Abnormal Resting State fMRI Activity Predicts Processing Speed Deficits in First-Episode Psychosis

Little is known regarding the neuropsychological significance of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) activity early in the course of psychosis. Moreover, no studies have used different approaches for analysis of rs-fMRI activity and examined gray matter thickness in the same cohort. In this study, 41 patients experiencing a first-episode of psychosis (including N=17 who were antipsychotic drug-naive at the time of scanning) and 41 individually age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers completed rs-fMRI and structural MRI exams and neuropsychological assessments. We computed correlation matrices for 266 regions-of-interest across the brain to assess global connectivity. In addition, independent component analysis (ICA) was used to assess group differences in the expression of rs-fMRI activity within 20 predefined publicly available templates. Patients demonstrated lower overall rs-fMRI global connectivity compared with healthy volunteers without associated group differences in gray matter thickness assessed within the same regions-of-interest used in this analysis. Similarly, ICA revealed worse rs-fMRI expression scores across all 20 networks in patients compared with healthy volunteers, with posthoc analyses revealing significant (p<0.05; corrected) abnormalities within the caudate nucleus and planum temporale. Worse processing speed correlated significantly with overall lower global connectivity using the region-of-interest approach and lower expression scores within the planum temporale using ICA. Our findings implicate dysfunction in rs-fMRI activity in first-episode psychosis prior to extensive antipsychotic treatment using different analytic approaches (in the absence of concomitant gray matter structural differences) that predict processing speed.     

Development of a novel cell-based assay to diagnose recurrent focal segmental glomerulosclerosis patients

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Statin and Aspirin Therapy for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are at 2 to 4 times increased risk of cardiovascular events compared with those without diabetes, both among patients with multiple risk factors only and those with established atherothrombosis. In this review, we provide recommendations for the use of statins and aspirin for the prevention of cardiovascular events in high‐risk patients with diabetes mellitus. Clin. Cardiol. 2012 doi: 10.1002/clc.22032 The SAVOR‐TIMI 53 trial is sponsored by AstraZeneca and Bristol‐Myers Squibb. Dr. Udell is a recipient of a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and Canadian Foundation for Women's Health. Dr. Scirica receives research grants from AstraZeneca, Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer Healthcare, and Gilead Sciences and consultancy fees from Gilead Sciences, Lexicon, and Arena Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Braunwald receives research grants from AstraZeneca and Bristol‐Myers Squibb. Dr. Raz has received honoraria/expenses for advisory board participation from AstraZeneca, Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, Merck, Sharp & Dohme, and Eli Lilly; has served as a consultant for Andromea, AstraZeneca, Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, HealOr, Insuline, Teva, and TransPharma; and has participated in speakers bureaus for AstraZeneca, Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson, and Roche. Dr. Steg receives research grants from Servier. Dr. Davidson participated on advisory panels for AstraZeneca, Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Generex Biotechnology, Novo Nordisk A/S, Roche Diagnostics, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and participated in speaker's bureaus for Eli Lilly and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. Dr. Hirshberg is an employee of and holds stock in AstraZeneca. Dr. Bhatt discloses the following relationships—Advisory Board: Medscape Cardiology; Board of Directors: Boston VA Research Institute, Society of Chest Pain Centers; Chair: American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines Science Subcommittee; Honoraria: American College of Cardiology (Editor, Clinical Trials, Cardiosource), Duke Clinical Research Institute (clinical trial steering committees), Slack Publications (Chief Medical Editor, Cardiology Today Intervention), WebMD (CME steering committees); Research Grants: Amarin, AstraZeneca, Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Eisai, Ethicon, Medtronic, Sanofi Aventis, The Medicines Company; Unfunded Research: FlowCo, PLx Pharma, Takeda. The design and conduct of the SAVOR‐TIMI 53 study are being done by the academic executive committee in collaboration with the sponsors.