Brown adipose tissue (BAT) participates in the regulation of whole-body metabolism by producing a variety of adipokines. This study investigates into the BAT pattern and the clinical aspects of overweight and obese (OOB) vs. non-obese (NO) hyperparathyroidism (HPT) patients with the aim of assessing the impact of BAT and obesity on HPT. Parathyroid scans performed on 441 HPT patients between 2015 and 2020 were retrospectively analyzed in order to select the images with active BAT. Based on their BMI, the patients with active BAT were divided into OOB vs. NO. The results showed that BAT was present in cervical and supraclavicular regions, with a single localization especially among NO vs. multiple sites among OOB. The (total counts/pixels)BAT/(total counts/pixels)non-BAT ratio in the right cervical localization showed a significant difference between the groups with higher values in OOB. BMI, PTH, FT4, vitamin D, magnesium, creatinine, and urea had significant correlations with BAT ratios. The predictive values showed that right cervical ratios higher than 1.52 and right supraclavicular ratios lower than 1.15 indicated an increased probability of being OOB. The significant correlations between BAT activation in OOB vs. NO and HPT clinical parameters could be useful for developing potential treatments based on this tissue.

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Aim: This paper aims to emphasize the importance of nuclear imaging for cancer patients evolution and personalized treatment. Material and method: A retrospective study comprising 5,670 patients, who performed bone scans, between 2003-2015, at the "Sf. Spiridon" County Clinical Emergency Hospital Iași Nuclear Medicine Laboratory. Studied parameters were demographic data, referral dia gnosis, staging, tumor markers, bone metastases and patient follow-up. Results: Of all, 3,960 were oncological patients. They performed in evolution 3,846 bone scans, between two (21.01%) and 11 (0.05%) explorations. Patients' age varied between 2 and 97 years (with two peaks, at 55 and 65). Gender distribution showed female (61.73%) over male (38.27%) predominance, especially in multiple scans (73.32%). For half of the patients the bone scan showed evolution (worsening), meaning the treatment was only partially effective and r equired modifications. Ethically, for these patients bone scan was irreplaceable. Its absence would have meant undergoing a partially/inefficient treatment, a reserved prognosis and a shorter survival period. The benefits outweigh the risks in terms of radiation exposure. Conclusions: Ethics in oncological nuclear medicine is complex, following the balance between risk and benefit, in the interest of a personalized management. As a result, ethically it is equivalent to maximizing the benefits of this minimally invasive functional investigation, scintigraphy, which is essential for treatment modulation, in order to improve the disease prognosis and increase the patients' survival rate, for precision medicine in cancer.

By using mathematical formulations specific to nonlinear dynamics, we devise an original method for the evaluation of atrial fibrillations. Our results can be used for developing new medical diagnosis procedures and new ways of tracking heart diseases, based on specific patterns.

Background: The variability of prion protein gene (PRNP) codons and the frequency of alleles (K222, D146, and S146) that appear to confer genetic resistance to classical scrapie are still unknown in several goat populations/breeds prevalent in Romania. This work aims to assess the genetic polymorphism at 15 PRNP codons in Romanian goat populations to inform the development of goat breeding programs for scrapie resistance. Methods: Whole blood and hair follicles from Carpathian (50), French Alpine (53), and Banat’s White (53) breed goats were sampled to extract genomic DNA for genetic analyses and Sanger sequencing. In the targeted goat groups, one classical scrapie-positive Banat’s White goat was included. Results: The codons without polymorphisms were G37G, W102W, N146N, R151R, S173S, and I218I. The following non-synonymous polymorphisms of PRNP were recorded: P110P, P110S, P110T, T110T, G127G, G127S, I142I, I142M, T142I, H143H, P143P, R143R, R154R, H154R, P168P, Q168Q, Q211Q, Q211R, Q222Q, H222Q, K222K, S240S, P240P, P240S, and S240P. Conclusions: PRNP polymorphism was recorded in 60% (9/15) of codons. The scrapie-positive Banat’s White goat had G37G, W102W, T110T, G127G, I142I, H143H, N146N, R151R, R154R, P168P, S173S, R211R, I218I, Q222Q, and S240S. The K222 allele had a frequency of 6% (3/50) in Carpathian, 9.43% (5/53) in Banat’s White, and 15.09% (8/53) in French Alpine. Therefore, the polymorphisms detected in this sample of Romanian goat breeds are too rare to design a breeding program at the current time.