Cryostripping Versus Conventional Safenectomy in Chronic Venous Disease Treatment: A Single Center Retrospective Cohort Study.

AIM: This study presents a comparative analysis of cryostripping to conventional saphenectomy. Materials and Methods: The study included 2191 patients admitted in the Phlebology Department, 1st Surgical Department, Emergency County Hospital Timisoara, between September 2013 and April 2023, between September 2013 and April 2023, who underwent saphenectomy by cryostripping (1327 patients) or conventionally (864 patients). We compared the duration and costs of the procedure, hospitalization period, post-operative results, method feasibility, as well as the technical advantages of cryostripping compared to conventional surgery. Results: A smaller proximal incision, compared to the classic operation, as well the fact that distal counter incision is not necessary, represents technical advantages of this procedure. Average duration of the intervention was 41 +- 12.8 minutes, consumables costs were about 52 +- 10 EUR/intervention, with an average hospitalization period was 1.05 +- 0.41 days. The post-operative results were favourable, early complications rate being reduced (ecchymoses Phi; 2 cm - 33.23%; hematoma - 2.11%; deep vein thrombosis - 0.15%; transient paresthesias 3.01%). Compared to classic saphenectomy, the costs of consumables/intervention are similar, intervention time, hospitalization period and complication rate being statistically significantly lower. An advantage of the method is the fact that the cryo-probes can be sterilized, being reusable; from the economic point of view, the technique perfectly fits in both public hospitals and private clinics. Conclusions: Cryostripping is a radical surgical procedure which bring a significant number of advantages compared to the classic saphenectomy, being an effective alternative in CVD treatment.

Quantifying depression-related language on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had clear impacts on mental health. Social media presents an opportunity for assessing mental health at the population level. Objectives: 1) Identify and describe language used on social media that is associated with discourse about depression. 2) Describe the associations between identified language and COVID-19 incidence over time across several geographies. Methods: We create a word embedding based on the posts in Reddit's /r/Depression and use this word embedding to train representations of active authors. We contrast these authors against a control group and extract keywords that capture differences between the two groups. We filter these keywords for face validity and to match character limits of an information retrieval system, Elasticsearch. We retrieve all geo-tagged posts on Twitter from April 2019 to June 2021 from Seattle, Sydney, Mumbai, and Toronto. The tweets are scored with BM25 using the keywords. We call this score rDD. We compare changes in average score over time with case counts from the pandemic's beginning through June 2021. Results: We observe a pattern in rDD across all cities analyzed: There is an increase in rDD near the start of the pandemic which levels off over time. However, in Mumbai we also see an increase aligned with a second wave of cases. Conclusions: Our results are concordant with other studies which indicate that the impact of the pandemic on mental health was highest initially and was followed by recovery, largely unchanged by subsequent waves. However, in the Mumbai data we observed a substantial rise in rDD with a large second wave. Our results indicate possible un-captured heterogeneity across geographies, and point to a need for a better understanding of this differential impact on mental health.

Romanian Laypeople's and Health Professionals' Views Regarding Living Organ Donation.

BACKGROUND: Romanian laypeople's and health professionals' views on living organ donation were examined. METHODS: From July 2015 to May 2016, 263 adults (among them 31 physicians and 20 nurses) judged the acceptability of living organ donation in 42 realistic scenarios composed of varying levels of 6 factors: 1. type of organ, 2. whether it could have been obtained from a cadaver, 3. donor-recipient relationship, 4. donor's level of autonomy, 5. financial compensation, and 6. patients' level of responsibility for their illness. In all scenarios, the patients were in need of either a kidney or liver transplantation. RESULTS: The ratings were subjected to cluster analysis and analyses of variance. Seven qualitatively different positions were found that were termed never acceptable (12%), free market (44%), compensation (12%), altruism (6%), always acceptable (16%), responsibility (4%), and undetermined (6%). Physicians were more frequently in the free market or in the compensation clusters (81%) than laypeople (51%). CONCLUSION: Only a few participants held the altruism model, even though this model has been promoted as the normative model by the World Health Organization and by most national legislations, including the legislation in Romania. Instead, the free market position and its variant-the compensation position-can be considered the majority positions (66%) in Romania.

Impact of silicon-based quantum dots on the antioxidative system in white muscle of Carassius auratus gibelio.

Silicon-based quantum dots were intraperitoneally injected in individuals of Carassius auratus gibelio. Their effects on white muscle were investigated by following their distribution and impact on the antioxidative system. The GSH level significantly increased after 1 and 3 days of exposure by, respectively, 85.3 and 25.4%. Seven days later, GSH levels were similar to control concentrations. MDA concentration rose after three days by 46.9% and remained at the same level after 7 days. Protein thiol levels significantly decreased by 6.7 and 8.1% after 3 and 7 days, whereas advanced oxidation protein products increased by 12.7, respectively, 28.1% in the same time intervals. The protein reactive carbonyl groups were raised only after the first day of exposure and returned to the control level later on. SOD specific activity increased up to 48% after 7 days, while CAT activity increased by 328, 176, and 26% after 1, 3, and 7 days of treatment. GST specific activity was up-regulated by 87, 18, and 9%, while GR activity increased by 68, 34, and 9%. G6PD activity was up-regulated by 12, 22, and 50%, whereas GPx activity raised by 75 and 109% compared to control after, respectively, 1, 3, and 7 days. Our results suggest that oxidative stress induced by silicon-based quantum dots was not strong enough to cause permanent damage in the white muscle of crucian carp.