Pediatric neuroimaging using magnetic resonance imaging during non-sedated sleep

Background

Etiological studies of many neurological and psychiatric disorders are increasingly turning toward longitudinal investigations of infant brain development in order to discern predisposing structural and/or functional differences prior to the onset of overt clinical symptoms. While MRI provides a noninvasive window into the developing brain, MRI of infants and toddlers is challenging due to the modality’s extreme motion sensitivity and children’s difficulty in remaining still during image acquisition.

Objective

Here, we outline a broad research protocol for successful MRI of children under 4 years of age during natural, non-sedated sleep.

Materials and methods

All children were imaged during natural, non-sedated sleep. Active and passive measures to reduce acoustic noise were implemented to reduce the likelihood of the children waking up during acquisition. Foam cushions and vacuum immobilizers were used to limit intra-scan motion artifacts.

Results

More than 380 MRI datasets have been successfully acquired from 220 children younger than 4 years of age within the past 39 months. Implemented measures permitted children to remain asleep for the duration of the scan and allowed the data to be acquired with an overall 97% success rate.

Conclusion

The proposed method greatly advances current pediatric imaging techniques and may be readily implemented in other research and clinical settings to facilitate and further improve pediatric neuroimaging.     

Caloric beverage drinking patterns are differentially associated with diet quality and adiposity among Spanish girls and boys

The present study assesses the impact of beverage consumption pattern on diet quality and anthropometric proxy measures for abdominal adiposity in Spanish adolescents. Data were obtained from a representative national sample of 1,149 Spanish adolescents aged 10–18 years. Height, weight, and waist circumferences were measured. Dietary assessment was performed with a 24-h recall. Beverage patterns were identified by cluster analysis. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was measured by the KIDMED index. Three beverage clusters were identified for boys—“whole milk” (62.5 %), “low-fat milk” (17.5 %) and “soft drinks” (20.1 %)—and for girls—^“whole milk” (57.8 %), “low-fat milk” (20.8 %) and juice (21.4 %), accounting for 8.3, 9.6, 13.9, 8.6, 11.5 and 12.9 % of total energy intake, respectively. Each unit of increase in the KIDMED index was associated with a 14.0 % higher (p?=?0.004) and 11.0 % lower (p?=?0.048) probability of membership in the “low-fat milk” and “soft drinks” cluster in girls and boys, respectively, compared with the “whole milk” cluster. Boys in the “soft drinks” cluster had a higher risk of 1-unit increase in BMI z score (29.0 %, p?=?0.040), 1-cm increase in waist circumference regressed on height and age (3.0 %, p?=?0.027) and 0.1-unit increase in waist/height ratio (21.4 %, p?=?0.031) compared with the “whole milk” cluster. Conclusion: A caloric beverage pattern dominated by intake of “soft drinks” is related to general and abdominal adiposity and diet quality in Spanish male adolescents.     

Sudden gains among women receiving treatment for alcohol use disorders

Understanding the timing and types of change during treatment for mental health disorders is an important step toward elucidating possible mechanisms of behaviour change in response to therapeutic interventions, yet these issues have not been adequately addressed in the alcohol dependence treatment literature. The current study applied sudden gains (SGs) methodology, an approach originally developed in depression treatment studies, to a sample of women receiving treatment for alcohol use disorders. SGs are drastic improvements in symptoms that occur between two psychotherapy sessions and are hypothesised to be the result of what occurred in the first of those two sessions. SGs can happen at any time during the course of treatment, can happen more than once, and are individualised, as opposed to aggregated for a sample. For the current study, SGs were examined across three variables: percent drinking days (PDD), urge frequency (UF), and urge intensity (UI) in a sample of 102 women receiving either individual or couple cognitive-behavioural therapy for alcohol use disorders. Results indicated the presence of SGs; one-third of the sample experienced at least one SG in either alcohol use or urges to drink; the most common SGs were in frequency of urges to drink. SGs in urge frequency during treatment predicted better post-treatment drinking outcome.     

T Cell Receptor (TCR)-β Gene Recombination: Dissociation from Cell Cycle Regulation and Developmental Progression During T Cell Ontogeny

T cell lymphopoiesis involves extensive cell division and differentiation; these must be balanced by export and programmed cell death to maintain thymic homeostasis. Details regarding the nature of these processes, as well as their relationships to each other and to the definitive process of T cell receptor (TCR) gene recombination, are presently emerging. Two widely held concepts are that cell cycle status is inherently and inversely linked to gene recombination and that the outcomes of gene recombination regulate developmental progression. In this study, we analyze TCR-β recombination and cell cycle status with respect to differentiation during early T cell ontogeny. We find that although differentiation, cell cycle fluctuations, and gene recombination are coincident during normal T cell development, differentiation and cell cycle status are not inherently linked to the recombination process or its products. Rather, recombination appears to occur in parallel with these events as part of a genetically patterned program of development. We propose that the outcome of gene recombination (i.e., TCR expression) may not influence developmental progression per se, but instead serves to perpetuate those developing cells that have been successful in recombination. The potential consequences of this model for the regulation of thymic lymphopoiesis and programmed cell death are discussed.     

Effects of dopamine receptor blockade on cerebral blood flow response to somatosensory stimulation in the unanesthetized rat

Local cerebral blood flow (CBF) was determined in 30 cerebral structures, including four structures of the whisker-to-barrel cortex sensory pathway, by the quantitative autoradiographic [(14)C]iodoantipyrine method during unilateral vibrissal stimulation in rats administered 0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg haloperidol or its control vehicle intravenously. The low dose of haloperidol had no significant effects on resting CBF or its enhancement by vibrissal stimulation. By standard t tests, the high dose statistically significantly lowered baseline CBF in frontal and visual cortex, hippocampus, dentate gyrus, inferior olive, cerebellar cortex, and the ventral posteromedial (VPM) thalamic nucleus on the unstimulated side, and raised baseline CBF in the lateral habenula; however, these changes lost statistical significance after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Neither dose had any effects on the increases in CBF evoked by vibrissal stimulation in the principal sensory trigeminal nucleus and barrel cortex, but the higher dose statistically significantly enhanced the percent increases in CBF due to the sensory stimulation in the spinal trigeminal nucleus and VPM thalamic nucleus. These results do not support a role for direct dopaminergic vasoactive mechanisms in the increases in CBF associated with neuronal functional activation.     

Anticipatory coping: taking control of hair loss

Many women consider hair loss to be one of the most difficult and feared side effects of chemotherapy treatments. On learning they will likely lose their hair, women immediately begin anticipating the event and its impact on themselves and others. Anticipation of an unwanted event can lead to greater anxiety, fear, or depression, particularly if women see or find no options for gaining some sense of control. Anticipatory coping is the process of anticipation and preparation for an expected altered appearance. By researching options, making deliberate choices, and taking specific actions to determine their appearance without hair, women gain a greater sense of control of their changing appearance. This greater sense of control may ease or lessen feelings of fear and depression and help women to take control of other aspects of their lives that contribute to a greater quality of life during cancer treatment. Oncology nurses are in a unique position to help women turn their anxiety about hair loss into an anticipatory coping process, one that increases women's sense of control over some of the outward changes taking place in their bodies and empowers them to make proactive choices regarding their overall response to cancer.