Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2024-04-29"
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- Dietary tryptophan plays a role as an anti-inflammatory agent in european seabass (dicentrarchus labrax) juveniles during Chronic InflammationPublication . Azeredo, Rita; Peixoto, Diogo; Paulo Santos; Duarte, Inês; Ricardo, Ana; Machado, Marina; Costas, Benjamín; Aragão, CláudiaWhere teleost fish are concerned, the effects of a dietary tryptophan surplus are mostly immunosuppressive, making it a potential dietary anti-inflammatory strategy. The goal of the present work was to evaluate the effects of tryptophan dietary supplementation on immune and neuroendocrine responses of the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax, undergoing chronic inflammation. Juvenile European seabass were intraperitoneally injected with an inflammatory agent (inflamed group) or a saline solution (control group). Within each group, fish were fed a control and a control-based diet supplemented with tryptophan for 4 weeks. Different tissues were sampled every week for the assessment of immune-related parameters. When tryptophan was provided to fish undergoing inflammation, the gene expression of a macrophage marker increased sooner and remained high until the end of the experiment. The same fish showed a concurrent increase in peripheral monocyte counts. After one week, molecular patterns of anti-inflammatory processes seemed to be favoured by tryptophan. Altogether, results show that a short administration period seems to be critical where tryptophan supplementation is concerned since at later inflammatory stages—and longer feeding periods—fish fed this diet displayed a molecular profile similar to that of fish fed a control diet.
- Characterization of the knee joint phenotype in the Portuguese populationPublication . Seica, Emanuel Cortesao de; Armada, Lucas; Marreiros, Ana; de Almeida Fontes, Ana Paula; Carvalho, Maria Miguel; Sousa, João PauloBackground: Neutral constitutional alignment and neutral joint line obliquity has been the standard alignment strategy for total knee arthroplasty. This one-for-all measure may negatively impact gait pattern and knee biomechanics. Novel alignment strategies surged, considering the variability in phenotypes found across the literature, as different populations may present different phenotype distributions. The Portuguese population has a distinct genetic origin, with no phenotype distribution data. Our objective was to characterise the population’s knee morphology, searching and analysing adjacent joint osteoarthrosis, and calculating the pre-disease coronal alignment. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. Full-length X-rays performed between 2016-2023 were analysed. Five alignment parameters were measured (LDFA, MPTA, JLCA, TJLA, HKA), and two parameters were calculated (aHKA, JLO). Knees were classified according to the CPAK classification. Results: For the arthritic cohort, CPAK-I (23%) II (20%) were most common, aHKA increases as KL increases (r=0.8352; p<0.001). For the healthy, Type-II (42%) and Type-I (15%) were most common. For paediatric, Type-II (43%) and Type-V (21%) were most common. CPAK Types-VII/VIII/IX were rare. Differences between genders for healthy and arthritic cohorts were statistically significant. The arthritic had higher prevalence of adjacent joint osteoarthritis. Conclusions: The Portuguese population presents a similar knee phenotype comparing with other populations, some differences have been found regarding the Asian continent. The most common phenotype was a neutral alignment if either healthy or paediatric, or a varus alignment if knee OA. Coronal alignment may not have a major impact in the prevalence of ankle and hip osteoarthritis; however, higher prevalence is observed in patients with knee OA.
- Does patient-specific instrumentation in primary total knee arthroplasty improve long-term satisfaction or function? A randomized trial with a 9-year follow-upPublication . Caldeira-Dantas, Sofia; Gonçalves, Marta; Vaz-Pinto, Gonçalo; Dias, Pedro; Marreiros, Ana; de Almeida Fontes, Ana Paula; Sousa, João P.Background: Patient-specific instrumentation (PSI) aims to increase the accuracy of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). However, the long-term benefit compared to conventional instrumentation (CI), is still controversial. This randomized controlled trial compares the long-term outcomes between PSI and CI in TKA. Methods: Patients submitted to PSI or CI TKA with a minimum follow-up of 8 years were evaluated. Satisfaction levels, forgotten joint score (FJS) and Western Ontario and McMaster university osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) scores were compared. Regarding descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation and frequencies were obtained. For inferential statistics we used the t test for independent samples the Mann-Whitney test and the Wilcoxon Test. Results: A total of 50 TKA were included (48% CI; 52% PSI) with an average follow-up time of 9.3 years. At the final follow-up the WOMAC score was similar between groups (p=0.846; CI:26.8±22.5; PSI:26.8±25.3). Similarly, no differences were seen for the FJS (p=0.785; CI:59.6±35.1; PSI:57.1±36.2) or satisfaction (p=0.486; CI:8.1±2.8; PSI:9.1±1.4). However, at the final follow-up, the total WOMAC score had worse results when compared to the previous evaluations (p=0.013 for CI group; p=0.009 for PSI group). No significant differences in the satisfaction levels were detected regarding the initial and final evaluations (p=0.581 for CI group; p=0.936 for PSI group). Conclusions: Nine years after TKA, PSI and CI patients reported similar levels of satisfaction and functioning. Both groups achieved similar results concerning the WOMAC, FJS scores and satisfaction levels. This study suggests that long-term satisfaction and functioning levels are similar in both PSI and CI.