Update on the Role of Quantitative HBsAg and HBeAg Monitoring during Peginterferon Therapy

Pegylated Interferon alfa (PEG-IFN) is the only licensed agent that allows a sustained virologic response in a subset group of patients with chronic hepatitis B, both e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and negative, after a finite course of therapy. Despite this major advantage, its use is limited because of its lack of efficacy in a large proportion of patients and a high relapse rate especially in HBeAg-negative patients. Baseline host and viral factors have been largely used to identify candidates for PEG-IFN therapy in the pre-treatment phase, but they have failed to translate into a clear therapeutic choice because of their low predictability. Recently, the use of HBeAg and especially hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) as quantitative serological markers, has led to a revolution in the management of this disease by introducing a new concept of on-treatment prediction of response and stopping rules as early as week 12 of therapy.     

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy—new insights and old challenges

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology - Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is the most common primary mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorder with the majority of...     

A position anchor sinks the double-drift illusion

When the internal texture of a Gabor patch moves orthogonally to its envelope''s motion, the perceived path, viewed in the periphery, shifts dramatically in position, and direction relative to the true path (the double-drift illusion). Here, we examine positional uncertainty as a critical factor underlying this illusory shift. We presented participants with an anchoring line at different distances from the drifting Gabor''s physical path. Our results indicate that placing an anchor (a fixed line) close to the Gabor''s path halved the magnitude of the illusion. This suppression was symmetrical for anchors placed on either side of the Gabor. In a second experiment, we used crowding to degrade the anchoring line''s position information by embedding it in a set of parallel lines. In this case, despite the presence of the same lines that reduced the illusion when presented in isolation, the illusory shift was now largely restored. We suggest that the adjacent lines crowded each other, reducing their positional certainty, and thus their ability to anchor the location of the moving Gabor. These findings indicate that the positional uncertainty of the equiluminant Gabor patch is critical for the illusory position offset.