Insomnia does not affect heart rate changes when young adults watch humorous films: An exploratory study

Emotional reactivity in insomnia is affected both subjectively and on a physiological level for negative emotional material, but little is known about reactions to positive stimuli. We here investigated whether in younger adult insomnia patients, presentation of short humorous films would lead to heart rate decreases during and after film viewing, as compared to heart rate changes when falling asleep. Investigating 20 participants with DSM‐5‐diagnosed insomnia and 18 participants without insomnia, we found that heart rate decreased when falling asleep, increased when watching humorous films and returned to normal values afterwards for all participants. Film‐related heart rate increases were strongly related to humour ratings of the films. No differences were found between those with and without insomnia on subjective ratings of the films, film‐related heart rate changes or when falling asleep. We conclude that the experience of positive daily life stimuli in younger adults is not affected by insomnia in our study, despite insomnia having a known more profound effect on negative stimuli. Future studies exploring insomnia‐related autonomous nervous system responses combining different neurophysiological modalities should confirm our findings.     

Cortical activation by a salient sound modulates visual temporal order judgments: An electrophysiological study of multisensory attentional processes

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies show that a salient lateral sound activates the visual cortex more strongly contralateral to the sound, observed as an auditory-evoked contralateral occipital positivity (ACOP). Studies showed that this activation enhances the early cortical processing of co-localized visual stimuli presented after, reflected by better detection rates, better discrimination, and sharper perceived contrast. We replicated the ACOP, using earphones, and tested whether auditory cuing can influence temporal order judgments (TOJ) for two visual stimuli (horizontal arrangement) as well as if the ACOP would predict the amplitude of this influence. A lateral salient sound was followed, after 150 or 630 ms, by the visual presentation of a pair of disks, one in left and one in right hemifield, with variable SOA. The TOJ task was to indicate which disk appeared first or which disk appeared second (controlling for response bias). We observed an ACOP at posterior electrode sites and confirmed our hypothesis that the lateral sound influenced TOJ by accelerating the perception of the disk presented on the cued side, even though the sound was irrelevant to the task. Furthermore, the ACOP amplitude was correlated to this visual perceptual change, indicating that a larger change in brain activity was associated with a faster processing of co-localized visual stimuli.     

Discharge dynamics of oculomotor neural integrator neurons during conjugate and disjunctive saccades and fixation

Burst-tonic (BT) neurons in the prepositus hypoglossi and adjacent medial vestibular nuclei are important elements of the neural integrator for horizontal eye movements. While the metrics of their discharges have been studied during conjugate saccades (where the eyes rotate with similar dynamics), their role during disjunctive saccades (where the eyes rotate with markedly different dynamics to account for differences in depths between saccadic targets) remains completely unexplored. In this report, we provide the first detailed quantification of the discharge dynamics of BT neurons during conjugate saccades, disjunctive saccades, and disjunctive fixation. We show that these neurons carry both significant eye position and eye velocity-related signals during conjugate saccades as well as smaller, yet important, "slide" and eye acceleration terms. Further, we demonstrate that a majority of BT neurons, during disjunctive fixation and disjunctive saccades, preferentially encode the position and the velocity of a single eye; only few BT neurons equally encode the movements of both eyes (i.e., have conjugate sensitivities). We argue that BT neurons in the nucleus prepositus hypoglossi/medial vestibular nucleus play an important role in the generation of unequal eye movements during disjunctive saccades, and carry appropriate information to shape the saccadic discharges of the abducens nucleus neurons to which they project.     

Prostate cancer is part of the hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) tumor spectrum

The recognized urologic tumor spectrum in hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer includes ureteral and renal pelvis malignancies. Here, we report a family in which the proband, who had three metachronous adenocarcinomas of the colon and rectum (at ages 54, 57, and 60), presented with an adenocarcinoma of the prostate at age 61. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of colonic, rectal, and prostatic tumor tissues demonstrated lack of expression of both MSH2 and MSH6. Accordingly, microsatellite instability (MSI) was found in the rectal, colonic, and prostatic tumors. The kindred complies with the Amsterdam criteria for HNPCC, as five members over three generations had colorectal cancer. Molecular investigations were initiated when the proband's son presented with an adenocarcinoma of the colon at age 35. Southern blotting analysis of genomic DNA led to identification of a novel genomic deletion encompassing exon 5 of the MSH2 gene. Although prostate cancer has occasionally been described in HNPCC families, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report where the MSI and IHC analysis of the prostatic adenomcarcinoma clearly link its aetiology to the germline mismatch repair mutation. Hence, prostate cancer should be included in the HNPCC tumor spectrum.     

Functional proteomics mapping of a human signaling pathway

Access to the human genome facilitates extensive functional proteomics studies. Here, we present an integrated approach combining large-scale protein interaction mapping, exploration of the interaction network, and cellular functional assays performed on newly identified proteins involved in a human signaling pathway. As a proof of principle, we studied the Smad signaling system, which is regulated by members of the transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) superfamily. We used two-hybrid screening to map Smad signaling protein-protein interactions and to establish a network of 755 interactions, involving 591 proteins, 179 of which were poorly or not annotated. The exploration of such complex interaction databases is improved by the use of PIMRider, a dedicated navigation tool accessible through the Web. The biological meaning of this network is illustrated by the presence of 18 known Smad-associated proteins. Functional assays performed in mammalian cells including siRNA knock-down experiments identified eight novel proteins involved in Smad signaling, thus validating this integrated functional proteomics approach.     

Do parents understand the medical information provided in paediatric emergency departments? A prospective multicenter study

Aim: We evaluated the extent to which parents understood the medical information about hospitalization of their child in an emergency department and looked for characteristics likely to increase the risk of poor comprehension. Methods: Prospective multicenter study in thirteen paediatric emergency departments. The parents and doctors completed questionnaires based on closed‐ended questions with a common core of four items: reasons of hospitalization, diagnosis, treatment and seriousness of child condition. We evaluated concordance between parents and doctor answers for these items by comparing their responses. Results: This study included 380 parents. Percentage of concordance was 55% for the reason of hospitalization, 78% for the diagnosis, 92% for the treatment, 48% for the seriousness of the condition and 19% for all four items. The mean number of concordant items was 2.76 (CI 95%, 2.66–2.86). Parents whose children seemed not in pain and parents who received additional information from the nurse showed significantly slightly higher levels of concordance with doctor’s answers (2.98 vs 2.66, p = 0.006 and 2.89 vs 2.60, p = 0.004, respectively). Conclusion: This study shows that improvements are required in the clarity of the information delivered to the parents. The assistance of nurses and optimal pain management may help to improve communication.     

Late-onset neonatal infections caused by group B Streptococcus associated with viral infection

An association between viral infection and late-onset disease caused by group B Streptococcus (GBS), was systematically looked for in neonates hospitalized for fever during a 3 1/2 year period. Five neonates between 5 to 12.5 months of age presented with meningitis (2 cases) or with septicemia (3 cases) caused by GBS. Viral culture, immunofluorescence, and assay of IFNalpha in blood and cerebrospinal fluid were performed. A viral infection was proved in 4 cases and suspected in 1 case (rash and pharyngitis). We speculate that viral infection may provoke late-onset disease in colonized infants with GBS.     

Children with human immunodeficiency virus infection admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit in South Africa

BACKGROUND: Early data regarding the outcome of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children in paediatric intensive care units (PICU) suggested mortality as high as 100%. Recent studies report mortality of 38%. Survival depends on the indication for admission. OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence, duration of stay, and outcome of HIV-infected patients in a single PICU over a 1-year period. Additional objectives included describing the indications for admission as well as the clinical and laboratory characteristics of HIV-infected infants and children requiring PICU admission. METHOD: Retrospective chart review of all children with serological proof of HIV admitted to PICU at Tygerberg Children's Hospital from 1 January to 31 December 2003. RESULTS: Of the 465 patients admitted, 47 (10%) were HIV-infected. For HIV-infected children the median age on admission was 4 months. The median duration of stay was 6 days, significantly longer than for the non-HIV group (p = 0.0001). Fifty-seven percent had advanced clinical and immunological disease. Seventeen died in PICU and four shortly afterwards, poor PICU outcome was significantly associated with HIV status (p = 0.001). Lower total lymphocyte count (p = 0.004) and higher gamma globulin level (p = 0.04) were paradoxically the only findings significantly associated with survival. Acute respiratory failure (ARF) accounted for 76% of admissions, including Pneumocystis jiroveci in 38%. Fifty-one percent had evidence of cytomegalovirus infection. CONCLUSIONS: HIV-infected children requiring PICU can survive despite the lack of availability of antiretroviral therapy.     

Twenty-three novel BRCA1 and BRCA2 sequence variations identified in a cohort of Swiss breast and ovarian cancer families

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the major genes predisposing to breast-ovarian cancer (i.e., breast or ovarian cancer or both). Since 1994, hundreds of distinct germline alterations have been reported in these two genes. Besides pathogenic mutations resulting in loss of function of the protein, an increased number of variants of unknown clinical significance have been described. In a cohort of 350 Swiss breast-ovarian cancer families, the systematic search for BRCA1/BRCA2 germline mutations was carried out using denaturating high-performance liquid chromatography as the first screening procedure. The screening strategy resulted in the identification of 23 alterations not previously reported: 9 in BRCA1 and 14 in BRCA2. By using the available tools to assign a functional role to newly identified sequence variations, 5 (22%) of these were classified as new disease-causing mutations, 5 (22%) were classified as benign polymorphisms, and the remaining 13 (56%) alterations were considered as unclassified variants. These data illustrate the major challenge for clinical oncologists currently facing the interpretation of alterations identified in BRCA1 or BRCA2. The key points are to classify these genetic variations as pathogenic mutations, benign polymorphisms, or variants of unknown clinical significance and to adequately use this information for the management of high-risk individuals and their families.