The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire in Males at High and Low Risk for Alcoholism

Cloninger has proposed a tridimensional model as the basis for the classification of personality variants and has developed the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) as an empirical test of this model. In this study, the TPQ was administered to two groups of young men. One group was comprised of nonalcoholic sons of male alcoholics; the other group consisted of nonalcoholic men with no family history of alcoholism. Since the sons of male alcoholics are considered to be at greater risk to develop alcoholism than the sons of nonalcoholics, it was hypothesized that the two groups would demonstrate differences with regard to one or more personality variants as measured by the TPQ. No statistically significant differences in the three TPQ-subscale scores of the two groups were found.     

Expression of carbonic anhydrase 9 at the invasion front of gastric cancers

BACKGROUND: Carbonic anhydrase IX (MN/Ca9) catalyses the reversible metabolism of carbon dioxide to carbonic acid and has also been linked to malignant transformation and hypoxia in various cancers. AIMS: To assess the expression and biological role of Ca9 in gastric cancer. METHODS: Using gastric cancer cell lines and tissues, we studied expression of Ca9 by western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry, and polymerase chain reaction. Biological changes after Ca9 transfection and after treatment with 5'-azadeoxycytidine were also analysed in cancer cell lines. RESULTS: Non-cancerous tissues strongly expressed Ca9 with membranous localisation. In contrast, Ca9 expression was frequently lost in gastric cancers (p<0.001). However, gastric cancers that retained Ca9 expression in cancer cells exhibited a shorter postoperative survival (p = 0.028). In vitro analysis revealed that loss of Ca9 expression in gastric cancer cell lines was restored after treatment with 5'-azadeoxycytidine and was associated with increased invasion (p<0.01). Moreover, AGS cells transfected with Ca9 exhibited significantly increased cell proliferation (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A subgroup of gastric cancers retain Ca9 expression in cancer cells at the invasion front. While loss of Ca9 expression is regulated in part by methylation, re-expression of Ca9 is associated with increased invasion, supporting the hypothesis that increased Ca9 expression may contribute to invasion and thus advanced disease and tumour progression in a subset of gastric cancers.     

Right but not left angular gyrus modulates the metric component of the mental body representation: a tDCS study

The parietal lobes contribute to body-space representation. The present work aims at characterizing the functional role of the inferior parietal lobe in body-space representation and at studying the different roles of the angular gyrus in the right and left hemisphere. We conducted three separate transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) experiments using “tactile distance task” as an implicit measure of body representation. Whereas anodal tDCS on the right angular gyrus influences vocal reaction times (vRT) for stimuli delivered on the ipsilateral body parts without changes of accuracy, right tDCS improved both vRT and accuracy for tactile stimuli on the contralateral limbs. Sham or left parietal anodal tDCS had no effect. These evidences support the view that right parietal areas have a crucial role in the metric component of the body representation.     

Is “fear of passive movement” a distinctive component of the Fear-Avoidance Model in whiplash?

Objectives:Modify the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) for ‘fear of passive motion’ beliefs.Methods:With permission, a 14-item modification, the TSK-PM (passive movement), was created. Test-retest reliability was tested first. Construct validity was tested in chronic whiplash patients by comparing the TSK-PM with the TSK, the Neck Disability Index (NDI) and cervical ranges of motion.Results:The TSK-PM showed high test-retest reliability (r = 0.83) and high correlation with the original TSK (r = 0.84). Low, non-significant correlations were found with other variables. NDI scores were strongly correlated with ranges of motion.Conclusions:While having high test-retest reliability and a single factor structure, the TSK-PM failed to demonstrate distinctive construct validity vs the original TSK. The original TSK is likely to be sufficient to assess fear of being moved in neck pain patients in a clinical setting. Modifications to the current version of the TSK-PM might improve its construct validity in future studies.     

Significant increase in detection of prostate cancer recurrence following radical prostatectomy with an early imaging acquisition protocol with <Superscript>18</Superscript>F-fluorocholine positron emission tomography/computed tomography

Purpose

To highlight a new imaging acquisition protocol during ¹⁸F-fluorocholine PET/CT in patients with biochemical recurrence after RP.

Methods

A total of 146 patients with PSA levels between 0.2 and 1 ng/ml with negative conventional imaging who did not receive salvage treatment were prospectively enrolled. Imaging acquisition protocol included an early dynamic phase (1–8 min), a conventional whole body (10–20 min), and a late phase (30–40 min). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were measured. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of positive PET/CT.

Results

The median trigger PSA was 0.6 ng/ml (IQR 0.43–0.76). Median PSA doubling time (PSA DT) was 7.91 months (IQR 4.42–11.3); median PSA velocity (PSAV) was 0.02 ng/ml per month (IQR 0.02–0.04). Overall, ¹⁸F-fluorocholine PET/CT was positive in 111 of 146 patients (76 %). Out of 111 positive examinations, 80 (72.1 %) were positive only in the early dynamic phase. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy were 78.9, 76.9, 97.2, 26.3, and 78.7 %, respectively. At multivariable logistic regression, trigger PSA ≥ 0.6 ng/ml [odds ratio (OR) 3.13; p = 0.001] and PSAV ≥ 0.04 ng/ml per month (OR 4.95; p = 0.004) were independent predictors of positive PET/CT. The low NPV remains the main limitation of PET/CT in this setting of patients.

Conclusions

The increased sensitivity, thanks to the early imaging acquisition protocol, makes ¹⁸F-fluorocholine PET/CT an attractive tool to detect prostate cancer recurrences in patients with a PSA level <1 ng/ml.