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Summary: Supraglottic airway devices are commonly used to manage the airway during general anaesthesia. There are sporadic case reports of temporomandibular joint dysfunction and dislocation following supraglottic airway device use. We conducted a prospective observational study of adult patients undergoing elective surgery where a supraglottic airway device was used as the primary airway device. Pre‐operatively, all participants were asked to complete a questionnaire involving 12 points adapted from the Temporomandibular Joint Scale and the Liverpool Oral Rehabilitation Questionnaire. Objective measurements included inter‐incisor distance as well as forward and lateral jaw movements. The primary outcome was the inter‐incisor distance, an accepted measure of temporomandibular joint mobility. Both the questionnaire and measurements were repeated in the postoperative period and we analysed data from 130 participants. Mean (SD) inter‐incisor distance in the pre‐ and postoperative period was 46.5 (7.2) mm and 46.3 (7.5) mm, respectively (p = 0.521) with a difference (95%CI) of 0.2 (−0.5 to 0.9) mm. Mean (SD) forward jaw movement in the pre‐ and postoperative period was 3.6 (2.4) mm and 3.9 (2.4) mm, respectively (p = 0.018). Mean (SD) lateral jaw movement to the right in the pre‐ and postoperative period was 8.9 (4.1) mm and 9.1 (4.0) mm, respectively (p = 0.314). Mean (SD) lateral jaw movement to the left in the pre‐ and postoperative period was 8.8 (4.0) mm and 9.3 (3.6) mm, respectively (p = 0.008). The number of patients who reported jaw clicks or pops before opening their mouth as wide as possible was 28 (21.5%) vs. 12 (9.2%) in the pre‐ and postoperative period, respectively (p < 0.001) with a difference (95%CI) of 12.3% (6.7–17.9%). There was no significant difference in the responses to the other 11 questions or in the number of patients who reported pain in the temporomandibular joint area postoperatively. No clinically significant dysfunction of the temporomandibular joint following the use of supraglottic airway devices in the postoperative period was identified by either patient questionnaires or objective measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacground: Impaired venous return is observed in healthcare professionals who spend long periods standing and sitting. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate varicose vein-related risk factors, exercise health beliefs, and venous refill time in healthcare professionals working in operating rooms and outpatient clinics by photoplethysmography., Method: The study sample consisted of 100 healthcare professionals without a diagnosis of peripheral venous insufficiency. Data were collected using a descriptive characteristics form, the Health Belief Model Scale for Exercise, the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, and photoplethysmography., Result: This study found that OR nurses had shorter venous refill times and experienced more pain due to prolonged standing, despite their high health beliefs about exercise., Conclusion: Healthcare professionals working in operating rooms should be screened for venous insufficiency and trained regarding the practices to prevent venous insufficiency, such as lying down, elevating legs, and using elastic stockings., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic is an ongoing global health problem affecting 38 million people worldwide with nearly 1.6 million new infections every year. Despite the advent of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), a large percentage of people with HIV (PWH) still develop neurological deficits, grouped into the term of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Investigating the neuropathology of HIV is important for understanding mechanisms associated with cognitive impairment seen in PWH. The major obstacle for studying neuroHIV is the lack of suitable in vitro human culture models that could shed light into the HIV-CNS interactions. Recent advances in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) culture and 3D brain organoid systems have allowed the generation of 2D and 3D culture methods that possess a potential to serve as a model of neurotropic viral diseases, including HIV. In this study, we first generated and characterized several hiPSC lines from healthy human donor skin fibroblast cells. hiPSCs were then used for the generation of microglia-containing human cerebral organoids (hCOs). Once fully characterized, hCOs were infected with HIV-1 in the presence and absence of cART regimens and viral infection was studied by cellular, molecular/biochemical, and virological assays. Our results revealed that hCOs were productively infected with HIV-1 as evident by viral p24-ELISA in culture media, RT-qPCR and RNAscope analysis of viral RNA, as well as ddPCR analysis of proviral HIV-1 in genomic DNA samples. More interestingly, replication and gene expression of HIV-1 were also greatly suppressed by cART in hCOs as early as 7 days post-infections. Our results suggest that hCOs derived from hiPSCs support HIV-1 replication and gene expression and may serve as a unique platform to better understand neuropathology of HIV infection in the brain., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Progress in stem cell research has revolutionized the medical field for more than two decades. More recently, the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has allowed for the development of advanced disease modeling and tissue engineering platforms. iPSCs are generated from adult somatic cells by reprogramming them into an embryonic-like state via the expression of transcription factors required for establishing pluripotency. In the context of the central nervous system (CNS), iPSCs have the potential to differentiate into a wide variety of brain cell types including neurons, astrocytes, microglial cells, endothelial cells, and oligodendrocytes. iPSCs can be used to generate brain organoids by using a constructive approach in three-dimensional (3D) culture in vitro. Recent advances in 3D brain organoid modeling have provided access to a better understanding of cell-to-cell interactions in disease progression, particularly with neurotropic viral infections. Neurotropic viral infections have been difficult to study in two-dimensional culture systems in vitro due to the lack of a multicellular composition of CNS cell networks. In recent years, 3D brain organoids have been preferred for modeling neurotropic viral diseases and have provided invaluable information for better understanding the molecular regulation of viral infection and cellular responses. Here we provide a comprehensive review of the literature on recent advances in iPSC-derived 3D brain organoid culturing and their utilization in modeling major neurotropic viral infections including HIV-1, HSV-1, JCV, ZIKV, CMV, and SARS-CoV2., (© 2023. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to The Journal of NeuroVirology, Inc.)

Central venous stenosis (CVS) is usually a late-diagnosed clinical entity that is common in hemodialysis patients. It causes various problems ranging from hemodialysis difficulty to loss of the arterio-venous (A-V) fistula. In the present study, we aimed to determine the effect of drug eluting balloon while excluding the influence of other variable factors by evaluating the same individuals with plain and paclitaxel-eluting balloons. This research was a prospective study of 18 symptomatic hemodialysis patients (age 50.9 ± 14.0 years, range 32-72 years; 11 male, 7 female) with CVS who underwent treatment by plain balloon angioplasty (PBA) and paclitaxel-eluting balloon angioplasty (PEBA) in our hospital from January 2016 to June 2017. First, third and sixth month central vein patency rates were compared. The median patency rates of central veins were 109.0 (range: 10-324) days after PBA and 238.5 (range: 157-501) days after PEBA (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between PBA and PEBA angioplasty in one-month patency (p ˃ 0.05). By contrast, a statistically significant difference was found between 3- and 6-month patency rates (p = 0.031 and p ˂ 0.001, respectively). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the primary cumulative patency rate of PEBA was significantly longer than that of PBA (p ˂ 0.001). In this prospective study, PEBA patency is superior to PBA patency in the treatment of CVS in dialysis patients., (© 2021 International Society for Apheresis, Japanese Society for Apheresis, and Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy.)