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6,706 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: case one was 13 years old and had severe sudden onset low back pain with radiation to anterior aspect of right thigh during extension of leg .
computerized tomography at l2-l3 level ( figure 1 ) showed a bony fragment similar to an osteophyte extending to canal .
in lumbosacral mri we detected a l2-l3 disc bulging with impingement of l3 root and thecal sac compression ( figure 23 ) .
the second case was 14 years old and had sudden onset low back pain with radiation to right lower extremity for one month .
he had pain in territory of l5 root with intact muscle power and deep tendon reflexes .
note the avulsed bony particle from apophyseal rim intervertebral disc herniation at level of l2-l3 in sagittal view mri ( axial view ) from l2-l3 inter vertebral disc lateral lumbosacral radiography showed a small bony extension into vertebral canal at l4-l5 intervertebral disc level ( figure 4 ) .
he was disable and had no recovery after several medical and conservative management and physiotherapy .
lateral lumbosacral x - ray .small bony particle adjust to posterior margin of l4 rim is seen in his lumbosacral mri , he had a herniated l4-l5 disc herniation with compression effect on the thecal sac and right l5 root ( figure 5 ) .
mri(axial view ) from l4-l5 inter vertebral disc due to failed conservative management by other referral centers , we operated them in prone position .
avulsed , hard and sharp particles of the posterior rim of vertebral body , including overlying cartilage of the annulus fibrosus similar to takata classification type - ii were seen .
retropulsed bony fragment was removed after careful separation from peripheral tissue . then herniated intervertebral disc
the calcification of the cartilaginous rim occurs around age 13 and fused with the vertebral body by the end of skeletal growth , i.e. by the age of 18 - 25 years.3791011 the development occurs at different rates in various spinal segments .
intervertebral disc of immature spine is fastened to the ring apophysis by the outermost fibers of... | avulsion or fracture of posterior ring apophysis of lumbar vertebra is an uncommon cause of radicular low back pain in pediatric age group , adolescents and athletes .
this lesion is one of differential diagnosis of disc herniation .
we reported two teenage boys with sever low back pain and sciatica during soccer play that ultimately treated with diagnosis of slipped vertebral apophysis . |
6,707 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: various large - scale and high - throughput techniques , such as chromosome banding ( 1,3 ) , comparative genomic hybridization ( cgh ) ( 4 ) and fluorescence in situ hybridization ( fish ) ( 5 ) , are being used in modern cancer cytogenetics to detect structural and copy number changes in chromosomes .
the most common type of mutation among the known cancer genes is chromosomal translocation ( 6 ) .
it can deregulate the gene expression by disrupting the promoter region of the gene or by joining the gene with enhancer elements like immunoglobulin or t - cell receptor genes ( 7 ) .
alternatively , fusion of two coding regions creates a chimeric gene that encodes a fusion protein that interferes with the normal regulating pathways ( 2,8 ) .
abl , the target protein of the drug gleevec treating chronic myeloid leukemia ( cml ) ( 8,9 ) .
cml is associated in most cases with a chromosomal translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 that creates the philadelphia chromosome .
the bcr gene in chr22 is fused with the gene abl in chr9 , so called the t(9;22)(q34;q11 ) translocation .
the tyrosine kinase activity of abl is constantly activated by the bcr gene ( gtpase activator ) in the fusion protein , resulting in the rapid cellular mitosis and inability of the cell to perform apoptosis .
two adjacent , independent genes may be co - transcribed and the intergenic region is spliced out so that the resulting fused transcript possesses exons from both genes ( 10 ) .
this phenomenon , termed as cotranscription and intergenic splicing ( cotis ) , can lead to fusion protein or altered promoter region for the downstream gene in the same way as chromosome translocation .
furthermore , trans - splicing can join two independently transcribed mrna sequences at canonical exon
even though several cases of natural trans - splicing are reported in human ( 11,12 ) , it is generally considered to be rare and will be ignored in this work . given the importance of chromosome aberration in cancer detection , prognosis and target... | chromosome translocation and gene fusion are frequent events in the human genome and are often the cause of many types of tumor .
chimerdb is the database of fusion sequences encompassing bioinformatics analysis of mrna and expressed sequence tag ( est ) sequences in the genbank , manual collection of literature data and integration with other known database such as omim .
our bioinformatics analysis identifies the fusion transcripts that have non - overlapping alignments at multiple genomic loci .
fusion events at exon exon borders are selected to filter out the cloning artifacts in cdna library preparation .
the result is classified into two groups genuine chromosome translocation and fusion between neighboring genes owing to intergenic splicing .
we also integrated manually collected literature and omim data for chromosome translocation as an aid to assess the validity of each fusion event .
the database is available at for human , mouse and rat genomes . |
6,708 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this study was based at the armed forces research institute of medical sciences ( afrims)kwai river christian hospital clinical center , sangkhlaburi district , kanchanaburi province , thailand .
( the protocol was approved by the human subjects research review board of the u.s .
army , ethical review committee for research in human subjects of the thai ministry of public health , and scientific review committee of afrims . )
patients were selected from those enrolled and sampled from june 1999 to february 2002 in an on - going fever study , which focuses on the etiology of undifferentiated febrile illnesses ( oral temperature > 38c or history of fever within the past 48 h ) in local residents > 20 years of age .
criteria leading to the suspicion of rickettsioses included 1 ) a rash or eschar , 2 ) arthropod bites or recent exposure to the jungle , 3 ) a negative giemsa - stained malaria smear , and 4 ) serum specimens that tested positive by enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay ( elisa ) for sfg specific immunoglobulin ( ig ) m ( panbio , brisbane , australia ) or dot - elisa for total ig of r. rickettsii or r. typhi ( panbio - indx , baltimore , md ) .
serum specimens were sent to the unit des rickettsies in marseille for specific diagnosis of rickettsioses .
serologic testing was performed by indirect immunofluorescence ( if ) on acute - phase ( day 0 ) and convalescent - phase ( approximately day 21 ) samples .
serum specimens were tested by using a panel of 13 rickettsial antigens , including sfg rickettsiae ( r. conorii indian , r. japonica , r. honei , r. helvetica , r. slovaca , at1 rickettsia , r. felis , r. heilongjiangii ) typhus group rickettsiae ( r. typhi ) , orientia tsutsugamushi ( strain gilliam , kato , karp , and kawazaki ) , anaplasma phagocytophilum , ehrlichia chaffeensis , and coxiella burnetii .
the rationale for the antigen screening panel included the presence of the strains in asia and results of previous serosurveys for a. phagocytophilum and e. chaffeensis .
the standard... | to investigate the presence of rickettsioses in rural residents of the central thai - myanmar border , we tested the blood of 46 patients with fever .
four patients had murine typhus , three patients had scrub typhus , and eight patients had spotted fever group rickettsioses , including the first case of rickettsia felis infection reported in asia . |
6,709 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: transgenic mice are sacrificed using carbon dioxide gas , followed by decapitation and the brain extracted .
the other will be submerged in 4% paraformaldehyde ( pfa ) for at least 48 hours at 4c .
after fixation in 4% pfa for at least 48 hours , the hemi brain is transferred directly into 30% sucrose solution and placed at 4c . at the point ,
when the hemi brain sank to the bottom , usually requiring about 48 hours , it is ready to be embedded in oct for cryosectioning . before cryosectioning ,
mount a thin layer of oct on the knob and allow to freeze at -20c .
remove the cerebellum from the rest of the hemi brain and place onto the layer of frozen oct .
immediately cover the hemi brain with oct and allow to slowly freeze at -20c . once the oct embedding the brain has turned opaque , it is ready to be sectioned .
after formic acid treatment , the section will temporarily turn opaque and may appear to shrivel . remove each section into a plate and wash with tx - pbs ( 0.3% triton x-100 in pbs ) for 5 min x 3 with gentle shaking .
block endogenous peroxide blocking 0.5% h2o2 in tx - pbs , rt 30 min with gentle shaking .
block section with 5% non - fat skim milk dissolved in tx - pbs at room temperature for 1 hour with gentle shaking .
incubate sections in primary antibody ( biotinylated 4g8 , 1:500 - 1:2000 , signet ) diluted in tx - pbs containing 5% milk at 4c overnight with gentle shaking . wash section with tx - pbs for 10 min x 3 with gentle shaking .
prepare abc solution following manufacturer 's protocol ( elite abc , vector laboratories , ) .
free - floating brain sections are mounted on gelatin coated slides , to help with tissue adhesion .
sections are then air dried followed by clearing with a series of xylene and mounted in entellen .
plaques are visualized under light microscopy at 40x magnification and are quantified by assessing the mean plaque count per slice for each mouse .
mount 4 to 5 hemi brain sections onto a glass slide and allow to completely air dry prior to staining .
incubate slides... | alzheimer 's disease ( ad ) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder leading to dementia .
neuritic plaque formation is one of the pathological hallmarks of alzheimer 's disease .
the central component of neuritic plaques is a small filamentous protein called amyloid protein ( a)1 , which is derived from sequential proteolytic cleavage of the beta - amyloid precursor protein ( app ) by -secretase and -secretase .
the amyloid hypothesis entails that a-containing plaques as the underlying toxic mechanism in ad pathology2 .
the postmortem analysis of the presence of neuritic plaque confirms the diagnosis of ad .
to further our understanding of a neurobiology in ad pathogenesis , various mouse strains expressing ad - related mutations in the human app genes were generated .
depending on the severity of the disease , these mice will develop neuritic plaques at different ages .
these mice serve as invaluable tools for studying the pathogenesis and drug development that could affect the app processing pathway and neuritic plaque formation . in this protocol , we employ an immunohistochemical method for specific detection of neuritic plaques in ad model mice .
we will specifically discuss the preparation from extracting the half brain , paraformaldehyde fixation , cryosectioning , and two methods to detect neurotic plaques in ad transgenic mice : immunohistochemical detection using the abc and dab method and fluorescent detection using thiofalvin s staining method . |
6,710 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: systemic lupus erythematosus ( sle ) is a systemic autoimmune and inflammatory disease that affects many organs and systems through formation and deposition of autoantibodies and immune complexes leading to severe tissue and organ damage [ 1 , 2 ] .
it is characterized by hyperreactivity of t and b cells and a failure to eliminate apoptotic bodies [ 24 ] .
patients with sle may present with several oral manifestations , the prevalence varies from 20 to 80% , and usually more than one injury is present [ 513 ] . the terms salivary hypofunction or hyposalivation and xerostomia are often incorrectly used interchangeably .
hyposalivation refers to a diminished salivary flow , whereas xerostomia refers to a subjective experience of mouth dryness .
this is further complicated by the fact that some patients with hyposalivation are not xerostomic and , conversely , those with xerostomia may have normal salivary flow rates . however , xerostomia is a common and primary symptom associated with salivary gland hypofunction .
usually when salivary secretion has decreased to half its normal values an individual will begin to experience xerostomia .
more than 75% of patients with sle suffer from oral complaints like dryness ( xerostomia ) and soreness .
systemic lupus erythematosus has also been associated with a decrease in salivary flow , resulting in xerostomia and hyposalivation has already been described in these patients [ 511 , 13 , 1517 ] .
this dysfunction in the salivary glands and the detection of salivary changes present in sle patients can reflect a distinct and specific multisystem presentation [ 16 , 17 ] .
1993 studied a group of sle patients with no other systemic diseases and none of the patients complained of xerostomia . yet , those patients had significantly lower salivary flow rates than controls .
in other studies , patients with sle experienced some degree of xerostomia and had significantly lower sws compared with healthy controls . the complexity of the molecular composition of saliva has shown... | background . systemic lupus erythematosus ( sle ) is a chronic inflammatory , multisystem , and autoimmune disease . objective .
the aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of hyposalivation in sle patients and evaluate factors associated .
methods .
this is a cross - sectional study developed at the cuiaba university general hospital ( unic - hgu ) , mato grosso , brazil .
the study population consisted of female sle patients treated at this hospital from 06/2010 to 12/2012 .
unstimulated salivary flow rates ( sfrs ) were measured .
descriptive and inferential analyses were performed in all cases using a significance level p < 0.05
. results .
the results showed that 79% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus suffered from hyposalivation and that the disease activity and age in years were the factors that resulted in statistically significant differences .
conclusion .
the activity of the disease , age > 27 years , and the drugs used were factors associated with hyposalivation , resulting in a statistically significant decrease in saliva production . |
6,711 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: aquaporins belong to a family of membrane proteins that passively transport water , glycerol , and other small molecules ( nielsen et al . , 2002 ) .
the archetypical water channel aqp1 has been shown to be highly specific for water and excludes protons , ammonia , and sugars such as glycerol ( zeidel et al . , 1992 , 1994 ) .
the specificity of the channel arises from the presence of two highly conserved npa motifs ( asn - pro - ala residues ) that form the narrow constriction of the pore region , which acts as a molecular sieve .
crystallographic studies suggest that the pore is narrow at the constriction and lets only water diffuse through it ( murata et al . , 2000 ;
molecular dynamics ( md ) simulation studies suggest the presence of another energy barrier that offers both steric and electrostatic selectivity , named the aromatic ( ar / r ) constriction , which is formed by the four amino acids phe-56 , his-180 , cys-189 , and arg-195 ( rat aqp1 ) in water - selective aquaporins ( de groot et al . , 2003 ; chakrabarti et al . , 2004 ; chen et al . ,
this constriction region is wider , as his-180 is usually replaced by gly , which allows for water and glycerol to pass through as shown in glpf ( fu et al . , 2000 ) .
although general geometry of aquaporin channels differs only slightly between aquaporin family members , its water permeability may differ by several orders of magnitude .
water is thought to hydrogen bond to arginine in the npa region ( miloshevsky and jordan , 2004 ; vidossich et al . , 2004 ) and
the degree of hydrogen bonding or the energy barrier caused by hydrogen bonding is thought to dictate the rate of water flow through aquaporins .
furthermore , in a study of model channel desformylgramicidin , which shows a 100-fold increase in water permeability compared with gramicidin a , the lowered hydrogen bond mediated energy barrier is thought to be responsible for large differences observed in water permeability ( de groot et al . , 2002 ) .
to determine whether such a finely tuned water... | determining the mechanisms of flux through protein channels requires a combination of structural data , permeability measurement , and molecular dynamics ( md ) simulations . to further clarify the mechanism of flux through aquaporin 1 ( aqp1 ) ,
osmotic pf ( cm3/s / pore ) and diffusion pd ( cm3/s / pore ) permeability coefficients per pore of h2o and d2o in aqp1 were calculated using md simulations .
we then compared the simulation results with experimental measurements of the osmotic aqp1 permeabilities of h2o and d2o . in this manner we evaluated the ability of md simulations to predict actual flux results .
for the md simulations , the force field parameters of the d2o model were reparameterized from the tip3p water model to reproduce the experimentally observed difference in the bulk self diffusion constants of h2o vs. d2o . two md systems ( one for each solvent )
were constructed , each containing explicit palmitoyl - oleoyl - phosphatidyl - ethanolamine ( pope ) phospholipid molecules , solvent , and aqp1 .
it was found that the calculated value of pf for d2o is 15% smaller than for h2o .
bovine aqp1 was reconstituted into palmitoyl - oleoyl - phosphatidylcholine ( popc ) liposomes , and it was found that the measured macroscopic osmotic permeability coefficient pf ( cm / s ) of d2o is 21% lower than for h2o .
the combined computational and experimental results suggest that deuterium oxide permeability through aqp1 is similar to that of water . the slightly lower observed osmotic permeability of d2o compared to h2o in aqp1 is most likely due to the lower self diffusion constant of d2o . |
6,712 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a total of 1,633 male body weight ( bwt ) and age measurements , for 232 thoroughbred colts ,
were collected by the japan bloodhorse breeders association ( jbba ) between 2005 and 2009 .
the data with extreme values over 4 residual standard deviations were preliminary analyzed
by using logistic growth curve equation , and removed from this study .
the scatterplot of the
weight - age data is shown with gray dots in fig .
1.scatterplot of the 1,633 male body weight ( bwt ) data of thoroughbred colts ( light
gray dots ) .
thin black line indicates expected ( actual ) data averages of bwt , and the
thick gray line indicates estimated richards growth curve ( i.e. , equation 2 ) .. in the figure , the tendency of the seasonal compensatory growth can be recognized
between about 300 and 600 days , which is the period of compensatory growth .
scatterplot of the 1,633 male body weight ( bwt ) data of thoroughbred colts ( light
gray dots ) .
thin black line indicates expected ( actual ) data averages of bwt , and the
thick gray line indicates estimated richards growth curve ( i.e. , equation 2 ) .
seven sigmoid growth curve equations ( logistic , gompertz , von bertalanffy , brody , richards ,
bridges and janoscheck ; see ) were fit to the
weight - age data .
the best - fit equation based on akaike s information criterion ( aic ) was the
richards equation as follows : in this general richards equation ( equation 1 ) , body weight ( bwt , kg ) is
described as a function of age ( t , day ) .
the biological interpretations of
the four parameters ( a , b , k and
m ) have been discussed previously .
briefly , a is the asymptotic limit for bwt
as t approaches infinity ; b is a scaling parameter that
defines the degree of maturity ; k is a rate constant that determines the
spread of the curve along the time axis ; m is the point of inflection in
the sigmoid curve in relation to age .
the estimated richards equation using the weight - age data was as
follows : in fig .
1 , the... | thoroughbred horses are seasonal mating animals , raised in northern regions or countries .
foals born yearly in spring generally show a typical seasonal compensatory growth pattern ,
in which their growth rate declines in the first winter and increases in the next spring .
in this study , a new empirical adjustment approach is proposed to adjust for this
compensatory growth when growth curve equations are estimated , by using 1,633 male body
weights of thoroughbreds as an illustrating example . based on general richards growth
curve equation ,
a new growth curve equation was developed and fit to the weight - age data .
the new growth curve equation had a sigmoid sub - function that can adjust the compensatory
growth , combined with the richards biological parameter responsible for the maturity of
animals .
the unknown parameters included in the equations were estimated by sas nlmixed
procedure .
the goodness of fit was examined by using akaike s information criterion ( aic ) .
the aic values decreased from 13,053 ( general richards equation ) to 12,794 ( the newly
developed equation ) , indicating the better fit of the new equation to the weight - age data .
the shape of the growth curve was improved during the period of compensatory growth .
the
proposed method is one of the useful approaches for adjusting seasonal compensatory growth
in growth curve estimations for thoroughbreds , and for their management during the
compensatory period .
based on this approach , the optimal growth curve equations can be
estimated also for female body weight of thoroughbreds or other growth traits affected by
seasonal compensatory growth . |
6,713 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: gastric cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and often spreads from the stomach to other parts of the body , particularly to the liver , lungs , bones , the abdominal lining , and lymph nodes . during the last decade ,
considerable research has been conducted on the induction of apoptosis by traditional chinese medicines ( tcms ) .
in addition , tcm can be combined with modern medicine to improve symptoms , enhance quality of life , prevent recurrence and metastasis , and prolong survival . however , comparably little is known of the mechanisms whereby tcms affect cancer cells .
scutellaria barbata d. don is an important component of numerous medicinal formulas that have been traditionally used in china and korea to treat various cancers .
scutellaria barbata d. don is known to induce the apoptosis of human colon carcinoma cells by activating mitochondria and the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 ( stat3 ) , extracellular signal - regulated kinase ( erk ) , and p38 signaling - dependent pathways [ 3 , 4 ] . in tumor - bearing lewis - bearing c57bl/6 mice ,
scutellaria barbata d. don decreased interleukin ( il)-17 , il-10 , forkhead box p3 ( foxp3 ) , transforming growth factor beta ( tgf-1 ) , rort , and il-6 levels , but remarkably increased il-2 and interferon gamma ( ifn- ) levels and inhibited tumor growth by regulating immune function .
scutellaria barbata d. don induced the apoptosis of human hepatocarcinoma mhcc97-h cells via the dose - dependent up - regulations of caspase-3 and -9 , and combined treatment with scutellaria barbata d. don and low dose 5-fluorouracil ( 5-fu ) significantly inhibited tumor growth in vitro and in vivo possibly via apoptosis and regulating 5-fu metabolism .
also , zhang et al investigated the anti - tumor effect of different solvent fractions of scutellaria barbata d. don and the potential underlying molecular mechanisms .
they suggested that the chloroform fraction of scutellaria barbata d. don exhibited the most potent inhibitory effect on... | objectives : the crude extracts of scutellaria barbata d. don ( sb ) have traditionally demonstrated inhibitory effects on numerous human cancers both in vitro and in vivo .
gastric cancer is one of the most common types of cancer on world .
the authors investigated the effects of an ethanol extract of scutellaria barbata d. don ( esb ) on the growth and survival of mkn-45 cells ( a human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line).methods : the mkn-45 cells were treated with different concentrations of esb , and cell death was examined using an mtt ( 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide ) assay .
analyses of sub - g1 peaks , caspase-3 and -9 activities , and mitochondrial membrane depolarizations were conducted to determine the anti - cancer effects of sb on mkn-45 cells . also , intracellular reactive oxygen species ( ros ) generation was investigated.results:esb inhibited the growth of mkn-45 cells , caused cell cycle arrest , and increased the sub - g1 population .
in addition , esb markedly increased mitochondrial membrane depolarization and the activities of caspase-3 and -9 .
esb exerted anti - proliferative effects on mkn-45 cells by modulating the mitogen - activated protein kinase ( mapk ) signaling pathway and by increasing the generation of ros .
furthermore , combinations of anti - cancer drugs plus esb suppressed cell growth more than treatments with an agent or esb , and this was especially true for cisplatin , etoposide , and doxorubicin.conclusion:esb has a dose - dependent cytotoxic effect on mkn-45 cells and this is closely associated with the induction of apoptosis .
esb - induced apoptosis is mediated by mitochondria- , caspase- and mapk dependent pathways .
in addition , esb enhances ros generation and increases the chemosensitivity of mkn-45 cells .
these results suggest that treatment with esb can inhibit the proliferation and promote the apoptosis of human gastric adenocarcinoma cells by modulating the caspase- , mapk- and ros - dependent pathway . |
6,714 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chironomus riparius ( chironomidae , diptera ) , is widely used in aquatic exotoxicological studies for assessing acute and sub - lethal toxicities of contaminated sediments and for water monitoring due to their widespread occurrence , short life - cycle , easy to be reared in the laboratory , physiological tolerance to various environmental conditions .
to date , the endpoints used for monitoring such effects in c. riparius are based on a small number of specific biomarkers and measurements of organism level effects , such as survival and reproduction .
genomic - based techniques based on expression analysis of genes are important tools for investigating molecular level effects caused by exposure to environmental pollutants , which will provide the ability to detect mechanisms of action and subsequent adverse cellular level effects and associated with different types of toxicity . as a pre - requisite for genomic based eco - toxicological studies knowledge of the c. riparius transcriptome is important but despite its eco - toxicological importance , no large scale transcriptome analysis of c. riparius has been done so far . in a previous report arvestad et al .
reported the transcriptome analysis of c. tentans midgut and an epithelial cell line using cdna sequencing using conventional cdna synthesis and sequencing method .
however , with the advent of new high throughput pyrosequencing technologies using several genome sequencers , such as gs - flx , gs - flx - titanium and solexa , extensive cdna sequence information can be obtained in a short period of time .
the gs - flx pyrosequencer , from 454 life science / roche , is well - suited for de novo transcriptome sequencing for the rapid production of sequence data with reduced time , labor and cost , and generates the longest reads .
moreover , well characterized reference genomes of insects [ 8 - 10 ] could provide platforms for comparative genome analyses of non model organisms like c. riparius . in this study , we present the first comprehensive... | objectiveschironomus riparius , a non - biting midge ( chironomidae , diptera ) , is extensively used as a model organism in aquatic ecotoxicological studies , and considering the potential of c. riparius larvae as a bio - monitoring species , little is known about its genome sequences .
this study reports the results of an expressed sequence tags ( ests ) sequencing project conducted on c. riparius larvae using 454 pyrosequencing.methodsto gain a better understanding of c. riparius transcriptome , we generated ests database of c. ripairus using pyrosequencing method.resultssequencing runs , using normalized cdna collections from fourth instar larvae , yielded 20,020 expressed sequence tags , which were assembled into 8,565 contigs and 11,455 singletons .
sequence analysis was performed by blastx search against the national center for biotechnology information ( ncbi ) nucleotide ( nr ) and uniprot protein database . based on the gene
ontology classifications , 24% ( e - value 1 - 5 ) of the sequences had known gene functions , 24% had unknown functions and 52% of sequences did not match any known sequences in the existing database .
sequence comparison revealed 81% of the genes have homologous genes among other insects belonging to the order diptera providing tools for comparative genome analyses .
targeted searches using these annotations identified genes associated with essential metabolic pathways , signaling pathways , detoxification of toxic metabolites and stress response genes of ecotoxicological interest.conclusionsthe results obtained from this study would eventually make ecotoxicogenomics possible in a truly environmentally relevant species , such as , c. riparius . |
6,715 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the biomedical community has traditionally used two types of ceramic implants for bone tissue regeneration technologies : inert materials such as alumina , zirconia , and carbon ( hulber 1993 ; wise et al 1995 ) and bioactive ceramics ( vallet - reg 2001a ) , which interact with the physiological environment when implanted leading to their integration in the living tissue ( hench 1984 ; kokubo et al 1990 ; langer et al 1993 ; hench 1998 ) .
depending on the patient needs , an appropriate ceramic material should be selected to manufacture a determined implant . when hard tissues , natural composite materials , are aimed , the synthetic approach of these composite materials is a way to mimic nature in the laboratory ( vallet - reg et al 2006a ) . in the past few years bioactive ceramics like calcium phosphates (
yamamuro et al 1990a ) , bioactive glasses and glass - ceramics ( yamamuro et al 1990b ) have been deeply investigated .
organic - inorganic hybrid materials have been also widely proposed as good candidates in the biomaterials field because they combine the properties of ceramics and organic polymers on the nanometric scale ( tsuru et al 1997 ; chen et al 1999 ; sanchez et al 2005 ; colilla et al 2006 ; vallet - reg et al 2006a ) .
star gels have been recently reported as alternative materials for bone tissue regeneration because they combine the good mechanical properties of certain organic - inorganic hybrids with the bioactivity of conventional glasses ( manzano et al 2006 ; vallet - reg et al 2006b ) .
however , much research effort has been committed to the investigation of ordered mesoporous silica materials in the biomedical field for two main reasons : their capability to regenerate bone tissue ( vallet - reg et al 2006c , 2006d ) combined with their drug delivery possibilities ( vallet - reg et al 2006e , 2007a ) .
when these silica - based ordered mesoporous materials are exposed to the physiological environment , a series of chemical reactions take place in the material - living tissue... | research in the development of new bioceramics with local drug delivery capability for bone regeneration technologies is receiving great interest by the scientific biomedical community . among bioceramics ,
silica - based ordered mesoporous materials are excellent candidates as bone implants due to two main reasons : first , the bioactive behavior of such materials in contact with simulated body fluids , ie , a carbonate hydroxyapatite similar to the mineral phase of bone is formed onto the materials surfaces .
second , their capability of acting as delivery systems of a large variety of biologically active molecules , including drugs to treat bone infection , inflammation or diseases , and molecules that promote bone tissue regeneration , such as peptides , proteins , growth factors , and other osteogenic agents .
the recent chemical and technological advances in the nanometer scale has allowed the design of mesoporous silicas with tailored structural and textural properties aimed at achieving a better control over molecule loading and release kinetics . moreover
organic modification of mesoporous silica walls has been revealed as a key strategy to modulate molecule adsorption and delivery rates . |
6,716 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the reconstruction of the distal dorsal fingers is difficult as the fingertip skin is hard and inflexible.[14 ] we have experienced cases of minor distal dorsal finger skin defects due to digital mucous cyst ( dmc ) excision .
in addition , some studies on the operative procedures of digital dorsal finger reconstruction have also been conducted.[16 ] however , these methods cause long and visible scars [ 14 ] or are not suitable for the reconstruction of small defects .
we felt a simpler and easier method was needed ; thus , we decided to treat distal dorsal skin defects after dmc resection using lateral finger flap ( lff ) .
this flap can be harvested under local anesthesia and our method can repair defects easily and simply after the resection of tumors of the nail matrix .
from 2006 through 2014 , we treated nine patients ( five males and four females ) with an average age of 59.5 years ( 5270 years ) .
surgery was performed under digital nerve block using 1% lidocaine solution ( astrazeneca japan , osaka , japan ) .
the size of the skin defect was detected , the skin defect was measured and the lff was designed at the volar side of the finger just below the mid - lateral line ( figure 1 ) , and the incision was made on the distal and dorsal side .
the lff was harvested with fat from the distal side and was transferred to the defect using 5 - 0 ethilon suture ( ethicon , baltimore , md ) .
the donor site was closed directly , also by using 5 - 0 ethilon suture .
( a ) flap design : the flap was designed just below the mid - lateral line .
( b ) the flap was elevated from the proximal side of the finger and harvested with fat ( solid line ) .
the skin defects were located as follows : on the thumb in one case ; the middle finger in three cases ; the ring finger in two cases ; the little finger in two cases and the third toe in one case ( table 1 ) . the average flap width was 5.9 0.9 mm ( range 57 mm ) .
although three patients had paresthesia of the finger for one month postoperatively , there was no... | abstractwe treated nine patients with skin defect produced by digital mucous cyst ( dmc ) excision on the finger and toe using lateral finger flap ( lff ) .
the postoperative scars were esthetically acceptable and no recurrence of mucous cysts was observed .
our lff is a simple method to repair minor distal dorsal finger defects . |
6,717 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: hypertension is a common and major public health problem associated with a high level cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide .
it remains the major risk factor for heart failure , stroke , coronary artery disease , and chronic renal failure in nigeria .
hypertension which was initially considered rare in sub - saharan africa is now a major noncommunicable disease threatening sub - saharan africa .
previous studies in sub - saharan africa had shown a higher prevalence of hypertension in urban centers than in rural communities [ 3 , 4 ] , but recent studies show a growing trend in prevalence of hypertension in rural communities compared to that of the urban communities [ 5 , 6 ] .
this may be attributed to a growing increase in the age and lifestyle changes in the rural communities .
prevalence of hypertension in nigeria has progressively increased from 10.113.3% and 8.9% in the late sixties to between 38.8 to 44.5% and 34.8% recently in rural and urban communities , respectively .
this difference in prevalence is partly due to changes in definition of hypertension from 160/95 mmhg earlier to 140/90 mmhg in jnc vii .
most of these studies were done either in the south - west or the south - east nigeria and very few were done in south - south , nigeria . as a result of these identified changes in the epidemiologic trend of hypertension and its complications , there is therefore the need to regularly conduct a survey on the prevalence of hypertension .
this study was therefore conducted to find the recent prevalence of hypertension in both the rural and urban communities of akwa ibom state of nigeria and also identify other risk factors associated with hypertension .
this is a cross sectional study of people in urban and rural communities for prevalence of hypertension and its predictors .
one local government was then randomly selected from the 9 or 10 local governments in each of the 2 selected senatorial zones .
one urban community was selected in the local government and a rural community was... | recent studies have shown an increasing trend in the prevalence of hypertension in rural communities compared to that of the urban communities .
this study was therefore carried out to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its predictors ( if any ) in both urban and rural communities of akwa ibom state of nigeria .
subjects and method .
this was a cross - sectional study of urban and rural communities of akwa ibom state for the prevalence of hypertension and its predictors .
two urban cities and two rural communities were randomly selected from the three senatorial districts of the state .
hypertension was defined based on the seventh report of the joint national committee on the prevention , detection , evaluation , and treatment of hypertension .
results .
nine hundred and seventy - eight ( 978 ) participants were recruited from rural areas and five hundred and ninety ( 590 ) from urban centers .
the rural populace had higher systolic , diastolic , and mean arterial blood pressure than the urban populace ( p < 0.001 , < 0.002 , < 0.001 , resp . ) .
the prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in the rural populace than in the urban populace [ 44.3% ( 95% ci 41.147.4% ) versus 28.6% ( 95% ci 24.932.3% ) ] .
age , bmi , and proteinuria were independent predictors of hypertension occurrence .
conclusion .
there is an epidemiologic change in the prevalence of hypertension in the rural communities of nigeria . |
6,718 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: breast cancer is the most common type of malignancy and one of the major causes of death in women worldwide .
in advanced nations , breast cancer is a very frequent malignancy diagnosed among women , and in the developing nations , it is placed second to cervical cancer ( 1 ) .
breast cancer is also the primary cause of cancer death among women globally , responsible for around 375,000 deaths in the year 2000 ( 2 ) .
a total of 39,620 women died from this disease in the united states in 2013 ( 3 ) .
studies have identified numerous risk factors for breast cancer in women , including increasing age , personal and family history , genetic factors , race and even socio - economic factors ( 1 , 35 ) .
breast cancer is estimated to account for 27% of all new cancer cases and 15% of cancer - related mortality in women in the usa ( 5 ) .
it is estimated that $ 17.2 billion has been spent on breast cancer care in the united states in 2014 ( 6 ) .
it is shown that a number of major developing economies such as india , china and brazil will be facing breast cancer epidemics by 2020 ( 7 ) .
also , breast cancer is considered as a costly disease , and inflicts a notable burden on economic resources of every nation because of its high incidence and prevalence ( 8) .
iran has the highest incidence rate of cancer in the middle east ( 9 ) . in asian nations such as iran
currently , the incidence and prevalence of breast cancer in iranian women is 22 per 100,000 and 120 per 100,000 respectively ( 11 ) . according to the national center for cancer registration ,
breast cancer incidence has increased dramatically from 2001 . in 2010 , 23% of all cancers diagnosed in women were breast cancer cases .
the incidence rate of breast cancer is estimated to be 22.09% in 100,000 women , with the age - standardized incidence rate estimated at 28.25% in 100,000 women ( 12 ) . in iran , breast cancer has a leading rank compared to other types of cancer identified in females ( 13 ) comprising 24.4% of all malignancies with a crude incidence... | introductionas a common type of malignancy , breast cancer is one of the major causes of death in women globally . the purpose of the current study was to analyze iran research performance on breast cancer in the context of national and international studies , shown in the publications indexed in scopus database during 19912015.methodsdata were retrieved from the scopus citation database in this scientometric study .
the following string was employed ; breast cancer or breast malignancy or breast tumor or mammary ductal carcinoma keywords in the main title , abstract and keywords and iran in the affiliation field were the main related keywords .
the terms used were searched in scopus using the tab specified for searching documents .
time span analyzed was 1991 to 2015 inclusive . using the analyzing software of scopus
, we analyzed the results.resultsirans increasing publication production during 19912015 in breast cancer research which indexed in scopus , consists of 2,399 papers with an average of 95.96 papers per year , and achieved an h - index of 48 .
iranian cancer research articles have received 15,574 citations during 19912015 , and average citations per paper were 6.49 .
iran ranked 27th among the top 30 nations with a worldwide stake of 0.67 % , the 20 top publishing journals published 744 ( 31% ) iranian research articles on breast cancer , among them , there were 15 iranian journals.conclusionthe number of iranian research papers on breast cancer and also the number of citations to them , is increasing .
although the quantity and quality of papers are increasing , regarding the prevalence of breast cancer in iran and also the ineffectiveness of screening programs in the early detection of the cases , more effort should be made , and iranian policy makers should consider more investment on breast cancer research . |
6,719 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: it is the second most abundant transition metal ion in living organisms , including humans .
zinc is present in all the tissues , fluids , and organs within the human body , for a total body content of approximately 1.42.3 g. it is necessary for catalytic , structural , and regulatory functions in hundreds of enzymes and in thousands of protein domains .
enumerating and discussing the role of zinc in these functions is far beyond the aim of this study [ 25 ] . the recommended dietary intake for zinc varies with age and physiological status , ranging between 5 and 18 mg day .
severe zinc deficiency causes a number of adverse physiological consequences on the epidermal , gastrointestinal , central nervous , immune , skeletal , and reproductive systems [ 4 , 6 , 7 ] .
it has been demonstrated that the form of the trace elements affects the intake efficiency in animals .
several studies reported that certain organic compounds of trace elements ( including iron , zinc , magnesium , and selenium ) are more bioavailable than the inorganic forms , possibly because the mechanisms for absorption have adapted to these kinds of nutrients during species evolution [ 812 ] . moreover , in order to develop biotechnological sources of trace elements for diet supplementation , microorganisms ( e.g. , yeast , lactobacilli , and spirulina strains ) were proposed as organic matrixes for incorporation of minerals [ 10 , 13 , 14 ] . in fact , the addition of inorganic salts into cultivation media enables the biosorption of the mineral ions by the microbial biomass . as a consequence ,
the biomass becomes enriched with organic forms of trace elements , which are present as complexes with amino acids , proteins , lipids , and polysaccharides .
the present study investigated zinc biosorption by 16 strains of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria , in the perspective to evaluate whether they can function as organic matrixes for zinc incorporation .
sixteen human strains of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium ( table 1 ) were obtained from... | the study aims to investigate zinc biosorption by strains of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria with a view to exploit them as organic matrixes for zinc dietary supplementation . sixteen human strains of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium
were assayed for zinc uptake .
the minimum inhibitory concentration of zinc salts differed among the strains , but was never below 15 mmol l1 . when cultured in mrs broth containing 10 mmol l1 znso4 , all the strains were capable of accumulating zinc in the range between 11 and 135 mol g1 .
the highest amount of cell - bound zinc was obtained in l. acidophilus wc 0203 .
ph - controlled batch cultures of this strain revealed that zinc uptake started in the growth phase , but occurred mostly during the stationary phase .
pasteurized and viable cultures accumulated similar amount of zinc , suggesting that a nonmetabolically mediated mechanism is involved in zinc uptake .
these results provide new perspectives on the specific use of probiotics , since l. acidophilus wc 0203 could function as an organic matrix for zinc incorporation .
the bioavailability of lactobacillus - bound zinc deserves to be investigated to provide a future basis for optimization of zinc supplementation or fortification . |
6,720 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: celiac disease ( cd ) , an inflammatory disorder of the upper small intestines , is characterized by intestinal villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia and is caused by an abnormal immune reaction to wheat gliadin .
it may be associated with different symptoms and signs , depending on the degree of intestinal involvement .
the damage to the intestine makes it difficult for the body to absorb nutrients , especially fat , calcium , iron , and folate .
this often results in diarrhea , abdominal distension , generalized malnutrition and failure to thrive , or subclinical deficiencies along with isolated nutrient deficiencies such as anemia , aphthous ulcer , bone pain , etc .
the prevalence of cd is high in saudi patients ( 4% ) when compared to the prevalence rates reported from the usa and europe ( i.e. , 3% ) and is comparable to the rates reported from other tropical countries .
moreover , a high prevalence of serological markers of cd has been reported among patients with autoimmune thyroid disease .
osteomalacia and iron deficiency anemia were common clinical presentations of adult cd in saudi arabia . hence , the presence of either one of these presentations in a female patient should raise the possibility of cd .
trichotillomania has been classified as an obsessive - compulsive and related disorder ( dsm-5 ) that is characterized by recurrent body - focused repetitive behavior ( hair pulling ) and repeated attempts to decrease or stop the behavior .
it may result in impairment in important areas of functioning , such as relationships , social functioning , etc . .
in addition , it is 7 times more prevalent in children ( peak prevalence observed between 417 years of age ) than in adults .
hair pulling in early childhood ( < 5 years of age ) can be regarded as a distinct clinical entity that tends to be self - limiting without the need for intervention .
however , pathological hair pulling has been observed in 1.5% of adult males and 3.4% adult females .
trichotillomania is typically confined to one or... | trichotillomania is an underreported and underdiagnosed condition associated with significant impairments in social and functional relationships .
the connection between celiac disease and trichotillomania is not yet established clearly .
only a few cases of trichotillomania have been reported to date . here , we report the case of a 22-year - old saudi female , who presented with celiac disease and trichotillomania to the psychiatry clinic .
this is the first report of its kind in saudi arabia . by reporting this case
, i highlight the importance of psychiatric and comprehensive approaches in patients with celiac disease . |
6,721 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: capmul mcm was gifted by abitec corporation , usa . tween 20 and peg 400 were purchased from sulab chemicals , vadodara , india .
all the other reagents were analytical grade . for the selection of components of microemulsion ,
solubility study was carried out in number of components according to procedure given by lianli et al .
the oil , surfactant and cosurfactant were selected on the basis of solubility of drug in the solvent , hlb value as well as their gras status . to find out the microemulsion region ,
microemulsions having different composition [ table 1 ] were prepared by dissolving the required amount of drug ( 27 mg/ ml ) in a mixture of oil - smix at 405c and after cooling at 305c adding required volume of water .
they were evaluated for globule size , pdi , zeta potential and % transmittance for optimization .
for the selection of components of microemulsion , solubility study was carried out in number of components according to procedure given by lianli et al .
the oil , surfactant and cosurfactant were selected on the basis of solubility of drug in the solvent , hlb value as well as their gras status . to find out the microemulsion region ,
microemulsions having different composition [ table 1 ] were prepared by dissolving the required amount of drug ( 27 mg/ ml ) in a mixture of oil - smix at 405c and after cooling at 305c adding required volume of water .
they were evaluated for globule size , pdi , zeta potential and % transmittance for optimization .
from the solubility data , capmul mcm , tween 20 and polyethylene glycol 400 were selected as oil , surfactant and cosurfactant component respectively as rosuvastatin is having higher solubility in above solvents .
tween 20:peg 400 [ 3:1% w / w ] resulted in higher microemulsion region compared to [ 1:1% w / w ] and [ 2:1% w / w ] .
this indicates that increasing the surfactant concentration , maximum amount of oil can be solubilized .
pseudo - ternary phase diagram table 1 indicates the different batches of microemulsion and results of... | due to very less bioavailability ( 20% ) of rosuvastatin calcium , an attempt was made to develop and optimize microemulsion formulation .
capmul mcm , tween 20 and peg 400 were selected as oil , surfactant and cosurfactant respectively as the drug is having higher solubility in them .
3:1% w / w s : cos was selected as it gave higher microemulsion area .
optimized batch ( me-1 ) was selected having 5% capmul mcm , 50% tween 20:peg 400 and 45% water based on evaluation parameters globule size , zeta potential , pdi , % transmittance . |
6,722 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: resin cements are composite resins developed to deliver mechanical properties and handling characteristics that are important for luting indirect restorations .
due to their application under an indirect restoration , in most cases the physical activation ( photo activation ) has very limited effect
.
activation of the polymerization means to induce the photo initiator ( e.g. , camphorquinone ) or to break the molecule of the chemical initiator ( benzoyl peroxide ) so as to form free radicals that will initiate the polymerization .
the continuous addition of monomers to a growing chain results in a polymeric chain . in general , the maximum degree of conversion ( dc ) the percentage of aliphatic c = c ( double ) bonds converted into c - c ( single ) bonds to form the polymeric network reached by resin cements is around 60% ,
due to the increase of cement viscosity during the polymerization reaction , hindering the mobility of the reactive species
.
the reaction slows down progressively up to a moment when new bonds can not be made
.
resin cements have been frequently employed for bonding indirect restorations to the teeth due to their mechanical behavior
superior to conventional cements ( resin - free ) , possibility of adhesion to the restorative material
and to the tooth structure with
or without an adhesive system
, and superior optical properties
when compared with conventional cements .
however , limitations associated with the incomplete polymerization ( low dc ) of the cement may result in higher sorption and solubility values
, causing faster degradation of the cement finish line by the acids present in the oral biofilm
.
degradation of resin - based cements reduces the bond strength between them and the substrate
and causes dissolution of the finish line at the restoration margin , which may mean the clinical loss of the restoration either by debonding , fracture or secondary caries
.
unreacted monomers ( not bonded to the polymeric chain ) may also irritate the... | resin - based cements have been frequently employed in clinical practice to lute indirect restorations . however , there are numerous factors that may compromise the clinical performance of those cements .
the aim of this literature review is to present and discuss some of the clinical factors that may affect the performance of current resin - based luting systems .
resin cements may have three different curing mechanisms : chemical curing , photo curing or a combination of both .
chemically cured systems are recommended to be used under opaque or thick restorations , due to the reduced access of the light .
photo - cured cements are mainly indicated for translucent veneers , due to the possibility of light transmission through the restoration .
dual - cured are more versatile systems and , theoretically , can be used in either situation , since the presence of both curing mechanisms might guarantee a high degree of conversion ( dc ) under every condition .
however , it has been demonstrated that clinical procedures and characteristics of the materials may have many different implications in the dc of currently available resin cements , affecting their mechanical properties , bond strength to the substrate and the esthetic results of the restoration .
factors such as curing mechanism , choice of adhesive system , indirect restorative material and light - curing device may affect the degree of conversion of the cement and , therefore , have an effect on the clinical performance of resin - based cements .
specific measures are to be taken to ensure a higher dc of the luting system to be used . |
6,723 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: acute lymphoblastic leukemia ( all ) in adults accounts for 15% of acute leukemia .total body irradiation ( tbi ) for adult patients with all is a vital technique used prior to bone marrow transplant .
a total body irradiation regime is used in the treatment of all to destroy malignant cells and to suppress the immune system to allow for bone marrow transplant by preventing rejection of the donor bone marrow . since the treatment is delivered at an extended source - to - skin distance ( ssd ) of 400 cm , the treatment planning system ( tps )
the dose has to be calculated by a point - dose determination at the dose prescription point which is typically at the mid - plane of the patient .
it is important to monitor the skin dose to ensure the precision of the dose delivered to patients .
the aim of the present work was to compare the target prescribed dose to the dose that measured by two dosimetry systems : the newer onedose metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor ( mosfet ) detectors and traditional dosimetry thermoluminescent dosimeters ( tlds ) .
tlds have been widely used for radiation monitoring , for monitoring staff dealing with radiation , and to monitor patient exposure to radiation during radiation therapy treatments .
the widespread use of tlds may be due to these advantages : their small size ; that they can operate under any conditions ; and that they do not rely on any external power supply .
when a tld is exposed to radiation , it absorbs radiation energy and then emits luminescence light , and the light emitted is proportional to the x - ray energy absorbed .
these are a solid - state detector used in radiation therapy treatment applications to measure the entrance and exit dose during the treatment .
mosfet detectors are characterized by their energy response ; however , the variation in the energy dependence is beyond the scope of the present study .
the onedose system is small , with a measured area of 3 mm in diameter and 25 mm in length .
the detectors are factory calibrated... | background : total body irradiation is a protocol used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia in patients prior to their bone marrow transplant .
it involves the treatment of the whole body using a large radiation field with extended source - skin distance .
therefore , it is important to measure and monitor the skin dose during the treatment .
thermoluminescent dosimeters ( tlds ) and the onedose metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor ( mosfet ) detectors are used during treatment delivery to measure the radiation dose and compare it with the target prescribed dose.aims:the primary goal of this study was to measure the variation of skin dose using onedose mosfet detectors and tld detectors , and compare the results with the target prescribed dose .
the secondary aim was to evaluate the simplicity of use and determine if one system was superior to the other in clinical use.material and methods : the measurements involved twelve adult patients diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia .
tld and onedose mosfet dosimetry were performed at ten different anatomical sites of each patient.results:the results showed that there was a variation between skin dose measured with onedose mosfet detectors and tld in all patients . however , the variation was not significant . furthermore , the results showed for every anatomical site there was no significant different between the prescribed dose and the dose measured by either tld or onedose mosfet detectors.conclusion:there were no significant differences between the onedose mosfet and tlds in comparison to the target prescribed dose
. however , onedose mosfet detectors give a direct read - out immediately after the treatment , and their simplicity of use to compare with tld detectors may make them preferred for clinical use . |
6,724 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: at least one week was spent in each tc , evaluating infrastructure , policies and procedures , treatment and rehabilitation programs , and staff competencies .
many tools were used in the evaluations , including questionnaires for residents and treatment teams ; interviews with directors , treatment teams and residents ; observations of tc approaches and activities ; and reviews of documents and residents files.18 at the end of each tc visit , using these observations and tools , a short version of the seeq was completed .
the internal review board of the college of medicine , al imam muhammad ibn saud islamic university , riyadh , kingdom of saudi arabia ethically approved the design and execution of this study .
the survey instrument consisted of the seeq , which is the most well studied and validated questionnaire to investigate the essential elements of tc .
melnick & de leon developed the seeq constructs ( dimensions , domains , and items ) based on a theoretical framework of the tc treatment model.22,23 a national panel of 11 tc directors and one research expert conducted a modified delphi process of the questionnaire and made further modifications and amendments after an extensive review.3,20 the final questionnaire contained 135 likert - type items arranged in 6 broad dimensions highlighting the different components of tc treatment , and 27 domains reflecting the core philosophy and essential components.3,18,20 respondent evaluated every item with the accompanying scale : 0=objectionable ; 1=very little importance ; 2=some importance ; 3=moderate importance ; 4=fairly important ; 5=extremely important .
for this study , the short version of the seeq was used , which amended the original seeq by condensing and consolidating different items per domain into one statement ( table 1).18,20 the original
seeq demonstrates high overall reliability , with a cronbach s alpha value of 0.97 . the short version of the seeq exhibited cronbach s alpha values of 0.81 and 0.85 in 2 independent samples,3,20 suggesting... | objective : to investigate whether saudi therapeutic communities ( tcs ) implement essential elements of tcs.methods:this is a cross sectional study where the author visited all of the saudi addiction tcs between september and december 2014 .
at least one week was spent in each tc , attending many therapeutic activities , reviewing patient files and program documents , and interviewing directors , treating teams and residents . at the end of each visit , a short version of the survey of essential elements questionnaire ( seeq )
was conducted , which is a reliable tool to evaluate the essential elements of tcs.results:in 2014 , there were only 5 tcs in saudi arabia .
all of them were traditional tcs for adult male residents .
the average total score was 3.72 out of 5 on the seeq . regarding the 6 dimensions of the seeq , the tcs scored 4.15 on the tc perspective , 3.72 on the agency treatment approach and structure , 4.40 on community as therapeutic agent , 2.60 on educational and work activities , 3.50 on formal therapeutic elements , and 4.3 on process
.
there were no significant differences in dimensions scores among the 5 saudi tcs.conclusion:in general , all of the saudi tcs scored fairly high on the seeq , which may reflect a sufficient implementation of the tc as a therapeutic model .
educational and work activities lagged behind the other dimensions and should be improved and re - evaluated . |
6,725 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the main aim of radiotherapy is to maximize the tumor control probability with less complication to the surrounding critical structures .
a treatment plan is generated based on this simple rule and several methods of treatment delivery techniques , including 3d conformal radiotherapy , intensity modulated radiation therapy ( imrt ) , stereotactic radiosurgery / radiotherapy , image - guided radiotherapy , brachytherapy are currently available in radiotherapy .
each of the above techniques has its own advantages and disadvantages in achieving the goal . in fractionated radiotherapy ,
the biological factors that affect response of normal and tumor tissues are repair , repopulation , reoxygenation , redistribution , and radiosensitivity ( 5r 's of radiobiology ) . in reality
, it is difficult to quantify the individual effect these factors have on normal tissues and tumor tissues for a routine clinical case .
based on previous clinical experience , the radiation oncologists prescribe the dose to the tumor after critical evaluation of the dose to critical structures . in external beam radiotherapy , dose - volume histograms ( dvh )
play a key role in selecting the optimal plan for treatment delivery and it is presented in the form of cumulative dvh[24 ] and differential dvh .
indices such as conformality index ( ci ) and dose homogeneity index have been proposed to assess the target coverage and dose uniformity inside the target volume .
in addition to these , slice - based plan evaluation methods were also proposed for treatment plan evaluation .
the dose to critical structures plays a key role in treatment plan evaluation and presents a major challenging parameter in radiotherapy treatment planning .
the dose to critical structure is analyzed based on the information available from the dvh .
the concept of minimal ( td5/5 ) and maximal ( td50/5 ) tissue tolerance dose was introduced by rubin and casserett in 1972 and applied to whole or partial organ volume receiving daily fractionations of 1.8 - 2 gy .
the... | the dose to critical structures plays a very important role in treatment plan evaluation and forms a major challenging parameter in radiotherapy treatment planning . in this study , a simple index ,
plan normal tissue complication index ( pni ) has been proposed for treatment plan evaluation based on the dose to surrounding critical structures . to demonstrate the proposed index , four different critical treatment sites that include the prostate , upper abdominal cancer , lung , and head and neck were selected for this study .
a software progam ( pnicalc ) has been developed to compute the pni from the exported dose - volume histogram data and from the tissue tolerance data published by emami et al . and kehwar et al .
the software also shows the parameters that exceed the threshold limits of dose - volume parameters presented in the quantec recommendations ( 2010 ) . in all the studied cases
, pni gave an overall picture of the dose received by the critical structures and also indicate the fractional volume exceeding the tolerance limit .
the proposed index , pni gives a quick comparison and selection of treatment plans that result in reduced dose to the critical structures .
it can be used as an additional tool for routine treatment plan evaluation in external beam radiotherapy . |
6,726 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: high - titer engineered retrovirus ( 110unit / ml ) is produced by co - transfection of retroviral vectors and vsvg into hek293 t cells , followed by ultracentrifugation of viral supernatant . for sources and production methods , see the excellent jove demonstration ( 3 ) . note : young adult ( 4 - 6 weeks old ) female c57bl/6 mice ( charles river ) are housed under standard conditions .
all procedures follow the national research council 's guide for the care and use of laboratory animals under a protocol approved by the stony brook university iacuc .
anaesthetize ( 100 g ketamine + 10 g xylazine per gram body weight ) and mount the animal on a stereotaxic frame ( steolting ) . remove the hair on the head and wipe the skin with 70% ethanol . expose the skull and drill four shallow holes using a dental drill ( 0.6 mm drill bit ) at the following coordinates : anterioposterior = -2 mm from bregma ; lateral = 1.6 mm ; ventral = 2.5 mm ; anterioposterior = -3 mm from bregma ; lateral = 2.6 mm ; ventral = 3.2 mm.anterioposterior = -2 mm from bregma ; lateral = 1.6 mm ; ventral = 2.5 mm ; anterioposterior = -3 mm from bregma ; lateral = 2.6 mm ; ventral = 3.2 mm .
anterioposterior = -2 mm from bregma ; lateral = 1.6 mm ; ventral = 2.5 mm ; anterioposterior = -3 mm from bregma ; lateral = 2.6 mm ; ventral = 3.2 mm .
anterioposterior = -2 mm from bregma ; lateral = 1.6 mm ; ventral = 2.5 mm ; anterioposterior = -3 mm from bregma ; lateral = 2.6 mm ; ventral = 3.2 mm .
mount a 1l hamilton , flat - tip syringe and inject 0.5 l retrovirus per site at a rate of 0.25 l / min into the dentate gyrus .
pause 2 minutes after each injection before slowly withdrawing the syringe to prevent fluid backflow . between injections , briefly rinse the external surface of the syringe tip with sterile pbs and an applicator to remove traces of blood .
close the wound with sterile surgical suture material ( type p-1 ; size 6 - 0 ) and return the animal to standard housing conditions until the desired time stages after injection . to... | neurogenesis occurs in adult mammalian brains in the sub - ventricular zone ( svz ) of the lateral ventricle and in the sub - granular zone ( sgz ) of the hippocampal dentate gyrus throughout life .
previous reports have shown that adult hippocampal neurogenesis is associated with diverse brain disorders , including epilepsy , schizophrenia , depression and anxiety ( 1 ) .
deciphering the process of normal and aberrant adult - born neuron integration may shed light on the etiology of these diseases and inform the development of new therapies.sgz adult neurogenesis mirrors embryonic and post - natal neuronal development , including stages of fate specification , migration , synaptic integration , and maturation .
however , full integration occurs over a prolonged , 6-week period .
initial synaptic input to adult - born sgz dentate granule cells ( dgcs ) is gabaergic , followed by glutamatergic input at 14 days ( 2 ) .
the specific factors which regulate circuit formation of adult - born neurons in the dentate gyrus are currently unknown.our laboratory uses a replication - deficient retroviral vector based on the moloney murine leukemia virus to deliver fluorescent proteins and hypothesized regulatory genes to these proliferating cells .
this viral technique provides high specificity and resolution for analysis of cell birth date , lineage , morphology , and synaptogenesis.a typical experiment often employs two or three viruses containing unique label , transgene , and promoter elements for single - cell analysis of a desired developmental process in vivo .
the following protocol describes a method for analyzing functional newborn neuron integration using a single green ( gfp ) or red ( dtomato ) fluorescent protein retrovirus and patch - clamp electrophysiology . |
6,727 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 35-year - old healthy lady presented with high grade fever , severe abdominal pain , nausea , vomiting and profuse watery diarrhea , sometimes green in color .
there was no history of animal contact , recent travel or camping . on exam , the patient was hypotensive and was looking acutely ill .
she also had hypokalemia of 3.3 mmol / l , acute kidney injury with elevated creatinine of 1.6 mg / dl from a baseline of 0.6 secondary to dehydration .
murphy 's sign was positive which prompted us to do a right upper quadrant ultrasound which showed thickened gall bladder wall of upto 1 cm consistent with cholecystitis .
patient started feeling better after the surgery and was discharged home . during the post - hospitalization follow - up after 2 weeks
campylobacter is a small , slender , gram - negative curved rod , which is one of the most common causes of enteritis in humans .
campylobacter fetus may have some attraction towards the gallbladder as in a survey , 20% of slaughtered 700 cattle and sheep harbored this bug in their gallbladder.1 campylobacter can cause cholecystitis without diarrhea unlike the case that we report here .
the diagnosis of campylobacter cholecystitis is usually missed because culture of campylobacter is not routinely requested after cholecystectomy . however , even if the bile is cultured , campylobacter appears to be a less common cause of cholecystitis .
darling et al cultured about 280 bile samples post cholecystectomy for campylobacter . but none of them grew campylobacter.2 hence routine ordering of bile culture under microaerophilic condition is not recommended unless the gram stain shows gram negative curved rods .
3 resistance of campylobacter fetus to cephalosporins and penicillins was reported as early as 1986.4 majority of the reported cases including our patient had good outcome with cholecystectomy and antibiotics especially erythromycin ( see table 1 ) .
only one of the reported cases died , however she had advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.3 there is one case report of... | there are 13 cases of campylobacter cholecystitis reported so far in the medical literature . among them , only 4 patients had diarrhea .
we report another case of acalculous cholecystitis in a setting of campylobacter enteritis .
the case report is followed by a literature review regarding this rare condition . |
6,728 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: iranian ministry of health and medical education ( mohme ) began implementation of primary health care as the main theme of the healthcare networks to provide health services for all people in 1977 .
government policy in the health system was based on three major axes :
priority of preventive services to health care servicespriority of rural and underserved areas to urban areaspriority of outpatient services to inpatient services
priority of preventive services to health care services priority of rural and underserved areas to urban areas priority of outpatient services to inpatient services primary health care was established in 1980s ; afterward world health report in 2000 revealed disappointing results for iran obtaining 93 ranking amongst all countries a series of health sector reforms started in iran . some of these initiatives included :
providing national health insurance for all residents in rural , tribal and urban areas with less than 20,000 populations which facilitated access to health care through rural family medicine program and referral system ( 2005)administration of the preliminary and pilot phases of family physician program in urban areas , and implementation of family medicine program in cities with more than 20,000 populations ( approved in 2006 iran budget law ) .
providing national health insurance for all residents in rural , tribal and urban areas with less than 20,000 populations which facilitated access to health care through rural family medicine program and referral system ( 2005 ) administration of the preliminary and pilot phases of family physician program in urban areas , and implementation of family medicine program in cities with more than 20,000 populations ( approved in 2006 iran budget law )
. meanwhile mohme was committed to implement the family medicine program in the whole country till the end of the fourth development plan ( 2009 ) , but its initiation postponed till 5 development plan as a result of budgeting issues [ figure 1 ] .
timeline of family... | background : upon successful experiences of family physician program in the rural regions , iranian ministry of health and medical education ( mohme ) made a decision to expand this program to urban areas .
for this reason a pilot program were designated and some cities have been selected to determine dos and donts of performing family physician program in the cities .
various studies were published during this period demonstrating the advantages and disadvantages of family physicians care in these cities . after this process in 2012 and 2013
mohme announced implementation of family physician program in tehran .
our study investigated public attitudes , knowledge and practice about the newly introduced program.methods:this cross - sectional study was performed in tehran during november to december 2012 .
a telephone survey was carried out using the random digit dialing ( rdd ) method and data was gathered by a researcher designed questionnaire .
a total of 386 residents aged 18 years and over participated in the study . to compare the differences between various groups knowledge scores data
were analyzed performing chi - square test , t - test , anova , and logistic regression by spss software version 17 , to find factors that affected individuals agreement with the program.results:among all samples 214(57.4% ) knew about the program and almost 120(85.1% ) of these aware people were planning to participate in the program .
television and radio were the major information resources . after adjusting for educational status , access to internet and socio economic status(ses )
those people who did nt have any kind of health coverage systems(health insurance ) were most likely to accept the program and agree with that[or= 2.38(1.05 - 5.38)].conclusions : the fact that despite low levels of information , most of aware people intend to enroll in the new program reveals that expanding informative programs would bring more participation and involvement among community . |
6,729 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this retrospective study was performed at the l. v. prasad eye institute in india from september 2012 to january 2013 .
prior approval from the institutional review board of the institute was obtained , and informed consent was obtained from each study subject for the diagnostic procedures .
fifty - one eyes ( 26 patients ) with a diagnosis of some form of macular dystrophy other than retinitis pigmentosa were included in this study .
all participants underwent a comprehensive ophthalmic examination including best - corrected visual acuity ( bcva ) testing using early treatment diabetic retinopathy study charts , slit - lamp biomicroscopy , intraocular pressure measurement using goldmann applanation tonometer and dilated fundoscopic examination .
all patients underwent electroretinography and electrooculogram for diagnosis of dystrophy as per physician 's discretion .
exclusion criteria included optic atrophy , visually significant cataract , high myopia or hyperopia ( > 6 or + 3 diopters of refractive error ) , poor image quality , any other associated retinal pathology , or history of any intraocular surgery .
control group included age - matched healthy subjects with no ocular disease and without high refractive power ( more than 6d or + 3d ) , which included 251 subjects ( 467 eyes ) , ranging from 5 to 80 years ( unpublished data ) .
the sd - oct scans were obtained using cirrus high - definition ( hd)-oct ( carl zeiss meditec , inc . ,
dublin , ca , usa ) after dilatation of the pupil with 1% tropicamide and 10% phenylephrine eye drops .
the scan used for imaging in this study is hd 1-line raster with edi which is a 6-mm line consisting of 4096 a - scans , an imaging speed of 27,000 a - scans per second , an axial resolution of 5 microns , and a transverse resolution of 15 microns in tissue and averages 20 frames ( b - scans ) .
edi , which automatically sets the choroid closer to the zero - delay line and thus theoretically provides better visualization of the choroidescleral interface , was used for... | purpose : to evaluate changes in choroidal thickness ( ct ) in inherited retinal diseases and its relationship with age , spherical equivalent , visual acuity , and macular thickness.methods:retrospective analysis of 51 eyes with features of retinal dystrophy of 26 subjects , who underwent enhanced depth imaging using spectral domain ( sd ) optical coherence tomography ( oct ) , were included .
the ct measurements were made at the fovea and at 5 points with an interval of 500 microns in both directions , nasal and temporal from the fovea and were compared with age - matched healthy subjects .
step - wise regression was used to find the relationship between age , spherical equivalent , best - corrected visual acuity ( bcva ) , central macular thickness ( cmt ) , and subfoveal ct.results:disease distribution was as follows : stargardt 's disease 18 eyes ( 9 subjects ) ; best disease 5 eyes ( 3 subjects ) ; cone - rod dystrophy 26 eyes ( 13 subjects ) ; and bietti 's crystalline dystrophy 2 eyes ( 1 subject ) .
mean subfoveal ct was 266.33 76 microns . on regression analysis , no significant correlation was found between subfoveal ct and any other variable such as age ( p = 0.9 ) , gender ( p = 0.5 ) , cmt ( p = 0.1 ) , spherical equivalent ( p = 0.3 ) and bcva ( p = 0.6 ) .
while comparing with age - matched healthy subjects , no significant statistical difference was noted ( p < 0.05 ) among all age groups.conclusion:our study reports quantitative changes in ct in various common inherited retinal diseases seen in indian populations . to validate changes in choroid , a longitudinal study with larger sample size
is warranted . |
6,730 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a retrospective , comparative cohort study was conducted on patients who underwent 152 primary pcl reconstruction surgeries performed by a single surgeon between april 2004 and october 2008 . grade ii pcl injuries combined with other ligamentous or grade iii pcl injuries were considered for surgical treatment when the patients had persistent pain or functional disability ( discomfort when going down stairs ) . in this situation , the status of the remnant pcl tissue ( determined using mri ) was considered before surgery in order to select the most appropriate reconstruction option .
the remnant pcl - preserving stent procedure using the transtibial tunnel technique was chosen if there was partial continuity or the remnant tissue was sufficient in the acute ( < 3 months ) or subacute stage ( 3 - 6 months ) .
remnant pcl tensioning and alb reconstruction with the modified inlay technique was selected if there was abundant remnant tissue with continuity for tensioning in the chronic stage ( > 6 months ) .
a double - bundle reconstruction was performed if there was no remnant pcl or a very weak pcl remnant according to the mri and arthroscopic findings in the subacute or chronic stage .
thirty - three patients were excluded because they met one of the following exclusion criteria : 1 ) concomitant anterior cruciate ligament ( acl ) or medial collateral ligament reconstruction ( 12 patients ) ; 2 ) an associated fracture in the lower extremities that could affect knee function ( 2 patients ) ; 3 ) combined severe life - threatening medical disease ( 1 patient ) ; and 4 ) revision surgery ( 8 patients ) .
moreover , ten patients were also excluded because of loss to outpatient follow - up before 24 months .
the grading of plc injuries has been described elsewhere ( table 1).15,19 ) to minimize the effect of combined plc injuries , only patients with grade ii plc injury treated by plc sling ( modified larson technique ) simultaneously with a pcl reconstruction were enrolled in the present study .
twenty patients ,... | backgroundthe purpose of the present study was to compare the clinical results of 3 posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction techniques according to the time from injury to surgery and remnant pcl status and to evaluate the efficiency of each technique.methodsthe records of 89 patients who underwent primary pcl reconstructions with a posterolateral corner sling were analyzed retrospectively .
thirty - four patients were treated by anterolateral bundle ( alb ) reconstruction with preservation of the remnant pcl using a transtibial tunnel technique in the acute and subacute stages of injury ( group 1 ) .
forty patients were treated with remnant pcl tensioning and an alb reconstruction using the modified inlay technique in the chronic stage ( group 2 ) , and fifteen patients were treated with double - bundle reconstruction using the modified inlay technique ( group 3 ) .
the double - bundle reconstruction was performed if there was a very weak or no pcl remnant.resultsthe mean side - to - side differences in posterior tibial translation on the stress radiographs were reduced from 10.1 2.5 mm in group 1 , 10.6 2.4 mm in group 2 , and 12.8 3.2 mm in group 3 preoperatively to 2.3 1.4 mm in group 1 , 2.3 1.5 mm in group 2 , and 4.0 2.5 mm in group 3 at the last follow - up ( p < 0.001 , p < 0.001 , and p < 0.001 , respectively ) .
statistical analyses revealed that group 1 and group 2 were similar in terms of side - to - side difference changes in posterior tibial translation on the stress radiographs ; however , group 3 was inferior to group 1 and group 2 at the last follow - up ( p = 0.022 ) .
the clinical results were not significantly different among the three groups.conclusionsexcellent posterior stability and good clinical results were achieved with alb reconstruction preserving the injured remnant pcl in the acute and subacute stages and remnant pcl tensioning with alb reconstruction in the chronic stage .
the pcl injuries could be surgically corrected with different techniques depending... |
6,731 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: commercial porcine vaccines and viruses a total of 25 commercially available porcine vaccines were obtained from licensed manufacturers and pharmaceutical suppliers in taiwan ( table 1 ) .
viral dna was extracted from each vaccine using the qiaamp dna extraction kit ( qiagen , usa ) according to the manufacturer s instructions . for evaluating specificity of the lamp
, 21 virus isolates , comprising six pcv1 , five pcv2 , two porcine parvovirus ( ppv ) , three pseudorabies virus ( prv ) , three classic swine fever virus ( csfv ) , and two porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus ( prrsv ) isolates , were used ; all of the isolates were previously identified by determining their partial nucleotide sequences ( wang et al .
the dna of pcv1 , pcv2 , ppv , prv , and cdna of csfv and prrsv isolates were produced as described previously ( huang et al .
2004 , 2008)table 1detection of pcv1 dna in commercial vaccines by the lamp and the nested pcrmanufactureragentlampnested pcracsfvaprvbcsfv++bprvccsfv++cprv , b. bronchiseptica , p. multocidadcsfvdfmdvecsfv++eprvfcsfvfprv , e. rhusiopathiae , p. multocida , m. hyopneumoniaeffmdvgfmdvgprrsvhfmdvhprv , m. hyopneumoniae , e. coliiprrsvjppvjfmdvkfmdvlppvmprv , ppv , e. rhusiopathiaencsfvnfmdvcsfv classic swine fever virus , prv pseudorabies virus , fmdv foot - and - mouth disease virus , prrsv porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus , ppv porcine parvovirus detection of pcv1 dna in commercial vaccines by the lamp and the nested pcr csfv classic swine fever virus , prv pseudorabies virus , fmdv foot - and - mouth disease virus , prrsv porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus , ppv porcine parvovirus primers specific primer sets of the lamp for pcv1 detection were designed by primerexplorer v4 software ( http://primerexplorer.jp/elamp4.0.0/index.html ) based on different reference pcv1 isolates ( genbank accession no .
af012107 , ay184287 , ay219836 , ay660574 , dq472013 , dq659154 , ef493843 , fj475129 , and gu722334 ) .
the primer sets... | a loop - mediated isothermal amplification ( lamp ) method with a real - time monitoring system was developed for the detection of porcine circovirus type 1 ( pcv1 ) in commercial swine vaccines .
this method was highly specific for pcv1 .
no cross - reaction to porcine circovirus type 2 , porcine parvovirus , pseudorabies virus , classical swine fever virus , and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus was observed .
the analytical sensitivity of the lamp for pcv1 dna was 10 copies/l in the case of positive recombinant plasmid comparable to that obtained from the nested polymerase chain reaction ( nested pcr ) .
furthermore , 25 commercial swine vaccines were tested by both the lamp and the nested pcr , and three of them were tested positive for pcv1 dna .
these results indicate that pcv1 dna can be real - time detected by the lamp ; the method was highly specific , sensitive , and rapid for the detection of pcv1 dna , particularly in commercial swine vaccines . |
6,732 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss ( issnhl ) is one of the emergent conditions among various otologic diseases .
it is the acute onset of hearing loss of 30 db in three contiguous frequencies , which may occur instantaneously or progressively over several days ( 1 ) .
it occurs mostly unilaterally , with a bilateral occurrence in 1 - 7.1% ( 2 ) .
treatment strategy is variable , while steroids , vasodilators , and anti - viral agents are most frequently prescribed .
stahl and cohen ( 3 ) recently determined the outcome in patients with issnhl in their only hearing ear , and concluded that they may be treated the same way as those with normal contralateral ear .
however , treatment regimens other than conventional ones may have to be considered in those who do not recover
. therefore , we aimed to determine the outcome of this specific patient group and to define the timing to consider other treatment regimen such as cochlear implantation .
medical records of issnhl patients who were admitted to chonnam national university hospital , gwangju , korea , from august 1999 to june 2006 were retrospectively analyzed .
the control group consisted of 192 patients having issnhl in one ear and normal contralateral ear .
they were given prednisolone ( solu - dacortin , hanall , seoul , korea ) starting from 1 - 1.5 mg / kg / day and tapered for next 12 days .
mgso4 ( 4 g / day ) , dextran 40-dex ( 10 ml / kg in 5% dextrose ) and carbogen inhalation were also given for 7 days with prednisolone .
complete blood cell counting , routine serum chemistry , immunologic markers , viral markers , temporal magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography were taken .
if the patient did not recover until the day of discharge , he / she was then given intratympanic steroid injection once a week for 3 weeks .
the intratympanic injection was started with local anesthesia by placing cotton pledget soaked with xylocaine ( 10% lidocaine , 10 mg / dose ; astrazeneca , tx , usa ) at the tympanic membrane .
after 15 min , the... | the present study was undertaken to learn the outcome of patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss ( issnhl ) in their only hearing ear .
timing to conduct a cochlear implantation was also determined in those who did not recover the hearing .
the study group comprised 25 patients who confronted issnhl in their only hearing ear .
a total of 192 patients , who had issnhl in one ear and had normal contralateral ear , served as the control .
demographically there were no significant differences between the groups .
the recovery rate was similar between the groups : 64.0% in the experimental and 62.5% in the control group .
the duration until the recovery of issnhl in the only hearing ear was 5 - 90 days ( average 17.6 days ) . in the experimental group
, 8 patients did not recover from issnhl , and underwent cochlear implantation in 6 with satisfactory results .
these results suggest that the same treatment is applicable for patients with issnhl regardless of whether their contralateral ear is deaf or normal . for those who do not recover from issnhl in their only hearing ear , culminating in bilateral deafness
, we may consider further definitive treatment including cochlear implantation as early as 3 months after initiating the treatment of issnhl . |
6,733 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis ( afap ) is a milder variant of familial adenomatous polyposis ( fap ) , which manifests with fewer than hundred colorectal polyps , later age of onset of polyps and cancer , and a predilection toward involvement of the proximal colon in clusters.1 - 5 much of mutations in afap have already been reported.4 - 9 infrequently few mutations are still being discovered around the world .
herein , we report two cases of same novel germline mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli ( apc ) gene of afap patients within family members who were treated with sulindac after they refuse to perform colectomy .
a 23-year - old man with no previous medical history and incidentally discovered multiple gastric polyps was referred to gangnam severance hospital .
endoscopic submucosal dissection ( esd ) was performed for the gastric adenoma in the antrum , and multiple biopsies were done for the variable sized polyps in the upper body and fundus ( fig .
final pathologic report showed tubular adenoma with low grade dysplasia for the antral lesion ( fig .
suspected of having polyposis , the patient underwent colonoscopy which showed fewer than 100 colorectal polyps of 3 to 5 mm size from hepatic flexure to the rectum .
the colorectal polyps confirmed as tubular adenoma with low grade dysplasia on pathologic report ( fig .
colonic polyps close or equal to 5 mm in size were endoscopically removed using polypectomy snare . genetic analysis using polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ) denaturing high performance liquid chromatography and
direct sequencing revealed a novel frameshift mutation in the exon 15 of the apc gene .
deletion of adenine - guanine ( ag ) and insertion of thymine ( t ) in codon 3833 - 3834 resulted in the formation of stop codon 1287 ( c.3833 - 3834delaginst ) ( table 1 , fig .
multiple colonic polyps of 2 to 5 mm size were detected from ascending to sigmoid colon on colonoscopy ( fig .
colonic polyps close or equal to 5 mm in size were polypectomized and confirmed as tubular... | attenuated familial adenomatous polyposis ( afap ) is a variant of familial adenomatous polyposis with fewer than one hundred colorectal polyps and a later age of onset of the cancer . here , we report two cases of afap within family members .
each patient demonstrated the same novel germ line mutation in exon 15 of the adenomatous polyposis coli ( apc ) gene and was successfully managed with sulindac after refusal to perform colectomy : a 23-year - old man with incidentally diagnosed gastric adenoma and fundic gland polyps underwent colonoscopy , and fewer than 100 colorectal polyps were found ; a 48-year - old woman who happened to be the mother of the 23-year - old man also showed fewer than 100 colorectal polyps on colonoscopy .
genetic analysis revealed a novel frameshift mutation in exon 15 of the apc gene .
the deletion of adenine - guanine with the insertion of thymine in c.3833 - 3834 resulted in the formation of stop codon 1,287 in both patients .
the patients were treated with sulindac due to their refusal to undergo colectomy .
the annual follow - up upper endoscopy and colonoscopy in the following 2 years revealed significant regression of the colorectal polyps in both patients . |
6,734 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: blood samples : heparinized blood samples were collected from cattle with
swallowing difficulty and from asymptomatic cattle from the same cowsheds where the affected
cattle were raised . the sampling was conducted on the two farms ( farms a and b ) where the
clinical cases were observed , on october 25 and 31 , respectively . the blood samples were
separated into plasma and blood cells by centrifugation at 2,150 g for 10
min .
the blood cells were washed three times with phosphate - buffered saline ( pbs ) and
resuspended in pbs .
serum samples were obtained from the above - mentioned cattle at the same
time and 2 weeks later . in june 2013
, 120 calves that had not experienced summer were selected from all over
kagoshima prefecture for sentinel arbovirus surveillance . heparinized blood and serum
samplings were obtained from the calves in june , august , september and november .
the
processed plasmas and blood cells were kept at 80c until the virus isolation and viral
genome detection .
the serum samples were preserved at 20c until they were used for the
virus neutralization test ( vnt ) .
virus isolation : hamster lung ( hmlu-1 ) and baby hamster kidney ( bhk-21 )
cells were grown in eagle s minimum essential medium ( mem ; nissui , tokyo , japan )
supplemented with 0.295% tryptose phosphate broth , 0.015% sodium bicarbonate and 5% bovine
serum at 37c .
virus isolation was conducted with the processed blood samples as described
. in brief ,
tube - cultured cells were washed
three times with earl s solution , inoculated with the processed samples and incubated for 1
hr at 37c .
after the inocula were replaced with maintenance medium ( mem containing 0.295%
tryptose phosphate broth and 0.015% sodium bicarbonate ) , the inoculated cultures were
maintained rolling and observed for cytopathic effects ( cpes ) over 7 days . if no cpes were
observed , two further passages were allowed for the supernatant of the primary inoculated
culture .
virus neutralization test :... | in japan in 2013 , two cattle in the northwestern part of kagoshima prefecture developed
fever and swallowing difficulty and were suspected of having ibaraki disease .
the
epizootic hemorrhagic virus ( ehdv ) genome was detected from diseased and asymptomatic
cattle by reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) .
high neutralization
antibody titers to ibaraki virus ( ibav ) ranging from 1:128 to 1:1,024 were observed in the
rt - pcr - positive cattle , and the virus was isolated in one of the ibav - positive farms .
a
pairwise alignment and phylogenetic analysis based on the major outer coat protein vp2
encoded in segment 2 revealed a close relationship between the isolated viruses and
previous ibav isolates .
the phylogeny of vp2 also suggested that an ibav variant isolated
in 1997 was distinct from ibav and sorted into a heterogeneous serotype , ehdv serotype 7 .
the findings revealed the reemergence of ibaraki disease in japan after a 26-year absence .
interestingly , the co - circulation of ehdv serotype 1 with ibav was observed in the
affected region , suggesting the potential reassortment between two heterogeneous serotypes
in the field .
sentinel surveillance in kagoshima prefecture indicated that the incursion
of ibav occurred in october 2013 and that its spread was limited within the small area .
inadequate environmental temperatures for vector transmission in late autumn might have
limited the virus spread to a wider region .
the reemergence of ibaraki disease showed us
the importance of continuous vaccination to prevent economic losses . |
6,735 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in addition to classical endpoints , toxicogenomics methods have
been used to characterize the assays and to classify toxicants . for
regulatory purposes , the descriptive data from , e.g. , transcriptomics
or metabolomics approaches need to be converted to quantifiable measures
allowing one to compare and predict the hazard of chemicals and drugs .
first attempts to determine benchmark
concentrations on the basis of transcriptomics data have already been
undertaken in vivo.(6,7 ) their application
to in vitro test systems is expected to yield important
information about low - dose toxicant effects .
the developing
central nervous system is one of the most frequent
targets of systemic toxicity .
moreover , testing of
nervous system development and possible long - term effects is particularly
challenging .
animal testing for example according to oecd guidelines
414 ( 2-generation reproduction ) or 426 ( developmental neurotoxicity )
is time - consuming and labor intensive .
the testing capacities are
by far not sufficient to test all compounds in vivo that should be studied for reproductive toxicity or developmental
neurotoxicity ( dnt ) in the context of reach . moreover
, toxicological
risk assessment needs to be adapted to the modern needs of the pharmaceutical
as well as the chemical industry . between
1999 and 2011
, 19% of the 279 new approved drugs in europe were reported
to have postapproval safety - issues , and 5 drugs were withdrawn from
the market .
the chemical industry , however ,
is confronted with the reach initiative asking them to provide more
detailed toxicological data regarding new compounds as well as on
chemicals already on the market .
consequently the national research
council of the usa has published their vision of toxicology for the
21st century in 2007 in which they favor the development of mostly human
based in vitro test systems , which can be used for
high - throughput screening and for high content endpoints such as for
... | information on design principles
governing transcriptome changes
upon transition from safe to hazardous drug concentrations or from
tolerated to cytotoxic drug levels are important for the application
of toxicogenomics data in developmental toxicology . here
, we tested
the effect of eight concentrations of valproic acid ( vpa ; 251000
m ) in an assay that recapitulates the development of human
embryonic stem cells to neuroectoderm .
cells were exposed to the drug
during the entire differentiation process , and the number of differentially
regulated genes increased continuously over the concentration range
from zero to about 3000 .
we identified overrepresented transcription
factor binding sites ( tfbs ) as well as superordinate cell biological
processes , and we developed a gene ontology ( go ) activation profiler ,
as well as a two - dimensional teratogenicity index .
analysis of the
transcriptome data set by the above biostatistical and systems biology
approaches yielded the following insights : ( i ) tolerated ( 25
m ) , deregulated / teratogenic ( 150550 m ) , and
cytotoxic ( 800 m ) concentrations could be differentiated .
( ii ) biological signatures related to the mode of action of vpa , such
as protein acetylation , developmental changes , and cell migration ,
emerged from the teratogenic concentrations range . (
iii ) cytotoxicity
was not accompanied by signatures of newly emerging canonical cell
death / stress indicators , but by catabolism and decreased expression
of cell cycle associated genes .
( iv ) most , but not all of the go groups
and tfbs seen at the highest concentrations were already overrepresented
at 350450 m .
( v ) the teratogenicity index reflected
this behavior , and thus differed strongly from cytotoxicity .
our findings
suggest the use of the highest noncytotoxic drug concentration for
gene array toxicogenomics studies , as higher concentrations possibly
yield wrong information on the mode of action ,... |
6,736 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chronic hepatitis c virus ( hcv ) infection has a detrimental effect on the health of persons with chronic kidney disease .
it leads to higher mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients compared to noninfected patients and reduces the survival rates of patients undergoing kidney transplantation as well as their grafts .
it renders patients with a higher risk of developing diabetes mellitus , de novo or recurrent membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis , lymphoproliferative disorders , and fibrosing cholestatic hepatitis after kidney transplantation . until recently , in the absence of any efficient treatment for hcv infection after kidney transplantation , treating all anti - hcv - positive rna - positive patients that were candidates for kidney transplantation has been recommended . for several years , standard
reduced interferon- ( ifn- ) alpha or pegylated- ( peg- ) ifn--2a , given as a monotherapy , has been the main treatment given to hemodialysis patients with hcv replication . because ribavirin has been found to be responsible for hemolytic anemia in patients with impaired kidney function as well as in hemodialysis patients , it was first prohibited and then used at markedly reduced daily doses with careful monitoring for anemia and other adverse effects .
hcv - positive dialysis patients that received standard ifn- or peg - ifn- achieved 50% efficacy .
first - generation direct - acting antiviral agents ( daas ) , such as the protease inhibitors telaprevir and boceprevir , have been developed over the past few years . they have been introduced as an adjunctive therapy for patients with chronic hcv but normal kidney function and have significantly improved the svr .
however , scarce data regarding their use in hemodialysis patients have been published [ 810 ] .
in addition , no data regarding the use of new - generation daas , such as sofosbuvir , daclatasvir , simeprevir , or ledipasvir , have been reported in this setting .
the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of a... | background .
there are few data on the combination of ( pegylated- ) interferon- ( peg - ifn- ) , ribavirin , and first - generation direct - acting antiviral agents ( daas ) .
our aim was to describe the efficacy and safety of peg - ifn- , ribavirin , and boceprevir in hemodialysis patients .
patients .
six hemodialysis patients , chronically infected by genotype-1 hcv , were given peg - ifn- ( 135 g / week ) , ribavirin ( 200 mg / d ) , and boceprevir ( 2400 mg / d ) for 48 weeks
. results . at initiation of antiviral therapy ,
median viral concentration was 5.68 ( 3.786.55 ) log iu / ml . hcv rna was undetectable in four of the six patients at week 4 and in all patients at week 24 .
a breakthrough was observed in two patients between weeks 24 and 48 , and a third patient stopped antiviral therapy between weeks 24 and 48 because of severe peripheral neuropathy . at week 48 , hcv rna was undetectable in three patients .
of these , two patients relapsed within a month after antiviral therapy was stopped .
hence , only one patient had a sustained virological response ; he was a previous partial responder .
overall , anemia was the main side effect .
conclusion .
a triple antiviral therapy based on peg - ifn- , ribavirin , and boceprevir is not optimal at treating hemodialysis patients with chronic hcv infection .
studies using new - generation drugs are required in this setting . |
6,737 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: arsenic is a toxic metalloid [ 1 , 2 ]
that exists throughout nature
in organic and inorganic forms .
it is
commonly present in soils on average at several mg / kg , as well as in marine
sediments , and is enriched in mineral deposits as oxides and sulfides .
the
basic element , arsenic , exists in either of three allotropic forms : yellow ,
black , or grey with the stable , semimetallic form having a silver / steely - grey
colour as a brittle , crystalline solid .
the semimetallic form oxidises rapidly
in air , and at high temperatures produces a white cloud of arsenic trioxide ( as2o3 ) .
arsenic , with its variety of
chemical forms and oxidation states , is listed in table 1 .
the current iupac
nomenclature is listed
in as well as the more common names of the arsenic - based compounds which
are mainly used throughout this review .
when absorbed at toxic
levels , arsenic causes severe health problems , including cancer .
arsenic - containing compounds are applied in
plant pesticides and insecticides and arsenic environmental contamination represents
a global health problem , particularly from leaching into ground water . when the
soluble levels exceed 50 g / l
in drinking water as in many regions of bangladesh , arsenic becomes a
particular health concern as it has recently been associated with increased
cancer rates appearing after consumption with a lag time up to 1020 years .
whilst the carcinogenic
aspects of arsenic compounds are not the focus of this review , nevertheless this
undesirable aspect needs to be raised .
thus , arsenic and its methylated species
are known carcinogens but this description is probably inaccurate as they act
more as cocarcinogens by facilitating / promoting the induction of tumors of the
skin , urinary bladder , and lung rather than directly inducing cell transformation
and oncogenesis [ 2 , 6 ] . as cocarcinogens , mechanisms include indirect effects
such as dna damaging genotoxicity by altered dna methylation as well... | arsenic - based compounds have become accepted agents for cancer therapy providing high rates of remission of some cancers such as acute promyelocytic leukemia ( apl ) .
the mechanisms by which arsenic - containing compounds kill cells and
reasons for selective killing of only certain types of cancer cells such as apls have recently been delineated .
this knowledge
was gained in parallel with increasing understanding and awareness of the importance of intracellular redox systems and
regulation of the production of reactive oxygen species ( ros ) by controlling mitochondrial function .
many of the targets for
the arsenic - containing compounds are mitochondrial proteins involved in regulating the production of ros .
inhibition of these
proteins by disulfide linkage of vicinal thiol groups often leads to increased production of ros and induction of apoptotic
signalling pathways .
sensitivity or resistance to the actions of arsenic - containing compounds on cancer cells and normal
cells depends on the levels of transport systems for their uptake or efflux from the cells as well as their redox defence
mechanisms .
the exact mechanisms of arsenic toxicity as well as its anticancer properties are likely to be related and these
aspects of arsenic metabolism are covered in this review .
greater understanding of the mechanisms of action of arsenic will
help determine the risks of human exposure to this chemical .
novel organic arsenic - containing compounds and the lessons
learned from studying their selective sensitivity in targeting dividing endothelial cells to inhibit angiogenesis raise the future
possibility for designing better targeted antineoplastic arsenic - containing compounds with less toxicity to normal cells . |
6,738 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in july 2007 , an outbreak of ulceroglandular tularemia occurred in utah among visitors to the southwest shore of utah lake ; an epidemiologic investigation implicated deer fly bites as the source of infection ( 8) .
molecular subtyping of isolates was performed by using pmei pulsed - field gel electrophoresis ( pfge ) as previously described ( 2 ) .
pfge gels were normalized by comparison to the salmonella enterica serotype braenderup ( h9812 ) reference strain by using bionumerics software ( v. 4.0 , applied maths bvba , sint - martens - latem , belgium ) ( 2 ) .
a dendrogram was constructed by comparison with pmei pfge patterns for a1 ( schu s4 , ma002972 ) and a2 ( atcc 6223 , wy963418 ) control strains ( 1,2,47,9 ) ( figure 1 ) .
the 5 clinical isolates fell into the 2 major type a clades ; 2 isolates were identified as a2 ( ut074632 , ut074633 ) , and 3 were identified as a1 ( ut074262 , ut074263 , ut074265 ) ( figure 1 ) .
pfge patterns for the 3 a1 isolates were indistinguishable from each other , as were patterns for the 2 a2 isolates ( figure 1 ) .
dendrogram based on pmei pulsed - field gel electrophoresis ( pfge ) patterns of francisella tularensis type a isolates .
the dendrogram was constructed by using dice similarity coefficients ( 1.5% optimization and 1.5% tolerance ) and unweighted pair group method with averages .
strains wy963418 , atcc 6223 , schu s4 , and ma002972 were included as known a1 and a2 controls for creation of the dendrogram .
control strains were previously identified as either a1 or a2 by multiple methods including multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis , pfge , housekeeping gene sequence analysis , whole genome sequencing , and indel analysis ( 1,2,47,9 ) . a brief search of the exposure area yielded desiccated carcasses of 10 black - tailed jackrabbits ( lepus californicus ) and 2 desert cottontail rabbits ( sylvilagus audubonii ) .
the carcasses were found within a few hundred meters of each other , in an overall area < 0.8 km across . living deer flies (... | in july 2007 , a deer fly associated outbreak of tularemia occurred in utah .
human infections were caused by 2 clades ( a1 and a2 ) of francisella tularensis subsp .
tularensis .
lagomorph carcasses from the area yielded evidence of infection with a1 and a2 , as well as f. tularensis subsp .
holarctica .
these findings indicate that multiple subspecies and clades can cause disease in a localized outbreak of tularemia . |
6,739 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in recent years , growth in the aging population has been observed in many countries and is progressing rapidly in japan in particular . because of this , the incidence of dementia in particular , alzheimer s disease ( ad)is rising rapidly ,
so there is a pressing need to provide effective treatment options for individuals with ad . in >
80 countries worldwide , memantine has been used to treat patients with ad ( predominantly moderate - to - severe ad ) for over 10 years , and its efficacy and safety have been reported in clinical trials and meta - analyses [ 1 - 3 ] .
memantine was approved for the treatment of moderate - to - severe ad in japan in 2011 .
a late phase ii dose - finding study in japan demonstrated dose - responsiveness at 24 weeks in the japanese version of the severe impairment battery ( sib - j ) .
a phase iii study , also conducted in japan , showed a statistically significant change in sib - j score compared with placebo . regarding the variable the clinician s interview - based impression of change plus - japanese version ( cibic plus - j )
, the memantine group showed a lesser degree of worsening at week 24 compared with those receiving placebo , although the difference was not statistically significant .
studies in the us and europe have shown memantine to be effective in language improvement based on the sib - language ( sib - l ) scale and in behavioral improvement based on the 12-item neuropsychiatric inventory ( npi ) .
however , there are no data on language improvements in japanese patients treated with memantine and , given the differences in lifestyle and ad prevalence between japan and western countries , it remains unknown whether the results of clinical studies conducted outside japan can be extrapolated to japanese patients with ad .
taking into consideration the heterogeneity of ad , analysis of a large population could reveal information about the clinical effects of memantine on language ability in japanese patients .
thus far , no analysis has been performed with a... | background with the increase in the aging population , there is a pressing need to provide effective treatment options for individuals with alzheimer s disease ( ad ) .
memantine is an n - methyl - d - aspartate receptor antagonist used to treat ad in > 80 countries worldwide , and studies in the usa and europe have shown it to be effective in improving language deficits ; however , there are currently no data on language improvements in japanese patients treated with memantine.objectives to clarify the efficacy and safety of memantine in japanese outpatients with moderate to severe ad , using a pooled analysis of two multicenter randomized placebo - controlled trials , a phase 2 dose - finding study and a phase 3 study.results the final analysis comprised 633 patients ( 318 receiving memantine and 315 placebo ) .
memantine produced better outcomes in terms of severe impairment battery - japanese version , clinician s interview - based impression of change plus - japanese version , behavioral pathology in ad rating scale , and language scores , versus placebo .
the overall incidence of adverse events and adverse reactions was similar between groups.conclusion in this pooled analysis of japanese patients , memantine achieved better outcomes than placebo in terms of cognition , including attention , praxis , visuospatial ability and language , and behavioral and psychological symptoms , including activity disturbances and aggressiveness . |
6,740 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in human , nkg2d ligands consist of two families ; the mhc - class - i- chain - related proteins ( mica and micb ) [ 1 , 2 ] and the cytomegalovirus ul16-binding protein family ( ulbp16 ) or retinoic acid early transcript 1 ( raet1e , g , h , i , n , and raet1l ) [ 3 , 4 ] which are polymorphic [ 57 ] .
the signaling through nkg2d engagement to its ligands requires the adaptor protein dap10 in human or dap10/12 in mice , forming a hexameric complex on the cell membrane [ 8 , 9 ] .
the nkg2d ligands are mostly not expressed on normal cells or expressed at very low levels on particular cells at particular conditions but are upregulated on cells under stress such as malignant cells or bacterial / viral infected cells and have been linked with autoimmune diseases [ 1013 ] .
thus , the expression of nkg2d ligands is important in immune responses [ 14 , 15 ] . at present , monoclonal antibodies ( mabs )
are breakthrough in medicine and are effective products for diagnostic , monitoring , and therapeutic of cancers , infections , and other diseases . in case of cancer , many kinds of cancer cells are over expressing nkg2d ligands , but they can escape from recognition and destruction by t cells or nk cells of the immune system by shedding the ligands as a soluble form such as soluble mic .
the mic shedding in cancer renders a reduced or low expression of mic on cell surface .
therefore , the high affinity antibodies are required for prognostics and therapeutics in cancer patients .
previously , we have generated several monoclonal antibodies against mica . in order to improve the binding activities against mica
in addition , affinity maturation of antibodies expressed on phages was performed by pcr - random mutagenesis at complementarity determining regions ( cdrs ) on the v domain of the heavy chain cdr3 ( hcdr3 ) .
this process has produced clones with high anti - mica activities which have been characterized .
these clones would have high potential to develop targeted therapy against cancer cells expressing... | major histocompatibility complex class i chain - related gene a ( mica ) is an nkg2d ligand that is over - expressed under cellular stress including cancer transformation and viral infection .
high expression of mica in cancer tissues or patients ' sera is useful for prognostic or follow - up markers in cancer patients . in this study ,
phage display technology was employed to improve antigen - binding activities of anti - mica monoclonal antibodies ( ww2g8 , ww6b7 , and ww9b8 ) .
the 12 amino acid residues in the complementarity determining regions ( cdrs ) on the v domain of the heavy chain cdr3 ( hcdr3 ) of these anti - mica antibodies were modified by pcr - random mutagenesis , and phages displaying mutated anti - mica fab were constructed .
after seven rounds of panning , five clones of phages displaying mutant anti - mica fab which exhibited 37-folds higher antigen - binding activities were isolated .
two clones of the mutants ( phage - displayed mutant fab ww9b8.1 and phage - displayed mutant fab ww9b8.21 ) were confirmed to have antigen - binding specificity for cell surface mica proteins by flow cytometry .
these phage clones are able to recognize mica in a native form according to positive results obtained by indirect elisa and flow cytometry .
thus , these phage particles could be potentially used for further development of nanomedicine specifically targeting cancer cells expressing mica proteins . |
6,741 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the american college of sports medicine ( acsm ) recommends that healthy adults should participate in moderately intense aerobic exercise , defined as 64
76% of one s maximal heart rate , for at least thirty minutes , five days per week .
this is considered the minimum threshold of aerobic exercise for one to maintain health and reduce risk for chronic disease .
this exercise may be attained through any number of different means , such as walking , jogging , swimming , or cycling .
these activities are likely the most popular and preferred methods of exercise as one can perform them for various durations , depending upon one s chosen exercise intensity .
another form of aerobic exercise in which people may participate to improve their health is repetitive jumping .
most people are likely familiar with repetitive jumping , as rope skipping or jumping rope is an activity often observed in elementary school children .
repetitive jumping is an intense activity where the heart rate will often rise quickly after as little as two minutes of jumping .
previous research has demonstrated that this type of activity can contribute to a substantial caloric expenditure as it elicits a high metabolic demand from both aerobic and anaerobic sources , and that regardless of jumping cadence there appears to be no difference in physiological stress . however , as these early studies were conducted with subjects turning and skipping a rope , the present study employed the use of a new exercise device specifically designed for repetitive jumping .
an innovative device ( the digi - jump ) has been developed which allows one to use jumping as a training technique without some of the limitations of jumping rope .
this device allows one to jump at a predetermined rate ( jumps per minute ) and at a pre - determined height per jump , while not having to utilize one s hands and arms , thus possibly reducing localized fatigue and enabling one to continue exercising longer and more consistently . also , as the jumping rate is governed by... | the american college of sports medicine ( acsm ) recommends that healthy adults achieve a minimum of thirty minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise five days per week .
while cycling , walking , and jogging are commonly observed methods of achieving these recommendations , another option may be repetitive jumping .
the purpose of this study was to examine the metabolic responses between repetitive jumping at a cadence of 120 jumps per minute ( jpms ) vs. 100 jpms when utilizing the digi - jump machine .
twenty - eight subjects completed two jumping trials , one at 120 jpms and one at 100 jpms .
subjects jumped until volitional exhaustion , or for a maximum of fifteen minutes .
oxygen uptake ( vo2 ) , heart rate ( hr ) , respiratory exchange ratio ( rer ) , and rating of perceived exertion ( rpe ) were assessed each minute of each exercise trial .
rpe was differentiated , in that subjects reported perceived exertion of their total body , their upper - leg , and their lower leg .
results of this study indicated that there was no significant difference between the two trials for vo2 , hr , or total body rpe .
differences were reported between trials for peak and average rer , with the 120 jpm trial eliciting a lower rer for both ( peak : 1.08 .087 vs. 1.17 .1 p=.000 ; average : .99 .076 vs. 1.04 .098 p=.002 ) , peak upper leg rpe ( 120 : 15.29 3.89 vs. 100 : 16.75 2.52 p=.022 ) , and average lower leg rpe ( 120 : 15.04 2.55 vs. 100 : 13.94 2.02 p=.019 ) .
also , there was a significant difference in exercise duration between the trials , with subjects able to exercise longer during the 120 jpm trial ( 12.4 3.42 mins vs. 9.68 4.31 mins p=.000 ) .
these data indicate that while the physiological stress may not be different between the two trials as indicated by vo2 and hr , the 120 jpm trial appears less strenuous as evidenced by rer values and by subjects ability to exercise longer at that cadence . |
6,742 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the ludwigshafen risk and cardiovascular health ( luric ) study is a prospective cohort study designed to evaluate determinants of cardiovascular health ( 1517 ) . between july 1997 and january 2000
, 3,316 caucasian subjects referred for coronary angiography were recruited at the herzzentrum ( cardiac center ) ludwigshafen in southwest germany .
exclusion criteria were any acute illness other than acute coronary syndrome , any predominant noncardiac chronic disease , and a history of malignant neoplasm(s ) within the past 5 years .
written informed consent was obtained from each participant , and the study was approved by the institutional review board at the rztekammer rheinland - pfalz ( medical association of rheinland - pfalz ) .
a detailed questionnaire was used to collect a range of demographic characteristics , including lifestyle factors such as alcohol consumption , smoking , and physical activity .
daily physical activity was recorded using a nonvalidated 11-point scale ranging from bedridden to extremely active .
key points on the scale were 1 , bed rest ; 2 , mostly supine , 3 , not very active , 6 , usual office work ; 9 , heavy work or sports ; and 11 , extremely sportive .
a fasting venous blood sample was obtained in the morning before coronary angiography from supine subjects .
a summary of analytic methods relevant to this study has been previously reported ( 15 ) .
serum levels of 25(oh)d were assayed weekly using a radioimmunoassay ( diasorin sa , antony , france ) with intra - assay and interassay coefficients of variation of 8.6% and 9.2% , respectively ( 15,16 ) .
we have also validated this radioimmune assay using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry , which correlated significantly ( r = 0.88 , p < 0.001 ) , with intra - assay and interassay coefficients of variation of less than 10% .
nmol / l ) , or severe deficiency ( < 25 nmol / l ) , as recommended by the endocrine society ( 18,19 ) . for reference , other organizations may use other criteria , such as the... | objectiveoptimal vitamin d levels are associated with reduced cardiovascular and all - cause mortality .
we investigated whether optimal 25-hydroxyvitamin d ( 25[oh]d ) is protective in individuals with the metabolic syndrome.research design and methodsthe ludwigshafen risk and cardiovascular health ( luric ) study is a cohort study of subjects referred for coronary angiography between 1997 and 2000 , from which 1,801 with the metabolic syndrome were investigated .
mortality was tracked for a median of 7.7 years .
multivariable survival analysis was used to estimate the association between 25(oh)d levels and mortality.resultsmost subjects ( 92% ) had suboptimal levels of 25(oh)d ( < 75 nmol / l ) , with 22.2% being severely deficient ( < 25 nmol / l ) . during follow - up ,
462 deaths were recorded , 267 ( 57.8% ) of which were cardiovascular in origin .
after full adjustment , including the metabolic syndrome components , those with optimal 25(oh)d levels showed a substantial reduction in all - cause ( hazard ratio [ hr ] 0.25 [ 95% ci 0.130.46 ] ) and cardiovascular disease mortality ( 0.33 [ 0.160.66 ] ) compared with those with severe vitamin d deficiency . for specific cardiovascular disease mortality ,
there was a strong reduction for sudden death ( 0.15 [ 0.040.63 ] ) and congestive heart failure ( 0.24 [ 0.061.04 ] ) , but not for myocardial infarction .
the reduction in mortality was dose - dependent for each of these causes.conclusionsoptimal 25(oh)d levels substantially lowered all - cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in subjects with the metabolic syndrome .
these observations call for interventional studies that test whether vitamin d supplementation provides a useful adjunct in reducing mortality in these subjects . |
6,743 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the use of autogenous bone grafts with osseointegrated implants was originally discussed by breine and branemark in 1980 . since then , numerous papers have been published that have presented a variety of procedures involving different types of implants , bone grafts , and other graft materials for oral and craniofacial reconstructions , .
the ideal materials to use as biocompatible bone grafts ideally must be absorbed after the formation of new bone , must provide structure for bone regeneration , and physiologically allow mechanical stability , as well as having osteogenic , osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties .
the best grafting material isautogenous bone , since it is the only material to adhere to all of the abovementioned biological properties and is unlikely to be rejected by the body .
studies have shown that there are many advantages to using the tunnel technique for bone grafting .
the fact that the periosteum is kept intact , when using the tunnel technique , is a crucial element for the survival and viability of the graft block .
furthermore , there is no need to use a membrane , since the periosteum is intact .
this procedure presents minimal complications . with the technical and scientific developments in implant surgery ,
the search for surgical procedures with lower morbidity , and an ability to create satisfactory conditions for implant placement is necessary .
the aim of our work is to describe the appositional ( i.e. , onlay ) bone graft technique using a the tunnel technique , with the implant system bionnovation , providing stability to the graft , without the need for fixing screws , through a description of technical notes through case reports .
their average age was 35 years , 4 males ( 50% ) and 4 women ( 50% ) , with 6 cases in the anterior maxillary region ( 75% ) and 2 case in the anterior mandibular region ( 25% ) .
inclusion criteria of the cases : the patients involved must have presented alveolar ridge resorption in thickness ( deficiency of the bucco - lingual width... | highlightsthe tunnel technique for onlay bone grafting is a simple and easy to perform technique.we had no implant loss with the tunnel technique in the onlay bone graft.the fact that the periosteum is kept intact , is a crucial element for the survival and viability of the graft block . |
6,744 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: congenital hypothyroidism ( ch ) is a condition of insufficient production of a thyroid hormone , which is due to thyroid dysgenesis or thyroid dyshormonogenesis .
it results in irreversible damage of the central nervous system ( porterfield , 1994 ) , presenting serious mental and motor retardation ( simic et al . , 2009 ) .
neonatal ch screening and early replacement therapy of thyroxine has been highly effective in preventing retardation ( maitusong et al . ,
2012 ) . by raising the intelligent quotient ( iq ) to within normal range in subjects with ch , the individuals gain a higher quality of life and better cognitive functions .
however , accumulating evidence suggests that , even though their performance is definitely improved by earlier initiation of thyroxine supplementation , children with ch still have some subtle cognitive and motor deficits ( fuggle et al . ,
1991 ; bargagna et al . , 2000 ; rovet and ehrlich , 2000 ) , such as attention deficit and inhibitory control problems .
rovet ( 1999 ) reported that adolescents with ch had poorer attention compared with matched controls .
other studies found similar results in children , adolescents , and young adults ( kooistra et al .
alvarez and colleagues ( 2010 ) also showed that inhibitory control was significantly lower in children with ch than in controls .
all the results indicate that subjects with ch have a higher possibility of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( adhd ) symptoms .
adhd is characterized by age - inappropriate inattention , hyperactivity - impulsivity , or both , which play an important role in the impairment of academic and social function for school - aged children .
however , the multiplicity of the both conditions make the treatment challenging . to the best of our knowledge
, there is no clinical trial to explore the treatment of children with both adhd and ch .
atomoxetine is a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor approved for the treatment of adhd . in the present pilot study ,
our aim was to evaluate the... | background : with early initiation of thyroxine supplementation , children with congenital hypothyroidism ( ch ) retain some subtle deficits , such as attention and inhibitory control problems .
this study assessed the effects of atomoxetine on cognitive functions in treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( adhd ) symptoms in children with ch.methods:in a 6-month , open - labeled pilot study , 12 children were recruited and received atomoxetine .
the measures of efficacy were scores on the swanson , nolan and pelham teacher and parent rating scale , version iv ( snap - iv ) and clinical global impression - severity scale ( cgi - s ) .
the cognitive functions were evaluated with the wechsler intelligence scale for chinese children , digit span , wisconsin card sorting test , and stroop test.results:a statistically significant difference was found between the mean cgi - s and snap - iv scores before and after treatment ( p < 0.01 ) .
all the indicators of cognitive functions at the endpoint were improved compared with those at baseline .
no serious adverse events were reported.conclusion:atomoxetine appears to be useful in improving adhd symptoms , as well as cognitive functions , in children with ch .
larger , randomized , double - blinded , clinical trials are required to replicate these results . |
6,745 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: because the functional and morphological diversities of an
organism represent the value of the organism itself , the traditional biological
techniques used to characterize these properties provide
indispensable information . conventional biology techniques face
difficulties , however , such as classifying characterless organisms
like microbes and analyzing communities composed of huge numbers of various organisms , owing to both the instability of phenotypes , which are easily affected by
environmental factors , and an insufficient number of experts .
a potential solution to these problems has been to characterize an
organism according to the sequence of the small subunit ribosomal
rna ( 16s/18s rrna ) , an approach that has been applied to various
organisms [ 57 ] .
similarly , cytochrome oxygenase subunit 1 ( cod1 ) , gyrase , and other genes have been used for this purpose .
the superiority of these approaches is that they
are based on popular and well - established sequencing technology
and can provide the determinate result of nucleotide sequence ,
which can be further computer - analyzed and can fuel the activity
of bioinformatics .
nevertheless , this approach can not be said to
be a readily usable method for classifying species because ( i ) it
is rather costly and time - consuming for application to a large
number of species ( e.g. , > 100 ) , especially for scientists in
general all over the world , and ( ii ) it often results in an
insufficient amount of information for identifying and classifying
species .
the latter problem can be overcome by sequencing additional genes [ 810 ] ; however , this makes the approach
more complicated and less accessible . here
, we present a solution for the universal classification of
species together with a demonstration of its effectiveness , which
has been tested by applying it to taxonomically well - established
organisms such as plants , fish , and insects .
genome profiling ( gp )
has already been established... | traditionally , organisms have been classified on the basis of their phenotype . recently , genotype - based classification has become possible through the development of sequencing technology . however , it is still difficult to apply sequencing approaches to the analysis of a large number of species due to the cost and labor . in most biological fields ,
the analysis of complex systems comprising various species has become an important theme , demanding an effective method for handling a vast number of species . in this paper , we have demonstrated , using plants , fish , and insects , that genome profiling , a compact technology for genome analysis , can classify organisms universally .
surprisingly , in all three of the domains of organisms tested , the phylogenetic trees generated from the phenotype topologically matched completely those generated from the genotype .
furthermore , a single probe was sufficient for the genome profiling , thereby demonstrating that this methodology is universal and compact . |
6,746 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in 2009 , the world faced the emergence of a new strain of influenza virus ( 1 ) . the influenza a ( h1n1 ) virus spread rapidly , causing the first pandemic of the 21st century ( 2 ) . in brazil , the first confirmed case of infection with the new virus was reported on may 7th , 2009 by the brazilian health minister ( 3 ) . on july 16th , 2009 ,
the sustained human transmission of the virus in brazil was declared , and the mandatory reporting of each patient diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the influenza a ( h1n1 ) virus was established ( 4 ) .
several actions were taken to control the epidemic in brazil , including the establishment of hospital admission criteria for suspected cases .
beginning in march 2010 , the pandemic influenza vaccine was available in brazil for the population groups who presented with higher morbidity and mortality after h1n1 infection in 2009 and for healthcare professionals and native indians ( 5)-(7 ) . in the pediatric age group ,
first children aged six months to two years were vaccinated ; vaccinations were subsequently extended to all children under age five . in the literature
, studies have discussed the characteristics of the pediatric patients who were admitted to the hospital with influenza a ( h1n1 ) infection . however , to our knowledge , no published study has compared the 2009 and 2010 hospitalizations . in this study , we describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients under age 19 who were hospitalized with confirmed influenza a ( h1n1 ) infection in 2009 and 2010 , the year that the vaccination campaign against pandemic influenza began in brazil .
this study was conducted at so paulo hospital , a tertiary university hospital in so paulo , brazil , with pediatric wards , semi - intensive , and intensive care units ( icu ) .
this is a retrospective study of suspected cases of influenza a ( h1n1 ) infection reported to the disease control surveillance system of our hospital .
we selected patients under 19 years and... | in 2009 , the influenza a ( h1n1 ) virus spread rapidly around the world , causing the first pandemic of the 21st century . in 2010 , there was a vaccination campaign against this new virus subtype to reduce the morbidity and mortality of the disease in some countries , including brazil .
herein , we describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients under 19 years of age who were hospitalized with confirmed influenza a ( h1n1 ) infection in 2009 and 2010 .
we retrospectively reviewed files from the pediatric patients who were admitted to a university hospital with real - time polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) confirmed influenza a ( h1n1 ) infection in 2009 and 2010 .
there were 37 hospitalized patients with influenza a ( h1n1 ) in 2009 and 2 in 2010 . in 2009 , many of the hospitalized children had an underlying chronic disease and a lower median age than those not hospitalized .
of the hospitalized patients , 78% had a chronic disease , primarily pneumopathy ( 48% ) .
the main signs and symptoms of influenza were fever ( 97% ) , cough ( 76% ) , and dyspnea ( 59% ) .
complications occurred in 81% of the patients .
the median length of hospitalization was five days ; 27% of the patients required intensive care , and two died . in 2010 , two patients were hospitalized with influenza a ( h1n1 ) : one infant with adenovirus co - infection who had received one previous h1n1 vaccine dose and presented with respiratory sequelae and a 2-month - old infant who had a hospital - acquired infection .
an impressive reduction in hospital admissions was observed in 2010 when the vaccination campaign took place in brazil . |
6,747 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: cadmium ( cd ) is often the result of environmental pollution caused by industrial and agricultural activities and it is widely dispersed into the environment ; hence , humans are exposed to it ubiquitously .
an earlier study showed that cd acts as a stressor and leads to metabolic alterations .
humans always come into contact with cd by occupational exposure , smoking , or diet .
however , diet is the primary way cd enters the bodies of those without occupational exposure and who do not live in cd - polluted regions .
it has been reported that dietary cd exposure is mainly from the relatively high cd content of agricultural crops and their products , such as rice , bread , potatoes , and vegetables . after entering the human body ,
the long - time biological effect of cd is that it may be a carcinogen . in 2008
, a population - based cohort study suggested that chronic dietary cd intake could increase risk of hormone - related cancers .
similarly , another population - based prospective cohort study reported that dietary cd intake played an important role in prostate cancer development .
thus , dietary cd intake may be associated with hormone - related cancers . for women
, bc is an estrogen - related cancer , and a laboratory study indicated that cd could malignantly transform breast cells , stimulate breast cell proliferation , and inhibit apoptosis .
the relationship between dietary cd exposure and bc risk has been supported by some observational studies , but the results of these studies were inconsistent [ 1013 ] , hence , a meta - analysis was conducted by cho et al . to clarify these inconsistent results , and
this study found that there was a significant positive relationship between dietary cd intake and bc risk .
recently , 2 recent prospective cohort studies have observed a relationship between dietary cd intake and bc risk ; however , neither of these studies found that dietary cd intake was a risk for bc .
thus , we performed a meta - analysis to update and quantitatively re - assess the... | backgrounddiet is the primary way cadmium ( cd ) enters the body in those without occupational exposure and who do not inhabit cd - polluted regions .
findings on the relationship between dietary cd exposure and breast cancer ( bc ) risk have been inconsistent ; a meta - analysis has supported this association but 2 recent cohort studies showed inconsistent results .
hence , we performed an updated meta - analysis to re - evaluate the association between dietary cd exposure and bc risk.material/methodswe searched pubmed , medline , and embase to identify relevant studies published through september 2014 .
combined relative risks ( rrs ) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals ( cis ) were used to assess the association between dietary cd exposure and bc risk.resultswe identified 6 studies involving 321 315 participants and 11 978 cases .
our study suggested there was no statistically significant positive association between dietary cd exposure and bc risk , the combined rr and corresponding 95% ci was 1.01 [ 0.88 , 1.14 ] .
the result was not modified by menopause status , geographic area , or study design.conclusionsour study did not find a statistically significant positive association between dietary cd exposure and bc risk .
it is necessary to investigate this relationship among the high - risk groups and more cohort studies based on diverse populations are needed . |
6,748 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of thrombosis among women with mechanical prosthetic heart valves .
an anticoagulation management is important for both , mother and fetus.1 ) an increased thrombogenicity in pregnancy may be associated with several factors such as inherited coagulation defects , which may result in recurrent pregnancy loss and other thromboembolic complications.2 ) herein , we present a pregnant patient who had a history of recurrent pregnancy loss and developed recurrent prosthetic heart valve thrombosis ( phvt ) despite optimal anticoagulation .
a 23-year - old pregnant woman ( 10 weeks of gestation ) with mechanical mitral prosthetic valve ( operated 5 years ago ) was due to an exertional dyspnea admitted to our hospital .
she did not notify her medical doctor about her pregnancy and had continued to intake 7.5 mg of warfarin on her own .
the international normalized ratio ( inr ) was 2.4 on admission and the blood pressure was 130/80 mm hg .
transthoracic echocardiography on admission revealed increased doppler gradients ( maximum / mean gradient : 17/10 mm hg ) and decreased mitral valve area ( mva ) of 1.5 cm indicating a prosthetic valve obstruction .
transesophageal echocardiography delineated a thrombus area of 1.5 cm on the mitral prosthesis ( fig .
thrombolytic therapy ( tt ) with low dose ( 25 mg ) and slow infusion ( 6 hours ) of tissue - plasminogen activator ( tpa ) was administered as described recently.3 ) after tt , the mva increased to 2.8 cm and the transmitral gradient decreased ( maximum / mean gradient : 11/5 mm hg ) with a complete lysis of the thrombus ( fig .
an elective curettage was performed to avoid a potential embryopathy due to the relatively high dose warfarin consumption .
two years later , the patient suffered from two pregnancy losses at the 18th and 20th week respectively .
anticardiolipin immunoglobulin ( ig ) g and igm , lupus anticoagulant and toxoplasma antibodies were studied and showed all negative results .
genetic testing was... | an effective anticoagulation is critical in pregnant patients with prosthetic heart valves .
inherited disorders may interfere with the coagulation cascade and may be associated with obstetrical complications as well as with prosthetic valve - derived complications .
the patient in the present case had a history of recurrent prosthetic heart valve thrombosis ( phvt ) despite an effective anticoagulation .
she underwent a thrombolysis with low - dose prolonged infusion of tissue - type plasminogen activator for the management of her recurrrent prosthetic valve thrombosis .
the genetic testing showed homozygous mutations of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase ( mthfr ) a 1298 c and heterozygous mutations of -fibrinogen 455 g - a .
inherited disorders such as mthfr a 1298 c and fibrinogen 455g / a polymorphisms may be involved in the pathogenesis of recurrent phvt and/or pregnancy loss . |
6,749 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: gastric cancer is one of the most common fatal cancers , and patients are particularly prone to lymph node metastasis.1 the incidence for gastric carcinoma has had a recent increase , likely due to both environmental and social factors.1 effective methods for early diagnosis , monitoring metastasis , and prognosis are currently unavailable for gastric cancer .
currently , molecular targeted therapy has shown to be effective in her-2-positive patients with gastric cancer,2,3 but its clinical application is limited due to the rare occurrence of her-2 mutation .
immunotherapy has shown bright promise in the treatment of gastric cancer.4,5 unfortunately , it was reported that gastric cancer cells can escape immune surveillance by a variety of mechanisms which prevent the immune system from producing effective antitumor immune responses.6 moreover , the body s antitumor immunity is mainly mediated by t lymphocytes , but the majority of tumor antigen - specific t - cells are often in a state of immune tolerance . therefore ,
elucidating the relationship between the tumor immune escape mechanism and prognosis of gastric cancer will be of high importance for both cancer biology and translational cancer research .
programmed death ligand-1 ( pd - l1 ) is a member of the b7 superfamily of costimulating molecules expressed by antigen - presenting cells that functions as a t lymphocyte inhibitory molecule .
pd - l1 has been shown to induce t lymphocyte anergy and/or apoptosis through binding to its receptor , pd-1.711 pd - l1 increases apoptosis of antigen - specific human t - cell clones and inhibits the activation of cd4 and cd8 t - cells in vitro.7,12 pd - l1 expression has been described in several malignancies , including colon cancer , ovary cancer , melanoma , lung carcinoma , breast cancer , non - small - cell lung carcinoma , gliomas , squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck , renal cell carcinoma , and esophageal carcinoma.9,1217 high expression of pd - l1 has been demonstrated to be closely associated with... | introductiongastric cancer is a fatal malignancy with a rising incidence rate .
effective methods for early diagnosis , monitoring metastasis , and prognosis are currently unavailable for gastric cancer . in this study , we examined the association of programmed death ligand-1 ( pd - l1 ) and apurinic / apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 ( ape1 ) expression with the prognosis of gastric cancer.methodsthe expressions of pd - l1 and ape1 were detected by immunohistochemistry in 107 cases of human gastric carcinoma .
the correlation of pd - l1 and ape1 expression with the clinicopathologic features of gastric carcinoma was analyzed by spss version 19.0.resultsthe positive expression rates of pd - l1 and ape1 in gastric cancer tissues were 50.5% ( 54/107 ) and 86.9% ( 93/107 ) , respectively .
pd - l1 and ape1 positive expressions were significantly associated with depth of invasion , lymph node metastasis , pathological type , overall survival , and higher t stage .
furthermore , the expression of pd - l1 in highly differentiated gastric cancers was higher than that in poorly differentiated cancers ( p=0.008 ) .
moreover , the expression of ape1 and pd - l1 in gastric cancers was positively correlated ( r=0.336 , p<0.01 ) .
multivariate analysis showed that the depth of invasion was a significant prognostic factor ( risk ratio 19.91 ; p=0.000 ) , but there was no significant relationship with pd - l1 , ape1 , prognosis , and other characteristics.conclusionthe deregulation of pd - l1 and ape1 might contribute to the development and the poor prognosis of gastric cancer .
our findings suggest that high expression of pd - l1 and ape1 is a risk factor of gastric cancer and a new biomarker to predict the prognosis of gastric cancer .
furthermore , our findings suggest that targeting the pd - l1 and ape1 signaling pathways may be a new strategy for cancer immune therapy and targeted therapy for gastric cancer , especially in patients with deep invasion and lymph node metastasis . |
6,750 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chemicals : all chemicals were purchased from sigma - aldrich corporation
( st . louis , mo , u.s.a . ) unless stated otherwise . plant material , preparation and isolation of trans--viniferin : the leaf
and stem of v. amurensis were gathered on keryong mountain in daejeon ,
korea .
botanical identification and isolation of trans--viniferin were performed by
professor ki - hwan bae at the herbarium of the college of pharmacy , chungnam national
university , korea . dried leaf and stem of v. amurensis ( 4.6 kg )
were
extracted using methanol ( meoh ) ( 15 l 24 hr 3 times ) at room
temperature , filtered and concentrated to yield an meoh extract ( 658 g ) .
trans--viniferin
( 1,148 mg ) was obtained from an meoh extract after purification by silica gel column
chromatography .
ovary collection , recover and in vitro oocyte maturation : ovaries of
prepubertal gilts were collected from a commercial abattoir and transported to the
laboratory within 2 hr in 0.9% ( w / v ) nacl solution supplemented with penicillin - g ( 100
iu / ml ) and streptomycin sulfate ( 100 mg / l ) at 30 to
35c .
the follicular fluid with oocytes was aspirated from 3- to 6-mm antral follicles with
a 10-ml disposable syringe and 18-gauge needle and collected in a
15-ml centrifuge tube .
cumulus - oocyte complexes ( coc ) were recovered
under a stereomicroscope ; those with at least three layers of compact cumulus cells and
homogenous cytoplasm were selected for ivm .
the selected cocs were washed three times in a
hepes - buffered tyrode s medium containing 0.05% ( w / v ) polyvinyl alcohol ( tlh - pva ) and
transferred into 500 l of tissue culture medium 199 ( life technologies ,
rockville , md , u.s.a . ) supplemented with 26 mm sodium bicarbonate , 0.91 mm sodium pyruvate ,
0.57 mm cysteine , 10 ng / ml epidermal growth factor , 0.5
iu / ml porcine luteinizing hormone , 0.5 iu / ml porcine
follicle stimulating hormone , 10% ( v / v ) porcine follicular fluid ( pff ) , 75
g / ml penicillin -... | abstracttrans--viniferin is a naturally occurring polyphenol belonging to the stilbenoid family
that has been isolated from vitis amurensis , one of the most common wild
grapes in asia .
we investigated the effects of trans--viniferin on in
vitro maturation ( ivm ) and developmental competence after in
vitro fertilization ( ivf ) or parthenogenesis ( pa ) .
we observed that
trans--viniferin treatment during ivm did not improve nuclear maturation rates of oocytes
in any group , but significantly increased ( p<0.05 ) intracellular
glutathione ( gsh ) levels and reduced reactive oxygen species ( ros ) levels in the 0.5
m treatment group .
trans--viniferin treatment during ivm of recipient
oocytes promoted higher ( p<0.05 ) expression of dna methyltransferase-1
( dnmt1 ) mrna in the 0.5 m treatment group as compared with the control
group .
however , the expression of essential transcriptional and apoptosis - related genes
did not significantly differ from that of the control . in cumulus cells ,
pro - apoptosis
gene expressions were changed as apoptosis decreased .
oocytes treated with
trans--viniferin during ivm did not have significantly different cleavage rates or
blastocyst formation rates after pa , but total cell numbers were significantly higher
( p<0.05 ) in the 0.5 and 5.0 m treatment groups
compared with those in the control group .
ivf embryos showed similar results . in
conclusion , these results indicate that trans--viniferin treatment during porcine ivm
increased the total cell number of blastocysts , possibly by increasing intracellular gsh
synthesis , reducing ros levels , increasing dnmt1 gene expression of oocytes and decreasing
pro - apoptosis gene expressions of cumulus cells . |
6,751 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the following primary antibodies were used : mouse anti - wingless ( 1:1000 for standard protocol and 1:300 for extracellular staining ; dshb 4d4 ) , rabbit anti - ha ( 1:1000 , cell signalling ) , rat anti - ollas ( 1:10 , abnova ) , chicken anti - gfp ( 1:1000 , abcam ) , mouse anti - integrin ( 1:100 , dshb cf.6g11 ) , mouse anti - dlp ( 1:50 , dshb 13g8 ) , guinea pig anti - senseless ( 1:1000 , gift from h. bellen ) , mouse anti - v5 ( 1:500 , invitrogen ) , goat anti - gmap ( 1:100 , gift from s. munro , mrc - lmb cambridge ) guinea pig anti - godzilla ( 1:1500 ; ) .
secondary antibodies used were alexa 488 and alexa 555 ( 1:500 for standard protocol and 1:250 for extracellular staining , molecular probes ) .
imaginal discs were mounted in vectashield with dapi ( vector laboratories ) and imaged using either a leica sp5 or lsm710 confocal microscope .
confocal images were processed with imagej ( n.i.h ) , volocity ( perkinelmer ) , zen2.0 ( zeiss ) and photoshop cs5.1 ( adobe ) .
all xy confocal images show a single confocal section , xz and yz projections were created using volocity .
adult wings were mounted in euparal ( fisher scientific ) and imaged with a zeiss axiophot2 microscope with an axiocam hrc camera .
l3 larvae were dissected and fixed in 4% formaldehyde - pbs , washed and quenched with 3% h2o2 .
discs were then post - fixed in 5% formaldehyde - pbtween and transferred to hybridisation buffer containing the wingless probe overnight .
discs were washed and incubated with anti - dig ( roche ) , then biotinylated anti - sheep ( 1:200 , jackson laboratories ) and the reaction was visualised with a tyramide signal amplification kit ( perkin elmer ) .
fly stocks were kept at 18c , 25c or 29c on a standard medium consisting of agar , cornmeal and yeast .
crosses were performed at 25c unless they involved tub - gal80 , in which case they were kept at 18c and moved to 29c when required ( as indicated in the relevant figure ) .
to inhibit endocytosis temporarily , shibire wandering l3 larvae were... | the apical and basolateral membranes of epithelia are insulated from each other , preventing the transfer of extracellular proteins from one side to the other1 .
thus , a signalling protein produced apically is not expected to reach basolateral receptors .
evidence suggests that wingless , the main drosophila wnt is secreted apically in the embryonic epidermis2 , 3 .
however , in the wing imaginal disc epithelium , wingless is mostly seen on the basolateral membrane where it spreads from secreting to receiving cells 4 , 5 . here
we examine the apico - basal movement of wingless in wingless - producing cells of wing imaginal discs .
we find that it is presented first on the apical surface before making its way to the basolateral surface , where it is released and allowed to interact with signalling receptors .
we show that wingless transcytosis involves dynamin - dependent endocytosis from the apical surface .
subsequent trafficking from early apical endosomes to the basolateral surface requires godzilla , a member of the rnf family of membrane - anchored e3 ubiquitin ligases . without such transport ,
wingless signalling is strongly reduced in this tissue . |
6,752 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the aim of this report is to describe a single case of vitiligo induced by carbamazepine .
the case was a patient with bipolar i disorder whose medications were changed from valproate to carbamazepine and who developed vitiligo after a short while .
when depigmentation occurred , we immediately discontinued carbamazepine after which the depigmented areas improved gradually .
about three years later , he received carbamazepine again , but depigmentation did not recur .
carbamazepine - induced vitiligo is not an absolute contraindication for the prescription of carbamazepine if other choices fail to respond or are not tolerated .
the patient was a 34 -year -old male with a diagnosis of bipolar i disorder who was admitted to iran psychiatric hospital with a manic episode with psychotic features in september 2007 , and this was his first manic episode .
he received sodium valproate as well as antipsychotic medications for the active phase treatment and was stabilized on 600 mg of valproate . in the post - discharge follow up ,
the tremor was mainly of a postural type and was so severe that made eating , drinking and shaving very difficult for the patient .
propranolol was added and titrated up to 120 mg , but was not successful in controlling the tremor .
therefore , valproate was tapered and replaced with carbamazepine to a total dose of 800 mg / d .
nearly one month later , areas of depigmentation appeared on the patient s face ( figure 1 ) .
although depigmentation decreased gradually in the next two months , it could still be observed in an attenuated form in a close inspection .
then , lithium was tapered to discontinuation and a combination of lamotrigine ( up to 100 mg / d ) and olanzapine ( 10 mg / d ) was the next treatment choice . despite a mild tremor ,
the patient remained well for the following 18 months when he was admitted for one week in march 2011 for an episode of methamphetamine- induced psychotic disorder .
after discharge , the patient was visited by a physician unaware of his history of... | objectivevitiligo is a rare side effect of carbamazepine whose exact mechanism is unknown .
the aim of this report is to describe a single case of vitiligo induced by carbamazepine.methodsthe case was a patient with bipolar i disorder whose medications were changed from valproate to carbamazepine and who developed vitiligo after a short while .
we followed the case for about four years when he was rechallenged with carbamazepine.resultswhen depigmentation occurred , we immediately discontinued carbamazepine after which the depigmented areas improved gradually .
about three years later , he received carbamazepine again , but depigmentation did not recur.conclusioncarbamazepine-induced vitiligo is not an absolute contraindication for the prescription of carbamazepine if other choices fail to respond or are not tolerated .
the case has implications for the mechanism of medication induced vitiligo . |
6,753 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: tubulointerstitial fibrosis ( tif ) is the final manifestation of end stage renal disease ( esrd )
and renal injury is correlated to the degree of renal interstitial fibrosis .
one of the major pathological characteristics of tif is the activated tubulointerstitial
fibroblasts transdifferentiating into myofibroblasts .
furthermore ,
extracellular matrix ( ecm ) secreted by fibroblasts deposits in the tubular
interstitium and results in interstitial fibrosis . transforming growth factor- ( tgf- )
. connective tissue
growth factor ( ctgf ) has been receiving more and more attention for being one
of the major downstream mediators of tgf-. peroxisome proliferator - activated receptor ( ppar- ) is a
member of the ligand - activated nuclear transcriptional superfamily and is
expressed in several tissues which includes kidney [ 25 ] .
ppar- is activated by its ligand ,
15-deoxy--prostaglandin
j2 ( 15d - pgj2 ) , or
activators ( synthetic thiazolidinedione ppar- agonists ) and then participates in
the regulation of cellular function . apart from maintaining glucose homeostasis
studies have shown that ppar- could control glomerular inflammation , modulate
vasodilator substances like prostaglandins and no [ 6 , 7 ] , antagonize
glomerulosclerosis of diabetic nephropathy , and improve renal function . in a rat
remnant kidney model of renal fibrosis , administration of the ppar- agonist
troglitazone
ppar- agonists could exert antifibrotic effects on human
ptc in high glucose levels by attenuating the production of ap-1 , tgf-1 , and the downstream production of the
extracellular matrix protein fibronectin [ 8 , 9 ] .
ppar-
activation also decreases glomerular cell proliferation and suppresses
plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 ( pai-1 ) and tgf- expression .
furthermore , it down - regulated
tgf-1-induced
fibronectin expression in mouse glomerular mesangial cells by inhibiting
activator protein-1 ( ap-1 ) [ 1113 ] ; but the relationship between ppar- and
... | background . studies have shown that
peroxisome proliferator - activated receptor- ( ppar- ) agonists could ameliorate renal fibrotic lesions in both diabetic nephropathy and nondiabetic chronic kidney diseases . in order to elucidate the antifibrotic mechanism of ppar- agonists , we investigated the effects of ppar- activation on tgf-1-induced renal interstitial fibroblasts .
methods . in rat
renal interstitial fibroblasts ( nrk/49f ) , the mrna expression of tgf-1-induced
-smooth muscle actin ( -sma ) , connective tissue growth factor ( ctgf ) , fibronectin ( fn ) and collagen type iii ( col iii ) were observed by reverse transcriptase - polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) .
the protein expressions of fn and smads were observed by western blot .
results . in nrk/49f ,
tgf-1 enhanced ctgf , fn and col iii mrna expression in a dose- and time - dependent manner .
-sma , ctgf , fn and col iii mrna and fn protein expression in 15-deoxy-12,14-prostaglandin j2 ( 15d - pgj2)-troglitazone- and ciglitazone - pretreated groups , respectively , were significantly decreased compared with the tgf-1-stimulated group .
tgf-1 ( 5 ng / ml ) enhanced p - smad2/3 protein expression in a time - dependent manner . compared with the tgf-1-stimulated group , p - smad2/3 protein induced by tgf-1 in ppar- agonists - pretreated groups significantly decreased with no statistical difference amongst the three pretreated groups .
conclusion .
ppar- agonists could inhibit tgf-1-induced renal fibroblast activation , ctgf expression and ecm synthesis through abrogating the tgf-1/smads signaling pathway . |
6,754 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: participants were recruited from two prospective studies : the prospective research in memory ( prime ) clinics study and the australian imaging , biomarkers and lifestyle ( aibl ) study of aging . only data and biochemical measurements pertaining to baseline visits were included in this analysis .
the prime study recruited 970 participants from 9 sites in australia , including 3 each in victoria and new south wales and 1 each in queensland , western australia , and south australia .
the aibl study of aging recruited 1,112 participants in victoria ( 60% ) and western australia ( 40% ) .
the study cohorts and methods of the prime and aibl studies are described elsewhere ( 26,27 ) . a further 862 participants who resided in the barwon region of southeastern australia between 2001 and 2011
also were recruited through the cognitive , dementia and memory services clinic at the mckellar centre , a rehabilitation and aged - care facility .
patients with ad who were seen at a geriatrician s private practice during the same period also were recruited ( n = 935 ) .
the mini - mental state examination ( mmse ) was used to assess cognitive ability .
subjects were assessed at scheduled visits during the prime and aibl studies or ad hoc during routine patient care .
all participants with serum vitamin b12 measurements taken within 6 months of cognitive assessment were included .
participants without serum measurements taken within 6 months of cognitive assessment ( n = 1,015 ) were excluded . the data from records pertaining to subjects who were recruited from more than one source ( n = 566 ) were merged . of the remaining participants ,
there were 121 with stroke and 566 with diagnoses other than ad , such as frontotemporal dementia , parkinson disease , dementia with lewy bodies , or mixed dementias .
a further 291 participants were excluded because they had incomplete medical histories ; information that was missing included dates of birth , medication use , and comorbid conditions .
a subgroup analysis was performed... | objectiveto investigate the associations of metformin , serum vitamin b12 , calcium supplements , and cognitive impairment in patients with diabetes.research design and methodsparticipants were recruited from the primary research in memory ( prime ) clinics study , the australian imaging , biomarkers and lifestyle ( aibl ) study of aging , and the barwon region of southeastern australia .
patients with alzheimer disease ( ad ) ( n = 480 ) or mild cognitive impairment ( n = 187 ) and those who were cognitively intact ( n = 687 ) were included ; patients with stroke or with neurodegenerative diseases other than ad were excluded .
subgroup analyses were performed for participants who had either type 2 diabetes ( n = 104 ) or impaired glucose tolerance ( n = 22).resultsparticipants with diabetes ( n = 126 ) had worse cognitive performance than participants who did not have diabetes ( n = 1,228 ; adjusted odds ratio 1.51 [ 95% ci 1.032.21 ] ) . among participants with diabetes , worse cognitive performance
was associated with metformin use ( 2.23 [ 1.054.75 ] ) . after adjusting for age , sex , level of education , history of depression , serum vitamin b12 , and metformin use , participants with diabetes who were taking calcium supplements had better cognitive performance ( 0.41
[ 0.190.92]).conclusionsmetformin use was associated with impaired cognitive performance .
vitamin b12 and calcium supplements may alleviate metformin - induced vitamin b12 deficiency and were associated with better cognitive outcomes .
prospective trials are warranted to assess the beneficial effects of vitamin b12 and calcium use on cognition in older people with diabetes who are taking metformin . |
6,755 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the most prevalent fracture that trauma surgeons manage are those involving the distal radius , accounting for 16% of all fractures .
nonoperative management is generally employed for stable nondisplaced fractures of the distal radius with the expectation of a good functional outcome [ 35 ] .
although some authors suggest that functional outcome correlates with the anatomical reduction of the fracture [ 4 , 68 ] others suggest that this may not be the case [ 911 ]
. this disparity may be due to the heterogeneity of the reported cohorts , which vary in size , have a lack of standardised reporting , and often combine both intra- and extra - articular fractures within the reported series .
in addition , multiple studies have reported cohorts with a wide age range ; in one series , the age difference between the youngest and oldest patients was 80 years [ 3 , 1315 ] . however , age has been demonstrated to influence outcome and therefore may have skewed the results of these studies .
it is predicted that there will be an increase in the elderly population over the next decade which is due to the 1950 's baby boomers , and currently the fastest growing age group in the western world is the
it is anticipated that there will be an 81% increase in the scottish population who are aged 75 years or more by 2031 .
the term super - elderly has been used in orthopaedics to describe those patients greater than 80 years of age [ 18 , 19 ] .
these superelderly patients account for approximately 20% of all distal radial fractures , which will likely increase in the future due to their growing population and will form a greater proportion of the orthopaedic workload .
the effect of a malunion upon the outcome of a distal radial fracture has been demonstrated to diminish with the increasing age .
most studies reporting the outcome of distal radial fractures in the elderly , being defined as greater than 60 or 65 years of age , include low demand patients only [ 10 , 21 , 22 ] .
the question remains as to whether a malunion... | purpose .
the management of unstable distal radial fractures in the superelderly ( 80 years old ) remains controversial .
the aim of this study was to compare the functional outcome of super - elderly patients with and without malunion after a distal radial fracture .
methods .
we identified 51 superelderly patients living independently with displaced fractures from a prospective database of 4024 patients with distal radial fractures .
activities of daily living , presence of wrist pain , whether the wrist had returned to its normal level function , grip strength and rom were recorded .
the dorsal angulation was measured radiographically .
results .
there were 17 ( 33.3% ) patients defined to have a malunion .
the outcomes of the independent patients with and without malunion were compared at a mean follow - up of 15 months .
no difference was observed in activities of daily living ( p = 0.28 ) , wrist pain ( p = 0.14 ) , whether the wrist had returned to its normal level function ( p = 0.25 ) , grip strength ( p = 0.31 ) , or rom ( p = 0.41 ) .
an increasing degree of dorsal angulation correlated with diminished rom ( p = 0.038 ) , but did not correlate with activities of daily living ( p = 0.10 ) . conclusions .
malunion of the distal radius does not influence the functional outcome of independent superelderly patients . |
6,756 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: interdigitating dendritic cell sarcoma ( idcs ) is a very rare neoplasm arising from interdigitating reticular cells , which participate in the immune response as antigen presenting cells that stimulate t lymphocytes [ 1 , 2 ] .
tumor occurrence is usually seen at t - cell rich areas of lymph nodes in the cervical , mediastinal , and axillary regions ; however , the involvement of extra - nodal sites such as the spleen , testis , urinary bladder , and pleura have also been reported [ 3 - 6 ] .
although various treatment modalities , including surgery , radiation therapy , chemotherapy , and combinations of these , have been tried , to date there is no consensus on the preferred treatment . among chemotherapeutic regimens such as chop ( cyclophosphamide , doxorubicin , vincristine , and prednisone ) , abvd ( doxorubicin , bleomycin , vinblastine , and dacarbazine ) , dhap ( dexamethasone , cisplatin , and high - dose cytarabine ) , epoch ( etoposide , prednisone , vincristine , cyclophosphamide , and doxorubicin ) , ice ( ifosfamide , carboplatin , and etoposide ) , and cisplatin / epirubicin [ 1
, 2 , 7 ] , only abvd , currently used for the treatment of hodgkin 's lymphoma , has been successful for the treatment of disseminated idcs . until now
, 2 cases of idcs have been reported in korea [ 3 , 9 ] ; 1 patient with localized idcs showed a nearly complete response to a combination of chop chemotherapy and adjuvant radiation therapy ; however , the other patient , who presented with extra - nodal involvement of the pleura , died of progressive disease after 2 cycles of chop and 1 cycle of imep ( ifosfamide , methotrexate , etoposide , and prednisolone ) .
we report the first case in korea of successful disseminated idcs treatment using only abvd chemotherapy .
a 64-year - old man presented to the primary care physician with a 1-year history of nasal congestion .
he was referred to our hospital because of abnormal physical findings in the nasal cavity .
rhinoscopic examination showed an ulcerative lesion in... | interdigitating dendritic cell sarcoma ( idcs ) is a very rare and aggressive neoplasm that arises from antigen presenting cells .
idcs usually involves lymph nodes ; however , extra - nodal involvement has also been reported .
because a consistent standard therapy for idcs has not been established to date , we report a case of the successful treatment of disseminated idcs using abvd chemotherapy ( doxorubicin , bleomycin , vinblastine , and dacarbazine ) .
a 64-year - old man was diagnosed with idcs on the basis of immunohistochemical findings of a biopsy specimen of the inferior nasal concha .
immunohistochemical staining showed a positive reaction for cd68 , leukocyte common antigen , and s-100 protein , but a negative reaction for cd34 , cd1a , and cd21 .
imaging studies showed cervical and axillary lymphadenopathies , subcutaneous nodules , and a soft tissue lesion in the nasal cavity .
treatment with the abvd regimen resulted in complete remission after 8 cycles of chemotherapy . |
6,757 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chikungunya virus ( chikv ) is a positive - strand rna virus belonging to the genus alphavirus ( 1 , 2 ) . transmitted by the aedes mosquito ,
while chikungunya fever ( chikf ) outbreaks were previously restricted to tropical regions , the range of chikv has since expanded to temperate countries such as italy ( 6 ) and france ( 7 ) .
more recently , outbreaks of chikf have been reported in the caribbean islands ( 8 , 9 ) . since the first autochthonous case reported in december 2013 , a total of 1,155,354 cases have been recorded as of 30 january 2015 ( 810 ) , with more than 300 imported cases in the united states ( 11 ) .
the hallmark feature in chikf patients is incapacitating arthralgia affecting multiple joints during the acute phase of disease ( 12 ) .
however , it is not uncommon for chikf patients to experience persistent joint pain that can last up to several months or years after the initial infection ( 13 , 14 ) .
previous studies have suggested that the pathogenesis of chikf is an immediate result of excessive immune attacks ( 13 , 15 ) .
although reports have shown the involvement of t cells in chikv immunopathology ( 1620 ) , the fine mechanism remains undefined .
regulatory t cells ( tregs ) are a distinct subset of cd4 t cells that prevent exacerbated proinflammatory responses ( 21 , 22 ) by maintaining tolerance and restoring immune homeostasis during an inflammatory response ( 23 ) . in various infection models ,
tregs have been reported to dampen excessive immune responses triggered by pathogens and minimize damage to the host ( 2426 ) .
therefore , elucidating the intriguing role of tregs would no doubt allow a further understanding of chikv immunopathogenesis .
studies in the chikv adult mouse model ( 27 ) have shown that cd4 mice experienced a reduced chikv - induced joint pathology , despite no differences in viremia throughout the course of disease ( 16 ) , demonstrating a role for cd4 effector t ( teff ) cells .
since these cells are a prime target for tregs , it is crucial to further... | abstractchikungunya virus ( chikv ) infection is a reemerging pandemic human arboviral disease .
cd4 + t cells were previously shown to contribute to joint inflammation in the course of chikv infection in mice .
the jes6 - 1 anti - il-2 antibody selectively expands mouse regulatory t cells ( tregs ) by forming a complex with il-2 . in this study , we show that the il-2 jes6 - 1-mediated expansion of tregs ameliorates chikv - induced joint pathology .
it does so by inhibiting the infiltration of cd4 + t cells due to the induction of anergy in chikv - specific cd4 + effector t cells .
these findings suggest that activation of tregs could also become an alternative approach to control chikv - mediated disease
.
importance chikungunya virus ( chikv ) has reemerged as a pathogen of global significance .
patients infected with chikv suffer from incapacitating joint pain that severely affects their daily functioning . despite the best efforts , treatment is still inadequate .
while t cell - mediated immunopathology in chikv infections has been reported , the role of regulatory t cells ( tregs ) has not been explored .
the jes6 - 1 anti - interleukin 2 ( il-2 ) antibody has been demonstrated to selectively expand mouse tregs by forming a complex with il-2 .
we reveal here that il-2 jes6 - 1-mediated expansion of tregs ameliorates chikv - induced joint pathology in mice by neutralizing virus - specific cd4 + effector t ( teff ) cells .
we show that this treatment abrogates the infiltration of pathogenic cd4 + t cells through induction of anergy in chikv - specific cd4 + teff cells .
this is the first evidence where the role of tregs is demonstrated in chikv pathogenesis , and its expansion could control virus - mediated immunopathology . |
6,758 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: as people age , age - related changes of physical function affect their ability to walk1 .
as the ability to walk in the elderly
decreases , there is an associated decrease in balance ability2 , 3 and independent daily
living activities4 and increased risk of
falling5 .
therefore , it is necessary for
the elderly to maintain the ability to walk .
the ability to walk in the elderly is often
represented by the walking speed .
the elderly have low vertical and antero - posterior ground
reaction force for support and propulsion related to slower walking speed , with a shorter
stride length6 .
thus , these forces can be
considered to be factors affecting walking speed in elderly people .
murray and
kory7 and finley et al.8 reported that the elderly demonstrate
decreased joint angles of the hip , knee , and ankle . through kinetic analysis
, it has been
reported that the hip and knee joint moments of the elderly were significantly lower than
those of young people9 .
in addition ,
decline in plantar flexor moment and power in the elderly is related to slower walking
speed10 , 11 .
moreover , there are also age - related changes in walking strategy
in the elderly . devita and
hortobagyi12
reported that elderly people showed different distributions of joint moment and power as
compared with young people .
toda et al.13
reported differences in joint moment , which were related to the profiles of ground reaction
force between the elderly and young people .
these results indicate that the biomechanical
impact of aging is not solely represented as a reduction in motor function but also involves
a change in control strategy for walking .
local muscle movements are regulated by pools of motor neurons in the spinal cord , which
are part of the dispersed locomotor central pattern generator ( cpg ) network14 .
this network in the central nervous
system control motor behavior by modulating the appropriate amount , timing , and combination
of muscle activation .
muscle activation... | [ purpose ] this study examined age - related differences in muscle control for support and
propulsion during walking in both males and females in order to develop optimal exercise
regimens for muscle control . [ subjects and methods ] twenty elderly people and 20 young
people participated in this study .
coordinates of anatomical landmarks and ground reaction
force during walking were obtained using a 3d motion analysis system and force plates .
muscle forces during walking were estimated using opensim .
muscle modules were obtained by
using non - negative matrix factorization analysis .
a two - way analysis of covariance was
performed to examine the difference between the elderly and the young in muscle weightings
using walking speed as a covariate .
the similarities in activation timing profiles between
the elderly and the young were analyzed by cross - correlation analysis in males and
females .
[ results ] in the elderly , there was a change in the coordination of muscles
around the ankle , and muscles of the lower extremity exhibited co - contraction in late
stance .
timing and shape of these modules were similar between elderly and young people .
[ conclusion ] our results suggested that age - related alteration of muscle control was
associated with support and propulsion during walking . |
6,759 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: failure to respond to conservative and pharmacological treatment of oab has previously been described , but there is considerable heterogeneity in the definitions of both treatment response and nonresponse in trials involving patients with oab . over the last few years
several clinical studies have been published which investigated different pharmacological principles ( e.g. , other antimuscarinic drugs , beta-3 agonists , botulinum toxin ) and strategies ( increasing anticholinergic doses , additional treatment with other anticholinergic drugs , or beta-3 agonists ) in the treatment of patients with refractory oab [ 510 ] .
the vast majority of these studies report significant improvement of oab symptoms following a change in treatment . in this review
we discuss published data concerning factors which may be behind refractory oab in order to aid in understanding different treatment results in oab patients .
computerized library systems such as medline , biosis , and embase were analyzed regarding articles on refractory oab published between 2000 and 2014 .
antimuscarinic and non - responder , or refractory , or
furthermore , reviews of pharmacological and physiological aspects were carried out using the same first two search terms combined with terms such as muscarinic , nicotinic , m - receptor , adrenergic , and transporters . in addition , unpublished pharmacological and clinical data were included .
refractory oab patients most likely represent a minority of the total oab population , but the epidemiology is unknown . as shown by goldman et al .
, a wide variety of symptom - based definitions and patient - reported outcomes with inconsistent thresholds are used in the published literature to decide whether or not patients respond to conservative and/or antimuscarinic treatment . moreover , patients individual evaluation of treatment success is characterized by different expectations and perceptions . accordingly
a large - scale study involving 5,392 patients showed that 46.2 % of those... | introduction and hypothesisunsatisfactory treatment outcome sometimes is described as frequently occurring in patients treated with first - line therapy for overactive bladder ( oab ) .
the present article reviews the different circumstances which may result in failure to respond to lifestyle interventions , behavioral therapy , and/or antimuscarinic treatment.methodsan extensive literature search was conducted to identify relevant articles on pathophysiological , clinical , and pharmacological aspects of refractory oab.resultsmissing definition , unrealistic individual expectation of treatment outcomes , lack of communication between physician and patient as well as pathophysiological and pharmacological processes were identified as relevant for failure to respond to first - line oab treatment .
increase of patient s motivation to adhere to the prescribed treatment , critical examination of the patient in regard to the initial diagnosis , and individual adjustment of antimuscarinic therapy may be appropriate tools to improve treatment outcome in oab patients.conclusionsoverall , the incidence of refractory oab seems to be overestimated .
there are several approaches to improve therapy results . |
6,760 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: during the past two decades there have been major advances in the pharmacological treatment of chronic heart failure . despite this
, severe heart failure remains a syndrome associated with very high mortality , profound reduction in quality of life , and frequent hospitalisation .
cardiac transplantation can be an extremely effective therapy in such cases , but its provision is severely rationed by the lack of available donor organs .
other cardiac surgical interventions including revascularisation , dynamic cardiomyoplasty and myocardial reduction surgery have been employed , but are currently of unproven value .
it is in this context that pacemaker therapy is currently being intensively evaluated as a therapy for such patients .
initial interest in the role of pacing as a potential treatment for congestive heart failure ( chf ) focused on prolonging diastolic filling time by reducing or abolishing presystolic av valve regurgitation .
rutishauser et al first reported the phenomenon of presystolic av valve regurgitation in patients with chf and complete heart block .
it became apparent with the advent of doppler echocardiography that such presystolic regurgitation of the mitral and/or tricuspid valves is common in patients with first - degree av or complete heart block .
presystolic regurgitation has also been reported in chf patients with normal av conduction times if left ventricular end diastolic pressure ( lvedp ) is markedly increased .
the av pressure gradient , when lvedp is high and the conduction time is prolonged , is thought to reverse before the onset of ventricular systole .
although this promotes valve closure , there is incomplete closure , resulting in valvular regurgitation and reduced ventricular filling time . in the context of a ventricle that is abnormally stiff ( and therefore highly dependent on filling time , especially on exercise ) , this can have considerable adverse haemodynamic consequences .
the presence of interventricular conduction prolongation ( wide qrs complex ) further... | despite the major advances in medical drug therapy , heart failure remains a syndrome associated with high mortality and morbidity .
biventricular or left ventricular ( lv ) short atrioventricular ( av ) delay pacing is being tested in congestive heart failure patients with left bundle branch block . the aim is to resynchronise the dyscoordinate lv contraction .
a number of studies are underway , but it is clear that while some patients respond remarkably , this is highly variable .
accurate identification of patients likely to benefit will be crucial .
the mechanism of benefit is unclear
. a greater understanding of the physiological consequences of pacing will be necessary to accurately identify these patients . |
6,761 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: retinal angiomatous proliferation ( rap ) is a form of retinal - choroidal neovascularisation within the wet age - related macular degeneration ( amd ) category , characterised by intraretinal capillary proliferation , subretinal neovascularisation and a serous / vascularised pigment epithelial detachment including a retinal - choroidal anastomosis .
rap has been proved to be notoriously difficult to treat , with very few case reports and published articles on successful treatment .
we describe the case of a 67-year - old male with rap undergoing successful treatment with stabilised visual acuity .
rap is a distinct form of choroidal neovascularisation first recognised as a separate entity in 1992 as a deep retinal vascular anomalous complex .
rap was first used , describing a complex pathology of retinal choroidal anastomoses with / without pigment epithelial detachments .
this neovascularisation extends posteriorly , leading to subretinal neovascularization , which may lead to a neurosensory retinal detachment as well as to an associated serous pigment epithelial detachment .
stage 3 occurs when neovascularisation extends into the choroidal circulation , sometimes in association with a vascularised pigment epithelial detachment . during this process ,
a connection between the retinal and choroidal circulation may develop , leading to a retinal - choroidal anastomosis .
reports have shown that between 8 and 22% of cases previously diagnosed as exudative amd are rap .
there is a distinct correlation between age and the development of rap , with a median patient age of 80 years .
females are at a higher risk of developing rap , with one report claiming a 90% tendency towards the female gender .
unfortunately , due to the nature of the disease , rates of second - eye rap are high . up to 80% of fellow eyes
develop neovascularisation after 1 year , and 100% of patients will have developed some form of neovascularisation before 3 years since first eye diagnosis . while most published data have focused on... | a 67-year - old male who presented to the eye casualty department with deterioration in his vision was diagnosed with retinal angiomatous proliferation . after initial deterioration with ranibizumab intravitreal injections ,
we have demonstrated successful treatment and stabilised vision with ranibizumab and a single intravitreal triamcinolone injection .
stringent follow - up and top - up ranibizumab injections have stabilised his vision and have shown foveal improvement on optical coherence tomography imaging . |
6,762 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis ( eps ) is a rare but devastating complication of peritoneal dialysis ( pd ) .
herein , we report a case of a patient undergoing 12 years of pd who developed eps and calciphylaxis simultaneously . we also provide a comprehensive discussion about the association between eps and calciphylaxis .
moreover , although tamoxifen is used in eps due to its inhibition of fibroblast - transforming growth factor beta ( tgf ) production , it may worsen the calciphylaxis due to a hypercoagulable state .
encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis ( eps ) is a rare but devastating complication of peritoneal dialysis ( pd ) . in this condition , the peritoneum is covered with fibrotic encapsulations , which leads to bowel obstruction ( 1 ) .
the risk factors for eps include a history of more than 8 years of peritoneal dialysis ( pd ) , repeated peritonitis , and higher concentrations of glucose in the dialysate . unfortunately , there are no reliable markers for this disease , nor any clear pathogenesis or curative treatments ( 2 ) . according to ridvan yavuz ( 3 ) ,
calciphylaxis is a severe vascular complication in patients with end - stage renal disease ( esrd ) .
one - year survival is reported to be 45% - 80% ( 4 ) . to the best of our knowledge
, the association between eps and calciphylaxis has not been discussed , nor has the use of tamoxifen in this context . herein , we report a case of a patient undergoing 12 years of pd , who developed eps and calciphylaxis simultaneously
our patient was a 65-year - old man who received pd for 12 years due to a 20-year history of type 2 diabetes mellitus ( dm ) .
he was under long - term follow - up at taichung veterans general hospital in taichung , taiwan .
he presented with poor appetite and a weight loss of 3 kg in 6 months , starting in january 2015 .
his pd regimen was 1.5%*2l*2 + 2.5%*2l*2 + icodextrin*2l*1 and the amount of daily ultrafiltration was 1000 ml .
blood urea nitrogen was 91 u / l and serum creatinine was 13.1 mg / dl . even while... | introductionencapsulating peritoneal sclerosis ( eps ) is a rare but devastating complication of peritoneal dialysis ( pd ) .
tamoxifen has been generally well - tolerated , even without randomized controlled trials.case presentationherein , we report a case of a patient undergoing 12 years of pd who developed eps and calciphylaxis simultaneously .
we also provide a comprehensive discussion about the association between eps and calciphylaxis .
moreover , although tamoxifen is used in eps due to its inhibition of fibroblast - transforming growth factor beta ( tgf ) production , it may worsen the calciphylaxis due to a hypercoagulable state.conclusionswe suggest avoiding the use of tamoxifen for eps in patients with superimposed calciphylaxis . |
6,763 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the success of a dental restoration depends upon a number of factors such as the material chosen , its mechanical properties , anatomical form , surface texture , translucency and colour .
the most common aesthetic restorative material used in day to day practice for crown and bridge work is porcelain fused to metal ( pfm ) because of its excellent mechanical properties.1 however , the much superior aesthetic outcome of metal - free ceramic restorations has led to their increasing popularity , especially in the anterior regions of the mouth.2 the major drawbacks of porcelain fused to metal restorations are lack of aesthetics , the possibility of metal allergies and the delamination of the veneering porcelain . in order to overcome the unaesthetic metallic hue seen in pfm restorations , dental research began to be directed towards metal - free ceramic restorations to improve the aesthetic outcome .
research and development led to the development of many metal - free ceramic systems , wherein ceramic substructures were introduced which were subsequently veneered with porcelain providing relatively superior aesthetics.1 however ; these newer ceramics are prone to failures owing to their poor mechanical properties.3,4 glass ceramics with leucite and lithium disilicate reinforced crystals have proven to be successful aesthetic options in the anterior aesthetically demanding regions of the jaw.5 however , these restorations can not withstand the mechanical load of more than one pontic in the anterior region and are contraindicated in the load bearing posterior regions because of their poor flexural strength.6 the search for a material with mechanical properties similar to pfm , superior biocompatibility and aesthetics similar to glass ceramics has led to the rapid evolution of dental zirconia .
3 mol% yttrium stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystalline ( 3y - tzp ) ceramics have gained tremendous popularity as restorative materials as a result of their excellent mechanical properties,3,4,7 good biocompatibility... | purposetranslucency and colour stability are two most important aspects for an aesthetic dental restoration .
glass ceramic restorations are popular amongst clinicians because of their superior aesthetic properties . in the last decade
, zirconia has generated tremendous interest due to its favorable mechanical and biological properties .
however , zirconia lacks the translucency that lithium disilicate materials possess and therefore has limitations in its use , especially in esthetically demanding situations . there has been a great thrust in research towards developing translucent zirconia materials for dental restorations .
the objective of the study was to evaluate and compare the transmittance of a translucent variant of zirconia to lithium disilicate.materials and methodstwo commercially available zirconia materials ( conventional and high translucency ) and 2 lithium disilicate materials ( conventional and high translucency ) with standardized dimensions were fabricated .
transmittance values were measured for all samples followed by a microstructural analysis using a finite element scanning electron microscope .
one way analysis of variance combined with a tukey - post hoc test was used to analyze the data obtained ( p=.05).resultshigh translucency lithium disilicate showed highest transmittance of all materials studied , followed by conventional lithium disilicate , high translucency zirconia and conventional zirconia .
the difference between all groups of materials was statistically significant .
the transmittance of the different materials correlated to their microstructure analysis.conclusiondespite manufacturers ' efforts to make zirconia significantly more translucent , the transmittance values of these materials still do not match conventional lithium disilicate .
more research is required on zirconia towards making the material more translucent for its potential use as esthetic monolithic restoration . |
6,764 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: burning mouth syndrome ( bms ) is a burning or itching sensation in the normal oral mucosa .
the pain is persistent , ranges from moderate to severe , and occurs particularly often in postmenopausal women .
the international association for the study of pain defines bms , which is also called stomatodynia , glossodynia , oral dysesthesia , and persistent idiopathic orofacial pain , as any form of burning or stinging sensation in the mouth in association with a normal mucosa in the absence of local or systemic disease.1 in the literature , antidepressants and benzodiazepines have shown beneficial effects in the treatment of patients with bms.2,3 however , there has been no report on treatment with a dopamine partial agonist for bms . herein , we report a case of treatment - resistant bms successfully treated with low - dose aripiprazole .
a 66-year - old female with no systemic disease or trauma history visited our clinic after being referred by her family physician .
she complained of a chronic burning sensation in her tongue without taste alteration and dry mouth , which had lasted for 13 months .
at first , she went to her family physician and was evaluated by laboratory screening tests .
though antibiotics , topical dexamethasone , and kampo were administered at various clinics , the burning sensation was not ameliorated .
based on the medication effects , a candidal infection was excluded . at the first examination , she came to our clinic by herself .
no orientation disturbance or any verbal fluency problem was observed . no abnormality associated with the burning sensation
based on the clinical , laboratory , and anamnestic data , we established a diagnosis of bms . because she was anxious about several side effects of antidepressants , she was started on escitalopram at 5 mg / d .
however , the burning sensation was not reduced , even at 10 mg / d .
therefore , duloxetine was administered instead of escitalopram . though duloxetine was initiated at 20 mg / d and gradually increased to 40 mg / d , her... | we report a case of refractory burning mouth syndrome ( bms ) ameliorated with low dose of aripiprazole .
the patient was a 66-year - old female who had suffered from chronic burning pain in her tongue for 13 months .
no abnormality associated with the burning sensation was detected in the laboratory tests and the oral findings .
considering the clinical feature and the history together , we diagnosed the burning sensation as bms .
the bms pain was decreased by aripiprazole ( powder ) 1.0 mg / d , though no other antidepressants had satisfying pain relief .
it could be supposed that the efficacy of aripiprazole is caused by dopamine stabilization in this case , and bms might have a subtype that is reactive to aripiprazole .
further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of aripiprazole for bms . |
6,765 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: angiogenesis is the formation of new capillaries by the budding of endothelial cells resident in the surrounding preexisting vessels .
it is a complex process that involves endothelial cell division , selective degradation of vascular basement membranes and of surrounding extracellular matrix and endothelial cell migration .
periodontitis is an infection of highly vascularised supporting tissues of the teeth characterized by active and quiescent periods .
dm contribute to periodontitis by mechanisms such as vascular changes , neutrophil dysfunction , altered collagen synthesis and genetic predisposition . vascular endothelial growth factor ( vegf )
it has been a primary initiator and potential mediator of proliferative and nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy , neuropathy and nephropathy . vascular endothelial growth factor interacts with humoral factors that regulate bone homeostasis and bone development such as the recruitment of osteoblasts and osteoclasts . bone formation and regeneration process are also linked to angiogenesis , a process in which vegf is a major stimulant .
nevertheless , in periodontal tissues , angiogenesis seems to be important for the maintenance of tissue health and in periodontal diseases , vegf is an important factor in the initiation and progression of gingivitis to periodontitis , promoting the expansion of the vascular network .
the periodontal vasculature is profoundly affected during progression of periodontal disease . early in the progression , the perivascular connective tissue become disrupted , the collagenous fibers are destroyed , creating spaces within the tissue which are quickly filled by inflammatory cells and loose connective tissue .
vegf expression may be induced by several inflammatory mediators including prostaglandin e2 , interleukin 6 and interleukin 1 .
in addition vegf expression is reported to be regulated by the oxygen concentration of tissues , with hypoxia inducing its expression .
the ki-67 antigen specific antibody is used in probes to detect cells... | aim : to evaluate immunohistochemically vascular endothelial growth factor ( vegf ) and ki-67 in human gingival samples and to compare these factors between healthy and diabetic patients.materials and methods : a total of 50 subjects were included in the study .
they were categorized into three groups : periodontally healthy group , periodontally diseased gingiva without any systemic disease group and periodontally diseased gingiva with controlled type ii diabetes mellitus ( dm ) group .
gingival biopsies were performed and immunohistochemical analysis were done for vegf and ki-67 staining in gingival samples.results:the present study found moderate intensity staining for vegf in periodontitis group and periodontitis with controlled type ii dm group and mild intensity staining for vegf in periodontally healthy group . with regard to ki-67 , negative staining was observed in periodontally healthy group and mild staining in periodontitis group and periodontitis with controlled type ii dm group.conclusion:further investigation needs to be conducted to identify how vegf and ki-67 are involved in the tissue inflammation associated processes and the relationship between vegf and ki-67 in progression of periodontitis . |
6,766 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: kidney
( renal ) cancer ,
which includes renal cell carcinomas and
transitional cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis , is estimated to
have caused 13 680 deaths ( 8780 men and 4900 women ) in 2013 .
clear cell renal cell carcinoma ( ccrcc ) is the most common subtype
of kidney cancer , contributing approximately 80% of all reported cases ,
whereas the papillary and chromophobe subtypes contribute 15 and 5% ,
respectively .
currently , there are
no biomarkers for ccrcc early diagnosis , and
the standard method of treatment ( i.e. , surgery ) is unsatisfactory .
this is because patients undergoing surgery are likely to relapse
at a rate of 2050% and have a higher chance of developing
metastatic tumor , which is incurable .
therefore ,
there is the urgent need to identify biomarkers for early detection
and to predict or monitor the recurrence of ccrcc after surgery .
the complexity ( dynamic range of approximately 10 )
of the plasma proteome is of great concern in biomarker discovery
studies .
this is because tissue and secreted cell surface protein
products , which are indicators of a disease and/or healthy state ,
are of low abundance in blood plasma .
for example , current clinical
biomarkers including prostate specific antigen ( psa ) and her2/neu
are present at low nanograms per milliliter concentration in plasma , and the ability to identify such molecular markers
requires a comprehensive multi - dimensional analytical approach .
this approach is sensitive and specific because it involves
the characterization of a subpopulation of proteins whose alterations
are associated with many diseases , including cancer .
protein glycosylation is one of the most diverse and frequently
occurring post - translational modifications involved in a number of
cell processes , and aberrant changes in
glycosylation profile during the development and progression of cancer
is known .
another method is immuno - affinity depletion , which targets
the removal of high -... | clear cell renal cell carcinoma
is the most prevalent of all reported kidney cancer cases , and currently
there are no markers for early diagnosis .
this has stimulated great
research interest recently because early detection of the disease
can significantly improve the low survival rate . combining the proteome ,
glycoproteome , and n - glycome data from clear cell renal cell carcinoma
plasma
has the potential of identifying candidate markers for early
diagnosis and prognosis and/or to monitor disease recurrence . here
,
we report on the utilization of a multi - dimensional fractionation
approach ( 12p - m - lac ) and lc ms / ms to comprehensively investigate
clear cell renal cell carcinoma plasma collected before ( disease )
and after ( non - disease ) curative nephrectomy ( n =
40 ) .
proteins detected in the subproteomes were investigated via label - free
quantification .
protein abundance analysis revealed a number of low - level
proteins with significant differential expression levels in disease
samples , including hspg2 , cd146 , ecm1 , sell , syne1 , and vcam1 .
importantly ,
we observed a strong correlation between differentially expressed
proteins and clinical status of the patient .
investigation of the
glycoproteome returned 13 candidate glycoproteins with significant
differential m - lac column binding .
qualitative analysis indicated
that 62% of selected candidate glycoproteins showed higher levels
( upregulation ) in m - lac bound fraction of disease samples .
this observation
was further confirmed by released n - glycans data in which 53% of identified
n - glycans were present at different levels in plasma in the disease
vs non - disease samples .
this striking result demonstrates the potential
for significant protein glycosylation alterations in clear cell renal
cell carcinoma cancer plasma . with future validation in a larger cohort ,
information derived from this study may lead to the development of
clear cell... |
6,767 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: autism spectrum disorder ( asd ) is defined by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction , and restricted , repetitive patterns of behavior , interests , or activities .
there have been recent changes made to the diagnostic criteria , including modifications to the core features .
although an asd diagnosis is defined by the american psychiatric association , other features , more physical or health related , are associated with an asd diagnosis .
for example , children with asd are more likely to have headaches / migraines , respiratory and food allergies , gastrointestinal ( gi ) problems , and infections than typically developing children .
another important aspect of those with any asd diagnosis is that a significant number of children diagnosed with an asd experience a developmental regression characterized by a loss of previously - acquired skills .
many parents report that their child was developmentally normal until sometime after birth , typically 15 - 24 months , at which time the child began to regress or deteriorate .
the reported incidence of regression in autism varies in different studies from 15 to 62% of the cases .
for example , a study by goldberg et al . , found that children who lost verbal skills did so at an average age of 20.69 months ; children who lost nonverbal skills did so at an average age of 18.58 months ; and children who lost both skills , lost verbal skills at an average age of 21.2 months and nonverbal skills at an average age of 18.9 months .
malhi and singhi found that the mean age at regression was 22.43 months ( standard deviation ( sd ) = 6.57 ) and that a large majority ( 66.7% ) of the parents reported regression between 12 and 24 months of age .
, malhi and singhi said that most ( 75% ) of the parents of the regression - autistic group reported regression in the language domain , particularly in the expressive language sector , usually between 18 and 24 months of age .
another finding of malhi and singhi was that there were no significant... | background : research indicates that some children with autism spectrum disorder ( asd ) experience a developmental regression.aims:the study examined the percentage of children with autism , pervasive developmental disorder ( pdd ) , asd , and asperger syndrome ( as ) who were considered to be delayed ( d ) , regressed ( r ) , or delayed and later regressed ( dr ) and examined any relationship with autism severity , time of onset , factors associated with onset , gastrointestinal ( gi ) symptoms , race , age , and gender.materials and methods : the study reviewed developmental and medical information based on parental reports of 135 children with a diagnosis of autism , pdd , asd , or as.results:the number of children in the d group was 53 ( 39.2% ) with 19 ( 14.1% ) in the dr group and 63 ( 46.7% ) in the r group .
thus , 82 children ( 60.7% ) were reported to have r. in regard to onset of symptoms , there was a significant difference between the d and r groups as well as between the dr and r groups .
the analyses showed that there was no significant relationship between age , gender , race , severity , or gi symptoms and membership in any group ; d , dr , or r. the majority of parents reported that the regression was preceded by or was associated with vaccinations ( 57.3% ) or another medically related event ( 11.0%).conclusions : the findings are consistent with previous research and reinforce our understanding of regression in those children with an asd diagnosis . |
6,768 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: imaging modality is an important aspect of the image for medical retrieval [ 16 ] . in user studies , clinicians have indicated that modality is one of the most important filters that they would like to be able to limit their search by .
many image retrieval websites ( goldminer , yottalook ) allow users to limit the search results to a particular modality
. however , this modality is typically extracted from the caption and is often not correct or present .
some works have shown that image modality can be extracted from the image itself using visual features [ 810 ] .
therefore , in this paper , we propose to use both visual and textual features for medical image representation , and combine the different features using normalized kernel function in svm . in computer vision
, studies have shown that the simple global features such as histogram of edge , gray or color intensity , can represent images , and give the acceptable performance in image retrieval or recognition research fields .
based on the success of the above - mentioned visual features for general image recognition , we also use them as medical image representation for modality classification . recently ,
using local visual feature for image representation has become very popular , and been proved to be very effective for image categorization or retrieval .
the most famous approach for image representation using local visual feature is bag of keypoints [ 12 , 13 ] .
the basic idea of bag of keypoints is that a set of local image patches is sampled using some method ( e.g. , densely , randomly , or using a keypoint detector ) and a vector of visual descriptors is evaluated on each patch independently ( e.g. , sift descriptor , normalized pixel values ) .
the resulting distribution of descriptors in descriptor space is then quantified in some way ( e.g. , by using vector quantization against a prespecified codebook to convert it to a histogram of votes for ( i.e. , patches assigned to codebook centres ) and the resulting global descriptor vector... | we describe an approach for the automatic modality classification in medical image retrieval task of the 2010 clef cross - language image retrieval campaign ( imageclef ) .
this paper is focused on the process of feature
extraction from medical images and fuses the different extracted visual features and textual feature for modality classification . to extract visual features from the images , we used histogram descriptor of edge , gray , or color intensity and block - based variation as global features and sift histogram as local feature . for textual feature of image representation ,
the binary histogram of some predefined vocabulary words from image captions is used .
then , we combine the different features using normalized kernel functions for svm classification . furthermore , for some easy misclassified modality pairs such as ct and mr or pet and nm modalities , a local classifier is used for distinguishing samples in the pair modality to improve performance .
the proposed strategy is evaluated with the provided modality dataset by imageclef 2010 . |
6,769 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: upon developing a rapid
and efficient synthesis of 2,1-borazaronaphthalenes
starting from simple , readily available starting materials , we subsequently developed the suzuki
these studies
demonstrated the stability of these azaborines to transition metal catalysis and allowed access to functionalized
molecules that could have applications in medicinal chemistry and/or materials science .
during the course of this latter study , we first developed conditions
for the cross - coupling of n - h and n - alkyl 3-bromo - b - alkyl-2,1-borazaronaphthalenes ( eq 1).1 at the same time ,
we investigated the cross - coupling of b - aryl 2,1-borazaronaphthalenes
with potassium ( hetero)aryltrifluoroborates ( eq 1 ) , which was perceived at the outset to present a challenge . in this
cross - coupling
, both the azaborine and the aryltrifluoroborate would
appear to have the potential to serve as a nucleophilic component
in cross - coupling reactions , unlike the cross - coupling of the b - alkyl 2,1-borazaronaphthalenes ,
where the aryltrifluoroborate was expected to react preferentially
on the basis of a more facile , rate - determining transmetalation .
thus , during cross - coupling events , aryltrifluoroborates
are slowly converted to the corresponding tricoordinate boronic acids ,
which are believed to be the active transmetalation species and are capable of undergoing transmetalation
by interacting with an oxo - palladium species to form a tetracoordinate
ate complex .
similarly ,
the boron of the 2,1-borazaronaphthalene is also formally tricoordinate ,
although in this instance contribution of electron density from the
nitrogen lone - pair would render the boron less lewis acidic , in consonance
with the aromaticity of the borazine substructure .
in fact ,
attempts to cross - couple an n - substituted
3-bromo-2-aryl-2,1-borazaronaphthalene
with potassium phenyltrifluoroborate resulted in complete conversion
to a side product under the standard reaction conditions .... | unlike
their b - alkyl counterparts , brominated n - alkyl b - aryl 2,1-borazaronaphthalenes
undergo a self - arylation reaction in the presence of a catalytic amount
of palladium and base , in which the azaborine serves as both the electrophile
and the nucleophile .
the products of the self - arylation are air- and
moisture - stable 2,1-borazaronaphthols , previously only observed in
basic alcoholic solvents .
the steric encumbrance of the azaborine
appears to prevent formation of the corresponding boron acid anhydride ,
allowing access to a family of 2,1-borazaronaphthol derivatives . |
6,770 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: healthy people 2020 recently identified the importance of sleep in the health and well - being of americans.1 one objective set forth in this initiative is to increase the proportion of adolescents and adults who get sufficient sleep .
although sleep deprivation among adolescents is not a new phenomenon , in recent years sleep has garnered more mainstream , clinical , and academic attention .
this comes at a time when there are increased demands on adolescentsa that conflict with getting a full night s sleep , which can negatively impact physical , social , and psychological health .
physically , sleep deprivation can disrupt circadian rhythms resulting in dysregulated sleep patterns , as well as dysregulated metabolic , endocrine , and immune responses.2,3 examples include weight gain , insulin resistance , increased cortisol levels , systemic inflammation , hypertension , and decreased immune response.2,46 sleep deprivation is also correlated with behaviors that can have negative effects on the body , including increased alcohol and drug use , increased sexual behavior , and the overuse of prescribed and/or non - prescribed stimulants to counteract drowsiness.7,8 excessive daytime sleepiness can also make individuals particularly vulnerable to injury and death resulting from driving while sleep deprived , as sleep deprivation is associated with lapses in attention , delayed response time , and daytime drowsiness.7,912 psychologically , inadequate sleep can affect cognitive functioning and has been linked to reduced short - term memory , decreased learning ability , poor productivity , and decreased motor performance .
mood is also significantly affected , with sleep deprivation associated with negative mood states , depressive symptoms , decreased stress management , family and peer conflict , impulsivity , and the loss of other forms of behavioral control.7,1315
according to guidelines recommended by the centers for disease control ( 2012 ) , the average adolescent requires 8.59.25 hours of sleep per night... | adolescent sleep needs range from 8.510 hours per night , with older adolescents requiring less sleep than younger adolescents . on average , however , american adolescents receive between 7.58.5 hours of sleep per night , with many sleeping fewer than 6.5 hours on school nights .
cellular phone use is emerging as an important factor that interferes with both sleep quality and quantity , particularly as smartphones become more widely available to teens .
this review paper has three objectives .
first , we will describe adolescent sleep patterns and the effects of sleep deprivation on adolescent physical and mental health .
second , we will describe current trends in technology use among adolescents , making associations to how technology impacts sleep .
lastly , we will discuss some of the methodological barriers of conducting sleep and technology research with adolescents and young adults and offer suggestions for overcoming those barriers .
we will also discuss implications for healthcare providers . |
6,771 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: trypsin ( sequencing grade ) was
purchased from promega ( madison , wi ) .
isotope - labeled peptides were
obtained from new england peptide ( gardner , ma ) with either u c6 , u
n2-lysine
( + 8 da ) or u c6 , u n4-arginine ( + 10 da ) at the peptide c terminus . chemical
purity was ranged from 95 to 99% and isotopic purity was greater than
99% .
timp1 , thbs2 , comp , msln , eng , mmp9 antibodies
and elisa kits were purchased from r&d systems ( minneapolis , mn ) .
timp1 , eng and mmp9 recombinant proteins were purchase from sino biological
( beijing , china ) .
identities of all recombinant proteins were confirmed
by sds - page ( figure s1a [ supporting information ( si ) ] ) and tandem mass spectrometry ( figure s2s7 [ si ] ) analysis of tryptic digests .
all other chemical
reagents were purchased from commercial sources and were used without
further purification .
human plasma samples
were collected during surgery for either colon carcinoma or for inguinal
hernia repair in accordance with the ayers institute protocol at vanderbilt
university medical center ( irb#110877 ) .
samples from colon cancer
patients undergoing surgery at vanderbilt university between august
2011 and june 2012 with a successful collection were used in the study .
control samples were chosen from a larger group of inguinal hernia
repair patients who underwent surgery during the same time period .
peripheral whole blood samples were collected preoperatively in edta
lavender top vacutainer tubes ( bd vacutainer , catalog number 366643 )
and gently mixed by inverting the tube 810 times .
plasma was
separated by centrifugation at 1500 g for 10 min at
4 c .
aliquots ( 0.2 ml ) were taken and stored at 80 c
until needed .
antibodies were immobilized
on aldehyde beads ( thermo scientific , catalog number 26148 ) according
to the manufacturer s protocol with minor modifications .
briefly ,
antibodies were dissolved in pbs buffer ( 0.01 m sodium phosphate ,
0.15 sodium chloride , ph... | quantitative analysis of protein biomarkers in plasma is typically
done by elisa , but this method is limited by the availability of high - quality
antibodies .
an alternative approach is protein immunoprecipitation
combined with multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry ( ip - mrm ) .
we compared ip - mrm to elisa for the analysis of six colon cancer biomarker
candidates ( metalloproteinase inhibitor 1 ( timp1 ) , cartilage oligomeric
matrix protein ( comp ) , thrombospondin-2 ( thbs2 ) , endoglin ( eng ) , mesothelin
( msln ) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 ( mmp9 ) ) in plasma from colon
cancer patients and noncancer controls .
proteins were analyzed by
multiplex immunoprecipitation from plasma with the elisa capture antibodies ,
further purified by sds - page , digested and analyzed by stable isotope
dilution mrm .
ip - mrm provided linear responses ( r = 0.9780.995 ) between 10 and 640 ng / ml for the target proteins
spiked into a mock plasma matrix consisting of 60
mg / ml bovine serum albumin .
measurement variation ( coefficient of
variation at the limit of detection ) for ip - mrm assays ranged from
2.3 to 19% , which was similar to variation for elisas of the same
samples .
ip - mrm and elisa measurements for all target proteins except
eng were highly correlated ( r = 0.670.97 ) .
ip - mrm with high - quality capture antibodies thus provides an effective
alternative method to elisa for protein quantitation in biological
fluids . |
6,772 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: all authors were involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content , and all authors approved the final version for publication .
dr . fukui had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis .
acquisition of data : fukui . analysis and interpretation of data : fukui , kaneuji , matsumoto . | highlightsit is important to accurately diagnose the status of idiopathic osteonecrosis of the femoral head and to consider another possible pathogenesis when a patient with idiopathic osteonecrosis of the femoral head has hip pain even without femoral - head collapse.ignored or misdiagnosed concomitant femoroacetabular impingement in a patient with idiopathic osteonecrosis of the femoral head might leads to poor outcomes of surgical treatments such as bipolar hemiarthroplasty or osteotomies.in a patient with idiopathic osteonecrosis of the femoral head , it should be paid attention if concomitant femoroacetabular impingement exists or not . |
6,773 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study:
tuberculosis is a major public health problem worldwide . although tuberculosis is a treatable disease ,
there were 8.8 million cases of tuberculosis and 1.45 million deaths from tuberculosis in 2010 . with an incidence of 2.3 million cases ,
india has the highest burden of tuberculosis in the world , and one out of every four cases of tuberculosis worldwide occurred in india in 2010 .
india is also the third country in the world in terms of number of people infected by hiv , and 9% of patients with tuberculosis who are tested of hiv are hiv - infected [ 1 , 2 ] . hiv and tuberculosis form a deadly synergy .
latent tuberculosis is common in developing countries , and the immunodeficiency produced by hiv increases the risk of developing active tuberculosis infection .
patients with hiv infection have higher risk of extrapulmonary tuberculosis , tuberculosis relapse , and death than non - hiv - infected patients .
treatment of tuberculosis in india has been implemented under the revised national control tuberculosis programme ( rntcp ) .
rntcp follows the standard direct observed treatment short - course ( dots ) strategy recommended by the world health organization ( who ) in 2003 .
although the dots strategy has achieved impressive results in india , dots was endorsed by who based on observational studies performed in non - hiv - infected patients . despite the high burden of hiv - related tuberculosis and the high mortality of tuberculosis in hivinfected patients , data about the effectiveness of dots programmes in hiv - infected people
the aim of this study was to evaluate the natural history of hiv - infected patients who were treated of tuberculosis under dots in a large hiv cohort from india .
rural development trust ( rdt ) is a nongovernmental organization that has three hospitals in anantapur . in these hospitals ,
medical care of hiv - infected people is provided free of cost , including medicines and consultation or admission charges . the vicente ferrer hiv cohort study ( vfhcs )
is an open... | despite the impressive global results of dots in india , the effectiveness of dots for the treatment of tuberculosis in hiv - infected patients is not well known .
this is an observational prospective cohort study performed in anantapur district , andhra pradesh , india .
the study included 1000 dots antituberculosis treatment ( att ) episodes and 840 person - years .
cd4
lymphocyte count was below 200 cells / mm3 in 77% of the cases , and 21% were retreatments .
two thirds were presented with extrapulmonary tuberculosis , and the most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis was tuberculous meningitis followed by pleuritis , abdominal tuberculosis , and lymphadenitis .
cumulative incidence of mortality was 16% , 26% , 39% , and 46% at 1 , 3 , 12 , and 24 months , respectively .
factors associated with three - month ( early ) mortality were being homeless , having low cd4 + lymphocyte count , having tuberculous meningitis , belonging to a socially disadvantaged community , having more than 35 years , and being on an antiretroviral therapy at the moment of initiating the att .
factors associated with delayed mortality were having low cd4 + lymphocyte count , belonging to a socially disadvantaged community , receiving a category ii att because of a previous episode of att and having acid fast bacilli in sputum before the att initiation .
these findings indicate that there is an urgent need to improve the treatment of tuberculosis in hiv - infected patients in india . |
6,774 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: acupressure and massage therapy are effective non - pharmacologic therapies and can be effective in reducing menstrual pain .
the body 's vital energy , called chi in chinese medicine , moves in the body pathways known as meridians .
the increase or decrease of energy in each meridian can affect the health of specific organs .
there are many points in meridians that are used to apply acupressure in traditional chinese medicine .
acupressure relieves symptoms of dysmenorrhea , such as pain , depression , anxiety , and stress .
but in another study , no significant relationship was found between painful menstruation and anxiety .
one of the energy - consuming organs of the liver meridian is genitalia , and acupressure on the liv3 can treat dysmenorrhea .
although no study has been conducted about any change in anxiety occurring after acupressure on liv3 point , anxiety is associated with pain and pain relief may lead to an anxiety reduction .
some studies have reported that acupressure can reduce dysmenorrhea and the anxiety caused by dysmenorrhea .
but there are studies reporting that anxiety did not decrease on applying acupressure by the research unit or the researcher .
considering that each meridian can affect the health of specific organs , the insufficient data about the effectiveness of acupressure at liv3 on dysmenorrhea , the lack of reports about its effectiveness on anxiety caused by dysmenorrhea , contradictory reports about the relationship between acupressure and anxiety caused by dysmenorrhea , the importance of applying acupressure by the research unit , and the simplicity and accessibility of acupressure , this study intends to determine the effect of acupressure at the liv3 point on anxiety level in patients with primary dysmenorrhea .
it has been approved by the ethics committee of kashan university of medical sciences ( kaums ) with the number /29/5/1/3613 and registered in iranian registry of clinical trials ( irct ) with the number irct201201308869n1 .
acupressure was performed on the... | background : primary dysmenorrhea may lead to severe anxiety and pain relief during menstruation may reduce the anxiety levels .
this study was aimed to determine the effect of acupressure at third liver and placebo points on the anxiety level in patients with primary dysmenorrhea.materials and methods : this clinical trial was conducted in parallel in the control and treatment groups for three menstrual periods at the dormitory of kashan university of medical sciences between march and june 2012 .
students with pain score equal to or greater than 4 were selected and divided into groups based on severity of pain using a randomized block design with the allocation ratio of 1:1 .
acupressure was applied in two acupoints including third liver point ( liv3 ) and placebo points .
spielberg ( stai ) anxiety questionnaire was completed before and after intervention .
randomization , subjects , and data analyzer were blinded to the analysis .
chi - square tests , t - test , mann - whitney , paired sample t - test , and univariate analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis .
p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.results:mean [ standard deviation ( sd ) ] values of apparent anxiety levels before and after intervention for liv3 were 45.100 ( 9.769 ) and 38.100 ( 10.608 ) , respectively . for the control group , they were 41.200 ( 9.795 ) and 38.900(10.140 ) , respectively .
difference was significant only in the intervention group ( p < 0.001 ) .
hidden anxiety did not show a significant change before and after intervention .
there was no difference between groups in apparent or hidden anxiety after intervention.conclusions:pressure on liv3 point reduces anxiety . as there are no previous studies on this topic , further studies with more samples
are recommended . |
6,775 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: abdominal adipose tissue is composed of subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue . visceral adipose tissue can be subdivided into omental , mesenteric , and retro- or extra - peritoneal depots .
obesity is a known risk factor for various diseases , and measurements of adipose tissue are commonly used in obesity research .
the amount and location of fat deposited are also indicators of optimal body composition for production traits .
methods of measuring abdominal fat tissue are diverse and include ( in order of accuracy and reproducibility ) computed tomography ( ct ) , magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) , dual energy x - ray absorptiometry ( dexa ) , dual photon absorptiometry , ultrasonography , anthropometry and eye examination . in humans ,
accumulation of visceral adipose tissue poses a greater risk for developing obesity - related disorders , metabolic syndrome , hypertension , cardiovascular disease and increased frequency of total mortality than subcutaneous adipose tissue .
therefore , studies of ct examinations in humans have focused on identifying an optimal technique for the accurate assessment of abdominal fat .
based on the volumetric quantification of subcutaneous and visceral abdominal fat , multi - slice ct is highly reproducible .
however , in veterinary medicine , there are a few reports available regarding the use of ct to quantify obesity .
ishioka et al . investigated the use of ct in beagles for evaluation of canine obesity , while lambe et al .
reported the use of cross - sectional ct images to estimate total internal fat in scottish blackface lambs , and mcevoy et al .
evaluated the range of the hounsfield units ( hu ) as they relate to fat changes in growing pigs .
this study was conducted to determine the distribution of abdominal fat using ct images based on the ct number and to measure the volume of the abdominal visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue in minipigs .
the procedures employed in this study were conducted according to guidelines of the institute of laboratory... | computed tomography ( ct ) exams were conducted to determine the distribution of abdominal fat identified based on the ct number measured in hounsfield units ( hu ) and to measure the volume of the abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat in minipigs .
the relationship between the ct - based fat volumes of several vertebral levels and the entire abdomen and anthropometric data including the sagittal abdominal diameter and waist circumference were evaluated .
moreover , the total fat volumes at the t11 , t13 , l3 , and l5 levels were compared with the total fat volume of the entire abdomen to define the landmark of abdominal fat distribution . using a single - detector ct ,
six 6-month - old male minipigs were scanned under general anesthesia .
three radiologists then assessed the hu value of visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat by drawing the region of interest manually at the t11 , t13 , l1 , l3 , and l5 levels .
the ct number and abdominal fat determined in this way by the three radiologists was found to be correlated ( intra - class coefficient = 0.9 ) .
the overall hu ranges for the visceral and subcutaneous fat depots were -147.47 to -83.46 and -131.62 to -90.97 , respectively .
the total fat volume of the entire abdomen was highly correlated with the volume of abdominal fat at the t13 level ( r = 0.97 , p < 0.0001 ) .
these findings demonstrate that the volume of abdominal adipose tissue measured at the t13 level using ct is a strong and reliable predictor of total abdominal adipose volume . |
6,776 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: multiple sclerosis ( ms ) is an inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system ( cns ) which causes progressive neurological disability over time . affecting more than two million people worldwide ,
ms is recognized as the leading cause of nontraumatic neurological disability in young adults . for many patients ,
clinical manifestations involve the motor , sensory , visual , and autonomic systems , but less - localizing symptoms and signs are also common , with fatigue being foremost among them .
the diagnosis of relapsing remitting ms ( rrms ) can often be established on clinical grounds for patients who experience two or more neurological events consistent with multifocal cns inflammation . in the case of primary progressive ms ( ppms ) , neurological decline progressing for over a year with supporting paraclinical evidence of cns inflammation
is considered proof of the diagnosis [ 47 ] . since the publication of the original mcdonald criteria and subsequent iterations [ 57 ] ,
radiological endpoints have been used to confirm the diagnosis of ms , in the absence of recurrent clinical events . the majority ( 85% ) of ms patients initially present with episodes of neurological dysfunction in the relapsing - remitting phase ( rrms ) [ 1 , 39 ] , before transitioning to a secondary progressive course ( spms ) of the disease [ 1 , 810 ] . during this time , they accumulate neurological disability with or without relapses .
approximately 15% of patients experience a primary progressive course from onset , either without preceding relapses ( ppms ) or with superimposed neurological events in what is known as progressive relapsing ms [ 810 ] .
while the acronyms rrms , spms , and ppms are embedded in the lexicon of neurologists , these labels are merely descriptors and tell us nothing about underlying differences in pathobiology that distinguish ms phenotypes . at best , they represent our clinical perceptions of different ages and stages of the disease . natural history data has shown that the progressive... | multiple sclerosis ( ms ) is a disease of the central nervous system ( cns ) believed to arise from a dysfunctional immune - mediated response in a genetically susceptible host .
the actual cause of ms is not known , and there is ongoing debate about whether this cns disorder is predominantly an inflammatory versus a degenerative condition .
the afferent visual pathway ( avp ) is frequently involved in ms , such that one in every five individuals affected presents with acute optic neuritis ( on ) . as a functionally eloquent system , the avp is amenable to interrogation with highly reliable and reproducible tests that can be used to define a structural - functional paradigm of cns injury .
the avp has numerous unique advantages as a clinical model of ms . in this review ,
the parameters and merits of the avp model are highlighted .
moreover , the roles the avp model may play in elucidating mechanisms of brain injury and repair in ms are described . |
6,777 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: transgender women ( ie , male - to - female ) have one of the highest incidence and prevalence of hiv infection in the united states and around the world .
preexposure prophylaxis ( prep ) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate ( tdf)emtricitabine ( ftc ) is a promising modality to curb hiv incidence in this population , but prep studies have thus far focused on men who have sex with men ( msm ) , heterosexual men and women , person who inject drugs , and cis - gender women ( ie , born female ) .
inclusion of transgender women has been limited , underscoring an urgent need to focus prep research on these individuals to increase uptake , facilitate access , and ensure safe and effective prep use . a significant question for the transgender community
is whether prep interacts with transgender hormonal therapy , as no studies have assessed interactions to date .
the medications used to achieve feminization fall into 3 broad categories : estrogens , antiandrogens , and the possible use of a progestin .
the preferred delivery of estrogen is 17- estradiol ( estradiol ) or ester conjugates ( eg , estradiol valerate ) , given sublingually , orally , transdermally , or intramuscularly .
the world professional association for transgender health standards of care calls their use controversial , acknowledging that some clinicians consider that breast development is enhanced , but they cite a lack of data to support this claim
. the following review will evaluate experimental and theoretical risk for drug interactions between tdf
the most important information for potential drug interactions influencing prep efficacy in transgendered women comes from trials .
the preexposure prophylaxis initiative ( iprex ) , also known as the iprex trial , and its open - label extension ( iprex - ole ) have specifically reported enrollment and subanalysis of transgender women , although neither were designed to evaluate efficacy in this population .
other trials excluded transgender women or did not provide any specific information on... | abstract : studies of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate ( tdf)-emtricitabine ( ftc)based preexposure prophylaxis ( prep ) have not focused on transgendered women who are at disproportionate risk of hiv acquisition .
concerns exist for drug interactions between cross - sex therapy ( estradiol , progestins , and spironolactone ) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate
emtricitabine .
this review assessed the experimental and theoretical risk for such drug interactions .
it was found that none of these medications are implicated as major perpetrators of drug interactions , and the classes use different metabolic pathways for clearance , suggesting a low likelihood for interactions in either direction .
subanalyses of transgender women in preexposure prophylaxis initiative suggested prep efficacy if adherence was high .
nevertheless , several research gaps were identified , particularly the need for controlled interaction studies in transgendered women , including effects on renal clearance , intracellular tenofovir diphosphate and emtricitabine triphosphate in target cells , as well as hormone effects on hiv susceptibility and immunity .
prep should continue to be offered to transgender women while additional research is planned or pending . |
6,778 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this work was supported by the seed fund from the mechanobiology institute at the national university of singapore . | intracellular and extracellular mechanical environments have a significant impact on survival and proliferation of cells .
while the extracellular signal - regulated kinase ( erk ) subfamily of map kinases plays critical roles in regulations of these cellular behaviors , activation of erk is affected by mechanical conditions of cells .
we have recently found that erk is activated on contractile actomyosin bundles .
erk activation on actomyosin bundles depends on tension in the bundles , which is generated by either myosin ii activity of external forces . in this addendum
, we discuss a novel , potential role of actomyosin bundles in erk signaling and mechanical regulation of cell survival and proliferation . |
6,779 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the site of capture of flounder in the mersey estuary ( and in nearby liverpool bay ) , the method of capture , and the method of sample collection are described in previous articles ( allen et al .
data on vtg concentrations used in the present study were taken from these previous studies . however , the analysis of data by stage of maturation in the present article is new .
the histological sections of gonads were also prepared during the course of the previous studies ( allen et al .
this determination was based upon the presence of the most advanced stage of gamete development that could be seen in histological sections of the gonads described below .
ovaries : f1 , primary oocytes only ; f2 , cortical alveoli - stage oocytes as well as primary oocytes ; f3a , a mixture of cortical alveoli - stage and secondary ( i.e. , vitellogenic ) oocytes ; f3b , predominantly secondary oocytes .
testes : m1 , spermatogonia only ; m2a , secondary spermatogonia ; m2b , primary spermatocytes through to spermatids ; m3a , some spermatozoa in addition to spermatocytes and spermatids ; m3a , spermatozoa only . to increase the numbers of fish in each grouping ( for statistical purposes ) , we combined the subcategories ( i.e. , a and b ) for the analyses of vtg , e2 , and 11-kt concentrations . for steroid assay , plasma aliquots ( 100 l )
were shaken vigorously with 50 l distilled water and 4 ml diethyl ether for 2 min .
the solvent phase was poured into a glass tube ( 12 mm 75 mm ) , then evaporated in a water bath at 45c .
the residue was redissolved in 400 l radioimmunoassay ( ria ) buffer and measured as described previously for e2 and 11-kt ( scott et al .
two 100-l aliquots were used for assay of e2 , and an additional two 50-l aliquots were used for assay of 11-kt . a plasma sample spiked with 2 ng / ml
sixty plasma samples from flounder collected in 1997 were also assayed twice ( and by two different people ) 4 years apart .
the correlation coefficient between values generated by the two assays was 0.93 , and... | high concentrations of vitellogenin ( vtg ; egg yolk protein ) have previously been found in male flounder ( platichthys flesus ) from several uk estuaries ; these levels have been ascribed to the presence of estrogenic endocrine - disrupting compounds ( edcs ) .
gonadal abnormalities , including intersex , have also been recorded in these estuaries .
however , there is no firm evidence to date that these two findings are causally linked or that the presence of estrogenic edcs has any adverse population effects . in the present study
, we examined the relationship between concentrations of vtg and sex steroids ( 11-oxotestosterone in males and 17-estradiol in females ) in specimens of flounder captured from the estuary of the river mersey .
we first questioned whether the high concentrations of vtg in male and immature female flounder were indeed caused by a direct effect of exogenous edcs and not indirectly via the endogenous secretion of 17-estradiol .
the data favored the direct involvement of estrogenic edcs .
we then questioned whether the presence of estrogenic edcs not only stimulated inappropriate vtg synthesis but whether it might also have had a negative effect on endogenous steroid secretion .
it should be noted that the predicted consequences of a drop in steroid secretion include smaller gonads , smaller oocytes , fewer numbers of sperm , and depressed spawning behavior .
this question was more difficult to answer because of the strong effect of the seasonal reproductive cycle and stage of maturation on steroid concentrations .
however , matched by month of capture and stage of maturation , both 17-estradiol in females and 11-keto - testosterone in males were in most cases significantly lower in those years when vtg concentrations were higher . |
6,780 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a sensitive scalp is a frequent problem in daily clinical practice and often represents a major challenge for dermatologists .
in particular , patients with hair loss or alopecia frequently also complain of scalp problems that must be taken into account for a successful treatment program .
the main complaint of these patients relates to a sensitive scalp , for which various causes are taken into consideration : atopic disposition with tendency to sebostasis , irritation , and dermatitis ; type iv hypersensitivity to particular shampoo ingredients , such as cocamidopropyl betaine or preservatives ; age - related dryness of the skin ( senile sebostasis ) ; irritation from cosmetic hair treatments , such as changes of hair color or form ; and finally , some specific dermatological scalp conditions , such as seborrheic dermatitis , psoriasis , and their treatment sequels , especially those due to the prolonged use of topical corticosteroids .
red scalp , red scalp syndrome , and diffuse red scalp disease are terms used synonymously for a condition , characterized by : persistent redness of the scalp , not explained by a specific dermatologic disease of the scalp , with or without sensation of itching or burning , refractory to topical corticosteroids and antiseborrheic agents , with aggravation in the sun , and the dermoscopic finding of teleangiectasia of the scalp [ figure 1a and b ] . in some cases , symptoms of scalp sensitivity , itching , burning , and tension , are due to the drying out and irritating effect of alcohol - based topicals , and the propylene glycol contained as a solvent in these preparations . in others
, the condition evolves in the vertex area , where the scalp is maximally exposed to ultraviolet radiation ( uvr ) and is the considered as a chronic uvr - related condition with analogies to rosacea . at the same time , there is increasing evidence that uvr exposure also exerts a negative effect on hair growth and alopecia , presumably by generating reactive oxygen species while hair papilla... | background : a sensitive scalp is a frequent problem in daily clinical practice and often represents a major challenge for dermatologists.objective:the objective was to evaluate the efficacy of a northamerican virginian witch hazel ( hamamelis virginiana)-based shampoo and tonic ( erol energy ) for treatment of the sensitive scalp.methods:retrospective observational study of male and female patients given erol energy products in the period between august 2010 and december 2013 at the center for dermatology and hair diseases professor treb to treat irritable scalp conditions or as concomitant treatment to minoxidil therapy for androgenetic alocepia.results:shampoo was applied successfully in 1,373 patients ( 1,233 women and 140 men ) .
patients reported improvement of subjective manifestations of irritation and rated tolerance of both products as good to excellent . during this period , 369 ( 26.9% )
have received erol shampoo more than once.conclusions:the choice of appropriate hair - care products represents an important aspect in the management of the sensitive scalp and related conditions . with the erol energy hair - care products , the advantages of h. virginiana are available for successful treatment of the scalp , especially in the context of problems associated with red scalp , scalp burn - out , and the use of topical minoxidil for androgenetic alopecia . |
6,781 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: interferon tau ( ifnt ) is produced by trophectoderm cells of conceptuses of ruminant species and is the maternal recognition of the pregnancy signal .
besides its critical roles in implantation and establishment of pregnancy in ruminants [ 1 , 2 ] , it has a plethora of physiological functions in various cell types such as macrophages , lymphocytes , and epithelial cells in humans and mice [ 35 ] .
it is a type i interferon ( ifn ) , which includes ifn alpha ( ifna ) , ifn beta ( ifnb ) , ifn delta ( ifnd ) , and ifn omega ( ifnw ) . after binding to a common receptor , ifna receptor 1 ( ifnar1 ) , and ifnar2 , type
i ifns affect the production of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin- ( il- ) 1 and tumor necrosis factor ( tnf- ) [ 6 , 7 ] .
thus , type i ifns have widely recognized roles in inflammatory diseases , such as experimental allergic encephalomyelitis , multiple sclerosis , and spontaneous autoimmune diabetes [ 5 , 810 ] .
notably , unlike other members of type i ifn family , ifnt has few adverse effects and low cytotoxicity even at high dosages [ 11 , 12 ] , suggesting its therapeutic potential as an alternative to other type i ifns due to its anti - inflammatory effects .
recent compelling findings about the anti - inflammatory effects of ifnt include lower nlrp3 ( nucleotide - binding oligomerization domain - like receptor , pyrin domain - containing 3 ) inflammasome - driven il-1 secretion by human macrophages , mitigation of obesity - associated systemic tissue inflammation in mice , and promotion of th2 biased immune response in mice .
the intestinal microbiota provides important benefits for the development of immune responses ; however , the disturbances in the intestinal microbiota are associated with numerous chronic inflammatory diseases [ 13 , 14 ] . also , the effect of ifnt on expression of il-17 in the intestine is not known .
the potential effect of ifnt on expression of il-17 is important as il-17 promotes local chemokine production to recruit monocytes and neutrophils to... | this study was conducted to explore the effects of interferon tau ( ifnt ) on the intestinal microbiota and expression of interleukin 17 ( il-17 ) in the intestine of mice .
ifnt supplementation increased microbial diversity in the jejunum and ileum but decreased microbial diversity in the feces .
ifnt supplementation influenced the composition of the intestinal microbiota as follows : ( 1 ) decreasing the percentage of firmicutes and increasing bacteroidetes in the jejunum and ileum ; ( 2 ) enhancing the percentage of firmicutes but decreasing bacteroidetes in the colon and feces ; ( 3 ) decreasing lactobacillus in the jejunum and ileum ; ( 4 ) increasing the percentage of blautia , bacteroides , alloprevotella , and lactobacillus in the colon ; and ( 5 ) increasing the percentage of lactobacillus , bacteroides , and allobaculum , while decreasing blautia in the feces . also , ifnt supplementation decreased the expression of il-17 in the intestines of normal mice and of an intestinal pathogen infected mice . in conclusion ,
ifnt supplementation modulates the intestinal microbiota and intestinal il-17 expression , indicating the applicability of ifnt to treat the intestinal diseases involving il-17 expression and microbiota . |
6,782 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: opioid receptors in the periaqueductal gray
( pag ) contribute to a wide range of behaviors .
these include nociceptive
modulation , cardiovascular regulation , thermoregulation , and locomotor activity
[ 15 ] . although mu - opioid receptors ( mor ) are known to contribute to
pag mediated antinociception [ 6 , 7 ] , less is known about the contribution of delta - opioid receptors
( dors ) .
although antinociception has been produced by the administration of dor
agonists into the pag , these effects are mild compared to the antinociception
produced by mor agonists [ 810 ] .
chronic treatment with morphine
causes the spinal density of dors to shift from the cytoplasm to the plasma
membrane [ 11 , 12 ] .
a similar shift in dors from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane appears to occur in the pag .
swim stress causes an
increase in dor density in the plasma membrane of pag neurons . in vitro recordings
show that dor agonists do not alter
gabaergic synaptic transmission in pag neurons from drug - naive animals [ 1517 ] , but inhibit gabaergic ipscs in mice treated chronically with
morphine .
the behavioral significance of enhanced dor
expression in the pag has not been characterized .
the increased expression of
dor in the pag of morphine tolerant rats could be a compensatory mechanism for
the loss of antinociception at the mu - opioid receptor .
increased expression of
dors in the spinal cord has been shown to enhance the antinociceptive effect of
intrathecal administration of the dor agonist deltorphin ii .
the objective of the present study was to
determine the behavioral consequences of activating dors in the pag following
induction of morphine tolerance . given the widespread effects mediated by the
pag , mobilization of dors to the plasma membrane could contribute to a wide
range of behaviors .
the enhanced antinociceptive effects of dor agonists at the
spinal level suggest that the administration of dor agonists into the vpag of
morphine tolerant rats will... | chronic morphine administration shifts delta - opioid receptors ( dors ) from the cytoplasm to the plasma membrane . given that microinjection of morphine into the pag
produces antinociception , it is hypothesized that the movement of dors to the membrane will allow antinociception to the dor agonist deltorphin ii as a way to compensate for morphine tolerance .
tolerance was induced by twice daily injections of morphine ( 5 , 10 , or 20 mg / kg , subcutaneous ) for 3.5 days .
microinjection of deltorphin into the vpag 6 hours after the last morphine injection produced a mild antinociception that did not vary in a consistent manner across morphine pretreatment doses or nociceptive tests .
in contrast , deltorphin caused a decrease in activity in morphine tolerant rats that was associated with lying in the cage .
the decrease in activity and change in behavior indicate that chronic morphine administration alters dors in the vpag .
however , activation of these receptors does not appear to compensate for the decrease in antinociception caused by morphine tolerance . |
6,783 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study:
selaginella doederleinii hieron , as a traditional chinese medicine , is a well - known perennial pteridophyte plant growing in south and southwestern china at the low altitude .
it has the function of eliminating wind , scattering frigidity , detumescence , and treating cough . in the reported research ,
different types of compounds from selaginella doederleinii , including biflavonoid , alkaloid , xylogen , sterol , and organic acid , have been exhibited [ 26 ] .
some researches have proposed that the potential antioxidants in selaginella doederleinii are biflavonoids , including amentoflavone , robustaflavone , heveaflavone , and robustaflavone 4 , 4-o - dimethyl ether ( see figure 1 ) .
most biflavonoids , just like apigenin and its methoxyl / hydroxyl substituents , have prominent antioxidant characteristics and show a wide range of biological activity , such as cancer chemopreventive properties , anti - inflammatory , antimicroorganism , and antioxidative effects [ 813 ] .
traditional screening for antioxidant activity components from natural plants is a time - consuming , inefficient , and costly method , which can not meet the need of the development of modern scientific research .
therefore , it is necessary to find out more new and efficient online techniques to search the active compounds from natural products .
this study aimed to develop a rapid , efficient , and stable method to screen and identify the main antioxidative components in the extracts from selaginella doederleinii .
the online 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl - ultra - high performance liquid chromatography - q - time - of - flight mass spectrometry ( dpph - uplc - q - tof / ms ) technique was used for the first time to screen and identify antioxidants from ethyl acetate extract in this study .
nine active biflavonoids were yielded and included amentoflavone ( 1 ) , robustaflavone ( 2 ) , bilobetin ( 3 ) , 4-methoxy robustaflavone ( 4 ) , podocarpusflavone a ( 5 ) , hinokiflavone ( 6 ) , ginkgetin ( 7 ) , putraflavone ( 8) , and... | 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl - ultra - high performance liquid chromatography - q - time - of - flight mass spectrometry ( dpph - uplc - q - tof / ms ) , as a rapid and efficient means , now was used for the first time to screen antioxidants from selaginella doederleinii .
the nine biflavone compounds were screened as potential antioxidants .
the biflavones were structurally identified and divided into the three types , that is , amentoflavone - type , robustaflavone - type , and hinokiflavone - type biflavonoids . among the compounds bilobetin ( 3 ) and
putraflavone ( 8) were found from selaginella doederleinii for the first time and others including amentoflavone ( 1 ) , robustaflavone ( 2 ) , 4-methoxy robustaflavone ( 4 ) , podocarpusflavone a ( 5 ) , hinokiflavone ( 6 ) , ginkgetin ( 7 ) , and heveaflavone ( 9 ) were identified previously in the plant . moreover , nine biflavones possessed a good antioxidant activity via their dpph free radical scavenging .
it demonstrates that dpph - uplc - q - tof / ms exhibits strong capacity in separation and identification for small molecule .
the method is suitable for rapid screening of antioxidants without the need for complicated systems and additional instruments . |
6,784 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the study of transcriptional mechanisms of addiction is based on the hypothesis that regulation of gene expression is one important mechanism by which chronic exposure to a drug of abuse causes long - lasting changes in the brain that underlie the behavioral abnormalities that define a state of addiction.1,2 ) a corollary of this hypothesis is that changes induced in the functioning of several neurotransmitter systems , and in the morphology of certain neuronal cell types in the brain , by chronic drug administration are mediated in part via changes in gene expression .
of course , not all drug - induced neural and behavioral plasticity is mediated at the level of gene expression , as we know the crucial contributions of translational and posttranslational modifications and protein trafficking in addiction - related phenomena .
on the other hand , regulation of gene expression is one central mechanism and likely to be particularly crucial for the life - long abnormalities that characterize addiction . indeed
work over the past ~15 years has provided increasing evidence for a role of gene expression in drug addiction , as several transcription factors - proteins that bind to specific responses elements in the promoter regions of target genes and regulate those genes ' expression - have been implicated in drug action . according to this scheme , shown in fig . 1 , drugs of abuse , via their initial actions at the synapse ,
produce changes within neurons that signal to the nucleus and regulate the activity of numerous transcription factors and many other types of transcriptional regulatory proteins.3 ) a these nuclear changes gradually and progressively build with repeated drug exposure and underlie stable changes in the expression of specific target genes which , in turn , contribute to the lasting changes in neural function that maintain a state of addiction.1,4 ) this review focuses on several transcription factors , which have been shown to play important roles in addiction .
we focus further on drug -... | regulation of gene expression is considered a plausible mechanism of drug addiction given the stability of behavioral abnormalities that define an addicted state .
numerous transcription factors , proteins that bind to regulatory regions of specific genes and thereby control levels of their expression , have been implicated in the addiction process over the past decade or two . here
we review the growing evidence for the role played by several prominent transcription factors , including a fos family protein ( fosb ) , camp response element binding protein ( creb ) , and nuclear factor kappa b ( nfb ) , among several others , in drug addiction .
as will be seen , each factor displays very different regulation by drugs of abuse within the brain 's reward circuitry , and in turn mediates distinct aspects of the addiction phenotype .
current efforts are geared toward understanding the range of target genes through which these transcription factors produce their functional effects and the underlying molecular mechanisms involved .
this work promises to reveal fundamentally new insight into the molecular basis of addiction , which will contribute to improved diagnostic tests and therapeutics for addictive disorders . |
6,785 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: it is a chronic inflammatory disorder affecting both the hair follicles and the nail apparatus , with t - lymphocyte infiltration and chemokine expression being characteristic in involved tissue ( 1 ) .
the prevalence rates of aa is 0.1% in the world population ( 2 ) and 0.9 - 6.9% in korea ( 3 ) .
the association of aa with autoimmune diseases including thyroid disorders , pernicious anemia and vitiligo is well established and alopecia areata itself is conventionally regarded as an autoimmune disease ( 4 ) .
the importance of immune - mediated mechanism , but non necessarily autoimmunity , in the pathogenesis of alopecia areata is suggested by the therapeutic efficacy of immunosuppressive drugs such as cyclosporin a , tacrolimus and corticosteroids . it is well known that locally infiltrating lymphocytes
have been implicated as effector cells being responsible for the reversible alteration of the hair follicles and the resulting hair loss ( 5 , 6 ) . in general ,
the directional recruitment of leukocytes is regulated by chemokines and their counteracting chemokine receptors ( 7 ) .
recently , in human models of aa it was shown that the increased expression of chemokines including monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 ( mcp-1 ) , monokine induced by interferon- ( mig ) might play a pivotal role in the attraction of monocytes around the hair bulb ( 1 ) .
mcp-1 is a -chemokine that is thought to be responsible for monocyte and lymphocytes t recruitment in acute inflammatory conditions and may be an important mediator in chronic inflammation .
in fact , it has been proposed that mcp-1 may be responsible for tissue inflammation in autoimmune diseases because its tissue expression in human and experimental autoimmune models ( 8 - 11 ) .
thus , genetic polymorphism in the regulatory regions of the mcp-1 gene could be implicated in the susceptibility or progression of autoimmune disease .
a biallelic a / g polymorphism at position -2518 of the mcp-1 gene has been described .
the polymorphism proved functionally... | monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 ( mcp-1 ) levels are increased in scalp lesions of patients with alopecia areata ( aa ) , suggesting a role in the development of aa .
recently , a biallelic a / g polymorphism in the mcp-1 promoter at position -2518 has been found , influencing the level of mcp-1 expression in response to an inflammatory stimulus .
we investigated whether the presence of these polymorphisms were associated with aa in korean population .
145 korean patients with aa , 246 healthy subjects without clinical evidence of aa were screened for genotype with a pcr - based assay . in the aa patients
the frequency of the a and g alleles was 40.3 and 59.7% , respectively and the distribution of the a / a , a / g and g / g genotypes was 19.3 , 42.1 and 38.6% , respectively . amongst the controls the frequency of the a and g alleles was 39.8 and 60.2% , and the distribution of the a / a , a / g , g / g genotypes in the same group was 17.5 , 44.7 and 37.8% , respectively .
there was no significant difference in the allele frequencies and genotype distributions between the patients and the controls ( p=0.889 , p=0.848 , respectively ) .
our data indicates that no association exists between the -2518a / g polymorphism of the mcp-1 gene and susceptibility to alopecia areata . |
6,786 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: total hip arthroplasty ( tha ) is widely performed for the purpose of alleviating pain and
improving activities of daily living ( adls ) .
it is important to repair the hip center and
lever arm that cause decreased mechanical efficiency due to hip deformity and to improve
mechanical efficiency when reconstructing hip joint function1 , 2 .
hip abductor muscle
strength after tha is known to be affected by the height of the hip center3,4,5 , femoral offset ( fo ) , and the gluteus medius
lever arm1 , 5 .
asayama and chamnnongkich5 examined osteoarthritis ( oa ) patients with at least 1.6 years of
postoperative follow - up after tha , and they demonstrated that the ratio of hip abductor
muscle strength of the reconstructed side to that of the unoperated side was strongly and
positively correlated with the ratio of fo to body weight lever arm and negatively
correlated with the height of the hip center . concerning tha and leg strength ,
it has been shown in patients scheduled for tha that
preoperative hip abductor muscle strength is 31% less than that in healthy individuals , and
that preoperative hip abductor muscle strength is not correlated with physical activity6
. additionally , hip abductor muscle strength
and total workload at 5 months after tha are 56% and 20% of the levels of community dwelling
elderly people , respectively , indicating a marked difference between the patients with tha
and elderly people7 .
moreover , patients
who have undergone tha have residual muscle atrophy of the quadriceps and do not show
recovery in quadriceps muscle strength8 .
furthermore , it has also been reported that the hip abductor muscle strength on the
reconstructed side only recovers to about 80% of that on the unoperated side at both 6
months and 2 years postoperatively9 . in
patients with unilateral developmental dysplasia of the hip ( ddh ) scheduled to undergo tha ,
liu and
wen10 reported that
cross - sectional area of the gluteus medius was significantly smaller , and... | [ purpose ] the importance and effect of hip joint geometry on hip abductor muscle strength
are well known .
in addition , other perioperative factors are also known to affect hip
abductor muscle strength .
this study examined the relative importance of factors affecting
hip abductor muscle strength after total hip arthroplasty .
[ subjects and methods ] the
subjects were 97 females with osteoarthritis scheduled for primary unilateral tha .
the
following variables were assessed preoperatively and 2 and 6 months after surgery :
isometric hip abductor strength , radiographic analysis ( crowe class , postoperative femoral
offset ( fo ) ) , frenchay activities index , compliance rate with home exercise , japanese
orthopaedic association hip - disease evaluation questionnaire ( jheq ) , and demographic data .
factors related to isometric hip abductor muscle strength 2 and 6 months after surgery
were examined .
[ results ] significant factors related to isometric hip abductor muscle
strength at 2 and 6 months after surgery were , in extraction order : 1 .
isometric hip
abductor muscle strength in the preoperative period ; 2 .
bmi ; and 3 .
the jheq mental score
at 2 and 6 months after surgery .
[ conclusion ] preoperative factors and postoperative
mental status were related to postoperative isometric hip abductor strength .
fo was not
extracted as a significant factor related to postoperative isomeric hip abductor
strength . |
6,787 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: although uterine rotation due to a myoma is a rare complication of pregnancy 1 , obstetricians should be alerted to avoid making an incorrect uterine incision during cesarean section . a 35-year - old woman ( gravida 1 , para 0 ) was referred to our hospital for delivery because her pregnancy was complicated by a left - sided myoma that measured 15 cm in diameter during ultrasonography .
the patient 's medical history included renal artery aneurysm , primary aldosteronism , and chronic hypertension . to determine the anatomical relationship between the uterus and the myoma , we performed magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) at 30 weeks ' gestation ( fig.1a ) .
mri revealed that the myoma was intramural and located on the left side . notwithstanding the myoma ,
the pregnancy had not been complicated by abdominal pain , placental abruption , fetal growth restriction , or preterm labor and birth .
fetal growth was determined to be appropriate for the gestational age , and no major anomalies were revealed by ultrasound . because of breech presentation , the patient was scheduled to undergo an elective cesarean section .
owing to her chronic hypertension , the cesarean section was scheduled for 37 weeks ' gestation .
( a ) magnetic resonance imaging revealed an intramural myoma on the left side ( its greatest dimension is not shown in this figure ) ; however , imaging did not reveal the degree of uterine rotation .
( b ) midline laparotomy showed multiple large vessels pressing on the uterus . from the first abdominal incision
prior to delivery , the obstetrician was unable to accurately understand the anatomical relationship between the myoma and the intra - abdominally placed uterus .
therefore , the abdominal incision was extended vertically around the umbilicus , and the uterus was brought outside the abdominal cavity ( fig.2a ) . as a result , we were able to evaluate the spatial relationship between the tumor and the uterus .
we then located the vessels belonging to the utero - ovarian ligament and the... | key clinical messagein pregnancies complicated by large myomas , obstetricians may face difficulties during cesarean section if they fail to notice the rotation of the uterus and could make an incorrect uterine incision
. this error might cause massive intraoperative hemorrhage .
obstetricians must exercise extreme caution during cesarean sections complicated by large myomas . |
6,788 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: consistent and replicable mechanical force on target spinal tissue is critical for minimizing functional and histological variability and for establishing successful contusive spinal cord injury ( sci ) models .
the amount of force applied to a target region of the spinal cord depends on the methods utilized for spine stabilization .
positional shifting of the target spine during contact between the impact plunger and the spinal cord alters the resultant injury force .
the cervical contusive sci model is a more clinically relevant model than other forms of sci , as approximately 50% of human sci cases occur at this level , and several sci studies have been performed using animal cervical injury models .
although contusive sci models often utilize some form of stabilization by clamping the spinal processes anterior and posterior to the injury site , this preparation is difficult for producing cervical sci . as shown in this demonstration ,
the stabilization method we developed is advantageous in its ability to increase both the quality and reproducibility of contusion injury . particularly ,
this method of vertebral stabilization was established in an attempt to amend the shortcomings and challenges of other models : 1 ) variability in vertebral yielding under the impact force may occur by clamping adjacent dorsal spinous processes rostral and caudal to the laminectomy .
the degree of vertebral shifting is dependent on the number of vertebral joints between the impact and the vertebrae being stabilized ( figure 1 ) .
therefore , the more joints involved the less stable the spine becomes ; 2 ) the dorsal spinous processes are fragile and cause clamp failure as a result of spinous process fracture or the clamp slipping off of the process ; and 3 ) the spinous processes on these vertebrae are extremely short between the c3 to t1 vertebrae compared to those of the thoracic vertebrae , which makes it difficult using traditional clamps to grasp the spinous processes for stabilizing the cervical spine . ... | clinically - relevant animal cervical spinal cord injury ( sci ) models are essential for developing and testing potential therapies ; however , producing reliable cervical sci is difficult due to lack of satisfactory methods of vertebral stabilization .
the conventional method to stabilize the spine is to suspend the rostral and caudal cervical spine via clamps attached to cervical spinous processes .
however , this method of stabilization fails to prevent tissue yielding during the contusion as the cervical spinal processes are too short to be effectively secured by the clamps ( figure 1 ) . here
we introduce a new method to completely stabilize the cervical vertebra at the same level of the impact injury .
this method effectively minimizes movement of the spinal column at the site of impact , which greatly improves the production of consistent scis .
we provide visual description of the equipment ( figure 2 - 4 ) , methods , and a step - by - step protocol for the stabilization of the cervical 5 vertebra ( c5 ) of adult rats , to perform laminectomy ( figure 5 ) and produce a contusive sci thereafter . although we only demonstrate a cervical hemi - contusion using the nyu / mascis impactor device , this vertebral stabilization technique can be applied to other regions of the spinal cord , or be adapted to other sci devices
. improving spinal cord exposure and fixation through vertebral stabilization may be valuable for producing consistent and reliable injuries to the spinal cord .
this vertebral stabilization method can also be used for stereotactic injections of cells and tracers , and for imaging using two - photon microscopy in various neurobiological studies . |
6,789 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the majority of these studies were conducted with adult male sprague - dawley rats from a selective - breeding colony which has been previously described14 .
selectively - bred rats from generations s18 , s20 and s21 were transported from the university of michigan ( ann arbor , mi ) to the university of washington ( seattle , wa ) for the fscv experiments . during each behavior session , chronically implanted microsensors , placed in the core of the nucleus accumbens , were connected to a head - mounted voltammetric amplifier for detection of dopamine by fscv23 .
voltammetric scans were repeated every 100 ms to obtain a sampling rate of 10 hz .
voltammetric analysis was carried out using software written in labview ( national instruments , austin , tx ) . on completion of the fscv experiments ,
recording sites were verified using standard histological procedures . to examine the effects of flupenthixol ( sigma , st .
louis , missouri ; dissolved in 0.9% nacl ) on the performance of sign - tracking and goal - tracking behavior , rats received an injection ( i.p . )
of 150 , 300 or 600 g / kg of the drug one hour prior to pavlovian conditioning sessions 9 , 11 and 13 .
doses of the drug were counterbalanced between groups and interspersed with saline injections ( i.p .
, 0.9% nacl ; prior to sessions 8 , 10 , 12 and 14 ) to prevent any cumulative drug effects . to examine the effects of flupenthixol on the acquisition of sign - tracking and goal - tracking behavior
, rats received an injection of either saline ( i.p . ) or 225 g / kg of the drug one hour prior to pavlovian conditioning sessions 17 .
detailed methods and any associated references are available in the online version of the paper at www.nature.com/nature . | individuals make choices and prioritize goals using complex processes that assign value to rewards and associated stimuli . during pavlovian learning ,
previously neutral stimuli that predict rewards can acquire motivational properties , whereby they themselves become attractive and desirable incentive stimuli .
but individuals differ in whether a cue acts solely as a predictor that evokes a conditional response , or also serves as an incentive stimulus , and this determines the degree to which a cue might bias choice or even promote maladaptive behavior . here
we use rats that differ in the incentive motivational properties they attribute to food cues to probe the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in stimulus - reward learning .
we show that intact dopamine transmission is not required for all forms of learning in which reward cues become effective predictors .
rather , dopamine acts selectively in a form of reward learning in which incentive salience is assigned to reward cues . in individuals with a propensity for this form of learning ,
reward cues come to powerfully motivate and control behavior .
this work provides insight into the neurobiology of a form of reward learning that confers increased susceptibility to disorders of impulse control . |
6,790 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: uterine artery fibroid embolisation ( uae ) has now been used in clinical practice for > 2 decades in the management of symptomatic uterine fibroids [ 1 , 2 ] .
it is estimated that > 50,000 procedures have been performed worldwide since ravina reported his series in france in 1995 [ 3 , 4 ] .
uae is emerging as an effective alternative to hysterectomy and myomectomy in women with fibroids .
although long - term follow up data are still lacking , early reports regarding its safety and efficacy have been encouraging , and the procedure is increasingly being accepted . however , there is a lack of evidence on future fertility and pregnancy outcomes in women undergoing uae .
a 44-year - old nulliparous woman with a body mass index of 27 underwent uae in july 2008 for symptomatic relief of heavy menstrual bleeding .
she had previously undergone endoscopic resection of a submucous fibroid in 2002 and open myomectomy in 2003 .
she subsequently underwent exploratory laparotomy and division of adhesions for relief of small - bowel obstruction in february 2007 . a subsequent hysteroscopy in november
2007 showed a large cavity distorted by fibroids . a pelvic ultrasound scan before her procedure showed an antiverted , enlarged uterus measuring approximately 13.5 8 9 cm .
the myometrium was noted to be diffusely heterogenous , containing multiple fibroids in the anterior and posterior walls .
femoral artery puncture using a 5f sheath , a 4f catheter , and a 3f coaxial catheter .
multiple injections of contrast were administered into the internal iliac arteries and uterine arteries . the uterus was noted to be hypervascular and supplied by hypertrophied uterine arteries .
each uterine artery was selectively catheterised and embolised with polyvinyl alcohol particles ( william cook europe , bjaeverskov , denmark ) .
one vial of particles 350500 m in diameter and two vials of particles 510700 m in diameter were used .
the end point of the embolisation process was near - stasis in the uterine artery .
the plan was... | we report a 44-year - old woman who developed a fatal pulmonary embolus after uterine artery fibroid embolisation ( uae ) .
bilateral uae was carried out through a single right - femoral artery puncture .
the largest fibroid in the anterior fundal wall measured 4.5 cm , and the largest fibroid in the posterior fundal wall measured 6 cm .
the appearances after uae were satisfactory , and the procedure was apparently uneventful .
no immediate complications were noted .
the patient developed sudden - onset shortness of breath and went into cardiac arrest 19 h after the procedure .
postmortem autopsy confirmed that the cause of a death was a pulmonary embolism . to our knowledge
this is the first reported case in the united kingdom in which death occurred from a pulmonary embolus after uae . |
6,791 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pulmonary hypertension ( ph ) can be described as a complication caused by progressive obstruction and obliteration of the pulmonary arteries , ultimately leading to a progressive rise in pulmonary vascular resistance ( pvr ) and right ventricular ( rv ) failure and death .
ph may be classified into five categories : group 1 - pulmonary arterial hypertension ( pah ) , which includes idiopathic , sporadic , familial , drug - induced , hiv infection ; group 2 - ph due to left heart disease ; group 3 - ph due to lung disease ; group 4 - chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension ( ctph ) ; and group 5 - ph with multifactorial mechanisms .
smooth muscle medial hypertrophy , intimal proliferation , in situ thrombosis and the development of plexiform lesions are some of the pathological changes observed during this condition .
prostanoids , endothelin receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase type v inhibitors are principally used in the drug therapy of pah .
the use of epoprostenol is fraught with a myriad of drug delivery issues such as requirement of the patient to be familiar with the techniques of sterile drug preparation , operation of the pump and skill in using intravenous catheter that is surgically implanted , catheter - related infections and pump malfunction .
beraprost , which is only approved in japan , has also been shown to lose its effectiveness over 1 year .
the limitations with the current crop of molecules has spurred the quest for a better drug molecule for pah .
riociguat is the most recent drug approved by the united states food and drug administration for the treatment of pah .
this review highlights the key features of this novel first - in - class drug molecule .
an electronic search was performed using databases such as pubmed , sciencedirect , cochrane library , google scholar and springer database .
the search term used for the literature search was riociguat and pah and cteph .
riociguat associated with animal studies , pediatric studies , diabetic , anemia , renal dysfunction ,... | pulmonary hypertension ( ph ) continues to be a disease that is associated with woeful outcomes .
the search for an ideal drug molecule for ph led to the discovery of riociguat , which is a first - in - class drug molecule that activates soluble guanylate cyclase .
we conducted a systematic literature search using databases such as pubmed , science direct , springer , cochrane reviews and google scholar to gather evidence generated from published clinical trials on the efficacy , safety , pharmacokinetics and regulatory status of riociguat . chest-1 and the patent-1 were phase-3 pivotal clinical trials that showed that riociguat was able to significantly improve the 6-min walk distance with 16 weeks of therapy as compared with the placebo arm .
the drug also showed improvement in secondary outcome measures such as improvement in the pulmonary vascular resistance , n - terminal pro
brain natriuretic peptide levels , world health organization functional class , time to clinical worsening and borg dyspnea score .
the drug had a modest safety profile , with hypotension being the most bothersome adverse effect .
these findings led to various regulatory agencies around the world granting approval for riociguat for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension ( pah ) and inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension ( cteph ) .
the entry of a new class of drug for pah and cteph therapy portends some hope for patients with a disease that is traditionally linked with a poor prognosis . |
6,792 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: we used statewide reported ntm isolate data from all laboratories in oregon collected during 20072012 . from these data ,
we defined disseminated ntm as a reported ntm isolate from blood , cerebrospinal fluid , bone marrow , lymph node , or other sterile site in an oregon resident > 18 years of age . in a sensitivity analysis
, we expanded this definition to include isolates from nonsterile sites , specifically skin and urine , that could still represent disseminated disease . to identify cases of
hiv - associated disseminated ntm , we linked patients with ntm isolates to the statewide hiv surveillance registry by name , date of birth , and sex using registry plus link plus ( 10 ) .
we reviewed all possible matches manually . to calculate incidence , exposure time began with the date of hiv diagnosis .
we censored cases at death , ntm diagnosis , or 1 year after the last reported cd4 or viral load result when the gap was > 2 years between laboratory tests . since 2006
, oregon law has required that laboratories report all cd4 counts and viral loads to the oregon health authority .
we calculated exposure time within cd4 ranges for each interval between reported cd4 counts until patients were censored .
we calculated disseminated ntm incidence by cd4 count ( closest to ntm diagnosis within preceding 3 months ) and year with 95% cis under the poisson distribution in sas version 9.4 ( 11 ) .
we identified 37 disseminated ntm cases among a population of 7,349 hiv - infected patients with 33,072 person - years of exposure ; most were male ( 28 , 75.7% ) , non - hispanic ( 29 , 78.4% ) , and white ( 26 , 70.3% ) , with a median age of 40.0 years ( range 22.759.4 years ) ( table 1 ) .
median time from hiv diagnosis to disseminated ntm was 2.1 years ( range 020.7 years ) .
most cases were caused by mac ( 35 , 94.6% ) ; 19 patients ( 52.8% , 1
outcome missing ) died , with median survival of 0.3 years ( range 05.8 years ) after ntm diagnosis .
median cd4 count and viral load collected closest to ntm diagnosis were 10... | we determined disseminated nontuberculous mycobacteria incidence in the hiv - infected population of oregon , usa , during 20072012 by using statewide laboratory surveillance .
we identified 37 disseminated nontuberculous mycobacteria cases among 7,349 patients with median annual incidence of 110/100,000 hiv person - years and the highest incidence in those with cd4 counts < 50 cells / mm3 ( 5,300/100,000 person - years ) . |
6,793 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a promising strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases involves pharmacologically induced activation of a coordinated antioxidant genetic program to shift the intracellular redox balance towards a homeostatic state by means of expression of detoxifying proteins and antioxidant enzymes . a key transcription factor orchestrating
antioxidant defense is nuclear factor erythroid 2related factor 2 ( nrf2 ) , a member of the cap'n'collar family of basic leucine zipper transcription factors .
in addition to its role in protection from oxidative stress , nrf2 triggers expression of genes responsible for drug detoxification , iron metabolism , excretion transporters , immunomodulation , calcium homeostasis , growth factors ( such as brain derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor- ) , intracellular signaling ( including neuronal guanine nucleotide exchange factor ) , and neurotransmitter receptors ( moi et al . , 1994 ) .
in addition a recent report on identification and validation of 12 antioxidant response element ( are)-sequences targeted by nrf2 in 9 autophagy genes
( pajares et al . , 2016 ) points to additional role of nrf2 in combating proteinopathies .
the breadth of this endogenous response suggests that its activation might counterbalance many of the large number of etiological pathways implicated in the pathogenesis of majority if not all neurodegenerative diseases ( crunkhorn , 2012 ; joshi and johnson , 2012 ; gan and johnson , 2014 ) .
numerous proof - of - principle studies involving gain and loss of function of nrf2 have suggested that its induction can ameliorate neurodegeneration , whereas its deficiency can exacerbate neurodegeneration ( joshi and johnson , 2012 ; gan and johnson , 2014 ) . despite the well - known fact of nrf2 activation at late stages of all neurodegenerative diseases , there is insufficient nuclear staining of nrf2 in the brains of alzheimer 's ( ad ) ( ramsey et al . , 2007 ) , as well as in aging ( senescent animals )
( shenvi et al . , 2012 ) and an... | this mini - review presents the authors ' vision on the current status and future trends in the development of neuroprotective agents working via activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 ( nrf2 ) , and in particular , via disruption of nrf2-keap1 interaction .
there are two opposite chemical mechanisms underlying such activation : the first one is a non - specific covalent modification of keap1 thiols , resulting in side effects of varied severity , and the second one is the shift of the nrf2-kelch - like ech associated protein-1 ( keap1 ) binding equilibrium in the presence of a competitive and chemically benign displacement agent . at this point ,
no displacement activators exhibit sufficient biological activity in comparison with common nrf2 activators working via keap1 thiol modification .
hence , the hope in therapeutics is now linked to the fda approved dimethylfumarate , whose derivative , monomethylfumarate , as we demonstrated recently , is much less toxic but equally biologically potent and an ideal candidate for clinical trials right now . a newly emerging player is a nuclear inhibitor of nrf2 , btb domain and cnc homolog 1 ( bach1 ) .
the commercially developed bach1 inhibitors are currently under investigation in our laboratory showing promising results . in our viewpoint , the perfect future drug will present the combination of a displacement activator and bach1 inhibitor to insure safety and efficiency of nrf2 activation . |
6,794 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: search is a multicenter study that conducts population - based ascertainment of nongestational cases of physician - diagnosed diabetes in youth age < 20 years at diagnosis ( 15 ) .
a total of 402 search participants with type 1 diabetes , residents of colorado and ohio , who had a duration of diabetes of at least 5 years , were enrolled in the search cvd study between 2009 and 2011 . during the same time period ,
a total of 204 frequency - matched ( by age , sex , and race / ethnicity ) youth without type 1 diabetes ( control subjects ) were also recruited in the study .
control participants were enrolled from the primary - care offices in the same geographical areas from which the patients with diabetes were referred and were confirmed free of diabetes by fasting glucose levels < 126 mg / dl ( 16 ) . the study was reviewed and approved by the local institutional review boards that had jurisdiction over the local study population , and all participants provided signed informed consent or assent .
participants were invited for an outpatient research visit after an 8-h overnight fast , and medications , including short - acting insulin , were withheld the morning of the visit until after the blood draw was complete .
all participants were asked to refrain from any strenuous exercise , smoking , or consumption of any caffeinated drinks 12 h prior to the visit . race / ethnicity was self - reported , and the participants were categorized into non - hispanic white ( nhw ) and other racial / ethnic group ( including hispanic , african american , and asian / pacific islander racial / ethnic groups ) .
participants completed standardized questionnaires including medical history , medication inventory , smoking status , physical activity , daily insulin dose , and family history of diabetes and cvd .
current cigarette smoking was defined as having smoked cigarettes on one or more of the 30 days preceding the survey .
individuals who had tried smoking or smoked regularly ( at least one cigarette every day for 30 days )... | objectivereduced heart rate variability ( hrv ) and increased arterial stiffness ( as ) are both present in youth with type 1 diabetes .
however , it is unclear whether they are associated and whether their association is independent of cardiovascular disease ( cvd ) risk factors.research design and methodsthe search cardiovascular disease ( search cvd ) study explored the cross - sectional relationships between hrv and several measures of as in youth with ( n = 344 ) and without ( n = 171 ) type 1 diabetes . the sphygmocor device ( atcor medical , sydney , australia )
was used to measure hrv using sd of normal r - r interval ( sdnn ) , as well as as , using pulse wave velocity in the carotid to femoral segment ( pwv - trunk ) and augmentation index adjusted to a heart rate of 75 bpm ( aix75 ) .
brachial distensibility ( brachd ) , another index of as , was measured with a dynapulse instrument ( pulse metric , san diego , ca ) .
multiple linear regression analyses explored the associations between hrv and each of the three as measures , after adjusting for demographic characteristics and traditional cvd risk factors ( blood pressure , lipids , obesity , microalbuminuria , and smoking ) separately , for youth with and without type 1 diabetes.resultsamong youth with type 1 diabetes , lower sdnn was associated with peripheral as ( lower brachd , p = 0.01 ; r2 = 0.30 ) and central as ( higher pvw - trunk , p < 0.0001 ; r2 = 0.37 ; and higher aix75 , p = 0.007 ; r2 = 0.08 ) .
these associations were attenuated with adjustment for cvd risk factors , but remained statistically significant for brachd and pwv - trunk . while a similar association between hrv and brachd was present in control youth , lower hrv
was not associated with increased central as or with aix75.conclusionslongitudinal studies are needed to understand the pathways responsible for these associations . |
6,795 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 75 eyes from 75 consecutive patients with exudative amd who were treated only with intravitreal injections of 2.5 mg of bevacizumab between 1 january , 2006 , and 31 june , 2008 , at the vitreoretinal clinic of the inha university hospital , incheon , korea .
the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the declaration of helsinki , and data were gathered after obtaining written informed consent .
this includes consent for the off - label use of bevacizumab as treatment for exudative amd .
approval for this treatment was also obtained from the national ministry of health in south korea .
all patients received follow - up for six months or more , and 54 patients received follow - up for more than 12 months . the potential risks and benefits
were discussed with all patients before they received injections , and all patients read and signed informed consent forms .
inclusion criteria were as follows : 1 ) patients with exudative amd , defined as the presence of active fluorescein leakage from the lesion as seen on fluorescein angiography , who received anti - vegf treatment in at least three initial injections every four weeks ; and 2 ) patients who were followed up for a minimum of six months .
the exclusion criteria included : 1 ) patients diagnosed with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy ( pcv ) by indocyanine green angiography and treated primarily with pdt ; 2 ) prior macular photocoagulation ; 3 ) a history of subtenon injection of triamcinolone acetonide , or pdt , or anti - vegf within six months before the intravitreal bevacizumab injection ; 4 ) other intraocular surgery or management during follow - up ; 5 ) the presence of coexisting ocular disease causing macular edema ( i.e. , diabetic macular edema , retinal vein occlusion , pseudophakic cystoid macular edema , or uveitis ) ; and 6 ) the presence of comorbid ocular conditions that might affect visual acuity .
thirty - nine patients who underwent pdt more than six... | purposethe purpose of this study was to determine the pharmacogenetic effects of complement factor h ( cfh ) y402h , loc387715 and high - temperature requirement factor a1 ( htra1 ) genotypes on the treatment of exudative age - related macular degeneration ( amd ) by intravitreal bevacizumab injection in a korean population.methodsseventy-five patients diagnosed with exudative amd were treated with intravitreal bevacizumab ( 2.5 mg ) monotherapy .
all patients received three initial intravitreal bevacizumab injections every four weeks and were then treated " as needed " based on clinical findings , optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography during the 12 month follow - up period after the third injection.resultsthe difference in visual acuity improvement among the three genotypes of loc387715 were statistically significant at six months post - treatment ( logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution ; tt , 0.346 ; gt , 0.264 ; gg , 0.188 ; p = 0.037 ) . among the loc387715 genotypes , the number of additional injections was lower in patients who had the risk t allele ( gg , 2.143 ;
gt , 2.000 ; tt , 1.575 ; p = 0.064 ) .
there was no significant difference between visual acuity and central macular thickness change in the cfh y402h polymorphism group during the 12 month follow - up period .
however , the tc group of cfh y402h required more additional bevacizumab injections than the tt group ( tt , 1.517 ; tc , 3.363 ; p = 0.020).conclusionsthis study demonstrated that different loc387715/htra1 genotypes resulted in different bevacizumab treatment responses on exudative amd .
patients with the risk allele had an improved treatment response and less need for additional injections .
however , patients with the cfh y402h risk allele needed more additional injections of bevacizumab in order to improve visual acuity .
this study illustrates how pharmacogenetic factors may help determine treatment modality and dosing .
this could ultimately provide basic data for ' personalized medicine... |
6,796 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the biogenesis and function of eukaryotic mrnas involves a diversity of biochemical reactions . these include capping , splicing , and polyadenylation in the nucleus , as well as transport to the cytosol , where the mrna is engaged in translation before ultimately being degraded . in each case , the biochemical reaction and its specificity are modulated by a variety of mrna - binding factors including proteins , micrornas , and potentially other long noncoding rnas .
eukaryotic cells contain a wide variety of quality control systems that lead to the degradation of rnas defective in any of the basic steps of biosynthesis and function ( doma and parker , 2007 ; houseley and tollervey , 2009 ) .
first , mrnas with a mutation causing an inherent defect in normal function , such as a mutation inhibiting pre - mrna splicing , or an early nonsense codon , will be subject to quality control with the vast majority of the mutant mrnas being degraded .
in addition , quality control will also act on specific mrnas whose rna - processing reactions have yielded an mrna lacking normal features .
for example , when alternative splicing produces an mrna with an early translation stop codon , such mrnas are rapidly degraded by a pathway called nonsense - mediated decay ( lamba et al . , 2003 ; mendell et al . ,
2004 ) . finally , due to the competition between normal function and quality control systems , a fraction of mrnas from any given gene that fail to efficiently complete a functional step will also be degraded by quality control .
for example , in yeast a low but measurable percentage of various wild - type pre - mrnas are degraded by quality control systems ( hilleren and parker , 2003 ; harigaya and parker , 2012 ) . in general , quality control circuits can be understood as a competition between the normal function of an mrna and a competing rna degradation pathway ( doma and parker , 2007 ) . the enhanced degradation of nonfunctional rnas by such quality control pathways is then specified by either features of... | in eukaryotic cells many mrnas are localized to specific regions of the cytosol , thereby allowing the local production of proteins .
the process of mrna localization can be coordinated with mrna turnover , which can also be spatially controlled to increase the degree of mrna localization .
the coordination of mrna localization , translation repression during transport , and mrna degradation suggests the hypothesis that an additional layer of mrna quality control exists in cells to degrade mrnas that fail to be appropriately localized . |
6,797 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: mycoplasma pneumoniae ( mp ) is one of the most common respiratory tract pathogens in community - acquired pneumonia ( cap ) patients . as one of the smallest bacterial organisms ,
mp is recognized as a capable of existence in both extracellular and intracellular environments which might facilitate the establishment of latent or chronic states . by the first proven link between an infectious agent and cancer
came in the 1960s with the discovery of epstein barr virus in burkitt s lymphoma tissue , it is likely that organisms which can persist at an intracellular level will have the greatest potential to influence oncogenesis . in recent years
, the association between malignant cell transformation and infection with mycoplasma has been identified in vitro .
nevertheless , there have been very few reports focusing on the cell pathology in mp infection in vivo .
therefore , the aim of this study was to identify the degree of cellular dysplasia in respiratory epithelium from mpp in comparison to other cap infections caused by typical pathogens .
all patients were over 18 years old of age with cap , who underwent both chest computed tomography ( ct ) and bronchoscopy in two hospitals between april 2013 and august 2015 .
the acute phase serum samples were tested for igm antibodies to mp by enzyme - linked immunosorbent assays test .
the definitive diagnosis of mp infection was confirmed by a positive balf result using quantitative loop - mediated isothermal amplification ( qlampp ) assays targeting for the p1 operon sequences using the universal kit for bacterial dna extraction ( capitalbio corporation , p.r . china ) as described elsewhere .
screening for eight common respiratory bacterial pathogens in balf was performed using qlamp assay as described elsewhere .
nine respiratory viruses in balf were detected using ftd respiratory pathogens 21 plus multiplex real - time polymerase chain reaction kit ( fast - track diagnostics , junglinster , luxembourg ) .
cap caused by bacterial pathogens and demonstrating a... | background : this study aimed to explore the cellular morphology of respiratory epithelium in mycoplasma pneumonia ( mpp ) patients.materials and methods : the cast - off cell morphological findings from bronchoscopic brushings in mpp and community - acquired pneumonia ( cap ) caused by typical pathogens were reviewed.results:compared with the cap group , cellular dysplasia in respiratory tract epithelial brushings was significantly greater in mpp patients ( p = 0.033).conclusion : unique biological characteristics and mechanisms of pathogenesis of mycoplasma pneumoniae ( mp ) may result in dyskaryotic changes in respiratory epithelium in adult mpp . |
6,798 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the last decade or so has seen substantial interdisciplinary activity between the arts and sciences , with many scientists applying knowledge and methods from their own areas in order to gain new insights into how art is made and appreciated ( journal of consciousness studies , 1999 , 2000 , 2004 ; zeki , 1999 ; livingstone , 2002 ; solso , 2003 ; martindale , 2006 ) . occasionally scientists have worked closely with art historians to share ideas and approaches ( freedberg and gallese , 2007 ; onians , 2008 ) .
one of the factors motivating this new collaborative spirit is the realization that artists have made certain discoveries about the way the human brain works that are only now being uncovered by scientists . according to zeki ( 1999 , p. 2 ) : most painters are also neurologists .
cavanagh ( 2005 ) , another eminent vision researcher , talked of the artist as neuroscientist . given that for many centuries artists have been intensively studying the way the world is perceived it is perhaps not surprising they have come to understand certain features of the way , for example , we sense objects , color , form , or depth . through their investigations artists have left a permanent record of their findings in all the countless works of art in museums and galleries around the world .
the task of unpacking all this deposited artistic knowledge and reconciling it with our current scientific understanding of perception and cognition is vast . which is why the recent collaborative activity is to be welcomed , despite the great inter - cultural and methodological challenges it poses .
first , though , i will discuss my own experience as an artist collaborating with scientists in the study of art .
as will be seen , the process of working closely with scientists has raised a number of issues of the kind i believe many collaborators face when trying to work across two quite distinct traditions . as a result of this work i remain convinced not only that artists and scientists can work together effectively to... | in this article i will discuss the intersection between art and neuroscience from the perspective of a practicing artist .
i have collaborated on several scientific studies into the effects of art on the brain and behavior , looking in particular at the phenomenon of visual indeterminacy .
this is a perceptual state in which subjects fail to recognize objects from visual cues .
i will look at the background to this phenomenon , and show how various artists have exploited its effect through the history of art .
my own attempts to create indeterminate images will be discussed , including some of the technical problems i faced in trying to manipulate the viewer 's perceptual state through paintings .
visual indeterminacy is not widely studied in neuroscience , although references to it can be found in the literature on visual agnosia and object recognition .
i will briefly review some of this work and show how my attempts to understand the science behind visual indeterminacy led me to collaborate with psychophysicists and neuroscientists . after reviewing this work
, i will discuss the conclusions i have drawn from its findings and consider the problem of how best to integrate neuroscientific methods with artistic knowledge to create truly interdisciplinary approach . |
6,799 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a continuous hydrolipidic film , representing the actual interface between the epidermal viable layers and outer environment , covers human skin .
skin surface lipids ( ssls ) are a mixture of sebaceous and epidermal lipids , displaying a very peculiar composition as compared to lipid fractions of serum or internal tissues .
this peculiarity is originated by the unique contribution of sebum secreted from the sebaceous glands , unevenly distributed in all areas of the body with the exception of the palms and foot soles , and becoming extremely specialized in local districts , like the eye , where the meibomian glands exert highly efficient protective functions .
ssl composition in the skin areas with the highest concentration of sebaceous glands ( forehead , upper chest , and dorsum ) mainly reflects sebaceous secretion , flowing from those sites also to areas with lower concentration , where the contribution of cellular lipid components , rich in oleic and linoleic acid , becomes more relevant [ 2 , 3 ] .
the keratinocyte membrane lipid contribution and the continuous metabolic action of resident microbial flora hosted at skin surface in healthy conditions are key determinants of the uniqueness of this complex mixture .
major lipid components in human sebum include squalene ( sq(2,6,10,15,19,23,-hexamethyl-2,6,10,14,18,22-tetracosahexaene ) , wax esters , and triglycerides . as a whole
, the ssl fatty acids fraction is relatively poor in polyunsaturated fatty acids ( pufas ) .
typically , sebum is rich in long - chain fatty acids ( up to 26 carbon atoms ) , linear or branched , mainly saturated or monounsaturated [ 4 , 5 ] .
these are partly present in the free form , secondary to the microbial and epithelial lipase activity on sebum triglycerides , and are responsible for antimycotic and antibacterial properties of the skin [ 57 ] . for the most part
, these specialized fatty acids are esterified with cholesterol , or with fatty alcohols , to form the fraction of wax mono- and diesters , crucial for skin... | skin surface lipid ( ssl ) film is a mixture of sebum and keratinocyte membrane lipids , protecting skin from environment .
its composition is unique for the high percentage of long chain fatty acids , and of the polyterpenoid squalene , absent in other human tissues , and in non - human primates sebum . here ,
the still incomplete body of information on ssl as mediators of external chemical , physical , and microbial signals and stressors is revised , focusing on the central event of the continuous oxidative modification induced by the metabolic activity of residential and pathological microbial flora , natural or iatrogenic uv irradiation , exposure to chemicals and cosmetics .
once alpha - tocopherol and ubiquinol-10 antioxidant defences of ssl are overcome , oxidation of squalene and cholesterol gives rise to reactive by - products penetrating deeper into skin layers , to mediate local defensive inflammatory , photo - protective , immune reactions or , at higher concentrations , inducing local but also systemic immune depression , ultimately implicating skin cancerogenesis .
qualitative modifications of ssl represent a pathogenetic sign of diagnostic value in dermatological disorders involving altered sebum production , like pytiriasis versicolor , acne , atopic or seborrheic dermatitis , as well as photo - aging .
achievements of nutriceutical interventions aimed at restoring normal ssl composition and homeostasis are discussed , as feasible therapeutic goals and major means of photo - protection . |
6,800 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the treatment of complicated crown - root fractures in many cases is compromised by tooth fractures that are well below the gingival margin or bone . after root canal obturation ,
proper isolation for a dry operation field is critical for successful restoration of traumatized teeth . in this respect ,
a wide range of treatment options have been advocated for traumatic permanent teeth include ; orthodontic extrusion1 osteotomy / osteoplasty2 intentional replantation3 re - attachment of fragments4 re - attachment of a tooth fragment should be preferable to restoring fractured teeth .
there are several advantages in this treatment such as obtaining esthetic in a single appointment , being more conservative procedure , obtaining healthy periodontal attachment and it maintains the original tooth contours and translucence as the patient s own.5,6 the present case report describes the re - attachment of an original tooth fragment using a glass fiber post .
a 32-year - old male patient was referred to the endodontic clinic of the faculty of dentistry , s. demirel university , with the complaint of a fractured right maxillary incisor tooth because of a trauma .
the patient related pain during breathing and bleeding through the line of fracture ( figure 1 ) .
the clinical and radiographic examinations showed an oblique crown - root fracture in the maxillary right central incisor involved the enamel
root canal pulp extirpation and canal preparation was performed using the standard step - back method .
the prepared teeth were dried with paper - points ( dentsply maillefer , tulsa , ok ) and filled with laterally condensed gutta - percha ( diadent group international inc . , chongju , korea ) and sealapex ( kerr , manufacturing co. , romulus , mi ) root canal sealer .
after sealer set , the gutta - percha was partially removed from the root canal using heated instrument , leaving 5 mm of the filling material at the apex to maintain a good sealing .
a post hole within root and coronal fragment was prepared using a drill... | this case report presents a 32 year old male with an oblique fractured maxillary right central incisor . the procedure used to repair the fracture included flap surgery with an intrasulcular incision and endodontic treatment .
the root canal was filled with a root canal sealer and gutta - percha .
after root canal obturation , fragments were luted with composite resin using a glass fibers post .
after 12 months , clinical and radiographic examinations showed a stable reattachment of the fragments , good aesthetics and periodontal health .
( eur j dent 2008;2:138141 ) |
6,801 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: mice with lesch - nyhan syndrome interpret all information as aggression , to which they respond by defensive aggression . in this x - chromosome
linked recessive syndrome , there is a deficiency of the enzyme hypoxanthlne guanine phosphorlbosyl transferase ( hprt ) , which does not degrade uric acid properly . in these conditions ,
the basal ganglia and the amygdala can be permanently activated by too much uric acid , an otherwise useful antioxidant .
this is a clear instance of a mood disturbance being induced by an endogenous substance .
another chromosomal abnormality , down 's syndrome , which is common in monkeys , induces a very different development , where the affected animal is easygoing and behaves like a superbaby .
the first example , among many others , reminds us how mood states are sometimes massively shaped by the biology of the brain , independently of the environment .
however , the example below illustrates how the environment interacts with the genes . in his paradigmatic protocol from the early 1960s ,
harlow used partial or total sensory deprivation and showed that this induced severe developmental disturbances .
eight very young rhesus monkeys were separated from their mother and raised in isolation in cages containing two surrogate mothers : one made of wire incorporating a nipple that gave milk ; the other covered in terry cloth with no nipple , thus giving no milk . at each stress , in the form of mechanical teddy bear beating a drum , the baby monkeys were startled and leapt for reassurance onto the terry - cloth mother .
as soon as they made contact with this secure base , the monkeys lost their anxiety .
but , in the absence of the terry - cloth mother , they would run in every direction , whimper , and stop eating or sleeping . in summary , they were soothed by contact with the soft mother surrogate and panicstricken in its absence .
although most baby rhesus monkeys are impaired in their development , some even fatally , a few pursue their growth as if they had no need of... | the insights of ethologythe science of animal behavior from a biological and psychological point of viewwere incorporated in the 1950s by the british developmental psychiatrist , john bowlby , into his attachment theory which argued that a secure affective base in infancy was critical to the normal development of perception , cognition , learning , and emotion , in addition to that of physical parameters .
the theory was illustrated by harlow 's pioneering experiments with baby monkeys : those raised with a wire - frame mother failed to thrive , compared with the more normal development of those deriving comfort contact from a terry - cloth surrogate .
modern neuroscience techniques have confirmed that the absence of sensory stimulation during periods of maximal synaptic expansion provides the substrate for a subsequent mood disorder , ethology offers a novel nature plus nurture approach to the development of abnormal mood , as well as a target for treatment . |
6,802 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: advances in 3d printing technology have made their applications in biomedical sciences a cost effective option in designing customized solutions . among the different techniques of 3d printing technology , stereolithography
is currently recognized to be one of the most common and accurate rapid prototyping techniques . this remarkable advantage in terms of resolution and precision
a major advantage in such custom designing is the ability to create structures with desired mechanical properties . of interest
are scaffolds with gyroid pore architectures designed by trigonometric equation with modulation of the pore size and prepared by stereolithography technique using a resin based on poly(trimethylene carbonate ) ( ptmc ) .
ptmc is known as a flexible and amorphous material which can degrade enzymatically by surface erosion .
its excellent properties make it possible to maintain mechanical properties of ptmc over degradation time , as the average molar mass remains constant .
in addition , the remarkable potential of ptmc - based scaffolds prepared by stereolithography in cell adhesion and proliferation was recently demonstrated [ 3 , 16 ] . when designing scaffolds with customized mechanical properties , the characteristics of the bulk material are taken into consideration .
however if the scaffolds have microstructures , any deviation from the bulk properties due to the heat extrusion process can potentially have significant effect on the micro - structural properties .
thus it becomes prudent to verify the mechanical behaviour of the scaffold under mechanical loads with respect to the simulated design .
any such verification process would involve gathering the structural geometry of a printed scaffold product , such as through tomographic imaging techniques [ 9 , 15 ] .
the novel method of characterising deformation for printed constructs is gaining ground and being increasingly used on products of various materials [ 1 , 11 ] .
such methods have not been applied on mathematically designed ptmc constructs... | abstract
background : advances in rapid - prototyping and 3d printing technologies have enhanced the possibilities in preparing designed architectures for tissue engineering applications . a major advantage in custom designing is the ability to create structures with desired mechanical properties . while the behaviour of a designed scaffold can be simulated using bulk material properties , it is important to verify the behaviour of a printed scaffold at the microstructure level .
objective : in this study we present an effective method in validating the mechanical behaviour of designed scaffolds using a ct with an in - situ mechanical deformation device .
methods : the scaffolds were prepared from biodegradable poly(trimethylene carbonate ) ( ptmc ) by stereolithography and images obtained using a high - resolution ct with 12.25m isometric voxels .
the data was processed ( filtering , segmentation ) and analysed ( surface generation , registration ) to extract relevant deformation features .
results : the computed local deformation fields , calculated at sub - pore resolutions , displayed expected linear behaviour within the scaffold along the compressions axis . on planes perpendicular to this axis , the deformations varied by 150 200m .
conclusions : ct based imaging with in - situ deformation provides a vital tool in validating the design parameters of printed scaffolds .
deformation fields obtained from micro - tomographic image volumes can serve to corroborate the simulated ideal design with the realized product . |
6,803 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: treatment with a cardiac implantable electronic device ( cied ) , including a permanent pacemaker ( ppm ) or implantable cardioverter
an icd is needed not only to rescue survivors of life - threating ventricular arrhythmias , but is also first - line primary prevention to save patients with marked cardiac dysfunction . moreover ,
medical technology for resynchronization therapy has advanced , with a resulting increased rate of device implantation , . along with the increase in device implantation ,
the incidence of cied infection , which can have serious or fatal complications , has also increased , , , , .
reported that a total of 3390 ( 1.7% ) out of 200,909 implanted icds developed a device infection within six months .
other studies have reported a similar rate of cied infection ( 0.72.2% ) , , , .
the management of infected cied patients is difficult , and requires special knowledge and effort by physicians .
intensive treatment of cied infections is recommended , including administration of appropriate antibiotics and complete removal of the infected device , , , , , , , , , , , , .
consensus reports and statements from the literature also recommend prompt and complete device removal in combination with antimicrobial therapy , , . in this article , we present the role of conservative therapy for the management of cied infection .
when cied infection is diagnosed , early complete removal of the infected device is strongly recommended because of the high association with increased mortality .
no prospective randomized studies have assessed the value of conservative antibiotic therapy alone , compared with combined complete device removal and administration of appropriate antibiotics .
however , some reports cited the poor outcome using conservative antibiotic therapy in patients with cied infection , .
about 30 years ago , lewis et al . reported on treatment of patients with permanent pacemaker infections .
thirty - two patients received conservative antibiotic therapy without removal of the infected... | along with the increased frequency of implantation , the incidence of cardiac implantable electronic device ( cied ) infection , which can have serious or fatal complications , has also increased .
although several successful conservative therapies for cied infection have been reported , retained infected devices remain a source of relapse , which is closely related to a higher mortality rate .
presently , complete hardware removal is initially recommended for infected cied patients , and indications for conservative therapy , including continuous administration of antibiotics , require careful consideration.on the other hand , complete removal is not required for superficial or incisional infection at the device pocket if an infection does not involve the device , but the patient should be closely followed for progression to deeper infection , which would require extraction . |
6,804 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: we obtained data regarding temporal trends in fri incidence from military sentinel surveillance , which has been monitoring weekly fri rates since october 2011 .
monthly numbers of patients with pneumonia ( inpatients , outpatients , and emergency room patients ) were extracted from a computerized data warehouse that stores data from all military hospitals .
we identified pneumonia cases by using the international classification of diseases and related health problems , 10th revision , codes j12j18 .
the influenza season , which starts in october and ends the following may , was used as a surrogate for the hadv season in this study .
the trends in fri rates showed an unusual surge during the 201415 influenza season ( figure 1 , panel a ) .
the fri rate increased for 15 weeks in the 201415 season , compared with 10 weeks in the 201213 season and 5 weeks in the 201314 season .
peak fri rate in the 201415 season ( 10.4% ) was higher than rates in the preceding 2 seasons ( 4.7% and 7.5% ) .
the numbers of pneumonia cases in 201415 and 201516 seasons were 3,140 and 3,145 patients , respectively , a 191% increase from the mean number during 3 preceding seasons .
a ) weekly febrile respiratory illness ( fri ) rate ( solid line ) and monthly number of pneumonia patients ( dashed line ) in the south korea military , 20112016 .
b ) positive rate of human adenovirus from respiratory specimens ( red line ) and the number of respiratory virus pcr requested ( blue bar ) from a tertiary military hospital , south korea , 20142016 . the rate and number for each month
a multiplex real - time pcr for identifying 15 viruses from respiratory specimens was introduced at the armed forces capital hospital , the only tertiary hospital in the south korea military health care system ( detailed methods in technical appendix ) .
a total of 1,484 nonduplicate specimens were tested by the end of may 2016 ( figure 1 , panel b ; technical appendix table 1 , figure ) .
hadv was identified in 490 ( 33.0% ) of total specimens , and it accounted... | an outbreak of febrile respiratory illness associated with human adenovirus ( hadv ) occurred in the south korea military during the 201415 influenza season and thereafter . molecular typing and phylogenetic analysis of patient samples identified hadv type 55 as the causative agent .
emergence of this novel hadv necessitates continued surveillance in military and civilian populations . |
6,805 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: subdural hygroma is a subdural body of cerebrospinal fluid ( csf ) collection , without blood .
they can be caused by leakage of csf following minor trauma in the setting of cerebral atrophy , following meningitis in children or more commonly after ventricular shunting .
however , some of them can be large and cause compression and secondary neurological symptoms .
hence , it is important to detect the secondary effects of subdural hygroma on adjacent normal brain parenchyma early and intervene before it causes permanent damage .
we here present the case of a child with post meningitis subdural hygroma and highlight the role tc - ehylene cysteine dimer ( tc - ecd ) hybrid spect / computed tomography ( ct ) can play in such a scenario .
the child had a history of bacterial meningitis 2 year back for which he was treated and declared cured .
magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) findings revealed bilateral frontal subdural csf collections , suggestive of hygroma , more marked on the left side [ figure 1 ] .
similar collection was also noted in relation to the right cerebellum [ figure 1c and f ] . as subdural hygroma
are known to resolve spontaneously and there was no associated hydrocephalus , the clinician decided for a conservative medical management . because of the parents concern the child was referred to department of nuclear medicine for evaluation of cerebral perfusion .
the child was injected 185 mbq ( 5 mci ) of tc - ecd intravenously and rested in a quiet room .
the spect / ct images confirmed the subdural hygroma [ figure 2a c ] .
in addition , it also revealed hypoperfusion in bilateral frontal , parietal and temporal cortices [ figure 2d i ] .
the occipital cortex and cerebellum showed preserved perfusion while the basal ganglia showed relative hyperperfusion .
based on the combination of spect / ct findings and clinical signs , the patient underwent drainage of the subdural hygroma with significant clinical improvement .
trans - axial t1 weighted images ( a , b ) reveal hypointense subdural... | subdural hygroma is the collection of cerebrospinal fluid in the subdural space .
most often these resolve spontaneously .
however , in cases with neurological complications surgical drainage may be needed .
we here , present the case of an 8-year - old boy with post meningitis subdural hygroma .
99mtc - ehylene cysteine dimer ( 99mtc - ecd ) hybrid single photon emission tomography / computed tomography ( spect / ct ) carried out in this patient , demonstrated the subdural hygroma as well as the associated cerebral hypoperfusion .
if 99mtc - ecd spect / ct is integrated into management of these patients , it can help in decision making with respect to conservative versus surgical management . |
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