Silviu Docu Axelerad

Machine learning (ML) studies of the gut microbiota rarely test whether microbial data add anything to routine clinical and inflammatory markers. We examined this question in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using quantitative stool culture. In this exploratory case–control study, 52 adults with IBD and 34 hospital controls underwent clinical, anthropometric, bioimpedance, biochemical and inflammatory assessment, together with quantitative stool culture interpreted against laboratory reference intervals. Six classifiers were evaluated with repeated nested cross-validation (5 folds × 10 repeats) using culture-only (23), clinical-only (78) and integrated (101) feature sets, and were compared with single inflammatory markers and a three-marker logistic model. Calibration, decision curves and both impurity-based and permutation importance were assessed. After false discovery rate correction, the IBD group had higher C-reactive protein (CRP), high-sensitivity CRP and interleukin-6 (IL-6), higher body mass index, and lower fasting glucose and dietary fibre intake. Culture differences, such as more frequent overgrowth above reference intervals (90.4% vs. 64.7%, q = 0.056), did not survive correction. Gradient boosting reached an AUC of 0.912 [95% CI 0.855–0.969] on the integrated set. The clinical-only model performed similarly (AUC 0.903 [95% CI 0.841–0.964], DeLong p = 0.367), and a logistic model on CRP, hs-CRP and IL-6 discriminated comparably (AUC 0.885 [95% CI 0.808–0.962]). The culture-only model discriminated weakly (AUC 0.637 [95% CI 0.508–0.765]) and was not distinguishable from chance in a label-permutation test (p = 0.25). Within IBD, the treatment-response model (AUC 0.789 [95% CI 0.655–0.924]) did not outperform disease severity alone (AUC 0.87), because all responders had mild disease. In this cohort, discrimination between IBD and controls came from systemic inflammatory markers, and quantitative stool culture added no measurable value. These results do not support diagnostic or screening use; studies including faecal calprotectin, symptomatic controls and external validation are needed.

Endocrine disturbance and impaired physical reserve coexist in cirrhosis, but female-specific associations between circulating sex hormones and frailty remain insufficiently characterized. We examined hormone–frailty associations across menopausal categories in a clinical database of women with cirrhosis. This exploratory, single-centre, record-based cross-sectional analysis used retrospectively reviewed clinical records of 94 women with cirrhosis treated at “Sf. Apostol Andrei” Emergency County Hospital, Constanța, Romania, during January 2021–March 2025. The continuous Liver Frailty Index (LFI) was the principal outcome; handgrip strength and L3 skeletal muscle index were complementary phenotypes. Six separate linear models evaluated estradiol, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone, progesterone, total testosterone, and sex hormone-binding globulin, adjusting for age, recorded MELD-Na, and body mass index. HC3 heteroscedasticity-robust confidence intervals and Benjamini–Hochberg false-discovery-rate correction were used. Sensitivity analyses addressed menopausal status, exogenous hormones, inflammation, disease severity, sampling context, and severe hepatic encephalopathy (HE). There were 10 premenopausal, 11 perimenopausal, and 73 postmenopausal women. Median LFI was 3.76 (interquartile range, 3.14–4.48); 25 women (26.6%) had LFI ≥ 4.4. Estradiol was not clearly associated with LFI after adjustment: coefficient −0.022 per doubling (95% confidence interval, −0.257 to 0.214; p = 0.855). FSH was associated with higher LFI: 0.125 per 10 mIU/mL (0.042–0.208; p = 0.004; adjusted q = 0.022). The FSH estimate remained positive in postmenopausal women, but its interval crossed zero after excluding records labelled with severe HE. No hormone–muscle correlation survived correction across 18 exploratory comparisons. FSH, but not estradiol, showed an adjusted cross-sectional association with frailty. These findings do not establish causality, prognostic utility, or an indication for hormone treatment. Unresolved sampling-context and physical-assessment timing require source-record verification before clinical interpretation.

Inflammatory demyelinating diseases are defined as being a miscellaneous group of disorders that develop as a consequence of an acute or chronic inflammatory process. The types of demyelinating disease with a high prevalence are multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica and acute-disseminated encephalomyelitis. Patients with multiple sclerosis frequently experience depressive and anxiety symptoms including cognitive impairments. Depression is correlated with an unsatisfatory quality of life, having a conceivably important psychological impact on all the aspects of the patient’s live, including less efficient coping mechanisms and a decreased compliance with disease-modifying drugs. As a general rule among population, depression in multiple sclerosis patients is regularly correlated with anxiety. The clinical importance of neuropsychiatric symptoms should not be neglected because multiple sclerosis patients are more prone to be affected in all the aspects of life, in view of the morbidity that these symptoms bring in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

The present study examines the efficacy of tango therapy on motor and non-motor symptomatology in Parkinson’s disease, as detailed in articles published over the previous four decades (1980–2022). All data was collected using PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Science Direct. The present descriptive study outlines the advantages of tango in the rehabilitation of Parkinson’s disease’s motor and non-motor symptoms. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the usefulness of tango for people with PD. Information from various research is critical for determining if tango is a useful supplementary therapy for the variety of symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease. The purpose of this review was to describe the present state of research on this subject. Thus, the objective of this review is to promote awareness of tango therapy’s therapeutic benefits for Parkinson’s disease.

Cat-scratch disease is an illness caused by Bartonella henselae that occurs as a result of contact with an infected kitten or dog, such as a bite or scratch. It is more prevalent in children and young adults, as well as immunocompromised individuals. There are limited publications examining the features of CSD in patients. As such, the purpose of this research was to assess the clinical neuro-ophthalmological consequences of CSD reported in the literature. Among the ophthalmologic disorders caused by cat-scratch disease in humans, Parinaud oculoglandular syndrome, uveitis, vitritis, retinitis, retinochoroiditis and optic neuritis are the most prevalent. The neurological disorders caused by cat-scratch disease in humans include encephalopathy, transverse myelitis, radiculitis, and cerebellar ataxia. The current review addresses the neuro-ophthalmological clinical manifestations of cat-scratch disease, as described in papers published over the last four decades (1980–2022). All the data gathered were obtained from PubMed, Medline and Google Scholar. The current descriptive review summarizes the most-often-encountered clinical symptomatology in instances of cat-scratch disease with neurological and ocular invasion. Thus, the purpose of this review is to increase knowledge of cat-scratch disease’s neuro-ophthalmological manifestations.

Cerebral venous thrombosis accounts for 0.5–1% of all cerebrovascular events and is one type of stroke that affects the veins and cerebral sinuses. Females are more affected than males, as they may have risk factors, such as pregnancy, first period after pregnancy, treatment with oral contraceptives treatment with hormonal replacement, or hereditary thrombophilia. This neurological pathology may endanger a patient’s life. However, it must be suspected in its acute phase, when it presents with variable clinical characteristics, so that special treatment can be initiated to achieve a favorable outcome with partial or complete functional recovery. The case study describes the data and the treatment of two patients with confirmed cerebral venous thrombosis with various localizations and associated risk factors, who were admitted to the neurology department of the Sf. Apostol Andrei Emergency Hospital in Constanta. The first patient was 40 years old and affected by sigmoid sinus and right lateral sinus thrombosis, inferior sagittal sinus, and right sinus thrombosis, associated with right temporal subacute cortical and subcortical hemorrhage, which appeared following a voluntary abortion. The second case was a patient aged 25 who was affected by left parietal cortical vein thrombosis, associated with ipsilateral superior parietal subcortical venous infarction, which appeared following labor. The data are strictly observational and offer a perspective on clinical manifestations and clinical and paraclinical investigations, including the treatment of young patients who had been diagnosed with cerebral venous thrombosis and admitted to the neurology department.