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Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors significantly improved the treatment options for patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Unfortunately, currently, there is no strategy for sustaining remission of the disease with TNF inhibitors; after discontinuation, a high percentage of patients experience flares in a short time. Therefore, up‐to‐date, long‐term use of TNF inhibitors in patients with ankylosing spondylitis remains necessary. For this reason, the issue of the long‐term safety of TNF inhibitors in patients with ankylosing spondylitis raises concerns. Although TNF inhibitors are well established in ankylosing spondylitis treatment, the majority of studies on TNF inhibitors' safety have been performed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Until recently, there were very few studies of TNF inhibitors' safety in ankylosing spondylitis. Meanwhile, TNF inhibitors appear to have different safety profiles in ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis. In this review, we describe available data on the occurrence of adverse events associated with TNF inhibitor treatment in ankylosing spondylitis, including serious adverse events, infections, serious infections, tuberculosis, opportunistic infections, hepatitis B reactivation, malignancies, laboratory test abnormalities, autoimmune diseases, paradoxical adverse events, and heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Fibromyalgia frequently co‑occurs with axial spondyloarthritis. The Fibromyalgia Rapid Screening Tool (FiRST) is a well‑recognized screening tool for fibromyalgia and has been translated into multiple languages. Yet, it has not been adapted into Polish, nor has it been validated in the context of axial spondyloarthritis., Objectives: This study aimed to create a Polish version of the FiRST, evaluate its psychometric properties, and conduct its validation among patients with axial spondyloarthritis., Patients and Methods: We translated and performed a cross‑cultural adaptation of the FiRST into Polish, followed by its validation in a cohort of 174 patients with axial spondyloarthritis. For criterion validity, we employed the 2016 American College of Rheumatology fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria as the gold standard for fibromyalgia diagnosis., Results: The Polish version of the FiRST demonstrated marginally acceptable internal consistency with the Cronbach α coefficient of 0.644, but exhibited high test‑retest reliability, with a global score correlation coefficient of 0.75 (P <0.001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated a good performance of the translated questionnaire (area under the curve of 0.803). The accuracy of the derived cutoff value for the global score (5+ points, consistent with the original instrument) was 75.3%, featuring higher specificity (82.6%) than sensitivity (63.1%), and a fair level of diagnostic agreement, as indicated by the Cohen κ coefficient of 0.46., Conclusions: Our study provided a validated Polish version of the FiRST. Although it may not be an ideal tool for screening in axial spondyloarthritis cases and should be used cautiously in research, it proves to be a useful instrument in daily clinical settings.

The need set by a computational industry to increase processing power, while simultaneously reducing the energy consumption of data centers, became a challenge for modern computational systems. In this work, we propose an optical communication solution, that could serve as a building block for future computing systems, due to its versatility. The solution arises from Landauer's principle and utilizes reversible logic, manifested as an optical logical gate with structured light, here represented as Laguerre-Gaussian modes. We introduced a phase-shift-based encoding technique and incorporated multi-valued logic in the form of a ternary numeral system to determine the similarity between two images through the free space communication protocol.

Objective: Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy is a chronic cardiac dysfunction in patients with liver cirrhosis. It is mostly characterized by impaired cardiac function, but some myocardial anatomical changes have also been described. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of liver cirrhosis on heart wall thickness changes in a retrospective pathological analysis of cirrhotic patients without hypertension., Materials and Methods: Statistical analysis of 11,860 autopsy protocols drawn up between 1981 and 2002 in the Department of Pathology Medical University of Warsaw was done., Results: Liver cirrhosis was confirmed by autopsy in 802 patients (6.7%); in 697 patients, hypertension was excluded. Analysis of heart wall thickness showed pathological changes in 53.2% of patients - left ventricular thickening in 9.3%, right ventricular thinning in 31.0%, and both in 12.9%. In clinical assessment, the cause of death in 25.8% of patients was cardiocirculatory failure, significantly more in the group with selective left ventricular thickening. It was the most common cause of death among them. Vascular changes in the upper gastrointestinal tract, liver enlargement and hepatic coma were also significantly related to the heart wall thickness changes occurrence., Conclusions: Based on statistical analysis of autopsy material, we concluded that liver cirrhosis can lead to heart wall thickness changes (left ventricular thickening and/or right ventricular thinning). We revealed that patients with selective left ventricular thickening had significantly more cardiac related causes of death. In clinical practice, treatment of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy requires specialized diagnostics and appropriate cardiological procedures involving the participation of a hepatologist, especially in the group of patients with selective left ventricular hypertrophy., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by chronic hyperglycemia which causes micro- and macrovascular complications. A significant increase in diabetes morbidity rate has been observed. It is estimated that in year 2030 there will be 552 million diabetics worldwide. Type 1 diabetes requires lifelong treatment with insulin. The only available treatment of diabetes restoring physiological glucose metabolism is transplantation of pancreatic beta cells in form of pancreas or isolated pancreatic islets transplantation. The treatment restores normoglycemia and reduces chances of complications of diabetes. Over the past 10 years there has been significant progress in the development of the islet transplantation procedure. Constant improvement of the method, in particular the development of islets isolation and sourcing techniques, shows promise. According to the Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry in 1999-2009, there have been performed 1,072 allotransplantations. This paper summarizes the indications and contraindications for the procedure, the transplantation process, as well as the surgical procedure and immunosuppressive treatment. The review presents problems related to pancreatic islet cells transplantation and standard scheme of immunosuppressive treatment, requiring a solution.