Plos One
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Mucopolysaccharide diseases (MPS) are caused by deficiency of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) degrading enzymes, leading to GAG accumulation. Neurodegenerative MPS diseases exhibit cognitive decline, behavioural problems and shortened lifespan. We have characterised neuropathological changes in mouse models of MPSI, IIIA and IIIB to provide a better understanding of these events. ⋯ Individual genotype*time differences were disparate, with significant progression from 4 to 9 months only seen for MPSIIIB with lysosomal storage, MPSI with astrocytocis and MPSIIIA with microgliosis as well as neuronal loss. Transmission electron microscopy of MPS brains revealed dystrophic axons, axonal storage, and extensive lipid and lysosomal storage. These data lend novel insight to MPS neuropathology, suggesting that MPSIIIA and IIIB have more pronounced neuropathology than MPSI, yet all are still progressive, at least in some aspects of neuropathology, from 4-9 months.
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Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by profound changes in the lung phenotype including excessive extracellular matrix deposition, myofibroblast foci, alveolar epithelial cell hyperplasia and extensive remodeling. The role of epigenetic changes in determining the lung phenotype in IPF is unknown. In this study we determine whether IPF lungs exhibit an altered global methylation profile. ⋯ Our results provide evidence that epigenetic changes in IPF are widespread and potentially important. The partial similarity to cancer may signify similar pathogenetic mechanisms while the differences constitute IPF or cancer specific changes. Elucidating the role of these specific changes will potentially allow better understanding of the pathogenesis of IPF.
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Clinical Trial
The diagnostic accuracy of urine-based Xpert MTB/RIF in HIV-infected hospitalized patients who are smear-negative or sputum scarce.
Hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa are inundated with HIV-infected patients and tuberculosis (TB) is the commonest opportunistic infection in this sub-group. Up to one third of TB-HIV co-infected patients fail to produce a sputum sample (sputum scarce) and diagnosis is thus often delayed or missed. We investigated the sensitivity of urine-based methods (Xpert MTB/RIF, LAM strip test and LAM ELISA) in such patients. ⋯ This preliminary study indicates that urine-based MTB/RIF, alone or in combination with LAM antigen detection, may potentially aid the diagnosis of TB in HIV-infected patients with advanced immunosuppression when sputum-based diagnosis is not possible. Concentration of urine prior to MTB/RIF-testing significantly improves sensitivity.
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The state of a neural assembly preceding an incoming stimulus is assumed to modulate the processing of subsequently presented stimuli. The nature of this state can differ with respect to the frequency of ongoing oscillatory activity. Oscillatory brain activity of specific frequency range such as alpha (8-12 Hz) and gamma (above 30 Hz) band oscillations are hypothesized to play a functional role in cognitive processing. ⋯ An improvement of visual processing was only observed for enhanced gamma band activity. Both experiments demonstrate the specific functional role of prestimulus gamma band oscillations for perceptual processing. We propose that the BCI method permits the selective modulation of oscillatory activity and the direct assessment of behavioral consequences to test for functional dissociations of different oscillatory brain states.
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During internships most medical students engage in history taking and physical examination during evaluation of hospitalized patients. However, the students' ability for pattern recognition is not as developed as in medical experts and complete history taking is often not repeated by an expert, so important clues may be missed. On the other hand, students' history taking is usually more extensive than experts' history taking and medical students discuss their findings with a Supervisor. Thus the effect of student involvement on diagnostic accuracy is unclear. We therefore compared the diagnostic accuracy for patients in the medical emergency department with and without student involvement in the evaluation process. ⋯ Involvement of closely supervised medical students in the evaluation process of hospitalized medical patients leads to an improved diagnostic accuracy compared to evaluation by an emergency department physician alone.