[Use of virtual reality in eating disorders]. / Utilisation de la réalité virtuelle dans les troubles des conduites alimentaires.

Virtual reality is a new technology that can be used to model an environment with which an individual can interact using all five senses. It is notably used in psychiatry for anxiety disorders and addictions, and its use in eating disorders has been growing in recent years. Indeed, virtual reality offers interesting advantages, such as its ability to personalize any environment, which is also more secure and controllable. Recent studies show promising results in the understanding, evaluation, and therapeutic management of eating disorders. The use of avatars in anorexia nervosa allows for a correct assessment of the perceptual (body image distortion) and cognitive-affective (body dissatisfaction) components of the body image disorder in a similar way to conventional methods, but also for a better understanding of them. Moreover, avatars allow the development of innovative therapeutic protocols and are thus used in the context of exposure therapy. The new body swapping protocol, based on a multisensory illusion, offers particularly promising results in the reduction of body image disorder. For bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, virtual reality has made it possible to better characterize the triggering mechanisms of binge eating episodes through studies that have observed different responses to food-related environments and stimuli. At the therapeutic level, virtual reality cue exposure therapy has the most empirical support. Its aim is to reduce or eliminate the anxiety and craving felt by a patient in response to exposure to food or other food-related cues by preventing the patient from consuming food, and results show clear reductions in anxiety, craving and binge eating episodes. While all these results seem to indicate a bright future for virtual reality in eating disorders, further studies are needed to validate the positive impact of its use, but also its limitations. Notably, cyber sickness could alter the smooth running of virtual reality therapy sessions by causing nausea and disorientation. Moreover, it is important to verify that a therapeutic protocol does not lose its effectiveness when it is transposed into virtual reality. However, virtual reality seems to be a therapeutic tool that is better accepted by patients, and even better by adolescents, which is very interesting for eating disorders since adolescents are the most affected. Virtual reality could therefore help motivate patients to pursue treatment and reduce the dropout rate while offering good therapeutic results. Thus, studies conducted in recent years have shown that virtual reality is a promising tool in the understanding, assessment and treatment of eating disorders, and future research should confirm this, particularly in the adolescent population.

[Impact of routine brain imaging in the initial management of lung cancer]. / Impact de l'imagerie cérébrale systématique dans le bilan initial des cancers du poumon.

INTRODUCTION: Brain metastases are a common complication of bronchial carcinoma (BC). There is no consensus as to the need to undertake a systematic search for these lesions during the initial assessment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of brain imaging in the initial evaluation of patients with CB. METHODS: We undertook a retrospective analysis of patients treated in the Thoracic Oncology Clinic at the Institute Jules-Bordet between 01/09/2008 and 31/08/2013, who were treatment-naïve and were having a full diagnostic work-up including brain imaging. RESULTS: Four hundred and sixty-three patients consecutively diagnosed with BC were included. Brain magnetic resonance imaging and/or CT-scan showed brain metastases in 101 patients (21.8%), of whom 67 had no symptoms suggestive of brain metastatic disease. The addition of a brain imaging into the work-up procedure resulted in a stage migration for 30 patients (6.5%), mainly otherwise staged IIIA (n=10) or IIIB (n=14) without brain imaging. CONCLUSION: The addition of brain imaging in the initial assessment of bronchial carcinoma allows the identification of brain metastases in one case among 5, of which 2/3 are asymptomatic. This leads to a change in staging, primarily for disease otherwise considered to be stage III.

Interactions of some phenylindanedione anticoagulants with human serum albumin.

This study enabled us, to define the quantitative parameters of the interactions which give rise to the formation of complexes between five phenylindanediones and albumin or polymethacryate. The existence of three attachment sites were demonstrated, by which these ligands are bound to the macromolecule. The results from the thermodynamic study of this phenomenon, together with the information supplied by; various spectroscopic methods; the formation of a complex between a synthetic polymer carrying amine functions, and the study of ligands in the presence of surfactant, were all in agreement. Furthermore, a significant correlation between the association constant and physiochemical parameters lipophilic character and acidity was obtained, leading to the conclusion that; the interactions permitting the formation of the complexes between albumin and the five anionic ligands seem to be principally hydrophobic and, to a lesser degree, electrostatic. The latter only occurred in a particular medium at sites which were mainly hydrophobic.

[Purification and concentration of albumin solutions by diafiltration using a parallel membrane dialyzer]. / Epuration et concentration directes de solutions d'albumine par diafiltration sur échangeur à plaques parallèles.

The last two years, artificial Kidneys have been used for purification and concentration of human serum albumin solutions coming from plasma cracking in two Blood Transfusion Centers. Results are easily reproducible and the apparatus is reliable and of low cost. The properties of dialysis and ultrafiltration of the A.N. 69 membrane are useful for eliminating ethanol and water. The artificial Kidneys are effective at low pressure. It is then possible to use peristaltic pumps and to have a closed circuit. The whole apparatus must be sterilized with chemical reagents.

[Conformation properties and pharmacological activity of adrenergic catecholamines]. / Propriétés conformationnelles et activité pharmacologique de catécholamines adrénergiques.

In this study, the authors propose a comparison between conformational properties and pharmacological activity of a series of adrenergic phenethylamines; in particular they conclude that if the alpha adrenergic compounds adopt a gauche conformation, beta adrenergics prefer a trans form.