Elevated Serum Cytokines and Trichomonas vaginalis Serology at Diagnosis Are Not Associated With Higher Gleason Grade or Lethal Prostate Cancer

Background

Inflammation and infections have been associated with prostate cancer progression. We assessed whether elevated serum cytokines or T. vaginalis seropositivity at the time of diagnosis was associated with higher grade or lethal prostate cancer.

Impact of neurocognitive function on academic difficulties in pediatric bipolar disorder: A clinical translation.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has demonstrated that academic and neuropsychological functions are compromised in pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD). Investigation of the degree to which neuropsychological deficits might contribute to those academic problems is needed to aid in the recognition and intervention for school achievement difficulties in PBD. METHODS: A sample of 55 children and adolescents with PBD with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (PBD group, n = 28; PBD+ADHD group, n = 27) were tested with a computerized neurocognitive battery and standardized neuropsychological tests. Age range of subjects was 7-17 years, with the mean age of 11.97 (3.18) years. Parents completed a structured questionnaire on school and academic functioning. RESULTS: Logistic regression analyses indicated that executive function, attention, working memory, and verbal memory scores were poorer in those with a history of reading/writing difficulties. A separate logistic regression analysis found that attentional dysfunction predicted math difficulties. These relationships between neuropsychological function and academic difficulties were not different in those with PBD+ADHD than in those with PBD alone. CONCLUSIONS: In PBD neuropsychological deficits in the areas of attention, working memory, and organization/problem solving skills all contribute to academic difficulties. Early identification and intervention for these difficulties might help prevent lower academic achievement in PBD.     

Immunocryosurgery for basal cell carcinoma: results of a pilot, prospective, open-label study of cryosurgery during continued imiquimod application

Background/aim  Theoretical considerations support the combination of cryosurgery and topical imiquimod to treat basal cell carcinomas (BCC). The aim of the present study was to test the feasibility and efficacy of 'cryosurgery during continued imiquimod application' ('immunocryosurgery') to treat 'high-risk-for-recurrence' BCCs.
Methods  Thirteen patients with 21 biopsy-proven tumours (4 of 21 relapses after prior surgery) were included. After 2–5 weeks (median, 3) of daily 5% imiquimod cream application, the tumours were treated by liquid N₂ cryosurgery (spray, two cycles, 10–20 s) and imiquimod was continued for additional 2–12 weeks (median, 4). The outcome after at least 18 months of follow-up (18–24 months) is currently reported.
Results  Nineteen of 21 tumours responded promptly to immunocryosurgery; two tumours required additional treatment cycles to clear. Thus, the clinical clearance rate was 100%. Only 1 of 21(5%) tumour relapsed after at least 18 months of follow-up (cumulative efficacy: 95%).
Conclusions  'Immunocryosurgery' is a promising non-surgical combination modality to treat 'high-risk-for-recurrence BCCs'. Initial evidence is suggestive of an at least additive effect of the two combined modalities. Further studies comparing immunocryosurgery directly with cryosurgery and imiquimod monotherapies will confirm the reported results.     

Affective neural circuitry during facial emotion processing in pediatric bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: Facial emotions are central to human interaction. Identifying pathophysiology in affect processing circuitry that supports the ability to assess facial emotions might facilitate understanding of affect regulation in pediatric bipolar disorder. METHODS: Ten euthymic, unmedicated pediatric bipolar patients and 10 healthy control subjects matched for age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and IQ were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Angry, happy, and neutral faces were presented in 30-sec blocks, with a 20-sec rest period between blocks. Subjects were asked to press a button when each face appeared, to ensure that attention was maintained on-task. RESULTS: In bipolar patients, in response to both angry and happy faces relative to neutral faces, we observed reduced activation of right rostral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex together with increased activity in right pregenual anterior cingulate, amygdala, and paralimbic cortex. Bipolar patients also showed reduced activation of visual areas in occipital cortex together with greater activation in higher-order visual perceptual areas, including superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus with angry faces and posterior parietal cortex with happy faces. CONCLUSIONS: Findings document a disturbance in affective neurocircuitry in pediatric bipolar disorder. Reduced activation in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex might reflect diminished top-down control that leads to the observed exaggerated activation in amygdala and paralimbic areas. Changes in occipital areas might represent an effort to gate sensory input when affective responses to the faces could not be successfully modulated. Disturbances in affect processing circuitry could contribute to emotional dysregulation and social cognitive difficulties in bipolar youth.     

Changes to the ocular biota with time in extended- and daily-wear disposable contact lens use.

Gram-negative bacteria may play a role in the etiology of certain soft contact lens (SCL)-related diseases. Contact lens (CL) wear may modify the normal ocular biota, providing a more favorable environment for potential pathogens. This study reports temporal changes in ocular biota in daily-wear (DW) and extended-wear (EW) disposable SCL use in experienced and neophyte wearers. Lid margin and bulbar conjunctival biota were sampled prior to CL fitting in 26 previous DW SCL users, 18 previous EW SCL users, and 26 neophytes. Wearers were fitted with an etafilcon A CL in one eye and a polymacon CL in the fellow eye. Lenses were worn on a daily basis by the 26 previous DW SCL wearers and on an EW basis by the remaining 44 subjects. The ocular biota was further sampled after 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of wear. The ocular biota consisted of coagulase-negative staphylococci, Corynebacterium spp., Micrococcus spp., and Propionibacterium spp. Potential pathogens were rarely isolated at baseline. No significant trend of increasing ocular colonization was shown for extended CL wear. Lid and conjunctival colonization increased with DW SCL use (P < 0.001), although this increase occurred for nonpathogenic species only. Fewer potential pathogens were isolated from DW SCL than from EW SCL users (P < 0.05). The lid margin consistently showed greater colonization than the conjunctiva and may be a source of potential pathogens during CL wear. Hydrogel CL wear appears to modify the ocular biota. An increased number of commensal organisms were present in DW SCL use. EW SCL use altered the spectrum of organisms isolated. These alterations may suppress the normal ocular defense mechanisms and may be relevant in the pathogenesis of CL-related disease.     

Ligase chain reaction for diagnosis of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

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Localized cerebral proton MR spectroscopy in HIV infection and AIDS.

PURPOSETo document differences in the cerebral proton MR spectra of patients with early and late stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.METHODWe studied the relative N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) levels by localized proton spectroscopy of the parietooccipital region of the brain in 43 HIV-seropositive patients, including 26 with an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-defining diagnosis, and in eight control subjects.RESULTSReduced relative NAA levels were shown in those HIV-1-seropositive patients: 1) with AIDS against HIV-1-seropositive patients without AIDS (P < .04); 2) with HIV-1-associated cognitive/motor complex against neurologically healthy patients (P < .007); 3) with encephalopathic changes on MR against those with normal imaging (P < .001); and 4) on follow-up against their results on initial study (P < .03).CONCLUSIONSBy clinical (Centers for Disease Control classification) and radiologic (MR evidence of white-matter disease) criteria indicating late-stage HIV infection, reduced relative levels of NAA have been demonstrated. Spectroscopic abnormalities can be quantitatively tracked with time. This paper demonstrates the clinical use of detecting NAA as a putative in vivo measure of the neuronal loss that has been demonstrated in postmortem studies of patients with AIDS. This neuronal loss, which is believed to underlie the HIV-1-associated cognitive/motor complex, is thought to be attributable directly or indirectly to the presence of HIV in the brain. Proton spectroscopy may serve as a quantitative noninvasive indicator of this aspect of cerebral involvement in HIV disease.     

Intraplatelet von Willebrand factor and ABO blood group.

Levels of plasma Von Willebrand Factor (vWF) are known to be influenced by ABO Blood Group but such an influence on platelet vWF is not known. Forty-three healthy donors had blood drawn for measurement of plasma and platelet vWF, both antigenic (vWF:Ag) and functional (RCo). Twenty-six were Group O and seventeen were Group A. Groups did not differ in age, platelet count, hemoglobin, white cell counts, platelet rich plasma counts nor length of in vitro storage of samples prior to assay. Plasma levels of vWF:Ag and RCo was lower in Group O as expected. Platelet RCo was lower in Group O and such a trend was present for vWF:Ag. This influence of ABO Groups on platelet vWF was modest compared to that on plasma vWF.     

Pursuit eye movement dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Disturbances in neural circuitry including the basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex have been hypothesized to be a cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Because eye movements are often impaired in neurologic diseases affecting these brain areas, oculomotor functioning was assessed in 17 unmedicated patients with OCD and in 25 normal controls. As compared with control subjects, patients with OCD demonstrated low-gain (slow) pursuit eye movements and an increased frequency of square wave jerk intrusions, but no increase in anticipatory saccades. In addition, several OCD patients showed an unusual pattern of intrusive, brief epochs of high-gain (fast) pursuit lasting on the order of 50 to 130 msec. These epochs of fast pursuit moved the eyes ahead of the target being tracked, and were terminated by corrective reversal saccades. Studies of eye movement abnormalities may provide an informative neurophysiologic approach for studying disturbances in basal ganglia and frontal cortical function that have been observed in functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies of OCD.