Large parietal midline defect with unusual ridge-like structure at the rim and persistent falcine sinus

Background

Midline cranial defects can be divided into lesions with intracranial tissue herniation (cranium bifidum cysticum) and lesions mainly with ossification failure (cranium bifidum occultum). Herniated cephaloceles mostly require surgical resection, while persisted parietal foramina might become smaller with age.

Clinical case

Here, we report a neonate with large symmetric midline skull defect at high parietal area. A mild bulging mass was noticed. Interestingly, unlike sac herniation, it was surrounded by bony ridges extended from the rim of the calvarial defect, which suggests aberrant ossification. Persistent falcine sinus was also detected. At the corrected age of 11 months, the size of the skull defect had decreased spontaneously, favoring the diagnosis of parietal bone ossification defect. Potential mechanisms resulting in the special appearance of skull bone were discussed.

Conclusion

Incomplete closing of the parietal foramina might be expected due to the aberrant ridge formation. We suggest protective measures for the calvarial defect.     

Sex differences in pain-related symptoms and self-initiated school nurse visits among pre-adolescents

We examined sex differences in self-initiated school nurse visits and pain-associated symptoms in 57 pre-adolescents (36 girls), aged 9-11, with a brief, pain-focused version of the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI). Using sequential multiple regression, pain symptom scores, sex, and their interaction were analyzed in relation to nurse visits prospectively collected for 1 year. Neither sex, nor pain scores alone, predicted total nurse visits. For girls only, higher pain symptom scores predicted increased total visits and increased visits for complaints with documented physical findings. For both sexes, higher pain symptom scores predicted more visits for complaints without documented physical findings. A complex relationship between sex, pain-related symptoms, and self-initiated nurse visits was found in this pre-adolescent sample. Our findings suggest pain-focused symptom measures may be useful in studies of early predictors of adult pain-related healthcare utilization.     

Immediate changes in feedforward postural adjustments following voluntary motor training

There is limited evidence that preprogrammed feedforward adjustments, which are modified in people with neurological and musculoskeletal conditions, can be trained and whether this depends on the type of training. As previous findings demonstrate consistent delays in feedforward activation of the deep abdominal muscle, transversus abdominis (TrA), in people with recurrent low back pain (LBP), we investigated whether training involving voluntary muscle activation can change feedforward mechanisms, and whether this depends on the manner in which the muscle is trained. Twenty-two volunteers with recurrent LBP were randomly assigned to undertake either training of isolated voluntary activation of TrA or sit-up training to activate TrA in a non-isolated manner to identical amplitude. Subjects performed a trunk perturbation task involving arm movement prior to and after training, and surface and fine-wire electromyography (EMG) recordings were made from trunk and arm muscles. Following a single session of training of isolated voluntary activation of TrA, onset of TrA EMG was earlier during rapid arm flexion and extension, to more closely resemble the responses in pain-free individuals. The magnitude of change in TrA EMG onset was correlated with the quality of isolated training. In contrast, all of the abdominal muscles were recruited earlier during arm flexion after sit-up training, while onset of TrA EMG was further delayed during arm extension. The results provide evidence that training of isolated muscle activation leads to changes in feedforward postural strategies, and the magnitude of the effect is dependent on the type and quality of motor training.     

Localization and variable expression of G alpha(i2) in human endometrium and Fallopian tubes

BACKGROUND: Heterotrimeric G proteins take part in membrane-mediated cell signalling and have a role in hormonal regulation. This study clarifies the expression and localization of the G protein subunit G alpha(i2) in the human endometrium and Fallopian tube and changes in G alpha(i2) expression in human endometrium during the menstrual cycle. METHODS: The expression of G alpha(i2) was identified by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and localization confirmed by immunostaining. Cyclic changes in G alpha(i2) expression during the menstrual cycle were evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS: We found G alpha(i2) to be expressed in human endometrium, Fallopian tube tissue and in primary cultures of Fallopian tube epithelial cells. Our studies revealed enriched localization of G alpha(i2) in Fallopian tube cilia and in endometrial glands. We showed that G alpha(i2) expression in human endometrium changes significantly during the menstrual cycle, with a higher level in the secretory versus proliferative and menstrual phases (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: G alpha(i2) is specifically localized in human Fallopian tube epithelial cells, particularly in the cilia, and is likely to have a cilia-specific role in reproduction. Significantly variable expression of G alpha(i2) during the menstrual cycle suggests G alpha(i2) might be under hormonal regulation in the female reproductive tract in vivo.     

Multiple genotypes of influenza B viruses cocirculated in Taiwan in 2004 and 2005

An influenza B outbreak occurred in Taiwan in 2004 and 2005, during which both Victoria (Vic) and Yamagata (Ya) lineages cocirculated. This study examined 36 influenza B viral genomes isolated during the outbreak to reveal their reassortment patterns. According to the isolate groupings in phylogenetic analysis, we were able to categorize those 36 isolates as being of either the Victoria or Yamagata lineage for all eight influenza B virus genomic segments, except for the NS gene, in which clades A and B existed. Based on these groupings, three genome patterns clearly emerged, namely, pattern I (Vic+Vic+Ya+Vic+Ya+Ya+Ya+A, from segments 1 to 8), pattern II (Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+B), and pattern III (Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+Ya+A). According to the timeline of those isolates under investigation, it appears that pattern I and II viruses could have generated pattern III via reassortment of the NS gene. On the other hand, a genomewide comparison of all six pattern III Taiwanese viruses with 37 international influenza B viral genomes showed that two international strains, B/Oslo/71/04 and B/England/23/04, were consistently clustered with the pattern III viruses isolated in Taiwan in 2004 and 2005, suggesting that Taiwanese pattern III viruses might also have been imported due to their matching genomic composition.