensing applications
No full text2D materials show unique physical and chemical properties which can be exploited in several applications, including chemical gas sensors. Among the 2D materials, graphene has attracted particular interest, especially as a sensing element to detect and monitor concentration of different gases. Nevertheless, pristine graphene does not show remarkable performances as a gas sensor, and functionalization is often required to improve its sensing capability
Measurement of fundamental physical quantities in the framework of the Lab2Go project
No full textTo establish a closer contact between school and experimental sciences, Sapienza Universit`a di Roma and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) launched the Lab2Go project. Lab2Go has the goal of spreading laboratory
practice among students and teachers in high schools. In this article, a measurement is presented, carried out in the framework of the Lab2Go project, of the ratio hc e where h, c and e are respectively Planck’s constant, the speed of light in vacuum, and the electric charge
Optics@home: Active remote learning on geometrical and physical optics
No full textOptics@home is a learning path developed under the Italian Project Piano Lauree Scientifiche in Physics at the University of Salento with the aim of involving high school students in experimental scientific laboratories. Due to the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the university laboratories were not accessible to students, so we were forced to modify and innovate our laboratory teaching methodologies. In detail, we proposed in-depth optics spacing from the geometrical to the physical one in remote teaching
A neural network analysis of a dataset obtained through a carbon nanotube sensor array for breathomics applications
No full textIn this study, a dataset collected with a carbon nanotube based sensor array is analyzed to discriminate healthy from sick patients affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The dataset is analyzed with two
approaches, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Neural Network. A comparison between the results obtained with these two methods is made. The applicability of the Neural Network is discussed, along with methods used to avoid the over-fitting problem