Dissociative symptoms are related to endorsement of vague trauma items

In current psychiatric literature, the received view is that dissociative symptoms originate from aversive childhood events. To a large extent, this view is based on cross-sectional studies that do not rule out a scenario in which dissociative tendencies contribute to self-reports of childhood trauma. In two studies, we tested one particular implication of this scenario, namely, that dissociative symptoms are related to endorsement of vague rather than specific items about childhood trauma. In study 1 (N = 43) and study 2 (N = 127), nonclinical participants completed standard measures of dissociation, childhood trauma, and fantasy proneness. We performed correlational and regression analyses on the data. Fantasy proneness and responses to broad trauma items, but not responses to factual trauma items predicted dissociation levels. This pattern of findings shows that the link between trauma and dissociation is considerably more complex than is often assumed. As well, it suggests that at least in nonclinical samples, dissociative symptoms may breed endorsement of vague trauma items.     

Traumatic stress, brain changes, and memory deficits: a critical note

Memory deficits are frequently observed in posttraumatic stress disorder. According to some authors, these memory impairments are a result of hippocampal damage caused by traumatic stress. This article contains a critical review of studies on changes in hippocampal volume and memory performance in posttraumatic stress disorder. We conclude that most studies in this area suffer from methodological weaknesses and therefore do no allow for firm conclusions about the causal linkage among traumatic stress, hippocampal functioning, and memory. Suggestions for future research, circumventing methodological flaws, are given.     

Oncostatin-M induction of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in astroglioma cells

Oncostatin-M (OSM), a hematopoietic cytokine, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a quintessential angiogenic signal, are coexpressed in development, cancer and inflammation. Here, we report that OSM treatment of human astroglioma cell lines increases VEGF levels by approximately threefold. Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), in combination with OSM, induces up to sevenfold higher VEGF expression, without significantly inducing VEGF on its own. Specifically examining the OSM contribution to VEGF expression, neutralizing antibodies to OSM receptor subunits gp130 and OSMRbeta, but not LIFRbeta, inhibited OSM induction of VEGF, indicating that the OSM-specific receptor OSMRbeta/gp130 transduces the OSM signal for VEGF synthesis. OSM induction of VEGF promoter activity maps to the (-1171, -786) region of the VEGF promoter, which contains a STAT-3-binding site. STAT-3 is indeed essential for this response, since overexpression of a dominant-negative STAT-3 blocks OSM induction of VEGF promoter activity, as well as endogenous VEGF expression. Finally, we demonstrate that OSM is expressed in glioblastoma multiforme tumor biopsies, a particularly malignant form of brain tumor. This novel mechanism of VEGF regulation in astroglioma cells may be active in pathophysiological states where both OSM and IL-1beta are present.     

Procalcitonin in preoperative diagnosis of abdominal sepsis

Background and aims The present study attempted to identify the diagnostic significance of procalcitonin (PCT) in acute abdominal conditions as well as the range of concentrations relating to diagnosis of abdominal sepsis. Materials and methods This was prospective clinical study. The study included 98 consecutive patients with acute abdominal conditions, divided in sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) group. Results PCT concentrations on admission were significantly higher in the sepsis group than in the SIRS group (median [interquartile range] 2.32 [7.41] vs 0.45 ng/ml [2.62]). A cutoff value of 1.1 ng/ml yielded 72.4% sensitivity and 62.5% specificity. In a group of patients with abdominal symptoms lasting for more than 24 h, a cut-off value of 1.1 ng/ml yielded higher sensitivity (82.9%) and higher specificity (77.3%). Conclusion Our results suggest that PCT measurements may be useful for early, preoperative diagnosis of abdominal sepsis.     

Two aspects of feedforward postural control: anticipatory postural adjustments and anticipatory synergy adjustments

We used the framework of the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis to explore the relations between anticipatory synergy adjustments (ASAs) and anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) during feedforward control of vertical posture. ASAs represent a drop in the index of a multimuscle-mode synergy stabilizing the coordinate of the center of pressure in preparation to an action. ASAs reflect early changes of an index of covariation among variables reflecting muscle activation, whereas APAs reflect early changes in muscle activation levels averaged across trials. The assumed purpose of ASAs is to modify stability of performance variables, whereas the purpose of APAs is to change magnitudes of those variables. We hypothesized that ASAs would be seen before APAs and that this finding would be consistent with regard to the muscle-mode composition defined on the basis of different tasks and phases of action. Subjects performed a voluntary body sway task and a quick, bilateral shoulder flexion task under self-paced and reaction time conditions. Surface muscle activity of 12 leg and trunk muscles was analyzed to identify sets of 4 muscle modes for each task and for different phases within the shoulder flexion task. Variance components in the muscle-mode space and indexes of multimuscle-mode synergy stabilizing shift of the center of pressure were computed. ASAs were seen ～ 100-150 ms prior to the task initiation, before APAs. The results were consistent with respect to different sets of muscle modes defined over the two tasks and different shoulder flexion phases. We conclude that the preparation for a self-triggered postural perturbation is associated with two types of anticipatory adjustments, ASAs and APAs. They reflect different feedforward processes within the hypothetical hierarchical control scheme, resulting in changes in patterns of covariation of elemental variables and in their patterns averaged across trials, respectively. The results show that synergies quantified using dissimilar sets of muscle modes show similar feedforward changes in preparation to action.     

Surgical Treatment of Coronary Artery-Pulmonary Artery Fistula with Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract   Coronary arteriovenous fistulae present rare clinical finding with the incidence of about 0.002% in the general population. Usually they are asymptomatic, but sometimes they can mimic other cardiac diseases, most commonly heart failure, myocardial ischemia, and endocarditis. Coronary arteriovenous fistulae have been reported to arise more commonly from the right coronary artery. Most of these fistulae are congenital, and only a small fraction acquired. In this report we present successful surgical treatment of coronary artery to pulmonary artery fistula combined with myocardial revascularization.