Medical and Biomedical Updates

Medical and Biomedical Updates is volume 1289 in Springer’s Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology series and belongs to the Clinical and Experimental Biomedicine subseries. Edited by Mieczyslaw Pokorski, the volume gathers twelve research and review chapters that examine how the body responds to low oxygen, infection, immune deficiency, physical extremes, and rehabilitation demands.

The collection is not a single-topic textbook. It reads as a focused snapshot of active clinical and laboratory questions, with each chapter addressing a specific problem. Several contributions explore respiratory and cardiovascular control, including the role of IP3 receptors in carotid body chemoreception, respiratory muscle strength in trained and untrained individuals, and uroflowmetry during high-altitude exposure. Other chapters turn to immunology and infectious disease, with studies on primary immunodeficiencies, pneumococcal vaccination in adult asthma patients, and immunoglobulin G deficiency in children with recurrent respiratory infections. Clinical dermatology and rehabilitation also appear through work on pruritus in severe atopic dermatitis and caregiver burden after spinal cord injury.

What the Volume Explores

• Oxygen sensing and hypoxia: experimental evidence on carotid body chemoreceptors, hyperbaric oxygen treatment for COVID-19, and altitude-related physiology.
• Immunology and respiratory medicine: primary immunodeficiencies, vaccine response in asthma, and immunoglobulin G deficiency.
• Clinical dermatology: characteristics of pruritus in severe atopic dermatitis.
• Performance and rehabilitation: physiological responses to multi-hour underwater endurance, respiratory muscle outcomes, and caregiver burden in chronic spinal cord injury care.
• Translational and computational approaches: in silico evaluation of periprosthetic fractures after hip arthroplasty and an animal-model study of gingival fibroblasts and cementum thickness.

Clinical Questions, Experimental Evidence

The chapters move between bench research and patient-oriented inquiry. A review of carotid body signaling examines why hypoxic and hypercapnic responses diverge at the level of intracellular calcium and IP3 receptors. A separate contribution considers hyperbaric oxygen as a possible therapeutic avenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical immunology chapters focus on primary immunodeficiency in children and adults, vaccine use in asthma patients, and immunoglobulin G deficiency in recurrent respiratory infections. Together, these sections show how laboratory findings can inform diagnosis, treatment, and patient monitoring.

Physiology Beyond the Clinic

Several chapters extend biomedical research into extreme environments and performance settings. A record-breaking multi-hour underwater endurance performance is analyzed through pathophysiological responses, while a Himalayan expedition study reports uroflowmetry findings in healthy Italian trekkers and Nepali porters exposed to altitude hypoxia. Respiratory muscle strength and ventilatory function are also compared between trained athletes and healthy untrained individuals, offering a useful contrast for readers interested in exercise physiology and respiratory adaptation.

Rehabilitation, Surgery, and Care Burden

Later chapters address practical clinical challenges. One study evaluates osteogenic-induced gingival fibroblasts and cementum thickness in a dog model of tooth root resorption. Another uses in silico methods to assess treatment of periprosthetic fractures in elderly patients after hip arthroplasty. A final chapter appraises the burden of caregivers to chronically rehabilitated patients with spinal cord injuries in a tertiary neurological center in Nepal, bringing attention to the human and social dimensions of long-term care.

Who May Find It Useful

Researchers and clinicians in respiratory physiology, immunology, rehabilitation medicine, and biomedical engineering may find relevant material here. The volume can also serve graduate students and healthcare professionals who want a concise, citable overview of current work across several biomedical subfields. Because the chapters range from molecular signaling to caregiver burden, the book highlights how experimental findings connect with clinical and human outcomes rather than remaining isolated in the laboratory.