University Hospitals of Tours

The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) relies on the detection of protein biomarkers, particularly in cerebrospinal fluid (e.g., Aβ and phosphorylated Tau) or through brain imaging. The invasive nature of lumbar puncture and the numerous contraindications have driven the search for early and reliable diagnostic biomarkers for AD.
Human tears are an accessible biological fluid that has proven relevant in the biomarker search strategy for both ophthalmological and systemic diseases, especially neurodegenerative conditions. Advances in methods for low-volume analysis have facilitated the identification of tear biomarkers. Total tau has been reported as elevated in the tears of patients with AD compared to controls (n=65). Additionally, metabo-lipidomic analyses offer several advantages (accessibility, non-invasiveness, reproducibility) and also appear promising as a diagnostic tool for systemic and neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This supports the relevance of comparing both AD proteins biomarkers and metabo-lipidomic signatures in the tears of patients with AD (Mild Cognitive Impairement (MCI) and dementia) with healthy controls.

Surgical procedures involving X-rays in the operating room have increased in recent years, thereby increasing the exposure of operating room staff to ionizing radiation. An individual dosimeter makes it possible to record the radiation exposure to which these personnel are exposed. However, it has been noticed that these dosimeters are not thoroughly worn, consequently the radiation doses recorded are not reliable.
In order to increase the proportion of dosimeters systematically worn in the operating room, we study the impact of the association of the passive dosimeter with the hospital access badge (forming the Badge-Dosi). A first pilot study was carried out at Tours University Hospital showing the effectiveness of this concept. With the present study, we carry out a multicenter study. Our hypothesis is that the Badge-Dosi allows a significant increase of dosimeter use in the operating room, which improves the reliability of the monitoring of personnel.

Bevacizumab is a standard drug for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy. However, inter-individual pharmacokinetic variability was observed for bevacizumab and an exposure-response relationship for efficacy was described for bevacizumab in mCRC patients treated with 1st-line bevacizumab-based chemotherapy.