Biochemical changes in oxidative stress markers following endurance training and consumption of purslane seed in rats with hydrogen peroxide-induced toxicity

Sport Sciences for Health - The current study examined fluctuations in oxidative stress markers following endurance training (ET) and consumption of purslane seeds (Ps) in rats after receiving...     

Assessment of diffuse Lewy body disease by 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET)

BACKGROUND: Lewy body disease is, after Alzheimer's disease, the second most common cause of senile degenerative dementia with progressive cognitive deterioration, fluctuation of cognitive and motoric functions and psychotic symptoms. It is characterized histologically by the occurrence of Lewy bodies in allocortical, neocortical and subcortical structures. The aim of this study was to measure the cortical glucose metabolism using FDG PET (2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose position emission tomography) compared to normal subjects. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Five patients (5 m, mean age 75 y) with clinically suspected diffuse Lewy body disease (DLB) were studied with FDG PET. PET studies of the head were performed with a Siemens ECAT-ART PET-scanner with attenuation correction using 137-Cs point sources. RESULTS: We found the same distribution pattern of diffuse glucose hypometabolism in the entire cortical region with relative sparing of the primary sensory-motor cortex in all the patients. The few cases reported in the literature so far describe findings similar to ours. CONCLUSION: The pattern of diffuse glucose hypometabolism in the entire cortex including the occipital region seems to be a typical feature of DLB that is distinctive from dementia of Alzheimer's disease.     

Rectosigmoid Motility in Patients with Quiescent and Active Ulcerative Colitis

We studied the pathophysiology of diarrhea in ulcerative colitis by evaluating and comparing rectosigmoid motility before, during, and after a 900-cal meal in healthy subjects, patients with quiescent ulcerative colitis, and patients with active ulcerative colitis. Three intraluminal pressure transducers were used for recording of rectosigmoid motility. Motility during fasting, eating, and after eating a meal was similar in patients with quiescent disease and controls. Motility increased significantly during eating in controls, but not in patients with quiescent disease. In patients with active colitis, motility was significantly reduced during fasting, eating, and after eating, compared with controls. Motility increased significantly during eating in patients with active disease. Propagated activity was similar in the three study groups; therefore, the decreased motility was due to decrease in segmental contractions. These findings suggest that diarrhea in patients with active colitis may be related to the loss of normal segmental contractions which delay distal stool transport.     

Is total lymphocyte count a predictor for CD4 cell count in initiation antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected patients?

Background:

Since laboratory assessments of HIV-infected patients by flow cytometric methods are expensive and unavailable in resource-limited countries, total lymphocyte count by haematology cell counter is supposed to be a suitable surrogate marker to initiate and monitor course of the disease in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of total lymphocyte count as a surrogate marker for CD4 count in HIV-infected patients.

Patients and Methods:

In a prospective study 560 HIV-positive individuals evaluated for total and CD4 lymphocyte count. For correlation between CD4 count and total lymphocyte count, haemoglobin and haematocrit we defined cut-off values as 200 cell/μl, 1200 cell/μl, 12 gr/dl and 30%, respectively, and compared CD4 count with each parameter separately. Positive predictive value, negative predictive value, sensitivity and specificity of varying total lymphocyte count cutoffs were computed for CD4 count ≤ 200 cell/μl and ≤ 350 cell/μl.

Results:

Strong degree of correlation was noted between CD4 and total lymphocyte count (r: 0.610, P < 0.001). Mean and standard deviation of total lymphocyte count, haemoglobin and haematocrit in relation to CD4 count were calculated which indicated significant correlation between these variables. Kappa coefficient for agreement was also calculated which showed fair correlation between CD4 200 cell/μl and total lymphocyte count 1200 cell/μl (0.35).

Conclusion:

This study reveals that despite low sensitivity and specificity of total lymphocyte count as a surrogate marker for CD4, total lymphocyte count is of great importance and benefit in resource-limited settings.     

Fully automated 3D basal ganglia activity measurement in dopamine transporter scintigraphy (Spectalyzer)

Objectives  

Semiquantitative evaluation of tracer uptake in basal ganglia is superior to visual assessment of images in dopamine transporter (DAT) scintigraphy especially in follow-up of the patients. Manual drawing of regions of interest (ROIs) in two-dimensional (2D) transaxial slices of the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) datasets leads to a large inter- and intra-reader variability, while being time consuming. Our aim was to investigate a technique that extracts 3D ROIs in a fully automated fashion and thus might provide reproducible user-independent results allowing better follow-up control and large-scale clinical studies.