Plos One
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Pain is a prominent feature of acute dengue as well as a clinical criterion in World Health Organization guidelines in diagnosing dengue. We conducted a prospective cohort study to compare levels of pain during acute dengue between different ethnicities and dengue severity. ⋯ Dengue is a painful disease. Patients suffer more pain at the earlier phase of illness. However, pain score cannot be used to predict a patient's progression to severe disease.
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A subset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have detectable antibodies directed against the peptidyl-arginine deiminase (PAD) enzyme isoforms 3 and 4. Anti-PAD3/4 cross-reactive antibodies (anti-PAD3/4XR) have been shown to lower the calcium threshold required for PAD4 activation, an effect potentially relevant to the pathogenesis of RA-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD). ⋯ The prevalence and extent of ILD was markedly higher among RA patients with anti-PAD3/4 cross-reactive antibodies, even after accounting for relevant confounders, particularly among ever smokers. These findings may suggest etiopathologic mechanisms of RA-ILD, and their clinical utility for predicting ILD warrants additional study.
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Clinical Trial
Urinary TIMP-2 and IGFBP7 as early biomarkers of acute kidney injury and renal recovery following cardiac surgery.
Difficulties in prediction and early identification of (acute kidney injury) AKI have hindered the ability to develop preventive and therapeutic measures for this syndrome. We tested the hypothesis that a urine test measuring insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP-2), both inducers of G1 cell cycle arrest, a key mechanism implicated in acute kidney injury (AKI), could predict AKI in cardiac surgery patients. ⋯ www.germanctr.de/, DRKS-ID: DRKS00005062.
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Findings regarding the association between overweight and all-cause mortality range from significantly lower to higher risk, compared with body-mass-index (BMI) within the "normal" range. ⋯ Using fine BMI categories and the category with the lowest absolute rates as the reference group and accounting for the potential confounding effects of baseline illness is likely to yield the most reliable risk estimates for establishing the independent relationship of BMI to all-cause mortality. These results and those of other studies indicate that a BMI of 22.5-24.99 kg/m², not the broad "overweight" category of 25-29.99 kg/m², was associated with the most favourable mortality risk.
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The complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a rare but debilitating pain disorder that mostly occurs after injuries to the upper limb. A number of studies indicated altered brain function in CRPS, whereas possible influences on brain structure remain poorly investigated. We acquired structural magnetic resonance imaging data from CRPS type I patients and applied voxel-by-voxel statistics to compare white and gray matter brain segments of CRPS patients with matched controls. ⋯ The same test applied to the "flipped" data showed further increases in gray matter density, not in the S1, but in the M1 contralateral to the CRPS-affected limb which were inversely related to decreased white matter density of the internal capsule within the ipsilateral brain hemisphere. The gray-white matter interaction between motor cortex and internal capsule suggests compensatory mechanisms within the central motor system possibly due to motor dysfunction. Altered gray matter structure in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex may occur in response to emotional processes such as pain-related suffering or elevated analgesic top-down control.