Life

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare services worldwide, potentially affecting diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to renal tumors. This study aimed to compare the demographic characteristics, diagnostic procedures, and histopathological features of renal lesions before and during the pandemic. Methods: This retrospective, single-center study included 1780 renal lesions submitted for histopathological examination at a tertiary referral institution in Serbia between September 2016 and September 2023. Cases were divided into pre-pandemic (n = 809) and pandemic (n = 971) groups. Demographic characteristics, tumor laterality, diagnostic and surgical procedures, histopathological diagnoses, and selected pathological parameters of different types of renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) were compared. Results: The distribution of diagnostic and surgical procedures differed significantly between the two periods (p < 0.001), with the proportion of percutaneous core needle biopsies increasing from 5.3% to 11.3%. The overall distribution of histopathological diagnoses also differed significantly (p < 0.001), primarily reflecting lower proportions of low-grade RCC (4.2% vs. 1.8%; adjusted p = 0.0347) and other benign epithelial and mesenchymal tumors (4.8% vs. 2.3%; adjusted p = 0.0489). Among the major RCC subtypes, no statistically significant differences were observed in nuclear grade distribution (p = 0.069), pathological tumor stage (p = 0.358), or tumor size (p = 0.412). Patients in the pandemic period were slightly older than those in the pre-pandemic period (median age: 63 vs. 62 years; p = 0.040). Conclusions: The pandemic period was associated with significant changes in the distribution of diagnostic procedures and selected histopathological diagnoses, without a demonstrable shift toward more advanced pathological stages among the evaluated RCC cases. These findings highlight the importance of considering changes in diagnostic pathways and case selection when interpreting renal tumor characteristics during periods of healthcare disruption.

This study evaluated paired Pix2Pix translation of standard-light and polarized RGB facial photographs into device-derived RBX (Red/Brown/X) Red and Brown images. The dataset comprised 617 matched image sets from 22 subjects, partitioned at the subject level into training (509 sets, 18 subjects), validation (60 sets, two subjects), and testing (48 sets, two subjects). Separate 256 × 256 U-Net and PatchGAN models were trained for each input and target combination. The reported comparison uses standard-light models trained for 200 epochs and polarized models trained for 500 epochs for each target; checkpoints were selected solely by validation mean absolute error (MAE). On the 48 test images, the polarized 500-epoch Red model achieved an MAE of 0.004063 ± 0.000287 and a structural similarity index measure (SSIM) of 0.987013 ± 0.001073; the corresponding Brown model achieved an MAE of 0.025414 ± 0.009142 and an SSIM 0.960360 ± 0.008078. Fixed geometric skin-candidate masks yielded an SSIM of 0.983198 ± 0.001172 for Red and 0.953726 ± 0.011496 for Brown. Values are image-level means ± sample standard deviations, not estimates from 48 independent participants. A separate two-participant cross-camera experiment used earlier model checkpoints. These findings support device-image reconstruction under the evaluated conditions; they do not establish chromophore concentration accuracy or clinical diagnostic performance.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a heterogeneous metabolic disorder in which maternal dysmetabolism interacts with placental adaptation and fetal development. Plant-derived bioactive compounds have attracted interest because they modulate metabolic, inflammatory, redox, mitochondrial, nutrient-sensing, and vascular pathways implicated in GDM; however, mechanistic activity alone does not establish therapeutic suitability during pregnancy. This critical narrative review evaluates selected phytochemicals using a placenta-centered translational perspective that distinguishes evidence from women with GDM, human placental and pregnancy-associated tissues, pregnancy-specific animal models, and mechanistic cellular systems. Human placental studies demonstrate substantial heterogeneity in insulin signaling, mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, inflammation, nutrient transport, and angiogenic regulation, emphasizing that altered pathways may represent pathological, compensatory, or adaptive responses. Among the compounds reviewed, EGCG has the most direct clinical treatment evidence, whereas naringenin shows particularly strong disease-specific placental mechanistic alignment. Quercetin and mangiferin have substantial pregnancy-specific preclinical support, while resveratrol and berberine illustrate how fetal or developmental concerns can limit translation despite promising metabolic effects. Overall, no isolated phytochemical currently combines replicated clinical efficacy, defined maternal–fetal pharmacokinetics, placental relevance, and adequate developmental safety. Future translation requires integrated evaluation across the maternal–placental–fetal unit.