Effect of medication in Parkinson's disease: a wavelet analysis of EMG signals

The improvements in the motor ability in patients with Parkinson's disease due to antiparkinsonian medication is well-known and widely documented. Recent results, based both on kinematic parameters and standard electromyographic (EMG) signal analysis, clearly indicated that the medication reduced, as expected, the clinical signs of Parkinson's disease, but did not restore agonist burst duration modulation with distance in elbow flexion movements. The main aim of the present work is to shed more light on this medication effect using a wavelet analysis approach on multiple EMG signals recorded both on shoulder and elbow muscles in ballistic or rapid movements. The wavelet cross-correlation information allows us to evidence some important quantitative features of the EMG signals due to medication.     

Patients with erythrophobia (fear of blushing) show abnormal autonomic regulation in mental stress conditions

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze the autonomic functions of patients with erythrophobia. METHODS: Forty patients with a diagnosis of erythrophobia (female/male ratio 18/22) without any other organic lesions and 20 healthy volunteers (female/male ratio 10/10) were assessed. Clinical evaluation was performed using a modified version of semistructured interviews. Autonomic testing was performed by means of spectral analysis of heart rate and continuous blood pressure by sparse discrete Fourier transformation at rest and under mental stress. RESULTS: There were no significant difference between the two samples in age, sex distribution, BMI, resting systolic, or diastolic blood pressure, nor was there a difference in autonomic baseline functioning between the 40 patients with erythrophobia and the control subjects. On the other hand, patients with erythrophobia consistently showed higher pulse rates (88 +/- 20 vs. 78 +/- 9 bpm, p <.05), higher total heart rate power values (8.40 +/- 0.63 vs. 8.07 +/- 1.02 p <.05), higher midfrequency spectral values (7.38 +/- 0.66 vs. 7.02 +/- 1.18, p <.01), higher high-frequency spectral values (6.89 +/- 0.86 vs. 6.48 +/- 1.44, p <.05), and lower baroreceptor sensitivity (8.62 +/- 8.16 vs. 11.65 +/- 4.42, p <.005) than the healthy subjects. ANOVA showed a significant group interaction (p <.0001) between the samples. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence for abnormal autonomic functioning in patients with erythrophobia when under mental stress.     

Host response toBothrops asper snake venom

As part of the characterization of the host reactivity to the venom ofBothrops asper, we investigated the inflammatory responses in the mouse footpad model. The subcutaneously injected venom induced a rapid increase of serum IL-6 concentration, which peaked between 3 and 6 h and returned to normal values at 12 h. In contrast, serum TNF- and IL-1 were not detectable at any time point studied. A myotoxic phospholipase A₂ isoform purified from this venom, myotoxin II, was also able to induce a systemic IL-6 release when injected into the footpad. Both venom and myotoxin induced local edema and a leukocyte infiltrate accumulating in the muscle and subdermal tissue within 6 h. The infiltrate consisted predominantly of neutrophils at 6 and 24 h, but at later times, mononuclear cells also appeared. The edema, leukocyte infiltration, and IL-6 responses did not depend on the hemorrhagic activity of venom, since all three effects were seen after injection of (1) preneutralized venom, devoid of hemorrhagic activity, and (2) purified myotoxin II. Circulating platelet numbers were significantly decreased 30 min after venom injection and returned to normal after 12 h. The venom also induced a rapid inversion in the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes in peripheral blood, which did not normalize until 12 h later. The present observations suggest that venom, besides its cytotoxic properties, induces early hematologic and immunologic alterations. These findings may be of relevance in future treatment modalities.     

Absence of Correlation Between Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity and Protection in Experimental Systemic Candidiasis in Immunized Mice

We found that in mice which had been immunized intraperitoneally with 2 × 10⁸ heat-killed Candida albicans cells there was a striking temporal relationship between resistance to systemic challenge with 10⁶ living C. albicans cells and a number of measurable cellular parameters of the host response. These included the emergence of delayed-type hypersensitivity and the development of granulocytosis. Since it had been shown in previous work that granulocytosis was associated with an increase in resistance when nonspecific immunostimulation was used, we performed experiments to induce delayed-type hypersensitivity without any measurable modification of the granulocyte population. Adoptive transfer of delayed-type hypersensitivity with spleen cells from immune and resistant donor mice did not produce any increase in resistance in normal recipients. When separate groups of mice were immunized intraperitoneally or subcutaneously with varying doses of heat-killed C. albicans, we found that doses of less than 10⁸ cells did induce significant delayed-type hypersensitivity without any increase in granulocytosis. In such mice, as well as in animals pretreated with immunomodulators before immunization with heat-killed C. albicans, the presence of cell-mediated immunity, as measured by the delayed-type hypersensitivity test, was not associated with an increase in resistance against systemic candidiasis. On the contrary, the results suggested that cell-mediated immunity was associated with an increase in the susceptibility of these mice. The same effect on candidiasis susceptibility was observed when animals were immunized with heat-killed filamentous C. albicans.     

Pyrosequencing for detection of mutations in the connexin 26 (GJB2) and mitochondrial 12S RNA (MTRNR1) genes associated with hereditary hearing loss

Hereditary hearing loss (HHL) is one of the most common congenital disorders and is highly heterogeneous. Mutations in the connexin 26 (CX26) gene (GJB2) account for about 20% of all cases of childhood deafness, and approach 50% in documented recessive cases of non-syndromic hearing loss. In addition, a single mitochondrial DNA mutation, mt1555A>G, in the 12S rRNA gene (MTRNR1), is associated with familial cases of progressive deafness. Effective screening of populations for HHL necessitates rapid assessment of several of these potential mutation sites. Pyrosequencing links a DNA synthesis protocol for determining sequence to an enzyme cascade that generates light whenever pyrophosphate is released during primer strand elongation. We assessed the ability of Pyrosequencing to detect common mutations causing HHL. Detection of the most common CX26 mutations in individuals of Caucasian (35delG), Ashkenazi (167delT), and Asian (235delC, V37I) descent was confirmed by Pyrosequencing. A total of 41 different mutations in the CX26 gene and the mitochondrial mt1555A>G mutation were confirmed. Genotyping of up to six different adjacent mutations was achieved, including simultaneous detection of 35delG and 167delT. Accurate and reproducible results were achieved taking advantage of assay flexibility and experimental conditions easily optimized for a high degree of standardization and cost-effectiveness. The standardized sample preparation steps, including target amplification by PCR and preparation of single-stranded template combined with automated sequence reaction and automated genotype scoring, positions this approach as a potentially high throughput platform for SNP/mutation genotyping in a clinical laboratory setting. .     

Isolation of Bartonella washoensis from a dog with mitral valve endocarditis

We report the first documented case of Bartonella washoensis bacteremia in a dog with mitral valve endocarditis. B. washoensis was isolated in 1995 from a human patient with cardiac disease. The main reservoir species appears to be ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) in the western United States. Based on echocardiographic findings, a diagnosis of infective vegetative valvular mitral endocarditis was made in a spayed 12-year-old female Doberman pinscher. A year prior to presentation, the referring veterinarian had detected a heart murmur, which led to progressive dyspnea and a diagnosis of congestive heart failure the week before examination. One month after initial presentation, symptoms worsened. An emergency therapy for congestive heart failure was unsuccessfully implemented, and necropsy evaluation of the dog was not permitted. Indirect immunofluorescence tests showed that the dog was strongly seropositive (titer of 1:4,096) for several Bartonella antigens (B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii, B. clarridgeiae, and B. henselae), highly suggestive of Bartonella endocarditis. Standard aerobic and aerobic-anaerobic cultures were negative. However, a specific blood culture for Bartonella isolation grew a fastidious, gram-negative organism 7 days after being plated. Phenotypic and genotypic characterizations of the isolate, including partial sequencing of the citrate synthase (gltA), groEL, and 16S rRNA genes, indicated that this organism was identical to B. washoensis. The dog was seronegative for all tick-borne pathogens tested (Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia canis, and Rickettsia rickettsii), but the sample was highly positive for B. washoensis (titer of 1:8,192) and, according to indirect immunofluorescent-antibody assay, weakly positive for phase II Coxiella burnetii infection.