Nutritional behaviors may exert important influence on morbidity and graft function in patients after kidney transplantation (KT). Nutritional status is closely related to potential risk factors of developing posttransplant complications, including diabetes mellitus, weight gain, and negative effects on immunosuppressive therapy. The aim of this study was to assess the dietary intake in patients after KT. Nutritional intake of 154 (61 women and 93 men) patients was assessed based on a questionnaire regarding food intake (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, cholesterol, sugar, phosphorus, calorific value) within 3 working days preceding the routine outpatient posttransplant visit. Patient medical history, concomitant medications, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was obtained from medical charts. The mean age (years) ± SD of patients was 51.9 ± 14.1. The patients were evaluated 94 ± 67 months after KT, with a median eGFR of 53 (range, 41.2-64.1) mL/min/1.73 m2. Sixty-two percent of patients had increased body mass index values. The mean total energy intake was 2159.4 ± 551.9 kcal/day. The patients reported elevated salt (8.5 ± 2.4 g per day) and fat intake (99.4 ± 3.2 g per day) including 57% saturated fatty acids. The patients consumed products containing high amounts of sugars (108.2 ± 107.0 g per day), carbohydrates (238.3 ± 64.3 g per day), and cholesterol (303.6 ± 11.1 mg per day). The diet among kidney recipients consisted predominantly of fats, meat, cured meat, and sweets. The nutritional behaviors of patients after KT are in most cases poor. Improvement of eating habits in these patients seems to be a simple method to preserve kidney function over the long term.

The aim of the study was to evaluate feasibility of diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) method in diagnosing Hodgkin lymphoma in pediatric patients and to compare it with 18F-FDG PET/CT as a gold standard.

Bardet–Biedl syndrome (BBS) and Alström syndrome (ALMS) are rare multisystem diseases with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance and genetic heterogeneity, characterized by visual impairment, hearing impairment, cardiomyopathy, childhood obesity, and insulin resistance. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the indicators of nervous system changes occurring in patients with ALMS and BBS using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) methods compared to a group of healthy subjects. The OCT results showed significantly lower macular thickness in the patient group compared to the control group (p = 0.002). The MRS study observed differences in metabolite levels between the study and control groups in brain areas such as the cerebellum, thalamus, and white matter. After summing the concentrations from all areas, statistically significant results were obtained for N-acetylaspartate, total N-acetylaspartate, and total creatine. Concentrations of these metabolites were reduced in ALMS/BBS patients by 38% (p = 0.0004), 35% (p = 0.0008), and 28% (p = 0.0005), respectively. Our results may help to understand the pathophysiology of these rare diseases and identify strategies for new therapies.

Conventional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in systemic diseases with central nervous system involvement (SDCNS) may imitate MRI findings of multiple sclerosis (MS). In order to better describe the MRI characteristics of these conditions, in our study we assessed brain volume parameters in MS (n = 58) and SDCNS (n = 41) patients using two-dimensional linear measurements (2DLMs): bicaudate ratio (BCR), corpus callosum index (CCI) and width of third ventricle (W3V). In SDCNS patients, all 2DLMs were affected by age (CCI p = 0.005, BCR p < 0.001, W3V p < 0.001, respectively), whereas in MS patients only BCR and W3V were (p = 0.001 and p = 0.015, respectively). Contrary to SDCNS, in the MS cohort BCR and W3V were associated with T1 lesion volume (T1LV) (p = 0.020, p = 0.009, respectively) and T2 lesion volume (T2LV) (p = 0.015, p = 0.009, respectively). CCI was associated with T1LV in the MS cohort only (p = 0.015). Moreover, BCR was significantly higher in the SDCNS group (p = 0.01) and CCI was significantly lower in MS patients (p = 0.01). The best predictive model to distinguish MS and SDCNS encompassed gender, BCR and T2LV as the explanatory variables (sensitivity 0.91; specificity 0.68; AUC 0.86). Implementation of 2DLMs in the brain MRI analysis of MS and SDCNS patients allowed for the identification of diverse patterns of local brain atrophy in these clinical conditions.

Background: Wolfram syndrome (WFS) is a rare neurodegenerative disease that is genetically determined and inherited in an autosomal recessive manner. Although the first clinical symptom appearing in early childhood is diabetes mellitus, subsequent symptoms are associated with optic nerve atrophy, followed by central nervous system atrophy. Methods: The aim of the study was to analyse magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain in combination with single-voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and to assess the copy number of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA-CN) in 10 patients with WFS compared with a control group of 17 healthy individuals. Results: A significant decrease in the amount of selected metabolites was observed in WFS patients compared to controls in all assessed brain regions (pons, cerebellum, white matter, thalamus, and hippocampus). For three metabolites, Glutamate (Glu), Glutamate + Glutamine (Glx) and total N-acetylaspartate (TNAA), significant differences in concentrations were found between the study groups in almost all matrices evaluating specific areas of the brain (p < 0.011), with the exception of a trend toward reduced TNAA in the hippocampus (p = 0.065). In addition, patients with WFS had a significant decrease in the mitochondrial-to-nuclear DNA ratio compared to controls (p < 0.0003). Some metabolites, such as N-acetylaspartate and total N-acetylaspartate, showed strong correlations with specific regions of the visual pathway on MRI scans in patients with WFS. Conclusions: Selected brain metabolites and mtDNA-CN may become potential markers of WFS, and the results of this study may be used to define indicators for future therapeutic strategies.