Saliva changes in Parkinson’s disease patients after injection of Botulinum neurotoxin type A

Neurological Sciences - Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are compromised by poor oral condition due to oropharyngeal bradykinesia, dysphagia, and the side effects of treatment....     

Erythroferrone as a sensitive biomarker to detect stimulation of erythropoiesis

Erythroferrone (ERFE) is a glycoprotein hormone secreted by erythroblasts in response to erythropoietin stimulation. ERFE suppresses the hepatic synthesis of the master iron‐regulatory hormone, hepcidin. The impact of erythropoiesis stimulation on ERFE secretion in humans is poorly understood. This paucity of information is due in part to the lack of available means for ERFE quantification in serum samples. The present study tested a new sensitive sandwich immunoassay for human ERFE. This assay was used to demonstrate that injection of various erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) increased the blood ERFE levels in healthy volunteers. After exogenous stimulation of erythropoiesis, ERFE increased up to 8‐fold with a detection window of 13 days. The impact of one unit of blood withdrawal on erythropoiesis stimulation of ERFE was also tested. ERFE significantly increased after blood withdrawal in subjects injected with both iron and saline solution, suggesting that iron supplementation did not mask the ERFE increase after blood withdrawal. The effects of exercise‐induced muscle damage on ERFE was assessed by comparing ERFE levels with creatine kinase levels in samples from subjects with heavy exercise loads, and determined that this was not a confounder. The ERFE assay is a sensitive means to investigate the connection between iron metabolism and erythropoiesis in humans, and to detect ESA abuse in the antidoping field.     

Patient with Dup(5)(q35.2-q35.3) reciprocal to the common Sotos syndrome deletion and review of the literature

The recent implementation of array techniques in research and clinical practice has revealed the existence of recurrent reciprocal deletions and duplications in several genome loci. The most intriguing feature is that some reciprocal genomic events can result in opposite phenotypic outcome. One of such examples is 5q35.2-q35.3. Deletions in this locus lead to Sotos syndrome characterized by childhood overgrowth with advanced bone age, craniofacial dysmorphic features including macrocephaly, and learning difficulties; while duplications have been proposed to manifest in opposite phenotype related to growth. Here, we report a patient with 5q35.2-q35.3 duplication and compare her clinical phenotype with five previously described cases. Short stature since the birth, microcephaly, brachydactyly, delayed bone age, mild to moderate intellectual disability and mild facial dysmorphism seem to be characteristic features of 5q35.2-q35.3 duplication.     

Early vocabulary in full term and preterm Estonian children

Background

Preterm birth is considered to be a high risk factor for child development and early vocabulary can be used as an indicator for later development.

Aims

The aim of the present study is to compare the size of early vocabulary, proportional use of different word categories, and mean length of utterance (henceforth MLU) of preterm and full term children.

Method

The sample consisted of 40 preterm (corrected ages 16–25 months) and two matched groups of full term children. First full term group consisted of 120 children who were matched by age and gender. Second full term group consisted of 109 children who were matched by age, gender and size of productive vocabulary. The data for this study were gathered using the Estonian adaptation of MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences.

Results

Full term children who were matched by age and gender had larger vocabulary as compared to the preterm children's vocabulary (U = 1758.5, p = 0.01). Poisson regression yielded that age, gender, and preterm birth explained significantly the variance in the vocabulary size. Poisson regressions showed that all three variables explained significantly variance in proportional use of social terms and predicates. Age had significant effect for proportional use of common nouns. Age and preterm birth had a significant effect on the proportional use of function words. MLU was shorter in preterm than in full term children (U = 1125.0, p = 0.002).

Conclusions

Estonian preterm children's vocabulary is slightly smaller than full term children's vocabulary. There is a difference in the proportions of word categories used, as preterm children use more social terms, and less predicates, and function words.     

Odontogenic tumours, a collaborative retrospective study of 75 cases covering more than 25 years from Estonia.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present collaborative study was to analyse retrospectively the character of odontogenic tumours in Estonia, involving the entire Estonian population (1.4 million), and to compare their prevalence with the figures presented in similar reports from other countries. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All material for the retrospective study was retrieved from the files of the Departments of Maxillofacial Surgery in Tartu and Tallinn, Estonia, where all in/out-patients are treated from the whole country. The final diagnosis in each case of odontogenic tumour was based on the 1992 WHO histological criteria. RESULTS: A total of 75 odontogenic tumours was found, 74 (98.6%) of which were benign, and 1 (1.3%) was malignant. The frequency of odontogenic tumours in this study was the lowest ever reported. The most common tumours were odontoma (34.3%), followed by ameloblastoma with different subtypes (25.3%), ameloblastic fibroma (16%), odontogenic myxoma (12%) and benign cementoblastoma (8%). CONCLUSION: Odontogenic tumours are relatively rare in Estonia compared with the data from other countries.     

Effects of a 9-month resistance training intervention on quality of life,sense of coherence,and depressive symptoms in older adults: randomized controlled trial

Purpose

(1) To determine the effects of a 9-month resistance training intervention on quality of life, sense of coherence, and depressive symptoms in older adults, and (2) to compare effects between different training frequencies.

Methods

Men and women aged 65–75 (N?=?106) were randomized to four groups according to training frequency: training groups RT1 (n?=?26), RT2 (n?=?27), and RT3 (n?=?28) and non-training control group (n?=?25). All training groups attended supervised resistance training twice a week for 3 months. For the following 6 months, they continued training with different frequencies (1, 2 or 3 times per week). Psychological functioning was measured by quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref), sense of coherence (Antonovsky’s SOC-13), and depressive symptoms (Beck’s Depression Inventory II). Measurements were conducted at baseline and 3 and 9 months after baseline. The effects of the intervention were analyzed using generalized estimating equations (GEE).

Results

After 3 months, there was an intervention effect on environmental quality of life (group?×?time p?=?.048). Between 3 and 9 months, environmental quality of life decreased among RT1 compared to RT2 and RT3 (group?×?time p?=?.025). Between baseline and 9 months, environmental quality of life increased in RT2 compared to all other groups (group?×?time p?=?.011). Sense of coherence increased in RT2 compared to the control group and RT3 (group?×?time p?=?.032).

Conclusion

Resistance training is beneficial for environmental quality of life and sense of coherence. Attending resistance training twice a week seems to be the most advantageous for these aspects of psychological functioning.

     

Differences between humor comprehension and appreciation in healthy children and children with epilepsy

This study explored verbal, visual, motor, and tactile humor appreciation and comprehension among preschool children with epilepsy as compared with healthy children. Participants included 32 children with focal epilepsy, as well as 70 healthy controls. The results suggest that children with epilepsy assess humor dichotomously (as either not funny at all or as extremely funny) and generally as less amusing when compared with ratings given by controls (M = 6.08, and M = 7.44, P = .01, respectively). They also gave significantly lower ratings to verbal jokes than to visual jokes. Furthermore, children with epilepsy assessed the jokes they understood (ie, gave expected explanations to the content of jokes) as less funny. An important finding from our study was that children with epilepsy assess aggressive humor as not funny. The most frequent emotional reaction in both groups to jokes from all subtests was a smile, followed by a half-smile.     

Production and characterization of virus-like particles and the P domain protein of GII.4 norovirus

Noroviruses are an important cause of epidemic acute gastroenteritis in humans. In this study the production and characterization of GII.4 norovirus virus-like particles (VLPs) in insect cells is reported. Furthermore, the expression of corresponding norovirus polyhistidine-tagged P domain protein in Escherichia coli is described. The protruding P domain of the norovirus capsid is known to contain determinants for antibody and receptor binding. Therefore, P domain proteins were studied as an alternative diagnostic tool for evaluating norovirus infection. Analyses by dynamic light scattering and cryo-electron microscopy revealed the presence of intact VLPs with an average diameter of about 40 nm. Immunostaining and ELISA assays using norovirus-specific human sera revealed that VLPs and the P domain are recognized by norovirus-specific antibodies and by their putative receptor. The VLPs and P domain protein are potentially useful in the development of diagnostic and vaccination tools for noroviruses.     

Increasing amount of amyloid are associated with the severity of clinical features in hereditary gelsolin (AGel) amyloidosis

Abstract

Background: Patients with hereditary gelsolin (AGel) amyloidosis (HGA) present with hanging skin (cutis laxa) and bilateral cranial neuropathy, and require symptomatic plastic surgery. Our clinical observation of tissue fragility prompted us to design a prospective study.

Methods: Twenty-nine patients with HGA undergoing surgery were interviewed and clinically examined. The height and thickness of skin folds in standard anatomical localizations were measured. The presence and distribution of amyloid in skin samples were analyzed using Congo red staining and immunohistochemistry using antibodies against gelsolin amyloid (AGel) subunit.

Results: The measured skin folds stretched more in patients with HGA (e.g. skin over olecranon, p?<?0.001). The skin folds were thinner in patients with HGA (e.g. forehead skin, p?<?0.001). The skin and subcutaneous fat were abnormally fragile during surgery. The total amount of AGel amyloid, and its presence in the deep layers of the skin and subcutaneous fat correlated with the measurements of skin folds, age and extent of cranial neuropathy.

Conclusions: The AGel amyloid in the skin and subcutis, together with morphologic changes in the dermal stroma and skin adnexa contribute to the atrophied and fragile structure of HGA skin. This is the first study to demonstrate the correlation between AGel amyloid accumulation and clinical disease severity.