UPPER GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT ENDOSCOPY: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF INDICATIONS AND FINDINGS AT ATBUTH BAUCHI

Introduction

Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) endoscopy is considered a safe procedure performed for diagnosis, monitoring the course of disease, early detection of complications, treatment, and responses to therapeutic intervention. The indications have increased over the years. This study aimed to analyse the indications, findings, and safety of UGI endoscopy in our environment.

Methodology

A retrospective study of consecutive patients who had UGI endoscopy at ATBUTH over the period of two years (2014 -2016). Data extracted from the records of the patients including biodata, clinical presentation, indications, findings, and complications of the procedure was analyzed using SSPS version 26. The procedure was explained to each patient. After a spray of 10% xylocaine spray to the patient's pharynx, the procedure was carried out with an Olympus CV-170 machine using standard protocols and monitoring of vital signs throughout.

Results

Two hundred and fifty-two patients were included, 148 (58.7%) males, 104 (41.3%) females, age range of 17-85 years (mean age ± SD = 44.1 ± 15.2). The commonest indications were dyspepsia 160 (63.5%). Hematemesis 32 (12.7%), suspicion for gastric 9(3.6%), and oesophageal tumours 6(2.4%) were also indications. The most common finding was gastritis 67 (26.6%). There was increased detection of gastric 11(4.4%) and oesophageal tumours 8(3.2%) more than clinical acumen and in elderly patients with troublesome symptoms. None of the patients developed complications from the procedure.

Conclusions

UGI endoscopy is a safe procedure, and detects gastric and oesophageal tumours more accurately than clinical acumen and is recommended in all patients with troublesome upper GI symptoms.

The mediational role of distracting stimuli in emotional word recognition

Emotions are considered distractions that often prompt subsequent actions. In this way, the aim of this work was to examine the role of distracting stimuli on the relationship of RT and accuracy. In order to do that, a word recognition task was carried out in which emotional valence was manipulated. More precisely, a mediational model, testing how changes in distracting stimuli mediate RT predicting accuracy across emotional conditions, was carried out. The results suggest that changes in task demands should distract from the secondary task to the extent that these task demands implicate and affect accuracy. Moreover, the distracting task seems to mediate between accuracy and the target task under emotional stimuli, showing the negative distracting condition to be the most remarkable effect. Furthermore, neutral distracting latencies did not affect accuracy. Understanding the mechanisms by which emotion impairs cognitive functions has important implications in several fields, such as affective disorders. However, the effects of emotion on goal-directed cognitive processing remain unclear.

Vibronic model for the quantum dynamical study of the competition between bright and charge-transfer excited states in single-strand polynucleotides: the adenine dimer case

A simple vibronic model aimed at investigating the interplay between bright excitonic states and dark charge-transfer (CT) states in stacked adenine (Ade) nucleobases is presented. Two orbitals (the HOMO and the LUMO) for each Ade site have been included in the electronic Hamiltonian, whose parameters have been fitted to reproduce the main features of the absorption spectra of two stacked 9-methyladenine (9Me-A) molecules, computed in aqueous solution at the PCM/TD-PBE0 level. Three modes for each adenine unit have been included in the Hamiltonian, to describe the main structural changes among the different excited state minima of the adenine stacked dimer, as described at the TD-DFT level. The developed vibronic Hamiltonian (four electronic states and six nuclear coordinates) has been adopted to perform quantum dynamical calculations of a photoexcited Ade stacked dimer, utilizing the multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree method. The obtained results indicate that the transfer between the bright excitonic state and the CT state is fast and effective.

Effective method to compute vibrationally resolved optical spectra of large molecules at finite temperature in the gas phase and in solution

The authors present a new method for the computation of vibrationally resolved optical spectra of large molecules, including the Duschinsky rotation of the normal modes and the effect of thermal excitation. The method automatically selects the relevant vibronic contributions to the spectrum, independently of their frequency, and it is able to provide fully converged spectra with moderate computational times, both in vacuo and in solution. By describing the electronic states in the frame of the density functional theory and its time-dependent extension, they computed the room temperature absorption spectra of coumarin C153 and trans-stilbene in cyclohexane and the phosphorescence spectrum of porphyrazine in gas phase, showing that the method is fast and efficient. The comparison with experiment for trans-stilbene and coumarin C153 is very satisfactory, confirming the progress made toward a reliable method for the computation and interpretation for the optical spectra of large molecules.

Effective method to compute Franck-Condon integrals for optical spectra of large molecules in solution

The authors present a new method for the computation of vibrationally resolved optical spectra of large molecules, including the Duschinsky [Acta Physicochim. URSS 7, 551 (1937)] rotation of the normal modes. The method automatically selects the relevant vibronic contributions to the spectrum, independent of their frequency, and it is able to provide fully converged spectra with a quite modest computational time, both in vacuo and in condensed phase. Starting from the rigorous time-dependent expression they discuss indeed in which limits the spectrum of a molecule embedded in a solvent, described as a polarizable continuum, can be computed in a time-independent formalism, defining both nonequilibrium and equilibrium limits. In these cases the polarizable continuum model provides a suitable description of the solvent field. By computing the absorption spectra of anthracene in gas phase and of coumarin C153 in gas phase and cyclohexane, and the phosphorescence spectrum of the unsubstituted coumarin in ethanol they show that the method is fast and efficient.

Crown Ether Encapsulation Effects on the Optical Properties of Delocalized and Partially Localized Bridged Ruthenium Dimers

The effects of crown ether encapsulation on the position of the near-IR-vis bands of [(NH(3))(5)Ru-pyz-Ru(NH(3))(5)](m)()(+) and [(NH(3))(5)Ru-(4,4'-bpy)-Ru(NH(3))(5)](m)()(+) (m = 4, 5) have been investigated within a purely electronic picture. The model accounts for the observed behavior and furnishes a theoretical explanation. The near-IR band, observed experimentally around 1 eV, is found to be a metal-to-ligand charge-transfer transition, in contrast to the common idea that ascribes it to an intervalence transition (Ferretti, A.; Lami, A.; Villani, G. Inorg. Chem. 1998, 37, 2799). The results obtained are a further confirmation that the model proposed contains all the essential ingredients for a basic minimal description of electron transfer in donor-bridge-acceptor systems.

A Basic Electronic Model for the Study of Optical Properties of Delocalized and Partially Localized Donor-Bridge-Acceptor Systems

An electronic model for donor-bridge-acceptor systems is discussed for the specific cases of [(NH(3))(5)Ru-pyz-Ru(NH(3))(5)](m)()(+) and [(NH(3))(5)Ru-(4,4'-bpy)-Ru(NH(3))(5)](m)()(+) (m = 4, 5, 6) as well as for their longer chain analogues. The model accounts for the optical properties observed in the near-IR-vis and provides an explanation of their dependence upon the oxidation state of the metals as well as of the effect of changing the bridging ligand. The results obtained suggest that this model contains the essential ingredients for being considered a basic minimal model for the study of electron transfer in donor-bridge-acceptor systems.