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Purpose: The objective of the present study was to describe the prevalence and management of anaemia and iron deficiency (ID) in treatment-naïve patients with solid tumours in Spain and the incidence of anaemia over 4 months of cancer treatment in clinical practice. Methods: Multicentre, prospective and observational study in newly diagnosed cancer patients. Data on anaemia and iron parameters and its management were collected prior to the initiation of chemotherapy, at each cycle of chemotherapy and after 4 months of treatment. The main outcomes of the study were the prevalence of anaemia at baseline, its incidence during cancer treatment and the prevalence of absolute ID (AID) and functional ID (FID) prior to chemotherapy initiation. Results: A total of 295 patients were included in the study. Anaemia was present at diagnosis in 38.6 % of patients and was treated only in 32.5 % of those. A total of 106 patients (60.2 %) without anaemia at baseline developed anaemia during cancer treatment. Serum ferritin and transferrin saturation data were available for 151 of the patients (51.2 %) included in the study. The overall prevalence of ID was 59 %: 48 patients (31.8 %) presented with AID and 41 patients (27.2 %) presented with FID before starting anti-cancer therapy. Thirty-three of 44 non-anaemic iron-deficient patients did not receive any type of iron supplementation before initiating cancer therapy. Conclusions: Iron parameters are not commonly measured in newly diagnosed cancer patients. A correct evaluation and early management of ID could reduce the incidence of treatment-related anaemia in cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diagnosis and treatment of osteosarcoma should be performed by an experienced multidisciplinary team. Considering it is a systemic disease, chemotherapy is essential for long-term success. The drugs most commonly used are: cisplatin, adriamycin, high-dose methotrexate, ifosfamide, etoposide, and, more recently, mifamurtide. The neoadjuvant chemotherapy allows to know tumour chemosensitivity and getting the main prognostic factor: the percentage of tumour necrosis. In addition to chemotherapy, it is important to conduct surgical resection of primary tumour with wide margins, and in disseminated disease also to attempt resection of pulmonary metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The goals of this epidemiological paper are focused on studying teachers' vocal complaints, their voice pattern, and the impact of voice disorders on psychosocial working conditions. Patients: A representative stratified random sample of 282 teachers from kindergartens and elementary schools was studied. Two types of self-report questionnaires were applied: an inquiry about teachers' occupational voice profile, and the adapted Spanish version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (ISTAS-21). Pearson's χ2 test was performed to search for statistical associations. Results: 62.7% of subjects were experiencing occupational voice disorders; these teachers showed significantly worse psychosocial conditions than their healthy voice colleagues. Conclusions: Occupational voice disorders affect more than 60% of teachers and have an impact on their psychosocial working conditions. Interdisciplinary work is essential to shed light on these multifactor mechanisms and effects. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer-assisted sperm morphometry analysis was used to determine the effects of cryopreservation on boar sperm head and midpiece morphometry. Sperm-rich fractions were collected from five mature boars. Three microscope slides were prepared from single extended sperm samples prior freezing and post-thawing. All slides were stained with Hemacolor, and 250 sperm images were obtained from each slide. The sperm head dimensions for length, width, area, perimeter and four shape factors and sperm-midpiece dimensions for area, width, angle and distance were determined in each spermatozoa. The effects of sperm freezing on sperm dimensions within and among boars were determined. A previous discriminant analysis of the results was able to correctly classify a 78.3 and 82% of fresh and frozen-thawed spermatozoa respectively. Sperm heads were significantly smaller in cryopreserved spermatozoa than in the companion extended samples for length, width, area and perimeter. Sperm midpieces were also significantly smaller in cryopreserved spermatozoa for width and area. The highest changes in morphometric dimensions after the freeze-thawing process were found in the midpiece of spermatozoa. The variability of morphometric measurements only was significantly different between fresh and thawed samples for head rugosity and midpiece area. The effects of cryopreservation on morphometric parameters were similar in the boars, which allow us to conclude that cryopreservation process does not have a different effect in each individual boar. In summary, morphometric changes associated with the cryopreservation process on boar spermatozoa do not apparently depends on an effect at individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy of computer-assisted sperm morphometry analysis (CASMA) depends on the careful preparation, fixation and staining of spermatozoa. The efficiency of CASMA may be enhanced by developing optimized protocols. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of sperm washing and the use of three staining techniques [rapid Panoptic, Hemacolor and Harris's Haematoxylin (HH)] on image-processing accuracy and boar sperm head morphometry. Sperm washing had a significant effect on samples stained with rapid Panoptic, increasing the percentage of correctly binarized sperm heads and the contrast between cells and background. However, rapid Panoptic yielded the lowest percentage of properly digitized sperm heads. HH provided the highest cell/background contrast, and also greater sperm head staining intensity, but discrimination of sperm midpieces was considered insufficient. Hemacolor occupied an intermediate position, providing acceptable colour intensity and satisfactory cell/background contrast. Use of different staining procedures prompted dimensional differences in sperm head morphometry. Significant differences between animals were observed for all morphometric parameters. Low within-animal variation coefficients reflected a homogeneous sperm head population. Between-animal variation coefficients were relatively high for Hemacolor and HH, and significantly high for the rapid Panoptic stain. Using Panoptic and HH, stable morphometric measurements required at least 100 properly digitized sperm heads rather than 200, while Hemacolor required only 50 spermatozoa. These results indicate that both washing of semen and staining procedures significantly affect the accuracy of image processing and sperm head dimensions. Hemacolor and HH proved to be the best staining techniques for evaluating sperm head dimensions in boar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the most frequent urodynamic observations associated with bladder calculi, and to assess whether the presence of calculi alters these observations. Fifty patients with bladder stones were included in a prospective study in which two urodynamic tests were used, one at inclusion and another once the patient was stone- free after treatment by noninvasive methods (mainly extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy). The results from the urodynamic evaluation with the stone in the bladder were: bladder outlet obstruction in 51%, detrusor overactivity in 68%, detrusor under-activity in 10%, and a normal study in 18%. There were no significant differences between the urodynamic study before or after treatment in maximum flow rate and postvoid residual volume, detrusor overactivity and detrusor pressure at maximum flow. Conversely to what has been accepted for years, bladder calculi are not always associated with bladder outlet obstruction and the urodynamic results are not influenced by the presence of bladder stones during the urodynamic testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]