Plos One
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Multicenter Study
The South to north variation of norovirus epidemics from 2006-07 to 2008-09 in Japan.
Norovirus (NoV) is a major cause of gastroenteritis during the autumn and winter seasons in Japan as well as in other temperate climate regions. Most outbreaks are thought to occur by secondary attacks through person-to-person infection by fecal-oral route. Severe cases are found in young children or patients with chronic diseases. Clarifying the patterns of epidemic diffusion is important for considering effective monitoring and surveillance as well as possible prevention. ⋯ The decrease of the number of sentinel cases at the peak week may suggest the development of herd immunity after a period of high prevalence. Although the NoV epidemic is thought to be associated with cold weather, its cases first increased in the southern area with relatively warm temperature, indicating there are other climate factors involved. Geographic study using the sentinel data could enhance the monitoring and surveillance of and preparedness against epidemics.
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Hip fracture is associated with increased mortality. Our aim was to study potential risk factors, including osteoporosis, associated with short- and long-term mortality in a prospectively recruited cohort of fragility hip fracture patients. ⋯ Apart from known predictors as age and comorbidity osteoporosis in our study was identified as a potential independent predictor of long-term hip fracture mortality in males. This is of particular importance as treatment with bisphosphonates after hip fracture has been shown to reduce hip fracture mortality and may be a clinical target to reduce the burden of the disease. Further studies however are needed to confirm the validity of this finding.
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Regional reductions in gray matter (GM) have been reported in several chronic somatic and visceral pain conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and chronic pancreatitis. Reported GM reductions include insular and anterior cingulate cortices, even though subregions are generally not specified. The majority of published studies suffer from limited sample size, heterogeneity of populations, and lack of analyses for sex differences. We aimed to characterize regional changes in cortical thickness (CT) in a large number of well phenotyped IBS patients, taking into account the role of sex related differences. ⋯ Significant, sex related differences in CT are present in both HCs and in IBS patients. The biphasic neuroplastic changes in female IBS patients are related to symptom severity.
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This study investigates the effect of tumor location on alterations of language network by brain tumors at different locations using blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) fMRI and group independent component analysis (ICA). ⋯ Group ICA provides a model free alternative approach for mapping functional networks in brain tumor patients. Altered language activation by different tumor locations suggested reorganization of language functions in brain tumor patients and may help better understanding of the language plasticity.
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Differences in cytokine/chemokine profiles among patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), and primary progressive MS (PPMS), and the relationships of these profiles with clinical and neuroimaging features are unclear. A greater understanding of these profiles may help in differential diagnosis. ⋯ Our findings suggest distinct cytokine/chemokine alterations in CSF exist among NMO, RRMS and PPMS. In NMO, over-expression of a cluster of Th17- and Th1-related proinflammatory cytokines/chemokines is characteristic, while in PPMS, increased CCL4 and CXCL10 levels may reflect on-going low grade T cell and macrophage/microglia inflammation in the central nervous system. In RRMS, only a mild elevation of proinflammatory cytokines/chemokines was detectable at relapse.