Kegels

Background and objective Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a prevalent condition affecting women of various age groups, significantly impacting their quality of life. To address this multifaceted issue, a comprehensive approach that goes beyond traditional pelvic floor exercises is needed. Dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (DNS) exercises, targeting the integrated spinal stabilization system, offer a promising alternative. Thus, this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of DNS exercises and Kegel exercises in managing SUI among women...

To explore the clinical effects of Kegel exercise combined with rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) on the pelvic floor muscle function, medical coping style, and sexual life quality after total hysterectomy. This was a retrospective cohort study. A total of 91 patients were collected in this study: 39 patients in Kegel group (received Kegel exercise alone) and 52 patients in combination group (received Kegel exercise combined with REBT). Propensity score matching (PSM) with 1:1 ratio was conducted to avoid the selection bias...

BACKGROUND: The emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 has led to the administration of different booster vaccines to mitigate COVID-19. Vaccines with adenoviral vectors have been rarely associated with vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe 15 cases of VITT after the third and fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Brazil. METHODS: Cases were reported after all kinds of anti-SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccinations between October 17, 2021, and September 4, 2022...

BACKGROUND:  Hysterectomy is an effective management approach for uterovaginal prolapse. However, the decision to undergo hysterectomy is a complex matter, influenced not only by medical factors but also cultural beliefs, societal norms, and individual attitudes. In Saudi Arabia, a nation with its distinctive cultural and social norms, the understanding of women's attitudes toward hysterectomy is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, such related attitudes have not been explored...

We evaluated the psychometric properties of a measure consisting of items that assess current HIV care continuum engagement based on established definitions in the United States. At baseline, participants in this longitudinal study, which included three time points from 2015 to 2020, were 331 young Black sexual minority men ages 18-29 living with HIV in the southern United States residing in two large southern cities. Self-report items reflected four aspects of HIV care continuum engagement as binary variables: seeing a healthcare provider for HIV care, being on antiretroviral treatment, being retained in HIV care, and being virally suppressed...

Fecal incontinence is a refractory disease in colorectal surgery. The main clinical manifestation is that patients cannot control the discharge of gas, solid or liquid feces in the rectum autonomously. It is easy to bring shame to patients and seriously affect their physical and mental health. Reducing the frequency of fecal incontinence, restoring anal sphincter function, and improving patient quality of life are important goals for treating fecal incontinence. With the development of medical technology and the improvement of treatment plans for fecal incontinence, patients with fecal incontinence usually undergo conservative treatment first, and if conservative treatment is ineffective, surgery can be chosen...

Young Black sexual minority men (YBSMM) living in the US South are among those most disproportionately impacted by HIV in the USA. This health inequity is, in part, due to lower rates of sustained engagement in the HIV care continuum, resulting in a lower prevalence of viral suppression and higher overall community-level viral load. Social, structural, and economic inequities have previously been linked with poorer HIV care engagement among YBSMM. HIV-related social support, individual-level resilience, and healthcare empowerment have been shown to be independently associated with improved HIV care engagement...

The brain controls nearly all bodily functions via spinal projecting neurons (SPNs) that carry command signals from the brain to the spinal cord. However, a comprehensive molecular characterization of brain-wide SPNs is still lacking. Here we transcriptionally profiled a total of 65,002 SPNs, identified 76 region-specific SPN types, and mapped these types into a companion atlas of the whole mouse brain1 . This taxonomy reveals a three-component organization of SPNs: (1) molecularly homogeneous excitatory SPNs from the cortex, red nucleus and cerebellum with somatotopic spinal terminations suitable for point-to-point communication; (2) heterogeneous populations in the reticular formation with broad spinal termination patterns, suitable for relaying commands related to the activities of the entire spinal cord; and (3) modulatory neurons expressing slow-acting neurotransmitters and/or neuropeptides in the hypothalamus, midbrain and reticular formation for 'gain setting' of brain-spinal signals...

HYPOTHESIS: Oil-water interfaces that are created by confining a certain amount of oil in a square shaped pixel (∼200 x 200 μm2 with a height of ∼10 μm) topped by a layer of water, have a curvature that depends on the amount of oil that happens to be present in the confining area. Under the application of an electric field normal to the interface, the interface will deform due to inhomogeneities in the electric field. These inhomogeneities are expected to arise from the initial curvature of the meniscus, from fringe fields that emerge at the confining pixel walls and, if applicable, from interfacially adsorbed particles...

PURPOSE: Individuals with drug-resistant epilepsy may benefit from epilepsy surgery. In nonlesional cases, where no epileptogenic lesion can be detected on structural magnetic resonance imaging, multimodal neuroimaging studies are required. Breath-hold-triggered BOLD fMRI (bh-fMRI) was developed to measure cerebrovascular reactivity in stroke or angiopathy and highlights regional network dysfunction by visualizing focal impaired flow increase after vasodilatory stimulus. This regional dysfunction may correlate with the epileptogenic zone...

OBJECTIVES: To explore the context in which older men navigate treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) following prostate surgery by characterizing lived experience of men with symptomatic SUI. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS AND METHODS: Mixed method study using surveys and semistructured interviews to examine a cohort of men who underwent evaluation for treatment of postprostatectomy SUI. RESULTS: Thirty-six men were interviewed after consultation for SUI and 31 had complete quantitative clinical data...

Genomic instability is a hallmark of cancer, resulting in tumor genomes having large numbers of genetic aberrations, including homozygous deletions of protein coding genes. That tumor cells remain viable in the presence of such gene loss suggests high robustness to genetic perturbation. In model organisms and cancer cell lines, paralogs have been shown to contribute substantially to genetic robustness-they are generally more dispensable for growth than singletons. Here, by analyzing copy number profiles of > 10,000 tumors, we test the hypothesis that the increased dispensability of paralogs shapes tumor genome evolution...

Self-assessments are commonly used to track Army readiness in specialized communities, but they are rarely analyzed for reliability and predictive validity. Before introducing new assessments, existing ones should be reevaluated. We examined the Global Assessment Tool (GAT), an annual Army-required self-assessment with multiple psychosocial and health behavior short scales. Psychometric analyses on nine scales included item response theory (IRT) and measurement invariance models across total Army (n = 743,057) and special operations forces (SOF; n = 3,478) cohorts...

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical effect of multiple precision behavioral therapy (MPBT) on mild to moderate stress urinary incontinence (SUI) with female sexual dysfunction (FSD) in women. METHODS: We randomly divided 90 female patients with mild to moderate SUI with FSD into three groups of an equal number: control group A, control group B and an MPBT group, treated by electrical stimulation, Kegel training and MPBT, respectively, all for 8 weeks. Using International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF), Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7), Female Sexual Function Indexes (FSFI) and Glazer protocol, we evaluated the clinical effects, recorded the cost of treatment, and compared them among the three groups of patients...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical effect of pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation training combined with psychological nursing intervention in the treatment of intractable type ⅢB prostatitis. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data on 51 cases of intractable type ⅢB prostatitis treated from October 2020 to October 2022, which were randomly assigned to receive Tamsulosin medication (the control group, n = 24) or pelvic floor muscle rehabilitation training and psychological nursing in addition (the intervention group, n = 27), all for 8 weeks...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the utility of demographic risk factors and post-concussion oculomotor symptoms to identify adolescents with anxiety panic disorder symptoms. METHOD: Participants included 124 patients (63 male) aged 10 to 18 (M = 14.4, SD = 2.3) within 2-30 days of injury (M = 9.3, SD = 6.3) who presented to a concussion specialty clinic between 2017-2018. All participants completed the Screening for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED-C) to evaluate pre-injury anxiety as well as the Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) as part of standard clinical care...

Young Black Sexual Minority Men with HIV (YBSMM+) in the US South encounter multiple socio-structural challenges that contribute to disproportionately poor HIV-related outcomes across the care continuum. Depression, anxiety, intimate partner violence (IPV), and alcohol use are prominent factors that negatively impact engagement with HIV care. Syndemic theory posits that these multiple factors interact synergistically to promote poor outcomes; however, depression itself is highly heterogeneous in presentation, which may pose issues when examining associations to HIV care engagement...

Expansion of a triplet repeat tract in exon 1 of the HTT gene causes Huntington's disease (HD). The mutant HTT protein (mHTT) has numerous aberrant interactions with diverse, pleiomorphic effects. Lowering mHTT is a promising approach to treat HD, but it is unclear when lowering should be initiated, how much is necessary, and what duration should occur to achieve benefits. Furthermore, the effects of mHTT lowering on brain lipids have not been assessed. Using a mHtt-inducible mouse model, we analyzed mHtt lowering initiated at different ages and sustained for different time-periods...

Genetic feedback loops can be used by cells to regulate internal processes or to keep track of time. It is often thought that, for a genetic circuit to display self-sustained oscillations, a degree of cooperativity is needed in the binding and unbinding of actor species. This cooperativity is usually modeled using a Hill function, regardless of the actual promoter architecture. Furthermore, genetic circuits do not operate in isolation and often transcription factors are shared between different promoters. In this work we show how mathematical modelling of genetic feedback loops can be facilitated with a mechanistic fold-change function that takes into account the titration effect caused by competing binding sites for transcription factors...

Pelvic floor muscles (PFMs) play a crucial role in maintaining pelvic organ support and continence. However, pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD), often resulting from insufficient PFM control, poses a substantial global health challenge for women. This study aims to explore the relationship between levator ani muscle elasticity when assessed through transperineal shear-wave elastography (SWE) and bladder base displacement, quantified using transabdominal ultrasonography (TAUS), as a means to comprehensively evaluate PFM function...