A Longitudinal Assessment of Anterior Cingulate Cortex Gamma-aminobutyric Acid in Antipsychotic Medication-naïve First Episode Psychosis Patients.

Background And Hypothesis: Converging evidence from animal and human studies has implicated gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic dysfunction in the pathophysiology of psychosis spectrum disorders. However, little is known about GABA's role in the early illness stages. Based on prior research, we hypothesized that GABA levels would already be altered in first episode psychosis patients (FEP), and that they would be associated with patients' cognitive function and response to treatment.

Changes in glutamate levels in anterior cingulate cortex following 16 weeks of antipsychotic treatment in antipsychotic-naïve first-episode psychosis patients.

Background: Previous findings in psychosis have revealed mixed findings on glutamate (Glu) levels in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Factors such as illness chronicity, methodology, and medication status have impeded a more nuanced evaluation of Glu in psychosis. The goal of this longitudinal neuroimaging study was to investigate the role of antipsychotics on Glu in the dACC in antipsychotic-naïve first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients.

A longitudinal study of hippocampal subfield volumes and hippocampal glutamate levels in antipsychotic-naïve first episode psychosis patients.

Background: Previous studies have implicated hippocampal abnormalities in the neuropathology of psychosis spectrum disorders. Reduced hippocampal volume has been reported across all illness stages, and this atrophy has been hypothesized to be the result of glutamatergic excess. To test this hypothesis, we measured hippocampal subfield volumes and hippocampal glutamate levels in antipsychotic naïve first episode psychosis patients (FEP) and the progression of volume decline and changes in glutamate levels over a 16-week antipsychotic drug (APD) trial.

Dissecting Heterogeneity in Functional Network Connectivity Aberrations in Antipsychotic Medication-Naïve First Episode Psychosis Patients - A Normative Modeling Study.

Importance: While there is a general consensus that functional connectome pathology is a key mechanism underlying psychosis spectrum disorders, the literature is plagued with inconsistencies and translation into clinical practice is non-existent. This is perhaps because group-level findings may not be accurate reflections of pathology at the individual patient level.

Objective: To characterize inter-individual heterogeneity in functional networks and investigate if normative values can be leveraged to identify biologically less heterogeneous subgroups of patients.

Preoperative smoking status and long-term survival after coronary artery bypass grafting: a competing risk analysis.

Objectives: Patients with severe coronary artery disease who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting consistently demonstrate that continued smoking after surgery increases late mortality rates. Smoking may exert its harmful effects through the ongoing chronic process of atherosclerotic progression both in the grafts and the native system. However, it is not clear whether cardiac mortality is primary and solely responsible for the inferior late survival of current smokers.

Topological Perturbations in the Functional Connectome Support the Deficit/Non-deficit Distinction in Antipsychotic Medication-Naïve First Episode Psychosis Patients.

Background: Heterogeneity in the etiology, pathophysiology, and clinical features of schizophrenia challenges clinicians and researchers. A helpful approach could be stratifying patients according to the presence or absence of clinical features of the deficit syndrome (DS). DS is characterized by enduring and primary negative symptoms, a clinically less heterogeneous subtype of the illness, and patients with features of DS are thought to present abnormal brain network characteristics, however, this idea has received limited attention.

Higher-order functional brain networks and anterior cingulate glutamate + glutamine (Glx) in antipsychotic-naïve first episode psychosis patients.

Human connectome studies have provided abundant data consistent with the hypothesis that functional dysconnectivity is predominant in psychosis spectrum disorders. Converging lines of evidence also suggest an interaction between dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) cortical glutamate with higher-order functional brain networks (FC) such as the default mode (DMN), dorsal attention (DAN), and executive control networks (ECN) in healthy controls (HC) and this mechanism may be impaired in psychosis. Data from 70 antipsychotic-medication naïve first-episode psychosis (FEP) and 52 HC were analyzed.

Higher-Order Intrinsic Brain Network Trajectories After Antipsychotic Treatment in Medication-Naïve Patients With First-Episode Psychosis.

Background: Intrinsic brain network connectivity is already altered in first-episode psychosis (FEP), but the longitudinal trajectories of network connectivity, especially in response to antipsychotic treatment, remain poorly understood. The goal of this study was to investigate how antipsychotic medications affect higher-order intrinsic brain network connectivity in FEP.

Methods: Data from 87 antipsychotic medication-naïve patients with FEP and 87 healthy control participants were used.

The additive effects of anaemia and transfusion on long-term survival after coronary artery bypass surgery.

Objectives: To compare the independent and combined effects of anaemia and red blood cell transfusion on late survival after isolated coronary artery bypass grafting.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 5243 consecutive patients undergoing primary isolated coronary artery bypass grafting, performed from 2000 to 2015, in a Portuguese Academic Hospital. We identified 1649 patients with preoperative anaemia (A+) and 1422 patients who received a perioperative transfusion (T+)-the 4 possible combinations allowed for the creation of 4 subgroups (A-/T-, A-/T+, A+/T- and A+/T+).

Body mass index effect on long-term survival after coronary artery bypass surgery: a competing risk analysis.

Objectives: The aim of this sudy was to investigate the presence of an obesity paradox on the long-term mortality of patients undergoing primary isolated coronary artery bypass surgery and to uncover whether any discrepancy found could be attributable to cardiovascular or noncardiovascular causes.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 5242 consecutive patients with body mass index (BMI) over 18.5 kg/m2 undergoing primary isolated coronary artery bypass surgery, performed from 2000 to 2015, in a Portuguese level III Hospital.

Ventricular Pseudoaneurysm After Myocardial Infarction: A Case Report.

A 66-year-old female patient was admitted to hospital care in March 2021 due to aggravating fatigue and dyspnoea. Her past medical history was relevant for chronic anaemia, smoking, dyslipidaemia, antiphospholipid syndrome and lupus-like mixed connective tissue disease, for which she was taking corticosteroids. She had suffered an acute coronary syndrome in August 2020, complicated with postinfarction pericarditis; at the time, coronariography diagnosed moderate disease of the anterior descending artery and occlusion of the circumflex artery.

Hippocampal Hyperconnectivity to the Visual Cortex Predicts Treatment Response.

Background: Converging lines of evidence point to hippocampal dysfunction in psychosis spectrum disorders, including altered functional connectivity. Evidence also suggests that antipsychotic medications can modulate hippocampal dysfunction. The goal of this project was to identify patterns of hippocampal connectivity predictive of response to antipsychotic treatment in 2 cohorts of patients with a psychosis spectrum disorder, one medication-naïve and the other one unmedicated.

Dorsal striatial hypoconnectivity predicts antipsychotic medication treatment response in first-episode psychosis and unmedicated patients with schizophrenia.

Introduction: The dorsal striatum, comprised of the caudate and putamen, is implicated in the pathophysiology of psychosis spectrum disorders. Given the high concentration of dopamine receptors in the striatum, striatal dopamine imbalance is a likely cause in cortico-striatal dysconnectivity. There is great interest in understanding the relationship between striatal abnormalities in psychosis and antipsychotic treatment response, but few studies have considered differential involvement of the caudate and putamen.

Results of Surgery in Lung Cancer - A Retrospective Study of a Single Center Experience.

Objectives: Surgery provides the best chance for cure in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer stage I or II, but only a small portion of all new cases diagnosed are eventually suitable for surgical resection. Our goal was to appraise the surgical outcomes including survival and progression rates in patientswith histological diagnosis of lung cancer.

Methods: Between 1st August 2012 and 30th June 2018, the patients with histological lung cancer diagnosis that underwent surgical resection with a curative intent at the department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Centro Hospitalar Univer- sitário de São João were included.

Long-term survival of female versus male patients after coronary artery bypass grafting.

Background: Several of the most extensively used risk prediction tools for coronary artery bypass grafting outcomes include female sex as an independent risk factor for postoperative outcomes. It is not clear whether this putative increased surgical risk impacts long-term survival. This study aimed to assess sex differences in 10-year all-cause mortality.

Long-term survival of single versus bilateral internal mammary artery grafting in patients under 70.

Objectives: As definitive data from randomized controlled trials comparing the effect on long-term survival of using single internal mammary artery (SIMA) or bilateral internal mammary artery (BIMA) grafting are not yet available, observational studies allow for long-term follow-up in large and representative populations, which might complement the information potentially derived from randomized trials. To compare long-term survival in patients under 70 years of age undergoing SIMA or BIMA grafting.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 3384 consecutive patients under 70 years undergoing primary isolated coronary artery bypass grafting, performed from 2000 to 2015, in a Portuguese level III Hospital.

An overlap-weighted analysis on 10-year survival of off-pump versus on-pump coronary artery grafting in multivessel coronary artery disease.

Background And Objective: The introduction of off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery intended to overcome some of the conventional on-pump procedure limitations by avoiding potentially harmful adverse effects of extracorporeal circulation and aortic cross-clamping. However, the doubt remains on whether it is associated with worse long-term outcomes. To compare long-term survival in patients with multivessel ischemic heart disease undergoing off-pump versus on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

Contrasting Frontoparietal Network Connectivity in Antipsychotic Medication-Naive First-Episode Psychosis Patients Who Do and Do Not Display Features of the Deficit Syndrome.

Background: The deficit syndrome is a clinical subtype of schizophrenia that is characterized by enduring negative symptoms. Several lines of evidence point to frontoparietal involvement, but the frontoparietal control network (FPCN) and its subsystems (FPCNA and FPCNB) proposed by Yeo et al. have not been systematically characterized at rest in patients with the deficit syndrome.

A DECEITFUL RIGHT ATRIAL MASS.

This large atrial mass was removed from a 33-yearold patient admitted to the emergency department for severe venous congestion. Its hard texture, grayish discolouration and wall infiltration prompted radical excision and partial atrial reconstruction. Histopathology was compatible with a thrombus, discarding malignancy.

Traumatic Aortic Valve Injury After Blunt Chest Trauma.

Traumatic aortic valve regurgitation is a rare but potentially fatal complication of blunt chest trauma. We present the case of a 68-year-old woman who suffered from severe traumatic aortic valve regurgitation after a car accident. The patient was successfully treated by surgical replacement of the aortic valve with a biologic prosthesis.

Caferana seeds () as a new source of nutrients: Evaluation of the proximal composition, solvent extraction, bioactive compounds, and δ-lactam isolation.

The proximal composition, amino acid, carbohydrate, and volatile profiles of caferana () seeds flour were here assessed. Seeds were also subjected to the following extraction processes: one with pressurized ethanol (PLE) and two with ethanol + supercritical CO mixture at different temperatures and pressures (SC1 and SC2). Extracts were characterized in terms of caffeine, total phenolic, and δ-lactam.