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.

CEEG mapping in drug-free schizophrenics. Differences from healthy subjects and changes induced by haloperidol treatment.

A topographic CEEG investigation was carried out in 20 drug-free, DSM-IIIR diagnosed schizophrenics and in a group of matched healthy controls. The effects of acute and chronic haloperidol treatment were then assessed in the patient group. On the baseline recording, schizophrenics showed a widespread increase in delta, theta 1 and beta 3 amplitude. Acute haloperidol administration produced a decrease in delta and an increase in slow beta amplitude. After 28 days of treatment, delta and fast beta were reduced while theta 2 and alpha 1 were increased. CEEG abnormalities in schizophrenic subjects appear, therefore, to be reduced by chronic neuroleptic treatment.     

The clinical phenotypes of juvenile bipolar disorder: toward a validation of the episodic-chronic-distinction.

BACKGROUND: Recent research has addressed the issue of subtyping juvenile bipolar disorder (JBD). Accordingly, we set out to find out, in a naturalistic sample of bipolar children and adolescents with mania and mixed mania, whether the most useful subtyping should be based on clinical features (elated vs. irritable) or course (episodic vs. chronic). METHODS: We studied 136 patients, 81 male patients (59.6%) and 55 female patients (40.4%), mean age 13.5 +/- 2.9 years, meeting the DSM-IV diagnosis of bipolar disorder, assessed by a structured clinical interview (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version [K-SADS-PL]). RESULTS: Regarding course, 77 patients (56.6%) had an episodic course and 59 patients (43.4%) had a chronic course. Patients with chronic course were significantly younger, had an earlier onset of JBD, and presented a more frequent comorbidity with disruptive behavior disorders. According to the prevalent mood disturbance, 75 patients (55.1%) showed an elated and 61 patients (44.9%) showed an irritable mood. Elated mood was more frequent in patients with episodic course, whereas irritable mood was more frequent in the patients with chronic course. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that chronic versus episodic course may be a putative differential feature. Further validation of such a distinction would require prospective studies, temperament evaluation, gender and neurobiologic approaches, and differential psychopharmacologic assignment and response.     

Nursing time to program and assess deep brain stimulators in movement disorder patients.

The use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia is increasing. Although some published literature describes the methods for DBS programming, the time and nursing requirements to run a DBS surgical program have not been examined previously. For this study, we prospectively recorded the time required for both assessments and programming of the DBS from the preoperative period to 1 year after surgery in a variety of patients. Results showed that the mean total time spent programming the stimulator and assessing these patients ranged from 18.0-36.2 hours per patient. It took twice as long to program the stimulator in patients with Parkinson's disease as it did in patients with essential tremor or dystonia. When setting up a program for movement disorders surgery, nursing time spent on patient assessment and programming should be considered in the workload.     

Current clinico-therapeutic trends in essential varicocele

The authors report their experience with the diagnosis and surgical correction of varicoceles in 20 patients. They stress the usefulness of the Doppler Ultrasound for the diagnosis of subclinical varicocele.     

The radiology of sarcomas and sarcomatoid carcinomas of the kidney

Tumours of the kidney with sarcomatoid elements are uncommon. The radiological findings in 11 patients with such lesions are presented. It is important to separate pure sarcomas from lesions with sarcomatous and carcinomatous elements since they have different radiological appearances and prognosis. These tumours often show calcification on radiographs and on angiography appear predominantly avascular with a blood supply from capsular vessels. Because of their rarity and the overlap of radiographic findings with more common tumours the diagnosis cannot be made by current imaging methods alone.     

Isolation and purification of a major allergen from Parietaria officinalis pollen

A major allergen of Parietaria officinalis, a species responsible for a large number of respiratory allergies in Mediterranean areas, has been identified and characterized. This allergen (Pol) was found in the fraction which precipitates between 70 and 100% ammonium sulphate saturation. Pol showed a molecular weight of 15,000 daltons as determined by SDS-PAGE and HPLC. The pI of Pol was in the pH region 4-6, IEF showing four major bands. Two major bands were shown by CIE, CRIE and immunoblotting; major contaminants or aggregates were also revealed by the latter technique and by HPLC. Pol showed an allergic specific activity 2 times higher than the crude extract; moreover it was shown to be a major allergen since it inhibited 29 out of 30 sera from allergic patients sensitive to P. officinalis.     

A comparison between in vivo and ex vivo HR-MAS 1H MR spectra of a pediatric posterior fossa lesion

The present case report was aimed at identifying the molecular profile characteristic of a primitive neuro-ectodermal tumor (PNET) in a 3-year-old child affected by a lesion localized in the cerebellar region. The histological diagnosis was medulloblastoma. In vivo single voxel 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) shows high specificity in detecting the main metabolic alterations in the primitive cerebellar lesion; a very high amount of the choline-containing compounds and very low level of creatine derivatives and N-acetylaspartate. Ex vivo high resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy, performed at 9.4 Tesla on the neoplastic specimen collected during surgery, allows for the unambiguous identification of several metabolites giving a more in-depth evaluation of the metabolic pattern of the lesion. The ex vivo HR-MAS MR spectra show that the spectral detail is much higher than that obtained in vivo and that, for example, myo-inositol, taurine and phosphorylethanolamine contribute to the in vivo signal at 3.2 ppm, usually attributed to choline-containing compounds. In addition, the spectroscopic data appear to correlate with some morphological features of the medulloblastoma. Consequently, the present study shows that ex vivo HR-MAS 1H MRS is able to strongly improve the clinical possibility of in vivo MRS and can be used in conjunction with in vivo spectroscopy for clinical purposes.     

High-intensity intermittent running training improves pulmonary function and alters exercise breathing pattern in children

We investigated the effects of short duration running training on resting and exercise lung function in healthy prepubescent children. One trained group (TrG) (n = 9; three girls and six boys; age = 9.7 ± 0.9 year) participated in 8 weeks of high-intensity intermittent running training and was compared to a control group (ContG) (n = 9; four girls and five boys; age = 10.3 ± 0.7 year). Before and after the 8-week period, the children performed pulmonary function tests and an incremental exercise test on a cycle ergometer. After the 8-week period, no change was found in pulmonary function in ContG. Conversely, an increase in forced vital capacity (FVC) (+7 ± 4% ; P = 0.026), forced expiratory volume in one second (+11 ± 6% ; P = 0.025), peak expiratory flows (+17 ± 4% ; P = 0.005), maximal expiratory flows at 50% (+16 ± 10% ; P = 0.019) and 75% (+15 ± 8% ; P = 0.006) of FVC were reported in TrG. At peak exercise, TrG displayed higher values of peak oxygen consumption (+15 ± 4% ; P<0.001), minute ventilation (+16 ± 5% ; P = 0.033) and tidal volume (+15 ± 5% ; P = 0.019) after training. At sub-maximal exercise, ventilatory response to exercise was lower (P = 0.017) in TrG after training, associated with reduced end-tidal partial oxygen pressure (P<0.05) and higher end-tidal partial carbon dioxide pressure (P = 0.026). Lower deadspace volume relative to tidal volume was found at each stage of exercise in TrG after training (P<0.05). Eight weeks of high-intensity intermittent running training enhanced resting pulmonary function and led to deeper exercise ventilation reflecting a better effectiveness in prepubescent children.