Pattern of alcohol consumption and its effect on gastrointestinal symptoms in inflammatory bowel disease

Alcohol consumption is a potential trigger for flare in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) flare because of alcohol's pro-oxidant effects and its deleterious effects on gut barrier function. The association with alcohol consumption and IBD flare is unclear. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the pattern of alcohol consumption and its self-reported effect on gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in patients with IBD. We recruited 129 consecutive patients: 52 patients with Crohn's disease, 38 patients with ulcerative colitis, and 39 patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). All the participants completed a validated questionnaire on disease activity (the Crohn's disease activity index or ulcerative colitis clinical activity index, respectively) validated questionnaires to quantify alcohol consumption by National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism criteria, and two structured questionnaires we designed to access patients' perception of the effect of alcohol on their GI symptoms and on overall GI symptom severity. The pattern of current, light, moderate, and heavy alcohol consumption in inactive IBD was similar to the general U.S. population. Specifically, of the 90 inactive IBD patients, 56 (62%) were current drinkers, compared with 61% in the general U.S. population. Of current drinkers, 75% of IBD (N = 42) and 43% of IBS (N = 9) reported a worsening of GI symptoms with alcohol consumption (P = .01); however, overall GI symptom severity did not differ when compared with quantity of alcohol consumed. Patients with inactive IBD drink alcohol in quantities similar to the general population. Current drinkers with inactive IBD are more likely to report worsening of GI symptoms with alcohol than current drinkers with IBS.     

Effect of Social Stimuli on Postural Responses in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study was aimed to investigate the effects of social versus non-social stimuli on postural responses in 21 boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (mean age of 11.6?±?1.5) compared with 30 typically developing (TD) boys (mean age of 11.7?±?1.8). Postural control of children was examined while they were standing on a force plate and viewing images of an object, male face, or female face in sequence. Each image was shown in two trials and each trial lasted for 20 s. Results indicated a significant interaction between group and task (p?<?0.05), meaning that children with ASD but not TD children showed an increased postural sway during face tasks than during object task. Furthermore children with higher autism severity compared to those with lower severity showed an increased change in response to social stimuli (p?<?0.01). It seems that the postural control of children with ASD was more affected by the social stimuli than TD children.     

Can patients with non-convulsive seizure be identified in the emergency department?

BACKGROUND: Non-convulsive seizure (NCS) is an underdiagnosed, potentially treatable emergency with significant mortality and morbidity. The objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of patients with NCS presenting with altered mental status (AMS) and diagnosed with electroencephalography (EEG), to identify the factors that could increase the pre-test probability of NCS.     

Biochemical surrogate markers of hemolysis do not correlate with directly measured erythrocyte survival in sickle cell anemia

Hemolysis is a key feature of sickle cell anemia (HbSS). Direct quantitation of hemolysis could be used as an objective outcome in clinical trials of new therapeutics for HbSS and would also enable better human studies of the pathogenesis of complications of HbSS that are ostensibly hemolysis‐related, such as pulmonary hypertension. However, contemporary human studies in HbSS have used only surrogate markers of hemolysis rather than direct measurements of RBC survival. We directly quantified hemolysis in HbSS by measuring survival of an age cohort of RBCs labeled with a stable isotope, administered orally as ¹⁵N‐glycine, a metabolic precursor of heme. The atomic excess of ¹⁵N in heme extracted from blood was monitored by mass spectrometry over time. We performed 13 labeling experiments in 11 individuals with HbSS. Mean RBC survival was 31.9 days (range 14.1–53.6). Both HbF level, a known determinant of hemolysis, and absolute reticulocyte count (ARC), an index of the marrow's response to hemolysis, correlated with directly measured RBC survival (r = 0.61, P < 0.002; r = ?0.84, P < 0.001). However, commonly used biochemical surrogates of hemolysis (LDH, AST, bilirubin, and plasma free hemoglobin) did not correlate with directly measured RBC survival. These biochemical surrogates should be interpreted cautiously, at best, in clinical trials and human physiologic studies in HbSS. ARC was the best correlate of total hemolysis, but only 70% of the variation in RBC survival was reflected in this marker. If greater accuracy is required in human studies, ¹⁵N‐glycine RBC labeling can directly and accurately quantify hemolysis. Am. J. Hematol. 91:1195–1201, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ROBO1, a tumor suppressor and critical molecular barrier for localized tumor cells to acquire invasive phenotype: Study in African‐American and Caucasian prostate cancer models

High‐risk populations exhibit early transformation of localized prostate cancer (CaP) disease to metastasis which results in the mortality of such patients. The paucity of knowledge about the molecular mechanism involved in acquiring of metastatic behavior by primary tumor cells and non‐availability of reliable phenotype‐discriminating biomarkers are stumbling blocks in the management of CaP disease. Here, we determine the role and translational relevance of ROBO1 (an organogenesis‐associated gene) in human CaP. Employing CaP‐progression models and prostatic tissues of Caucasian and African‐American patients, we show that ROBO1 expression is localized to cell‐membrane and significantly lost in primary and metastatic tumors. While Caucasians exhibited similar ROBO1 levels in primary and metastatic phenotype, a significant difference was observed between tumor phenotypes in African‐Americans. Epigenetic assays identified promoter methylation of ROBO1 specific to African‐American metastatic CaP cells. Using African‐American CaP models for further studies, we show that ROBO1 negatively regulates motility and invasiveness of primary CaP cells, and its loss causes these cells to acquire invasive trait. To understand the underlying mechanism, we employed ROBO1‐expressing/ROBO1‐C2C3‐mutant constructs, immunoprecipitation, confocal‐microscopy and luciferase‐reporter techniques. We show that ROBO1 through its interaction with DOCK1 (at SH3‐SH2‐domain) controls the Rac‐activation. However, loss of ROBO1 results in Rac1‐activation which in turn causes E‐Cadherin/β‐catenin cytoskeleton destabilization and induction of cell migration. We suggest that ROBO1 is a predictive biomarker that has potential to discriminate among CaP types, and could be exploited as a molecular target to inhibit the progression of disease as well as treat metastasis in high‐risk populations such as African‐Americans.     

Designing a Decision Support System for Distinguishing ADHD from Similar Children Behavioral Disorders

In this study, a decision support system was designed to distinguish children with ADHD from other similar children behavioral disorders such as depression, anxiety, comorbid depression and anxiety and conduct disorder based on the signs and symptoms. Accuracy of classifying with Radial basis function and multilayer neural networks were compared. Finally, the average accuracy of the networks in classification reached to 95.50% and 96.62% by multilayer and radial basis function networks respectively. Our results indicate that a decision support system, especially RBF, may be a good preliminary assistant for psychiatrists in diagnosing high risk behavioral disorders of children.