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7,206 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the et2ds is a sample of men and women aged 6075 years with type 2 diabetes .
the subjects were randomly selected by sex and 5-year age bands from the comprehensive lothian diabetes register ( ldr ) of people with type 2 diabetes living in lothian , scotland .
a sample size of 1,000 was targeted to detect associations between baseline risk factors and both cognitive ability at baseline and cognitive change during subsequent follow - up .
exclusion criteria , applied at the time of physical examination , have been reported previously ( 5 ) .
all subjects provided written informed consent , and the study was approved by the lothian research ethics committee .
physical examinations were performed between august 2006 and august 2007 by trained researchers using standard operating procedures ( 5 ) .
a fasting venous blood sample was taken for measurement of inflammatory markers , total serum cholesterol , and plasma a1c .
following measurements of height and weight , a 12-lead electrocardiogram ( ecg ) was taken for subsequent minnesota coding ( http://www.epi.umn.edu/ecg/ ) .
after a 10-min rest in the supine position , systolic and diastolic blood pressure was measured in the right arm using a standard stethoscope and aneroid dial sphygmomanometer .
right and left brachial , posterior tibial , and dorsalis pedis systolic pressures were then taken using an aneroid sphygmomanometer and a doppler probe .
a self - administered questionnaire included questions on education ; history of myocardial infarction ( mi ) , stroke or angina ; year of diabetes diagnosis ; smoking ; current medications ; and the world health organization ( who ) chest pain questionnaire ( 6 ) .
data were collected from the information and services division of the national health service ( nhs ) health services scotland on all medical and surgical discharges from scottish hospitals since 1981 ( scottish morbidity record [ smr01 ] scheme ) , and any icd-10 codes ( or the equivalent icd-9 codes ) indicating cardiovascular or cerebrovascular... | objectiveto determine whether circulating levels of the inflammatory markers c - reactive protein ( crp ) , interleukin ( il)-6 , and tumor necrosis factor ( tnf)- are associated with cognitive ability and estimated lifetime cognitive decline in an elderly population with type 2 diabetes.research design and methodsa cross - sectional study of 1,066 men and women aged 6075 years with type 2 diabetes and living in lothian , scotland ( the edinburgh type 2 diabetes study ) , was performed .
seven cognitive tests were used to measure abilities in memory , nonverbal reasoning , information processing speed , executive function , and mental flexibility .
the results were used to derive a general intelligence factor ( g ) . a vocabulary based test was administered as an estimate of peak prior cognitive ability .
results on the cognitive tests were assessed for statistical association with inflammatory markers measured in a venous blood sample at the time of cognitive testing.resultshigher il-6 and tnf- levels were associated with poorer age- and sex - adjusted scores on the majority of the individual cognitive tests .
they were also associated with g using standardized regression coefficients 0.074 to 0.173 ( p < 0.05 ) . after adjusting for vocabulary , education level , cardiovascular dysfunction , duration of diabetes , and glycemic control , il-6 remained associated with three of the cognitive tests and with g.conclusionsin this representative population of people with type 2 diabetes , elevated circulating levels of inflammatory markers were associated with poorer cognitive ability .
il-6 levels were also associated with estimated lifetime cognitive decline . |
7,207 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: species of the genus fusarium are
among the most destructive fungal plant pathogens known and are responsible
for major yield losses during cultivation of wheat , maize , barley ,
and soybeans .
many species of fusarium produce mycotoxins as
they grow parasitically within the plant , and ingestion of contaminated
grain and food products processed from this grain causes acute and
chronic health problems for both humans and animals .
some species of fusarium produce trichothecenes ,
sesquiterpenoid mycotoxins that inhibit eukaryotic protein synthesis
and other cellular functions in animals that ingest contaminated feed .
type a trichothecenes ( e.g. , t-2 toxin , ht-2
toxin , diacetoxyscirpenol ) are of particular concern because they
are considerably more toxic than the type b group ( e.g. , deoxynivalenol
and nivalenol ) .
as part of their defense response to xenobiotics ,
plants can modify the structure of several mycotoxins , including trichothecenes ,
by conjugation to sugars , organic acids , or sulfates , which reduce
their phytotoxicity and may facilitate their sequestration .
whereas conjugation to sugars may protect plants from the ill effects
of the toxins , these so - called masked
mycotoxins present a potential food safety concern because ,
although toxicological data are scarce , several studies highlight
the potential threat to consumer safety from these substances .
in particular , the possible hydrolysis of masked mycotoxins back
to their toxic parents during mammalian digestion is of considerable
concern .
structurally t-2 toxin , 1 , r = ac ( figure 1 ) is ( 2,3,4,8)-4,15-bis(acetyloxy)-3-hydroxy-12,13-epoxytrichothec-9-en-8-yl
3-methylbutanoate , which in animals is known to be predominantly metabolized
to the 4-o - deacetylated form known as ht-2 toxin , 1 , r = h ( figure 1 ) .
glucoside conjugates of t-2 toxin have been reported in fusarium - infected grain and fusarium culture
material , although to date the anomericity of the
3-o -... | t-2
toxin is a trichothecene mycotoxin produced when fusarium fungi infect grains , especially oats and
wheat .
ingestion of t-2 toxin contaminated grain can cause diarrhea ,
hemorrhaging , and feed refusal in livestock .
cereal crops infected
with mycotoxin - producing fungi form toxin glycosides , sometimes called
masked mycotoxins , which are a potential food safety concern because
they are not detectable by standard approaches and may be converted
back to the parent toxin during digestion or food processing .
the
work reported here addresses four aspects of t-2 toxin - glucosides :
phytotoxicity , stability after ingestion , antibody detection , and
the anomericity of the naturally occurring t-2 toxin - glucoside found
in cereal plants .
t-2 toxin--glucoside was chemically synthesized
and compared to t-2 toxin--glucoside prepared with blastobotrys muscicola cultures and the t-2 toxin - glucoside
found in naturally contaminated oats and wheat .
the anomeric forms
were separated chromatographically and differ in both nmr and mass
spectrometry .
both anomers were significantly degraded to t-2 toxin
and ht-2 toxin under conditions that mimic human digestion , but with
different kinetics and metabolic end products .
the naturally occurring
t-2 toxin - glucoside from plants was found to be identical to t-2 toxin--glucoside
prepared with b. muscicola .
an antibody test for
the detection of t-2 toxin was not effective for the detection of
t-2 toxin--glucoside .
this anomer was produced in sufficient
quantity to assess its animal toxicity . |
7,208 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: influenza remains a serious health threat
and a future pandemic risk , as evidenced by recent outbreaks of h5n1
and h1n1 . these influenza type a strains , which cause acute
upper respiratory tract infections with
high morbidity and mortality , possess three viral - coat proteins : hemagglutinin
( ha ) , neuraminidase ( na ) , and m2 .
ha and na are glycoproteins that
recognize terminal sialic - acid ( sa ) residues on host - cell surface
receptors , and m2 is a proton channel critical for virus assembly
and replication . upon attachment via sa
binding , ha mediates viral entry into the cell . following viral replication ,
na facilitates the liberation of new virions from the cellular surface
by cleaving the (26)- or (23)-ketosidic
linkages that connect terminal sa residues to cell - surface glycoproteins .
na is conserved in all wild - type influenza viruses , and its inhibition
halts viral propagation by interfering with effective shedding .
consequently ,
it is an attractive target for anti - influenza drug design . who recommends stockpiling na inhibitors such as zanamivir ( relenza , glaxosmithkline )
and oseltamivir ( tamiflu , roche ) , which have
recently replaced older drugs like rimantadine and amantadine .
however , the threat of an h1n1 flu pandemic , the sudden emergence of oseltamivir - resistant h1n1 , and the emergence of potentially pathogenic
h3n2 and h5n1 strains warrant ongoing efforts to identify novel anti - influenza
compounds .
consequently , many researchers have expended considerable
effort in the pursuit of antiviral small molecules via bioinformatics
studies , hit - and - lead discovery approaches , and analogue synthesis .
natural compounds constitute an indispensable source of potential
inhibitors from which these studies can draw .
for example , the plant flavonoids isoscutellarein and isoscutellarein-8-methyl
ether , derived from the leaves and roots of scutellaria baicalensis , have been known to inhibit h1n1 na since 1995 . in total... | recent
outbreaks of highly pathogenic and occasional drug - resistant influenza
strains have highlighted the need to develop novel anti - influenza
therapeutics . here , we report computational and experimental efforts
to identify influenza neuraminidase inhibitors from among the 3000
natural compounds in the malaysian - plants natural - product ( nadi ) database .
these 3000 compounds were first docked into the neuraminidase active
site .
the five plants with the largest number of top predicted ligands
were selected for experimental evaluation .
twelve specific compounds
isolated from these five plants were shown to inhibit neuraminidase ,
including two compounds with ic50 values less than 92 m .
furthermore , four of the 12 isolated compounds had also been identified
in the top 100 compounds from the virtual screen .
together , these
results suggest an effective new approach for identifying bioactive
plant species that will further the identification of new pharmacologically
active compounds from diverse natural - product resources . |
7,209 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: leptospirosis is a bacterial infection transmitted from animals to humans by direct contact through skin or mucous membranes with urine and other fluids from domestic or wild infected animals .
the infection is usually present all year round , but it is more frequent during the rainy season , for the bacteria may survive for several weeks in humid , hot , and slightly alkaline environments . the clinical manifestation of the disease goes from an asymptomatic stage to a grave or even deadly state ; currently two principal types of leptospirosis are differentiated : acute and chronic leptospirosis [ 13 ] .
risk populations are commonly described as adolescents , adults , country men , and the poorest urban populations , being also associated with raising animals in the home area , close relation with dogs and/or cats , handling excrement without protection , manipulation of beef or pork guts , lesions in feet during flooding , the use of sandals , and performing recreational activities allowing contact with stagnant water ( swimming ) [ 46 ] . the differential diagnosis includes a wide variety of infectious and noninfectious , acute and chronic diseases such as dengue , influenza , yellow fever , viral hepatitis , rheumatic , and oncologic diseases , and of the central nervous system [ 13 ] . in spite of being considered by the who as one of the most extended zoonose worldwide , it is suspected that there is an important underregistration . except for the antarctic , all continents regularly register cases , especially in tropical and subtropical regions . during the last years
, the recording in mexico of this disease has increased as well as the number of states that report it . the initial reports date from the first decade of the past century in veracruz and yucatan ; currently , antibodies have been detected in half of the states of mexico . at the instituto mexicano
del seguro social ( imss ) ( social health services ) , the reporting of cases started in 1999 and it is currently classified as a... | objective . to measure the prevalence of leptospirosis with two techniques in inhabitants of izamal , yucatan and to determine its relation with some exposure factors . material and methods .
transversal study in populations belonging to the hr62imss - opportunities working force in izamal , yucatan .
population , including 6 years of age or more , was randomly selected to participate in the study .
a questionnaire was applied for personal i d and exposure factors ; blood samples were taken for leptospirosis diagnosis .
simple frequencies , proportions , tendency and dispersion measures , prevalence and odd ratios and confidence intervals ( ci ) of 95% , and logistic regression model were obtained . results .
204 patients , between 9 and 80 years old were included ; 180 were positive ( 88.2% ) with the dark - field technique ; using mat cutoff at 1 : 40 , 178 patients ( 87.3% ) were positive , while at 1 : 80 there were 103 positive ( 50.5% ) .
the predominant serovar was hardjo ( 94% ) .
the highest prevalence was in women ( 96.3% ) and in the > 45-year - old group ( 95.7% ) ; feminine gender ( rm = 2.31 ic 95% 3.5928.6 ) , housewife ( rm = 22.8 ic 95% 4.9106.1 ) , being in contact with stagnant water ( rm = 5.2 ic 95% 1.715.9 ) , and being in contact with domestic animal feces ( rm = 5.1 ic 95% 1.913.1 ) , these being the most significant variables in the final logistic regression model . conclusions .
the prevalence found was higher than the one nationally and internationally reported , representing an important finding , being in turn a local public health , maybe nationally .
it is urgent to reinforce this research as well as to establish preventive and control measure to avoid exposure and health damages . |
7,210 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: it is well known that causes of chronic pancreatitis include alcohol , genetic or metabolic disorders , pancreato - biliary abnormalities and drugs .
since sarles et al.1 reported chronic pancreatitis associated with hypergammaglobulinemia and lymphocytic infiltration with fibrosis of the pancreas in 1961 , autoimmune mechanisms have come to the forefront as additional important causes of chronic pancreatitis .
autoimmune pancreatitis ( aip ) is a benign disease and a unique form of chronic pancreatitis characterized by the presence of auto - antibodies , high serum igg4 level , diffuse pancreatic swelling , irregular narrowing of the main pancreatic duct and stenosis of the intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts .
lymphoplasmocytic infiltration and fibrosis of the pancreas are typical histologic findings of aip.2 igg4-associated cholangitis , described below , is commonly manifested with aip and its diagnostic criteria include : stricture of intrahepatic , proximal extrahepatic or intrapancreatic ducts ; clinical imaging findings of aip ; and elevated serum igg4.3 we now report a case of aip with accompanying multiple pseudocysts and igg4-associated cholangitis .
we think that this is a unique case of aip , with clinical characteristics and course very similar to those of idiopathic chronic pancreatitis as well as other cases of aip associated pseudocyst.4
a 47-year - old male patient was referred to our hospital with pancreatic swelling , multiple cystic lesions of the pancreas on ultrasonography ( usg ) and a history of upper abdominal pain .
intermittent upper abdominal discomfort and dyspepsia had been developing for 1 year , but there were no specific abnormal findings on esophagogastroduodenoscopy and usg .
four months earlier , subsequent to an episode of abdominal pain , abdominal computed tomography ( ct ) had revealed pancreatic pseudocyst .
post - referral abdominal ct showed diffuse pancreatic swelling and variably sized multiple pseudocysts without pancreatic parenchymal calcification ( fig... | autoimmune pancreatitis ( aip ) is a benign disorder and a unique form of chronic pancreatitis with several characteristic features .
a cystic formation that mimics a pseudocyst is a rare finding .
there have been a few reports of aip complicated by pancreatic cysts .
we present a case of aip with multiple pseudocysts and obstructive jaundice caused by igg4-associated cholangitis .
we initially missed the diagnosis due to the pseudocyst .
based on the computed tomography images , laboratory findings and the therapeutic response to steroids , the case was diagnosed as aip with pseudocysts and associated cholangiopathy . |
7,211 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a five - year - old girl suffered a traumatic injury ( left condylar dislocation ) during a regular dental appointment .
she had no history of other diseases or trauma on the face that could lead to a misinterpretation of the diagnosis before and after the condyle dislocation . at 10 years of age
she began to progressively develop left side facial pain and jaw joint limitation on range of motion .
unfortunately , she returned only two years later , presenting with mouth opening of 10 mm , no facial asymmetry , and no jaw joint pain or other symptoms ( figs . 1 and 2 ) .
computer tomography ( ct ) exam was requested and revealed calcification of the left lateral pterygoid muscle , extending from the head of the mandible to the pterygoid process ( fig .
thus , in order to allow the patient to open her mouth wider , the proposed treatment plan included left side pterygoid muscle excision .
after general anaesthesia , an intraoral incision was done along the anterior mandibular ramus and the ossified mass was easily detected after detachment of mucosa .
4 ) and a 35 mm mouth opening was achieved immediately after the procedure ( fig . 5 ) .
new post - operative ct images showed absence of calcified mass over the medial left mandibular .
laboratories tests of calcium , alkaline phosphatase presented normal results and histopathological examination showed simply calcified bone confirming the pathology diagnosed pre - surgically .
however , three weeks after surgery patient started to feel limitation upon mouth opening and a new ct showed a new big mass of bone formation along the surgical tract .
one month after total bone structure removal ( first surgery ) the patient could not open her mouth anymore ( figs . 6 and 7 ) due to a significant calcified mass .
traumatic miosytis ossificans is a rare clinical pathology , uncommon in the region of head and neck , and was first described by thoma in 1958 as a calcification and an intramuscular haematoma ossification after trauma .
several other trauma injuries have... | introductionmyositis ossificans ( mo ) is characterized as heterotopic bone formation within muscle .
mo rarely occurs in the head and neck region .
excision of the heterotopic bone is the standard treatment .
this report summarizes a case of a 12-year old female with mo involving the lateral pterygoid muscle .
the heterotopic bone was excised using an intraoral incision . despite intensive physical therapy ,
the operation failed as evidenced by new bone formation in the area within three weeks of the operation.presentation of casea twelve years old female patient presenting with mouth opening of 10 mm , no facial asymmetry , and no jaw joint pain or other symptoms .
computer tomography ( ct ) exam was requested and revealed calcification of the left lateral pterygoid muscle .
no other masticatory or head muscles showed any signs of calcification .
the calcified muscle was completely removed beyond the ossified segment and a 35 mm mouth opening was achieved immediately after the procedure .
one month after total bone structure removal ( first surgery ) the patient could not open her mouth anymore due to a significant calcified mass.discussionthe surgical technique used in this case avoided invasive gap arthroplasty to access lateral pterygoid muscle and anaesthetic scarring formation , by using an intraorally incision accessing the muscle directly.the authors of these study did not see any relation with the condylar dislocation that the patient had five years prior to the pathology , and they could not find any real cause for the myositis ossificans of lateral pterygoid muscle.conclusionthe outcome of the surgical procedure was not successful , perhaps due to the expression of the disease , indicating the need to further physiologic and genetic studies to elucidate the aetiology of mo as well as to provide directions to an adequate treatment choice for such cases . |
7,212 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a gastrointestinal duplication is defined as a spherical structure , with a muscular coat lined by a mucous membrane .
they can be found anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract , from the base of the tongue to the anus , most commonly occurring in the ileum ( 35% ) .
gastric duplication cysts are a rare phenomenon and account for only 29% of all gastrointestinal duplications .
the majority is circular , non - communicating and surrounded by a smooth muscular coat .
they can be found anywhere in the stomach , with the majority being located on the greater curvature .
gastric duplication cysts are rarely diagnosed in the adult population and occur more commonly in young children , who may present with symptoms of abdominal pain , gastric outlet obstruction or a palpable abdominal mass [ 2 , 3 ] .
clinically important ectopic tissues can include gastric , duodenal and pancreatic tissues , as demonstrated in our case report .
a 28-year - old female presented to our clinic with a 4-month history of right upper quadrant and epigastric pain exacerbated by food .
the patient also reported increased postprandial fullness followed by multiple episodes of nausea and emesis .
a computerized tomography ( ct ) scan of the abdomen and pelvis showed a large cystic mass within the antrum of the stomach ( fig .
this was confirmed with an esophagogastroduodenoscopy ; however , there was concern that this mass was extending past the pylorus into the duodenum , causing a gastric outlet obstruction .
figure 1:an abdominal ct scan demonstrating a cystic mass within the stomach ( black arrow ) an abdominal ct scan demonstrating a cystic mass within the stomach ( black arrow ) the patient underwent an exploratory laparotomy .
the mass was contained within the gastric antrum and did not involve other visceral or solid organs .
histopathologic examination of the lesion demonstrated a 6-cm cyst with gastric mucosa and well - developed pancreatic tissue , including acinar and ductal elements ( fig .
the cyst lumen was focally lined by... | gastric duplication cysts are an uncommon finding , especially in the adult population . presenting symptoms can be non - specific , but can include abdominal pain , nausea and emesis . in this report , we present a 28-year - old female diagnosed with a communicating gastric cyst with both gastric and duodenal mucosa , along with pancreatic tissue and no evidence of dysplasia or malignancy . the clinical picture , diagnosis and treatment are described and compared to findings in the literature . |
7,213 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: plasma membrane - located trail - r1/r2 induce both cell death and non - apoptotic signaling pathways.tumor cells show elevated intracellular levels of trail - r1/r2.nuclear trail - r2 interacts with the microprocessor complex , inhibits let-7 maturation and enhances tumor cell proliferation .
plasma membrane - located trail - r1/r2 induce both cell death and non - apoptotic signaling pathways .
nuclear trail - r2 interacts with the microprocessor complex , inhibits let-7 maturation and enhances tumor cell proliferation .
what is the mechanism of nuclear import / export of trail - r2 and how is this regulated?which mirnas , beside let-7 , are regulated by ntrail - r2?what are additional specific functions of ntrail - r2 ?
is there any impact of other trail - rs ( trail - r1 , -r3 and -r4 ) on nuclear localization and function of trail - r2?do trail - r1 , trail - r3 and trail - r4 possess independent specific nuclear activities?is there a specific function of cytoplasmic trail death receptors ? what is the mechanism of nuclear import / export of trail - r2 and how is this regulated ? which mirnas , beside let-7 ,
is there any impact of other trail - rs ( trail - r1 , -r3 and -r4 ) on nuclear localization and function of trail - r2 ? do trail - r1 , trail - r3 and trail - r4 possess independent specific nuclear activities ?
the death ligand tnf - related apoptosis - inducing ligand ( trail ) , a member of the tnf cytokine superfamily , interacts with five different receptors , plasma membrane - expressed trail - r1 - 4 and a soluble receptor , osteoprotegerin ( opg ) , all members of the tnf receptor superfamily .
two trail receptors , trail - r1/dr4 and trail - r2/dr5/trick / killer , contain a cytoplasmic death domain ( dd ) and are hence able to induce apoptosis .
trail has governed particular interest because of its apparent tumor cell - specific apoptosis - inducing capacity .
consequently , trail and agonistic trail death receptor - specific antibodies are regarded as promising therapeutic agents for... | localized in the plasma membrane , death domain - containing tnf - related apoptosis - inducing ligand ( trail ) receptors , trail - r1 and trail - r2 , induce apoptosis and non - apoptotic signaling when crosslinked by the ligand trail or by agonistic receptor - specific antibodies .
recently , an increasing body of evidence has accumulated that trail receptors are additionally found in noncanonical intracellular locations in a wide range of cell types , preferentially cancer cells .
thus , besides their canonical locations in the plasma membrane and in intracellular membranes of the secretory pathway as well as endosomes and lysosomes , trail receptors may also exist in autophagosomes , in nonmembraneous cytosolic compartment as well as in the nucleus .
such intracellular locations have been mainly regarded as hide - outs for these receptors representing a strategy for cancer cells to resist trail - mediated apoptosis .
recently , a novel function of intracellular trail - r2 has been revealed .
when present in the nuclei of tumor cells , trail - r2 inhibits the processing of the primary let-7 mirna ( pri - let-7 ) via interaction with accessory proteins of the microprocessor complex . the nuclear trail - r2-driven decrease in
mature let-7 enhances the malignancy of cancer cells .
this finding represents a new example of nuclear activity of typically plasma membrane - located cytokine and growth factor receptors .
furthermore , this extends the list of nucleic acid targets of the cell surface receptors by pri - mirna in addition to dna and mrna .
here we review the diverse functions of trail - r2 depending on its intracellular localization and we particularly discuss the nuclear trail - r2 ( ntrail - r2 ) function in the context of known nuclear activities of other normally plasma membrane - localized receptors . |
7,214 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: what is less appreciated is that , according to the us renal data system , 217 hospitalisations per 1,000 patient - years are attributed to congestive heart failure ( chf ) . in the general population , single measurements of brain natriuretic peptide ( bnp ) and its n - terminal fragment ( nt - probnp ) accurately discriminate between chf and other causes of breathlessness that lead to hospital admissions .
concentrations of these natriuretic peptides are related to left ventricular ( lv ) filling pressures and wall stress . in dialysis patients , fluid overload and lv structural and functional abnormalities are both frequent and difficult to differentiate . in dialysis patients , bnp and nt - probnp levels
single , cross - sectional measurements of nt - probnp are powerful predictors for all - cause mortality and cardiovascular death , and baseline nt - probnp measurements may facilitate efforts to stratify the risk in patients starting hd .
however , few studies have examined the diagnostic utility of serial assessments of nt - probnp in the hd population .
nevertheless , monitoring bnp levels is currently used for patients with heart failure as troughton et al
. showed that bnp - guided treatment of heart failure reduced total cardiovascular events and delayed the time to the first event compared with intensive clinically guided treatment . in the family of natriuretic peptides
, nt - probnp seems to be the best predictor of clinical outcome and the best marker of extracellular fluid overload .
this peptide is larger and has a longer half - life than bnp ( the active form ) , making its measurement easier .
therefore , we sought to examine the relationship between an increase in nt - probnp levels and future clinical events in a prospective cohort , i.e. whether follow - up nt - probnp measurements add further prognostic information in hd patients .
more specifically , we assessed the value of the relative changes in nt - probnp as independent predictive markers of chf events .
a prospective cohort... | backgroundcross - sectional studies have shown that b - type natriuretic peptide ( bnp ) and its n - terminal fragment ( nt - probnp ) are predictive of cardiovascular death in haemodialysis ( hd ) patients . in the present study ,
we tested the hypothesis that monitoring nt - probnp measurements adds further prognostic information , i.e. predicts congestive heart failure ( chf ) events.methodsin a prospective cohort of 236 hd patients , nt - probnp levels were measured monthly during 18 months . patients were divided according to the occurrence of chf events . in a nested case - control study ,
we assessed the evolution of nt - probnp levels.resultson average , the 236 hd patients were followed up for 12.5 months , a period during which 44 patients developed a chf event ( half requiring hospitalisation ) . at baseline ,
patients who developed a chf event had significantly more dilated cardiomyopathy and/or altered left ventricular ejection fraction and higher nt - probnp levels compared with patients who did not develop a chf event . during follow - up , we observed a significant increase in nt - probnp levels preceding the chf event . at a 20% relative increase of nt - probnp ,
the sensitivity of nt - probnp as a predictor of chf events was 0.57 and the specificity 0.77.conclusionthe relative change in nt - probnp levels is a significant risk predictor of a chf event . |
7,215 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the recognition , diagnosis and treatment of conditions affecting the neurovascular bundle at the thoracic outlet have been clarified in recent years .
the whole subject has been usually grouped together under the name of thoracic outlet syndrome ( tos ) which is considered as one of the most controversial clinical entities in medicine .
tos generally affects young patients , with an average age of 36 and a male preponderance , however , this is changing as women become more active in sports and physical occupations .
a delay in diagnosis is common , which is frustrating for the patient and may lead to permanent psychological damage .
more recently , it has been suggested to divide tos into three main variants depending on the principle component ; venous , arterial or neurological .
these three may co - exist to a greater or lesser degree , but treatment of the dominant component usually results in complete resolution of symptoms . despite many reports of operative and non - operative interventions , rigorous scientific investigation of this syndrome leading to evidence based management is lacking .
thoracic outlet syndrome is caused by extrinsic compression of neurovascular structures between the 1st rib and clavicle associated with a wide range of symptoms such as pain , weakness , paresthesias and vascular insufficiency , muscle imbalance of the neck , shoulder , and back .
the clinical manifestations are caused by multilevel brachial nerve and subclavian artery or vein compression .
the heterogeneity of symptoms and signs of such disease , the absence of widely recognized signs or cost effective laboratory tests , and the lack of sufficient diffusion of the syndrome in the medical literature , makes its diagnosis a difficult challenge and its treatment controversial .
tos has been reported as caused by a variety of diseases but seldom if not ever by the presence of a subpectoral mass .
we report the successful surgical treatment of a rare case of a young lady who suffered of brachialgia , loss of... | highlightsthoracic outlet syndrome ( tos ) is caused by compression of neurovascular structures.diagnosis of tos is a difficult challenge and its treatment is controversial.tos has been reported as caused by several diseases but never by a subpectoral mass.we report a case of tos caused by a subpectoral infraclavicular multilobar lipoma.the surgical outcome was uneventful and the patient symptom - free at 6 month follow up . |
7,216 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: epidural steroid injections are commonly performed procedures in medicine by many specialties including orthopedics . normal
inadvertent injection of potassium chloride ( kcl ) during anesthesia procedures is reported by many anesthesiologists ; however , to the best of our knowledge , it has not been reported by orthopedic surgeons . here
, we report a case of paraplegia that developed after accidental use of kcl instead of ns as diluent along with methylprednisolone and local anesthetic .
the purpose of this case report is to diagnose the case , to approach for its management , and to caution the beginner regarding its occurrence if utmost attention is not given before injecting a drug .
a 50-year - old male patient presented to us with l5 nerve root radiculopathy , conservative managements such as nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs and physiotherapy after which epidural administration of 80 mg of methylprednisolone was planned .
our routine method of epidural injection is to take 80 mg of methylprednisolone and 2 ml of 2% lignocaine in 20 ml of syringe and to dilute it up to 20 ml using 0.9% ns .
after aseptic preparation of the local site , the previously prepared solution was injected into the sacral hiatus using a 22-gauge needle . immediately after injection ,
approximately over a period of 5 min , he developed progressive weakness of both the lower limbs .
his blood pressure was recorded as 210/110 mmhg and heart rate was 124 beats per minute .
labetalol was given immediately ; however , patient 's blood pressure was refractory to the treatment .
electrocardiography showed features suggestive of hyperkalemia such as tachycardia , absent p - wave , and tall t - wave .
we reviewed the medication administered and found that instead of ns , 15% kcl was used as diluents by a junior assistant by mistake .
blood samples showed normal studies , except raised potassium levels ( 7 mg / dl ) .
potassium chelating agent ( ksylate ) was used to decrease potassium concentration in the blood .
after 2 h of... | epidural injection of steroid is given for back pain resistant to other conservative management .
normal saline ( ns ) is used as diluent in 80 mg methylprednisolone and a local anesthetic . due to a similar looking ampoule of ns and potassium chloride ( kcl ) , there is a probability of accidental use of kcl instead of ns .
we present a case of a 50-year - old male patient having low back ache refractory to other conservative treatments .
epidural injection of steroid was given , but accidently kcl was mixed with methylprednisolone instead of ns .
he developed severe cramps in the lower limbs , pruritus , and sweating , and finally paraplegia .
electrocardiography and blood showed features suggestive of hyperkalemia .
he was given calcium gluconate and potassium chelating agent along with supportive measures .
the patient recovered within 8 h. it is concluded that calcium gluconate and potassium chelating agent can be used if accidentally kcl is injected in epidural space . |
7,217 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the oxidative phosphorylation ( oxphos ) system is unique among fundamental metabolic pathways in animals ( aside from maintenance and gene expression of mitochondria ) in that functional oxphos complexes are composed of subunits encoded by two different genomes .
the different hereditary modes of the mitochondrial ( mt ) and nuclear ( nu ) genomes substantially increase the complexity of maintaining functional interactions among oxphos subunits .
the role of oxphos in the fundamental process of aerobic atp production means that slight perturbations to inter - genomic coordination result in a wide range of human pathologies ( wallace 2010 ) . in addition , minimal divergence of oxphos subunits may result in reproductive incompatibility among closely related populations ( rand et al .
consequently , the successful interaction of oxphos proteins encoded by mt and nu genomes plays a central role in fundamental processes at the cellular , organismal , and population levels of biological organization .
the oxphos system provides a rare opportunity to investigate the coevolution of subunits that must successfully interact in electron transport and atp production , yet are subject to potentially the very different evolutionary forces that govern the mt and nu genomes .
it produces about 80% of energy in the form of atp in almost all eukaryote cells and is the major role - player making mitochondria the powerhouse of the cell .
meantime , reactive oxygen species , the by - product of normal metabolism , can damage dna , cell membranes and lipid , decrease bioenergetic efficiency , and thus lead to age , disease , and death in humans ( ballard and melvin 2010 ; wallace 2010 ) .
the oxphos apparatus includes five complexes ( i v ) , each composed of between 4 and 30 + subunits ( de grassi et al .
complexes i iv transfer electrons through a series of redox reactions coupled to the transport of protons into the intermembrane space .
complex v employs the resulting electrochemical gradient to phosphorylate adp to atp... | oxidative phosphorylation ( oxphos ) , the major energy - producing pathway in aerobic organisms , includes protein subunits encoded by both mitochondrial ( mt ) and nuclear ( nu ) genomes .
how these independent genomes have coevolved is a long - standing question in evolutionary biology .
although mt genes evolve faster than most nu genes , maintenance of oxphos structural stability and functional efficiency may involve correlated evolution of mt and nu oxphos genes .
the nu oxphos genes might be predicted to exhibit accelerated evolutionary rates to accommodate the elevated substitution rates of mt oxphos subunits with which they interact .
evolutionary rates of nu oxphos genes should , therefore , be higher than that of nu genes that are not involved in oxphos ( nu non - oxphos ) .
we tested the compensatory evolution hypothesis by comparing the evolutionary rates ( synonymous substitution rate ds and nonsynonymous substitution rate dn ) among 13 mt oxphos genes , 60 nu oxphos genes , and 77 nu non - oxphos genes in vertebrates ( 7 fish and 40 mammal species ) .
the results from a combined analysis of all oxphos subunits fit the predictions of the hypothesis .
however , results from two oxphos complexes did not fit this pattern when analyzed separately .
we found that the dn of nu oxphos genes for core subunits ( those involved in the major catalytic activity ) was lower than that of noncore subunits , whereas there was no significant difference in dn between genes for nu non - oxphos and core subunits .
this latter finding suggests that compensatory changes play a minor role in the evolution of oxphos genes and that the observed accelerated nu substitution rates are due largely to reduced functional constraint on noncore subunits . |
7,218 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pain continues to be a clinical problem difficult to solve for a significant proportion of patients due to the incomplete knowledge we have about the adaptive changes that occur in the neural substrates of the nociceptive system and glial cells in response to episodes of persistent pain .
these changes primarily are associated with chronic inflammation processes or injury to peripheral and central nerves . in a chronic inflammatory process
, tissue damage induces a persistent stimulation of nociceptors , which are peripheral nerve endings of primary afferent fibers responsible for pain transmission .
chronic activation of nociceptors by different chemical mediators induces hypersensitivity or nociceptive sensitization , which is reflected in changes in the basal activation levels of neurons and altered gene transcription ( plasticity ) .
this allows the appearance of hyperalgesia or an exaggerated response to a nociceptive stimulus and allodynia , or a nociceptive response against an innocuous stimulus .
great advances in this field occurred in the 1980 's when two groups demonstrated that nmda receptor antagonists inhibit the hyperexcitability of nociceptive neurons in the spinal cord induced by stimulation of c fibers [ 2 , 3 ] .
as mentioned above , the nmda receptor is important in the establishment of chronic pain .
however , today we know other factors that may modulate this pain , such as glial cells . in the last decade numerous studies have shown that glial cells of the spinal cord have close contact with neurons , and this led to the proposed term tripartite synapses .
this process contributes to synaptic modulation of neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission by increasing nociception transmission and thus the persistence of chronic pain .
it has been shown that astrocytes and microglia in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord are active under a variety of conditions that cause chronic pain and hyperalgesia , such as inflammation due to the subcutaneous administration of inactivated mycobacteria... | the nmda receptor is central in the generation and maintenance of chronic pain .
this receptor has several sites of modulation .
one is the glutamate recognition site that can be blocked by ( )-3-(2-carboxypiperazin - yl)propyl-1-phosphoric acid or ( )-cpp . we investigated whether the effect of glial inhibition produced by propentophylline ( ppf ) can be enhanced when combined with ( )-cpp . we used sprague - dawley rats with experimental monoarthritis , administering intrathecally the ed30 for both drugs ( 3.97 g of ( )-cpp and 1.42 g of ppf ) , since this combination produces an antinociceptive supra - additive effect when used in mechanical nociception ( randall - selitto test ) . the combination of ( )-ppf and cpp produced an antinociceptive effect which was greater than that each drug alone as tested by both the c reflex and windup .
we conclude that the antinociceptive effect of the combination of ( )-ppf and cpp possibly generates a supra additive interaction type in monoarthritic rats . |
7,219 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ventilator - associated pneumonia ( vap ) develops commonly in mechanically ventilated patients and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care unit . in a study published in this issue of critical care , pelekanou and
colleagues investigated the differences in innate and adaptive immune responses in 36 septic patients with vap and 32 patients with sepsis due to other infections , like pyelonephritis , bacteremia , intra - abdominal infection , and community- and hospital - acquired pneumonia .
there was evidence of a more pronounced immunoparalysis in patients with vap than in those with other bacterial infections .
this was supported by the decreased number of cd3/cd4cells , the increase in monocyte apoptosis , and the lower release of pro - inflammatory cytokines , namely tumor necrosis factor - alpha and interleukin-6 , from monocytes after stimulation with lipopolysaccharide ( lps ) in the group of patients with vap .
it is known that anergic monocytes from patients with septic shock showed increased susceptibility to apoptosis when compared with monocytes from normal hosts .
patients with vap are more compromised due to various factors like critical illness , malnutrition , invasive interventions , and the loss of anatomic defense mechanisms , some of which may contribute to monocyte unresponsiveness or lymphocyte depletion .
the authors report that endotracheal intubation in septic patients without vap was not independently associated with similar numeric and functional alterations in lymphocytes and monocytes .
nevertheless , the study might have been underpowered to detect such differences . additionally , one important finding of the study was the observation that septic patients with vap whose monocytes failed to adequately respond to monocyte stimulation had decreased survival rates when compared with those with an increased cytokine release from monocytes .
a similar trend was observed in non - vap - related sepsis , but it was not statistically significant .
previously... | current evidence regarding potentially different host response mechanisms in sepsis according to the type of initiating infection is sporadic .
it is possible that alterations in cell populations , variations in effector molecules , and the degree of apoptosis differ between sepsis caused by ventilator - associated pneumonia ( vap ) and non - vap sepsis .
vap is one of the most common infections and leading causes of sepsis in the intensive care unit , and mortality remains high .
a better understanding of the unique pathophysiologic features of vap is needed in order to develop interventions that target those specific pathways . |
7,220 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: hepatocellular carcinoma ( hcc ) is the one of the most common malignant cancers that occurs in worldwide .
hcc is the third most common cause of cancer - related death in south korea , where the death rate from hcc is 22.5/100,000 of the population.1 although recent progress in therapeutic modalities for hcc has improved the prognosis of hcc to some degree,2 the majority of patients are diagnosed with inoperable multiple intrahepatic and/or extrahepatic metastases , and no more than 30% of patients are suitable to undergo curative resection.2 the lung ( 55% ) is the most common site of extrahepatic spread from an hcc , followed by the abdominal lymph nodes ( 41% ) and bone ( 28% ) , as shown in studies performed in the u.s.3 the most common site of extrahepatic spread from an hcc is the lung ( 67% ) , followed by the bone ( 12% ) , the adrenal gland ( 9% ) and the peritoneum ( 5% ) in south korea.4 although hcc has a poor prognosis mostly , several studies about the treatment of hcc with pulmonary metastases have been reported ; however , there has been no standard therapeutic strategy determined for hcc with pulmonary metastases.5 - 7 in this report , we describe the case of a recurrent hcc with extensive lung metastases that was rapidly aggravated , despite of undergoing conventional transarterial chemoembolization ( tace ) with adriamycin .
both the intrahepatic hcc and pulmonary metastases were successfully treated with the combinated therapeutic protocol of monthly hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy ( haic ) with epirubicin , cisplatin , and systemic infusion of 5-fluorouracil ( 5-fu ) .
a 49-year - old man was admitted to our department due to extensive pulmonary metastases of hcc with intrahepatic recurrence .
the patient was initially treated with radiofrequency ablation therapy 15 months prior for a single hcc that was 4 cm in diameter and located in segment 7 of the liver .
it was found 3 months prior that a 6.9 cm sized - single hcc recurred locally , with a few pulmonary metastases .
the... | we report a case of hepatocellular carcinoma ( hcc ) with pulmonary metastases treated with repeated hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy ( haic ) comprising epirubicin and cisplatin , and systemic infusion of 5-fluorouracil ( a modified ec / f protocol ) , which led to complete remission . a 49-year - old man with compensated liver cirrhosis experienced intrahepatic recurrence of hcc with extensive lung metastases .
the modified ec / f therapeutic protocol , which was applied at the tenth cycle every 4 - 5 weeks , resulted in disappearance of the pulmonary metastases and normalization of serum -fetoprotein levels .
a single small hcc lesion was found in the left lobe of the liver 13 months after the final chemotherapy session .
haic with the same regimen was conducted again , followed by percutaneous intratumoral chemoinjection therapy with 5-fluorouracil and interferon-. thereafter , there was no evidence of recurrence in either the liver or the lung , as evidenced by image analysis and expression of tumor markers .
the disease - free intervals for the liver and lung were 41 and 54 months , respectively . |
7,221 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: secondary amyloidosis can occur as a complication of chronic systemic inflammatory and infectious diseases . until now there has been no report of secondary amyloidosis associated with ms .
we report herein a case of renal biopsy - proven secondary amyloidosis in a patient with ms .
a 41-year - old woman with ms was hospitalized due to aggravated quadriparesis and edema in both lower extremities .
a percutaneous renal biopsy procedure was performed , the results of which revealed secondary amyloid - a - type amyloidosis associated with ms .
multiple sclerosis ( ms ) is a demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system .
its pathological triad comprises central nervous system inflammation , demyelination , and gliosis.1 secondary amyloidosis , which develops secondarily to chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis , is now called amyloid - a ( aa ) amyloidosis because a major factor in the protein deposition process involves a cleaved product of the acute - phase protein , serum amyloid a ( saa).2 cerebrovascular amyloid deposits in the region of demyelinated plaques without systemic amyloidosis have been reported rarely in cases of ms;3 however , there is no report in the literature of ms related to aa amyloidosis .
this article presents a case of ms with secondary aa amyloidosis , presenting with nephrotic syndrome .
she had been diagnosed with ms at an age of 33 years . at 26 years of age , the patient experienced her first episode of quadriparesis with sensory changes in both lower extremities . at 33 years , she noticed decreased visual acuity for several days . at 40 years
, she was admitted to the hospital due to quadriparesis , dysarthria , and confusion , and her brain mri showed brain , medullary , and spinal cord lesions ( fig .
one year later , she was hospitalized again due to aggravated quadriparesis ; she also complained of edema in both lower extremities .
steroid pulse therapy was performed again and the motor weakness in her upper extremities improved , but... | backgroundmultiple sclerosis ( ms ) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system .
secondary amyloidosis can occur as a complication of chronic systemic inflammatory and infectious diseases . until now there has been no report of secondary amyloidosis associated with ms .
we report herein a case of renal biopsy - proven secondary amyloidosis in a patient with ms.case reporta 41-year - old woman with ms was hospitalized due to aggravated quadriparesis and edema in both lower extremities .
laboratory findings showed nephrotic - range proteinuria and hypoalbuminemia .
a percutaneous renal biopsy procedure was performed , the results of which revealed secondary amyloid - a - type amyloidosis associated with ms.conclusionsthis is the first report of secondary amyloidosis associated with ms . |
7,222 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: various pathological conditions such as os odontoideum , rotatorysubluxation , dens fracture or trauma , rheumatoid arthritis , and congenital or acquired ligamentous instability can affect the atlantoaxial instability1 ) .
gallie reported atlantoaxial arthrodesis by posterior wiring and autologous grafting9 ) , and magerl and seeman introduced the c1-c2 transarticular screw fixation16 ) .
however , this technique is technically demanding and requires precise radiological and intraoperative knowledge of the localization of the vertebral artery to minimize the risk of iatrogenic damage .
they reported that the procedure is technically demanding and that anexact three - dimensional understanding of the anatomy of the region and of the vertebral artery is important .
modern atlantoaxial instrumentation techniques are transpedicle screws and screw - rod constructs which is modified by harms and melcher17,21 ) . in contrast to the relatively high rate of nonunion with wiring techniques , the rates of successful fusion with modern instrumentation and techniques exceed 95%5 ) .
biomechanical studies showed a construct stability of screw - rod constructs similar to transarticular screws8,14 ) .
so , some authors suggested that spine surgeons should reconsidered the use of bracing for c1 - 2 fusion procedures where rigid segmental fixation has been achieved4 ) .
although they concluded the external cervical orthoses may be not necessary with class iii evidence4 ) , cervical collars were effective to provide an optimal environment for bone fusion by restrict the range of neck movement . herein , this article reported a two - times unlucky case of pedicle screws fracture after atlantoaixial fusion with several episode of neck hyperflexion , and emphasized the limitation of neck movement after cervical posterior fixation .
forty three years - old man who complained persistent neck pain and whole body tingling sensation was visit the neurosurgical clinic to treatment .
he was an orthopedic surgeon , and self - diagnosed... | a patients with atlantoaixial instability and osodontoideum underwent atlantoaixial fusion ( harms and melcher technique ) with demineralized bone matrix .
but , unfortunately , the both pedicle screws in c2 were fractured within 9 weeks follow - up periods after several suspected episode of neck hyper - flexion .
fractured screws were not contact to occipital bone in several imaging studies , but it could irritate the occipital bone when neck extension because the relatively close distance between the occipital bone and c1 posterior arch .
the patient underwent revision operation with translaminar screw fixation with autologus iliac bone graft .
postsurgical course were uneventful except donor site pain , but the bony fusion was not satisfied after 4 months follow - up . the patient re - underwent revision operation in other hospital .
continuous complication after atlantoaixial fusion is rare , but the clinical course could be unlucky to patients .
postoperative immobilization could be important to prevent the unintended clinical course of patients . |
7,223 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the first occurred in april may 2003 in 2 communities ( vila sanso , 140 inhabitants , and vila paulo fontelles , 835 inhabitants).in the municipality of parauapebas ( 64s , 4954w ) .
august 2004 in 1 community ( vila tapara , 2,000 inhabitants ) in the municipality of porto de moz ( 145s , 5214w ) ( figure 1 ) .
map of brazil showing locations where oropouche fever outbreaks were identified during 20032004 and previous locations of this disease .
a total of 125 and 109 serum samples were collected from residents of parauapebas and porto de moz , which represented 12.8% and 5.45% of all inhabitants , respectively .
criteria for sampling were a history of acute fever several weeks before or during the survey or clinical symptoms similar to those of oropouche fever .
all serum samples were analyzed by hemagglutination inhibition ( hi ) test ( 7 ) and immunoglobulin m elisa ( 8) for specific hi and igm antibodies to orov .
hi titers > 20 and elisa results greater than the cut - off value ( optical density > 0.200 ) were considered positive ( 8).virus isolation was conducted by intracranial injection of newborn mice with a 1:10 ( v / v ) suspension of serum samples in phosphate - buffered saline , ph 7.4 , as described elsewhere ( 9 ) .
fifty - four and 11 serum samples from parauapebas and porto de moz , respectively , were used for virus isolation .
two orov strains were isolated from patients in parauapebas , and 2 strains were isolated from patients in porto de moz .
to genetically characterize the viruses , 2 isolates were selected from parauapebas ( brazil 2003a and brazil 2003b ) and 2 from porto de moz ( brazil 2004a and brazil 2004b ) .
viral rna was extracted from vero cells infected with human samples , and s rna was amplified by using a 1-step reverse transcription
phylogenetic trees were constructed for nucleocapsid gene nucleotide sequences by comparison with other orov nucleocapsid gene sequences in genbank ( table 1 ) ; neighbor - joining analysis ( 10 ) implemented in mega version 2.1 ( 11 )... | oropouche fever has reemerged in parauapebas and porto de moz municipalities , par state , brazil .
serologic analysis ( immunoglobulin m
elisa ) and virus isolation confirmed oropouche virus ( orov ) in both municipalities .
nucleotide sequencing of 2 orov isolates from each location indicated genotypes i ( parauapebas ) and ii ( porto de moz ) in brazil . |
7,224 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: andropause is a condition of decreasing testosterone in men that usually begins to occur at about 40 years of age
. many men also find it difficult to acknowledge there may be a problem by refusing to even talk about the symptoms .
ignorance and fear of the andropause condition abounds in the general public and even among health professionals .
over 10,000 articles on climacteric ( or menopause ) for women can be found but relatively less has been conducted on the male equivalent .
attaining knowledge regarding andropause will help the caregivers and gerontologists to achieve the ultimate goal of a dignified healthy ageing and maintain the highest quality of life .
thus , it 's adding life to years and not simply years to life while ignorance about andropause persists , having an instrument turns out to be a necessity .
the study was investigated to the standards of massq ( 2012 ) within male older adults to introduce a relevant criterion .
about 382 men with age range of 50 - 80 and with the mean age of 65.3 2.32 were sampled with the cluster - ratio sampling method from the eight cities of khuzestan province in southwestern iran ( n = 228784 aged persons in the province ) [ appendix 1 ] .
the massq questionnaire mainly consists of a 25-item disability / symptom scale regarding andropause that was investigated by authors and literature reviews .
each item in the disability / symptom scale has five response options from 1 = none to 5 = extremely severe . if the 25 items are completed , a scale score ranging from 25 ( no symptoms ) to 125 ( most severe symptoms ) can be calculated .
the questionnaire was translated into persian from its english version by three instructors and an english language expert .
the four translated versions were compared by the authors , and the researchers developed a common persian text from them .
afterward , the persian version of the massq was translated back into english by an english language expert who had not seen the original english text and by a linguist .
the english... | background : andropause is a condition of decreasing testosterone in men that usually begins to occur at about 40 years of age .
many men find it difficult to acknowledge there may be a problem by refusing to even talk about the symptoms.aims:the study was conducted to the standards of massq ( 2012 ) within male older adults to introduce a relevant criterion.materials and methods : about 382 men with age range of 50 - 80 and with the mean age of 65.3 2.32 were sampled with the cluster - ratio sampling method from the eight cities of khuzestan province in southwestern iran .
the aged samples replied to the 25 items of massq.results:coefficients of cronbach 's alpha ( = 0.89 ) , split - half ( 0.91 ) , convergent validity ( 0.72 ) , divergent validity ( 0.32 ) , and criterion validity ( 0.67 ) were estimated , which were significant at p < 0.01 .
the exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that the 25-items of massq for aged samples are organized into four factors ( sexual , somatic , psychic , and behavioral ) which clarify 79% of the scale 's variance .
second - order confirmatory factor analysis pointed out that the factors are well - matched up onto a principal factor .
consequently , the four - factor model was well appropriate for the data by the fit index techniques for adjusting the scale [ adjusted goodness of fit index = 0.92 , goodness - of - fit statistic = 0.91 , root mean square error of approximation = 0.006 , incremental fit index = 0.94 , normed fit index = 0.91 , comparative fit index = 0.97].conclusions : the results pointed to the well - adjusted reliability and validity of massq and its usefulness for the relevant studies as well . |
7,225 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: though metastases are generally widely disseminated , a minimal metastatic state has been recently recognized , with a distinct natural history and an intermediate prognosis between that of localized and metastatic disease . in 1995 , s. hellman and r. weichselbaum first coined the term
oligometastases : the definition of such a state came after years of research on the natural history of human solid tumors , especially breast cancer . within this framework , they also developed the idea that local treatments such as radiation therapy would probably have an increasing role , especially in those patients with slowly progressing cancer .
several years later , methods of morphological and metabolic imaging have improved dramatically , new systemic therapies are able to prolong survival and the oligometastatic state is increasingly encountered in most common tumors , including lung , breast , colorectal and prostate cancer .
a combination of local therapies with systemic treatments at different time - points in the natural history of the disease is currently being offered to patients in a number of institutions worldwide , both in clinical studies and outside experimental trials [ 36 ] .
recent data suggest that oligometastases may be relatively common , at least among certain tumour types , for example breast cancer .
it is accepted that the oligometastatic state can occure in three categories of patients : patients who present with oligometastatic disease at diagnosis , those with oligoprogressive disease after cytoreductive therapy , and those with oligorecurrent disease after curative locoregional therapy .
oligo are less than or equal to five in no more than three different organs , even if the definition can be discussed and adapted to specific clinical presentations .
radiotherapy may play a unique role in this scenario , as the technological advances in the field of radiation oncology allow for rapid non - invasive delivery of very high radiation doses to specific sites .
stereotactic body radiation... | oligometastases from solid tumors are currently recognized as a distinct clinical entity , corresponding to an intermediate state between local and widespread disease .
it has been suggested that local ablative therapies ( including surgery , radiofrequency ablation and radiation therapy ) play an important role in this setting , in combination or not with systemic therapies , particularly in delaying disease progression and hopefully in increasing the median survival time .
stereotactic body radiation therapy ( sbrt ) rapidly emerged in recent years as one of the most effective and less toxic local treatment modalities for lung , liver , adrenal , brain and bone metastases .
the aim of this review was to focus on its clinical role for oligometastatic disease in four major cancer subtypes : lung , breast , colorectal and prostate .
on the basis of the available evidence , sbrt is able to provide high rates of local tumor control without significant toxicity .
its global impact on survival is uncertain ; however , in specific subpopulations of oligometastatic patients there is a trend towards a significant improvement in progression - free and overall survival rates ; these important data might be used as a platform for clinical decision - making and establish the basis for the current and future prospective trials investigating its role with or without systemic treatments . |
7,226 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the sacroiliac joint is a frequent source of pain in patients presenting with low back or buttock pain.113 in a recent study by sembrano and polly , 200 consecutive new patients were examined in a spine clinic with a chief complaint of low back pain and no prior history of spine , sacroiliac joint , or hip surgery.12 sixty - five percent of these patients were found to have pain attributed to the spine only , while 5% had pain attributed to the sacroiliac joint only , and 14.5% had pain attributed to both.12
the mainstay of therapy for disorders of the sacroiliac joint has been nonoperative treatment , including modification of activity , nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs , physical therapy , sacroiliac joint injections , and radiofrequency ablation.6,13,14 the durability of these interventions is not well established .
many different techniques have been described for fusion of the sacroiliac joint.15 to date , the clinical studies have primarily consisted of small case series using a variety of assessments of success.16 more recently , the oswestry disability index ( odi ) has been used to evaluate outcomes in patients with sacroiliac joint pain.17 this tool is well validated for patients with low back pain.18 because of the overlap between low back pain and sacroiliac joint pain , it makes intuitive sense to use it . with the use of a common outcome tool
while this does not provide the same level of evidence as a randomized controlled trial , it does provide some potential insight into the effect of different treatments .
the aim of this research was to compare the perioperative measures and patient - reported outcomes of two different surgical techniques for sacroiliac joint fusion .
the first group was a cohort of patients who underwent arthrodesis using an open anterior ilioinguinal approach , local bone grafting , and anterior plating ( open group ) .
the second group underwent minimally invasive surgery ( mis ) , comprising transgluteal , iliosacral fixation with triangular , porous coated... | backgroundthe mainstay of sacroiliac joint disruption / degenerative sacroiliitis therapy has been nonoperative management . this nonoperative management often includes a regimen of physical therapy , chiropractic treatment , therapeutic injections , and possibly radiofrequency ablation at the discretion of the treating physician .
when these clinical treatments fail , sacroiliac joint fusion has been recommended as the standard treatment .
open and minimally invasive ( mis ) surgical techniques are typical procedures .
this study aims to compare the perioperative measures and oswestry disability index ( odi ) outcomes associated with each of these techniques.methodsa comparative retrospective chart review of patients with sacroiliac joint fusion and a minimum of 1 year of follow - up was performed .
perioperative measures and odi scores were compared using the fisher s exact test and two nonparametric tests , ie , the mann whitney u test and the wilcoxon signed - rank test .
the results are presented as percent or median with range , as appropriate.resultsforty-nine patients from two institutions underwent sacroiliac joint fusion between 2006 and 2012 .
ten patients were excluded because of incomplete data , leaving 39 evaluable patients , of whom 22 underwent open and 17 underwent mis sacroiliac joint fusion .
the mis group was significantly older ( median age 66 [ 3982 ] years ) than the open group ( median age 51 [ 3474 ] years ) .
surgical time and hospital stay were significantly shorter in the mis group than in the open group .
preoperative odi was significantly greater in the open group ( median 64 [ 4478 ] ) than in the mis group ( median 53 [ 1484 ] ) .
postoperative improvement in odi was statistically significant within and between groups , with mis resulting in greater improvement.conclusionthe open and mis sacroiliac joint fusion techniques resulted in statistically and clinically significant improvement for patients with degenerative sacroiliitis refractory to nonoperative... |
7,227 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: cystic fibrosis ( cf ) is a multifaceted autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the cf transmembrane conductance regulator ( cftr ) gene .
although its pulmonary manifestations are responsible for the major morbidity and mortality associated with the disease , cf is also characterised by a multitude of clinical extrapulmonary manifestations .
in addition , the great heterogeneity in disease severity among people with cf means that the design of therapeutic interventions is particularly challenging .
micrornas ( mirna ) are a class of regulatory biomolecules with important functions in numerous biological processes and are aberrantly expressed in many human diseases .
therefore , it is important to elucidate the roles of these molecules in cf pathophysiology .
although the term microrna was first coined in 2001 , the first mirna , lin-4 , was discovered eight years earlier by lee and colleagues , in the nematode caenorhabditis elegans .
having been initially discovered to play important roles in developmental biology , interest in these small rnas has dramatically increased since this time as they have been found to have significant roles in a range of other biological processes such as proliferation and apoptosis . the latest version of mirbase ( http://www.mirbase.org/ , v21 ) , the most comprehensive microrna bioinformatics repository , contains entries from 223 species corresponding to over 35,000 micrornas .
expression levels of mirnas vary greatly between cells and tissues , and aberrant levels of mirna are associated with many diseases in humans . as a rule ,
mammalian mirnas are initially transcribed in the nucleus into longer primary mirna ( pri - mir ) of up to 1000 nucleotides in length .
these stem - loop structured pri - mirs are generally transcribed by rna polymerase ii and subsequently undergo cleavage in two sequential steps .
the initial processing occurs in the nucleus by the rna endonuclease ( rnase ) type iii enzyme drosha with the involvement of other proteins , as part of... | the cystic fibrosis lung is a complex milieu comprising multiple factors that coordinate its physiology .
micrornas are regulatory factors involved in most biological processes and it is becoming increasingly clear that they play a key role in the development and manifestations of cf lung disease . these small noncoding rnas act
posttranscriptionally to inhibit protein production .
their involvement in the pathogenesis of cf lung disease stems from the fact that their expression is altered in vivo in the cf lung due to intrinsic and extrinsic factors ; to date defective chloride ion conductance , endoplasmic reticulum stress , inflammation , and infection have been implicated in altering endogenous mirna expression in this setting . here
, the current state - of - the - art and biological consequences of altered microrna expression in cystic fibrosis are reviewed . |
7,228 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: , females can gain direct benefits ( arnqvist and nilsson 2000 ) , such as replenishment of depleted sperm stores , access to male - held resources , food and chemical gifts ( vahed 1998 ) .
females that have already mated may trade - up by mating with or selectively using sperm from successively more genetically beneficial males as they encounter them in the environment .
females may choose mates that provide their mutual offspring with superior genes or females may seek combinations of maternal and paternal genes to avoid genetic incompatibility or increase offspring heterozygosity ( yasui 1998 ; jennions and petrie 2000 ; mays and hill 2004 ) .
if male fertilization success is correlated with offspring viability , females that mate multiple times and allow sperm competition to determine offspring paternity will have more viable offspring than females that mate with a single male sivinski ( 1984 ) . alternatively , by genetic bet - hedging , a female that mates multiple times may potentially improve her fitness by creating genetically diverse offspring that can survive unpredictable environmental conditions in the future ( jennions and petrie 2000 ) .
however , mating with multiple partners can also be costly for females ( sakaluk 1990 ) , thus it is expected that females mate only as often as needed to maximize fitness .
field cricket females can mate large numbers of times . based on molecular analysis of wild caught female gryllus bimaculatus
, females may mate as many as seven times ( bretman and tregenza 2005 ) , and based on an enclosure study , female gryllodes sigillatus may mate as many times as 15 times in a lifetime ( sakaluk et al .
however , the effects of large numbers of matings on female lifetime reproductive success are generally overlooked ( arnqvist and nilsson 2000 ) . in past studies of gryllus vocalis , females that mated many times gained diminishing direct benefits from doing so : females gained fecundity and fertility benefits from mating up to ten times , but failed to gain... | female crickets can potentially gain both direct and indirect benefits from mating multiple times with different males .
most studies have only examined the effects of small numbers of matings , although female crickets are capable of mating many times .
the goal of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect benefits of mating large numbers of times for female reproductive success . in a previous experiment ,
female gryllus vocalis were found to gain diminishing direct benefits from mating large numbers of times . in this study
i attempt to determine whether mating large numbers of times yields similar diminishing returns on female indirect benefits .
virgin female gryllus vocalis crickets were assigned to mate five , ten or 15 times with either the same or different males .
females that mated more times gained direct benefits in terms of laying more eggs and more fertilized eggs .
females that mated with different males rather than mating repeatedly with the same male did not have higher offspring hatching success , a result that is contrary to other published results comparing female reproductive success with repeated versus different partners .
these results suggest that females that mate large numbers of times fail to gain additional genetic benefits from doing so . |
7,229 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the wide varieties of rare intraocular and orbital neoplasms differ in presentation in the pediatric population when compared to these same lesions in adults .
while most pediatric ophthalmic tumors are benign , they may have a significant impact on vision and may result in significant morbidity and mortality .
some congenital tumors may present in the first year of life , while others typically present later in childhood . clinical examination signs that should raise concern include leukocoria ( white pupil ) , strabismus , restriction of ocular motility , asymmetric eye position within the orbit , decreased vision , high pressure in the eye , inflammation of the eyelids or conjunctiva , pseudohypopyon ( inferior whitish layer in the anterior chamber of tumor cells ) , vitreous hemorrhage or inflammation , and an afferent pupillary defect .
clinical presentation combined with the characteristic imaging features of the disease can narrow differential diagnoses .
imaging modalities most often used to evaluate these lesions include orbital ultrasonography ( us ) , computed tomography ( ct ) , and most importantly magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) .
, we review the epidemiology , clinical manifestations , current treatment modalities , and the imaging features that differentiate pediatric ocular and orbital lesions .
the incidence of retinoblastoma is approximately one case per 1500020000 live births , which amounts to 9000 new cases each year .
there is no gender or racial predilection , and 90% of cases are diagnosed in patients under three years of age .
biallelic mutations of the rb1 tumor suppressor gene likely predispose retinal progenitor cells to tumor growth . in the heritable form ,
the first mutation is constitutional , and the second is somatic , which causes bilateral disease in the majority of patients . in the nonheritable form ,
both allelic mutations are somatic , limiting disease to one eye with delayed presentation compared to those with the heritable form .
very rarely , the heritable form... | while pediatric orbital tumors are most often managed in tertiary care centers , clinicians should be aware of the signs of intraocular and orbital neoplasms . in the pediatric population , a delay in diagnosis of orbital and intraocular lesions , even if benign , can lead to vision loss and deformity .
intraocular lesions reviewed are retinoblastoma , medulloepithelioma , and retinal astrocytic hamartoma .
orbital neoplasms reviewed are rhabdomyosarcoma , neuroblastoma metastases , optic pathway glioma , plexiform neurofibroma , leukemia , lymphoprolipherative disease , orbital inflammatory syndrome , dermoid and epidermoid inclusion cysts , and langerhans ' cell histiocytosis .
vascular lesions reviewed are infantile hemangioma and venous lymphatic malformation . in conjunction with clinical examination ,
high - resolution ophthalmic imaging and radiologic imaging play an important role in making a diagnosis and differentiating between benign and likely malignant processes .
the radiologic imaging characteristics of these lesions will be discussed to facilitate prompt diagnosis and treatment .
the current treatment modalities and management of tumors will also be reviewed . |
7,230 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a descriptive research design was employed in the present study to assess the problems faced by wives of alcoholics and coping strategies employed by them .
a total of thirty alcoholic clients ' wives who accompanied their husbands ' who were seeking treatment in de - addiction and treatment center opd , pgimer , a tertiary care hospital in north india were enrolled for the study .
the sample was chosen using total enumeration technique wherein all the wives who accompanied their husband 's during the data collection period and fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected .
the following inclusion criteria were used : the wives of alcoholics visiting ddtc opd with their husband and staying with the alcohol abusing husband for at least past 6 months .
the wives of the clients who abused any other psychoactive substance or multidrug users were not included in the study .
the following research tools were used in the study : it comprised items including the age , gender , educational status , occupational status , and other demographic information of wives of alcoholic clients . it is a 17-item structured questionnaire prepared by the researcher after intensive review on problems faced by the wives of alcoholics .
the face validity of the tool was done by the experts in the field of nursing , psychiatry , and psychology .
the problems faced were categorized into five major domains : emotional , financial , social , physical , and health related .
each item of the questionnaire was to be responded by choosing appropriate option from a four - point scale ranging from 0 to 3 where 0 corresponded never , 1 corresponded as once or twice , 2 was sometimes , and 3 referred to often . the questionnaire yield scores in terms of problems in five domains , which was obtained by summing individual item scores in each domain .
each item is rated on a four - point scale ranging from 0 to 3 .
the tool yields mean scores in three forms of coping , namely , engaged coping , tolerant coping , and withdrawal coping .
engaged... | background : alcoholism is considered as a major health as well as a social problem .
often the family members of alcoholics suffer intense psychological , physical and social trauma due to the core drinking problem of the family member .
most deeply affected are the wives of alcoholics.aim:the present descriptive study aimed to investigate the problems faced and coping strategies used by the wives of alcoholics.methodology:a total of 30 wives of alcoholic clients seeking treatment in de - addiction centre were interviewed for the same .
the problems were identified using a non standardized 17 item structured questionnaire while coping in wives of alcoholics was assessed using standardized tool.results:the findings revealed the problems faced by alcoholics wives were in multiple domains viz .
physical , psychological and social . while most highly reported were the emotional problems and least reported were the problems of physical violence .
coping strategies used by wives of alcoholics were reported in three major styles : engaged , tolerant and withdrawal.conclusion and recommendations : the problems faced by alcoholics have often wedged the attention in society yet finding and applying effective interventions to reduce the pain and suffering of being a partner of alcoholic is still a challenge . |
7,231 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ( see related article by vanholder and glorieux . the intestine and the kidneys : a bad marriage can be hazardous . | inflammation is a multifactorial phenotype that in chronic kidney disease is associated with adverse patient outcomes .
recently , alterations in gut microbiota composition and intestinal barrier have been associated with inflammation and oxidative stress in ckd patients .
vanholder and glorieux recently critically reviewed [ clin kidney j ( 2015 ) 8 ( 2 ) : 168 - 179 ] the current understanding of the role of gut microbiota in the production of uraemic toxins and the therapeutic implications . where do we stand now ? the basic mechanisms of the gut - kidney crosstalk must still be clarified .
in addition , the efficacy and safety of therapeutic strategies to modulate the gut microbiota in order to decrease uraemic toxin production and inflammation in chronic kidney disease should be evaluated .
finally , an impact of such strategies on hard outcomes should be demonstrated before incorporation into routine clinical practice . |
7,232 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: esophageal cancer accounts for 1% of all cancers and it is the seventh - most frequent cause of cancer - related deaths . the prognosis in this cancer is poor because in 50% of affected patients the diagnosis is made at an inoperable stage of the disease .
local symptoms of esophageal cancer include dysphagia , odynophagia , cough , nausea , vomiting , regurgitation and retrosternal pain .
dysphagia is a main , but not pathognomonic , symptom , as it may occur in several non - neoplastic diseases ( eg , in achalasia ) . in esophageal cancer , surgery is a treatment of choice if the neoplasm is in operable stage . in inoperable stage
irresectability of esophageal cancer is related to local progression , presence of distant metastases and concurrent severe conditions .
the aim of palliative treatment is to maintain digestive tract patency and to relieve pain .
the latter goal is achieved by pharmacotherapy . in palliative treatment to reduce dysphagia in patients with neoplastic esophageal obstruction , the endoscopic and non - endoscopic methods are applied .
surgery is not useful for symptomatic treatment due to high perioperative mortality and frequent complications . in patients in quite good general condition
however , in most patients with inoperable esophageal tumor , this method is not applicable due to complications and low efficacy .
these 3 aforementioned methods are rarely applied in palliative treatment of esophageal cancer because of severe complications such as post - irradiation esophagitis , esophageal obstruction or tracheoesophageal fistula .
endoscopic methods are : ( 1 ) tumor mass reduction with electrocoagulation , laser therapy , argon plasma coagulation , photodynamic therapy and injection therapy ; and ( 2 ) preservation of a proper diameter of esophagus lumen with the aid of dilation , implantation of esophageal endoprostheses , and use of a gastric feeding tube . within the endoscopic methods , only the use of endoprostheses yields long - term effects ; however , the other methods... | summarybackgroundesophageal cancer is the seventh - most frequent cause of cancer - related deaths and it is usually diagnosed at an inoperable stage . in palliative treatment , endoscopic and non - endoscopic methods are applied to reduce dysphagia in patients with neoplastic esophageal obstruction . because of severe complications , non - endoscopic treatment ( surgery , radiotherapy , brachytherapy and chemotherapy ) is applied rarely . within the endoscopic methods , only the use of endoprostheses yields long - term effects .
the aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of implantation of self - expandable esophageal stents in palliative treatment of dysphagia related to esophageal cancer.material/methodsa total number of 46 patients ( 41 males and 5 females ) were qualified to palliative implantation of coated self - expandable stent .
the mean age of the patients was 67 years ( from 51 to 78 years ) . in all patients , evolution - type coated self - expandable stents
were used . in all cases , 24 hours after the implantation , radiological examination was performed to assess the stent location.resultssevere , possibly life - threatening , complications constituted 28% of all the complications and occurred in 9% of the patients .
less severe complications occurred in 17% of the observed patients and were not life-threatening.conclusionsin patients with neoplastic esophageal stenosis , stenting with coated , self - expandable nitinol prostheses is a safe , effective and fast method of palliative dysphagia treatment . |
7,233 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: swallowing is a series of coordinated processes in which food boluses move from the mouth
to the stomach .
the
normal process of swallowing includes the oral preparatory phase in which food is chewed ;
the oral phase in which food is moved to the rear of the oral cavity and swallowing starts ;
the pharyngeal phase in which food is quickly moved through the pharynx to the esophagus ;
and the esophageal phase in which food is moved down the esophagus to the stomach1 .
if problems exist in the nerves or muscles
involved in this process , a person can not swallow food safely .
thus , it is important to
determine the causes of swallowing problems by stage and provide proper treatment to help
patients with dysphagia recover their swallowing function .
the pharyngeal phase in particular is involuntary , and since the airway and esophagus are
closely located each other , it is very important that the pharyngeal muscles operate
normally to prevent food boluses from entering the airway .
if problems occur with
coordination of the swallowing muscles in the pharyngeal stage , food can get through the
airway and cause serious complications such as suffocation or aspiration pneumonia .
dysphagia can be caused by various
diseases that can affect the nerves or muscles ; swallowing problems in the pharyngeal phase
in particular are frequently caused by damage to the neurological system such as stroke1 .
dysphagia affects a reported 4070% of
acute stroke patients2 , 3 and becomes a direct cause of malnutrition , dehydration , and
pneumonia .
in particular , since stroke patients are at high risk of aspiration or
penetration , both of which involve the passage of food into the airway due to swallowing
problems in the pharyngeal phase , it is critical that they obtain swallowing treatments as
soon as dysphagia is discovered4 .
treatment strategies for dysphagia in the oral cavity and pharynx are largely divided into
feeding techniques and swallowing therapy , the latter of which induces... | [ purpose ] the effectiveness of neuromuscular electrical stimulation in the rehabilitation
of swallowing remains controversial . this study compared the effectiveness of
neuromuscular electrical stimulation and thermal tactile oral stimulation , a traditional
swallowing recovery treatment , in patients with sub - acute dysphagia caused by stroke .
[ subjects and methods ] subjects of the present study were 55 patients diagnosed with
dysphagia caused by stroke .
this study had a nonequivalent control group pretest - posttest
design .
[ results ] analysis of pre - post values of videofluoroscopic studies of the
neuromuscular electrical stimulation and thermal tactile oral stimulation groups using a
paired t - test showed no significant difference between the two groups despite both having
decreased mean values of the videofluoroscopic studies after treatment .
[ conclusion ] this
study s findings show that both neuromuscular electrical stimulation and thermal tactile
oral stimulation significantly enhanced the swallowing function of patients with sub - acute
dysphagia . |
7,234 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: native woody species often demonstrate inherited latitudinal variation in the timing of growth cessation and cold hardiness in response to the latitudinal gradient in temperature ( pauley and perry 1954 ; howe et al .
can an introduced species develop such a pattern in a century or two ( weber and schmid 1998 ) ?
development of clinal variation could be accelerated by multiple introductions of populations from different latitudes ( novak and mack 2001 ) , by hybridization between closely related species from different climates ( hurka et al .
2003 ) , or by epigenetic inheritance of cold hardiness ( saxe et al . 2001 )
. this question can be addressed by studies comparing clinal variation in native and introduced species .
the diploid genus tamarix was introduced to north america in the mid-1800s to control erosion and to serve as a drought - tolerant ornamental flowering shrub or tree ( robinson 1965 ) .
although there are now several tamarix species in the united states ( usa ) , tamarix chinensis lour . and tamarix ramosissima ledeb .
tamarix chinensis is native to china , korea , and japan at latitude 2342n and longitude 79110e , whereas t. ramosissima occurs more widely across temperate asia at latitude 3053n and longitude 42127e ( baum 1978 ) .
although these two species are morphologically distinct in asia ( baum 1978 ) , north american specimens can not always be readily distinguished ( crins 1989 ) .
hereafter , we refer to the complex of t. ramosissima , t. chinensis , and their hybrids as saltcedar . in a study of a single nuclear locus in saltcedar , gaskin and schaal ( 2002 )
found that the most common genotype in north america is a heterozygote containing one allele that in asia is found only in t. ramosissima and another allele that in asia is found only in t. chinensis .
in other words , these north american heterozygotes have a hybrid genotype that has not been found in asia .
although homozygotes for either of the two alleles are also common in north america , it is not possible using a... | to investigate the evolution of clinal variation in an invasive plant , we compared cold hardiness in the introduced saltcedar ( tamarix ramosissima , tamarix chinensis , and hybrids ) and the native plains cottonwood ( populus deltoides subsp .
monilifera ) . in a shadehouse in colorado ( 41n )
, we grew plants collected along a latitudinal gradient in the central united states ( 2948n ) . on 17 occasions between september 2005 and june 2006 , we determined killing temperatures using freeze - induced electrolyte leakage and direct observation . in midwinter , cottonwood survived cooling to 70c , while saltcedar was killed at 33 to 47c .
frost sensitivity , therefore , may limit northward expansion of saltcedar in north america .
both species demonstrated inherited latitudinal variation in cold hardiness .
for example , from september through january killing temperatures for saltcedar from 29.18n were 521c higher than those for saltcedar from 47.60n , and on september 26 and october 11 , killing temperatures for cottonwood from 33.06n were > 43c higher than those for cottonwood from 47.60n .
analysis of nine microsatellite loci showed that southern saltcedars are more closely related to t. chinensis while northern plants are more closely related to t. ramosissima .
hybridization may have introduced the genetic variability necessary for rapid evolution of the cline in saltcedar cold hardiness . |
7,235 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in 1962 , luft , et al . made a suggestion of mitochondria as an intracellular organelle related to human diseases .
they supported the idea with evidence of mitochondrial function abnormality observed in a hypermetabolic patient .
later reports also showed respiratory chain dysfunctions in patients with encephalomyopathy confirming the role of mitochondria in human diseases.13 though sometimes the concept of mitochondrial disease is being used to indicate abnormal metabolic pathways within mitochondria , it generally implies an energy metabolic disease caused by abnormal respiratory chain reaction which is followed by decreased energy production with various clinical symptoms as a result .
recently , mitochondria is drawing further attention as its role in the aging process and common chronic illness such as chronic heart failure , diabetes mellitus , and neurodegenative diseases become known more and more.46
mitochondrial respiratory chain consist of 5 enzyme complexes including more than 100 different protein units that are needed for oxydative phosphorylation and atp production.7 mitochondrial dna ( mitochondrial dna , mtdna ) encode for each unit of 4 enzyme complexes among total of 5 .
it codes for 7 units of complex i ( nadh dehydrogenase ) , 1 of complex iii ( cytochrome c reductase ) , 3 of complex iv ( cytochrome c oxidase ) , and 2 of complex v ( atp synthase ) .
respiratory chain reaction produces atp through oxydative phosphorylation using proton concentration difference in the inner membrane of mitochondria.4 oxydative phosphorylation is precisely controlled adjusting to different physiologic circumstances .
damage to the ability of oxydative phosphrylation caused by nuclear dna or mitochondrial dna ( mtdna ) mutations result in different types of mitochondrial diseases .
therefore , diverse types of inheritance occur depending on the cause of the original mutation.48 two types of mutation are considered significant in mtdna mutation .
if the amount of normal mtdna is enough to compensate the... | mitochondria contain the respiratory chain enzyme complexes that carry out oxidative phosphorylation and produce the main part of cellular energy in the form of atp .
although several proteins related with signalling , assembling , transporting , and enzymatic function can be impaired in mitochondrial diseases , most frequently the activity of the respiratory chain protein complexes is primarily or secondarily affected , leading to impaired oxygen utilization and reduced energy production .
mitochondrial diseases usually show a chronic , slowly progressive course and present with multiorgan involvement with varying onset between birth and late adulthood .
neuromuscular system is frequently affected in mitochondrial diseases .
although there is actually no specific therapy and cure for mitochondrial diseases , the understanding of the pathophysiology may further facilitate the diagnostic approach and open perspectives to future in mitochondrial diseases . |
7,236 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: electroporation , a nonthermal phenomenon , is used to enhance the permeability of biological cells and tissues [ 14 ] . here , an attempt has been made to study the electric field 's effect on tumor tissues thereby leading to the efficacy of electroporation .
electroporation involves the rapid structural rearrangement of membrane , in response to an electrically applied electric field .
a noticeable effect is a rapid increase in electrical conductivity attributed to the formation of pores in the bilayer lipid membrane .
literatures have shown significant trend of progressive electrical changes according to the proliferative characteristics of breast epithelial cells .
physiologists also further postulated that malignant transformation resulted from sustained depolarization and a failure of the cell to repolarize after cell division , making the area where cancer develops relatively depolarized when compared to their nondividing or resting counterparts .
it leads to the rupturing of membrane wall which can be either reversible or irreversible .
electroporation generally depend upon the magnitude and the duration of the voltage , and the field applied .
the membrane potential vm is given as
( 1)vm=1.5ercos ,
where r is the cell radius and is the angle between the electric field e and the radius vector .
a detailed study of electric field distribution is necessary for an effective understanding of the tissue 's behavior when subjected to electric field . in this study
the behavior of tissue and the effect of electric field on them are noted in each case .
literature has indicated that changes in the electrical properties of abnormal breast are more significant compared to the breast normal tissues .
the surface potentials are sensitive to the presence of tumour , location and placement of the electrodes .
the results can be used as a complement to experimental analysis , essential for effective manipulation of tissues for practical , real - life applications , such as electroporation - mediated... | an attractive alternative treatment for malignant tumors that are refractive to conventional therapies , such as surgery , radiation , and chemotherapy , is electrical - pulse - mediated drug delivery .
electric field distribution of tissue / tumor is important for effective treatment of tissues
. this paper deals with the electric field distribution study of a tissue model using maxwell 3d simulator .
our results indicate that tumor tissue had lower electric field strength compared to normal cells , which makes them susceptible to electrical - pulse - mediated drug delivery
. this difference could be due to the altered properties of tumor cells compared to normal cells , and our results corroborate this . |
7,237 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: deterioration of renal function with tacrolimus ( fk506 ) therapy has been widely reported in adult patients with normal renal function who underwent liver transplantation [ 1 , 2 ] .
a striped pattern of medullary ray fibrosis ( also called linear fibrosis ) has been described in the kidneys of patients undergoing long - term treatment with the calcineurin inhibitors , cyclosporine , or tacrolimus [ 35 ] .
calcineurin inhibitors can cause this pattern of injury in animals , possibly contributing to the relatively low availability of oxygen in the medullary rays [ 6 , 7 ] .
early diagnosis of acute tacrolimus nephrotoxicity in humans prior to fibrosis may better guide evaluation of impaired renal function and serve to justify modification of dosing of the agent .
kim-1 is a type i transmembranous protein whose expression is undetectable in normal renal tissue but is markedly upregulated with injury of proximal tubule epithelial cells in rats and is upregulated in human biopsies with tubular injury [ 9 , 10 ] .
kim-1 is a receptor involved in phagocytosis and internalization of apoptotic bodies and necrotic debris in injured kidneys ; thus it involves tubular repairing during acute tubular injury .
motivated by a case of acute tacrolimus renal injury in a patient status after liver transplant that was characterized by dominant expression of kim-1 in the proximal tubules of the medullary rays , we evaluated whether early proximal tubule injury could be identified by kim-1 expression in the medullary rays in acute nephrotoxicity from tacrolimus .
in the initial case , frozen sections of the renal biopsy were cut for direct immunofluorescent stains of igg , iga , igm , c3 , c1q , kappa , lambda , and albumin , using a dako autostainer ( carpinteria , ca ) .
the remaining renal tissue was divided into two parts and fixed with 10% formalin for light microscopy and 3% glutaraldehyde for electron microscopy , respectively .
formalin fixed tissue was embedded , sectioned , and examined using hematoxylin - eosin ( he... | tacrolimus ( fk506 ) is one of the principal immunosuppressive agents used after solid organ transplantations to prevent allograft rejection .
chronic renal injury induced by tacrolimus is characterized by linear fibrosis in the medullary rays ; however , the early morphologic findings of acute tacrolimus nephrotoxicity are not well characterized .
kidney injury molecule-1 ( kim-1 ) is a specific injury biomarker that has been proven to be useful in the diagnosis of mild to severe acute tubular injury on renal biopsies .
this study was motivated by a patient with acute kidney injury associated with elevated serum tacrolimus levels in whom kim-1 staining was present only in proximal tubules located in the medullary rays in the setting of otherwise normal light , immunofluorescent , and electron microscopy .
we subsequently evaluated kim-1 expression in 45 protocol and 39 indicated renal transplant biopsies to determine whether higher serum levels of tacrolimus were associated with acute segment specific injury to the proximal tubule , as reflected by kim-1 staining in the proximal tubules of the cortical medullary rays .
the data suggest that tacrolimus toxicity preferentially affects proximal tubules in medullary rays and that this targeted injury is a precursor lesion for the linear fibrosis seen in chronic tacrolimus toxicity . |
7,238 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: previous articles ( mcbride et al . , 1992 , 1996 ; millar et al . , 1996 ; goping et al . , 1998 )
these include isolation of rat heart mitochondria , transcription - translation of plasmids encoding vdac and preornithine carbamyl transferase ( poct ) , and import of s - labeled translation products into mitochondria in vitro .
recombinant glutathione s - transferase ( gst)human tom201 - 29 ( formerly named gst-30htom20 ) , lacking the nh2-terminal transmembrane segment of htom20 , was expressed in topp2 cells and purified ( schleiff et al . , 1997 ) .
protein immobilized on glutathione - sepharose 4b was washed and suspended in 20 mm napo4 , ph 7.4 , 150 mm nacl , 1 mm dithiothreitol , 0.5 mm cacl2 , and incubated with 5 g / ml thrombin for 18 h at 4c , generating htom201 - 29 with an extra gly residue at the nh2 terminus derived from the thrombin cleavage site .
the mixture was passed through a mono s hr 5/5 column and protein was eluted with a linear gradient ( buffer a , 10 mm mes , ph 5.0 ; buffer b , 10 mm 3-cyclohexylamino-1-propane sulfonic acid , ph 10 , 500 mm nacl ) .
peak fractions containing htom201 - 29 were resolved on a superdex 200 column in 10 mm hepes , ph 7.0 , and 100 mm nacl .
fractions containing the purified protein were dialyzed against the same buffer containing 5 mm dtt and the protein concentrated to 1.5 mg / ml . plasmid encoding gst - htom201 - 29 was manipulated by standard recombinant dna procedures to substitute cys at htom20 codon position 100 with ser and to introduce ser - cys after gly at the thrombin cleavage site .
the thrombin cleavage product , htom201 - 29/n - gsc / c100s , was generated and purified as above .
approximately 100 nm large unilamellar vesicles ( luvs ) ( lipid composition : pc , phosphotidylcholine ; pe , phosphotidylethanolamine ; pi , phosphotidylinositol ; ps , phosphotidylserine ; pc / pe / pi / ps at molar ratios of 55:28:13:3 or pc / pe / pi / ps / pe - bmps at molar ratios of 54.5:27.5:13:3:1 ) were prepared in... | insertion of newly synthesized proteins into or across the mitochondrial outer membrane is initiated by import receptors at the surface of the organelle .
typically , this interaction directs the precursor protein into a preprotein translocation pore , comprised of tom40 . here
, we show that a prominent -barrel channel protein spanning the outer membrane , human voltage- dependent anion - selective channel ( vdac ) , bypasses the requirement for the tom40 translocation pore during biogenesis .
insertion of vdac into the outer membrane is unaffected by plugging the translocation pore with a partially translocated matrix preprotein , and mitochondria containing a temperature - sensitive mutant of tom40 insert vdac at the nonpermissive temperature .
synthetic liposomes harboring the cytosolic domain of the human import receptor tom20 efficiently insert newly synthesized vdac , resulting in transbilayer transport of atp .
therefore , tom20 transforms newly synthesized cytosolic vdac into a transmembrane channel that is fully integrated into the lipid bilayer . |
7,239 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: heart rate , perhaps the most commonly measured vital sign in clinical practice , is a key determinant of myocardial metabolism and cardiac output .
tachycardia , conventionally defined as an atrial and/or ventricular rate of > 100 beats per minute ( bpm ) has an arbitrary and debated definition .
nevertheless , tachycardia can be of importance , since it can cause myocardial ischemia , hypotension , low cardiac output , peripheral hypoperfusion , severe symptoms ( chest pain , weakness , syncope , lightheadedness ) , cardiomyopathy , cardiac arrest and death .
tachycardias can be broadly classified as : sinus tachycardia ( appropriate physiologically and inappropriate ) ; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( pots ) ; supraventricular tachycardia ( atrial tachycardia , av nodal reentrant tachycardia and av reentrant tachycardia ) ; atrial flutter with rapid ventricular response ; atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response ; junctional tachycardia ; or ventricular tachycardia .
sinus tachycardia ( heart rate > 100 bpm ) is the form encountered most commonly in clinical practice .
the vast majority of sinus tachycardia is physiological and associated with catecholaminergic triggers ( e.g. emotions , physical activity , and other stresses ) .
the evaluation and management of persistent sinus tachycardia involves careful assessment of whether tachycardia is an appropriate response or not , the discussion of which is beyond the scope of this manuscript .
a small percentage of patients can have persistent sinus tachycardia without any underlying illness or structural heart disease , and are classified as having inappropriate sinus tachycardia .
inappropriate sinus tachycardia is under - recognized , can be associated with debilitating symptoms and poses significant management challenges .
postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( pots ) , a neurally - mediated disorder ( defined as orthostatic tachycardia of > 30 beats from baseline or a heart rate > 120 bpm with no significant blood pressure... | tachycardia , conventionally , but arbitrarily , defined as an atrial and/or ventricular rate of > 100 beats per minute , is encountered commonly and can be physiological or pathological in origin
. various adverse consequences from tachycardia have been recognized , and an important one is the association between persistent tachycardia and cardiomyopathy . in this article
, we provide an up - to - date review on the etiology of tachycardia , management strategies , and the prognosis of patients presenting with tachycardia and cardiomyopathy . |
7,240 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | current evidence suggests that although fetal exposure to smoking might increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in later life , lifestyle factors either during pregnancy or in adulthood may play a more important role .
a
familybased association study design might be helpful to detangle the relation among intrauterine exposure , lifestyle factors , and risk of diabetes in later life . |
7,241 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: | the analysis of micronuclei ( mn ) in cultured human lymphocytes is , in principle , able to detect exposure to clastogens and aneuploidogens alike .
there is , however , no clear evidence from human biomonitoring studies or animal experiments showing that in vivo exposure of resting lymphocytes to an aneuploidogen could actually be expressed as mn in cultured lymphocytes . in vitro , a pulse treatment of human lymphocytes with vinblastine , an aneuploidogen , did result in mn induction even if performed before mitogen stimulation , although a much more pronounced effect was obtained in actively dividing lymphocyte cultures . on the other hand ,
it is probable that a considerable portion of " spontaneous " mn contain whole chromosomes , their contribution increasing with age .
it also seems that cytochalasin b , used for the identification of second cell cycle interphase cells in the mn assay , is able to slightly increase the level of mn with whole chromosomes .
if mn harboring chromosome fragments represent a minority of the total mn frequency , there may be difficulties in detecting a weak effect in this fraction of mn against the background of mn with whole chromosomes .
this would reduce the sensitivity of the assay in detecting clastogens , unless mn with whole chromosomes and chromosome fragments are distinguished from each other . that a problem may exist in sensitivity
is suggested by the difficulty in demonstrating mn induction by smoking , an exposure capable of inducing chromosome aberrations .
the sensitivity of the lymphocyte mn assay could be increased by detecting kinetochore or centromere in mn , or by automation , allowing more cells to be analyzed.imagesfigure 2 . |
7,242 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: between october 1996 and february 1998 , a prospective patient cohort of 32 consecutive patients underwent single - level alif .
surgical intervention was planned only after the persistence of pain for more than 6 months despite conservative treatment .
were body mass index between 20 and 35 and age between 18 and 65 years . positive provocative discomanometric evaluation with adjacent - level negative controls between l3 and s1 was mandatory .
exclusion criteria were ( inflammatory ) diseases affecting the entire spine , pregnancy , smoking , and a history of pneumonia or pulmonary embolism . patients with diabetes mellitus , metabolic bone disease , loss of bone stock , active infection , or metastatic disease were also excluded .
after approval by our institutional review board , we invited all 32 patients who underwent single - level fusion by telephone and regular mail to take part in this evaluation .
twenty - five patients ( 78% ) agreed to participate in the study and were seen in the clinic by an investigator ( p.h . )
standing anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of the spine were obtained as well as an upright magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) of the lumbar spine to evaluate adjacent disc levels .
radiographs were taken at the 10-year follow - up visit and consisted of standard standing anteroposterior and lateral images of the lumbar spine .
an upright mri was made to analyze the disc quality and identify facet joint osteoarthritis ( fjoa ) at the adjacent level as possible confounder in remaining low - back pain .
a 0.6-tesla fonar upright mri ( fonar corporation , melville , ny ) was used for this purpose .
disc degeneration was classified according to pfirrmann et al into five groups.16 we pooled the data from facet joint degeneration into two groups , either grade 3 fjoa or fjoa less than grade 3 . only grade 3 fjoa seems related to low back pain.17 the examination protocol included t1- and t2-weighted images in sagittal and transverse planes above , at , and below the fusion level .
if... | we reviewed the records of a prospective consecutive cohort to evaluate the clinical performance of anterior lumbar interbody fusion with a titanium box cage and posterior fixation , with emphasis on long - term functional outcome .
thirty - two patients with chronic low back pain underwent anterior lumbar interbody fusion and posterior fixation .
radiological and functional results ( visual analogue scale [ vas ] and oswestry score ) were evaluated .
adjacent segment degeneration ( asd ) was evaluated radiologically and by magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) .
twenty - five patients ( 78% ) were available for follow - up .
functional scores showed significant improvement in pain and function up to the 2-year follow - up observation . at 4 years
, there was some deterioration of the clinical results . at 10-year follow - up , results remained stable compared with 4-year results .
mri showed asd in 3/25 ( 12% ) above and 2/10 ( 20% ) below index level ( compared with absent preoperatively ) .
asd could not be related to clinical outcome in this study .
anterior lumbar interbody fusion and posterior fixation is safe and effective .
initial improvement in vas and oswestry scores is partly lost at the 4-year follow - up .
good clinical results are maintained at 10-year follow - up and are not related to adjacent segment degeneration . |
7,243 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: painful legs and moving toes ( plmt ) is a rare syndrome characterized by spontaneous movements of a single or all digits and pain in one or both lower extremities123 ) .
the largest case series identified 76 patients during an 18-year period2 ) , and only one pediatric case has been reported4 ) .
we report the first adolescent case of plmt in korea and review current literature on the plmt syndrome .
a 16-year - old girl complained of tingling pain in her left leg and continuous involuntary movements of her ipsilateral great toe one month after a second untethering surgery .
extension and flexion of her great toe , which occurred when awake and in the early stages of sleep , could not be suppressed voluntarily . walking , sitting , or straining
did not exacerbate the pain . at birth , she had a sacral dimple at the s23 vertebral level .
four years previously , she had a voiding difficulty and underwent untethering surgery to correct the lipomeningomyelocele at the s2 level of the conus medullaris . a nerve conduction velocity study ( ncvs ) showed polyradiculopathy at the left l5 level and below with axonal involvement . a needle electromyogram ( emg ) showed abnormal spontaneous activities of the left gastrocnemius medial head , abductor hallucis , and tibialis anterior / posterior .
five months later , the voiding difficulty recurred , and a second untethering surgery was performed .
cerebrospinal fluid ( csf ) analysis revealed a red blood cell count of 60,000/mm , a white blood cell count of 150/mm ( polymorphonucleocytes 69% , lymphocytes 18% ) , a protein level of 274 mg / dl , and a glucose level of 39 mg / dl .
since the complete blood count showed neutropenia ( absolute neutrophil count=600/mm ) , teicoplanin was discontinued .
one month postoperatively , the patient presented with left leg pain and involuntary movements of her left great toe . increased deep tendon reflex of both knees was observed with no other pathologic signs .
magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine showed reactive... | painful legs and moving toes ( plmt ) syndrome is characterized by spontaneous movements of the digits and pain in one or both lower extremities . of the reported cases ,
a majority of the patients was female , and the mean age of onset was 58 years .
only one pediatric case has been reported so far . herein , we report the first adolescent case of plmt in korea . a 16-year - old girl complained of tingling pain in the left leg and involuntary movement of the ipsilateral great toe one month after a second untethering surgery .
three years ago , she had undergone untethering surgery to correct lipomeningomyelocele at the s2 level of the conus medullaris . at that time
, she was diagnosed with polyradiculopathy at the left l5 level with axonal involvement .
we diagnosed her with plmt syndrome and prescribed gabapentin .
her symptoms diminished within a day .
complete relief from involuntary movement of the toe was achieved within four months .
plmt is a rare syndrome but it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of children and adolescents with limb pain and spontaneous movement in their toes . |
7,244 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a 21-year - old man was referred to us with a 1-year history of low back pain .
the pain evolved insidiously and progressed over time and was incompatible with comfortable everyday life .
the pain was worse in the standing position and with flexion and extension and less in sitting and supine status .
he remarked on bilateral back of thigh pain without radicular characteristics since 1 year previously .
physical examination revealed no significant finding . in lumbar spine x - ray examination and computed tomography scans , we found bilateral multilevel ( l3 , l4 , l5 ) spondylolysis without any slip or scoliosis ( fig .
1 ) . magnetic resonance imaging showed no sign of slip or disc degeneration in the affected area ( fig .
a 3-month course of conservative treatment with nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs was suggested , along with physical therapy and lumbar soft corset .
the patient was symptomless after treatment , but 4 months later he again complained of a similar problem .
the pain became more and more severe so that conventional conservative therapy had minimal effect and even referral to pain clinics and injection of anesthetics were unsuccessful in achieving acceptable and permanent results .
the severity of pain disabled the patient . to prove the origin of the pain , with the guidance of fluoroscopy , local anesthesia ( i.e. , lidocaine and bupivacaine )
again , the pain was relieved for 2 days , which reinforced the theory that the source of patient 's pain was the spondylolysis .
we were encouraged to perform a less invasive surgical technique for correction of defects .
preoperative plain x - ray showing three - level bilateral spondylolysis : right oblique ( a ) , lateral ( b ) , flexion ( c ) , and extension ( d ) views .
this approach seemed to be wise because the instruments extended lateral to medial and a wide three - level exposure was necessary .
a 6.5 45-mm multiaxial pedicle screw ( uss-2 synthesis system ) was inserted for the involved vertebrae under fluoroscopic guidance... | we report a case of bilateral three - level lumbar spondylolysis that was directly repaired by use of hook - screw technique .
the patient complained of low back pain for 2 years that progressively worsened and was exacerbated with standing and walking .
he also mentioned bilateral sciatalgia .
the neurological examination was normal .
interestingly , we found bilateral lumbar spondylolysis in l3 , l4 , and l5 levels in imaging studies . after proving that spondylolysis was the source of the low back pain by local anesthetic agent injection
, we used a direct technique for correction of spondylolysis by use of a hook - screw device plus decortications of lysis area and iliac crest autograft .
we assessed the patient after surgery to evaluate pain recovery and fusion rate .
the results were favorable and proved the efficacy of the hook - screw technique for treatment of symptomatic multilevel lumbar spondylolysis . |
7,245 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: ims - microscopy fusion is demonstrated through three different applications : ( i ) predicting ion distributions to a spatial resolution that exceeds that of the measured ion images ( sharpening ) ; ( ii ) predicting ion distributions in tissue areas that were not measured by ims ( out - of - sample prediction ) ; and ( iii ) discovery of biological patterns that are difficult to retrieve from the source modalities separately ( enrichment ) .
the results cover seven distinct case studies ( supplementary table 1 ) , each describing a multi - modal tissue imaging experiment with microscopy and maldi ims from the same or an adjacent tissue section .
the sharpening of ion images provides a means of predicting molecular tissue content to a higher spatial resolution and introduces the general modeling procedure that underlies all our fusion applications . in case study 1 , the tissue distribution of ion m / z 762.5 ( identified as pe(16:0/22:6 ) ) is measured through an ims experiment performed at 100 m spatial resolution ( fig .
3b ) is taken from the same tissue section stained with h&e after the ims acquisition .
our two - phase fusion method ( see online methods and supplementary figs . 1 , 2 , and
3 ) combines the information from both modalities , builds a model to capture any cross - modality relationships it can detect , and employs that model and the microscopy measurements to predict the distribution for all ions at 10 m resolution . the spatial prediction for ion m / z 762.5
additionally , we compare the 100 m measurement and the fusion - based 10 m prediction to an ion image for m / z 762.5 actually acquired at 10 m on an adjacent tissue section ( fig .
the ims acquisition parameters are identical for ( a ) and ( d ) , except for increased laser power required to compensate for reduced signal intensities at 10 m pixel widths .
an example by an alternative up - sampling approach , bilinear interpolation ( supplementary fig .
the online methods provide details on the model building and evaluation process... | a new predictive imaging modality is created through the fusion of two distinct technologies : imaging mass spectrometry ( ims ) and microscopy .
ims - generated molecular maps , rich in chemical information but having coarse spatial resolution , are combined with optical microscopy maps , which have relatively low chemical specificity but high spatial information .
the resulting images combine the advantages of both technologies , enabling prediction of a molecular distribution both at high spatial resolution and with high chemical specificity .
multivariate regression is used to model variables in one technology , using variables from the other technology .
several applications demonstrate the remarkable potential of image fusion : ( i ) sharpening of ims images , which uses microscopy measurements to predict ion distributions at a spatial resolution that exceeds that of measured ion images by ten times or more ; ( ii ) prediction of ion distributions in tissue areas that were not measured by ims ; and ( iii ) enrichment of biological signals and attenuation of instrumental artifacts , revealing insights that are not easily extracted from either microscopy or ims separately .
image fusion enables a new multi - modality paradigm for tissue exploration whereby mining relationships between different imaging sensors yields novel imaging modalities that combine and surpass what can be gleaned from the individual technologies alone . |
7,246 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: heart rate recovery ( hrr ) is the rate at which heart rate declines from the end of exercise to a predetermined time point during recovery , typically one minute after exercise [ 1 , 2 ] .
after submaximal exercise , the withdrawal from sympathetic activity typically takes place 30 seconds into recovery [ 2 , 4 ] .
in contrast , increased sympathetic activity following peak intensity exercise may continue for approximately one to three minutes , delaying hrr [ 2 , 5 , 6 ] .
a slower hrr has been related with lower cardiovascular fitness , thereby indicating an increased risk of cardiovascular disease .
therefore , hrr has been suggested as a noninvasive method for cardiovascular risk assessment in both children and adults [ 3 , 8 ] .
body fat is positively associated with risk for cardiovascular disease in children and adults .
as hrr is an indirect measure of cardiovascular disease risk , studies in adults have shown that indices of obesity are strong predictors of hrr following exercise [ 3 , 11 ] .
dimkpa and oji showed that in healthy adults , obesity surrogates negatively correlated with hrr following submaximal intensity exercise .
similarly , singh and colleagues demonstrated that overweight youth experienced a slower one - minute postexercise hrr than healthy weight youth after a maximal protocol followed by one - minute cool - down period .
moreover , dangardt and colleagues suggested that children with obesity displayed a significantly lower vagal activity at rest compared to overweight and lean controls .
though these studies related body fat and hrr , no research has investigated hrr from aerobic exercise in children with excessive adiposity ( i.e. , those classified as obese , not overweight ) compared to lean controls . in addition , measuring hrr in children predisposed to excessive adiposity ( e.g. , individuals with prader - willi syndrome ) can also reveal particular mechanisms that affect postexercise hrr response .
prader - willi syndrome ( pws ) is the best characterized genetic... | heart rate recovery ( hrr ) is an indicator of all - cause mortality in children and adults .
we aimed to determine the effect of adiposity and prader - willi syndrome ( pws ) , a congenital form of obesity , on hrr .
sixteen children of normal weight ( nw = body fat % 85th percentile , 9.4 1.1 y ) , 18 children with obesity ( ob = body fat % > 95th percentile , 9.3 1.1 y ) , and 11 pws youth ( regardless of body fat % ; 11.4 2.5 y ) completed peak and submaximal bike tests on separate visits .
hrr was recorded one minute following peak and submaximal exercises .
all groups displayed similar hrr from peak exercise , while nw ( 54 16 beats ) and ob ( 50 12 beats ) exhibited a significantly faster hrr from submaximal exercise than pws ( 37 14 beats ) .
these data suggest that excess adiposity does not influence hrr in children , but other factors such as low cardiovascular fitness and/or autonomic dysfunction might be more influential . |
7,247 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: adenovirus ( ad ) belongs to a family of nonenveloped icosahedral viruses containing a double - stranded dna genome , adenoviridae , and genus mastadenovirus .
there are 53 human ad serotypes divided into seven subgroups ( a to g ) based on immunologic , biologic , and biochemical characteristics . among these ,
viruses in groups b1 , c , and e cause respiratory infections , group b2 viruses infect the kidney and urinary tract ; group f viruses cause gastroenteritis ; and several group d serotypes are associated with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis .
most people recover from ad infections by themselves , but people with immunodeficiency and small children are at higher risk of fatal adenovirus infection .
studies showed that ad can evade host immune responses , such as inhibition of interferon functions by rna and e1a , and inhibition of intrinsic cellular apoptosis in infected cells .
recently , several studies evaluated human adenoviruses which play an important role in the study of tumorigenesis , including oncogenic transformation of cells , immune evasion , angiogenesis , and metastasis [ 3 , 4 ] .
there are no antiviral drugs to treat adenoviral infections , so treatment is largely directed at the symptoms .
the discovery of the ad yielded further evidence that viruses can sometimes interfere with each other during the growth and replication within a host animal .
other researchers found that this interference can be mediated by interferon produced by the host animal .
so interferon has become prominent in the treatment of a variety of cancers and infectious diseases , such as hepatitis c .
recently , several studies demonstrated that rna interference ( rnai ) can also be used for treatment with viral infection in vitro , such as hepatitis b virus , coxsackievirus b3 , and coxsackievirus a16 [ 68 ] .
these findings indicate that those specific sirnas targeted viruses are not as effective as expected .
rnai can also be triggered by micrornas ( mirnas ) , which are short ~22 nucleotide rna sequences that... | adenovirus infection can cause various illnesses depending on the infecting serotype , such as gastroenteritis , conjunctivitis , cystitis , and rash illness , but the infection mechanism is still unknown .
micrornas ( mirna ) have been reported to play essential roles in cell proliferation , cell differentiation , and pathogenesis of human diseases including viral infections .
we analyzed the mirna expression profiles from adenovirus type 3 ( ad3 ) infected human laryngeal epithelial ( hep2 ) cells using a solid deep sequencing .
492 precursor mirnas were identified in the ad3 infected hep2 cells , and 540 precursor mirnas were identified in the control .
a total of 44 mirnas demonstrated high expression and 36 mirnas showed lower expression in the ad3 infected cells than control .
the biogenesis of mirnas has been analyzed , and some of the solid results were confirmed by quantitative pcr analysis .
the present studies may provide a useful clue for the biological function research into ad3 infection . |
7,248 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chinese food and soups contain monosodium glutamate ( msg ) as the main addictive ingredient . a sensitive
individual may suffer from headache , giddiness , sweating , abdominal pain , and urticaria within a few hours of consumption of msg .
angioedema may be delayed up to 816 h after the consumption of msg and it may persist for 24 h. this delayed life - threatening effect in the form of angioedema makes diagnosis difficult .
a 23-year - old male was brought to the general hospital at mahad , with complaints of difficulty in speaking , inability to swallow saliva , and continuous spitting .
he strongly rejected taking sips of water and was afraid of water like a hydrophobic patient .
the posterior pharynx could not be visualized , even after repeated attempts with depression of the tongue with a spatula .
the uvula was touching the base of the tongue [ figure 1 ] . on arrival , swelling of the uvula and surrounding tissues , almost closing the entry to the pharynx , touching the base of floor of the mouth .
his blood pressure was 120/80 mmhg ; pulse was 88 beats / min and regular .
his extremities were warm , the electrocardiograph was within normal limits , and spo2 was 98% on ambient air .
the patient said that he ate only chinese triple fried rice for dinner the previous night 10 hours earlier . within an hour of eating , he had giddiness , sweating , and itching all over the body which subsided without any medication .
two hours earlier he had woken up due to difficulty in swallowing and speaking out a few words .
he communicated with his family with hand gestures regarding his inability to speak and swallow .
the hemoglobin was 14 mg / dl , white cell count 13,000 per cu mm ( normal 500010,000 ) , eosinophils 1% ( normal 19 ) , neutrophils 90.9% , random blood sugar 135 mg / dl ( normal 70140 ) , and serum ige 917.021 iu / ml ( normal 3188 ) .
the patient was admitted and given intravenous crystalline solution of 40 mg methyl prednisolone and was monitored continuously for oxygen saturation .
there was... | in india , eating chinese food has become very popular .
we hereby report a case who presented with angioneurotic edema of the uvula and the surrounding structures , after eating chinese food , which resulted in severe difficulty in swallowing saliva and inability to speak . |
7,249 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: children <3 years of age attending two health centers , one public reference hospital ( joao alves ) , and a private hospital in aracaju were invited to participate in our study during april and may 2002 .
these months correspond to the beginning of the rainy season , when most cases of bronchiolitis occur .
the health centers provide 24-hour medical services for acute illnesses ; patients with severe health problems are referred to the public hospital .
the small private hospital caters to self - referred and transferred patients ( mostly from the public hospital ) .
children with diagnoses of acute lower respiratory infections ( alri ) were recruited consecutively after informed parental consent .
the diagnosis of alri was based on the presence of cough , tachypnea , chest indrawing , or wheeze of < 7 days duration and followed the world health organization s standard protocol for research on alri ( 14 ) .
nasopharyngeal secretions were collected by using sterile mucous traps ( maesk medical a / s , bettina bay , denmark ) . immediately after collection
, aspirates were mixed with phosphate - buffered saline , transferred into 2-ml cryotubes , and kept frozen at 80c until analyzed .
hypoxia levels were measured by pulse oximetry before the use of oxygen , and children were treated according to local guidelines for the management of alri .
detection of the hmpv genome was performed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction amplification ( rt - pcr ) of the matrix ( m ) , fusion ( f ) and nucleocapsid ( n ) protein genes , as described previously ( 5 ) .
selected pcr products were cloned into a ta cloning vector ( pgem - t , promega , uk ) , and the sequence was determined to confirm the identity of the virus detected by the pcr reaction .
samples were defined as hmpv positive if at least two of the rt - pcr test results were positive , although in practice all positive samples had at least two positive pcrs .
a total of 111 children ( 57 from the health centers , 25 from joao alvez hospital , and... | we describe the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of 111 children attending clinics and hospitals in aracaju , northeast brazil , with acute respiratory infections attributable to human metapneumovirus ( hmpv ) , respiratory syncytial virus ( rsv ) , or both in may and june 2002 .
fifty - three ( 48% ) children were infected with rsv alone , 19 ( 17% ) with hmpv alone , and 8 ( 7% ) had rsv / hmpv co - infections . |
7,250 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: placement of fixed orthodontic appliances usually colonizes streptococcus mutans , and enhances the risk of dental caries.[13 ] fluoride - releasing bonding materials for bonding the brackets showed almost no demineralization inhibiting effect .
buyukilmaz and ogaard in an earlier study suggested the combined use of antimicrobials and fluoride to enhance the cariostatic effect of fluoride .
a new fluoride releasing and antimicrobial bonding material clearfil protect bond self - etch primer ( cpb ) ( kurrary medical inc .
this two - step self - etch primer ( sep ) consists of a specially treated sodium fluoride to resist against demineralization .
additionally , it contains 12-methacryloyloxydodecyl pyridinium bromide ( mdpb ) ; the antibacterial agent of this sep .
recently , another self - etching primer has been developed for orthodontic practice ( transbond plus self - etching primer , 3 m unitek , monrovia , ca , usa ) .
this one - step sep combines the etching , priming , and bonding in one - step application and reduces the bonding time , increases the cost - effectiveness for the clinician and the patient , and not requiring a separate acid etching step and the need for rinsing . however , effective bonding of these two self - etching primers is controversial .
and cal - neto and miguel reported that the sbs of brackets bonded with cpb , in comparison with conventional method ( cm ) ( acid etching and priming ) did not show any significant difference , while bishara et al . and tuncer et al
. found that cpb had significantly higher sbs than cm . on the other hand , ulker et al . , and holzmeier et al . , stated that the sbs of brackets bonded with cpb was significantly lower than cm .
dorminey et al . , reported no significant difference in the bond strength between the brackets bonded with tp and cm , whereas aljubouri et al .
, and grubisa et al . , observed significantly lower sbs in brackets bonded with tp and conversely , buyukilmaz et al . , and
bishara et al . , reported significantly higher sbs... | background : the aim of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength of an antimicrobial and fluoride - releasing self - etch primer ( clearfil protect bond ) and compare it with transbond plus self - etch primer and conventional acid etching and priming system.materials and methods : forty - eight extracted human premolars were divided randomly to three groups . in group 1 ,
the teeth were bonded with conventional acid etching and priming method . in group 2 ,
the teeth were bonded with clearfil protect bond self - etch primer , and transbond plus self - etch primer was used to bond the teeth in group 3 .
the samples were stored in 37c distilled water and thermocycled .
then , the sbs of the sample was evaluated with zwick testing machine .
descriptive statistics and the analysis of variances ( anova ) and tukey 's test and kruskal - wallis were used to analyze the data.results:the results of the anova showed that the mean of group 3 was significantly lower than that of other groups .
most of the sample showed a pattern of failure within the adhesive resin.conclusion:the shear bond strength of clearfil protect bond and transbond plus self - etch primer was enough for bonding the orthodontic brackets .
the mode of failure of bonded brackets with these two self - etch primers is safe for enamel . |
7,251 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: flagellate literally means to whip ( someone ) , either as a religious discipline or for sexual gratification according to oxford dictionary .
flagellate dermatitis or toxicoderma presents with very characteristic linear wheal like skin manifestations and is often associated with shiitake mushroom ( lentinus edodes ) .
we report a 40 year old lady who developed flagellate dermatitis following ingestion of a bun containing shiitake mushroom .
a 40 year old lady complained of acute onset of unusual rashes on her neck , body and limbs for 2 days .
she reported feeling itchy on her arms and kept scratching , but denied scratching her trunk .
physical examination revealed extensive flagellate dermatitis on arms , trunk , legs , neck , forehead and some pinpoint petechiae on arms ( figure 1 ) . on further questioning ,
patient recalled eating portobello mushroom from an italian restaurant 5 days ago and a mushroom bun from a bakery shop 3 days ago , but could not recall taking shiitake mushroom .
she recalled having itch when she ate mushroom in the past but no rash .
figure 1linear grouped erythematous papules on lower limbs ( a ) and abdomen ( b ) .
linear grouped erythematous papules on lower limbs ( a ) and abdomen ( b ) .
her full blood counts , liver function tests , creatine kinase and creatinine were normal .
the mushroom bun that she ate 3 days prior to the onset of rash contained shiitake mushroom .
flagellate dermatitis typically presents with multiple intensely pruritic , erythematous linear plaques and papules on the trunk and extremities .
such cutaneous reactions often occurred 48 hours following ingestion of under - cooked or raw shiitake mushroom .
the average duration of involvement was 8.5 days and improvement was generally noticed within 2 to 14 days .
people involved in cultivating and marketing shiitake mushrooms may develop allergic alveolitis on inhalation of mushroom spores and contact dermatitis upon contact with the mushroom .
however , in shiitake dermatitis , skin prick and patch... | japanese dermatologists were the first to describe the very characteristic flagellate dermatitis following consumption of undercooked or raw shiitake mushroom ( lentinus edodes ) .
these similar eruptions were also reported in patients treated with bleomycin , in dermatomyositis and adult onset still 's disease .
we report a case where a 40 year old chinese female developed flagellate dermatitis following ingestion of a bun containing shiitake mushroom . |
7,252 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: following institutional review board approval , we retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients who underwent endovascular treatment for symptomatic atherosclerotic intracranial stenosis between january 2003 and december 2014 performed at king faisal specialist hospital and research center , jeddah , kingdom of saudi arabia .
we excluded cases with other potential cause of stroke or tia such as cardioembolic events or vasospasm .
patients demographic , timing of cerebral ischemic event , stroke risk factors , and location and severity of intracranial atherosclerosis were identified .
hypertension , defined as receiving blood pressure medication for blood pressure more than 140/90 , diabetes , cardiac disease , and hyperlipidaemia were all noted .
brain and cerebrovascular imaging including ct , ct angiography ( cta ) , mri , mr angiography ( mra ) , and conventional cerebral digital subtraction angiography ( dsa ) were reviewed for all included patients .
the intracranial stenosis was defined as the presence of 50 - 99% stenosis on cta , mra , or angiography .
the stenosis was considered to be symptomatic when the brain imaging showed a relevant regional infarct ipsilateral and distal to the vascular territory of the stenotic vessel or if the patient s symptoms are attributed to that territory .
the occurrence of adverse events was evaluated during the procedure , immediately post - procedure , before discharge , and at 30-days .
adverse events were divided into minor strokes with new non - disabling neurological deficits , major stroke with persistent disabling deficits and death .
the success of the stenting procedure was defined as no or less than 50% residual stenosis in the original disease segment .
in addition , all patients received maximum medical treatment consisting of dual antiplatelet therapy plus lipid lowering agents .
these are in addition to blood pressure control and glycemic control in patients with hypertension and diabetes .
six months then annual follow up radiological... | objectives : to present our local experience with intracranial angioplasty and stenting used for the treatment of symptomatic intracranial stenosis to assess its safety , efficacy , and outcome.methods:this is a retrospective review of all the patients with symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease who underwent endovascular treatment in king faisal specialist hospital and research center , jeddah , kingdom of saudi arabia from january 2003 to december 2014 .
clinical , procedural , and outcome variables were gathered.results:we identified 22 patients who were referred for stenting of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis . in all but 3 , the stents were deployed successfully ( 86% procedural success rate ) . the procedure was carried out under conscious sedation in 32% .
excellent flow was restored immediately in all successfully - stented cases .
post procedural strokes occurred in 4 patients ( 17.4% ) .
one non - neurological death was identified in a patient who suffered a major post procedural stroke ( 4.3%).conclusion : intracranial atherosclerotic disease is not uncommon in our population . angioplasty and stenting might be a valid option for the treatment of patients with recurrent symptoms despite optimal medical treatment . |
7,253 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: mineral trioxide aggregate ( mta ) is a biocompatible material with high sealing ability which has been used for various purposes in endodontics , including root end filling , sealing of perforations , treatment of teeth with open apices , and as a pulp capping agent [ 13 ] .
the color of original mta ( grey mta or gmta ) was grey and it had a potential of tooth discoloration . because of this disadvantage , white mta ( wmta ) introduced in order to this problem be solved .
asgary et al . showed that the major differences in chemical component between wmta and gmta are concentrations of al2o3 , mgo , and feo .
found that there were no significant differences in pulp responses to both types of mta when used as a pulp capping agent in dog 's teeth .
holland et al . also found that the mechanisms of action of wmta and gmta are similar .
however , matt et al . found that gmta has significantly less leakage than wmta when used as an apical barrier .
although wmta was developed to solve the problem of tooth discoloration produced by gmta , several studies have reported tooth discoloration after using both kinds of mta [ 915 ] .
this effect limits mta application in treatment of perforations , pulp capping , pulpotomy , and as an apical barrier in aesthetically sensitive areas .
bonding to dentin is one of the most significant advances in the past fifty years .
the success of this kind of bonding has depended more on creative chemistry than etching with some materials such as phosphoric acid .
many generations of dentin bonding agents ( dbas ) have been produced . with new advances in new material 's technology , bonding to dentin has been reported to be favorable .
the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the application of dba before usage of mta to prevent tooth discoloration .
fifty freshly extracted single - rooted human maxillary central and lateral incisors were used in this study .
the teeth were clinically and radiographically examined to be free of caries , cracks , restoration , and... | objective . determination of the effect of dentin bonding agent ( dba ) on the prevention of tooth discoloration produced by mineral trioxide aggregate ( mta ) . methods .
50 teeth were endodontically treated and after removal of 3 mm of obturating materials were divided into five groups . in white mta ( wmta ) and
grey mta ( gmta ) groups , these materials were placed in root canal below the orifice . in dba + wmta and dba + gmta groups ,
dbas were applied in the access cavity .
then , 3 mm of wmta and gmta was placed .
the last 10 teeth served as control .
all of teeth were restored and color measurement was recorded for each specimen at this time and 6 months later . results .
the mean tooth discoloration in wmta and gmta groups was significantly more than dba + wmta and dba + gmta groups , respectively .
there was no significant difference between dba + wmta and dba + gmta groups and control group .
conclusion .
application of dba before mta may prevent tooth discoloration . |
7,254 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: protein kinase ck2
is a pleiotropic , ubiquitous and intrinsically
active eukaryotic ser / thr protein kinase that is overexpressed in
various cancer types . in humans , ck2 forms
a heterotetrameric complex ( 2/2 ) consisting of two catalytic subunits ( ck2 or ) attached
to a dimer of regulatory subunits ( ck2 or 2 ) .
the unique molecular architecture
of the ck2 holoenzyme could be exploited in the design of inhibitors
that do not target the atp site and thus provide a more specific mode
of action , prompting the discovery of various non - atp - competitive
inhibitors against ck2 . in particular ,
significant efforts have been devoted to the development of compounds
that disrupt the transient , hetero - oligomeric protein protein
interaction ( ppi ) between ck2 and ck2. given that the function of proteins critically depend on a correct
oligomerization state , and the importance of ck2 in modulating
the catalytic activity and substrate specificity of ck2 , disruption
of the constitutive , homodimeric ppi within ck2 represents
an alternative approach to interfere with ck2 function . developing small molecule inhibitors to disrupt ppis is a
challenging
task due to the typically extended and flat topology of contact surfaces ,
often devoid of the well - defined deep clefts that are characteristic
of many enzyme active sites .
the difficulty is compounded
by the fact that the interacting surfaces of protein partners are
frequently segmented .
however , recent
successes in the development of ppi inhibitors have shown that ppis
are amenable to targeting by small molecules .
while the majority of the ppi inhibitors disrupt transient , hetero - oligomeric
ppis , only a comparatively few cases of small - molecule ppi inhibitors
that target constitutive , homo - oligomeric interfaces have been reported .
considering that achieving small - molecule inhibition of transient ,
hetero - oligomeric ppis is already an inherently challenging effort ,
the search for... | identifying small molecules that
induce the disruption of constitutive
protein protein interfaces is a challenging objective . here ,
a targeted biophysical screening cascade was employed to specifically
identify small molecules that could disrupt the constitutive , homodimeric
protein protein interface within ck2. this approach
could potentially be applied to achieve subunit disassembly of other
homo - oligomeric proteins as a means of modulating protein function . |
7,255 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study:
difficulty in speech discrimination , particularly in challenging auditory situations such as noisy places and/or when attempting to trace fast speech , is the most common complaint among the elderly .
this difficulty is often attributed to reduced peripheral hearing sensitivity in the elderly ( 1,2 ) .
there is evidence that speech perception in noisy situations is difficult even for normal peripheral hearing sensitivity in the elderly ( 3 ) .
speech discrimination in noise depends on auditory and extra - auditory factors ( 4 ) .
spatial hearing , auditory input representation in different regions of the central auditory system , and spectrotemporal cues for speech processing such as f0 ( the number of human vocal cord vibrations that are affected by age and gender ) are known as auditory elements for speech perception in noise ( 5 ) .
cognitive system functions ( as an internal element ) and physical environmental characteristics ( as external elements ) are known as extra - auditory participating factors for speech perception in noise . attention and memory are the most important cognitive elements that result from bottom - up and top - down mechanisms ( 6 ) .
therefore , auditory cognitive system interactions are the basis of target signal and background noise segregation in the auditory system ( 712 ) .
the physical characteristics of a communicative environment are the other extra - auditory elements that influence target stimulus detection in the presence of competing background noise ( 13 ) .
the signal - to - noise ratio ( snr ) is the most effective physical characteristic factor for speech perception in noise , and it is defined as the target stimulus power compared with the background noise power , measured in decibels ( db ) ( 3 ) .
several studies have supported the effect of aging on perceptual abilities . a comparison of these potencies in older and younger people revealed that older people required a 34 db higher snr than younger people to have the same proper perception under similar... | background : speech perception ability depends on auditory and extra - auditory elements .
the signal-
to - noise ratio ( snr ) is an extra - auditory element that has an effect on the ability to normally
follow speech and maintain a conversation .
speech in noise perception difficulty is a common complaint
of the elderly . in this study ,
the importance of snr magnitude as an extra - auditory effect on
speech perception in noise was examined in the elderly .
methods : the speech perception in noise test ( spin ) was conducted on 25 elderly participants who
had bilateral low mid frequency normal hearing thresholds at three snrs in the presence of ipsilateral
white noise .
these participants were selected by available sampling method .
cognitive screening was
done using the persian mini mental state examination ( mmse ) test .
results : independent t- test , annova and pearson correlation index were used for statistical
analysis .
there was a significant difference in word discrimination scores at silence and at three
snrs in both ears ( p0.047 ) .
moreover , there was a significant difference in word discrimination
scores for paired snrs ( 0 and + 5 , 0 and + 10 , and + 5 and + 10 ( p0.04 ) ) .
no significant correlation
was found between age and word recognition scores at silence and at three snrs in both ears
( p0.386 ) .
conclusion : our results revealed that decreasing the signal level and increasing the competing
noise considerably reduced the speech perception ability in normal hearing at low
mid thresholds in
the elderly .
these results support the critical role of snrs for speech perception ability in the elderly .
furthermore , our results revealed that normal hearing elderly participants required compensatory
strategies to maintain normal speech perception in challenging acoustic situations . |
7,256 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: stent thrombosis is one of the most fatal complications of percutaneous coronary intervention ( pci ) .
even with optimal medical treatment after drug eluting stent or bare metal stent ( bms ) insertion , about 0.5 - 1% of patients experience acute , subacute , late , or very late stent thrombosis with a mortality rate as high as 45%.1)2 ) lesion - related risk factors for stent thrombosis include bifurcation lesions , longer lesions , and under deployment of the stent ; patient - related risk factors include diabetes , renal failure , resistance to aspirin or clopidogrel , left ventricular dysfunction ( low ejection fraction ) , younger age , and premature antiplatelet therapy discontinuation.1)2 ) malignancy is considered a prothrombogenic condition , with increased risk for both venous and arterial thrombosis , including native coronary artery thrombosis and myocardial infarction.3 ) recently , we experienced two confirmed cases of acute stent thrombosis in patients with underlying malignancy . here
a 56-year - old male was admitted to our center with an abnormal finding on low dose screening chest ct scan which demonstrated an atelectasis and abrupt narrowing in the right upper lobar bronchus ( fig .
bronchoscopic biopsy revealed a squamous cell carcinoma obstructing the right upper bronchus and [ f]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography demonstrated hypermetabolism in the bronchus and right lower paratracheal lymph node .
he had a past medical history of hypertension and unstable angina , which had been treated by plain balloon angioplasty 8 years previously .
he was taking aspirin 100 mg daily , diltiazem 90 mg daily , isosorbide mononitrate 20 mg twice daily , and candesartan 16 mg daily , but still complained of intermittent chest pain on exertion ( ccs class ii ) .
a myocardial perfusion scan showed reversible perfusion defects in the apex and the apical anterior wall suggesting left anterior descending artery ( lad ) territory ischemia .
echocardiography showed basal inferior wall akinesia... | there have been a growing numbers of patients diagnosed with malignancy and coronary artery disease simultaneously or serially . in the era of percutaneous coronary intervention ( pci )
, stent thrombosis has been a rare but challenging problem .
recently , we experienced two unique cases of acute stent thrombosis in patients with malignancy .
the first case showed acute and subacute stent thrombosis after pci .
the second case revealed simultaneous thromboses in stent and non - treated native coronary artery .
we believe that we need rigorous precautions in the treatment of patients with coronary artery disease and malignancy , especially with regards to deciding how and whether to revascularize , as well as which anti - platelet agents to select . |
7,257 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the ability to differentiate force plays an important role not only in daily life activity ( e.g. , grasping a fragile object ) , but also in sports , where the appropriate sense of force often determines the accuracy task .
when developing strategies to prepare athletes for effort , measures to improve movement control are worth considering .
therefore , the kinesthetic differentiation ( kd ) also known as force sense ( tension or effort ) within training and rehabilitation process becomes more and more stressed . as proprioceptive sensations ,
the kinesthetic differentiation is defined as the ability of an individual to use different levels of muscular force ( perception of muscular force ) .
this skill allows an individual to adapt muscle tension to stabilize the joints , and it is responsible for the economy and precision of motor tasks .
adjusting kinesthetic differentiation takes place in the nervous system , and it is mostly based on the afferent information coming from golgi tendon organs ( gto ) and muscle spindles . apart from these two receptors , an important role of force differentiation is also played by pressure - sensitive skin receptors ( mechanoreceptors in the skin ) , which effectively complement proprioceptive information .
the perception of the muscular force ( kinesthetic differentiation ) is commonly assessed by using force production tests .
these tests involve using a reference force , usually determined as a percentage of a maximal voluntary isometric contraction ( mvc ) , and attempting to replicate a percentage of mvc for instance , 25% , 50% or 75% . the difference between the target force and the force produced
is used to quantify the accuracy of kd and is referred to as a force production error ( fpe ) .
force matching is usually conducted without visual feedback and can occur in the same limb or in the contra lateral limb . in this investigation ,
the grip strength by means of electronic hand dynamometer was conducted to evaluate kd , since it is a valid tool of measurement... | background : swedish massage is one of the common treatments to provide optimal start and readiness of athletes . the ability of kinesthetic differentiation ( kd ) is crucial in sport performance .
this skill allows to adapt demanded muscle forces to optimize the motor tasks , and it is responsible for the precision . in the literature
, there is no evidence how swedish massage influences the kinesthetic differentiation.purpose:the objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of swedish massage on the kinesthetic differentiation and muscle strength of hand grip.methods:thirty participants took part in this investigation ( 17 women and 13 men ) .
the assessment consisted of kd tests conducted on the dominant ( dh ) and nondominant hand ( ndh ) after 15 minutes of hand and forearm swedish massage .
the procedure consisted of 13 trials for each extremity .
the first three were done for 100% of the participants capabilities ( fmax ) , the next five trials were done using 50% of maximum force ( 50% of fmax ) , and in the last five trials , the participants tried to use only 50% of their previous force ( 1/2 of 50% ) .
finally , the absolute force production error ( fpe ) was calculated for 50% ( fpe_50% ) and 25% ( fpe_25%).results : the two - way repeated measure analysis of variance anova did not reveal any statistically significant changes in maximal strength grip and kd between pre- and postmassage intervention in both dh and ndh hand .
correlations showed strong relationship between pre- and postmassage for maximum force ( r = 0.92 , p = .01 for dh , and r = 0.94 , p = .01 for ndh ) , and only for the fpe_50% ( r = 0.67 , p = .01 for dh , and r = 0.71 , p = .01 for ndh).conclusions : the results obtained indicated that the application of the swedish massage did not affect the kinesthetic differentiation in this particular young adult group . |
7,258 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: peripheral arterial disease and venous disease often coexist and they have common risk factors . if virchow s triad is accepted as a basis for the development of venous thrombosis , peripheral vascular disease has a number of characteristics which are likely to promote venous thrombosis .
first , compared to normal subjects , blood flow increased to a lesser extent in patients with peripheral arterial disease during exercise and reactive hyperemia .
second , there is an increased concentration of metabolites such as complement c3 and c5 , free oxygen radicals and lipid peroxides produced in relation to distal tissue ischaemia which , at least in vitro , upregulate the procoagulant properties of the vascular endothelium . with the use of color duplex ultrasound scanning , veins may be identified and their dimensions may be measured . by analyzing the spectrum of the doppler signal , the velocity can be estimated . to find out how peripheral arterial
disease influences deep venous flow in the lower limbs , we undertook a prospective controlled study examining velocity flow in the popliteal vein with color duplex ultrasound scanning .
thirty - one subjects who had chronic peripheral arterial disease ( 24 men and 7 women ) , were recruited for the study : 19 complained of claudication alone , 18 suffered from rest pain and 21 had gangrene .
twenty - three control subjects ( 16 men and 7 women ) without peripheral arterial disease of similar age who were awaiting general surgical procedures were also invited to take part in the study . the presence or absence of peripheral arterial disease
was confirmed by the history of the disease and measurement of the ankle - brachial index ( abi ) .
patients with deep venous thrombosis , chronic venous insufficiency as well as incompressibility of the leg arteries detected while measuring the abi were excluded .
the equipment used was a diasonics ultrasound , coupled with 4mhz transmitted frequency for doppler measurements .
venous blood flow velocity was estimated by the... | aimthis prospective study was undertaken to determine how peripheral atherosclerotic disease influences the flow in the deep veins of the leg.material and methodthirty one subjects with peripheral atherosclerotic disease and 23 age matched control subjects were studied .
the popliteal vein flow velocity was measured at rest and during reactive hyperemia by means of color duplex ultrasound scanning .
patient age , ankle - brachial index ( abi ) and the presence of risk factors for venous thrombosis were also recorded.resultsthere was a negative correlation between the ankle - brachial index and venous flow velocity among subjects with peripheral arterial disease ( p=0.001 ) .
there was a negative correlation between dyslipidemia and resting venous flow velocity ( p=0.049 ) . during reactive hyperemia ,
venous flow velocity increased less in subjects with peripheral arterial disease than it did in control subjects ( p=0.007 ) .
the subjects with dyslipidemia showed no changes in venous flow velocity in reactive hyperemia measurements ( p=0.908).conclusionincreasing the venous flow velocity in peripheral arterial disease , may confer some protection against the deep venous thrombosis . |
7,259 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: it is also called otospongiosis as it is characterised by replacement of the normal ivory - like enchondral bone by spongy vascular bone .
patients typically present in the 2nd- 4th decades of life with conductive hearing loss ( chl ) , sensorineural hearing loss ( snhl ) or mixed hearing loss ( mhl ) and/or tinnitus .
the disease is more common in women and commonly bilateral ( 85 % ) .
retrofenestral otosclerosis rarely occurs without fenestral involvement ; hence these manifestations are considered to be a continuum rather than two separate entities [ 14 ] .
the more common fenestral type of otosclerosis involves the lateral wall of the bony labyrinth .
histologically , demineralised foci of spongy new bone typically occur in the region of the embryonic fissula ante fenestram , which is a cleft of fibrocartilagenous tissue between the inner and middle ear , just anterior to the oval window ( fig . 1 ) .
the promontory , round window niche and tympanic segment of the facial nerve canal can also be involved [ 13 ] .
the disease gradually extends to involve the entire footplate of the stapes and may subsequently involve the cochlea . heaped - up bony plaques formed in the healing phase typically cause narrowing of the oval and round windows .
involvement of the annular ligament leads to mechanical fixation of the stapedo - vestibular joint , which is responsible for the typical chl / audiometric air - bone gap ( carhart s notch ) [ 15 ] .
complete obliteration of the oval window may occur in 2 % cases ( fig .
otosclerosis can sometimes present as isolated round window involvement without pericochlear or oval window involvement .fig .
1axial ( a ) and coronal ( b ) hrct images of the right temporal bone in an adult patient with right - sided chl . a hypodense demineralised plaque ( arrow )
is noted in the region of the fissula ante fenestram in keeping with fenestral otosclerosisfig .
2axial hrct images of the right ( a ) and left ( b ) temporal bone in an adult patient with bilateral chl .
hypodense... | otosclerosis is an otodystrophy of the otic capsule and is a cause of conductive , mixed or sensorineural hearing loss in the 2nd to 4th decades of life .
otosclerosis is categorised into two types , fenestral and retrofenestral .
imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis and management of otosclerosis .
high - resolution ct ( hrct ) of the temporal bone using 1-mm ( or less ) thick sections is the modality of choice for assessment of the labyrinthine windows and cochlear capsules .
mri has limited application in the evaluation of the labyrinthine capsules but is useful for assessment of the cochlear lumen prior to cochlear implantation in patients with profound hearing loss .
the treatment of fenestral otosclerosis is primarily surgical with stapedectomy and prosthesis insertion .
patients with retrofenestral otosclerosis and profound hearing loss are treated medically using fluorides , but may derive significant benefit from cochlear implantation .
this pictorial review aims to acquaint the reader with the pathology and clinical features of otosclerosis , the classical imaging appearances on ct and mri , a radiological checklist for preoperative ct evaluation of otosclerosis , imaging mimics and a few examples of post - stapedectomy imaging and complications.teaching points otosclerosis causes conductive , sensorineural and mixed hearing loss in adults. hrct of the temporal bone is the diagnostic imaging modality of choice. stapedectomy is used to treat fenestral otosclerosis. fluorides and cochlear implantation are used to treat retrofenestral otosclerosis . |
7,260 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the pathogenic events taking place on the surface of medical devices are primarily associated with the presence of microorganisms and their biofilms [ 1 , 2 ] .
a biofilm is an intricate community of microorganisms embedded in a polysaccharide matrix , capable of attaching onto different kinds of surfaces developing a hard - to - eradicate infection .
the adhesion of bacteria onto a surface ( biological or artificial ) depends on biophysical properties , such as wettability and/or electrostatic forces , and the production of specific factors such as polysaccharide intercellular adhesins that create links between the bacteria themselves and bacteria surface .
microorganisms reach the implanted medical devices during or immediately after orthopedic surgery , thus leading to further complications . among postoperative problems , infections caused by s. aureus arise from the worst prognosis the ability of this microorganism to adhere to foreign bodies forming biofilms .
strategies have been developed to prevent biofilm formation after surgery by surface modification of biomaterials which in turn should modify the bacterial adherence or the load and release of broad - spectrum antibiotics from the biomaterials , thus eliminating the incipient colonization [ 7 , 8 ] .
when antibiotics are used , they can be embedded , absorbed into the material structure , or adsorbed on to the biomaterial surface [ 7 , 8 ] .
the antibiotic release from the biomaterial must be sufficient to maintain the local concentration above the minimal inhibitory concentration ( mic ) value during a sufficient period of time [ 912 ] .
several studies aimed at the prevention of colonization and biofilm formation in biomaterials for implants have been reported . while postoperative osteomyelitis is still an important problem in orthopedic and dental clinical practice , studies on already formed biofilm treatments are much more limited .
biomorphic silicon carbide ( biosic ) is a ceramic material obtained from natural resources with good... | the present work is aimed at getting a new insight into biomorphic silicon carbides ( biosics ) as bone replacement materials .
biosics from a variety of precursors were produced , characterized , and loaded with a broad - spectrum antibiotic .
the capacity of loaded biosics for preventing and/or treating preformed s. aureus biofilms has been studied .
the differences in precursor characteristics are maintained after the ceramic production process .
all biosics allow the loading process by capillarity , giving loaded materials with drug release profiles dependent on their microstructure .
the amount of antibiotic released in liquid medium during the first six hours depends on biosic porosity , but it could exceed the minimum inhibitory concentration of staphylococcus aureus , for all the materials studied , thus preventing the proliferation of bacteria .
differences in the external surface and the number and size of open external pores of biosics contribute towards the variations in the effect against bacteria when experiments are carried out using solid media .
the internal structure and surface properties of all the systems seem to facilitate the therapeutic activity of the antibiotic on the preformed biofilms , reducing the number of viable bacteria present in the biofilm compared to controls . |
7,261 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a life in science is not a journey you take alone . at all stages , mentors are key . no one in my family had ever been to university , let alone undertaken a ph.d .
it was a female high school teacher who encouraged me to set my sights high and apply to oxford university for undergraduate studies , and it was the sister of a school friend who first showed me by example that it was possible to have a career in research .
at oxford i attended lectures by john gurdon on frog development and became fascinated by developmental biology .
chris graham had just joined the faculty in the department of zoology and gave some lectures on new approaches to studying the mammalian embryo .
i joined richard gardner 's lab in the marshall laboratory of reproductive physiology at the university of cambridge for my ph.d . in 1972 .
richard had made a big impact with his studies on lineage development in the early mouse embryo , performed by injecting cells into blastocysts , and i became his first graduate student . the marshall lab at that time was really at the center of new developments in technologies to study mammalian development and reproduction , and it was a very exciting and challenging place to work .
matt kaufman was developing parthenogenesis in mice , and richard gardner and martin johnson were making interspecies chimeras to follow cell fate in situ .
all this was carried out in a very collegial environment where a shy new graduate student was able to mingle and learn from the experts .
so when i am asked how students should choose a lab for their graduate studies , i tell them to find an area of science that fascinates them and find a leading lab working in the area , but also to make sure that they will be in a collegial working environment where people are ready and willing to talk and share expertise .
after my ph.d . and postdoc in cambridge and oxford , i married a canadian , whom i met through a college rowing team in cambridge , and moved to canada .
this was a leap into the unknown . moving to canada... | a career in science is a journey of wonder and discovery . to succeed in science requires curiosity , perseverance , a good dose of luck , and wise guidance from those who have taken the journey ahead of you .
we also need to use our science skills to contribute to public debate on complex issues of the day . |
7,262 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the transcriptome of medullary stromal cells of patients suffering from primary myelofibrosis was studied by agilent oligo microarray technology .
the primary myelofibrosis is a chronic myeloproliferative syndrome . to invest the role of bone marrow stroma in the pathophysiology of this disease , we isolated primary cultured of bone marrow stromal cells from these patients .
the osteo - medullary biopsies for the diagnosis of the disease were implanted in dmem medium with 10% fetal calf serum .
stromal cells during their proliferation adhere to plastic and they were trypsinized between each passage ( 35 passages ) when cultures came to confluence .
a cytometric control was carried out on the cells prior to performing molecular biology experiments .
cd105 , cd73 and cd90 marker positivity was verified to validate the mesenchymal cell phenotype .
the negativity of the cd45 marker was also carried out to prove the absence of residual hematopoietic cells in culture .
each culture of mesenchymal stromal cell is isolated from the bone marrow of an individual . in total
, the bone marrow samples were studied individually from 6 healthy donors ( 6 controls : gsm1084994 , gsm1084995 , gsm1084996 , gsm1084997 , gsm1084998 , gsm1084999 ) and from 6 patients with primary myelofibrosis ( 6 pmf : gsm1085000 , gsm1085001 , gsm1085002 , gsm1085003 , gsm1085004 , gsm1085005 ) . concerning the enrollment of control samples
: subjects are negative for alcohol abuse and hcv , hbv and hiv virus infections .
the choice of control subjects was conditioned by access to bone marrow from subjects having a hip prosthesis surgery : indeed the subjects have an average age similar to that of patients with primary myelofibrosis ( between 60 and 80 years ) .
each sample was treated individually for the extraction of nucleic acids and the achievement of microarrays .
rna was isolated using rna extraction protocols ( nucleospin rna ii , macherey - nagel ) on the miltenyi plateform .
rna samples were quality - checked via the agilent 2100... | primary myelofibrosis ( pmf ) is a clonal myeloproliferative neoplasm whose severity and treatment complexity are attributed to the presence of bone marrow ( bm ) fibrosis and alterations of stroma impairing the production of normal blood cells . despite the recently discovered mutations including the jak2v617f mutation in about half of patients , the primitive event responsible for the clonal proliferation is still unknown . in the highly inflammatory context of pmf
, the presence of fibrosis associated with a neoangiogenesis and an osteosclerosis concomitant to the myeloproliferation and to the increase number of circulating hematopoietic progenitors suggests that the crosstalk between hematopoietic and stromal cells is deregulated in the pmf bm microenvironmental niches . within these niches , mesenchymal stromal cells ( bm - msc )
play a hematopoietic supportive role in the production of growth factors and extracellular matrix which regulate the proliferation , differentiation , adhesion and migration of hematopoietic stem / progenitor cells .
a transcriptome analysis of bm - msc in pmf patients will help to characterize their molecular alterations and to understand their involvement in the hematopoietic stem / progenitor cell deregulation that features pmf . |
7,263 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the fact that the majority of pre - mrnas are spliced while they are still being transcribed has led to the proposal that local chromatin structure and histone modifications may play direct roles in regulating splicing .
indeed , several studies have shown that specific histone modifications can affect the association of splicing factors with chromatin and the efficiency of the splicing process [ 2 - 4 ] . a link between nucleosome positioning and exon - intron boundaries
was first proposed in 1991 , long before the functional link between splicing and transcription was established .
recent advances in the computational prediction and experimental verification of nucleosome positioning , based on underlying dna sequence features [ 6 - 8 ] , in combination with recently published high - resolution genome - wide maps of nucleosome positions and histone modifications in several organisms , have now enabled genome - wide comparisons of nucleosome positioning , histone modifications , and intron - exon architecture , revealing surprising correlations between these features and throwing light on the question of how chromatin features may help the splicing machinery to distinguish between exons and introns .
recent high - throughput transcriptome analyses have detected alternative splicing in approximately 95% of multi - exon human genes [ 13 - 15 ] and also extensively in mice , plants , flies , and yeast .
alternative splicing is often regulated by trans - acting factors that are differentially expressed in different tissues or metabolic states and bind specific sequence or structural motifs on the pre - mrna , resulting in alternative splicing [ 22 - 24 ] . it has long been a goal of the splicing field to crack the splicing code : to identify the pre - mrna sequence features that can explain and predict not only the exact sites of constitutive splicing but also the features that determine tissue - specific alternative splicing patterns .
previous work has successfully identified pre - mrna - encoded... | recent genome - wide studies have revealed a remarkable correspondence between nucleosome positions and exon - intron boundaries , and several studies have implicated specific histone modifications in regulating alternative splicing . in addition , recent progress in cracking the splicing code shows that sequence motifs carried on the nascent rna molecule itself are sufficient to accurately predict tissue - specific alternative splicing patterns .
together , these studies shed light on the complex interplay between rna sequence , dna sequence , and chromatin properties in regulating splicing . |
7,264 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: apoptosis , a distinct form of cell death , is at the heart of both mechanical and molecular mechanisms of cardiomyocyte loss during ischemia .
after mi , there is heightened apoptosis in the peri - infarct and noninfarcted myocardium , and this coincides with increased left ventricular diameter and decreased cardiac function . to this effect
, therapies that inhibit apoptosis in mi have been shown to improve cardiac function [ 2 , 3 ] .
micrornas ( mir ) are small noncoding ribonucleic acids ( rnas ) measuring 1825 nucleotides that are involved in posttranscription regulation of gene expression [ 4 , 5 ] .
mir-208a is a cardiac specific microrna coded for in an intron of myosin heavy chain 6 ( myh6 ) gene and regulates cardiac conduction , stress response , and gene expression [ 69 ] .
several researches have shown that its inhibition or deletion is associated with downregulation of cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy in response to various stress stimuli [ 68 ] .
it has also been shown to be dysregulated in several cardiac diseases including myocardial infarction and dilated cardiomyopathy , in which it is associated with adverse outcomes [ 10 , 11 ] .
however , no study as yet has been done to investigate its role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis despite these cardiac pathologies being associated with increased myocyte apoptosis .
we therefore investigated the effect of mir-208a on cardiomyocyte apoptosis and apoptosis related genes and if its silencing has any therapeutic benefit in myocardial infarction .
we report that mir-208a upregulation alters apoptosis genes ' expression and promotes cardiomyocyte apoptosis , while its silencing attenuates apoptosis and improves cardiac function after mi . to the best of our knowledge ,
our study is the first to explore the antiapoptotic effects of mir-208a silencing and the therapeutic benefits of mir-208a antagomir in myocardial infarction .
cardiomyocytes were transfected with 0.2 nmols / ml of mir-208a agomir for gain of function or 0.4 nmols / ml of mir-208a... | aims . mir-208a is associated with adverse outcomes in several cardiac pathologies known to have increased apoptosis , including myocardial infarction ( mi ) .
we investigated if mir-208a has proapoptotic effects on ischemic cardiomyocytes and if its silencing has therapeutic benefits in mi .
methods and results .
the effect of mir-208a on apoptosis during ischemia was studied in cultured neonatal mice myocytes transfected with agomir or antagomir .
differential gene expression was assessed using microarrays .
mi was induced in male c57bl/6 mice randomly assigned to antagomir ( n = 6 ) or control group ( n = 7 ) , while sham group ( n = 7 ) had sham operation done .
antagomir group received mir208a antagomir , while control and sham group mice received vehicle only . at 7 and 28 days
, echocardiography was done and thereafter hearts were harvested for analysis of apoptosis by tunel method , fibrosis using masson 's trichrome , and hypertrophy using hematoxylin and eosin .
mir-208a altered apoptosis genes expression and increased apoptosis in ischemic cardiomyocytes .
therapeutic inhibition of mir-208a decreased cardiac fibrosis , hypertrophy , and apoptosis and significantly improved cardiac function 28 days after mi .
conclusion .
mir-208a alters apoptosis genes expression and promotes apoptosis in ischemic cardiomyocytes , and its silencing attenuates apoptosis , fibrosis , and hypertrophy after mi , with significant improvement in cardiac function . |
7,265 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: brachytherapy has been a time tested and indispensable modality of treatment for a variety of cancers for more than a century .
time and again it has been proven that brachytherapy independently improves survival [ 1 , 2 ] and exclusion of brachytherapy from the management of some cancers can be detrimental [ 2 , 3 ] .
the data on decline of brachytherapy use needs to be interpreted with caution as sometimes the data from registry or population database could be misleading due to changes in coding and reporting patterns .
apart from established indications [ 4 , 5 ] , brachytherapy has expanded wings to novel and innovative indications like brain , liver , penile , lung , and intra - thoracic brachytherapy [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] .
brachytherapy planning has also evolved from point based prescription to volume based and from x - ray based to magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) based planning [ 10 , 11 ] . with the evolution in brachytherapy practice , it is important to know the current change in practice as well as attitude of practicing medical physicians as well as other professionals actively involved in the field . while such surveys are available from the western world [ 11 , 12 , 13 ] , one is lacking from india .
available survey also does not address the specific question appropriately and have missing information on the use of interstitial brachytherapy .
the burden of cancer in india is different from other parts of the world ; having higher incidence of oral cavity cancers and cancers of uterine cervix .
the increasing trend towards early detection of cancers may further necessitate increased use of brachytherapy in quest of shorter duration of treatment and organ preservation .
the limited availability of brachytherapy facilities as well as advanced planning system poses different challenges and hurdles in brachytherapy training and practice in india .
hence , the needs , perspectives , and practices are quite different from the western world .
attendees of aiims - ibs ( 4 annual meeting of... | purposewe performed a survey amongst attendees of the 4th annual meeting of indian brachytherapy society to study the patterns of brachytherapy practice and attitude towards brachytherapy use.material and methodsa 19-point questionnaire was designed and e - mailed to the attendees immediately after the conference .
descriptive analysis of the responses were done and satisfaction index was used as a tool for evaluation of the program effectiveness .
binomial test was used to assess the difference between distributions of responses and mann - whitney u test was used to assess the correlation between responses .
p value ( 2-tailed ) of < 0.05 was taken significant for all statistical analysis.resultsof a total of 202 attendees , 90 responded to the survey ( response rate : 44.5% ) .
seventy - two percent belonged to an academic institute while 28% belonged to non - academic institutes .
eighty - six percent were radiation oncologists and 10% were medical physicists .
eighty - nine percent respondents used high - dose - rate , 14% pulse - dose - rate , and 13% used low - dose - rate brachytherapy facility .
orthogonal x - rays , computed tomography , and magnetic resonance imaging was used for brachytherapy planning by 56% , 69% , and 14% , respectively .
ninety - three percent of them thought that lack of training is a hurdle in practicing brachytherapy and 92% opined that brachytherapy dedicated meetings can change their perception about brachytherapy .
seventy percent respondents admitted to make some changes in their practice patterns after attending this meeting .
ninety - seven percent of them would like to attend future meetings and 98% felt the need to include live workshops , hands on demonstrations , and video presentations in the scientific programme.conclusionsthe survey highlights a positive attitude towards increasing brachytherapy use , and may serve as an important guiding tool in designing teaching and training programmes ; thus overcoming the hurdles in successful and... |
7,266 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the hiv / aids epidemic has become the world 's most destructive epidemics recorded in history . the number of people living with hiv worldwide was estimated to be 33.4 million .
sub - sahara africa accounts for 22.4 million and remains the region most heavily affected by hiv with an adult prevalence rate of over 15% in some countries .
the majority of those infected in sub - saharan africa are unaware of their status .
the first reported case of aids in zimbabwe occurred in 1985 . by early 1990s around 10% of the adult population
this figure rose dramatically in the first half of the 1990s , peaking and stabilizing at 29% between 1995 and 1997 .
although survey results do indeed indicate a fall in zimbabwe 's adult hiv prevalence , a rise in the number of people dying from aids is thought to have played a role in the decline , as well as an increase in the number of people ( hiv positive or otherwise ) who might have migrated to other countries .
nonetheless , there is evidence that zimbabwe 's hiv prevalence has genuinely fallen and that changes in sexual behaviour have played a role in achieving this .
it is thought that an increased awareness of hiv and aids has influenced these changes .
condom use has increased , a number of young people are delaying first sex , and many people have reduced their number of sexual partners . in many cases , people changed their behaviour after witnessing the effects of the epidemic first hand , through the death of friends or relatives , and this was helped by hiv / aids prevention programmes like home - based care .
the data shows that overall hiv prevalence among pregnant women who attended antenatal clinics decreased from 23% in 2001 to 11% towards the end of 2009 .
economic epidemiology , which is a field at the intersection of epidemiology and economics , can influence hiv / aids policy decisions . its main aim is to incorporate principles of individual behaviour , incentives for healthy behaviour , resource optimization , resource allocation , and simple... | the model of care of people living with hiv / aids ( plwha ) has shifted from hospital care to community home - based care ( chbc ) because of shortage of space in hospitals and lack of resources .
we evaluate the costs and benefits of home - based care and other hiv / aids intervention strategies in zimbabwe , using an interdisciplinary approach which weaves together the techniques of an epidemic transmission model and economic evaluation concepts .
the intervention strategies considered are voluntary counselling and testing ( vct ) , vct combined with hospitalization ( h ) , vct combined with chbc , and all the interventions implemented concurrently .
the results of the study indicate that implementing all the strategies concurrently is the most cost - effective , a result which also agrees with the epidemiological model .
our results also show that the effectiveness of a strategy in the epidemiological model does not necessarily imply cost - effectiveness of the strategy and behaviour change , modelled by the parameters p and m , that accompanied the strategies , influencing both the cost - effectiveness of an intervention strategy and dynamics of the epidemic .
this study shows that interdisciplinary collaborations can help in improving the accuracy of predictions of the course and cost of the epidemic and help policy makers in implementing the correct strategies . |
7,267 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: transesophageal echocardiography ( 0 ) , illustrating multiple round , oval , irregular , and well - demarcated masses on the anterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve http://jthc.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jthc/article/view/698/417 transesophageal echocardiography ( 139 ) , demonstrating multiple round , oval masses with a small stalk on the anterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve http://jthc.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jthc/article/view/698/418 | abstracta 56-year - old man was admitted to our hospital for coronary artery bypass graft surgery .
preoperative transthoracic echocardiography revealed thickening of the anterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve , and transesophageal echocardiography showed oval and irregular - shaped masses , featuring well - demarcated borders and a homogenous texture , attached to the atrial side of the anterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve with a small , tiny , mobile stalk . in the operating room , this mass was resected and gross anatomical examination showed multiple finger - like fronds attached to the stalk . when it was placed in saline , the
mass revealed typical sea anemone , suggestive of papillary fibroelastoma .
although echocardiography had been previously conducted for routine preoperative evaluation , this incidental finding significantly changed the surgical plan . |
7,268 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: periacetabular osteolysis is a major complication following total hip arthroplasty and can be a cause of component loosening and periprosthetic fractures 123 ) .
although osteolysis through polyethylene wear particles can increase the morbidity and compromise revision surgery , patients often remain clinically asymptomatic until extensive osteolysis has occurred and if clinical symptoms develop45 ) , revision surgery can be troublesome and cause component loosening and extensive bone loss 6 ) .
in addition , even though there may be a considerable amount of osteolysis , well - fixed and stable prosthesis can remain asymptomatic until a periprosthetic fracture occur . for these reasons ,
the ability to accurately assess and visualize the position and volume of periacetabular bone defects is paramount for clinical observation and medical treatment , as well as preoperative planning of revision surgery , and periodic radiographic follow - ups are essential 478 ) .
plain radiographs in the diagnosis of osteolysis are the most widely used technique due to low - cost and easy access .
however , it is generally accepted that plain radiographs are not sufficiently sensitive for the reliable detection of the presence or extent of periprosthetic osteolysis because the measurement of lesion size and location is often incorrect , and thus , the amount of bone loss can be underestimated 910111213 ) .
metal artifact - reducing software , including the current three - dimensional computed tomography ( 3d - ct ) system has been found to provide a sensitive and accurate way to measure the location , and volume of osteolysis1012 ) .
some previous studies involving two - dimensional radiograph measurements of polyethylene wear and computerized tomography demonstrated that there was a correlation between the size of the osteolytic lesion and the amount of polyethylene wear141516 ) , while other studies involving 3d - ct studies reported that there was no correlation or poor correlation101112 ) .
until now , there have been many... | purposethis study was performed to determine the usefulness of three - dimensional computed tomography ( 3d - ct ) in measuring periacetabular osteolysis by comparing the real volume of osteolysis in revision surgery.materials and methodstwnety - three patients who had undergone revision surgery due to periacetabular osteolysis but not included septic osteolysis and implant loosening .
the mean age of patients at the time of surgery was 55.2 years . and
the mean time interval between the primary total hip arthroplasty and revision surgery was 13.3 years .
we measured the polyethylene wear in plain radiographs using computer assisted vector wear analysis program , the volume of acetabular osteolytic lesions in high - resolution spiral ct scans using rapidia 3d software version 2.8 algorithms before the revision surgery were performed .
intraoperative real osteolytic volume was calculated as the sum of the volumetric increments of the acetabular cup and impacted allo - cancellous bone volume.resultsstrong correlation was found between the volume of acetabular osteolytic lesions measured on 3d - ct and intraoperative real osteolytic volume which was calculated as the sum of the volumetric increments of the acetabular cup and impacted allo - cancellous bone volume.conclusion3d-ct is considered a useful method for assessing and measuring the volume of periacetabular osteolysis before revision surgery . |
7,269 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: cereal seeds must meet several quality criteria , in particular good germinative potency ( 85% after 8 days ) and sanitary state ( absence of claviceps purpurea ) .
more generally , low contamination from fungi such as fusarium , septoria , or alternaria is advisable to obtain good performance after seeding .
moreover , fungal contamination of seeds can lead to mycotoxins production such as aflatoxin b1 , b2 , g1 , g2 , m1 , ochratoxin a , zearalenone , and fumonisin .
it is thus common practice to treat seeds with antifungal molecules , but this leads to evident environmental problems and even to concern about safe disposal of seed packaging .
alternative solutions will likely become widely spread in the future and must be investigated . among them , ozone is wellknown for its efficiency as a surface disinfection agent , especially as it leaves no toxic residue once converted into oxygen .
stability of pure gaseous ozone is about 3 days at 20c and falls to about half an hour in practical conditions . as a potent oxidative agent , it is efficient against both gram or gram+ bacteria , fungi , viruses , protozoa , and also bacterial or fungal spores . apart from its use in water sanitation , it has also been proposed to lower pathogen microbial contamination on diverse plant seeds or bulbs ( triticum sp .
, brassica sp . , zea mays , hordeum sp . , phaseolus sp . , helianthus sp . , ) [ 1 , 4 , 5 ] .
a decisive advantage of ozone is its low toxicity on seed germs which allows to preserve excellent germination performance .
several methods can be used to assess ozone disinfection efficiency . apart from direct surface visual inspection
, one can also wash a seed lot and microscopically inspect the solution collected therefrom to identify foreign bodies ( sclerotes , spores , ) .
one can also incubate seeds over an ad hoc culture medium for a period of 5 to 7 days in suitable temperature and lighting conditions and observe colony development [ 6 , 7 ] .
we used such an approach to assess ozone surface... | we submitted to ozone treatment triticum aestivum ( common wheat ) seeds severely contaminated by fungi .
fungi colonies developed when seeds were placed over malt agar medium in petri dishes ; fusarium sp . and alternaria sp . were identified .
however , conventional colonies counting did not allow a clear assessment of the effect of ozone disinfection .
we thus used self - organizing maps ( soms ) to perform an image analysis of colonies surface area that clearly showed a significant disinfection effect on fusarium sp . |
7,270 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: obesity is a growing problem in the united states over the past 20 years with the prevalence remaining high despite new regulations and interventions implemented by the u.s .
department of health and human services , the centers for disease control and prevention ( cdc ) , the institute of medicine , and the u.s .
results from the 20112012 national health and nutrition examination survey ( nhanes ) estimated that 34% of u.s .
adults are overweight , 35% are obese , and 6% are extremely obese ( fryar and ogden , 2014 ) .
obese women are a vulnerable population who face not only economic hardships and social isolation , but medical comorbidities as well .
they are at increased risk of heart disease , diabetes , hypertension , stroke , hyperlipidemia , osteoarthritis , sleep apnea , and certain cancers such as endometrial , breast , and colon cancer . among these ,
endometrial cancer has the highest association with obesity with up to a 9-fold increased risk of mortality in women with body mass index ( bmi ) > 40 compared to women of normal weight ( rr 6.25 , p < 0.001 , 95%ci 3.7510.42 ) ( calle et al . , 2003 ,
unfortunately , obesity predisposes women not only to pre - invasive and invasive uterine cancer , but it also places them at higher risk for complications related to surgical treatment options .
the integration of minimally invasive surgical techniques in gynecologic oncology has improved peri - operative morbidity and length of hospital stay ( walker et al .
however , there remain specific risks related to obesity that warrant pre - operative discussion such as longer operative time , diminished tissue oxygenation and immune function , and increased risks for deep venous thrombosis , pulmonary embolism , respiratory failure and need for mechanical ventilation , cardiac complications , nerve injury , infection and bleeding ( bamgbade et al . , 2007 , choban et al . , 1995 , dossett et al . , 2008 ) . despite a growing medical interest establishing the link between obesity it is unclear how much... | objectivesthe aim of this study is to evaluate knowledge of obesity - related peri - operative risks in women newly diagnosed with complex atypical hyperplasia and endometrial cancer.methodswe conducted a cross sectional study of patients newly diagnosed with complex a typical hyperplasia or endometrial cancer who underwent preoperative counseling between 2011 and 2014 , using a 17-item questionnaire .
obesity was defined as body mass index ( bmi ) of 30 kg / m2 or greater .
bivariate analysis was conducted using pearson 's chi - square or fisher 's exact tests where appropriate and mann whitney u for continuous variables.resultsof 98 patients recruited , mean age was 58 years , 87% were obese , 83% white , and 51% had grade 1 endometrioid adenocarcinomas .
sixty - four percent of obese women reported that their physicians had discussed surgical risks related to obesity .
however , 17% of obese and 42% of non - obese patients responded that they were unsure of the peri - operative risks associated with obesity .
there was a substantial lack of understanding among obese patients regarding their increased risks of respiratory problems ( 29% ) , thromboembolism ( 29% ) , heart attack ( 35% ) , or longer operating time ( 35% ) and hospital stay ( 47% ) .
however , obese patients were more aware of wound infection risks associated with obesity compared to their non - obese counterparts ( 72% vs. 31% , p = 0.004).conclusionspre - operative counseling for obese women with newly diagnosed endometrial cancer should incorporate more focused education about obesity - related risks .
they report being knowledgeable about the risks associated with their surgery ; however , more than a quarter are unaware of the impact obesity has on respiratory problems , thromboembolism , wound infection , heart attack or longer operating time and hospital stay . |
7,271 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: due to the shortage of deceased donor organs , living donor liver transplantation ( ldlt ) has become an established treatment modality for patients with acute and chronic liver disease .
the first successful pediatric ldlt , using a left lateral section graft from a mother to her son , was performed in brisbane , australia in 1989 .
recent reports have strongly suggested that laparoscopic approach can be the gold standard for lesions in the left lateral section .
laparoscopic living donor left lateral sectionectomy was first described in 2002 , indicating that this technique was feasible for pediatric ldlt . subsequently , laparoscopic procurement of left lateral sections was shown to be safe and reproducible , resulting in grafts similar to those obtained with open surgery . in 2006 , laparoscopy - assisted right lobe donor hepatectomy was reported .
laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has become the standard method of procuring kidneys for living donor renal transplantation because it is associated with lower rates of donor morbidity without having any deleterious effects on long - term renal function in recipients . to date
, however , only a small number of centers have performed laparoscopic donor hepatectomy because the procedure can be performed only by surgical teams with extensive expertise in performing both minimally invasive surgery on the liver and liver transplantation with partial and living donor liver grafts.12345678 herein , we describe the details of laparoscopic living donor hepatectomy including total laparoscopic surgery and laparoscopy - assisted surgery .
laparoscopic living donor left lateral sectionectomy in pediatric ldlt is introduced because total laparoscopic living donor right hepatectomy is not clearly reported until now .
the donor was placed supine in the 30 reversed trendelenburg position , with the surgeon standing between the donor 's legs .
five trocars were usually inserted , with the middle trocar used as the primary working device ( fig .
the liver was inspected with a 30... | shortage of deceased donor organs led to establishment of living donor liver transplantation .
recent reports have strongly suggested that laparoscopic approach should be the gold standard for lesions in the left lateral section .
laparoscopic living donor left lateral sectionectomy was first described in 2002 .
subsequently , laparoscopic procurement of left lateral sections was shown to be safe and reproducible , resulting in grafts similar to those obtained with open surgery . in 2006 ,
laparoscopy - assisted right lobe donor hepatectomy was reported . to date
, however , only a small number of liver transplant centers have performed laparoscopic donor hepatectomy because the procedure can be performed only by surgical teams with extensive expertise in performing both minimally invasive surgery on the liver and liver transplantation with partial and living donor liver grafts .
herein , we describe the details of laparoscopic living donor hepatectomy including total laparoscopic surgery and laparoscopy - assisted surgery . |
7,272 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: c57bl/6 ( b6 ) mice and their ly-5.2 congenic variant ( b6.ly-5.2 ) were purchased from the national cancer institute animal facility ( frederick , md ) .
i / ii deficient mice on a b6 background ( 12th backcross , ci / ii ) were purchased from taconic farms .
the b6 thy-1 congenic variant strain , b6.plthy-1 cy , as well as the mice genetically deficient in the cd4 gene 18 , which were used as class ii recipients , and the natural h-2k and h-2 i - a coisogenic variants of b6 mice , b6.ch-2 ( bm1 ) and b6.ch-2 ( bm12 ) , respectively , which were used as stimulators in the mlr , were purchased from the jackson laboratory .
female mice , between 7 and 10 wk of age , were used in all experiments . the allele - specific anti - ly5.1 ( 104 - 2.1 ) and anti - ly5.2 ( a20 - 7.1 ) mabs ( 19 ; obtained from dr .
u. hammerling , memorial sloan - kettering cancer center ) were produced as ascitic fluid , purified , and conjugated to fitc or biotin in our laboratory .
anti - cd4conjugated microbeads , the vs+ and rs+ separation columns , and the supermacs separation device were purchased from miltenyi biotec and were used per the manufacturer 's instructions . all other antibodies and reagents , as well as
the cytotoxic elimination of cd8 cells by mab + c and separation of the resulting population into cd8 and cd8 by panning , were described previously 9 .
cd4 populations from each subset were then purified to > 99% purity , either by flow cytometry ( fcm ) using a mo - flo sorter ( cytomation ) , or by two sequential immunomagnetic bead sorting steps using the vs+ separation columns and anti - cd4conjugated microbeads ( miltenyi biotec ) , as indicated .
for the cell sorting , cells were stained with mabs against cd4 , cd11c , and mhc class ii , and were sorted to obtain a cd4 class ii cd11c fraction . upon reanalysis , these cells contained < 0.1% cells positive for class ii , cd11b , or cd11c , and were used for exp . 2 in table table table .
cd8cd4 cells were used in the intravenous transfer experiment to confirm... | the majority ( 70% ) of postselection cd4 + single - positive ( sp ) thymocytes are cd8locd4hi .
these cells express very low levels of cd8 , undetectable by flow cytofluorimetric ( fcm ) analysis , but sufficiently high to allow purification by panning . unlike the fully mature cd8cd4hi thymocytes , which account for the remaining 30% of the sp cd4 + thymocytes , cd8locd4hi cells are functionally immature and short - lived unless they receive an unidentified maturation signal from the thymus . in this study , we tested the hypothesis that this signal is provided by a t cell receptor ( tcr)major histocompatibility complex ( mhc ) class ii interaction . using intrathymic transfer , we show that the immature cd8locd4hi cells could complete their intrathymic maturation and populate the peripheral lymphoid organs in the absence of mhc class ii ( and class i ) molecules .
furthermore , in mice devoid of class ii ( and class i ) molecules , the progeny of cd8locd4hi cells was long - lived and functionally reactive to allogeneic class ii molecules , although their numbers in the spleen and the mesenteric lymph node were 4050% lower than those in class ii+ mice 5 mo after transfer .
control experiments demonstrated that the surviving cells did not originate from the contaminating mature thymocytes .
these results demonstrate that the final maturation , proliferation , and peripheral survival ( up to 5 mo ) of at least some postselection cd4 + sp cells do not require the tcr mhc class ii interaction . they also indicate that the tcr mhc class ii interaction(s ) required for the intrathymic development of long - lived cd4 + sp cells
occurs before the cd4hi sp stage of development . |
7,273 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: benign prostatic hyperplasia ( bph ) is a prevalent disorder among older men and has received more attention as the average human lifespan has increased . in korea , the prevalence of clinical prostatic hyperplasia was reported to range from 10.6% to 31% in men over 50 years of age , with an age - related increase .
the metabolic syndrome ( ms ) is a clinical constellation of metabolic abnormalities associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease .
the major disorders in ms , which is characterized by insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia , are localized in muscle , fat tissue , and the liver .
the components of this syndrome are type ii diabetes mellitus , hypertension , obesity , and dyslipidemia .
these components are proposed as risk factors for the development of prostatic hyperplasia . in korea ,
several studies have reported that men with ms had larger prostate volumes [ 6 - 8 ] .
so far , however , there are insufficient data on the association of ms with prostate volume in young korean men .
we therefore investigated the possible association of ms with prostate volume in men under the age of 60 .
from january 2006 to september 2010 , a total of 1,506 men aged between 30 and 60 years underwent prostate evaluation as a special option during routine health checkups in the health promotion center in our institution .
all men completed the international prostate symptom score ( ipss ) questionnaire , a digital rectal examination , transrectal ultrasonography ( trusg ) , and anthropometric measurements , such as height , weight , and waist circumference .
body mass index was calculated by dividing weight ( kg ) by the surface area ( m ) of the patients .
the volume of the prostate was calculated by elliptical volume measurement ( /6 x transverse x anteroposterior x cephalocaudal diameter ) , and benign prostate enlargement ( bpe ) was defined as trusg - measured prostate volume over 20 ml .
blood samples were drawn from fasting patients to determine fasting blood sugar , high - density... | purposethis study was designed to evaluate the association of metabolic syndrome and benign prostate enlargement in young korean males .
we analyzed the clinical data associated with metabolic syndrome and prostate volume in the study population.materials and methodswe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data obtained from 1,506 young men under the age of 60 who visited the health promotion center in our institution for routine checkups .
the patients were interviewed with a questionnaire including the international prostate symptom score ( ipss ) and were evaluated by medical history , blood chemistry , digital rectal examination , and prostate volume via transrectal ultrasonography .
the presence of metabolic syndrome was determined according to the modified national cholesterol education program expert panel on detection , evalution , and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults criteria .
we divided the subjects into two groups : those with metabolic syndrome and those without .
logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine which metabolic components were associated with an increased risk of benign prostate enlargement.resultssignificant differences in prostate volume were noted between the groups .
the prostate volumes were significantly larger in the metabolic syndrome group than in the non - metabolic syndrome group in all subgroups divided by age ( in decades ) .
however , no significant differences in ipss or voiding or storage subscore were noted . in the multivariate regression analysis ,
only diabetes and obesity were identified as risk factors for benign prostate enlargement among the metabolic components.conclusionsmetabolic syndrome and prostate volume were significantly related , even in young males .
diabetes and obesity were identified as significant risk factors for benign prostate enlargement in young males under the age of 60 . |
7,274 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a.t . , a 43-year - old nigerian lady , presented to the eye clinic of the university college hospital , ibadan with gradual blurring of vision in both eyes for 4 years .
ocular examination showed unaided visual acuity of 6/12 ou corrected to 6/9 in both eyes .
dilated fundoscopy showed a well circumscribed cystic fovea lesion with a fluid level and an atrophic center in the right eye , while the left eye showed a scar in the macula ( fig . 1 and fig .
the patient was prescribed with spectacles , counseled and placed on close observation with amslers grid for the development of choroidal neovascular membrane that will require urgent treatment .
this is probably the first case of best macular dystrophy to be reported in ibadan , nigeria and possibly sub - saharan africa to the best of the author 's knowledge .
it has also been reported in caucasians and asians , the other cases seen in african americans were associated with sickle cell trait .
the pathophysiology of best 's disease is explained by abnormality in the retinal pigment epithelium ( rpe ) with resultant abnormal ionic transport leading to the accumulation of lipofuscin in the rpe cells and sub - rpe space in the macular area .
the vitelliruptive stage may herald visual deterioration which becomes worse in the atrophic stage due to the presence of choroidal neovascular membrane .
our patient presented with the early stages of the disease , hence the good visual acuity .
the patient will be under observation and follow - up so as to detect changes amenable to treatment .
choroidal neovascular membrane ( cnvm ) from best 's disease has been reported to respond well to intravitreal antivegf [ 7 , 8 ] .
fundus flourescein angiography is essential in confirming the presence of cnvm and should be done when patient presents with sudden deterioration in vision . if a cnvm develops , then a corresponding area of hyperfluorescence with leakage will be found .
since the disease is an autosomal dominant disorder , other family members will benefit from regular... | best macular dystrophy is reported to be rare in africans .
it is a hereditary disease that starts in childhood and progresses through some stages before visual symptoms occur .
this case report presents a 43-year - old nigerian with the disease and stresses the importance of regular eye exams of patients and relatives to detect changes such as choroidal neovascular membrane amenable to treatment . |
7,275 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the vulnerability of elderly hospital patients is characterised by simultaneously occurring somatic , psychological , and social problems , which may result in problems in cognitive functioning , mood , behaviour , activities of daily life , and , consequently , in declining quality of life .
first , the choices of nursing interventions are substantially influenced by the patient 's cognitive abilities .
the patient 's cognitive abilities determine the provision of nursing care to a large extent as they influence communication , the support to be given in daily life activities , the recognition and treatment of other nursing problems ( e.g. , pain , behavioural problems ) , and discharge policy [ 13 ] .
the nurse 's approach to individual patients is also largely influenced by the type of cognitive problem . in case of memory problems , for example , information is repeated or written down ; in case of problems in sustaining attention , a quiet environment is offered ; and in case of executive problems , information is kept simple .
for example , memory problems are often the first sign of alzheimer 's disease , whereas loss of awareness may indicate frontotemporal dementia , and hallucinations suggest delirium and dementia with lewy bodies .
cognitive functioning is a term used to address the wide area of human information processing .
the concept of cognitive functioning is operationalized by breaking it down into several cognitive domains .
however , there is no uniform way to classify the cognitive domains ; different authors organise the cognitive domains in different ways [ 46 ] . cognitive decline may occur due to age - related factors , depression , delirium , dementia , and in combination with serious somatic health problems .
recognition of delirium is most important because of its high incidence rate and reversible character , for example , by means of the confusion assessment method ( cam ; ) and the delirium observation scale ( dos ; ) .
however , comprehensive cognitive assessment still needs... | background . to assess a patient 's cognitive functioning is an important issue because nurses tailor their nursing interventions to the patient 's cognitive abilities .
although some observation scales exist concerning one or more cognitive domains , so far , no scale has been available which assesses cognitive functioning in a comprehensive way .
objectives . to develop an observation scale with an accepted level of content validity and which assesses elderly patients ' cognitive functioning in a comprehensive way . methods .
delphi technique , a multidisciplinary panel developed the scale by consensus through four delphi rounds ( > 70% agreement ) .
the international classification of functioning / icf was used as theoretical framework . results .
after the first two delphi rounds , the panel reached consensus about 8 cognitive domains and 17 sub domains .
after two other rounds , 39 items were selected , divided over 8 domains and 17 sub domains .
discussion .
the nurses ' observation scale cognitive abilities ( nosca ) was successfully designed .
the content validity of the scale is high because the scale sufficiently represents the concept of cognitive functioning : the experts reached a consensus of 70% or higher on all domains and items included ; and no domains or items were lacking . as a next step , the psychometric qualities of the nosca will have to be tested . |
7,276 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: storage and biochemical analyses of post - mortem human brain samples and transmission studies to mice were performed with written informed consent from patients with capacity to give consent .
where patients were unable to give informed consent , assent was obtained from their relatives in accordance with uk legislation and codes of practice .
samples were stored and used in accordance with the human tissue authority codes of practice and in line with the requirements of the human tissue authority licence held by ucl institute of neurology .
this study was performed with approval from the medical research advisory committee of the government of papua new guinea , the national hospital for neurology and neurosurgery and the ucl institute of neurology joint research ethics committee ( now national research ethics service committee , london queen square ) - rec references : 03/n036 , 03/n038 and 03/n133 .
work with mice was performed under approval and licence granted by the uk home office ( animals ( scientific procedures ) act 1986 ) ; project licence number 70/6454 which conformed to university college london institutional and arrive guidelines ( www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive/ ) .
the 759bp human prp orf was amplified by pcr with pfu polymerase from genomic dna prepared from the brain of a patient with the 127v polymorphism on the 129 m allele , using forward primer 5-gtcgaccagtcattatggcgaacctt-3 and reverse primer 5-ctcgagaagaccttcctcatcccact-3. restriction sites sal i and xho
i ( underlined ) were introduced in the forward and reverse primers respectively for cloning .
the blunt ended pcr fragment generated by pfu polymerase was subcloned into sma i digested psp72 vector and sequenced to ensure that no spurious alterations had been introduced by the pcr and to confirm the presence of valine-127 and methionine-129 polymorphisms matching the patient dna template .
the amplified human prp orf with the confirmed polymorphisms was then isolated by sal i and xho i digestion .
subsequent subcloning into the sal i site... | mammalian prions , transmissible agents causing lethal neurodegenerative diseases , are composed of assemblies of misfolded cellular prion protein ( prp ) 1 . a novel prp variant , g127v , was under positive evolutionary selection during the epidemic of kuru , an acquired prion disease epidemic of the fore population in papua new guinea , and appeared to provide strong protection against disease in the heterozygous state2 .
we have now investigated the protective role of this variant and its interaction with the common worldwide m129v prp polymorphism ; v127 was seen exclusively on a m129
prnp allele . here
we demonstrate that transgenic mice expressing both variant and wild type human prp are completely resistant to both kuru and classical cjd prions ( which are closely similar ) but can be infected with variant cjd prions , a human prion strain resulting from exposure to bse prions to which the fore were not exposed .
remarkably however , mice expressing only prp v127 were completely resistant to all prion strains demonstrating a different molecular mechanism to m129v , which provides its relative protection against classical cjd and kuru in the heterozygous state .
indeed this single amino acid substitution ( gv ) at a residue invariant in vertebrate evolution is as protective as deletion of the protein .
further study in transgenic mice expressing different ratios of variant and wild type prp indicates that not only is prp v127 completely refractory to prion conversion , but acts as a potent dose - dependent inhibitor of wild type prion propagation . |
7,277 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: thermoplastic obturation techniques have the potential to produce a complete filling of root canal space , including irregularities and lateral canals .
several techniques have been proposed to obtain optimal adherence of gutta - percha ( gp ) to root canal walls to minimize microbial leakage and to ensure treatment success . since the introduction of the warm vertical condensation technique by schilder , in 1967 , a number of clinical placement techniques involving warm gp have been developed . however , there are no reports comparing different brands of thermoplasticized gp with respect to their chemical composition and thermal behavior .
heating gp is known to result in changes to the molecular structure ( phases ) and polymer volume of the compound .
this physical property manifests itself as an increase in volume of material that can be compacted into a root canal cavity .
gp is a trans-1 , 4-polyisoprene polymer obtained from the coagulation of latex produced by trees of the family sapotaceae and is primarily derived from palaquium gutta bail .
the crystalline phase appears in two forms : 1 ) the alpha ( ) phase and 2 ) the beta ( ) phase . during thermal manipulation
, the structure of the compound transforms into the crystalline structure of the polymer from the -form to the -form and from the -form to the amorphous phase .
the forms ( and ) differ only in the molecular repeat distance and single - bond form . some studies have demonstrated the thermal properties of dental gp and have shown that changes in the crystalline form may lead to irreversible volumetric change .
the purpose of the present study was to determine the chemical composition ( organic and inorganic components ) , as confirmed by x - ray diffraction and energy dispersive x - ray microanalysis ( edx ) , of thermafil , microseal ( cone and microflow ) , obtura and obtura flow .
in addition , their thermal properties in response to temperature variations were studied via differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) to determine the... | objective : the aim of this study was determine the chemical composition and thermal behavior of thermafil ( th ) , microseal cone ( mc ) , microseal microflow ( mf ) , obtura ( ob ) and obtura flow ( of ) . in addition , their thermal behavior in response to temperature variations was studied by differential scanning calorimetry ( dsc ) to determine the temperature at which gutta - percha switches from the beta to alpha form , and from the alpha to the amorphous phase.materials and methods : the organic and inorganic fractions were separated by dissolution in chloroform .
gutta - percha ( gp ) was precipitated with acetone .
the inorganic fraction was analyzed via elemental microanalysis .
energy dispersive x - ray microanalysis and x - ray diffraction were used to identify the chemical elements and compounds ( baso4 and zno ) .
thermal analysis was conducted using dsc.results:the organic and inorganic fractions ranged from 21.3% and 26.9% of weights , respectively .
mc and mf showed the highest percentages of organic compounds ( p = 0.0125 ) .
all specimens exhibited two crystalline transformations when heated from ambient temperature to 130c .
mc presented the highest percentage of gp.conclusions:no correlation was observed between chemical composition and thermal behavior .
each of the products showed thermal behavior that is typical of beta - phase gutta - percha . |
7,278 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: noonan syndrome is an autosomal dominant , multisystem disorder with heart defects , cerebrovascular abnormalities , short stature with delayed puberty , cryptorchidism , and delayed language1 ) .
autoimmune thyroiditis has been reported in some literatures however thyroiditis with hypothyroidism is even less frequent in noonan syndrome3 ) .
the pericardial effusion can be due to various conditions such as malignancies , infections , metabolic processes , trauma , connective tissue diseases , and endocrinologic disorder , such as hypothyroidism4 ) .
pericardial effusion is rare in hypothyroid patients with a reported incidence of 3% to 6% ; cardiac tamponade in these patients is even more infrequent5 ) .
herein , we report a case of 16-year - old male , who had hashimoto thyroiditis with an unusual presentation of cardiac tamponade in noonan syndrome .
a 16-year - old male visited our clinic for evaluation of mild respiratory discomfort . on past history
, he had been normally sized at birth but had pulmonary valve stenosis , for which he underwent percutaneous transluminal pulmonary valvuloplasty at 1 year of age .
also , at the age of 3 years , he had unilateral gonadal agenesis with suspected cryptorchidism , but exploratory laparotomy failed to reveal a second testicle . on examination ,
his height was 136.2 cm ( < 3rd percentile ) , weight was 36.7 kg ( < 3rd percentile ) and body mass index was 19.8 kg / m . physical examination revealed hypertelorism , low set posteriorly rotated ears , micrognathia , thick lips , and short neck with excess nuchal skin , shield chest , and mild mental retardation . considering his facial features , short stature and the medical history , the diagnosis of noonan syndrome was made .
in addition to the noonan syndrome , he also had symptoms of hypothyroidism which were distended abdomen with symptoms of severe constipation , dry skin , puffy face and decreased muscle tone . at admission ,
his heart rate was 54 bpm , and the initial blood pressure was 100/60 mmhg .
1a )... | noonan syndrome is an autosomal dominant , multisystem disorder .
autoimmune thyroiditis with hypothyroidism is an infrequent feature in patients with noonan syndrome .
a 16-year - old boy was admitted because of chest discomfort and dyspnea ; an echocardiogram revealed pericardial effusion .
additional investigations led to a diagnosis of severe hypothyroidism due to hashimoto thyroiditis .
the patient was treated with l - thyroxine at 0.15 mg daily . however , during admission , he developed symptoms of cardiac tamponade .
closed pericardiostomy was performed , after which the patient 's chest discomfort improved , and his vital signs stabilized .
herein , we report a case of an adolescent with noonan syndrome , who was diagnosed with hashimoto thyroiditis with an unusual presentation of cardiac tamponade . |
7,279 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the fontan procedure , which functionally separates pulmonary and systemic circulation , is the most common approach to singleventricle palliation . as a result of this procedure , cyanosis and ventricular volume overload
are alleviated at the expense of elevated systemic venous pressure and limited stroke volume augmentation .
consequences include decreased aerobic capacity and a wide variety of endorgan injury that can manifest in both common and esoteric diagnoses such as liver fibrosis and proteinlosing enteropathy.1 , 2 , 3 it follows that the fontan circulation is associated with premature morbidity and mortality.4 there is marked variation , however , in the timing , specific manifestations , and extent of clinical deterioration between individual patients .
effective noninvasive strategies to identify fontan patients at the highest risk for nearterm adverse outcomes could advance efforts to prevent hospitalization and death in this young , highrisk , poorly understood population .
both cardiac and noncardiac fibrosis are common and precede adverse outcomes in adulthood5 , 6 , 7 ; therefore , markers of fibrosis may prove useful in identifying risk among patients with a fontan circulation .
galectin3 is a lectin , a carbohydratebinding protein , with affinity for galactosides , with a wide array of biological effects that include inflammation , cell cycle modulation and cell activation , attraction , and adhesion.8 , 9 , 10 reports suggest that it is a mediator of cell growth and behavior and of cancer metastasis.11 importantly , galectin3 is also involved in both cardiac and noncardiac fibrosis.10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 it remains to be defined whether galectin3 plays an important causal role in the development or maintenance of fibrosis in human disease and whether it may serve as a specific therapeutic target .
it is clear , however , that circulating galectin3 levels are elevated in various diseases such as heart failure and alcoholic liver cirrhosis,16 , 17 , 18 that the presence of high galectin3... | backgroundgalectin3 may play a role in cardiac and noncardiac fibrosis , and elevated circulating levels of this protein predict adverse outcomes in patients with heart failure who do not have congenital heart disease .
we investigated galectin3 in adults with singleventricle fontan circulation , patients who are prone to premature clinical deterioration in the context of extensive multiorgan fibrosis.methods and resultswe measured plasma galectin3 concentrations in 70 ambulatory adult fontan patients and 21 age and sexmatched control participants .
galectin3 level was significantly higher in the fontan group ( 11.85 ng / ml , interquartile range 9.9 to 15.0 ng / ml ) versus the control group ( 9.4 ng / ml , interquartile range 8.2 to 10.8 ng / ml ; p<0.001 ) . among fontan patients , galectin3
was positively correlated with age , uric acid , and highsensitivity creactive protein and negatively correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate .
there was no significant relationship between galectin3 and oxygen saturation , fontan type , or ventricular morphology . over a median followup of 461 days , 15 events occurred among the fontan patients : 12 nonelective hospitalizations ( with 2 subsequent deaths ) and 3 deaths without prior hospitalization .
patients with elevated galectin3 ( n=19 , defined as > 2 sd above the control group mean value ) had a higher risk of nonelective hospitalization or death ( hazard ratio 6.0 , 95% ci 2.1 to 16.8 , p<0.001 ) .
this relationship persisted after individual adjustment for covariates including age , new york heart association functional class , creactive protein , and estimated glomerular filtration rate and after multivariable adjustment for independently predictive covariates ( hazard ratio 9.2 , 95% ci 2.4 to 35.2 , p=0.001).conclusionsgalectin3 concentrations are elevated among adults with a fontan circulation , and elevated galectin3 is associated with an increased risk of nonelective cardiovascular hospitalization or death . |
7,280 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the insulin - like growth factor 2 gene ( igf2 ) is an imprinted gene , paternally expressed and encodes for the insulin - like growth factor ii peptide [ 1 , 2 ] . in mice the igf2 gene has five promoters , from which three main transcripts , a placenta specific transcript and a newly described mesoderm - specific transcript , originate .
described multiple imprinted sense and antisense transcripts from the igf2 locus . the igf2as gene located within igf2
we recently found that igf2as transcripts are located in the cytoplasm and associated with polysomes indicating a protein coding function . to further elucidate the function of igf2as
this mouse has a 5 kb deletion within the igf2 gene comprising dmr1 , an adjacent repeat sequence mostly embedded in exon u2 of the placenta specific igf2 p0 transcript and igf2as transcripts .
the maternal transmission of the dmr1-u2 deletion results in loss of igf2 imprinting in heart , kidney , and lung without affecting h19 gene expression .
the authors conclude that their result demonstrates that dmr1 plays a role in igf2 imprinting regulation and gene expression independent of h19 . in that study ,
paternal transmission of the dmr1-u2 deletion was associated with intrauterine growth restriction ( iugr ) manifested by mutants birth weight being 71% that of normal mice .
later , constncia et al . reported that the 5 kb dmr1-u2 deletion abolishes expression of the igf2 p0 transcript in the labyrinthine trophoblast of the placenta where it is specifically expressed .
noteworthy , placental growth deficiency in dmr1-u2 placentas resembled that of igf2-null mice lacking igf - ii peptide in all placental layers and the fetus which was unexpected since p0 transcripts constitute about 10% of total igf2 transcripts in placenta .
however , the lower birth weight of mutant dmr1-u2 pups was compensated during the first three months of life .
they could also demonstrate with inert hydrophilic molecules that passive permeability of the mutant placenta was reduced compared to the... | insulin - like growth factor antisense gene ( igf2as ) expression was investigated in different mouse tissues during development , in differentiating c2c12 cells and in a dmr1-u2 knockout mouse model .
the expression levels of igf2as were high in fetal and newborn liver and muscle tissues compared to adults .
the igf2as gene was also expressed in placenta and in brain .
the expression data suggests that the igf2as gene plays a role in early development of the mouse and in placenta .
there was no consistent evidence for an interaction between igf2 and igf2as transcripts .
furthermore , in knockout placentas lacking igf2as transcription , igf2 expression was comparable to that in wild type .
these results indicate that igf2as does not regulate igf2 sense transcripts . in previous studies
, it was suggested that the dmr1-u2 knockout mouse showing intrauterine growth restriction was caused by the absence of placenta - specific igf2 p0 transcription .
we conclude that the dmr1-u2 deletion phenotype should be reconsidered in the light of a functional igf2as gene . |
7,281 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: dual malignancy in young adults is a rare entity . of all well - differentiated thyroid carcinoma patients , 5% are familial .
majority familial thyroid cancer are nonmedullary familial thyroid cancer , and have been shown to be present in familial cancer syndromes such as familial adenomatous polyposis , cowden syndrome , carney complex , pendred syndrome , and werner syndrome .
herein , we report a rare case of a 17-year - old female patient diagnosed with papillary carcinoma of thyroid ( ptc ) with an antecedent history of dysgerminoma of the right ovary . to our knowledge
, no association has been reported between dysgerminoma of the ovary with carcinoma thyroid in literature .
a 17-year - old female , following right lobectomy of the thyroid gland , with a histopathological report of ptc was referred to the department of surgical oncology at sri aurobindo medical college and post graduate institute in indore , madhya pradesh in india for further management in 2014 .
examination of the neck revealed a scar from a previous surgery , with no palpable neck nodes .
blood investigations revealed serum t3 1.19 ng / ml ( 0.8 - 2 ng / ml ) , serum t4 of 5.88 ug / dl ( 5.1 - 14.1 ug / dl ) , serum tsh of 6.04 uiu / ml ( 0.27 - 4.20 uiu / ml ) , serum level of lactate dehydrogenase ( ldh ) 157 iu / l ( 140 - 280
previous history revealed hysterectomy with right salpingo - oophorectomy performed 3 years back during evaluation of primary amenorrhea with right ovarian mass [ figure 1 ] .
gross examination revealed 1300 g right ovarian mass with fallopian tube with didelphys of rudimentary uterus .
microscopy confirmed the diagnosis of dysgerminoma of the right ovary stage i a [ figure 2a ] .
the patient had taken chemotherapy bleomycin , etoposide , and cisplatinum ( bep ) regime , i.e. , bleomycin iv per week x9 ; dose at 20 u / m , etoposide 100 mg / m days 1 - 5 q3wk x3 , cisplatin 20 mg / m days 1 - 5 q3wk x3 at a 4 week interval in the adjuvant setting . magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) of the neck and the... | dual malignancy is rare in adolescents .
dual malignancy with the second malignancy of thyroid is rare .
no association has been reported between dysgerminoma of ovary and carcinoma thyroid in medical literature . despite a thorough pubmed search ( key words papillary carcinoma of thyroid , metachronous , dysgerminoma ovary ) , we were unable to find a previous reported case of metachronous papillary carcinoma of thyroid ( ptc ) following dysgerminoma of the ovary .
after surgery , the patient is being regularly followed up for recurrence / development of new primary .
we report this unusual and rare case in a 17-year - old female patient . |
7,282 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: chronic viral hepatitis c is one of the most serious chronic infections affecting 170 million people worldwide . in europe
the prevalence of hepatitis c virus ( hcv ) infection is also relatively high in latvia .
antibodies are found in 2.4% of the population , with hcv - rna prevalence of 1.7% of general population .
the outcome of hcv infection varies from spontaneous viral clearance , symptom free - hcv carrier state to chronic hepatitis , cirrhosis , and hepatocellular carcinoma .
some individuals have rapidly progressive liver disease while others remain in good health for many years .
there are a lot of factors such as viral kinetics , immune mechanisms , environmental factors , and patient - related factors which may be responsible for the various hcv - related outcomes .
risk factors for infection include intravenous and intranasal drug use , nonsterile tattooing , manicure and pedicure procedures , as well as virus transmission vertically from mother to child , and during sexual intercourse .
dialysis patients appear to be at increased risk of infection as do alcoholics [ 1 , 3 ] . in developing and transitional economy countries ,
the nosocomial transmission of new hepatitis c virus ( hcv ) infections is a major problem due to reuse of contaminated or inadequately sterilized syringes and needles used in medical , paramedical , and dental procedures ; an estimated 2.34.7 million new infections occur each year .
current standard of care treatment involves combination therapy with hopes of effective virus eradication resulting in a sustained virological response ( svr ) and thereby stopping the progression of disease . with the combination of pegylated alpha interferon and ribavirin ,
they induce inflammatory responses that can lead to tissue injury and serve as antiviral effectors as well .
cytokine synthesis is regulated by genetic mechanisms resulting in differences between individuals in their ability to produce cytokines .
this individual variability may be due to single - nucleotide polymorphisms... | introduction . with the standard treatment of chronic hepatitis c , sustained virological response ( svr ) can be achieved only in half of all patients .
interleukin-28b appears to be involved in the control of hcv infection , and the genetic polymorphism of the encoding il-28b gene may determine the efficacy of clearance of hcv .
the aim of this paper was to detect il-28b gene polymorphism in latvia and to analyze therapy results .
this is the first study on il-28b gene polymorphism in latvia .
material and methods .
there were 159 chronic viral hepatitis c patients included in the study . in order to detect il-28b gene polymorphism , we used molecular biology techniques and methods : classical dna separation , amplification by pcr , and standard sequencing
. genotype was defined as cc , ct , tc , or tt type .
142 patients were treated with the standard of care treatment .
results were analyzed according to il-28b polymorphism .
results .
there were 53 patients ( 33% ) with cc genotype , 84 patients ( 53% ) with ct / tc genotype , and 22 patients ( 14% ) with tt genotype .
34 patients ( 74% ) in cc genotype subgroup achieved svr versus 50 patients ( 52% ) in non - cc subgroups . in patients with genotype 1 ,
svr was achieved in 16 patients ( 84% ) in cc subgroup versus 30 patients ( 47.6% ) in non - cc subgroups , p = 0.007 .
conclusions .
the most common genotype of il28b in latvia is ct / tc , with an incidence of 53% .
patients with cc genotype achieved svr more often than ct or tt subgroups .
il28b gene polymorphism therefore is a strong predictor of treatment result . |
7,283 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: research on the maintenance of osseointegration under forces
transmitted by occlusal load is as important as the study of the initial process of bone
formation in different implant surfaces .
2002 ) , in a literature review of the
contributing factors to early peri - implant bone loss , pointed to occlusal overload as
the most likely cause of this problem .
occlusal overload beyond the threshold of bone
homeostasis leads to progressive marginal bone resorption , and eventual osseointegration
failure . in order to correlate the forces transmitted by occlusal overload to the degree of bone
remodeling in the tissues surrounding osseointegrated implants ,
the mechanostat theory
proposed by frost ( 1990 ) may be used
to determine the maximum tension bearable by bone . in his theory
, frost proposes that
bone mechanical adaptation is governed by a mechanical strain threshold , which he called
the minimum effective strain ( mes ) .
if local strains within the bone are above mes , the
adaptative response occurs , but if they are below that threshold , bone remains
stable .
several methods of investigation and biomechanical analyses have been developed for the
study of implant supported prostheses . according to spiekermann , et al .
( 1995 ) , in vitro
techniques such as finite element analysis and strain - gauge testing can be used to
measure bone strain .
the use of such methods requires previous knowledge of the density
and modulus of elasticity of bone .
however , according to katz ( 1995 ) , bone is not homogenous and its physical
properties vary greatly according to species , age , gender , type of bone ( e.g. femoral ,
mandibular , cortical , cancellous ) , and even according to the bone site from where the
sample is taken .
( 2000 ) measured the modulus of elasticity of trabecular bone , with
and without cortical plates , and concluded that human mandibular trabecular bone
presents a significantly higher modulus of elasticity in the anterior mandibular region ,
... | objectivesthe complexity and heterogeneity of human bone , as well as ethical issues ,
frequently hinder the development of clinical trials .
the purpose of this
in vitro study was to determine the modulus of elasticity of a
polyurethane isotropic experimental model via tension tests , comparing the results
to those reported in the literature for mandibular bone , in order to validate the
use of such a model in lieu of mandibular bone in biomechanical studies.material and methodsforty - five polyurethane test specimens were divided into 3 groups of 15 specimens
each , according to the ratio ( a / b ) of polyurethane reagents ( pu-1 : 1/0.5 , pu-2 :
1/1 , pu-3 : 1/1.5).resultstension tests were performed in each experimental group and the modulus of
elasticity values found were 192.98 mpa ( sd=57.20 ) for pu-1 , 347.90 mpa
( sd=109.54 ) for pu-2 and 304.64 mpa ( sd=25.48 ) for pu-3.conclusionthe concentration of choice for building the experimental model was 1/1 . |
7,284 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: during childhood , anemia is one of the most frequently seen intractable health concern that has both social and economic implications all around the world . who estimates that almost one - third of the world s population is anemic , most of which are due to iron deficiency ( 1 ) .
iron deficiency anemia ( ida ) compromises 90% of all anemia cases in the world ( 2 ) .
it usually occurs as a result of insufficient dietary intake of iron as well as gastrointestinal tract losses and infections ( 3 ) .
ida is the most encountered form of malnutrition in the world with a prevalence of 43% ( 4 ) .
american academy of pediatrics ( aap ) recommends pis from 4 mo old up to 1 year of age , especially in developing countries ( 5 ) .
although ida is usually a concern of developing countries , there is no national data or a study describing the prevalence of pis usage or ida among children in north cyprus .
meanwhile , thalassemia is another common reason of anemia , being the most frequent inherited genetic disease worldwide , and especially one of the major causes of anemia in the mediterranean area , the middle east , central asia , india and the far east ( 6 ) .
thalassemia is an autosomal recessively inherited hemoglobinopathy which affects the synthesis of globin chain of hemoglobin .
it has three forms based on which globin chain is affected ; , and . thalassemia is the major type seen in mediterranean region including cyprus and it is more prevalent in malaria - endemic areas . in this type ; globin chain synthesis is either decreased or absent leading to three forms of the disease as major , minor or intermediate ( 7 ) .
carrier frequency varies from 3% to 17% in different populations ( 8) . over 9000 thalassemic children are born every year and treatment are very expensive ( 9 ) .
therefore , strategies for prevention and management of thalassemia had been initiated in 1976 ( 5 ) .
there were only two published studies on thalassemia in north cyprus up to date conducted in 1946 and 1973 demonstrating... | background : iron deficiency anemia ( ida ) is an important health problem all around the world especially in developing countries . in the mediterranean countries another prevelant reason of anemia is thalassemia .
certain strategies had been established as a government policy to reduce prevalence in north cyprus , such as pre - marital screening of thalassemia . the prevalence of thalassemia trait has not been evaluated since then .
the aim of this study was to detect the prevalence of ida , thalassemia trait in infants under regular follow - up and to evaluate the compliance to prophylactic iron supplementation ( pis ) and its effect on ida.methods:healthy children admitted to department of pediatrics , near east university hospital , in 20112013 were included .
data of anthropometric measurements , parental thalassemia trait status , duration of pis usage , complete blood count , ferritin levels and hemoglobin electrophoresis were collected from hospital database program .
anemic children were grouped as ida , thalassemia trait , both ida and thalassemia trait and others.results:eghty-nine infants with a mean age 13.522.09 mo were included .
compliance with pis recommendation was 85.3% and , the mean duration of iron usage was 6.443.18 mo .
ida and thalassemia trait were found to be 11.2% and 4.5% respectively , while 3.4% of the infants had both ida and thalassemia trait.conclusion:prevalence of thalassemia trait was 7.9% demonstrating approximately a 50% decline within 5 decades .
this result confirms the success of premarital screening policy in north cyprus .
in addition , prevalence of ida was relatively low being 14.6% supporting the beneficial effect of pis on prevention of ida . |
7,285 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the necessity of oxygen comes from its role in aerobic respiration , a process of extracting energy from food that is approximately 19 times more efficient than its anaerobic counterpart . in eukaryotes ,
aerobic respiration is carried out in the mitochondria ( descendant of an aerobically respiring bacterium ) by a series of electron transfer reactions that are coupled to the generation of a proton gradient .
this proton gradient is used to generate the cellular fuel adenosine triphosphate ( atp ) .
the residual energy of the spent electrons is consumed in the reduction of molecular oxygen ( o2 ) to water ( h2o ) .
aerobic respiration can not occur without this last step , but the reliance on oxygen as the final electron acceptor poses a continual threat of oxidative damage to aerobically respiring organisms .
the threat posed by oxygen comes largely from its conversion to the free radical superoxide ( o2 ) rather than water .
detoxification of superoxide and other ros is performed by antioxidants , which convert ros to less reactive molecules .
the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase ( sod ) converts superoxide to water and hydrogen peroxide ( h2o2 ) , which is another ros and a potent oxidising agent ( see figure 1 ) . under normal conditions , antioxidants help to prevent oxidative damage by using electrons to reduce ros , thus inhibiting ros from oxidising other molecules .
numerous studies have found that high ros levels are damaging to dna , rna , proteins , and lipids [ 36 ] .
additionally , oxidative ( ros ) damage is thought to be one of the major causes of ageing , according to the free - radical theory of ageing .
however , the free - radical theory seems to conflict with recent findings regarding the role of ros in redox signalling , findings that have unveiled an additional mechanism for oxidative toxicity besides simply macromolecular damage .
ros are now known to do more than indiscriminately damage macromolecules ; they function as important signalling molecules ( reviewed by d'autraux... | oxidative stress is a toxic state caused by an imbalance between the production and elimination of reactive oxygen species ( ros ) .
ros cause oxidative damage to cellular components such as proteins , lipids , and nucleic acids . while the role of ros in cellular damage is frequently all that is noted , ros are also important in redox signalling .
the redox hypothesis " has been proposed to emphasize a dual role of ros .
this hypothesis suggests that the primary effect of changes to the redox state is modified cellular signalling rather than simply oxidative damage . in extreme cases ,
alteration of redox signalling can contribute to the toxicity of ros , as well as to ageing and age - related diseases .
the nematode species caenorhabditis elegans provides an excellent model for the study of oxidative stress and redox signalling in animals .
we use protein sequences from central redox systems in homo sapiens , drosophila melanogaster , and saccharomyces cerevisiae to query genbank for homologous proteins in c. elegans .
we then use maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis to compare protein families between c. elegans and the other organisms to facilitate future research into the genetics of redox biology . |
7,286 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the chemical industry is nowadays dependent on fossil resources such as oil , coal , and gas.1 however , a longterm outlook predicts biomass to become a main carbon source for chemical manufacture .
therefore , numerous investigations are now focused on the efficient valorization of biomass . given that carbohydrates represent most of the biomassderived organic compounds,2 great attention
noteworthy , the main source of saccharides are polysaccharides , such as cellulose , starch , hemicelluloses , inulin , and so on .
the strategy of platform chemicals3 considers first the depolymerization of such biopolymers to release the monomers4 and , second , upgrading of these monomers.1b , 5 remarkably , numerous recent investigations have elaborated protocols for the synthesis of fuels along with commodity and fine chemicals based on monosaccharides.1b , 5 , 6
biopolymers are sources of several aldoses and 2ketoses , but seven monosaccharides significantly predominate , namely , dglucose , dfructose , dxylose , larabinose , dribose , dmannose , and dgalactose ( figure 1 ) .
dglucose clearly prevails as the major building block of plant biomass.2a from a synthetic point of view , it would be interesting to extend the list of readily available monosaccharides .
isomerization is a wellknown carbonefficient way to produce rare monosaccharides based on abundant ones ( figure 1 ) .
moreover , valuable compounds can be produced on the basis of the products of isomerization ( figure 2 ) .
for instance , dxylose can be converted into dxylulose and further into furfural under much milder conditions than those typically used for furfural production.7 together with 5hydroxymethylfurfural ( hmf ) , furfural is a biomassderived platform chemical of great interest .
dtagatose is a very promising ketose that can be applied as a lowcalorie sweetener and in cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations .
currently , dtagatose is produced from dgalactose catalyzed by larabinose isomerase.8
formulae of aldoses available from... | abstractselected aldohexoses ( dglucose , dmannose , and dgalactose ) and aldopentoses ( dxylose , larabinose , and dribose ) are readily available components of biopolymers . isomerization reactions of these substances are very attractive as carbonefficient processes to broaden the portfolio of abundant monosaccharides .
this review focuses on the chemocatalytic isomerization of aldoses into the corresponding ketoses as well as epimerization of aldoses at c2 .
recent advances in the fields of catalysis by bases and lewis acids are considered .
the emphasis is laid on newly uncovered catalytic systems and mechanisms of carbohydrate transformations . |
7,287 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: under the new naming system the salmonella enterica serovar gallinarum is divided into biovar gallinarum ( s. gallinarum ) and pullorum ( s. pullorum ) , which are identified to cause fowl typhoid and pullorum disease in poultry , respectively .
while fowl typhoid is a disease of mature birds , pullorum causes mortality of embryos and chicks .
infection with these pathogens is responsible for considerable economic losses in poultry production ( 1 , 2 ) . among diseases of poultry ,
salmonellosis is of great concern and has been responsible for serious economic losses of poultry producers ( 3 ) .
s. gallinarum and s. pullorum are non - motile , host adapted avian pathogens belonging to salmonella serogroup d ( 4 , 5 ) .
s. gallinarum and s. pullorum are very similar from the point of view of their antigenic structure ; however they are responsible for distinctly different diseases in chicken ( 2 , 6 ) . some countries are considered free of s. gallinarum and s. pullorum ; however , infections are still sometimes reported , and are a matter of concern for the poultry industry ( 4 , 6 ) .
salmonella control efforts are complicated due to their sporadic and uneven distribution ( 7 ) .
specific characterization of salmonella isolates is therefore extremely important in order to attribute an isolate to a previously known epidemic outbreak ( 5 ) . although conventional kaufmann white scheme is still the only reliable method for serotyping of salmonella , it can not differentiate between closely related biotypes , such as s. gallinarum and s. pullorum ( 4 , 5 ) .
however , biochemical characteristics take approximately five to seven days and are very time - consuming . recently ,
biochemical methods have been complemented by dna - based molecular techniques , because of their sensitivity and specificity .
such methods include restriction fragment length polymorphism ( rflp ) , which is sometimes associated with pcr ( pcr - rflp ) , ribotyping , pulse field gel electrophoresis ( pfge ) and variable number tandem... | background : salmonella spp . is the major bacterial pathogen in poultry and is responsible for significant economic losses of the poultry industry in many parts of the world . among salmonella spp .
, salmonella
gallinarum and salmonella .
pullorum are the most common causative agents of chicken salmonellosis resulting in high mortality and morbidity.objectives:the aim of this study was to identify s. gallinarum and s. pullorum by using the polymerase chain reaction - restriction fragment length polymorphism ( pcr - rflp ) method.materials and methods : in this study , 13 samples of salmonella , isolated from local poultry , were obtained from razi type culture collection ( rtcc ) . for the pcr - rflp method based on the flic gene ,
extracted dna was used as a template for amplifying of the flic gene ( 197bp ) using specific primers .
pcr products were subjected to digestion using hinp1i restriction endonuclease.results:for the pcr , 197 bp flic fragment was amplified from all 13 isolates .
ten out of 13 were s.
gallinarum and the other three were s. pullorum .
as part of the pcr - rflp , two fragments were obtained ( 82 bp and 115 bp ) for all s.
gallinarum , whereas no digestion was observed in s. pullorum , and 197 bp fragment was seen.conclusions:pcr-rflp with flic gene and hinp1i endonuclease were successfully applied to differentiate the two biotypes .
the results suggested that this technique could be effective in detecting s. gallinarum and s. pullorum . |
7,288 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the growing number of aged people in western countries carries with it an increase in age - related disorders . among these
, alzheimer s disease ( ad ) is the most serious because of its epidemiologic , economic , and social impact .
for instance , in italy , families are the main source of care , providing daily assistance to persons with dementia . data from the italian statistical institute1 report that the majority of patients with dementia ( 80% ) live at home , where informal care ( unpaid and not professionally trained ) is given in about 70% of cases by female relatives , whose burden and stress become heavier as the disease progresses . within the family context ,
the challenges faced by caregivers contribute heavily to the psychologic , physical , and financial burden.2 in caregivers , this is often associated with clinically significant anxiety ( 10%35% ) and depression ( 10%34%).3 the role of chronic distress may also contribute to worsening the physical health status of caregivers , by increasing their vulnerability to develop diseases and reducing life expectancy itself.4,5 these findings are also confirmed by data from a study of a large sample of us caregivers,6 which indicate a high prevalence of hypertension among caregivers , associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease .
the caregiver s condition should be seen as a paradigm of the general adaptation syndrome.7 in this framework , stress may be viewed as a general and nonspecific biological response of the whole body .
this response appears when requests from the environment exceed the subject s resources . in this perspective
, a great deal of attention has been given to the study of coping strategies adopted by the subject when having to face distressing situations.811 coping may be defined as a process of adaptation to stressful situations , which includes the allocation of cognitive and behavioral resources in response to specific internal and/or external demands that are deemed to exceed the subject s normal... | backgroundalzheimer s disease ( ad ) causes considerable distress in caregivers who are continuously required to deal with requests from patients . coping strategies
play a fundamental role in modulating the psychologic impact of the disease , although their role is still debated .
the present study aims to evaluate the burden and anxiety experienced by caregivers , the effectiveness of adopted coping strategies , and their relationships with burden and anxiety.methodseighty-six caregivers received the caregiver burden inventory ( cbi ) and the state - trait anxiety inventory ( stai y-1 and y-2 ) .
the coping strategies were assessed by means of the coping inventory for stressful situations ( ciss ) , according to the model proposed by endler and parker in 1990.resultsthe cbi scores ( overall and single sections ) were extremely high and correlated with dementia severity .
women , as well as older caregivers , showed higher scores . the trait anxiety ( stai - y-2 ) correlated with the cbi overall score .
the ciss showed that caregivers mainly adopted task - focused strategies .
women mainly adopted emotion - focused strategies and this style was related to a higher level of distress.conclusionad is associated with high distress among caregivers .
the burden strongly correlates with dementia severity and is higher in women and in elderly subjects .
chronic anxiety affects caregivers who mainly rely on emotion - oriented coping strategies .
the findings suggest providing support to families of patients with ad through tailored strategies aimed to reshape the dysfunctional coping styles . |
7,289 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: peritoneal dissemination of hepatocellular carcinoma ( hcc ) occurs rarely and is usually considered a terminal stage .
dissemination of hcc was shown along the needle biopsy tract to the abdominal wall and by rupture of hcc and as the consequence of cancer peritonitis by tumor recurrence .
it should be considered that needle biopsy of the liver tumor can lead to dissemination to the abdominal wall .
rupture of hcc is fatal and needs emergent treatment , as tumor cells seed into the peritoneal cavity .
cancer peritonitis was shown in most cases with dissemination of hcc . however , dissemination of hcc without cancer peritonitis to the peritoneum apart from a primary tumor has not been reported . in our case
, the primary tumor was not ruptured and we had not performed needle biopsy of the liver tumor . under these circumstances , we diagnosed the liver tumor as hcc based on elevation of tumor markers such as alpha - fetoprotein ( afp ) and protein induced by vitamin k absence or antagonist - ii ( pivka - ii ) .
we report a case of peritoneal dissemination of hcc in which operation improved the patient 's quality of life .
peritoneal dissemination is a rare presentation of hcc , and we should thus examine the characteristics of further cases .
a 74-year - old man was admitted to our hospital because he had palpated a mass in the right lower quadrant region .
laboratory data were zinc sulfate turbidity test 19.2 ku , thymol turbidity test 10.8 ku , afp 86.6 ng / ml and pivka - ii 44.3 g / ml . hbs antigen and hcv antibody were negative .
ultrasonography showed a 3.5 2.6 cm high - echoic mass in the medial segment of the liver ( fig .
1 ) . enhanced computed tomography revealed a low - density area 3 cm in diameter in the same lesion and a giant well - defined mass , 5 10 cm in size , continuing from the diaphragm to left kidney between the stomach and spleen ( fig .
2 ) . angiography showed a hypervascular tumor in the medial segment of the liver .
fluoroscopy showed a tortuous lesion from the fundus to the... | treatment for the peritoneal dissemination of hepatocellular carcinoma ( hcc ) has not yet been established .
we report a patient with hcc associated with disseminated intra - abdominal tumor .
a 74-year - old man was admitted to our hospital .
computed tomography showed a 3 3 cm mass in the left hepatic lobe and a giant mass between the stomach and spleen . at laparotomy
, the tumor was seen in the medial segment and evaginated to the diaphragm .
there was a tumor between the stomach and spleen , confirmed as a 5 5 cm tumor evaginated from the left diaphragm , and a 7 7 cm tumor adhesive to the spleen .
these two tumors were not continuous and were separated .
furthermore , we confirmed a 10 10 cm tumor in the pelvic cavity .
we performed partial hepatectomy , resection of the tumor evaginated from the diaphragm , resection of the tumor of the spleen and tail of pancreas , and resection of the tumor in the pelvic cavity .
histopathologically , all resected tumors were confirmed to be well - differentiated hcc .
hcc rarely disseminates intraperitoneally .
it is considered that the peritoneal dissemination of hcc occurred from poorly differentiated or undifferentiated type .
then this report is a rare case .
although surgical treatment of peritoneal dissemination of hcc is not curative , surgery may improve survival and provide good quality of life in selected cases . |
7,290 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: this is an retrospective analysis of 53 consecutive tscc patients who underwent surgical treatment of their primary tonsil lesions with simultaneous neck dissection between january 2000 and august 2008 at the ilsong memorial institute of head and neck cancer , hallym university medical center , seoul , korea .
inclusion criteria included the diagnosis of primary tscc , no prior treatment , complete medical records , and the availability of all histopathological slides of resected specimens .
clinical information including age , gender , alcohol and tobacco consumption , tumor location , stage , treatment modality , survival and recurrence , together with the involvement of the base of the tongue , soft palate , pterygoid muscle , posterior pharyngeal wall , or nasopharynx , were analyzed using medical records and radiological results .
tumor stage was reclassified based on the 7th edition of the american joint committee on cancer ( ajcc ) .
smoking history was measured in pack - years and was divided into 2 categories based on a 20 pack - years cut off.12 alcohol consumption was classified into 2 categories based on a 14 drinks per week cut off.12 postoperatively , 23 patients had no further therapy and 30 patients received adjuvant therapy : 18 received adjuvant radiotherapy and 12 received adjuvant chemoradiation therapy .
this study was approved by the institutional ethics committee of hallym university medical center ( seoul , korea ) .
all surgically resected tscc specimens were serially sectioned and embedded for tumor mapping in the department of pathology . the hematoxylin and eosin - stained glass slides were reviewed by 2 pathologists blinded to all clinical information in this study .
pathological features including tumor differentiation , presence of squamous dysplasia adjacent to the tumor , presence of in situ carcinoma connected to the main invasive squamous cell carcinomas ( scc ) , skip lesions of the in situ carcinoma unconnected with main tumor , intratumoral necrosis , growth pattern of... | backgroundrisk factors for lymph node metastasis in tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma ( tscc ) need to be established to determine the degree of surgery required to achieve high curative rates .
however , little is known currently about the histopathological features predicting prognosis , specifically in tscc.methodsthis study included 53 patients who underwent surgical resection with neck dissection .
clinicopathological factors investigated included age , gender , alcohol use , tobacco consumption , tumor stage , adjacent structure involvement , cell differentiation , squamous dysplasia , in situ carcinoma associated with primary invasive cancer , carcinoma in situ skip lesions , necrosis , invasive front , depth of invasion , and lymphatic , muscle , or perineural invasion.resultscontralateral cervical metastasis was associated with higher t stages and soft palate invasion .
lymphatic and muscle invasion were associated with ipsilateral cervical metastasis .
advanced t stage , invasion to the base of tongue , and skip lesions were associated with decreased disease - free survival .
advanced t stage and skip lesions were associated with worse overall survival.conclusionsadvanced t stage and soft palate invasion may predict a high risk of contralateral nodal metastasis .
t stage and skip lesion are worse prognostic factors in tscc and should be commented in pathology reports . |
7,291 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: for decades , joint replacement has been a procedure with major impact on the quality of life in elderly patients with joint degenerative diseases or traumatic injuries .
unfortunately , some patients develop symptoms after surgical intervention . in the majority of patients , aseptic loosening due to biochemical reaction of the bone
both entities have a very similar clinical appearance , but require different therapeutic approaches due to different pathophysiological substrates ( 1 ) .
lack of a single imaging modality that could clearly differentiate between infections and loosening makes this problem a challenge in the routine workup of these patients .
laboratory analysis , including white blood cell count , erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( esr ) and c - reactive protein ( crp ) are not specific enough .
canner et al . found that out of fifty - two patients who had an infection following joint arthroplasty , only eight ( 15% ) had leukocytosis ( 2 ) .
the esr may remain elevated for months after an uncomplicated total hip replacement ( 3 ) .
crp levels increase in a non - specific manner as a result of infectious , inflammatory or neoplastic disorders .
conventional imaging methods are helpful in some situations when complications arise ( 4 , 5 ) , but their diagnostic potential in distinguishing loosening and inflammation are limited .
ct is superior to radiography in imaging soft tissue abscesses ( 6 ) ; however , not a recommended diagnostic tool due to significant artifacts on the images at the location of the prosthesis that hamper the optimal interpretation of the results .
thus , non - attenuation - corrected images must be interpreted to avoid false - positive results if pet / ct is used for the evaluation of painful prosthesis ( 7 ) .
aspiration biopsy of the joint was regarded as a gold standard , but it is not convenient for the patient and may not always be helpful in distinguishing the two above - mentioned pathological entities . a positive result can confirm infection , but a negative... | background : joint replacement is a procedure with a major impact on the quality of life of patients with joint degenerative disease or traumatic injuries .
however , some patients develop symptoms after the intervention caused by mechanical loosening or infection .
metabolic imaging by 18f - fdg - pet investigated in these patients isoften hampered by low specificity for diagnosis of possible septic vs. mechanical loosening .
the reason for this shortcoming is to our opinion the unawareness of physiological remodeling processes that could be seen in asymptomatic patients.objectives:in order to overcome this drawback , we aimed to find out the physiological metabolic functional pattern in asymptomatic patients with implanted hip prosthesispatients and methods : twelve patients ( 6 males , 6 females ) ; mean age 73 7 ( range 58 - 91 ) years were prospectively enrolled in the study .
the patients were admitted to our department for oncological referral with implanted hip prostheses .
all patients explained no symptoms with regard to their implanted prosthesis .
the attenuation corrected images were used for analysis.results:fourteen hip prostheses in 12 patients were visually analyzed .
seven out of 14 prostheses among 12 patients showed focal periprosthetic enhanced metabolism , two of which showed two sites of enhanced uptake ; whereas , the remaining five prostheses showed singular hypermetabolic areas within the periprosthetic site .
the remaining seven prostheses in the other five patients showed no periprosthetic - enhanced uptake.conclusion:of the asymptomatic patients investigated , 58% showed focal enhanced periprosthetic glucose metabolism .
this finding should be taken into consideration as a more probable unspecific metabolic pattern for correct interpretation of 18f - fdg - pet studies in patients with suspected septic loosening of the hip prosthesis . |
7,292 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the menopausal stage of a woman 's life may bring a number of changes , especially with regard to her family life , relationships , and work and financial status . during the menopausal transition , vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes occur due to hormonal fluctuations .
decreased estrogen levels in tissues of the genitourinary tract can also lead to vaginal atrophy ( va ) , a progressive , chronic condition .
symptoms of va include dryness , soreness and burning or itching of the vagina , dyspareunia , and bleeding following sexual activity .
these symptoms can be detrimental to a woman 's quality of life , including her relationships , sexual satisfaction , and self - esteem . despite the distress caused by symptoms of va , the majority of menopausal women
the reasons for this reluctance have been surveyed in large cohorts of postmenopausal women and include embarrassment , lack of awareness that va can be treated , and a failure of health - care providers ( hcps ) to initiate conversation about sexual health issues , including va .
human strategies for coping with change can be classified according to two dimensions of personality : a social dimension based on adlerian individual psychology principles ( combatting versus acceptance ) and a personal dimension based on freudian psychoanalytic principles ( liberation versus control ) .
likewise , a woman 's individual reaction to the negative changes associated with menopause and va can be predicted based on her general coping strategies .
this international focus group study classified women by personality type and examined their attitudes toward menopause , va , and barriers to seeking treatment for va .
recommendations for a personality - based approach to treatment were also generated based on focus group data ; the recommendations included preferred sources of information and aspects of ideal treatment for each personality type .
focus groups took place in march and april of 2010 in montreal , toronto , and calgary in canada ; stockholm , sweden ;... | objectivethe impact of postmenopausal vaginal atrophy and women 's coping strategies were evaluated through international focus groups.methodsthree-hour focus groups of three to five postmenopausal women who had symptoms of vaginal atrophy but had not sought treatment were conducted in canada , sweden , the united states , and the united kingdom .
participants were asked about their experience with menopause and vaginal atrophy , including use of non - prescription treatments and their interactions with health - care providers .
women were classified as one of five personality types , based on their interaction with the world ( individualism or belonging ) and strategies for coping with stress ( control or liberation).resultsvaginal atrophy was not recognized as a medical condition by focus group participants , and women had not used treatments for vaginal atrophy apart from non - prescription lubricants .
women who had discussed vaginal atrophy symptoms with their doctor felt their concerns were dismissed as a normal part of aging , and they did not receive counseling about treatment options such as low - dose estrogen therapy . those whose coping strategy involved dominance , combatting , or individualism were more likely to seek treatment than those whose strategy involved submission , acceptance , or belonging . women who used control to cope with menopausal changes
were more likely to respond to information validated by perceived experts than were those who used a strategy of release.conclusionswomen's reactions to their vaginal atrophy varied according to personality .
use of a personality - based approach to patient counseling may encourage patients to discuss vaginal atrophy with their health - care provider and seek treatment . |
7,293 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: in india , the prevalence of inborn errors of metabolism is one in 2497 newborns and alkaptonuria have incidence of about 1/250 , 000 .
a delay in diagnosis and treatment of this disease can result in arthritis and ochronosis ( darkening of the tissues ) due to the slow accumulation of the dark polymer of homogentisic acid ( ha ) in cartilage and other mesenchymal tissue ; this leads to the dark blackened spots in the sclera , cornea , ear cartilage , and arthritis with advancing age .
one was a 4-month - old female baby born of a non - consanguineous marriage and another early presentation was reported at the age of 10 years with the complaint of bluish discoloration of sclera .
our case was a 1-year 5-month - old male child , brought with complaints of reddish discoloration of the nappies and clothes and breath - holding spells .
there was no history of crying while passing urine , poor urinary stream or bleeding from skin or mucus membrane .
there was no history of fever , rash , abdominal pain , constipation or alteration of sensorium .
the mother of the baby was a known case of thalassemia trait ; however , had never received transfusion . the baby s parents were consanguineous cousins . the father s thalassemia status could not be elicited . on examination ,
the baby weighed 8.5 kg with head circumference 44 cm and length 81 cm and the baby was conscious and alert .
the capillary refill time was between 3 s and 4 s. the heart rate was 146/min .
the baby was admitted for observation and investigations , and the initial differential diagnosis included alkaptonuria , myoglobinuria , hemoglobinuria , porphyria , and hemochromatosis .
hemoglobin was 10.2 g / dl ( normal 10.5 - 14 g / dl ) , packed cell volume , mean corpuscular volume ( mcv ) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin were low at 31.9% ( normal 32 - 42% ) , 68 fl ( normal 72 - 88 fl ) , and 21.8 pg ( normal 24 - 30 pg ) , respectively .
mcv concentration was 32% ( normal 31.5 - 34.5% ) and red cell distribution width 17.1% ( normal 11 - 16% ) .
serum... | since the aggregate incidence of inborn errors of metabolism is relatively high , a high degree of suspicion is essential to correctly diagnose an inborn error of amino acid metabolism .
we report a case of alkaptonuria an autosomal recessive disorder that occurs due to deficiency of homogentisic acid oxidasein a -thalassemia infant presenting with reddish discoloration of nappies and clothes , breath holding spells , and microcytic hypochromic anemia . born to consanguineous cousins , to our knowledge , the combination of -thalassemia and alkaptonuria , which we have described in this baby , has not been reported earlier . |
7,294 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: aspirin
and other agents characterized as nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs ( nsaids )
are designed primarily to decrease pain and inflammation .
the molecular basis
for actions of nsaids is believed to be their ability to inhibit cyclooxygenase
( cox ) activity and block the production of prostaglandins . among nsaids , aspirin and
sulindac
can prevent the development of colon cancer and act as an
anti - inflammatory agent by their inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis .
cancer
of the uterine cervix is the second leading cause of death from cancer in women
worldwide and also the most prevalent gynecological malignancy in korea .
we investigated
whether aspirin induced apoptosis in human cervical cancer hela cells . to
investigate the mechanism by which aspirin exerts its apoptosis effects , the
effect of aspirin on the gene expression was studied by differential mrna
display rt - pcr ( dd rt - pcr ) . employing dd rt - pcr methods , we identified aspirin - responsive
gene and mu - type calpain , which was confirmed by
real - time quantitative pcr .
the two
isoforms are classified according to their ca requirements : mu - type
calpain and m - type calpain require micromolar and millimolar concentrations of
ca for activation , respectively .
growing evidence suggested that
calpain may play a central role in the execution of apoptosis via modulation of
caspase-3 activity in glucocorticoid - treated and irradiated
thymocytes , neuronal cells exposed to uv , or mcf-7 breast cancer cells treated
with -lapachone [ 57 ] .
further
progress in cancer prevention would depend on understanding the mechanisms
through which aspirin exerts
molecular action .
however , the molecular mechanisms through which aspirin alters colonic tumorigenesis are unknown . in this
report
, we describe a potential mechanism by which aspirin induces apoptosis in
human cervical cancer cells . to examine whether mu - type calpain
mediates antitumor effects in hela cells , hela cells... | aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti - inflammatory drugs show efficacy in the prevention of cancers .
it is known that they can inhibit cyclooxygenases , and some studies have shown that they can induce apoptosis .
our objective in this study was to investigate the mechanism by which aspirin exerts its apoptosis effects in human cervical cancer hela cells .
the effect of aspirin on the gene expression was studied by differential mrna display rt - pcr . among the isolated genes , mu - type calpain gene was upregulated by aspirin treatment . to examine whether calpain mediates the antitumor effects , hela cells were stably transfected with the mammalian expression vector pcr3.1 containing mu - type calpain cdna ( pcrcal / hela ) , and tumor formations were measured in nude mice . when tumor burden was measured by day 49 , hela cells and pcr / hela cells ( vector control ) produced tumors of 2126 mm3 and 1638 mm3 , respectively , while pcrcal / hela cells produced markedly smaller tumor of 434 mm3 in volume .
the caspase-3 activity was markedly elevated in pcrcal / hela cells .
the increased activity levels of caspase-3 in pcrcal / hela cells , in parallel with the decreased tumor formation , suggest a correlation between caspase-3 activity and calpain protein .
therefore , we conclude that aspirin - induced calpain mediates an antitumor effect via caspase-3 in cervical cancer cells . |
7,295 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: many studies have shed insight on particular trends in the number and morphology of roots of mandibular premolar and molars amongst different races,1 and information regarding the number of roots and shape is important for dental procedures such as surgical extractions , periodontal treatments , orthodontic movements , and root canal treatments.2 a number of studies have reported that the number of roots and root canal types may vary according to ethnicity , and a literature search reveals that comparatively few studies have evaluated the root anatomy of mandibular premolars and molars in ethnic populations using cone - beam computed tomography ( cbct).3 cbct is advancement in ct imaging , and it has potential applications for the imaging of high - contrast structures in the head and neck , as well as dentomaxillofacial regions ; it has been applied in periodontal evaluations ; endodontics , including assessment of periapical pathology and periradicular surgical planning ; orthodontic evaluations ; and dentoalveolar trauma evaluation.4,5 the cbct scanner can collect volume data by means of a single rotation with a cone - shaped x - ray beam and two - dimensional detectors,6 and cbct is capable of providing images of high diagnostic quality , with shorter scanning times and lower radiation dosages compared to those of conventional ct scans.7,8 recently , a study was conducted to investigate the incidence of distolingual ( dl ) roots in the mandibular molars using cbct scans , and it was suggested that this method may be a practical tool for noninvasive and 3-dimensional reconstruction imaging for use in morphologic analyses and endodontic applications.9 the main purpose of this study was to investigate the root and morphology of korean mandibular premolars and molars , and to evaluate the prevalence of three - rooted mandibular first molars having distolingual root ( radix entomolaris ) , three - rooted mandibular second molars , and c - shaped ( gutter - shaped ) roots in mandibular second molars .
cbct... | objective : the purpose of this study was to investigate the root / number of roots and morphology of mandibular premolars and molars in a korean population , and to evaluate the prevalence of three - rooted mandibular first molars having distolingual ( dl ) roots , three - rooted mandibular second molars , and c - shaped roots in mandibular second molars.methods:serial axial cone - beam computed tomography ( cbct ) images of the mandibles were collected from 430 korean patients .
the total number of roots in the mandibular premolars and molars was counted , and the incidence and the correlations between left- and right - side occurrences and between males and females were analyzed.results:the majority of mandibular first premolars and second premolars had one root ( 99.9% and 99.4% , respectively ) .
three - fourth of first molars ( 77.4% ) had one mesial and one distal root , and the incidence of a three - rooted tooth having dl root was 22.3% .
a little more than half the number of mandibular second molars ( 54.5% ) were two - rooted .
finally , 2.3% of the second molars had three roots having one dl root , and 41.3% had c - shaped roots.conclusion:there was a high prevalence of three - rooted mandibular first molars and c - shaped roots in mandibular second molars among a korean population , detected using cbct , and the results showed similarities with previous reports about other asian populations .
it may be suggested that cbct is a practical method of evaluating the number and shape of teeth .
data regarding the occurrence and morphology of the roots may provide useful information to dental practitioners . |
7,296 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: pyogenic granuloma is an excessive proliferation of granulation tissue that usually develops after minor trauma or surgery .
the objective of our report is to describe the clinicopathological feature of this rare disease and give insight on clinical features that help in the diagnosis .
this report presents a case of a four year old child who had fleshy growth of one week duration on the right eye after seven weeks of pain and redness .
therefore , it should be considered as a differential diagnosis in corneal mass especially after an infection or trauma .
pyogenic granuloma is an exuberant proliferation of granulation tissue that typically develops after minor trauma or surgery .
ocular pyogenic granulomas are usually found on the external surface of the eyelid or the palpebral conjunctiva .
corneal pyogenic granuloma is rare - only few cases have been reported , and the probable reason could be corneas ' avascularity ( 1 , 2 ) . a constant clinical finding of these reported corneal lesions is either an epithelial defect in the presence of corneal neovascularization and ocular surface disease or mechanical irritation .
it can rarely complicate corneal surgeries , and there is one report following penetrating keratoplasty ( 3 ) . because of its rarity , it could be misdiagnosed as ocular malignant lesion and could end up in destructive surgeries like enucleation ( 2 , 4 ) .
we report an unusual case of pyogenic granuloma of the cornea in a 4 year old male child presented to jimma university specialized hospital ophthalmology department in september 2012 .
a four years old boy was admitted to jimma university specialized hospital department of ophthalmology on september 14 , 2012 with a complaint of fleshy growth on the right eye .
eight days before presentation , the family noticed a small , fleshy , pinkish growth at the center of the right eye .
the lump increased in size within a short period and caused irritation and difficulty closing the lids .
the child had ocular pain , redness of the eye ,... | backgroundpyogenic granuloma is an excessive proliferation of granulation tissue that usually develops after minor trauma or surgery .
ocular involvement usually happens on the external surface and cornea is rarely involved .
the objective of our report is to describe the clinicopathological feature of this rare disease and give insight on clinical features that help in the diagnosis.case reportthis report presents a case of a four year old child who had fleshy growth of one week duration on the right eye after seven weeks of pain and redness .
slit lamp examination showed vascularized central corneal mass with surrounding stromal infiltrates .
the mass was excised , and histopathological examination confirmed pyogenic granuloma of the cornea.conclusioncorneal pyogenic granuloma could be a rare complication of infectious keratitis .
therefore , it should be considered as a differential diagnosis in corneal mass especially after an infection or trauma . |
7,297 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: mullerian duct anomalies ( mda ) , though rare , can be a treatable cause of pelvic pain and infertility .
the spectrum of mullerian duct anomalies is a continuum rather than distinct entities , and some complex anomalies have features of more than one class .
since there are no precise clinical or imaging criteria to enable specific categorisation of such anomalies , there is ambiguous classification of these anomalies by various radiologists and clinicians .
we report a case of a rare complex mda , diagnosed as unicornuate uterus with cervical dysgenesis and cavitated , noncommunicating rudimentary horn .
there has been no similar case reported in the literature till date , adding to the spectrum of complex anomalies .
a nulliparous , 30-year - old female , presented to the infertility clinic with complaints of primary amenorrhoea and infertility , with chronic pelvic pain for more than ten years duration .
the patient had prior been investigated several times , including sonography of pelvis , outside our institution , with all inconclusive reports .
the patient underwent ultrasound in the radiology department of our institute , which demonstrated the presence of a normal sized anteverted uterus , oriented more toward the left side of pelvic cavity .
a complex mass comprising of solid and cystic components was found on the right side .
the patient was advised pelvic magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) to better characterise the ultrasound findings .
mri of the pelvis showed presence of two asymmetric uterine horns , smaller on the right side with thin myometrium and normal sized left with normal myometrium .
both endometrial cavities were distended with hemorrhagic contents and showed no communication to each other .
were normally developed , however there was no demonstrable communication between the endometrial cavity and the endocervical canal .
a diagnosis of unicornuate uterus with cervical dysgenesis and a cavitated , noncommunicating rudimentary horn on the right side , was made [ figure 1 ] .
axial... | mullerian duct anomalies , though rare , can be a treatable cause of pelvic pain and infertility .
various complex mullerian duct anomalies may exist with combination of features of more than one class .
since there are no precise clinical or imaging criteria to enable specific categorisation , there is ambiguous classification of these anomalies by various radiologists and clinicians . a young female presented with complaints of chronic pelvic pain , primary amenorrhoea and infertility .
the patient was evaluated by sonography and magnetic resonance imaging and diagnosed as case of complex mullerian duct anomaly , a unicornuate uterus with cervical dysgenesis and cavitated , noncommunicating , rudimentary right horn .
the findings were confirmed on laprohysteroscopy and the patient underwent hystertectomy .
there should be an integrated clinico - radiological classification scheme and familiarity with rare and complex anomalies for appropriate diagnosis and management of complex mullerian duct anomalies . |
7,298 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: both the palmar grasp reflex and the plantar grasp reflex are very primitive in the sense that they can be elicited in all normal preterm infants at as early as 25 weeks of postconceptional age ( pca ) . during routine ultrasound examination , fetal palmar reflex grasping of the umbilical cord
has been repeatedly observed , which first appears at 16 weeks ' gestation [ 24 ] .
these grasp reflexes are easy to elicit but have been proved to be of distinctive clinical significance for the early detection of infants with neurodevelopmental abnormalities [ 58 ] .
this reflex is also primitive , being seen in some preterm infants at 25 weeks of pca and in the majority by 30 weeks of pca . since his report
, many authors have devised a variety of methods for eliciting the reflex , and the underlying neural mechanism including afferent pathways of the reflex has been a subject of considerable discussion [ 1013 ] .
the phylogenetic meaning of this reflex also remains unclear [ 9 , 10 ] .
it is interesting that , in spite of the great difference in the motor behavior , there is a close interrelationship between these primitive reflexes in the responses : the palmar grasp reflex inhibits the moro reflex [ 12 , 1417 ] .
this paper mainly concerns the clinical significance and neural mechanism of the grasp reflex and the moro reflex and also attempts to discuss the meaning of these reflexes based on comparison of the responses in human infants with those in monkey infants and the hierarchical interrelation of the responses of the primitive reflexes .
to elicit the palmar grasp reflex , the examiner inserts his or her index finger into the palm of the infant from the ulnar side and applies light pressure to the palm , with the infant lying on a flat surface in the symmetrical supine position while awake [ 1820 ] .
the response of the reflex comprises flexion of all fingers around the examiner 's finger , which is composed of two phases : finger closure and clinging .
the latter occurs as a reaction to the... | the plantar grasp reflex is of great clinical significance , especially in terms of the detection of spasticity .
the palmar grasp reflex also has diagnostic significance .
this grasp reflex of the hands and feet is mediated by a spinal reflex mechanism , which appears to be under the regulatory control of nonprimary motor areas through the spinal interneurons .
this reflex in human infants can be regarded as a rudiment of phylogenetic function .
the absence of the moro reflex during the neonatal period and early infancy is highly diagnostic , indicating a variety of compromised conditions .
the center of the reflex is probably in the lower region of the pons to the medulla .
the phylogenetic meaning of the reflex remains unclear .
however , the hierarchical interrelation among these primitive reflexes seems to be essential for the arboreal life of monkey newborns , and the possible role of the moro reflex in these newborns was discussed in relation to the interrelationship . |
7,299 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: a healthy 60-year - old male with a 30 pack - year smoking history presented with 2 months of right eye pain , headache , and photophobia .
his ocular history was significant for pterygium excision with mitomycin c in the right eye 5 years ago as well infiltrative infectious scleritis secondary to enterobacter cloacae and curvularia fungus species 2 years ago .
his first episode of the right eye infectious scleritis presented as scleral thinning 3 mm nasal to the limbus with overlying infiltrates that resolved with topical moxifloxacin and natamycin over the course of 3 months . however , a residual calcified plaque remained in the area of scleral thinning .
two years later , the patient returned complaining of several weeks of worsening pain and photophobia in the right eye . on examination ,
his best - corrected visual acuity was 20/25 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left eye .
examination of the right eye revealed soft , yellow - white purulent material overlying the existing calcified plaque with extensive scleral thinning [ fig . 1 ] .
slit - lamp photograph of the right eye 2 years after initial presentation , now with an elevated mass of purulence overlying the area of scleral thinning a limbal peritomy was performed to define the areas of scleral thinning , and the purulent material was noted to be adherent to the calcific plaque .
the plaque and purulent material were excised with gentle traction and sent for culture and histopathology . to avoid scleral perforation , a tutoplast scleral graft was sutured over the scleral defect and covered with a conjunctival flap .
initially , the patient was treated with hourly topical moxifloxacin , fortified tobramycin , and natamycin .
gomori methenamine silver stains of the purulent material eventually revealed a marked amount of branching fungal hyphae ( indicated by arrow ) with cultures growing pseudomonas aeruginosa and bipolaris fungus [ fig . 2 ] .
gomori methenamine silver stain of purulent area demonstrating numerous branching hyphae ( arrow )... | we report an interesting case of infectious scleritis from coinfection of pseudomonas aeruginosa and bipolaris with no corneal infiltrate . a healthy 60-year - old man with a history of infectious scleritis following pterygium excision presented with purulent material growing p. aeruginosa and 1 + colonies of bipolaris species of fungus .
broad spectrum treatment was initiated with hourly topical moxifloxacin , fortified tobramycin , and natamycin along with a subconjunctival injection of voriconazole and topical cyclosporine , with po ketoconazole .
after 10 weeks of aggressive empiric treatment , the patient 's symptoms had resolved , and his vision returned to baseline although a scleral patch graft was utilized to stabilize scleral thinning . |
7,300 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the gluteus maximus ( gm ) plays a major role in functional activity as a trunk and hip
extensor .
weakness of the gm could cause dysfunction in the pelvic and hip joints and back
pain1 .
prone hip extension ( phe ) is an
exercise that can activate the gm effectively and is popularly used in clinics2 .
however , unwanted substitution motion , such
as pelvic anterior tilt or excessive lumbar extension , could happen during phe due to
stiffness of the hip flexor , dominance of the erector spinae ( es ) , weakness of the gm , and
so forth3 .
therefore , recent studies have
focused on controlling unwanted substitution motion of the pelvis and lower back during
phe4,5,6 .
many previous studies about phe have been performed at the
0 hip flexed position8,9,10 .
some other studies have
used starting positions varying from 20 to 90 hip flexion for people with hip flexor
contracture6 , 7 , 11 .
. however , little information
exists concerning whether hip joint angles during phe selectively change the emg activity of
the gm .
therefore , the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of initial hip joint
position on the muscle activity of the es , gm , and biceps femoris ( bf ) as measured by
electromyography ( emg ) of the hip extensor as well as the effect of the angle of pelvic
anterior tilt . through this process
, we sought the most effective position for selective gm
muscle activation during phe .
fifteen healthy adults were enrolled in this study ( age , 26.73.7 years [ meansd ] ; height ,
167.19.2 cm ; mass , 58.111.7 kg ) .
exclusion criteria were neuromuscular or musculoskeletal dysfunction of the lower back and
both legs , lower back or hip pain , contracture of the hip flexor , or a hip extensor strength
below fair .
all subjects agreed to participate and signed an informed consent form approved
by the inje university ethics committee for human investigations . prior to testing ,
kinematic data of
the pelvis were recorded at 100 hz using an eight - camera... | [ purpose ] the aim of this study was to identify the effects of initial position of the
hip joint with changes in the hip joint angle on the respective muscle activities of the
bilateral erector spinae ( es ) , unilateral gluteus maximus ( gm ) , and biceps femoris ( bf )
and the amount of pelvic anterior tilt during prone hip extension ( phe ) . [ subjects ]
fifteen healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study .
[ methods ] the subjects performed
phe in three positions : neutral , 20 , and 45 flexed hip joint .
the activities of the es ,
gm , and bf were measured using surface electromyography , and kinematic values for pelvic
anterior tilt were calculated using a motion capture system .
[ results ] there was a
significant decrease in muscle activity of the contralateral es at 45 , and an increase in
the gm muscle activity and decrease in the bf muscle activity at 20. the amount of pelvic
anterior tilt was lower at 20. [ conclusion ] these results suggest that a hip flexion
position of 20 would have an advantage over the other measured positions . |
7,301 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: vitreoretinal pathology has rarely been observed after laser - assisted in situ keratomileusis ( lasik ) or photorefractive keratectomy ( prk ) .
posterior segment complications are more common in myopic eyes and no direct causal relationship with keratorefractive surgery has been established .
retinal breaks , rhegmatogenous detachments , posterior vitreous detachments , choroidal neovascularization ( cnv ) , and vitreous hemorrhage have all been reported [ 13 ] .
central serous chorioretinopathy ( cscr ) is generally a self - limited disease with the majority of patients recovering visual acuity to 20/30 or better within three months .
approximately 4% of patients will present with binocular involvement , while up to 40% may eventually have involvement of the fellow eye .
increased permeability of the choroidal vessels and dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelium ( rpe ) have been observed with neurosensory retinal detachment and pigment epithelial detachment .
patients present with central visual aberrations including scotoma , metamorphopsia , dyschromatopsia , and micropsia . known risk factors for cscr include type a personality , pregnancy , and corticosteroid elevation either endogenously or through exogenous corticosteroid use .
cscr has been reported in 4 separate case reports after lasik [ 912 ] . to date , there have not been any reports of cscr after prk .
the goal of this study was to report the incidence of cscr after both prk and lasik through a retrospective chart review .
from january 2005 to december 2010 , an icd-9 code search for cscr ( 362.41 ) identified 250 cscr patients seen at the john a. moran eye center .
patients ' age , sex , medication history , pre- and postrefractive surgery exam findings , onset of cscr symptoms , clinical course , treatment , and visual outcomes were analyzed .
the university of utah hospital institutional review board approved the research protocol in accordance with the tenets of the declaration of helsinki .
database billing records of the moran... | purpose . to assess the incidence of central serous chorioretinopathy ( cscr ) following laser in situ keratomileusis ( lasik ) and photorefractive keratectomy ( prk )
.
methods .
a chart review was performed to identify all patients with cscr and a previous history of lasik or prk .
results . over the 6-year study period ,
1 of 4,876 eyes which had lasik or prk at the moran eye center was diagnosed with cscr .
one other patient was referred from an outside center , developed cscr symptoms one month after prk .
both patients were managed conservatively with a final visual acuity of 20/20 or better .
all other patients presented 4 or more years after refractive surgery .
conclusions .
we report the first 2 cscr cases developing within one month after prk .
the low incidence argues against a causal association .
topical corticosteroids or anxiety may elevate cortisol levels presenting therapeutic challenges for the management of cscr after prk or lasik . |
7,302 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: the global prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents has increased substantially over the past several decades .
many studies done previously , suggest that children and adolescents with risk factors such as obesity , dyslipidemia , elevated blood pressure and impaired glucose metabolism are at increased risk of developing atherosclerosis in adulthood .
high - sensitivity c - reactive protein ( hscrp ) has been emerged as a novel biomarker for vascular inflammation associated with atherosclerosis .
accumulating evidence suggests that hscrp , which is also found within macrophages of atheromatous plaques . however , there is no much data available that guarantee its utility as a marker of cardiovascular risk in obese children and adolescents .
hence , the present study was taken up to assess the metabolic abnormalities and its association with hscrp in obese children and adolescents .
a total of 62 obese children and adolescents were consecutively recruited from our department of endocrinology and metabolism , nellore , andhra pradesh , india over a period of 14 months ( october 2011 to december 2012 ) .
obesity was defined based on reference values stated in the centers for disease control and prevention growth chart ( cdc charts ) .
children with body mass index ( bmi ) greater than the 95 percentile for age and gender were classified as obese . those with bmi equal to or exceeding 85 percentile but , below the 95 percentile are defined as overweight .
secondary causes of obesity such as hypothyroidism , cushing 's disease and other causes were excluded .
none of the patients was taking any medication at the time of evaluation for the presence of insulin resistance ( ir ) and impaired glucose tolerance / diabetes mellitus .
the criteria for healthy control group were no major medical illness and normal glucose tolerance test according to the american diabetes association criteria .
the study was approved by the institutional ethical committee and informed consent was taken from parents... | obesity in children and adolescents predispose to the development of obesity in adulthood and subsequent cardiovascular disease .
high - sensitivity c - reactive protein ( hscrp ) is a marker of low grade inflammatory state , which characterizes an atherosclerotic process .
the aim of this study was to assess the metabolic abnormalities and its association with hscrp in obese children and adolescents .
a total of 62 obese children and adolescents and 24 healthy children and adolescents with a normal weight were recruited . in all subjects , anthropometric and
biochemical parameters were measured .
body mass index ( bmi ) and blood pressure were significantly higher in the obese children and adolescents than the control .
obese children had significantly higher hscrp levels ( p < 0.001 ) , total cholesterol , triglyceride , low - density lipoprotein - cholesterol ( ldl - c ) and lower high - density lipoprotein - cholesterol than the control group . furthermore , homeostatic model assessment - insulin resistance ( homa - ir ) was significantly higher in obese children compared with the normal weight children .
furthermore , hscrp showed a positive correlation with bmi ( r = 0.357 ; p = 0.028 ) , total cholesterol ( r = 0.367 ; p = 0.008 ) and ldl - c ( r = 0.356 ; p = 0.01 ) , insulin ( r = 0.311 ; p = 0.026 ) and not with homa - ir ( r = 0.244 ; p = 0.084 ) ) . in conclusion ,
obese children and adolescents have significantly increased hscrp compared with a normal weight group .
early intervention and prevention of obesity in children and adolescents decreases cardiovascular disease in later life . |
7,303 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: our device incorporates three key
elements : patterned polymer brushes
to present selected haptenic groups ; cofactors required for acwop ;
and components for electrochemical detection and quantification of
h2o2 ( figure 1 ) .
details
about the materials and methods used and additional control experiments
are given in the supporting information .
a fundamental feature of our device is the use of poly(oligoethylene
glycol methacrylate ) ( poegma ) polymer brushes ( figure 2a ) for anchoring a variety of hapten groups and for preventing
nonspecific adsorption of other biomolecules that may be present in
the test sample .
oeg moieties are known to be resistant to protein
adsorption and have long - term stability .
this is due to the dense packing of neighboring chains which results
in an increased entropic force and drives the brushes into a stretched
state at high grafting densities to yield effective resistance to
nonspecific binding . to produce the necessary
high grafting density , we employed atom transfer radical polymerization
( atrp ) methods to grow brushes on either a silicon wafer chip or a
gold - plated quartz crystal microbalance ( qcm ) crystal . by functionalizing the initiator end with either
a silane or thiol group ,
polymer brushes have the capacity
to be modified with a broad range of haptens for corresponding detection
of antibodies with a broad range of specificities . for initial
development and optimization of this platform , we used
2,4-dinitrophenyl ( dnp ) groups as a model hapten .
this well - characterized
hapten binds specific anti - dnp antibodies of several classes and species
and can be conjugated to the ends of the brushes through a one - step
process ( figure 2a ) .
the functionalized polymer
brushes ranged in thickness from 13 to 35 nm , measured via ellipsometry ,
and two methods were utilized to confirm the presence of dnp groups .
first , fluorescence imaging with fluorescently labeled anti - dnp igg
antibodies verified... | infectious diseases ,
such as influenza , present a prominent global
problem including the constant threat of pandemics that initiate in
avian or other species and then pass to humans .
we report a new sensor
that can be specifically functionalized to detect antibodies associated
with a wide range of infectious diseases in multiple species .
this
biosensor is based on electrochemical detection of hydrogen peroxide
generated through the intrinsic catalytic activity of all antibodies :
the antibody catalyzed water oxidation pathway ( acwop ) .
our platform
includes a polymer brush - modified surface where specific antibodies
bind to conjugated haptens with high affinity and specificity .
hydrogen
peroxide provides an electrochemical signal that is mediated by resorufin / amplex
red .
we characterize the biosensor platform , using model anti - dnp
antibodies , with the ultimate goal of designing a versatile device
that is inexpensive , portable , reliable , and fast .
we demonstrate
detection of antibodies at concentrations that fall well within clinically
relevant levels . |
7,304 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: lendoprothse endobiliaire peut tre utilise substitut la localisation pancratique dans lutilisation de la tomographie par ordinateur faisceau conique ( tofc ) en radiothrapie externe .
la prsente tude fait tat du dplacement interfraction de lendoprothse durant la radiothrapie externe pour le cancer du pancras localement avanc ( cpla ) .
six patients porteurs dune endoprothse endobiliaire ayant reu des traitements de radiothrapie externe pour un cpla ont t valus . les mesures pour laspect le plus suprieur de lendoprothse ( sup stent ) et son aspect le plus infrieur ( inf stent ) par rapport laspect le plus suprieur et infrieur de lapophyse pineuse centrale de la vertbre l1 ont t dtermins partir des traitements quotidiens de tofc et compars celles tablies lors de la tomographie de planification
. les changements dans la mesure endoprothse - l1 ont t interprts comme des changements dans la position relative de lendoprothse .
trois patients ont prsent un dplacement interfraction de lendoprothse de 1 cm lorsque les mesures de traitement ont t compares aux mesures de planification .
pour le patient a , la mesure sup stent montre un dplacement vers la droite ( 2,662,77 cm ) et le bas ( 3,03,12 cm ) , tandis que la mesure inf stent se dplaait vers la droite ( 1,922,02 cm ) , le bas ( 3,233,34 cm ) et larrire ( 1,411,43 cm ) .
la mesure inf stent pour le patient b montre un dplacement vers le haut ( 2,230,49 cm ) et larrire ( 1,720,59 cm ) .
les mesures sup et inf stent du patient f montrent un dplacement vers le bas ( 0,980,35 cm et 1,210,38 cm , respectivement ) .
chez les trois autres patients ( c , d et e ) , le dplacement interfraction est infrieur 1 cm .
la migration et la dformation de lendoprothse endobiliaire ont t observes chez un petit sous - ensemble de patients .
dautres tudes seront ncessaires avant de pouvoir confirmer leur utilisation comme substitut la localisation des cibles cpla durant la radiothrapie externe guide par limage .
the 5-year survival rate in england for men and... | purposeendobiliary stents can be used as surrogates for pancreatic localization when using cone - beam computed tomography ( cbct ) during external - beam radiotherapy ( ebrt ) .
this work reports on interfraction stent position changes during ebrt for locally advanced pancreatic cancer ( lapc).materials and methodssix patients with endobiliary stents who underwent ebrt for lapc were assessed .
measurements from the most superior aspect of the stent ( sup stent ) and the most inferior aspect of the stent ( inf stent ) to the most inferior , posterior aspect of the l1 vertebra central spinous process were determined from daily treatment cbcts and compared with those determined from the planning computed tomography ( ct ) scan .
changes in stent - l1 measurements were interpreted as changes in relative stent position.resultsthree patients showed mean interfraction stent position changes of 1 cm when treatment measurements were compared with planning measurements .
the sup stent for patient a moved to the right ( 2.66 2.77 cm ) and inferiorly ( 3.0 3.12 cm ) , and the inf stent moved to the right ( 1.92 2.02 cm ) inferiorly ( 3.23 3.34 cm ) and posteriorly ( 1.41 1.43 cm ) . the inf stent for patient b
moved superiorly ( 2.23 0.49 cm ) and posteriorly ( 1.72 0.59 cm ) .
the sup and inf stent for patient f moved inferiorly ( 0.98 0.35 cm and 1.21 0.38 cm , respectively ) .
the remaining three patients c , d , and e showed interfraction position changes of < 1 cm.conclusionendobiliary stent migration and deformation were observed in a small subset of patients .
further investigation is required before confirming their use as surrogates for lapc target localization during image - guided ebrt . |
7,305 | Assuming you're helping a researcher in a hurry, could you summarize the essence of this research for them?
Study: bonding to enamel is been considered satisfactory , but adhesion to dentin is much more complex due to the nature of the substrate . the best way to test the effectiveness of a biomaterial , as well as composite or luting cement or a bonding system , is in vivo experimentation in controlled trials .
however , it is quite impossible to distinguish by clinical evaluation and adhesion potential of a dentin - bonding system from many other parameters that influence either the quality or the longevity of a restoration .
theoretically , in vitro bonding tests would allow for measurement of the true strength of bonding of a given system to a dentinal substrate .
unfortunately , in vitro dentin adhesion testing has not been very successful in predicting in vivo effectiveness , probably because of the number of factors influencing test results and clinical relevance.[13 ] several authors have already studied the influence of some of these factors , such as the origin of the substrate , substrate storage , dentin depth , type of composite , testing mode , etc .
some previous reviews have listed most of the variables influencing dentin bond strength , but none has quantified their importance or defined their statistical significance . the purpose of this study is to evaluate the true factor that affects the bond strength of one - step and two - step self - etch adhesive .
this quantitative overview could be considered as a meta - analysis study performed under non - experimental conditions to assess the effects of certain clinical parameters on bond strength of adhesives .
potential papers were selected from articles published in 13 peer - reviewed journals using pubmed data base .
american journal of dentistry , journal of adhesive dentistry , british dental journal , dental materials , european journal of oral science , international dental journal , journal of dentistry , journal of dental research , journal of oral rehabilitation , journal of prosthetic dentistry , operative dentistry , quintessence international... | aim : the purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the factors that affect the bond strength of one - step and two - step self - etch adhesives by using meta-analysis.materials and methods : potential papers that were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria from articles were published in 13 peer - reviewed journals using
pubmed data base . from each report , means and standard deviations of bond strengths were extracted and tabulated with corresponding experimental conditions.results:all the studied parameters showed no significant difference , except for dentin origin / site and bonding area .
in addition , statistical analysis done with anova showed statistical significance between the one - step and two - step self - etch adhesives.conclusions:our analysis has showed that two - step self - etch adhesive system showed a superior in vitro performance in comparison to one - step self - etch system .
nevertheless , certain factors such as dentin origin , site and area of bonding affect the bond strength of adhesives . |
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