Plos One
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) allows non-invasive stimulation of the human brain. However, no suitable marker has yet been established to monitor the immediate rTMS effects on cortical areas in children. ⋯ The TMS-evoked N100 represents a promising candidate marker to monitor rTMS effects on cortical excitability in children with ADHD. TMS-evoked N100 can be employed to monitor real-time effects of TMS for subthreshold intensities. Though TMS-evoked N100 was a more sensitive parameter for rTMS-specific changes than MEPs in our sample, further studies are necessary to demonstrate whether clinical rTMS effects can be predicted from rTMS-induced changes in TMS-evoked N100 amplitude and to clarify the relationship between rTMS-induced changes in TMS-evoked N100 and MEP amplitudes. The TMS-evoked N100 amplitude reduction after 1 Hz-rTMS could either reflect a globally decreased cortical response to the TMS pulse or a specific decrease in inhibition.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The relationships between body composition and the systemic inflammatory response in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer.
Weight loss is recognised as a marker of poor prognosis in patients with cancer but the aetiology of cancer cachexia remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between CT measured parameters of body composition and the systemic inflammatory response in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer. ⋯ The present study highlights a direct relationship between low levels of skeletal muscle and the presence of a systemic inflammatory response in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer.
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Review Meta Analysis
Posttraumatic stress disorder prevalence and risk of recurrence in acute coronary syndrome patients: a meta-analytic review.
Acute coronary syndromes (ACS; myocardial infarction or unstable angina) can induce posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and ACS-induced PTSD may increase patients' risk for subsequent cardiac events and mortality. ⋯ This meta-analysis suggests that clinically significant PTSD symptoms induced by ACS are moderately prevalent and are associated with increased risk for recurrent cardiac events and mortality. Further tests of the association of ACS-induced PTSD and clinical outcomes are needed.
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Comparative Study
The ecology of antibiotic use in the ICU: homogeneous prescribing of cefepime but not tazocin selects for antibiotic resistant infection.
Antibiotic homogeneity is thought to drive resistance but in vivo data are lacking. In this study, we determined the impact of antibiotic homogeneity per se, and of cefepime versus antipseudomonal penicillin/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations (APP-β), on the likelihood of infection or colonisation with antibiotic resistant bacteria and/or two commonly resistant nosocomial pathogens (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). A secondary question was whether antibiotic cycling was associated with adverse outcomes including mortality, length of stay, and antibiotic resistance. ⋯ Ecological effects of different β-lactam antibiotics may be more important than specific activity against the causative agents or the effect of antibiotic homogeneity in selection for antibiotic resistance. This has important implications for antibiotic policy.
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Late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) etiology is influenced by complex interactions between genetic and environmental risk factors. Large-scale genome wide association studies (GWAS) for LOAD have identified 10 novel risk genes: ABCA7, BIN1, CD2AP, CD33, CLU, CR1, EPHA1, MS4A6A, MS4A6E, and PICALM. We sought to measure the influence of GWAS single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and gene expression levels on clinical and pathological measures of AD in brain tissue from the parietal lobe of AD cases and age-matched, cognitively normal controls. ⋯ We failed to detect an association between GWAS SNPs and gene expression levels in our brain series. The minor allele of rs3764650 in ABCA7 is associated with age at onset and disease duration, and the minor allele of rs670139 in MS4A6E was associated with Braak tangle and Braak plaque score. These findings suggest that expression of some GWAS genes, namely ABCA7, BIN1, CD33, CLU, CR1 and the MS4A family, are altered in AD brains.