Objectives: to describe in ultrasonography (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the prenatal findings suggestive of periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH). Methods: this retrospective case series included fetuses referred for MRI and diagnosed with PNH, which were confirmed by post-natal MRI or autopsy. The type of PNH, associated ventriculomegaly and associated ...

OBJECTIVES: Progressive loss of calibration of the original EuroSCORE models has necessitated the introduction of the EuroSCORE II model. Poor model calibration has important implications for clinical decision-making and risk adjustment of governance analyses. The objective of this study was to explore the reasons for the calibration drift of the ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Time-course gene expression data such as yeast cell cycle data may be periodically expressed. To cluster such data, currently used Fourier series approximations of periodic gene expressions have been found not to be sufficiently adequate to model the complexity of the time-course data, partly due to their ignoring ...

Purpose:To determine the diagnostic performance of diffusion-weighted (DW) imaging for the prediction of treatment failure in primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Materials and Methods:The study was approved by the local institutional ethics committee and conducted with informed written consent in patients with primary HNSCC treated with radiation therapy ...

PURPOSE: to assess the efficacy and safety of the Outback device in patients with a chronic total occlusion of the superficial femoral artery and evaluate its impact on fluoroscopy and procedural times. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From October 2006 to March 2007, 52 patients affected by TASC II-D superficial femoral artery ...

This paper reports a potential method that can restore the wettability of bioactive paper-based sensors while maintaining their bioactivity. This study is driven by the need to increase the wettability of the antibody-loaded blood typing paper devices in order to increase the blood typing assaying speed using such paper devices. ...

A novel one-step method for mildly converting cyclic ethers into dibromo compounds is reported. Alcohols, oximes, aldehydes, and ketones are known to react under Appel or Corey-Fuchs reaction conditions but, apparently, these have never been applied to oxetanes or larger cyclic ethers. Treatment of 3,3-dimethyloxetane (1) with tetrabromomethane and triphenylphosphine ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The gastrointestinal tissue plays an important role in the pathogenesis of HIV/SIV infection and serves as a viral reservoir in infected individuals under antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the effect of ART administration in the very early stage of infection on HIV/SIV replication and pathogenesis in gastrointestinal tissue has ...

BACKGROUND: Despite the substantial improvement that antimigraine drugs brought to migraineurs, there is the need for a long-acting and better tolerated migraine treatment than actual pharmacotherapy. St. John's wort (SJW), a medicinal plant endowed with a favourable tolerability profile, showed numerous bioactivities. We here investigated the pain-relieving property of SJW ...

Although hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the treatment of choice for childhood myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), there is no consensus regarding patient or disease characteristics that predict outcomes. We reviewed 37 consecutive pediatric MDS patients who received myeloablative HSCT between 1990 and 2010 at a single center. Twenty had primary ...

The study of individual cells with infrared (IR) microspectroscopy often requires living cells to be cultured directly onto a suitable substrate. The surface effect of the specific substrates on the cell growth-viability and associated biochemistry-as well as on the IR analysis-spectral interference and optical artifacts-is all too often ignored. Using ...

Adolescence is a crucial developmental period characterized by specific behaviors reflecting the immaturity of decision-making abilities. However, the maturation of precise cognitive processes and their neurobiological correlates at this period remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate whether a differential developmental time course of dopamine (DA) pathways during late adolescence could ...

Thioredoxin interacting protein (Txnip) is a metabolic regulator, which modulates insulin sensitivity and likely plays a role in type 2 diabetes. We studied the regulation of Txnip in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Cells were incubated under different conditions and Txnip was measured by immunoblotting. We confirmed that high glucose markedly increases Txnip ...

Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the principal cause of invasive cervical cancer and benign genital lesions. There are currently 30 HPV types linked to cervical cancer. HPV infection also leads to other types of cancer. We developed a 61plex analysis of these 30 HPV types examining two genes E6 and ...

Human herpesvirus (HHV) 6 causes substantial morbidity and mortality in the immunocompromised host and has no approved therapy. Adoptive transfer of virus specific T cells has proven safe and apparently effective as prophylaxis and treatment of other virus infections in immunocompromised patients; however, extension to subjects with HHV6 has been ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Most aerial plant parts are covered with a hydrophobic lipid-rich cuticle, which is the interface between the plant organs and the surrounding environment. Plant surfaces may have a high degree of hydrophobicity because of the combined effects of surface chemistry and roughness. The physical and chemical complexity of ...

BACKGROUND: The guideline offers best practice advice on the care of adults, children and young people with Crohn's disease. AIM: To provide clinically effective and cost-effective evidence-based recommendations to guide clinical practice in a clinical guideline commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). METHODS: A systematic ...

BACKGROUND: -We developed a prognostic model to assess the risk of all-cause mortality in patients with chronic heart failure (HF). METHODS AND RESULTS: -We examined 6975 patients with chronic HF enrolled in the GISSI-HF trial (3.9 years follow-up). Multi-variable Cox regression models were developed to predict mortality (1969 deaths). By ...

The purpose of this study is to develop a droplet-based microfluidic device capable of monitoring drug precipitation upon a shift from gastric pH (pH 1.5) to intestinal pH (pH 6.5-7.0). The extent of precipitation occurring in droplets over time was measured using a novel on-chip laser scattering technique specifically developed ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Due to increased interest in treadmill gait training, recent research has focused on the similarities and differences between treadmill and overground walking. Most of these studies have tested healthy, young subjects rather than impaired populations that might benefit from such training. These studies also do not include optic ...

2-Aryl benzothiazole formation from aryl ketones and 2-aminobenzenethiols under metal- and I(2)-free conditions was described. Various 2-aryl benzothiazoles were selectively obtained in good yields using molecular oxygen as oxidant. DMSO played an important role in this transformation. Functional groups such as methyl, methoxy, fluoro, chloro, bromo and nitro groups were ...

Kisspeptins are peptides derived from the metastasis suppressor gene KISS1 interacting with GPR54 as their corresponding receptor. The KISS1/GPR54 system is one regulator of cellular motility mechanisms leading to decreased migration and invasion. Its role in cell proliferation processes is not clearly understood. In this study, breast cancer cell lines, ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health problem with serious consequences for women's physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. Reproductive health outcomes such as unwanted and terminated pregnancies, fetal loss or child loss during infancy, non-use of family planning methods, and high fertility are increasingly recognized. ...

We developed a mathematical model of Ca(2+) transport along the late distal convoluted tubule (DCT2) and the connecting tubule (CNT) to investigate the mechanisms that regulate Ca(2+) reabsorption in the DCT2-CNT. The model accounts for apical Ca(2+) influx across transient receptor potential vanilloid 5 (TRPV5) channels, and basolateral Ca(2+) efflux ...

PURPOSE: Percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (PMT) is now established as an alternative treatment of acute arterial occlusions in addition to fibrinolysis and surgical thrombectomy. The objective of this retrospective study was the investigation of a rotational atherothrombectomy catheter in terms of safety and efficacy in the treatment of acute and subacute ...

BACKGROUND: Data on the long-term effect of dexamethasone on survival in bacterial meningitis are lacking. METHODS: A long-term follow-up study of the European Dexamethasone in Adulthood Bacterial Meningitis Study was performed. In this double-blind, randomized clinical trial, 301 patients were randomly assigned to receive adjunctive dexamethasone (n = 157) or ...

Cross-presentation is important for initiating CTL responses against tumors. Delivery of exogenous Ags to the cross-presentation pathway in dendritic cells (DCs), using a number of different carriers, has been attempted to further understand the mechanisms underlying cross-presentation and to develop therapeutic tumor vaccines. The present study reports a new antigenic ...

The adeno-associated virus (AAV) encodes four regulatory proteins called Rep. The large AAV Rep proteins Rep68 and Rep78 are essential factors required in almost every step of the viral life cycle. Structurally, they share two domains: a modified version of the AAA(+) domain that characterizes the SF3 family of helicases ...

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) is a master regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis in response to changes in the cellular environment, physiological or pathological status of mammals. PGC-1α is known to be modified by SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier). However, it is not known whether SUMOylation could affect the ...

ABSTRACT Background: There is ongoing debate about whether a decline in body mass represents a true risk factor for dementia, whether it is a phenotypic marker of incipient dementia, or perhaps a marker of another process that increases dementia risk. This study was designed to determine if changes in body ...

Genetic defects in DNA repair and DNA damage response genes often lead to an increase in cancer incidence. The role of defects is also associated with the modulation of hormone signaling pathways. A number of studies have suggested a role for estrogen in the regulation of DNA repair activity. Furthermore, ...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by degeneration of neocortex, limbic system, and basal forebrain, accompanied by accumulation of amyloid-β and tangle formation. Cerebrolysin (CBL), a peptide mixture with neurotrophic-like effects, is reported to improve cognition and activities of daily living in patients with AD. Likewise, CBL reduces synaptic and behavioral ...

Introduction: Prostaglandins and their G-protein coupled receptors play numerous physiological and pathophysiological roles especially in inflammation and its resolution. The variety of physiological effects mediated by prostanoids makes prostanoid receptors valuable drug targets and the research on prostaglandin receptor modulators is intensive. Prostaglandin receptor targeting drugs might be beneficial for ...

OBJECTIVE: To characterize patient populations with favorable costs after the initiation of pregabalin for the treatment of painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (pDPN) relative to duloxetine, gabapentin, and amitriptyline. METHODS: Patients were identified from MarketScan having ≥ 1 claim for pDPN (ICD-9-CM codes 250.6 or 357.2) within 60 days of first prescription (index) ...

When the size of a semiconductor crystal is reduced to the nanometer scale, the crystal boundary significantly modifies electron distribution, making properties such as bandgap and energy relaxation dynamics size dependent. This phenomenon, known as quantum confinement, has been demonstrated in many semiconductor materials, leading to practical applications in areas ...

Precise determination of the effect of muscle temperature (T(m)) on mitochondrial oxygen consumption kinetics has proven difficult in humans, in part due to the complexities in controlling for T(m)-related variations in blood flow, fiber recruitment, muscle metabolism, and contractile properties. To address this issue, intracellular Po(2) (P(i)(O(2))) was measured continuously ...

The ability to regenerate damaged tissue is one of the great challenges in biomaterials and medicine. Successful treatments will require advances in areas ranging from basic cell biology to materials synthesis, but there have been major hurdles in translating the biomedical advances, such as scaffolds that direct stem cell differentiation, ...

It is well established that angiogenesis is the process of formation of new capillaries from pre-existing blood vessels. It is a complex process, involving both pro- and anti-angiogenic factors, and plays a significant role in physiological and pathophysiological processes such as embryonic development, atherosclerosis, post-ischemic vascularization of the myocardium, tumor ...

The neuropathologic diagnosis of Parkinson disease (PD) is based on the detection of Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra of patients with a Parkinson syndrome, although the connection between Lewy bodies and the neurodegenerative process is still unclear. Furthermore, the presence of Lewy pathology is not an indicator of clinical ...

Suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) are known as negative regulators of cytokine- and growth factor-induced signal transduction. Recently they have emerged as multifunctional proteins with regulatory roles in inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer. We have recently reported that SOCS1 has antiapoptotic functions against the TNF-α- and the hydrogen peroxide-induced T cell ...

To evaluate the analytical performance and explore the clinical applicability of the new Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Test, v2.0 (CAP/CTM v2.0), a platform comparison was performed with the Roche COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Test (CAP/CTM v1.0), the Siemens Versant HCV RNA 3.0 (bDNA) test, the Abbott m2000 RealTime HCV ...

The surface tension lowering abilities of insoluble steroids progesterone and testosterone were examined at the dodecane-water interface in the presence and absence of surfactants sodium dodecyl sulfate, dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and dodecyl maltoside. In the absence of these surfactants the steroids were able to significantly lower the interfacial tension ...

PG9 and PG16 are two quaternary-structure-specific broadly neutralizing antibodies with unique HCDR3 subdomains. Previously, we showed that glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored HCDR3 subdomains (GPI-HCDR3) can be targeted to lipid rafts of the plasma membrane, bind to the epitope recognized by HCDR3 of PG16, and neutralize diverse HIV-1 isolates. In this study, we ...

Many theories of category learning incorporate mechanisms for selective attention, typically implemented as attention weights that change on a trial-by-trial basis. This is because there is relatively little data on within-trial changes in attention. We used eye tracking and mouse tracking as fine-grained measures of attention in three complex visual ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The search for a reliable, valid and cost-effective comorbidity risk adjustment method for outcomes research continues to be a challenge. The most widely used tool, the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) is limited due to frequent missing data in medical records and administrative data. Patient self-report data has the ...

The function of the kidney with its highly differentiated and specialized cell types is affected by infection with several viruses. Viral infections of the kidney have a negative impact not only on patients undergoing renal transplantation and immunosuppression. Besides the increasing number of patients suffering from HIV-associated nephropathy, another group ...

We describe the preparation of an injectable, biocompatible and elastic multi-block copolymer hydrogel for biomedical applications, with segmented hydrophobic bisurea hard blocks and hydrophilic PEG blocks. The segmented block copolymers were obtained by the step growth polymerization of amino terminated PEG and aliphatic diisocyanate. Due to their capacity for multiple ...

After ischemic stroke, early thrombolytic therapy to reestablish tissue perfusion improves outcome but triggers a cascade of deleterious cellular and molecular events. Using a collaborative approach, our groups examined the effects of guanosine (Guo) in response to ischemic reperfusion injury in vitro and in vivo. In a transient middle cerebral ...

Abstract The IK6 isoform plays an important role in Ph+ALL. This study was designed to monitor the expression of the IK6 isoform with associated cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities. The IK6 isoform, cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities were detected in 100 de novo Chinese patients with Ph+ adult ALL. The expression levels ...

Noise exposure is one of the most common causes of hearing loss. Recent studies found that noise exposure-induced cochlear damage may change the excitability and tonotopic organization of the central auditory system (CAS). This plasticity was suspected to be related to tinnitus and hyperacusis. However, how cochlear damage affects CAS ...