Search

Background: Patients with diagnosed keratinocyte carcinomas (KCs) have an increased risk of subsequent skin cancers development. Current studies indicate that patients with subsequent tumors should be followed up regularly. However, none of the studies indicate the connection between the specific subtypes and an increased risk for further KCs development. The study assesses the differences in the risk of developing a subsequent skin cancer after a previous diagnosis of KC, especially considering individual types of skin malignances, and identifies potential factors associated with an increased risk of new cutaneous tumor describing non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring. Methods: Pathology and medical records were examined to identify the characteristics of patients with multiple KCs diagnosed between 1999 and 2019. Results: The study group comprised 13,913 KCs occurring in 10,083 patients. Multiple KCs were observed in 2300 patients (22.8%). The analysis showed aggressive subtypes, multiple tumors, and male sex as significant prognostic factors. Conclusions: The most crucial risk factors for developing subsequent KC are being of a male gender, an aggressive tumor subtype, and previous history of multiple skin cancers. Basal cell carcinoma subtypes, such as infiltrative basosquamous, with aggressive growth patterns predispose not only to increased risk for the recurrence but are also expected to be at higher risk of subsequent KCs.

Cel pracyPodstawowym celem badań była analiza zależności pomiędzy cechami psychopatii w ujęciu modelu triarchicznego (zuchwałością, bezdusznością, rozhamowaniem) a poziomem prężności psychicznej oraz preferowanym stylem radzenia sobie ze stresem w grupie adolescentów naruszających normy prawne. Przyjęto założenie, że kluczową rolę w tej relacji będą odgrywać symptomy psychopatii zawarte na wymiarze zuchwałości.MetodaGrupa badana składała się łącznie ze 111 dziewcząt i chłopców wieku 16-18 lat przebywających w młodzieżowych ośrodkach wychowawczych. Do pomiaru nasilenia cech psychopatycznych wykorzystano polską adaptację kwestionariusza TriPM. Struktura prężności psychicznej oraz style radzenia sobie ze stresem w badanej grupie zostały zmierzone przy użyciu metod typu self-report, odpowiednio: Skali Prężności Psychicznej/SPP-18 oraz kwestionariusza CISS.WynikiOgólny poziom prężności psychicznej okazał się mediatorem pomiędzy zuchwałością a zadaniowym stylem radzenia sobie ze stresem. Zuchwałość jako składowa psychopatii powiązana była również ze wszystkimi skalami prężności psychicznej. Wymiar rozhamowania psychopatii łączył się z niskimi wskaźnikami prężności psychicznej oraz z częstszym wybieraniem stylu radzenia sobie skoncentrowanego na emocjach. Różnice międzypłciowe zaobserwowano w zakresie nasilenia bezduszności oraz radzeniu sobie w sytuacji stresowej w oparciu o emocje.WnioskiPodjęte badania przemawiają za traktowaniem psychopatii u młodzieży jako złożonego i wielowymiarowego konstruktu. Otrzymane dane potwierdzają także, że pewne cechy psychopatii mogą wiązać się ze wskaźnikami dobrego przystosowania.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to evaluate clinical and biochemical differences between patients with low-renin and high-renin primary arterial hypertension (AH), mainly in reference to serum lipids, and to identify factors determining lipid concentrations. Materials and methods: In untreated patients with AH stage 1 we measured plasma renin activity (PRA) and subdivided the group into low-renin (PRA < 0.65 ng/mL/h) and high-renin (PRA ⩾ 0.65 ng/mL/h) AH. We compared office and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure, serum aldosterone, lipids and selected biochemical parameters between subgroups. Factors determining lipid concentration in both subgroups were assessed in regression analysis. Results: Patients with high-renin hypertension ( N = 58) were characterized by higher heart rate ( p = 0.04), lower serum sodium ( p < 0.01) and aldosterone-to-renin ratio ( p < 0.01), and significantly higher serum aldosterone ( p = 0.03), albumin ( p < 0.01), total protein ( p < 0.01), total cholesterol ( p = 0.01) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) ( p = 0.04) than low-renin subjects ( N = 39). In univariate linear regression, only PRA in the low-renin group was in a positive relationship with LDL-C ( R2 = 0.15, β = 1.53 and p = 0.013); this association remained significant after adjustment for age, sex, and serum albumin and aldosterone concentrations. Conclusions: Higher serum levels of total and LDL-C characterized high-renin subjects, but the association between LDL-C level and PRA existed only in low-renin primary AH.

Background: Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is the most common genetic disease leading to premature atherosclerosis. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of FH in outpatient practices in Poland. Methods: The study included a representative sample of 147 primary care physicians, cardiologists, and diabetologists caring for 2812 adult patients with hypercholesterolaemia and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level > 1.8 mmol/L, who were treated with statins or did not receive statins due to intolerance or contraindications. The physicians declared whether they diagnosed FH in the study group. In addition, we evaluated the Dutch Lipid Clinic Network (DLCN) diagnostic criteria for FH in all patients. The results were weighted and extrapolated to the general outpatient population in Poland. Treatment and its effectiveness were also evaluated. Results: FH6+ score by the DLCN criteria was found in 3.6% of the study group, which translates by extrapolation to 136,300 adult patients with FH in Poland. Among patients with FH6+, this diagnosis was correctly made by physicians in 25% of cases and was not established in 75% of cases. Only 32.8% of patients received high statin doses. High LDL-C levels were found in a large proportion of patients, including levels ≥ 5.0 mmol/L in 42.7% of patients and ≥ 4.1 mmol/L in 59.7% of patients. Conclusions: Familial hypercholesterolaemia is inadequately diagnosed and treated in Poland, which calls for a radical im­provement of pre- and postgraduate education in this regard.

Background: Dyslipidaemia, especially elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), is one of the most important cardiovascular risk factors. Treatment of dyslipidaemia and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) with lipid-lowering drugs is one of the key issues in reducing cardiovascular mortality. Nevertheless, underutilisation of statins and lipid-lowering drugs is still a problem globally. Aim: The present study aimed to describe the utilisation of lipid-lowering drugs in groups of patients with indications for statin treatment and elevated LDL-C. Methods: The study included adult patients with an indication for the use of a lipid-lowering therapy, currently using or not using such therapy because of contraindications or statin intolerance, in whom LDL-C concentration was > 70 mg/dL, treated in outpatient settings. All patients were screened for CVD and had blood cholesterol concentration assessed. Patients were also divided into: (1) patients with vascular disease; (2) patients with diabetes mellitus; (3) aged ≥ 65 years; and (4) patients without the three mentioned risk factors. Results: The study group consisted of 2812 (51.4% male) patients. Major cardiovascular risk factors including arterial hyper­tension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and smoking were highly prevalent in the study population (86.2%, 44.1%, and 23.3%, respectively). Out of the prespecified risk factors (vascular disease, diabetes mellitus, age ≥ 65 years) the study population was divided into patients without any of the mentioned risk factors (n = 520), those with all the three risk factors (n = 368), two out of three risk factors (n = 934), and one risk factor (n = 990). The study showed that 89.6% of patients were treated with statins (47.8% with atorvastatin, 27.8% with rosuvastatin, and 13.8% with simvastatin). Fenofibrate was used in 5.8% of the population and ezetimibe in 2.7%. In the whole group, 7.1% of patients did not receive any type of lipid-lowering therapy. Atorvastatin was more often used in patients with all the three prespecified risk factors, while rosuvastatin was used in patients without any of the risk factors. Conclusions: The most often-used lipid-lowering drugs in Poland are statins, with atorvastatin and rosuvastatin being used the most common of these. The present study shows that some patients with LDL-C concentration > 70 mg/dL and indications for lipid-lowering are not treated accordingly.

The Kool-Aid powders (Kraft General Foods) contain one or two of the following dyes: Allura Red (FD and C Red-40, R40), Sunset Yellow (FD and C Yellow-6, Y6) Tartrazine (FD and C Yellow-5, Y5), Erythrosine B (FD and C Red-3, R3), Amaranth (FD and C Red-2, R2) and Brilliant Blue FCF (FD and C Blue 1, B1), depending on the taste of the drink. In this work the “universal” calibration matrix is proposed for the determination of R40 in soft drink powders by partial least squares method using Spectrophotometric data. The training set of samples consists of 23 solutions: three of them contain only R40 at different concentrations and the rest of them are the binary mixtures of R40 with one of the following dyes: R3, R2, Y5 or Y6; all at the concentrations varying in the range 2–22 mg l−1 (exception: R3 2–12 mg l−1). The good analytical performance of R40 calibration was obtained (R2 = 0.9993, RMSD = 0.2125, REP = 2.20%) and this calibration matrix was applied to the analysis of the real samples containing only one dye (R40) and to the samples containing also other dyes, commonly used as the color additives in drink powders. The results obtained were compared with the results of the official spectrophotometric method and with the results of PLS algorithm for different binary dye calibration matrices. A good statistical agreement was obtained in each case, which confirms that some interferences occurring in Spectrophotometric determinations can be eliminated using PLS algorithm and including some possibly interfering compounds in calibration samples.

A new, simple spectrophotometric method for resolution of dye binary mixtures is proposed in this work. A simple mathematical algorithm was designed, in which the data are used from four linear regression calibration equations: two calibrations for each component at two selected wavelengths. The method of Kaiser was applied for the selection of the optimum two-wavelength sets for all mixtures under study. The recovery experiments were carried out in ten mixtures of the following dyes: Tartrazine, Amaranth, Erythrosin B, Sunset Yellow and Allura Red. The obtained results were compared with the results of a commonly used derivative spectrophotometric procedure (zero-crossing technique). The statistical evaluation of the method bias was performed and it was concluded that the proposed methodology may be competitive with the derivative procedure for the resolution of such dye binary mixtures.

The ChrA membrane protein belongs to the CHR superfamily of chromate ion transporters, which includes homologues from bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Bacterial ChrA homologues confer chromate resistance by exporting chromate ions from the cell's cytoplasm. The Neurospora crassa strain 74-A chr-1 gene encodes a putative CHR-1 protein of 507 amino acid residues, which belongs to the CHR superfamily. RT-PCR assays showed that expression of the chr-1 gene was up-regulated by chromate exposure of N. crassa cultures. Introduction in N. crassa of sense and antisense fragments of the chr-1 gene, as part of a silencing module within the pSilent-1 vector, produced transformants with a phenotype of resistance to chromate and diminished accumulation of chromium, as compared with the control strain containing only the vector. A chromate-resistance phenotype was also observed in N crassa strains deleted in the genomic chr-1 gene, thus confirming that the absence of CHR-1 protein confers chromate resistance to the fungus. The cDNA from N. crassa chr-1 gene (Ncchr-1) was cloned into the pYES2 vector under the control of a GAL promoter and the resulting recombinant plasmid was transferred to the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Galactose-induced S. cerevisiae transformants expressing Ncchr-1 were more sensitive to chromate and accumulated 2.5 times more chromium than the induced strain containing only the vector. Excess sulfate, a chromate analog, was unable to protect S. cerevisiae chr-1 transformants from chromate toxicity. These data indicate that the N. crassa CHR-1 protein functions as a transporter that takes up chromate; it also appears that this transport occurs in a sulfate-independent fashion. This is the first report assigning a role as a chromate transporter to a nonbacterial CHR protein.

The use of an internal standard is proposed in this work for first derivative spectrophotometric determination of azinphos in formulations. Generally, the spectrophotometric procedure is simpler and less expensive than chromatographic techniques recommended for the analysis of pesticides. However, while determining the pesticide in commercial formulations the, many-fold dilution required for such sensitive detection is a serious source of analytical error. It is known that an internal standard (IS), if properly chosen, can help eliminate this type of problem. A mixture of acetophenone (used as an IS in the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedure) and the blue dye Erioglaucine (A) was applied for the determination of azinphos-methyl in commercial formulations. To ensure the best conditions for the zero-crossing technique, the composition of the mixture was optimized to obtain the zero value of the first derivative absorbance of the IS at a minimum of the azinphos-methyl first derivative absorbance. Also, at the maximum of the first derivative spectrum of the IS, the differential absorption signal of the analyte was negligible. Analytical characteristics for the first derivative spectrophotometric procedure proposed were evaluated ( r 2 = 0.9998, detection limit = 0.043 mg, quantification limit = 0.143 mg) and the analytical results obtained (35.02 ± 0.20% of azinphos-methyl in the formulation) were in good agreement with the results obtained using the official HPLC method (35.44 ± 0.32%).

Speciation of aluminium and silicon in serum was studied by a reliable and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic–electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric (HPLC–ETAAS) hybrid method, based on the use of a polymeric anion-exchange column (Protein-Pak DEAE-5PW). This polymer-based column minimizes the risk of aluminium losses and of silicon contamination from the column during separation. The results obtained were compared with the results of previous studies carried out using different, complementary techniques including ultramicrofiltration, gel filtration and a silica-based column for HPLC. In order to ascertain which protein(s) of serum actually bind(s) aluminium, gel electrophoresis was employed for the further separation of the column fractions obtained by HPLC and aluminium was determined in separate aliquots of the same fractions. From all the experiments, it appears that transferrin (Tf) is the only serum protein that binds aluminium and it contains about 90% of total serum aluminium. It was also confirmed that in the presence of desferrioxamine (DFO), aluminium is partly displaced from its complex with transferrin to a low molecular mass Al–DFO complex. Aluminium citrate seems to be the main low molecular mass aluminium species in serum, amounting to about 12 ± 5% of the total aluminium in an aluminium-loaded serum sample. The proposed speciation procedure permits the simultaneous identification and determination of three aluminium species in metal-spiked serum (Al–Tf, Al–DFO and Al–citrate). The results for silicon suggest that it seems to be unspecifically adsorbed to several serum proteins and its speciation is not affected by the presence of DFO. Moreover, no evidence was found to confirm possible interrelations between aluminium and silicon species in serum to justify significant aluminosilicate formation in human serum.