7 to 23.7) and urban women (10.5 to 20.0). Two significant inflection points were identified in 2010 and 2016, with highest annual percentage changes between 2016 and 2018 in rural and urban areas. Although absolute rates were lower in younger compared with older women in both rural and urban areas, all age groups experienced similar increases. The rate ratios of pre-pregnancy hypertension in rural compared with urban women ranged from 1.18 (95%CI 1.04 to 1.35) for ages 15 to 19 years to 1.51 (95%CI 1.39 to 1.64) for ages 40 to 44 years in2018.

Maternal burden of pre-pregnancy hypertension has nearly doubled in the past decade and the rural-urban gap has persisted.

Maternal burden of pre-pregnancy hypertension has nearly doubled in the past decade and the rural-urban gap has persisted.

Alopecia areata is a highly frequent disease with an impact on quality of life and several treatment options with little clinical confirmatory evidence.

To disseminate the recommendations of Brazilian dermatologists with expertise in the treatment of alopecia areata.

Eight specialists with expertise in alopecia areata from different university centers were appointed by the Brazilian Society of Dermatology to reach a consensus on its treatment. Based on the adapted DELPHI methodology, the relevant elements were considered; then, an analysis of recent literature was carried out and the consensus was written down. Consensus on the management of alopecia areata was defined with the approval of at least 70% of the panel.

Intralesional injectable corticotherapy was considered the first option for localized disease in adults. In extensive cases with signs of activity, systemic corticosteroid therapy should be considered and can be used together with immunosuppressants (corticosteroid-sparing agents). The use of an immunosensitizer (diphencyprone) is an option for stable long-term cases. Evaluation of side effects is as important as the rate of hair regrowth.

Intralesional injectable corticotherapy was considered the first option for localized disease in adults. In extensive cases with signs of activity, systemic corticosteroid therapy should be considered and can be used together with immunosuppressants (corticosteroid-sparing agents). The use of an immunosensitizer (diphencyprone) is an option for stable long-term cases. Evaluation of side effects is as important as the rate of hair regrowth.

To implement and to evaluate a compressed sensing (CS) reconstruction algorithm based on the sensitivity encoding (SENSE) combination scheme (CS-SENSE), used to reconstruct sodium magnetic resonance imaging (

Na MRI) multi-channel breast data sets.

In a simulation study, the CS-SENSE algorithm was tested and optimized by evaluating the structural similarity (SSIM) and the normalized root-mean-square error (NRMSE) for different regularizations and different undersampling factors (USF=1.8/3.6/7.2/14.4). Subsequently, the algorithm was applied to data from in vivo measurements of the healthy female breast (n=3) acquired at 7T. Moreover, the proposed CS-SENSE algorithm was compared to a previously published CS algorithm (CS-IND).

The CS-SENSE reconstruction leads to an increased image quality for all undersampling factors and employed regularizations. Especially if a simple 2

order total variation is chosen as sparsity transformation, the CS-SENSE reconstruction increases the image quality of highly undersampled data sets (CS-SENSE SSIM

=0.234, NRMSE

=0.491 vs. CS-IND SSIM

=0.201, NRMSE

=0.506).

The CS-SENSE reconstruction supersedes the need of CS weighting factors for each channel as well as a method to combine single channel data. The CS-SENSE algorithm can be used to reconstruct undersampled data sets with increased image quality. This can be exploited to reduce total acquisition times in

Na MRI.

The CS-SENSE reconstruction supersedes the need of CS weighting factors for each channel as well as a method to combine single channel data. The CS-SENSE algorithm can be used to reconstruct undersampled data sets with increased image quality. This can be exploited to reduce total acquisition times in 23Na MRI.Pharmaceutical companies fund most clinical trials on drugs. However, there are clinical issues that might not be a priority from a commercial point of view, but that should certainly be addressed, given their importance for patients and society in general. Independent clinical research represents a fundamental pillar here and its basic element is investigator-initiated studies/trials. In these studies, it is the researcher who conceives the idea, develops the project and also acts as the sponsor. Most researchers are familiar with participating as collaborators in studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. In find more , the company is in charge of all the scientific, legal and financial aspects, leaving the responsibility of the researcher mainly limited to the inclusion of patients and compliance with the protocol. On the contrary, the start-up and development of an independent research study requires considerable resources – of knowledge, money and time – and careful planning on the part of the researcher. In this manuscript, we will review the main characteristics of the studies initiated by the researcher and their fundamental differences with those sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. We will also outline what its strengths and limitations are. Finally, we will propose some solutions to the main challenges they pose. Our ultimate goal is to stimulate potential researchers to undertake the challenge of conducting an independent clinical research project.

An increase in the rate of relative poverty and the number of welfare recipients is a serious social problem in Japan. #link# A recent overseas survey demonstrated that lack of health insurance was associated with increased in-hospital mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical features of STEMI patients who receive welfare public assistance in Japan.

We enrolled 525 STEMI patients who were hospitalized in our hospital from 2010 to 2019. We divided patients into groups of patients receiving welfare public assistance (WPA group, N = 67) and groups of patients not receiving welfare public assistance (non-WPA group, N = 458). Patient characteristics, clinical outcome, and cardiac function on transthoracic echocardiography were compared.

WPA group were younger than non-WPA group (61.2 ± 10.9 years VS 64.5 ± 13.3 years, p = 0.03). The prevalence of smoking was higher in WPA group compared to non-WPA group (91.0% VS 81.1% p = 0.