Blood test findings in a large cohort of Olympic athletes: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Olympic athletes are often considered the pinnacle of health and performance. However, routine blood tests may reveal biochemical abnormalities. Understanding these abnormalities is crucial for optimizing athlete health and performance.

Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Elite Athletes: Rethinking Sports Classification.

: ESC sports classification in 2020, based on cardiac morphological adaptations, may not fully reflect also the variations in functional parameters of athletes. This study aims to characterize CPET-derived physiological parameters in elite athletes according to the ESC classification and evaluate whether this morphological classification also corresponds to a functional categorization. : Elite athletes underwent pre-participation screening before the 2023 European Games and 2024 Olympic Games.

How to Evaluate Kidney Function in Elite Endurance Athletes: Pros and Cons of Different Creatinine-Based Formulas.

Various creatinine-based equations are used to estimate the glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in athletes, but each has limitations. The aim of our study was to identify the most suitable formula for use in athletes. We evaluated 490 Olympic athletes (27 ± 5.

microRNA-218-5p coordinates scaling of excitatory and inhibitory synapses during homeostatic synaptic plasticity.

Homeostatic synaptic plasticity (HSP) is a neuronal mechanism that allows networks to compensate for prolonged changes in activity by adjusting synaptic strength. This process is crucial for maintaining stable brain function and has been implicated in memory consolidation during sleep. While scaling of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses plays an important role during homeostatic synaptic plasticity, molecules coordinating these processes are unknown.

Pre-participation Cardiovascular Evaluation for Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Elite Athletes: The Italian Experience.

Introduction: Olympic athletes represent a special subset of the athletic population and deserve a specialized medical approach. In view of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, we developed and implemented a comprehensive medical protocol including (other than the standard screening with ECG, physical and history) cardiopulmonary exercise test, echocardiography and full blood and urine tests.

Aim: Our aim was to assess the prevalence and type of cardiovascular abnormalities in athletes candidate to Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after implementation of this Olympic medical program.

miRNA-mediated inhibition of an actomyosin network in hippocampal pyramidal neurons restricts sociability in adult male mice.

Social deficits are frequently observed in patients suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders, but the molecular mechanisms regulating sociability are still poorly understood. We recently reported that the loss of the microRNA (miRNA) cluster miR-379-410 leads to hypersocial behavior and anxiety in mice. Here, we show that ablating miR-379-410 in excitatory neurons of the postnatal mouse hippocampus recapitulates hypersociability, but not anxiety.

Long-Term Evaluation of Lipid Profile Changes in Olympic Athletes.

Dyslipidemia is a major contributor to the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Despite high level of physical activity, athletes are not immune from dyslipidemia, but longitudinal data on the variation of lipids are currently lacking. We sought to assess lipid profile changes over time in Olympic athletes practicing different sports disciplines (power, skills, endurance, and mixed).

Esophageal schwannoma mimicking non-functional parathyroid adenoma on Tc-sestamibi imaging: a case report.

Technetium-99m sestamibi single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (Tc-sestamibi SPECT/CT) is a mainstay of the pre-operative localization of parathyroid lesions. We report here the case of a 30 year-old woman with a fortuitously discovered 2 cm cervical mass for which a parathyroid origin was originally suspected due to its retro-thyroidal localization and a personal history of nephrolithiasis. Normal serum calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels excluded primary hyperparathyroidism, raising suspicion of a non-functional parathyroid adenoma, and SPECT/CT imaging showed that the mass was Tc-sestamibi-avid.

Nebulization of pharmacological solutions with an innovative medical device based on microvaporization.

The currently available nebulization devices have a slow aerosol flow and produce vapor with large microdrops. Improved devices that achieve higher airflow and produce smaller microdrops are needed to improve the clinical care of patients. To address this critical need, we developed a novel system for the molecular vaporization of liquids.

Two novel HLA class I alleles HLA-A*03:409 and -B*49:72 and the extension of the -B*40:19 allele sequence.

Two novel HLA class I alleles, HLA-A*03:409 and -B*49:72 were characterized by next generation sequencing.

Consumptive hypothyroidism in a patient with malignant rhabdoid tumor of the kidney: case report on a newly found association.

Introduction: Consumptive hypothyroidism is a rare paraneoplastic condition most commonly associated with infantile hemangiomas. It is caused by overexpression of deiodinase type 3 (D3), which leads to preferential conversion of thyroxine to the metabolically inactive reverse triiodothyronine (rT3), paralleled by a decrease of the biologically active T3.

Case Presentation: A 46-year-old male patient with previously normal thyroid function was diagnosed with a renal carcinoma with rhabdoid differentiation.

MicroRNA-138 controls hippocampal interneuron function and short-term memory in mice.

The proper development and function of neuronal circuits rely on a tightly regulated balance between excitatory and inhibitory (E/I) synaptic transmission, and disrupting this balance can cause neurodevelopmental disorders, for example, schizophrenia. MicroRNA-dependent gene regulation in pyramidal neurons is important for excitatory synaptic function and cognition, but its role in inhibitory interneurons is poorly understood. Here, we identify as a regulator of short-term memory and inhibitory synaptic transmission in the mouse hippocampus.

Function and Fiber-Type Specific Distribution of Hsp60 and αB-Crystallin in Skeletal Muscles: Role of Physical Exercise.

Skeletal muscle is a plastic and complex tissue, rich in proteins that are subject to continuous rearrangements. Skeletal muscle homeostasis can be affected by different types of stresses, including physical activity, a physiological stressor able to stimulate a robust increase in different heat shock proteins (HSPs). The modulation of these proteins appears to be fundamental in facilitating the cellular remodeling processes related to the phenomenon of training adaptations such as hypertrophy, increased oxidative capacity, and mitochondrial activity.

The eSports conundrum: is the sports sciences community ready to face them? A perspective.

The reality of eSports is something much more complex than individual users playing video games. There are several characteristics that eSports have in common with traditional sports: from the spirit of competition to the structural composition of the teams, including the increase in performance with training and practice, up to the injuries and physical and psychological stress of the athlete. The number of scientific papers interested in this reality is still relatively low, although in recent years there has been a significant increase in this regard.

The posterior talocalcaneal ligament: an MRI evaluation.

Purpose: A wide inter-individual variability in terms of size, orientation and insertion is observed regarding ankle ligaments. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the anatomical features of the posterior talocalcaneal ligament (PTCL) observed through the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the ankle.

Methods: The study was retrospectively carried out on 893 ankle MRI's exams.

A placental mammal-specific microRNA cluster acts as a natural brake for sociability in mice.

Aberrant synaptic function is thought to underlie social deficits in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Although microRNAs have been shown to regulate synapse development and plasticity, their potential involvement in the control of social behaviour in mammals remains unexplored. Here, we show that deletion of the placental mammal-specific miR379-410 cluster in mice leads to hypersocial behaviour, which is accompanied by increased excitatory synaptic transmission, and exaggerated expression of ionotropic glutamate receptor complexes in the hippocampus.

A microRNA-129-5p/Rbfox crosstalk coordinates homeostatic downscaling of excitatory synapses.

Synaptic downscaling is a homeostatic mechanism that allows neurons to reduce firing rates during chronically elevated network activity. Although synaptic downscaling is important in neural circuit development and epilepsy, the underlying mechanisms are poorly described. We performed small RNA profiling in picrotoxin (PTX)-treated hippocampal neurons, a model of synaptic downscaling.

A coding-independent function of an alternative Ube3a transcript during neuronal development.

The E3 ubiquitin ligase Ube3a is an important regulator of activity-dependent synapse development and plasticity. Ube3a mutations cause Angelman syndrome and have been associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, the biological significance of alternative Ube3a transcripts generated in mammalian neurons remains unknown.

MiR-134-dependent regulation of Pumilio-2 is necessary for homeostatic synaptic depression.

Neurons employ a set of homeostatic plasticity mechanisms to counterbalance altered levels of network activity. The molecular mechanisms underlying homeostatic plasticity in response to increased network excitability are still poorly understood. Here, we describe a sequential homeostatic synaptic depression mechanism in primary hippocampal neurons involving miRNA-dependent translational regulation.