Plos One
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Angiostrongylus cantonensis and Angiostrongylus mackerrasae are metastrongyloid nematodes that infect various rat species. Terrestrial and aquatic molluscs are intermediate hosts of these worms while humans and dogs are accidental hosts. Angiostrongylus cantonensis is the major cause of angiostrongyliasis, a disease characterised by eosinophilic meningitis. ⋯ The prevalence of Angiostrongylus spp. was 3.0% ± 0.8% (CI 95%). Additionally, experimentally infected Austropeplea lessoni snails shed A. cantonensis larvae in their mucus, implicating mucus as a source of infection. This is the first Australian study to survey molluscs using real-time PCR and confirms that the garden snail, C. aspersum, is a common intermediate host for Angiostrongylus spp. in Sydney.
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Back pain is a common disabling chronic condition that burdens individuals, families and societies. Epidemiological evidence, mainly from high-income countries, shows positive association between back pain prevalence and older age. There is an urgent need for accurate epidemiological data on back pain in adult populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where populations are ageing rapidly. The objectives of this study are to: measure the prevalence of back pain; identify risk factors and determinants associated with back pain, and describe association between back pain and disability in adults aged 50 years and older, in six LMICs from different regions of the world. The findings provide insights into country-level differences in self-reported back pain and disability in a group of socially, culturally, economically and geographically diverse LMICs. ⋯ Evidence on back pain and its impact on disability is needed in developing countries so that governments can invest in cost-effective education and rehabilitation to reduce the growing social and economic burden imposed by this disabling condition.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Transcranial Electrical Stimulation over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Modulates Processing of Social Cognitive and Affective Information.
Recent neurofunctional studies suggested that lateral prefrontal cortex is a domain-general cognitive control area modulating computation of social information. Neuropsychological evidence reported dissociations between cognitive and affective components of social cognition. Here, we tested whether performance on social cognitive and affective tasks can be modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). ⋯ In the visual perspective taking task, instead, anodal right/cathodal left stimulation negatively affected both male and female participants' tendency to adopt another's point of view. These findings demonstrated that concurrent facilitation of right and inhibition of left lateral prefrontal cortex can speed-up males' responses to threatening faces whereas it interferes with the ability to adopt another's viewpoint independently from gender. Thus, stimulation of cognitive control areas can lead to different effects on social cognitive skills depending on the affective vs. cognitive nature of the task, and on the gender-related differences in neural organization of emotion processing.
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Early diagnosis and patient stratification may improve sepsis outcome by a timely start of the proper specific treatment. We aimed to identify metabolomic biomarkers of sepsis in urine by (1)H-NMR spectroscopy to assess the severity and to predict outcomes. Urine samples were collected from 64 patients with severe sepsis or septic shock in the ICU for a (1)H NMR spectra acquisition. ⋯ The internal cross-validation showed robustness of the metabolic predictive model obtained and a better predictive ability in comparison with SOFA values. Our results indicate that NMR metabolic profiling might be helpful for determining the metabolomic phenotype of worst-prognosis septic patients in an early stage. A predictive model for the evolution of septic patients using these metabolites was able to classify cases with more sensitivity and specificity than the well-established organ dysfunction score SOFA.
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The frequency, extent, time frame, and implications of changes to the modified early warning score (MEWS) in the 24 hours prior to cardiac arrest are not known. Our aim was to determine the prevalence and trends of the MEWS prior to in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) on a ward, and to evaluate the association between changes in the MEWS and in-hospital mortality. ⋯ About half of patients were still in low MEWS group 8 hours prior to cardiac arrest and an increasing MEWS only occurred in 46.8% of patients, suggesting that monitoring the MEWS alone is not enough to predict cardiac arrest.