Plos One
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Acute lung injury (ALI), characterized by disruption of the lung alveolar-capillary membrane barrier and resultant pulmonary edema, and associated with a proteinaceous alveolar exudate, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Currently, inflammation-oxidative stress interaction between TNF-α and NF-κB was identified as a key pathway of ALI. We hypothesized that a TNFR-Fc fusion protein would have beneficial effects in experimental ALI, and sought to test this idea in mice by blocking TNF-α. ⋯ Treatment with LPS alone increased inflammation and oxidative stress in ALI mice, while administration of TNFR-Fc 24h before LPS challenge broke the feedback between NF-κB and TNF-α, resulting in decreased pulmonary inflammation/oxidative damage and tissue destruction. These results suggest a potential role for TNF-α therapy to treat clinical ALI.
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Class IC antiarrhythmic agents may induce acquired forms of Brugada Syndrome. We have identified a novel mutation in SCN5A, the gene that encodes the α-subunit of the human cardiac sodium channel (hNav1.5), in a patient who exhibited Brugada- type ECG changes during pharmacotherapy of atrial arrhythmias. ⋯ Our study suggests that a subclinical SCN5A mutation, p.V1328M, might predispose individuals harboring it to drug-induced Brugada Syndrome.
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Experts have suggested that intersectoral partnerships between prayer camps and biomedical care providers may be an effective strategy to address the overwhelming shortage of mental health care workers in Africa and other low-income settings. Nevertheless, previous studies have not explored whether the prayer camp and biomedical staff beliefs and practices provide sufficient common ground to enable cooperative relationships. Therefore, we sought to examine the beliefs and practices of prayer camp staff and the perspective of biomedical care providers, with the goal of characterizing interest in-and potential for-intersectoral partnership between prayer camp staff and biomedical care providers. ⋯ The findings demonstrate that biomedical care providers are interested in engaging with prayer camps. Key areas where partnerships may best improve conditions for patients at prayer camps include collaborating on creating safe and secure physical spaces and delivering medication for mental illness to patients living in prayer camps. However, while prayer camp staff are willing to engage biomedical knowledge, deeply held beliefs and routine practices of faith and biomedical healers are difficult to reconcile Additional discussion is needed to find the common ground on which the scarce resources for mental health care in Ghana can collaborate most effectively.
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Survivors who lost their homes in the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami were forced to live in difficult conditions in temporary housing several months after the disaster. Body weights of survivors living in temporary housing for a long period might increase due to changes in their life style and psychosocial state during the medium-term and long-term recovery phases. The aim of this study was to determine whether there were differences between body weight changes of people living in temporary housing and those not living in temporary housing in a tsunami-stricken area during the medium-term and long-term recovery phases. ⋯ Analysis after adjustment for life style, psychosocial factors and cardiovascular risk factors found that people living in temporary housing in the tsunami- stricken area had a significant increase in body weight.
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Microvesicles are cell-derived signaling particles emerging as important mediators and biomarkers of systemic inflammation, but their production in severe burn injury patients has not been described. In this pilot investigation, we measured circulating microvesicle levels following severe burns, with severe sepsis patients as a comparator group. We hypothesized that levels of circulating vascular cell-derived microvesicles are elevated acutely following burns injury, mirroring clinical severity due to the early onset and prevalence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in these patients. ⋯ Leukocyte- and granulocyte-derived microvesicles on day 0 correlated with clinical assessment scores and were higher in burns ICU non-survivors compared to survivors (leukocyte MVs 4.6 fold, p = 0.002; granulocyte MVs 4.8 fold, p = 0.003). Mortality prediction analysis of area under receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.92 (p = 0.01) for total leukocyte microvesicles and 0.85 (p = 0.04) for granulocyte microvesicles. These findings demonstrate, for the first time, acute increases in circulating microvesicles following burns injury in patients and point to their potential role in propagation of sterile SIRS-related pathophysiology.