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Sample records for disease processes including

  1. STRESS AS PREDISPOSING FACTOR OF SOME CHRONIC DISEASES INCLUDING PERIODONTAL DISEASE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dewi-Nurul M Dewi-Nurul

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Stress is hypothesized as a common pathway for several related chronic diseases of man. Psychosocial stress as modified by perceptions and coping by patients can lead to physical processes. Psychoneuroimmunologic (PNI studies have suggested that psychosocial stress can alter immune function and increase vulnerability to illnesses. The patients also have high sensitivity to periodontal disease (PD. This article describes the association of stress as a physiological response to diseases such as PD, rheumatoid arthritis (RA, and inflammatory bowel disease. The psychosocial stress can lead to physiological processes through 1 the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA axis leading to glucocortico-steroid secretion; 2 the autonomic nervous system, resulting in the release of catecholamine; or 3 the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, resulting in the release of sex hormones. These processes may affect chronic diseases. It can be concluded that psychosocial stress in periodontal disease patients must be considered and social support must be provided in order to achieve an optimum periodontal therapy result.

  2. The nutritional geometry of liver disease including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simpson, Stephen J; Raubenheimer, David; Cogger, Victoria C; Macia, Laurence; Solon-Biet, Samantha M; Le Couteur, David G; George, Jacob

    2018-02-01

    Nutrition has a profound effect on chronic liver disease, especially non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Most observational studies and clinical trials have focussed on the effects of total energy intake, or the intake of individual macronutrients and certain micronutrients, such as vitamin D, on liver disease. Although these studies have shown the importance of nutrition on hepatic outcomes, there is not yet any unifying framework for understanding the relationship between diet and liver disease. The Geometric Framework for Nutrition (GFN) is an innovative model for designing nutritional experiments or interpreting nutritional data that can determine the effects of nutrients and their interactions on animal behaviour and phenotypes. Recently the GFN has provided insights into the relationship between dietary energy and macronutrients on obesity and ageing in mammals including humans. Mouse studies using the GFN have disentangled the effects of macronutrients on fatty liver and the gut microbiome. The GFN is likely to play a significant role in disentangling the effects of nutrients on liver disease, especially NAFLD, in humans. Copyright © 2017 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Impact of intermittent fasting on health and disease processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mattson, Mark P; Longo, Valter D; Harvie, Michelle

    2017-10-01

    Humans in modern societies typically consume food at least three times daily, while laboratory animals are fed ad libitum. Overconsumption of food with such eating patterns often leads to metabolic morbidities (insulin resistance, excessive accumulation of visceral fat, etc.), particularly when associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Because animals, including humans, evolved in environments where food was relatively scarce, they developed numerous adaptations that enabled them to function at a high level, both physically and cognitively, when in a food-deprived/fasted state. Intermittent fasting (IF) encompasses eating patterns in which individuals go extended time periods (e.g., 16-48h) with little or no energy intake, with intervening periods of normal food intake, on a recurring basis. We use the term periodic fasting (PF) to refer to IF with periods of fasting or fasting mimicking diets lasting from 2 to as many as 21 or more days. In laboratory rats and mice IF and PF have profound beneficial effects on many different indices of health and, importantly, can counteract disease processes and improve functional outcome in experimental models of a wide range of age-related disorders including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease Parkinson's disease and stroke. Studies of IF (e.g., 60% energy restriction on 2days per week or every other day), PF (e.g., a 5day diet providing 750-1100kcal) and time-restricted feeding (TRF; limiting the daily period of food intake to 8h or less) in normal and overweight human subjects have demonstrated efficacy for weight loss and improvements in multiple health indicators including insulin resistance and reductions in risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The cellular and molecular mechanisms by which IF improves health and counteracts disease processes involve activation of adaptive cellular stress response signaling pathways that enhance mitochondrial health, DNA repair

  4. Involvement of the Warburg effect in non-tumor diseases processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Zhe; Liu, Meiqing; Li, Lanfang; Chen, Linxi

    2018-04-01

    Warburg effect, as an energy shift from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis, is extensively found in various cancers. Interestingly, increasing researchers show that Warburg effect plays a crucial role in non-tumor diseases. For instance, inhibition of Warburg effect can alleviate pulmonary vascular remodeling in the process of pulmonary hypertension (PH). Interference of Warburg effect improves mitochondrial function and cardiac function in the process of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Additionally, the Warburg effect induces vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and contributes to atherosclerosis. Warburg effect may also involve in axonal damage and neuronal death, which are related with multiple sclerosis. Furthermore, Warburg effect significantly promotes cell proliferation and cyst expansion in polycystic kidney disease (PKD). Besides, Warburg effect relieves amyloid β-mediated cell death in Alzheimer's disease. And Warburg effect also improves the mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Finally, we also introduce some glycolytic agonists. This review focuses on the newest researches about the role of Warburg effect in non-tumor diseases, including PH, tuberculosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), failing heart, cardiac hypertrophy, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's diseases, multiple sclerosis, and PKD. Obviously, Warburg effect may be a potential therapeutic target for those non-tumor diseases. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Development of the Paris definition of early Crohn's disease for disease-modification trials: results of an international expert opinion process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peyrin-Biroulet, Laurent; Billioud, Vincent; D'Haens, Geert; Panaccione, Remo; Feagan, Brian; Panés, Julian; Danese, Silvio; Schreiber, Stefan; Ogata, Haruhiko; Hibi, Toshifumi; Higgins, Peter D R; Beaugerie, Laurent; Chowers, Yehuda; Louis, Edouard; Steinwurz, Flávio; Reinisch, Walter; Rutgeerts, Paul; Colombel, Jean-Frédéric; Travis, Simon; Sandborn, William J

    2012-12-01

    We report the findings and outputs of an international expert opinion process to develop a definition of early Crohn's disease (CD) that could be used in future disease-modification trials. Nineteen experts on inflammatory bowel diseases held an international expert opinion meeting to discuss and agree on a definition for early CD to be used in disease-modification trials. The process included literature searches for the relevant basic-science and clinical evidence. A published preliminary definition of early CD was used as the basis for development of a proposed definition that was discussed at the expert opinion meeting. The participants then derived a final definition, based on best current knowledge, that it is hoped will be of practical use in disease-modification trials in CD.

  6. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Includes: Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Submit Button NCHS Home Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Includes: Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Recommend on Facebook ... Percent of visits to office-based physicians with COPD indicated on the medical record: 3.2% Source: ...

  7. Disease processes as hybrid dynamical systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pietro Liò

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available We investigate the use of hybrid techniques in complex processes of infectious diseases. Since predictive disease models in biomedicine require a multiscale approach for understanding the molecule-cell-tissue-organ-body interactions, heterogeneous methodologies are often employed for describing the different biological scales. Hybrid models provide effective means for complex disease modelling where the action and dosage of a drug or a therapy could be meaningfully investigated: the infection dynamics can be classically described in a continuous fashion, while the scheduling of multiple treatment discretely. We define an algebraic language for specifying general disease processes and multiple treatments, from which a semantics in terms of hybrid dynamical system can be derived. Then, the application of control-theoretic tools is proposed in order to compute the optimal scheduling of multiple therapies. The potentialities of our approach are shown in the case study of the SIR epidemic model and we discuss its applicability on osteomyelitis, a bacterial infection affecting the bone remodelling system in a specific and multiscale manner. We report that formal languages are helpful in giving a general homogeneous formulation for the different scales involved in a multiscale disease process; and that the combination of hybrid modelling and control theory provides solid grounds for computational medicine.

  8. A combined disease management and process modeling approach for assessing and improving care processes: a fall management case-study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Askari, Marjan; Westerhof, Richard; Eslami, Saied; Medlock, Stephanie; de Rooij, Sophia E; Abu-Hanna, Ameen

    2013-10-01

    To propose a combined disease management and process modeling approach for evaluating and improving care processes, and demonstrate its usability and usefulness in a real-world fall management case study. We identified essential disease management related concepts and mapped them into explicit questions meant to expose areas for improvement in the respective care processes. We applied the disease management oriented questions to a process model of a comprehensive real world fall prevention and treatment program covering primary and secondary care. We relied on interviews and observations to complete the process models, which were captured in UML activity diagrams. A preliminary evaluation of the usability of our approach by gauging the experience of the modeler and an external validator was conducted, and the usefulness of the method was evaluated by gathering feedback from stakeholders at an invitational conference of 75 attendees. The process model of the fall management program was organized around the clinical tasks of case finding, risk profiling, decision making, coordination and interventions. Applying the disease management questions to the process models exposed weaknesses in the process including: absence of program ownership, under-detection of falls in primary care, and lack of efficient communication among stakeholders due to missing awareness about other stakeholders' workflow. The modelers experienced the approach as usable and the attendees of the invitational conference found the analysis results to be valid. The proposed disease management view of process modeling was usable and useful for systematically identifying areas of improvement in a fall management program. Although specifically applied to fall management, we believe our case study is characteristic of various disease management settings, suggesting the wider applicability of the approach. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Altered brain mechanisms of emotion processing in pre-manifest Huntington's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novak, Marianne J U; Warren, Jason D; Henley, Susie M D; Draganski, Bogdan; Frackowiak, Richard S; Tabrizi, Sarah J

    2012-04-01

    Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disease that causes motor, cognitive and psychiatric impairment, including an early decline in ability to recognize emotional states in others. The pathophysiology underlying the earliest manifestations of the disease is not fully understood; the objective of our study was to clarify this. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate changes in brain mechanisms of emotion recognition in pre-manifest carriers of the abnormal Huntington's disease gene (subjects with pre-manifest Huntington's disease): 16 subjects with pre-manifest Huntington's disease and 14 control subjects underwent 1.5 tesla magnetic resonance scanning while viewing pictures of facial expressions from the Ekman and Friesen series. Disgust, anger and happiness were chosen as emotions of interest. Disgust is the emotion in which recognition deficits have most commonly been detected in Huntington's disease; anger is the emotion in which impaired recognition was detected in the largest behavioural study of emotion recognition in pre-manifest Huntington's disease to date; and happiness is a positive emotion to contrast with disgust and anger. Ekman facial expressions were also used to quantify emotion recognition accuracy outside the scanner and structural magnetic resonance imaging with voxel-based morphometry was used to assess the relationship between emotion recognition accuracy and regional grey matter volume. Emotion processing in pre-manifest Huntington's disease was associated with reduced neural activity for all three emotions in partially separable functional networks. Furthermore, the Huntington's disease-associated modulation of disgust and happiness processing was negatively correlated with genetic markers of pre-manifest disease progression in distributed, largely extrastriatal networks. The modulated disgust network included insulae, cingulate cortices, pre- and postcentral gyri, precunei, cunei, bilateral putamena

  10. The interaction of host genetics and disease processes in chronic livestock disease: a simulation model of ovine footrot.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Russell, V N L; Green, L E; Bishop, S C; Medley, G F

    2013-03-01

    A stochastic, individual-based, simulation model of footrot in a flock of 200 ewes was developed that included flock demography, disease processes, host genetic variation for traits influencing infection and disease processes, and bacterial contamination of the environment. Sensitivity analyses were performed using ANOVA to examine the contribution of unknown parameters to outcome variation. The infection rate and bacterial death rate were the most significant factors determining the observed prevalence of footrot, as well as the heritability of resistance. The dominance of infection parameters in determining outcomes implies that observational data cannot be used to accurately estimate the strength of genetic control of underlying traits describing the infection process, i.e. resistance. Further work will allow us to address the potential for genetic selection to control ovine footrot. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Involution of categorical thinking processes in Alzheimer's disease: Preliminary results

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia Berlim de Mello

    Full Text Available Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD is a degenerative brain disorder characterized by progressive losses in cognitive functions, including memory. The sequence of these losses may correspond to the inverse order of the normal sequence of ontogenetic cognitive acquisitions, a process named retrogenesis. One of the acquisitions that improve in normal development is the ability to retrieve previously acquired categorical knowledge from semantic memory in order to guide associative thinking and memory processes; consequently, children become able to associate verbal stimuli in more complex taxonomic ways and to use this knowledge to improve their recall. Objective: In this study, we investigated if AD-related deterioration of semantic memory involves a decrease in categorical thinking processes with progression of the disease, according to the retrogenesis hypothesis. Methods: We compared the performance of AD patients at mild and moderate stages, and of groups of 7, 10 and 14-year-old children in tasks of free association along with recall tasks of perceptually and semantically related stimuli. Results: ANOVAS showed a decrease in taxonomic associations and an increase in diffuse associations between mild and moderate stages, corresponding to the inverse order shown by the child groups. At the moderate AD stage, the pattern was similar to that of 7-year-old children. Both groups of patients performed worse than child groups in recall tasks. Conclusions: These results corroborate the hypothesis of an involution of the processes of categorical associative thinking in the course of the disease.

  12. Influence of religious leaders in the health-disease process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elton Lima Macêdo

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Religion has helped the lower classes to raise the perspective of "divine justice" in the struggle for survival by allowing their believers to seek, in their practices, under the influence of religious leaders, the main guidelines to alleviate the suffering from the health-disease process. Objective: Unveil the limits and potentialities of religious leaders' influence on the health-disease process. Materials and Methods: Exploratory-type research, with a qualitative approach, based methodologically on the Historical Dialectical Materialism. For the data analysis, one used the discourse analysis technique proposed by Fiorin. Results: From the empirical universe, two analytical categories emerged: (1. Limits and possibilities of religious influence in relation to the health-disease process; 2. Vulnerabilities of the Unified Health System and the complementarity of religion: Interfaces of the health-disease process in postmodernity, in which religious practices, institutions and leaders express positively health care in the face of the disease process. However, the religious leader's power relations over the community and religious fanaticism make the search for religion to have a negative influence on people's health-disease process. Conclusion: Religious leaders encourage the complementarity between religion and medicine only at times when their believers need medium and high-complexity assistance, showing little attention to the preventive aspects of self-care, which reinforces the need to invest in new studies in the area.

  13. Central Pain Processing in Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease: A Laser Pain fMRI Study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Petschow

    Full Text Available Pain is a common non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease. As dopaminergic dysfunction is suggested to affect intrinsic nociceptive processing, this study was designed to characterize laser-induced pain processing in early-stage Parkinson's disease patients in the dopaminergic OFF state, using a multimodal experimental approach at behavioral, autonomic, imaging levels.13 right-handed early-stage Parkinson's disease patients without cognitive or sensory impairment were investigated OFF medication, along with 13 age-matched healthy control subjects. Measurements included warmth perception thresholds, heat pain thresholds, and central pain processing with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (erfMRI during laser-induced pain stimulation at lower (E = 440 mJ and higher (E = 640 mJ target energies. Additionally, electrodermal activity was characterized during delivery of 60 randomized pain stimuli ranging from 440 mJ to 640 mJ, along with evaluation of subjective pain ratings on a visual analogue scale.No significant differences in warmth perception thresholds, heat pain thresholds, electrodermal activity and subjective pain ratings were found between Parkinson's disease patients and controls, and erfMRI revealed a generally comparable activation pattern induced by laser-pain stimuli in brain areas belonging to the central pain matrix. However, relatively reduced deactivation was found in Parkinson's disease patients in posterior regions of the default mode network, notably the precuneus and the posterior cingulate cortex.Our data during pain processing extend previous findings suggesting default mode network dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. On the other hand, they argue against a genuine pain-specific processing abnormality in early-stage Parkinson's disease. Future studies are now required using similar multimodal experimental designs to examine pain processing in more advanced stages of Parkinson's disease.

  14. Process, including PSA and membrane separation, for separating hydrogen from hydrocarbons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Richard W.; Lokhandwala, Kaaeid A.; He, Zhenjie; Pinnau, Ingo

    2001-01-01

    An improved process for separating hydrogen from hydrocarbons. The process includes a pressure swing adsorption step, a compression/cooling step and a membrane separation step. The membrane step relies on achieving a methane/hydrogen selectivity of at least about 2.5 under the conditions of the process.

  15. Including product features in process redesign

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvam, Lars; Hauksdóttir, Dagný; Mortensen, Niels Henrik

    2017-01-01

    do not take into account how the product features are applied throughout the process, which makes it difficult to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the activities in the processes and to generate significant improvements. The suggested approach models the product family using the so......This article suggests a visual modelling method for integrating models of product features with business process models for redesigning the business processes involving specifications of customer-tailored products and services. The current methods for redesigning these types of business processes......-called product variant master and the business process modelling notation for modelling the process flow. The product model is combined with the process map by identifying features used in each step of the process flow. Additionally, based on the information absorbed from the integrated model, the value stream...

  16. A unified pathogenesis for kidney diseases, including genetic diseases and cancers, by the protein-homeostasis-system hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kyung-Yil

    2017-06-01

    Every cell of an organism is separated and protected by a cell membrane. It is proposed that harmony between intercellular communication and the health of an organism is controlled by a system, designated the protein-homeostasis-system (PHS). Kidneys consist of a variety of types of renal cells, each with its own characteristic cell-receptor interactions and producing characteristic proteins. A functional union of these renal cells can be determined by various renal function tests, and harmonious intercellular communication is essential for the healthy state of the host. Injury to a kind of renal cells can impair renal function and induce an imbalance in total body health. Every acute or chronic renal disease has unknown etiologic substances that are responsible for renal cell injury at the molecular level. The immune/repair system of the host should control the etiologic substances acting against renal cells; if this system fails, the disease progresses to end stage renal disease. Each renal disease has its characteristic pathologic lesions where immune cells and immune proteins, such as immunoglobulins and complements, are infiltrated. These immune cells and immune proteins may control the etiologic substances involved in renal pathologic lesions. Also, genetic renal diseases and cancers may originate from a protein deficiency or malfunctioning protein under the PHS. A unified pathogenesis for renal diseases, including acute glomerulonephritis, idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, immunoglobulin A nephropathy, genetic renal diseases such as Alport syndrome, and malignancies such as Wilms tumor and renal cell carcinoma, is proposed using the PHS hypothesis.

  17. Diseases of the abdomen including the pelvis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kido, C.; Tanaka, H.

    1983-01-01

    This book discusses the following diseases: fatty liver; cystic disease of the liver; liver abscess; liver cirrhosis; hepatic hemangioma; cholelithiasis; primary liver cancer; cholangioma; cancer of the common bile duct; pancreatic cyst; pancreatic calculi; chronic pancreatitis; pancreatic pseudocyst; chronic pancreatitis: pancreatic fatty degeneration; cancer of the pancreas; nonfunctioning kidney: chalk kidney; polycystic kidney; perirenal calcified abscess; renal infarct; cancer of the renal pelvis; adrenal pheochromocytoma; adenoma of the adrenal cortex; leiomyosarcoma of the stomach; malignant mesothelioma; intraperitoneal abscess; perityphlic abscess; retroperitoneal reticulum cell sarcoma; and retroperitoneal cyst

  18. The genetic defect of fragmented coronoid process in Labrador retrievers and other skeletal diseases in dogs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Temwichitr, J.

    2009-01-01

    Fragmented medial coronoid process (FCP) is the main component of elbow dysplasia (ED) in dogs, which also includes osteochondrosis of the humeral condyle (OCD), elbow incongruity (INC), and ununited anconeal process (UAP). FCP is recognized as a hereditary disease in many breeds and is a major

  19. Using multitype branching processes to quantify statistics of disease outbreaks in zoonotic epidemics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Sarabjeet; Schneider, David J; Myers, Christopher R

    2014-03-01

    Branching processes have served as a model for chemical reactions, biological growth processes, and contagion (of disease, information, or fads). Through this connection, these seemingly different physical processes share some common universalities that can be elucidated by analyzing the underlying branching process. In this work we focus on coupled branching processes as a model of infectious diseases spreading from one population to another. An exceedingly important example of such coupled outbreaks are zoonotic infections that spill over from animal populations to humans. We derive several statistical quantities characterizing the first spillover event from animals to humans, including the probability of spillover, the first passage time distribution for human infection, and disease prevalence in the animal population at spillover. Large stochastic fluctuations in those quantities can make inference of the state of the system at the time of spillover difficult. Focusing on outbreaks in the human population, we then characterize the critical threshold for a large outbreak, the distribution of outbreak sizes, and associated scaling laws. These all show a strong dependence on the basic reproduction number in the animal population and indicate the existence of a novel multicritical point with altered scaling behavior. The coupling of animal and human infection dynamics has crucial implications, most importantly allowing for the possibility of large human outbreaks even when human-to-human transmission is subcritical.

  20. Using multitype branching processes to quantify statistics of disease outbreaks in zoonotic epidemics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Sarabjeet; Schneider, David J.; Myers, Christopher R.

    2014-03-01

    Branching processes have served as a model for chemical reactions, biological growth processes, and contagion (of disease, information, or fads). Through this connection, these seemingly different physical processes share some common universalities that can be elucidated by analyzing the underlying branching process. In this work we focus on coupled branching processes as a model of infectious diseases spreading from one population to another. An exceedingly important example of such coupled outbreaks are zoonotic infections that spill over from animal populations to humans. We derive several statistical quantities characterizing the first spillover event from animals to humans, including the probability of spillover, the first passage time distribution for human infection, and disease prevalence in the animal population at spillover. Large stochastic fluctuations in those quantities can make inference of the state of the system at the time of spillover difficult. Focusing on outbreaks in the human population, we then characterize the critical threshold for a large outbreak, the distribution of outbreak sizes, and associated scaling laws. These all show a strong dependence on the basic reproduction number in the animal population and indicate the existence of a novel multicritical point with altered scaling behavior. The coupling of animal and human infection dynamics has crucial implications, most importantly allowing for the possibility of large human outbreaks even when human-to-human transmission is subcritical.

  1. Emotion and Object Processing in Parkinson's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Henri; Gagne, Marie-Helene; Hess, Ursula; Pourcher, Emmanuelle

    2010-01-01

    The neuropsychological literature on the processing of emotions in Parkinson's disease (PD) reveals conflicting evidence about the role of the basal ganglia in the recognition of facial emotions. Hence, the present study had two objectives. One was to determine the extent to which the visual processing of emotions and objects differs in PD. The…

  2. Abnormal thiamine-dependent processes in Alzheimer's Disease. Lessons from diabetes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Gary E; Hirsch, Joseph A; Cirio, Rosanna T; Jordan, Barry D; Fonzetti, Pasquale; Elder, Jessica

    2013-07-01

    Reduced glucose metabolism is an invariant feature of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and an outstanding biomarker of disease progression. Glucose metabolism may be an attractive therapeutic target, whether the decline initiates AD pathophysiology or is a critical component of a cascade. The cause of cerebral regional glucose hypometabolism remains unclear. Thiamine-dependent processes are critical in glucose metabolism and are diminished in brains of AD patients at autopsy. Further, the reductions in thiamine-dependent processes are highly correlated to the decline in clinical dementia rating scales. In animal models, thiamine deficiency exacerbates plaque formation, promotes phosphorylation of tau and impairs memory. In contrast, treatment of mouse models of AD with the thiamine derivative benfotiamine diminishes plaques, decreases phosphorylation of tau and reverses memory deficits. Diabetes predisposes to AD, which suggests they may share some common mechanisms. Benfotiamine diminishes peripheral neuropathy in diabetic humans and animals. In diabetes, benfotiamine induces key thiamine-dependent enzymes of the pentose shunt to reduce accumulation of toxic metabolites including advanced glycation end products (AGE). Related mechanisms may lead to reversal of plaque formation by benfotiamine in animals. If so, the use of benfotiamine could provide a safe intervention to reverse biological and clinical processes of AD progression. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Mitochondrial function and dysfunction in neurodegeneration'. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Short-term Evaluation of a Comprehensive Education Program Including Inhaler Training and Disease Management on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoo, Kwang Ha; Chung, Wou Young; Park, Joo Hun; Hwang, Sung Chul; Kim, Tae Eun; Oh, Min Jung; Kang, Dae Ryong; Rhee, Chin Kook; Yoon, Hyoung Kyu; Kim, Tae Hyung; Kim, Deog Kyeom; Park, Yong Bum; Kim, Sang Ha; Yum, Ho Kee

    2017-10-01

    Proper education regarding inhaler usage and optimal management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is essential for effectively treating patients with COPD. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive education program including inhaler training and COPD management. We enlisted 127 patients with COPD on an outpatient basis at 43 private clinics in Korea. The patients were educated on inhaler usage and disease management for three visits across 2 weeks. Physicians and patients were administered a COPD assessment test (CAT) and questionnaires about the correct usage of inhalers and management of COPD before commencement of this program and after their third visit. The outcomes of 127 COPD patients were analyzed. CAT scores (19.6±12.5 vs. 15.1±12.3) improved significantly after this program (pmanagement and the correct technique for using inhalers than those who did not have improved CAT scores (peducation program including inhaler training and COPD management at a primary care setting improved CAT scores and led to patients' better understanding of COPD management. Copyright©2017. The Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases

  4. The impact of Parkinson's disease and subthalamic deep brain stimulation on reward processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evens, Ricarda; Stankevich, Yuliya; Dshemuchadse, Maja; Storch, Alexander; Wolz, Martin; Reichmann, Heinz; Schlaepfer, Thomas E; Goschke, Thomas; Lueken, Ulrike

    2015-08-01

    Due to its position in cortico-subthalamic and cortico-striatal pathways, the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is considered to play a crucial role not only in motor, but also in cognitive and motivational functions. In the present study we aimed to characterize how different aspects of reward processing are affected by disease and deep brain stimulation of the STN (DBS-STN) in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). We compared 33 PD patients treated with DBS-STN under best medical treatment (DBS-on, medication-on) to 33 PD patients without DBS, but optimized pharmacological treatment and 34 age-matched healthy controls. We then investigated DBS-STN effects using a postoperative stimulation-on/ -off design. The task set included a delay discounting task, a task to assess changes in incentive salience attribution, and the Iowa Gambling Task. The presence of PD was associated with increased incentive salience attribution and devaluation of delayed rewards. Acute DBS-STN increased risky choices in the Iowa Gambling Task under DBS-on condition, but did not further affect incentive salience attribution or the evaluation of delayed rewards. Findings indicate that acute DBS-STN affects specific aspects of reward processing, including the weighting of gains and losses, while larger-scale effects of disease or medication are predominant in others reward-related functions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. [Emerging infectious diseases: complex, unpredictable processes].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guégan, Jean-François

    2016-01-01

    In the light of a double approach, at first empirical, later theoretical and comparative, illustrated by the example of the Buruli ulcer and its mycobacterial agent Mycobacterium ulcerans on which I focused my research activity these last ten years by studying determinants and factors of emerging infectious or parasitic diseases, the complexity of events explaining emerging diseases will be presented. The cascade of events occurring at various levels of spatiotemporal scales and organization of life, which lead to the numerous observed emergences, nowadays requires better taking into account the interactions between host(s), pathogen(s) and the environment by including the behavior of both individuals and the population. In numerous research studies on emerging infectious diseases, microbial hazard is described rather than infectious disease risk, the latter resulting from the confrontation between an association of threatening phenomena, or hazards, and a susceptible population. Beyond, the theme of emerging infectious diseases and its links with global environmental and societal changes leads to reconsider some well-established knowledge in infectiology and parasitology. © Société de Biologie, 2017.

  6. Abnormal Thiamine-Dependent Processes in Alzheimer’s Disease. Lessons from Diabetes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Gary E.; Hirsch, Joseph A.; Cirio, Rosanna T.; Jordan, Barry D.; Fonzetti, Pasquale; Elder, Jessica

    2013-01-01

    Reduced glucose metabolism is an invariant feature of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and an outstanding biomarker of disease progression. Glucose metabolism may be an attractive therapeutic target, whether the decline initiates AD pathophysiology or is a critical component of a cascade. The cause of cerebral regional glucose hypometabolism remains unclear. Thiamine-dependent processes are critical in glucose metabolism and are diminished in brains of AD patients at autopsy. Further, the reductions in thiamine-dependent processes are highly correlated to the decline in clinical dementia rating scales. In animal models, thiamine deficiency exacerbates plaque formation, promotes phosphorylation of tau and impairs memory. In contrast, treatment of mouse models of AD with the thiamine derivative benfotiamine diminishes plaques, decreases phosphorylation of tau and reverses memory deficits. Diabetes predisposes to AD, which suggests they may share some common mechanisms. Benfotiamine diminishes peripheral neuropathy in diabetic humans and animals. In diabetes, benfotiamine induces key thiamine-dependent enzymes of the pentose shunt to reduce accumulation of toxic metabolites including advanced glycation end products (AGE). Related mechanisms may lead to reversal of plaque formation by benfotiamine in animals. If so, the use of benfotiamine could provide a safe intervention to reverse biological and clinical processes of AD progression. PMID:22982063

  7. Multidisciplinary Team Meetings appear to be effective in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Management: An audit of process and outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferman, Mutaz; Lim, Amanda H; Hossain, Monowar; Siow, Glenn W; Andrews, Jane M

    2018-05-14

    Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) have proven efficacy in cancer management. Whilst widely implemented in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care, their value is yet to be investigated. We reviewed the performance of MDTMs for IBD patients. Retrospective review of MDTMs from March 2013 to July 2016. Each patient's first MDTM was considered. Data collected included: report production and location, disease factors, recommendation(s), implementation and barriers to implementation. The MDTM process was considered successful when at least top-level recommendations were implemented within 6 months. MDTM attendance included IBD gastroenterologist, surgeons, radiologist, nurses, dieticians, psychologists and clinical trial staff. Initial MDTM encounters for 166 patients were reviewed: 86 females; mean age 40 years; 140 (84.3%) with Crohn's disease; mean disease duration 10.8 years (interquartile range 15 years). Electronic reports were filed for all patients; hard copies in 84%. In 151/166 episodes, all (n=127) or top-line (n=24) recommendations were implemented, although there was a delay beyond 6 months in 5. Of 146 patients with a successful MDTM, 85 (58.2%) were in clinical remission at last review (median follow-up 27 months). Amongst patients with unsuccessful MDTMs (n=13), only 2 (15.4%) were in clinical remission at follow-up. Barriers to implementation included patients declining recommendations and loss to follow-up. The majority of MDTM encounters were successful from both a process and clinical outcome perspective. System opportunities to improve the process include ensuring 100% reports are available and addressing implementation delays. Patient factors to address include improved engagement and understanding reasons for declining recommendations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  8. Auditory post-processing in a passive listening task is deficient in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bender, Stephan; Bluschke, Annet; Dippel, Gabriel; Rupp, André; Weisbrod, Matthias; Thomas, Christine

    2014-01-01

    To investigate whether automatic auditory post-processing is deficient in patients with Alzheimer's disease and is related to sensory gating. Event-related potentials were recorded during a passive listening task to examine the automatic transient storage of auditory information (short click pairs). Patients with Alzheimer's disease were compared to a healthy age-matched control group. A young healthy control group was included to assess effects of physiological aging. A bilateral frontal negativity in combination with deep temporal positivity occurring 500 ms after stimulus offset was reduced in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but was unaffected by physiological aging. Its amplitude correlated with short-term memory capacity, but was independent of sensory gating in healthy elderly controls. Source analysis revealed a dipole pair in the anterior temporal lobes. Results suggest that auditory post-processing is deficient in Alzheimer's disease, but is not typically related to sensory gating. The deficit could neither be explained by physiological aging nor by problems in earlier stages of auditory perception. Correlations with short-term memory capacity and executive control tasks suggested an association with memory encoding and/or overall cognitive control deficits. An auditory late negative wave could represent a marker of auditory working memory encoding deficits in Alzheimer's disease. Copyright © 2013 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Lung Disease Including Asthma and Adult Vaccination

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... can make it hard to breathe. Certain vaccinepreventable diseases can also increase swelling of your airways and lungs. The combination of the two can lead to pneumonia and other serious respiratory illnesses. Vaccines are one of the safest ways ...

  10. Cerebrospinal fluid Aβ42 levels and APP processing pathway genes in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bekris, Lynn M; Tsuang, Debby W; Peskind, Elaine R; Yu, Chang E; Montine, Thomas J; Zhang, Jing; Zabetian, Cyrus P; Leverenz, James B

    2015-06-01

    Of recent interest is the finding that certain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers traditionally linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD), specifically amyloid beta protein (Aβ), are abnormal in PD CSF. The aim of this exploratory investigation was to determine whether genetic variation within the amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing pathway genes correlates with CSF Aβ42 levels in Parkinson's disease (PD). Parkinson's disease (n = 86) and control (n = 161) DNA were genotyped for 19 regulatory region tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within nine genes (APP, ADAM10, BACE1, BACE2, PSEN1, PSEN2, PEN2, NCSTN, and APH1B) involved in the cleavage of APP. The SNP genotypes were tested for their association with CSF biomarkers and PD risk while adjusting for age, sex, and APOE ɛ4 status. Significant correlation with CSF Aβ42 levels in PD was observed for two SNPs, (APP rs466448 and APH1B rs2068143). Conversely, significant correlation with CSF Aβ42 levels in controls was observed for three SNPs (APP rs214484, rs2040273, and PSEN1 rs362344). In addition, results of this exploratory investigation suggest that an APP SNP and an APH1B SNP are marginally associated with PD CSF Aβ42 levels in APOE ɛ4 noncarriers. Further hypotheses generated include that decreased CSF Aβ42 levels are in part driven by genetic variation in APP processing genes. Additional investigation into the relationship between these findings and clinical characteristics of PD, including cognitive impairment, compared with other neurodegenerative diseases, such as AD, are warranted. © 2015 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2015 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

  11. Statistical Process Control: A Quality Tool for a Venous Thromboembolic Disease Registry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Posadas-Martinez, Maria Lourdes; Rojas, Liliana Paloma; Vazquez, Fernando Javier; De Quiros, Fernan Bernaldo; Waisman, Gabriel Dario; Giunta, Diego Hernan

    2016-01-01

    We aim to describe Statistical Control Process as a quality tool for the Institutional Registry of Venous Thromboembolic Disease (IRTD), a registry developed in a community-care tertiary hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The IRTD is a prospective cohort. The process of data acquisition began with the creation of a computerized alert generated whenever physicians requested imaging or laboratory study to diagnose venous thromboembolism, which defined eligible patients. The process then followed a structured methodology for patient's inclusion, evaluation, and posterior data entry. To control this process, process performance indicators were designed to be measured monthly. These included the number of eligible patients, the number of included patients, median time to patient's evaluation, and percentage of patients lost to evaluation. Control charts were graphed for each indicator. The registry was evaluated in 93 months, where 25,757 patients were reported and 6,798 patients met inclusion criteria. The median time to evaluation was 20 hours (SD, 12) and 7.7% of the total was lost to evaluation. Each indicator presented trends over time, caused by structural changes and improvement cycles, and therefore the central limit suffered inflexions. Statistical process control through process performance indicators allowed us to control the performance of the registry over time to detect systematic problems. We postulate that this approach could be reproduced for other clinical registries.

  12. Development process of muzzle flows including a gun-launched missile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhuo Changfei

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Numerical investigations on the launch process of a gun-launched missile from the muzzle of a cannon to the free-flight stage have been performed in this paper. The dynamic overlapped grids approach are applied to dealing with the problems of a moving gun-launched missile. The high-resolution upwind scheme (AUSMPW+ and the detailed reaction kinetics model are adopted to solve the chemical non-equilibrium Euler equations for dynamic grids. The development process and flow field structure of muzzle flows including a gun-launched missile are discussed in detail. This present numerical study confirms that complicated transient phenomena exist in the shortly launching stages when the gun-launched missile moves from the muzzle of a cannon to the free-flight stage. The propellant gas flows, the initial environmental ambient air flows and the moving missile mutually couple and interact. A complete structure of flow field is formed at the launching stages, including the blast wave, base shock, reflected shock, incident shock, shear layer, primary vortex ring and triple point.

  13. Collisional-radiative model including recombination processes for W27+ ion★

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murakami, Izumi; Sasaki, Akira; Kato, Daiji; Koike, Fumihiro

    2017-10-01

    We have constructed a collisional-radiative (CR) model for W27+ ions including 226 configurations with n ≤ 9 and ł ≤ 5 for spectroscopic diagnostics. We newly include recombination processes in the model and this is the first result of extreme ultraviolet spectrum calculated for recombining plasma component. Calculated spectra in 40-70 Å range in ionizing and recombining plasma components show similar 3 strong lines and 1 line weak in recombining plasma component at 45-50 Å and many weak lines at 50-65 Å for both components. Recombination processes do not contribute much to the spectrum at around 60 Å for W27+ ion. Dielectronic satellite lines are also minor contribution to the spectrum of recombining plasma component. Dielectronic recombination (DR) rate coefficient from W28+ to W27+ ions is also calculated with the same atomic data in the CR model. We found that larger set of energy levels including many autoionizing states gave larger DR rate coefficients but our rate agree within factor 6 with other works at electron temperature around 1 keV in which W27+ and W28+ ions are usually observed in plasmas. Contribution to the Topical Issue "Atomic and Molecular Data and their Applications", edited by Gordon W.F. Drake, Jung-Sik Yoon, Daiji Kato, and Grzegorz Karwasz.

  14. Sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy (Rosai-Dorfman disease): a clinicoradiological profile of three cases including two with skeletal disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gupta, Priya; Babyn, Paul

    2008-01-01

    Originally described as sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy, Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is a rare histiocytic proliferative disorder with a distinctive microscopic appearance. A rare entity, RDD is often under-diagnosed because of a low index of suspicion by both radiologist and pathologist. Through this article, we wish to apprise radiologists of the spectrum of disease that can be encountered in this disorder. RDD can mimic other common childhood skeletal diseases including benign Langerhans cell histiocytosis and lymphoma. The clinical and radiological manifestations of RDD vary depending upon organ involvement, and its imaging features are often confused with those of other disorders. RDD should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unifocal and multifocal skeletal involvement caused by granulomatous diseases, infections, pseudogranulomatous lesions and malignancy. As long-term outcome is usually good, a conservative approach is justified in most cases. Contrasted with its typical appearance, presenting with bilateral symmetrical cervical adenopathy (as shown in one patient), we also report extranodal involvement of bone in two patients. Extranodal disease occurs along with concomitant nodal disease in about 43% of patients. In 23% of patients, isolated extranodal RDD can be seen, most commonly in the head and neck. In two of our patients, we observed extranodal involvement with skeletal involvement away from the head and neck not associated with lymphadenopathy. Skeletal involvement in RDD without lymphadenopathy is rare, occurring only in 2% of all the patients reported to date. (orig.)

  15. The disease related deaths due to differentiated thyroid carcinomas treated multidisciplinary, including radioiodine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stefanovic, Lj.; Kermeci, K.; Malesevic, M.; Mihailovic, J.; Srbovan, D.; Popadic, S.

    2002-01-01

    Aim: To analyse the disease related deaths of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients treated multidisciplinary, including radioiodine. Patients and Methods: 364 DTC patients were treated from 1977 to the end of 2000. All patients were operated, treated by radioiodine and by hormonal therapy, external radiotherapy was applied in 22 and chemotherapy in 6 of them. 54 treated patients were lost from the follow-up. The course of disease and outcomes are known in 310 patients, among them 53 patients died. The disease related deaths occurred in 33 (10.6%) patients. Results: Between 33 patients whose deaths were in relation with DTC the disease progression was the cause of deaths in 30 (9.7% of treated) patients (the locoregional disease in 10, distant metastases /M1/ in 17, locoregional disease + M1 in 3 patients). From the late complications of treatment died 3 (1%) patients (all of them were in complete remission to the deaths). The mean survival of these 33 patients from the diagnosis to the end of the life was 6.9 years, median 5.1 years, range 2 months to 23.9 years. The five years survived 54.6% of them, 10 years 21.2% and more than 20 years 3%. M1 had 72.7% of patients (lung and/or bone M1 were present in 91.7% of them), N1 had 69.7% and in 30.3% local tumor was T4. In relation to all treated patients died 14.6% men compared to 9% women (p<0.05), 15.7% of patients 45 years old or older compared to 4.4% of younger then 45 years (p<0.001) and 21.3% of patients with follicular type of DTC compared to 7.3% with papillary type (p<0.001). From all patients without radioiodine accumulation in tumor tissue died 60%. Conclusion: The DTC related deaths were the consequence of M1 and less frequently the result of locoregional disease (T4 and/or N1) in about 1/10 of all treated patients. The deaths as result of the late complications of treatment were exceptional. The deaths were significantly more frequent between males, patients 45 years old or older and patients

  16. The role of the amygdala during emotional processing in Huntington's disease: from pre-manifest to late stage disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Sarah L; Zhang, Jiaxiang; Begeti, Faye; Guzman, Natalie Valle; Lazar, Alpar S; Rowe, James B; Barker, Roger A; Hampshire, Adam

    2015-04-01

    Deficits in emotional processing can be detected in the pre-manifest stage of Huntington's disease and negative emotion recognition has been identified as a predictor of clinical diagnosis. The underlying neuropathological correlates of such deficits are typically established using correlative structural MRI studies. This approach does not take into consideration the impact of disruption to the complex interactions between multiple brain circuits on emotional processing. Therefore, exploration of the neural substrates of emotional processing in pre-manifest HD using fMRI connectivity analysis may be a useful way of evaluating the way brain regions interrelate in the period prior to diagnosis. We investigated the impact of predicted time to disease onset on brain activation when participants were exposed to pictures of faces with angry and neutral expressions, in 20 pre-manifest HD gene carriers and 23 healthy controls. On the basis of the results of this initial study went on to look at amygdala dependent cognitive performance in 79 Huntington's disease patients from a cross-section of disease stages (pre-manifest to late disease) and 26 healthy controls, using a validated theory of mind task: "the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test" which has been previously been shown to be amygdala dependent. Psychophysiological interaction analysis identified reduced connectivity between the left amygdala and right fusiform facial area in pre-manifest HD gene carriers compared to controls when viewing angry compared to neutral faces. Change in PPI connectivity scores correlated with predicted time to disease onset (r=0.45, pneural networks underlying social cognition and emotional processing can be detected prior to clinical diagnosis in Huntington's disease. Connectivity between the amygdala and other brain regions is impacted by the disease process in pre-manifest HD and may therefore be a useful way of identifying participants who are approaching a clinical diagnosis

  17. Broader prevalence of Wolbachia in insects including potential human disease vectors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Oliveira, C D; Gonçalves, D S; Baton, L A; Shimabukuro, P H F; Carvalho, F D; Moreira, L A

    2015-06-01

    Wolbachia are intracellular, maternally transmitted bacteria considered the most abundant endosymbionts found in arthropods. They reproductively manipulate their host in order to increase their chances of being transmitted to the offspring, and currently are being used as a tool to control vector-borne diseases. Studies on distribution of Wolbachia among its arthropod hosts are important both for better understanding why this bacterium is so common, as well as for its potential use as a biological control agent. Here, we studied the incidence of Wolbachia in a broad range of insect species, collected from different regions of Brazil, using three genetic markers (16S rRNA, wsp and ftsZ), which varied in terms of their sensitivity to detect this bacterium. The overall incidence of Wolbachia among species belonging to 58 families and 14 orders was 61.9%. The most common positive insect orders were Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera, with Diptera and Hemiptera having the highest numbers of Wolbachia-positive families. They included potential human disease vectors whose infection status has never been reported before. Our study further shows the importance of using quantitative polymerase chain reaction for high-throughput and sensitive Wolbachia screening.

  18. A Supervised Learning Process to Validate Online Disease Reports for Use in Predictive Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patching, Helena M M; Hudson, Laurence M; Cooke, Warrick; Garcia, Andres J; Hay, Simon I; Roberts, Mark; Moyes, Catherine L

    2015-12-01

    Pathogen distribution models that predict spatial variation in disease occurrence require data from a large number of geographic locations to generate disease risk maps. Traditionally, this process has used data from public health reporting systems; however, using online reports of new infections could speed up the process dramatically. Data from both public health systems and online sources must be validated before they can be used, but no mechanisms exist to validate data from online media reports. We have developed a supervised learning process to validate geolocated disease outbreak data in a timely manner. The process uses three input features, the data source and two metrics derived from the location of each disease occurrence. The location of disease occurrence provides information on the probability of disease occurrence at that location based on environmental and socioeconomic factors and the distance within or outside the current known disease extent. The process also uses validation scores, generated by disease experts who review a subset of the data, to build a training data set. The aim of the supervised learning process is to generate validation scores that can be used as weights going into the pathogen distribution model. After analyzing the three input features and testing the performance of alternative processes, we selected a cascade of ensembles comprising logistic regressors. Parameter values for the training data subset size, number of predictors, and number of layers in the cascade were tested before the process was deployed. The final configuration was tested using data for two contrasting diseases (dengue and cholera), and 66%-79% of data points were assigned a validation score. The remaining data points are scored by the experts, and the results inform the training data set for the next set of predictors, as well as going to the pathogen distribution model. The new supervised learning process has been implemented within our live site and is

  19. Novelty processing and memory formation in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schomaker, J; Berendse, H W; Foncke, E M J; van der Werf, Y D; van den Heuvel, O A; Theeuwes, J; Meeter, M

    2014-09-01

    Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by a degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic cells, resulting in dopamine depletion. This depletion is counteracted through dopamine replacement therapy (DRT). Dopamine has been suggested to affect novelty processing and memory, which suggests that these processes are also implicated in PD and that DRT could affect them. To investigate word learning and novelty processing in patients with PD as indexed by the P2 and P3 event-related potential components, and the role of DRT in these processes. 21 patients with PD and 21 matched healthy controls were included. Patients with PD were tested on and off DRT in two sessions in a counterbalanced design, and healthy controls were tested twice without intervention. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured while participants performed a word learning Von Restorff task. Healthy controls showed the typical Von Restorff effect, with better memory for words that were presented in novel fonts, than for words presented in standard font. Surprisingly, this effect was reversed in the patients with PD. In line with the behavioral findings, the P3 was larger for novel than for standard font words in healthy controls, but not in patients with PD. For both groups the P2 and P3 event-related components were larger for recalled versus forgotten words. DRT did not affect these processes. Learning of novel information is compromised in patients with PD. Likewise, the P2 and P3 components that predict successful memory encoding are reduced in PD patients. This was true both on and off DRT, suggesting that these findings reflect abnormalities in learning and memory in PD that are not resolved by dopaminergic medication. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Speech-language therapists' process of including significant others in aphasia rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hallé, Marie-Christine; Le Dorze, Guylaine; Mingant, Anne

    2014-11-01

    Although aphasia rehabilitation should include significant others, it is currently unknown how this recommendation is adopted in speech-language therapy practice. Speech-language therapists' (SLTs) experience of including significant others in aphasia rehabilitation is also understudied, yet a better understanding of clinical reality would be necessary to facilitate implementation of best evidence pertaining to family interventions. To explore the process through which SLTs work with significant others of people with aphasia in rehabilitation settings. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight SLTs who had been working with persons with aphasia in rehabilitation centres for at least 1 year. Grounded theory principles were applied in analysing interview transcripts. A theoretical model was developed representing SLTs' process of working with significant others of persons with aphasia in rehabilitation. Including significant others was perceived as challenging, yet a bonus to their fundamental patient-centred approach. Basic interventions with significant others when they were available included information sharing. If necessary, significant others were referred to social workers or psychologists or the participants collaborated with those professionals. Participants rarely and only under specific conditions provided significant others with language exercises or trained them to communicate better with the aphasic person. As a result, even if participants felt satisfied with their efforts to offer family and friends interventions, they also had unachieved ideals, such as having more frequent contacts with significant others. If SLTs perceived work with significant others as a feasible necessity, rather than as a challenging bonus, they could be more inclined to include family and friends within therapy with the aim to improve their communication with the person with aphasia. SLTs could also be more satisfied with their practice. In order to

  1. Global stability for infectious disease models that include immigration of infected individuals and delay in the incidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chelsea Uggenti

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available We begin with a detailed study of a delayed SI model of disease transmission with immigration into both classes. The incidence function allows for a nonlinear dependence on the infected population, including mass action and saturating incidence as special cases. Due to the immigration of infectives, there is no disease-free equilibrium and hence no basic reproduction number. We show there is a unique endemic equilibrium and that this equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable for all parameter values. The results include vector-style delay and latency-style delay. Next, we show that previous global stability results for an SEI model and an SVI model that include immigration of infectives and non-linear incidence but not delay can be extended to systems with vector-style delay and latency-style delay.

  2. Clinicopathological review of immunohistochemically defined Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease-including some interesting cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seong, Gil Myeong; Kim, Jo-Heon; Lim, Gil Chai; Kim, Jinseok

    2012-10-01

    Kikuchi-Fujimoto Disease (KFD) is a benign, self-limited disease characterized by tender regional lymphadenopathy with fever. KFD remains a poorly defined disease, and no clear diagnostic criteria are available. Here, we assess the clinical, laboratory, and histopathologic findings of KFD cases and report two unusual cases. Forty KFD patients that underwent lymph node (LN) biopsy and diagnosed by immunohistochemical staining, from January 2003 to November 2010, were enrolled in this retrospective study. The patients had a mean age of 29.3 years, and 29 (72.5 %) were women. Affected LNs were mainly located unilaterally in the cervical area. Mean LN size was 15.3 mm. Twenty-eight (70 %) patients had LN tenderness, and 25 (62.5 %) patients had fever. Leukopenia was observed in 18 of 35 evaluable patients. C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were elevated in most patients. Anti-nuclear antibody was positive in four of 19 evaluable patients, but all had been diagnosed with concurrent systemic lupus erythematosus. Histologically, the 40 cases were classified into three types, that is, as proliferative (37.5 %), necrotizing (55.0 %), or xanthomatous (7.5 %). Interesting cases: Case 1 was a 35-year-old female with KFD and uveitis, retinal vasculitis, and superior sagittal sinus thrombosis. Case 2 was a 47-year-old male with KFD and bone marrow involvement and presented with severe bicytopenia. Although KFD is an uncommon self-limited benign disorder, it must be included in the differential diagnosis of lymphadenopathy with fever and cytopenia. It is important that the clinical features of KFD be understood to reach a correct diagnosis.

  3. Hip and pelvis diseases on lumbar AP radiographs including both hip joints

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lim, Hyun Soo; Juhng, Seon Kwan; Kim, Eun A; Kim, Jeong Ho; Song, Ha Heon; Shim, Dae Moo [Wonkwang University School of Medicine, Iksan (Korea, Republic of)

    2002-12-01

    To determine the frequency of disease, and to evaluate the methods used for lumbar spine radiography in Korea. Sixty university and training hospitals were randomly selected and asked to describe the projections, film size and radiographic techniques employed for routine radiography in patients with suspected disease of the lumbar spine. Plain radiographs of 1215 patients, taken using 14x17 inch film and depicting both hip joints and the lumbar region, were analysed between March 1999 and February 2000. In 15 patients (1.2%), the radiographs revealed hip or pelvic lesion, confirmed as follows: avascular necrosis of the femoral head (n=11, with bilateral lesion in four cases); sustained ankylosing spondylitis (n=2); acetabular dysplasia (n=1); and insufficiency fracture of the pubic rami secondary to osteoporosis (n=1). In 11 or the 20 hospitals which responded, 14{sup x}17{sup f}ilm was being used for lumbar radiography, while in the other nine, film size was smaller. Plain radiography of the lumbar spine including both hip joints, may be a useful way to simultaneously evaluate lesions not only of the lumbar spine but also of the hip and/or pelvis.

  4. Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itkes, Oksana; Mashal, Nira

    2016-09-01

    Previous research has suggested that cognitive performance is interrupted by negative relative to neutral or positive stimuli. We examined whether negative valence affects performance at the word or phrase level. Participants performed a semantic decision task on word pairs that included either a negative or a positive target word. In Experiment 1, the valence of the target word was congruent with the overall valence conveyed by the word pair (e.g., fat kid). As expected, response times were slower in the negative condition relative to the positive condition. Experiment 2 included target words that were incongruent with the overall valence of the word pair (e.g., fat salary). Response times were longer for word pairs whose overall valence was negative relative to positive, even though these word pairs included a positive word. Our findings support the Cognitive Primacy Hypothesis, according to which emotional valence is extracted after conceptual processing is complete.

  5. Renal microvascular disease in an aging population: a reversible process?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Futrakul, Narisa; Futrakul, Prasit

    2008-01-01

    Renal microvascular disease and tubulointerstitial fibrosis are usually demonstrated in aging in humans and animals. It has recently been proposed that renal microvascular disease is the crucial determinant of tubulointerstitial disease or fibrosis. Enhanced circulating endothelial cell loss is a biomarker that reflects glomerular endothelial injury or renal microvascular disease, and fractional excretion of magnesium (FE Mg) is a sensitive biomarker that reflects an early stage of tubulointerstitial fibrosis. In aging in humans, both of these biomarkers are abnormally elevated. In addition, a glomerular endothelial dysfunction determined by altered hemodynamics associated with peritubular capillary flow reduction is substantiated. A correction of such hemodynamic alteration with vasodilators can effectively improve renal perfusion and restore renal function. Thus, anti-aging therapy can reverse the renal microvascular disease and dysfunction associated with the aging process.

  6. Deficient symbol processing in Alzheimer disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toepper, Max; Steuwe, Carolin; Beblo, Thomas; Bauer, Eva; Boedeker, Sebastian; Thomas, Christine; Markowitsch, Hans J; Driessen, Martin; Sammer, Gebhard

    2014-01-01

    Symbols and signs have been suggested to improve the orientation of patients suffering from Alzheimer disease (AD). However, there are hardly any studies that confirm whether AD patients benefit from signs or symbols and which symbol characteristics might improve or impede their symbol comprehension. To address these issues, 30 AD patients and 30 matched healthy controls performed a symbol processing task (SPT) with 4 different item categories. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was run to identify impact of different item categories on performance accuracy in both the experimental groups. Moreover, SPT scores were correlated with neuropsychological test scores in a broad range of other cognitive domains. Finally, diagnostic accuracy of the SPT was calculated by a receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. Results revealed a global symbol processing dysfunction in AD that was associated with semantic memory and executive deficits. Moreover, AD patients showed a disproportional performance decline at SPT items with visual distraction. Finally, the SPT total score showed high sensitivity and specificity in differentiating between AD patients and healthy controls. The present findings suggest that specific symbol features impede symbol processing in AD and argue for a diagnostic benefit of the SPT in neuropsychological assessment.

  7. Simulation of Injection Molding Process Including Mold Filling and Compound Curing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamad Reza Erfanian

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The present work reports and discusses the results of a 3D simulation of the injection molding process of a rubber compound that includes the mold flling stage and  material curing, using the computer code is developed in “UDF” part of the Fluent 6.3 CAE software. The data obtained from a rheometer (MDR 2000 is used to characterize the rubber material in order to fnd the cure model parameters which exist in curing model. Because of non-newtonian behavior of rubber, in this work the non-newtonian model for viscosity was used and viscosity parameters were computed by mean of viscometry test by RPA. After calculation of the physical and curing properties, vulcanization process was simulated for a complex rubber article with non-uniform thickness by solving the continuity, momentum, energy and curing process equations. Predicted flling and curing time in a complex and 3D rubber part is compared with experimentally measured data which confrmed  the accuracy and applicability of the method.

  8. Development of the Paris Definition of Early Crohn's Disease for Disease-Modification Trials: Results of an International Expert Opinion Process

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peyrin-Biroulet, Laurent; Billioud, Vincent; D'Haens, Geert; Panaccione, Remo; Feagan, Brian; Panés, Julian; Danese, Silvio; Schreiber, Stefan; Ogata, Haruhiko; Hibi, Toshifumi; Higgins, Peter D. R.; Beaugerie, Laurent; Chowers, Yehuda; Louis, Edouard; Steinwurz, Flávio; Reinisch, Walter; Rutgeerts, Paul; Colombel, Jean-Frédéric; Travis, Simon; Sandborn, William J.

    2012-01-01

    We report the findings and outputs of an international expert opinion process to develop a definition of early Crohn's disease (CD) that could be used in future disease-modification trials. Nineteen experts on inflammatory bowel diseases held an international expert opinion meeting to discuss and

  9. Frying process in the relation fat/degenerative diseases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Varela, G.

    1998-08-01

    between frying oil and food. In deep-frying the cooking fat is usually used more than once, and there comes a moment when one considers subjectively that the oil is not longer suitable for frying and is discarded. This can be of practical significance for the total lipid intake, since a not determined quantity of oil is discarded and is not ingested. Consecuently the theoretical lipid intake has been decreased and, at the same time, some compounds, included saturated fats, are eliminated from diet whit the discarded oil. For example, the lipid composition of meats is substantially improved because of the highly favorable monounsaturated fatty acids penetration into them from the frying olive oil. In of the most important features is the possibility of manipulating fat intake by reducing it and improving the quality of the fat really consumed, this is of special interest in the possible relation to degenerative diseases. These changes in the fatty acids composition of oils and foods are repeatedly seen in laboratory experiments. However, their interpretation is not easy, in part because of the complexity of the deep-frying process used in the test. On the other hand, you would have to see the results obtained in the laboratory coincide with the results at practical level as well in the households as in catering, and, in this sense, some of the first results which we are obtaining in the population of Madrid are presented in the second part of this report.

  10. Emotional and cognitive social processes are impaired in Parkinson's disease and are related to behavioral disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narme, Pauline; Mouras, Harold; Roussel, Martine; Duru, Cécile; Krystkowiak, Pierre; Godefroy, Olivier

    2013-03-01

    Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with behavioral disorders that can affect social functioning but are poorly understood. Since emotional and cognitive social processes are known to be crucial in social relationships, impairment of these processes may account for the emergence of behavioral disorders. We used a systematic battery of tests to assess emotional processes and social cognition in PD patients and relate our findings to conventional neuropsychological data (especially behavioral disorders). Twenty-three PD patients and 46 controls (matched for age and educational level) were included in the study and underwent neuropsychological testing, including an assessment of the behavioral and cognitive components of executive function. Emotional and cognitive social processes were assessed with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index caregiver-administered questionnaire (as a measure of empathy), a facial emotion recognition task and two theory of mind (ToM) tasks. When compared with controls, PD patients showed low levels of empathy (p = .006), impaired facial emotion recognition (which persisted after correction for perceptual abilities) (p = .001), poor performance in a second-order ToM task (p = .008) that assessed both cognitive (p = .004) and affective (p = .03) inferences and, lastly, frequent dysexecutive behavioral disorders (in over 40% of the patients). Overall, impaired emotional and cognitive social functioning was observed in 17% of patients and was related to certain cognitive dysexecutive disorders. In terms of behavioral dysexecutive disorders, social behavior disorders were related to impaired emotional and cognitive social functioning (p = .04) but were independent of cognitive impairments. Emotional and cognitive social processes were found to be impaired in Parkinson's disease. This impairment may account for the emergence of social behavioral disorders. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

  11. Determining the disease management process for epileptic patients: A qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hosseini, Nazafarin; Sharif, Farkhondeh; Ahmadi, Fazlollah; Zare, Mohammad

    2016-01-01

    Epilepsy exposes patients to many physical, social, and emotional challenges. Thus, it seems to portray a complex picture and needs holistic care. Medical treatment and psychosocial part of epilepsy remain central to managing and improving the patient's qualify of life through team efforts. Some studies have shown the dimensions of self-management, but its management process of epilepsy patients, especially in Iran, is not clear. This study aimed to determine the disease management process in patients with epilepsy in Iran. This qualitative approach and grounded theory study was conducted from January 2009 to February 2012 in Isfahan city (Iran). Thirty-two participants were recruited by the goal-oriented, and snowball sample selection and theoretical sampling methods. After conducting a total of 43 in-depth interviews with the participants, the researchers reached data saturation. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin method. With a focus on disease management process, researchers found three main themes and seven sub-themes as a psychosocial process (PSP). The main themes were: perception of threat to self-identity, effort to preserve self-identity, and burn out. The psychosocial aspect of the disease generated one main variable "the perception of identity loss" and one central variable "searching for self-identity." Participants attributed threat to self-identity and burn out to the way their disease was managed requiring efforts to preserve their identity. Recommendations consist of support programs and strategies to improve the public perception of epilepsy in Iran, help patients accept their condition and preserve self-identity, and most importantly, enhance medical management of epilepsy.

  12. Learning and using technology in intertwined processes: a study of people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenberg, Lena; Nygård, Louise

    2014-09-01

    People with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease are likely to be challenged by the multitude of everyday technology in today's society. The aim of this study was to explore how they try to prohibit, avoid or solve problems in everyday technology use, maintain skills, and learn to use new technology. To explore how the participants applied and reasoned about using everyday technology in real-life situations interviews were conducted while the participants used their own technology in their homes. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants with mild cognitive impairment (n = 10) or Alzheimer's disease (n = 10). The analyses were inspired from grounded theory and resulted in one core category and three sub-categories that represent sub-processes in the core. The core finding presents a continuous, intertwined process of learning and using everyday technology, highlighting how the context was interwoven in the processes. The participants used a rich variety of management strategies when approaching technology, including communication with the everyday technologies on different levels. The findings underscore that it is important to support continued use of everyday technology as long as it is valued and relevant to the person with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease. The intertwined process of learning and using everyday technology suggests how support could target different sub-processes. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

  13. Project Interface Requirements Process Including Shuttle Lessons Learned

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauch, Garland T.

    2010-01-01

    Most failures occur at interfaces between organizations and hardware. Processing interface requirements at the start of a project life cycle will reduce the likelihood of costly interface changes/failures later. This can be done by adding Interface Control Documents (ICDs) to the Project top level drawing tree, providing technical direction to the Projects for interface requirements, and by funding the interface requirements function directly from the Project Manager's office. The interface requirements function within the Project Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Office would work in-line with the project element design engineers early in the life cycle to enhance communications and negotiate technical issues between the elements. This function would work as the technical arm of the Project Manager to help ensure that the Project cost, schedule, and risk objectives can be met during the Life Cycle. Some ICD Lessons Learned during the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) Life Cycle will include the use of hardware interface photos in the ICD, progressive life cycle design certification by analysis, test, & operations experience, assigning interface design engineers to Element Interface (EI) and Project technical panels, and linking interface design drawings with project build drawings

  14. An Integrated Framework for Process-Driven Model Construction in Disease Ecology and Animal Health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rebecca Mancy

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Process models that focus on explicitly representing biological mechanisms are increasingly important in disease ecology and animal health research. However, the large number of process modelling approaches makes it difficult to decide which is most appropriate for a given disease system and research question. Here, we discuss different motivations for using process models and present an integrated conceptual analysis that can be used to guide the construction of infectious disease process models and comparisons between them. Our presentation complements existing work by clarifying the major differences between modelling approaches and their relationship with the biological characteristics of the epidemiological system. We first discuss distinct motivations for using process models in epidemiological research, identifying the key steps in model design and use associated with each. We then present a conceptual framework for guiding model construction and comparison, organised according to key aspects of epidemiological systems. Specifically, we discuss the number and type of disease states, whether to focus on individual hosts (e.g., cows or groups of hosts (e.g., herds or farms, how space or host connectivity affect disease transmission, whether demographic and epidemiological processes are periodic or can occur at any time, and the extent to which stochasticity is important. We use foot-and-mouth disease and bovine tuberculosis in cattle to illustrate our discussion and support explanations of cases in which different models are used to address similar problems. The framework should help those constructing models to structure their approach to modelling decisions and facilitate comparisons between models in the literature.

  15. An Integrated Framework for Process-Driven Model Construction in Disease Ecology and Animal Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mancy, Rebecca; Brock, Patrick M; Kao, Rowland R

    2017-01-01

    Process models that focus on explicitly representing biological mechanisms are increasingly important in disease ecology and animal health research. However, the large number of process modelling approaches makes it difficult to decide which is most appropriate for a given disease system and research question. Here, we discuss different motivations for using process models and present an integrated conceptual analysis that can be used to guide the construction of infectious disease process models and comparisons between them. Our presentation complements existing work by clarifying the major differences between modelling approaches and their relationship with the biological characteristics of the epidemiological system. We first discuss distinct motivations for using process models in epidemiological research, identifying the key steps in model design and use associated with each. We then present a conceptual framework for guiding model construction and comparison, organised according to key aspects of epidemiological systems. Specifically, we discuss the number and type of disease states, whether to focus on individual hosts (e.g., cows) or groups of hosts (e.g., herds or farms), how space or host connectivity affect disease transmission, whether demographic and epidemiological processes are periodic or can occur at any time, and the extent to which stochasticity is important. We use foot-and-mouth disease and bovine tuberculosis in cattle to illustrate our discussion and support explanations of cases in which different models are used to address similar problems. The framework should help those constructing models to structure their approach to modelling decisions and facilitate comparisons between models in the literature.

  16. Atmosphere-soil-vegetation model including CO2 exchange processes: SOLVEG2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagai, Haruyasu

    2004-11-01

    A new atmosphere-soil-vegetation model named SOLVEG2 (SOLVEG version 2) was developed to study the heat, water, and CO 2 exchanges between the atmosphere and land-surface. The model consists of one-dimensional multilayer sub-models for the atmosphere, soil, and vegetation. It also includes sophisticated processes for solar and long-wave radiation transmission in vegetation canopy and CO 2 exchanges among the atmosphere, soil, and vegetation. Although the model usually simulates only vertical variation of variables in the surface-layer atmosphere, soil, and vegetation canopy by using meteorological data as top boundary conditions, it can be used by coupling with a three-dimensional atmosphere model. In this paper, details of SOLVEG2, which includes the function of coupling with atmosphere model MM5, are described. (author)

  17. Visual dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weil, Rimona S.; Schrag, Anette E.; Warren, Jason D.; Crutch, Sebastian J.; Lees, Andrew J.; Morris, Huw R.

    2016-01-01

    Patients with Parkinson’s disease have a number of specific visual disturbances. These include changes in colour vision and contrast sensitivity and difficulties with complex visual tasks such as mental rotation and emotion recognition. We review changes in visual function at each stage of visual processing from retinal deficits, including contrast sensitivity and colour vision deficits to higher cortical processing impairments such as object and motion processing and neglect. We consider changes in visual function in patients with common Parkinson’s disease-associated genetic mutations including GBA and LRRK2. We discuss the association between visual deficits and clinical features of Parkinson’s disease such as rapid eye movement sleep behavioural disorder and the postural instability and gait disorder phenotype. We review the link between abnormal visual function and visual hallucinations, considering current models for mechanisms of visual hallucinations. Finally, we discuss the role of visuo-perceptual testing as a biomarker of disease and predictor of dementia in Parkinson’s disease. PMID:27412389

  18. Modeling treatment of ischemic heart disease with partially observable Markov decision processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauskrecht, M; Fraser, H

    1998-01-01

    Diagnosis of a disease and its treatment are not separate, one-shot activities. Instead they are very often dependent and interleaved over time, mostly due to uncertainty about the underlying disease, uncertainty associated with the response of a patient to the treatment and varying cost of different diagnostic (investigative) and treatment procedures. The framework of Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) developed and used in operations research, control theory and artificial intelligence communities is particularly suitable for modeling such a complex decision process. In the paper, we show how the POMDP framework could be used to model and solve the problem of the management of patients with ischemic heart disease, and point out modeling advantages of the framework over standard decision formalisms.

  19. Planning treatment of ischemic heart disease with partially observable Markov decision processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauskrecht, M; Fraser, H

    2000-03-01

    Diagnosis of a disease and its treatment are not separate, one-shot activities. Instead, they are very often dependent and interleaved over time. This is mostly due to uncertainty about the underlying disease, uncertainty associated with the response of a patient to the treatment and varying cost of different diagnostic (investigative) and treatment procedures. The framework of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) developed and used in the operations research, control theory and artificial intelligence communities is particularly suitable for modeling such a complex decision process. In this paper, we show how the POMDP framework can be used to model and solve the problem of the management of patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD), and demonstrate the modeling advantages of the framework over standard decision formalisms.

  20. Instructions included? Make safety training part of medical device procurement process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, James P

    2010-04-01

    Before hospitals embrace new technologies, it's important that medical personnel agree on how best to use them. Likewise, hospitals must provide the support to operate these sophisticated devices safely. With this in mind, it's wise for hospitals to include medical device training in the procurement process. Moreover, purchasing professionals can play a key role in helping to increase the amount of user training for medical devices and systems. What steps should you take to help ensure that new medical devices are implemented safely? Here are some tips.

  1. Formulaic language in cortical and subcortical disease: Evidence of the dual process model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelly Bridges

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: It is known that an intact cortical left hemisphere is crucial for language production. Recently, more credit is given to the right hemisphere and subcortical areas in the production of non-novel language, including formulaic language. John Hughlings Jackson (1874/1958, first described how propositional and non-propositional speech are differentially affected by neural impairment. Non-propositional language is often preserved following left hemisphere stroke even when aphasia is present (Code, 1982; Sidtis et al., 2009; Van Lancker Sidtis & Postman, 2006. With right hemisphere and subcortical stroke, formulaic language is reduced (Sidtis et al., 2009; Van Lancker Sidtis & Postman, 2006; Speedie et al., 1993. The dual process model of language competence states that propositional and non-propositional speech are processed differently in the brain, with novel speech controlled by the left hemisphere, and a right hemisphere/subcortical circuit modulating formulaic language (Van Lancker Sidtis, 2004; 2012. Two studies of formulaic language will be presented as further evidence of the dual process model: a study of formulaic language in Alzheimer’s disease, and a study of recited speech in Parkinson’s disease. Formulaic language includes overlearned words, phrases or longer linguistic units that are known to the native speaker, occur naturally in discourse, and are important for normal social interaction (Fillmore, 1979; Pawley & Syder, 1983; Van Lancker, 1988; Van Lancker Sidtis, 2004; Wray, 2002. Formulaic expressions include conversational speech formulas, idioms, proverbs, expletives, pause fillers, discourse elements, and sentence stems (stereotyped sentence-initials. Longer units of linguistic material, such as prayers, rhymes, and poems, termed recited speech, is another subtype of formulaic language that is learned in childhood and recited periodically throughout life. Cortical disease: Alzheimer’s disease and formulaic

  2. Valuing Treatments for Parkinson Disease Incorporating Process Utility: Performance of Best-Worst Scaling, Time Trade-Off, and Visual Analogue Scales

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weernink, Marieke Geertruida Maria; Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Catharina Gerarda Maria; IJzerman, Maarten Joost; van Til, Janine Astrid

    2016-01-01

    Objective The objective of this study was to compare treatment profiles including both health outcomes and process characteristics in Parkinson disease using best-worst scaling (BWS), time trade-off (TTO), and visual analogue scales (VAS). Methods From the model comprising of seven attributes with

  3. The role of trophic factors and inflammatory processes in physical activity-induced neuroprotection in Parkinson’s disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ewelina Pałasz

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Glial cells and neurotrophins play an important role in maintaining homeostasis of the CNS. Disturbances of their function can lead to a number of nervous system diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD. Current clinical studies provide evidence that moderate physical activity adapted to the health status of PD patients can support pharmacological treatment, slow down the onset of motor impairments, and extend the patients period of independence. Physical activity, by stimulating the production and release of endogenous trophic factors, prevents the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic neurons via inhibition of inflammatory processes and the reduction of oxidative stress. The aim of this study is to present the current state of knowledge for the anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties of physical activity as a supportive therapy in Parkinson’s disease.

  4. A process-model based approach to prospective memory impairment in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kliegel, Matthias; Altgassen, Mareike; Hering, Alexandra; Rose, Nathan S

    2011-07-01

    The present review discusses the current state of research on the clinical neuropsychology of prospective memory in Parkinson's disease. To do so the paper is divided in two sections. In the first section, we briefly outline key features of the (partly implicit) rationale underlying the available literature on the clinical neuropsychology of prospective memory. Here, we present a conceptual model that guides our approach to the clinical neuropsychology of prospective memory in general and to the effects of Parkinson's disease on prospective memory in particular. In the second section, we use this model to guide our review of the available literature and suggest some open issues and future directions motivated by previous findings and the proposed conceptual model. The review suggests that certain phases of the prospective memory process (intention formation und initiation) are particularly impaired by Parkinson's disease. In addition, it is argued that prospective memory may be preserved when tasks involve specific features (e.g., focal cues) that reduce the need for strategic monitoring processes. In terms of suggestions for future directions, it is noted that intervention studies are needed which target the specific phases of the prospective memory process that are impaired in Parkinson's disease, such as planning interventions. Moreover, it is proposed that prospective memory deficits in Parkinson's disease should be explored in the context of a general impairment in the ability to form an intention and plan or coordinate an appropriate series of actions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Newcastle disease: An in-depth review including epidemiology and molecular diagnostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Infections of birds with strains of avian paramyxovirus serotype 1 (APMV-1), (synonyms: Newcastle disease virus (NDV), pigeon PMV-1 (PPMV-1)) are associated with two clinical outcomes: 1) Newcastle disease (ND) results from infections with virulent APMV-1, and is also called Exotic ND (END) in U. S...

  6. Asymmetric pain processing in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granovsky, Y; Schlesinger, I; Fadel, S; Erikh, I; Sprecher, E; Yarnitsky, D

    2013-10-01

    Reduced endogenous pain inhibition, as part of the degenerative process, is presumed to be the mechanism underlying the common presence of pain in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study aimed to assess an endogenous pain inhibitory system in PD using the conditioned pain modulation paradigm. Twenty-six predominantly unilateral PD patients and 19 controls underwent psychophysical pain assessment before and after patients' morning dopaminergic medication. An unexpected increase in several parameters of pain perception for PD patients was found after dopaminergic medication (e.g. for 49°C noxious heat stimulation an increase from 70.6 ± 4.0 to 77.6 ± 4.0 on the numerical pain scale, P < 0.001). This increase was seen in patients with predominantly left-sided PD, regardless of the stimulated side (for 49°C noxious heat stimulation, predominantly left-sided PD patients, pain perception increased from 73.5 ± 6.8 to 85.0 ± 6.8, P < 0.001, whereas predominantly right-sided PD patients did not show a significant increase, 68.3 ± 6.8 to 70.4 ± 6.5, P = 0.777). Baseline efficiency of conditioned pain modulation inversely correlated with age at disease onset (r = -0.522; P = 0.009) and disease severity (Unified PD Rating Scale, r = 0.447; P = 0.032) but did not differ between patients and controls. Increased sensory response causing hyperalgesia occurs after dopaminergic medication in patients with predominantly left-sided PD. © 2013 The Author(s) European Journal of Neurology © 2013 EFNS.

  7. The health-disease process and the family health strategy: the user's perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santos, Débora de Souza; Tenório, Elainey de Albuquerque; Brêda, Mércia Zeviane; Mishima, Silvana Martins

    2014-01-01

    to analyze the meanings Primary Health Care users attribute to their health-disease process and the services used. this qualitative research uses the focus group technique to interview two groups of users the service monitors. The first is a group of elderly people and the second of pregnant women. To analyze the meanings, the discourse analysis technique and the reference framework of health promotion are used. the group of elderly, being mostly female arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus patients, visualizes the health-disease process as the evolution of human existence controlled by divine power, signifying the health service as a blessing in the control of the disease. The Group of young pregnant women signified health as the ability for self-care and disease as the disability for that purposes, considering the Primary Health Care service as responsible for the recovery of individual and family health. the users demonstrated dissatisfaction with bureaucratic and vertical relations present at the health services. In each group, it was observed that the meanings for health and disease and meanings of the health service the users elaborated can be related.

  8. Impact of gender and genetics on emotion processing in Parkinson's disease - A multimodal study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia Heller

    Full Text Available Background: Parkinson's disease (PD has been suggested to affect males and females differently. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common and disabling in PD. However, previous studies focusing on emotion recognition in PD have neglected the confounder of gender and lack evidence on the underlying endocrinal and genetic mechanisms. Moreover, while there are many imaging studies on emotion processing in PD, gender-related analyses of neural data are scarce. We therefore aimed at exploring the interplay of the named factors on emotion recognition and processing in PD. Methods: 51 non-demented PD patients (26 male and 44 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC; 25 male were examined clinically and neuropsychologically including an emotion recognition task (Ekman 60faces test. A subsample of 25 patients and 31 HC underwent task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI comprised of videos of emotional facial expressions. To examine the impact of hormones and genetics on emotion processing, blood samples were taken for endocrinal (testosterone, estradiol, progesterone and genetic testing (5-HTTLPR, Val158Met COMT polymorphisms. Results: No group or gender differences emerged regarding cognitive abilities. Male but not female PD patients exhibited confined impairments in recognizing the emotion anger accompanied by diminished neural response to facial expressions (e.g. in the putamen and insula. Endocrinologically, fear recognition was positively correlated with estrogen levels in female patients, while on the genetic level we found an effect of Val158Met COMT genotype on the recognition of fear in PD patients. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that impaired emotion processing in PD specifically affects male patients, and that hormones and genetics contribute to emotion recognition performance. Further research on the underlying neural, endocrinological and genetic mechanisms of specific symptoms in PD is of clinical relevance, as it

  9. Determination of processed animal proteins, including meat and bone meal, in animal feed

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gizzi, G.; Holst, von C.; Baeten, V.; Berben, G.; Raamsdonk, van L.W.D.

    2004-01-01

    The presence of processed animal proteins (PAP), including meat and bone meal (MBM) from various species, in animal feed was investigated. It was demonstrated that microscopy is the most reliable method for enforcing the current total MBM ban in the European Uion (EU). It was shown that near

  10. Prevention of metabolic diseases: fruits (including fruit sugars) vs. vegetables.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuzma, Jessica N; Schmidt, Kelsey A; Kratz, Mario

    2017-07-01

    To discuss recent evidence from observational and intervention studies on the relationship between fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption and metabolic disease. Observational studies have consistently demonstrated a modest inverse association between the intake of fruit and leafy green vegetables, but not total vegetables, and biomarkers of metabolic disease as well as incident type 2 diabetes mellitus. This is in contrast to limited evidence from recently published randomized controlled dietary intervention trials, which - in sum - suggests little to no impact of increased F&V consumption on biomarkers of metabolic disease. Evidence from observational studies that fruit and leafy green vegetable intake is associated with lower type 2 diabetes risk and better metabolic health could not be confirmed by dietary intervention trials. It is unclear whether this discrepancy is because of limitations inherent in observational studies (e.g., subjective dietary assessment methods, residual confounding) or due to limitations in the few available intervention studies (e.g., short duration of follow-up, interventions combining whole fruit and fruit juice, or lack of compliance). Future studies that attempt to address these limitations are needed to provide more conclusive insight into the impact of F&V consumption on metabolic health.

  11. Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety in Adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease: The Role of Intrapersonal Characteristics and Stress Processing Variables

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, Katherine; Barakat, Lamia P.; Patterson, Chavis A.; Dampier, Carlton

    2009-01-01

    Sickle cell disease (SCD) complications place patients at risk for poor psychosocial adaptation, including depression and anxiety symptoms. This study aimed to test a mediator model based on the Risk and Resistance model to explore the role of intrapersonal characteristics and stress processing variables in psychosocial functioning. Participants…

  12. Including Organizational Cultural Parameters in Work Processes

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Handley, Holly A; Heacox, Nancy J

    2004-01-01

    ... between decision-makers of different nationalities. In addition to nationality, a decision-maker is also a member of an organization and brings this organizational culture to his role in the work process, where it may also affect his task performance...

  13. FOOT ROT DISEASE IDENTIFICATION FOR VELLAIKODI VARIETY OF BETELVINE PLANTS USING DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Vijayakumar

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Betelvine plants are infected variety of diseases in the complete plantation without any premature warning of the diseases. The aim of this paper is to detection of foot rot disease in the vellaikodi variety of betelvine plants using digital image processing techniques. The digital images of the uninfected or normal betelvine leaves and the digital images of the infected in foot rot diseased betelvine leaves at different stages are collected from different Betelvine plants using a high resolution digital camera and collected betelvine images are stored with JPEG format. The digital images of the betelvine leaves analyses are done using the image processing toolbox in MATLAB which gives the normal patterns of the digital images. Using RGB encoding process, the RGB components of the betelvine leaves are separated. The mean and median values for all sample leaves are computed and calculated values are stored in the system. The mean and median values of test leaves are computed and compared with the stored values. As the result of this comparison, it is identified whether test leaves are affected by foot rot disease or not. Finally this analysis helps to recognize the foot rot disease can be identified before it spreads to entire crop.

  14. Facilitating empowerment in employees with chronic disease: qualitative analysis of the process of change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varekamp, Inge; Heutink, Annelies; Landman, Selma; Koning, Cees E M; de Vries, Gabe; van Dijk, Frank J H

    2009-12-01

    In the field of healthcare, empowering patients who have a chronic disease is defined as increasing their knowledge and skills, in order to enable them to define their treatment goals and take personal responsibility for their medical treatment. Our goal was to explore the nature of empowerment for employees who have a chronic disease and who experience work-related problems. We used an explorative qualitative approach to document, from a professional perspective, the experiences of patients who participated in an empowerment training program. The researcher and the three instructors identified several themes which appeared to be important to many participants. These themes were fine-tuned and illustrated using brief case histories. We identified seven themes and characterized them in terms of employee tasks. These included: (1) developing a realistic understanding of one's abilities, (2) standing up for oneself in a self-confident way, (3) maintaining social relations based on mutual understanding with supervisors and colleagues, (4) collecting and assimilating knowledge of one's options, rights and duties, (5) consulting others and negotiating with regard to work accommodations, (6) planning one's job so as to provide personal satisfaction, and (7) maintaining a social life outside work. Not every employee is faced with all of these tasks, but most have to deal with several. Empowerment presupposes that employees with a chronic disease can act to solve problems at the workplace. The experiences during a comprehensive empowerment training illustrate that a process of reflection on personal emotions and a cognitive process of exploration and identification of bottlenecks at work may precede these actions. Our primary contribution is the aforementioned list of seven common tasks that many workers have to perform. Disseminating the list can support employees who have a chronic disease and may also be useful for their managers, HRM staff, occupational health and other

  15. HETC-3STEP included fragmentation process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shigyo, Nobuhiro; Iga, Kiminori; Ishibashi, Kenji [Kyushu Univ., Fukuoka (Japan). Faculty of Engineering

    1997-03-01

    High Energy Transport Code (HETC) based on the cascade-evaporation model is modified to calculate the fragmentation cross section. For the cascade process, nucleon-nucleon cross sections are used for collision computation; effective in-medium-corrected cross sections are adopted instead of the original free-nucleon collision. The exciton model is adopted for improvement of backward nucleon-emission cross section for low-energy nucleon-incident events. The fragmentation reaction is incorporated into the original HETC as a subroutine set by the use of the systematics of the reaction. The modified HETC (HETC-3STEP/FRG) reproduces experimental fragment yields to a reasonable degree. (author)

  16. [Psychosocial analysis of the health-disease process].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawaia, B B

    1994-04-01

    This article is a reflection about the transdisciplinary paradigmas of the health-illness process noting the symbolic mediation between the reactions of the biological organism and the socio-environment factors including the pathogenic ones. The symbolic-affective mediation is analyzed from the perspective of Social Representation theory allowing one to comprehend the references of individual and collective actions in the health-illness process.

  17. Foot-and-mouth disease virus capsid proteins; analysis of protein processing, assembly and utility as vaccines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Belsham, Graham

    Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) remains one of the most economically important infectious diseases of production animals globally. The infection is caused by foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), a member of the picornavirus family. The positive sense RNA genome of the virus includes a single, large......, open reading frame that encodes a polyprotein. The intact polyprotein is never observed as it is processed, both during and after translation, to 15 different mature proteins plus a variety of precursors. The FMDV capsid protein precursor, P1-2A, is cleaved by the virus encoded 3C protease (3Cpro......) to generate VP0, VP3, VP1 and the peptide 2A. Sixty copies of each of the capsid proteins “self-assemble” into empty capsid particles or with the RNA genome into infectious viruses. These particles normally lack 2A but it is possible to construct and isolate mutant FMDVs in which the cleavage of the VP1/2A...

  18. Interpolation between spatial frameworks: an application of process convolution to estimating neighbourhood disease prevalence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Congdon, Peter

    2014-04-01

    Health data may be collected across one spatial framework (e.g. health provider agencies), but contrasts in health over another spatial framework (neighbourhoods) may be of policy interest. In the UK, population prevalence totals for chronic diseases are provided for populations served by general practitioner practices, but not for neighbourhoods (small areas of circa 1500 people), raising the question whether data for one framework can be used to provide spatially interpolated estimates of disease prevalence for the other. A discrete process convolution is applied to this end and has advantages when there are a relatively large number of area units in one or other framework. Additionally, the interpolation is modified to take account of the observed neighbourhood indicators (e.g. hospitalisation rates) of neighbourhood disease prevalence. These are reflective indicators of neighbourhood prevalence viewed as a latent construct. An illustrative application is to prevalence of psychosis in northeast London, containing 190 general practitioner practices and 562 neighbourhoods, including an assessment of sensitivity to kernel choice (e.g. normal vs exponential). This application illustrates how a zero-inflated Poisson can be used as the likelihood model for a reflective indicator.

  19. Inflammatory Process in Alzheimer’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MARCO ANTONIO eMERAZ RIOS

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Alzheimer Disease (AD is a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common form of dementia. Histopathologically is characterized by the presence of two major hallmarks, the intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs and extracellular neuritic plaques (NPs surrounded by activated astrocytes and microglia. NFTs consist of paired helical filaments of truncated tau protein that is abnormally hyperphosphorylated. The main component in the NP is the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ, a small fragment of 40-42 amino acids with a molecular weight of 4kD. It has been proposed that the amyloid aggregates and microglia activation are able to favor the neurodegenerative process observed in AD patients. However, the role of inflammation in AD is controversial, because in early stages the inflammation could have a beneficial role in the pathology, since it has been thought that the microglia and astrocytes activated could be involved in Aβ clearance. Nevertheless the chronic activation of the microglia has been related with an increase of Aβ and possibly with tau phosphorylation. Studies in AD brains have shown an upregulation of complement molecules, pro-inflammatory cytokines, acute phase reactants and other inflammatory mediators that could contribute with the neurodegenerative process. Clinical trials and animal models with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs indicate that these drugs may decrease the risk of developing AD and apparently reduce Aβ deposition. Finally, further studies are needed to determine whether treatment with anti-inflammatory strategies, may decrease the neurodegenerative process that affects these patients.

  20. VSNL1 Co-expression networks in aging include calcium signaling, synaptic plasticity, and Alzheimer’s disease pathways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C W Lin

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The Visinin-like 1 (VSNL1 gene encodes Visinin-like protein 1, a peripheral biomarker for Alzheimer disease (AD. Little is known, however, about normal VSNL1 expression in brain and the biologic networks in which it participates. Frontal cortex gray matter from 209 subjects without neurodegenerative or psychiatric illness, ranging in age from 16–91, were processed on Affymetrix GeneChip 1.1 ST and Human SNP Array 6.0. VSNL1 expression was unaffected by age and sex, and not significantly associated with SNPs in cis or trans. VSNL1 was significantly co-expressed with genes in pathways for Calcium Signaling, AD, Long Term Potentiation, Long Term Depression, and Trafficking of AMPA Receptors. The association with AD was driven, in part, by correlation with amyloid precursor protein (APP expression. These findings provide an unbiased link between VSNL1 and molecular mechanisms of AD, including pathways implicated in synaptic pathology in AD. Whether APP may drive increased VSNL1 expression, VSNL1 drives increased APP expression, or both are downstream of common pathogenic regulators will need to be evaluated in model systems.

  1. Cost of tobacco-related diseases, including passive smoking, in Hong Kong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGhee, S M; Ho, L M; Lapsley, H M; Chau, J; Cheung, W L; Ho, S Y; Pow, M; Lam, T H; Hedley, A J

    2006-04-01

    Costs of tobacco-related disease can be useful evidence to support tobacco control. In Hong Kong we now have locally derived data on the risks of smoking, including passive smoking. To estimate the health-related costs of tobacco from both active and passive smoking. Using local data, we estimated active and passive smoking-attributable mortality, hospital admissions, outpatient, emergency and general practitioner visits for adults and children, use of nursing homes and domestic help, time lost from work due to illness and premature mortality in the productive years. Morbidity risk data were used where possible but otherwise estimates based on mortality risks were used. Utilisation was valued at unit costs or from survey data. Work time lost was valued at the median wage and an additional costing included a value of USD 1.3 million for a life lost. In the Hong Kong population of 6.5 million in 1998, the annual value of direct medical costs, long term care and productivity loss was USD 532 million for active smoking and USD 156 million for passive smoking; passive smoking accounted for 23% of the total costs. Adding the value of attributable lives lost brought the annual cost to USD 9.4 billion. The health costs of tobacco use are high and represent a net loss to society. Passive smoking increases these costs by at least a quarter. This quantification of the costs of tobacco provides strong motivation for legislative action on smoke-free areas in the Asia Pacific Region and elsewhere.

  2. Identification and intensity of disgust: Distinguishing visual, linguistic and facial expressions processing in Parkinson disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sedda, Anna; Petito, Sara; Guarino, Maria; Stracciari, Andrea

    2017-07-14

    Most of the studies since now show an impairment for facial displays of disgust recognition in Parkinson disease. A general impairment in disgust processing in patients with Parkinson disease might adversely affect their social interactions, given the relevance of this emotion for human relations. However, despite the importance of faces, disgust is also expressed through other format of visual stimuli such as sentences and visual images. The aim of our study was to explore disgust processing in a sample of patients affected by Parkinson disease, by means of various tests tackling not only facial recognition but also other format of visual stimuli through which disgust can be recognized. Our results confirm that patients are impaired in recognizing facial displays of disgust. Further analyses show that patients are also impaired and slower for other facial expressions, with the only exception of happiness. Notably however, patients with Parkinson disease processed visual images and sentences as controls. Our findings show a dissociation within different formats of visual stimuli of disgust, suggesting that Parkinson disease is not characterized by a general compromising of disgust processing, as often suggested. The involvement of the basal ganglia-frontal cortex system might spare some cognitive components of emotional processing, related to memory and culture, at least for disgust. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Effect of excess iodine intake on thyroid diseases in different populations: A systematic review and meta-analyses including observational studies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryoko Katagiri

    Full Text Available Although several reports concerning the association of iodine excess and thyroid disease have appeared, no systematic review of the association between iodine excess intake and thyroid diseases, especially hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, has yet been reported.We conducted a systematic search of Ovid MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases, Ichushi-Web and CiNii database for intervention trials and observational studies. Search terms were constructed from related words for excess AND iodine intake or excretion AND thyroid hormones or diseases AND study designs. After considering the qualitative heterogeneity among studies, a meta-analysis was conducted and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI were estimated in random-effects models. A protocol was registered with PROSPERO (No. CRD42015028081.50 articles were included, including three intervention trials, six case-control studies, six follow-up studies and 35 cross-sectional studies. Three cross-sectional studies in adults included in meta-analysis. Odds ratio of overt and subclinical hypothyroidism between excess and adequate populations were 2.78 (CI:1.47 to 5.27 and 2.03 (CI:1.58 to 2.62 in adults, respectively. Source of excess iodine status was mainly iodized salt or water in included studies.Although universal salt iodization has improved goiter rates, chronic exposure to excess iodine from water or poorly monitored salt are risk factors for hypothyroidism in free-living populations. Monitoring of both iodine concentration in salt as well as the iodine concentration in local drinking water are essential to preventing thyroid diseases. Hypothyroidism should be also carefully monitored in areas with excess iodine. Because of the low quality and limited number of included studies, further evidence and review are required.

  4. Patients with neuromyelitis optica have a more severe disease than patients with relapsingremitting multiple sclerosis, including higher risk of dying of a demyelinating disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denis Bernardi Bichuetti

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Although neuromyelitis optica (NMO is known to be a more severe disease than relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS, few studies comparing both conditions in a single center have been done. Methods: Comparison of our previously published cohort of 41 NMO patients with 177 RRMS patients followed in the same center, from 1994 to 2007. Results: Mean age of onset was 32.6 for NMO and 30.2 for RRMS (p=0.2062 with mean disease duration of 7.4 years for NMO and 10.3 years for RRMS. Patients with NMO had a higher annualized relapse rate (1.0 versus 0.8, p=0.0013 and progression index (0.9 versus 0.6, p≪0.0001, with more patients reaching expanded disability status scale (EDSS 6.0 (39 versus 17%, p=0.0036. The odds ratio for reaching EDSS 6.0 and being deceased due to NMO in comparison to RRMS were, respectively, 3.14 and 12.15. Conclusion: Patients with NMO have a more severe disease than patients with RRMS, including higher risk of dying of a demyelinating disease.

  5. Combined scintigraphic and radiographic diagnosis of bone and joint diseases. Including gamma correction interpretation. 4. rev. and enl. ed.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bahk, Yong-Whee [Sung Ae General Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of). Dept. of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology

    2013-07-01

    In this fourth edition of Combined Scintigraphic and Radiographic Diagnosis of Bone and Joint Diseases, the text has been thoroughly amended, updated, and partially rearranged to reflect the latest advances. In addition to discussing the role of pinhole imaging in the range of disorders previously covered, the new edition pays detailed attention to the novel diagnostic use of gamma correction pinhole bone scan in a broad spectrum of skeletal disorders, including physical, traumatic, and sports injuries, infectious and non-infectious bone diseases, benign and malignant bone tumors, and soft tissue diseases. A large number of state of the art pinhole scans and corroborative CT, MRI, and/or ultrasound images are presented side by side. The book has been enlarged to encompass various new topics, including occult fractures; cervical sprain and whiplash trauma; bone marrow edema; microfractures of trabeculae; evident, gaping, and stress fractures; and differential diagnosis. This new edition will be essential reading for practitioners and researchers in not only nuclear medicine but also radiology, orthopedic surgery, and pathology.

  6. Combined scintigraphic and radiographic diagnosis of bone and joint diseases. Including gamma correction interpretation. 4. rev. and enl. ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bahk, Yong-Whee

    2013-01-01

    In this fourth edition of Combined Scintigraphic and Radiographic Diagnosis of Bone and Joint Diseases, the text has been thoroughly amended, updated, and partially rearranged to reflect the latest advances. In addition to discussing the role of pinhole imaging in the range of disorders previously covered, the new edition pays detailed attention to the novel diagnostic use of gamma correction pinhole bone scan in a broad spectrum of skeletal disorders, including physical, traumatic, and sports injuries, infectious and non-infectious bone diseases, benign and malignant bone tumors, and soft tissue diseases. A large number of state of the art pinhole scans and corroborative CT, MRI, and/or ultrasound images are presented side by side. The book has been enlarged to encompass various new topics, including occult fractures; cervical sprain and whiplash trauma; bone marrow edema; microfractures of trabeculae; evident, gaping, and stress fractures; and differential diagnosis. This new edition will be essential reading for practitioners and researchers in not only nuclear medicine but also radiology, orthopedic surgery, and pathology.

  7. Visuospatial processing in early Alzheimer’s disease: a multimodal neuroimaging study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jacobs, H.I.L.; Gronenschild, E. H. B. M.; Evers, E.A.T.; Ramakers, I.H.G.B.; Hofman, P.A.M.; Backes, W. H.; Jolles, J.; Verhey, F. R. J.

    2013-01-01

    Introduction: Dorsal pathway dysfunctions are thought to underlie visuospatial processing problems in Alzheimer disease (AD). Prior studies reported compensatory mechanisms in the dorsal or ventral pathway in response to these functional changes. Since functional and structural connectivity are

  8. Description of an oral Chagas disease outbreak in Venezuela, including a vertically transmitted case.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noya, Belkisyolé Alarcón de; Pérez-Chacón, Gladymar; Díaz-Bello, Zoraida; Dickson, Sonia; Muñoz-Calderón, Arturo; Hernández, Carlos; Pérez, Yadira; Mauriello, Luciano; Moronta, Eyleen

    2017-08-01

    We describe the eleventh major outbreak of foodborne Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in urban Venezuela, including evidence for vertical transmission from the index case to her fetus. After confirming fetal death at 24 weeks of gestation, pregnancy interruption was performed. On direct examination of the amniotic fluid, trypomastigotes were detected. T. cruzi specific-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) also proved positive when examining autopsied fetal organs. Finally, microscopic fetal heart examination revealed amastigote nests. Acute orally transmitted Chagas disease can be life threatening or even fatal for pregnant women and unborn fetuses owing to vertical transmission. There is therefore an urgent need to improve national epidemiologic control measures.

  9. Exploring the possibility of using digital image processing technique to detect diseases of rice leaf

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. H Peyman

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Rice is a very important staple food crop provides more than half of the world caloric supply. Rice diseases lead to significant annual crop losses, have negative impacts on quality of the final product and destroy plant variety. Rice Blast is one of the most widespread and most destructive fungal diseases in tropical and subtropical humid areas, which causes significant decrease in the amount of paddy yield and quality of milled rice. Brown spot disease is another important fungal disease in rice which infects the plant during the rice growing season from the nursery period up to farm growth stage and productivity phase. The later the disease is diagnosed the higher the amount of chemicals is needed for treatment. Due to high costs and harmful environmental impacts of chemical toxins, the accurate early detection and treatment of plant disease is seemed to be necessary. In general, observation with the naked eye is used for disease detection. However, the results are indeed depend on the intelligence of the person performing the operation. So usually the accurate determination of the severity and progression of the disease can’t be achieved. On the other side, the use of experts for continuous monitoring of large farms might be prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Thus, investigating the new approaches for rapid, automated, inexpensive and accurate plant disease diagnosis is very important. Machine vision and image processing is a new technique which can capture images from a scene of interest, analyze the images and accurately extract the desired information. Studies show that image processing techniques have been successfully used for plant disease detection. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of image processing techniques for diagnosing the rice blast and rice brown spot. Materials and Methods: The samples of rice leaf infected by brown spot and rice blast diseases were collected from rice fields and

  10. Overview of vascular disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bisset, G.S. III

    1998-01-01

    Vascular disease in the pediatric population is a poorly understood process which is often underestimated in its incidence. The common beginnings of such ubiquitous diseases as atherosclerosis manifest themselves at a cellular level shortly after birth. Other common systemic disorders, including congestive heart failure and sepsis, are also intricately associated with dysfunctional vasculature. Progress in the understanding of normal and pathophysiologic processes within the vascular system begins with the 'control center' - the endothelial cell. The purpose of this review is to consolidate a body of knowledge on the processes that occur at the cellular level within the blood vessel wall, and to simplify the understanding of how imbalances in these physiologic parameters result in vascular disease. (orig.)

  11. Intraocular inflammation in autoimmune diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pras, Eran; Neumann, Ron; Zandman-Goddard, Gisele; Levy, Yair; Assia, Ehud I; Shoenfeld, Yehuda; Langevitz, Pnina

    2004-12-01

    The uveal tract represents the vascular organ of the eye. In addition to providing most of the blood supply to the intraocular structures, it acts as a conduit for immune cells, particularly lymphocytes, to enter the eye. Consequently, the uveal tract is represented in many intraocular inflammatory processes. Uveitis is probably a misnomer unless antigens within the uvea are the direct targets of the inflammatory process. A better term of the condition is "intraocular inflammation" (IOI). To review the presence of IOI in autoimmune diseases, the immunopathogenic mechanisms leading to disease, and treatment. We reviewed the English medical literature by using MEDLINE (1984-2003) employing the terms "uveitis," "intraocular inflammation," and "autoimmune diseases." An underlying autoimmune disease was identified in up to 40% of patients with IOI, and included spondyloarthropathies, Behcets disease, sarcoidosis, juvenile chronic arthritis, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome (an inflammatory syndrome including uveitis with dermatologic and neurologic manifestations), immune recovery syndrome, and uveitis with tubulointerstitial disease. The immunopathogenesis of IOI involves enhanced T-cell response. Recently, guidelines for the use of immunosuppressive drugs for inflammatory eye disease were established and include: corticosteroids, azathioprine, methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil, cyclosporine, tacrolimus, cyclophosphamide, and chlorambucil. New therapies with limited experience include the tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors, interferon alfa, monoclonal antibodies against lymphocyte surface antigens, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), and the intraocular delivery of immunosuppressive agents. An underlying autoimmune disease was identified in up to 40% of patients with IOI. Immunosuppressive drugs, biologic agents, and IVIG are employed for the treatment of IOI in autoimmune diseases.

  12. Coping processes and health-related quality of life in Parkinson's disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bucks, R. S.; Cruise, K. E.; Skinner, T. C.

    2011-01-01

    (WCQ), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), quality of life (PDQ-39), and socio-demographic and clinical variables. Results Greater use of planful problem solving coping was found to be significantly associated with better HRQoL in relation to cognitive impairment, communication and bodily......Objective This study investigated the predictive value of various coping processes for the psychological and disease specific aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Parkinson's disease (PD). Method Cross-sectional study of 85 participants with PD using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire...

  13. Cardiorenal metabolic syndrome in the African diaspora: rationale for including chronic kidney disease in the metabolic syndrome definition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lea, Janice P; Greene, Eddie L; Nicholas, Susanne B; Agodoa, Lawrence; Norris, Keith C

    2009-01-01

    Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is more likely to progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in African Americans while the reasons for this are unclear. The metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for the development of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and has been recently linked to incident CKD. Historically, fewer African Americans meet criteria for the definition of metabolic syndrome, despite having higher rates of cardiovascular mortality than Caucasians. The presence of microalbuminuria portends increased cardiovascular risks and has been shown to cluster with the metabolic syndrome. We recently reported that proteinuria is a predictor of CKD progression in African American hypertensives with metabolic syndrome. In this review we explore the potential value of including CKD markers--microalbuminuria/proteinuria or low glomerular filtration rate (GFR)-in refining the cluster of factors defined as metabolic syndrome, ie, "cardiorenal metabolic syndrome."

  14. Framework for Infectious Disease Analysis: A comprehensive and integrative multi-modeling approach to disease prediction and management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erraguntla, Madhav; Zapletal, Josef; Lawley, Mark

    2017-12-01

    The impact of infectious disease on human populations is a function of many factors including environmental conditions, vector dynamics, transmission mechanics, social and cultural behaviors, and public policy. A comprehensive framework for disease management must fully connect the complete disease lifecycle, including emergence from reservoir populations, zoonotic vector transmission, and impact on human societies. The Framework for Infectious Disease Analysis is a software environment and conceptual architecture for data integration, situational awareness, visualization, prediction, and intervention assessment. Framework for Infectious Disease Analysis automatically collects biosurveillance data using natural language processing, integrates structured and unstructured data from multiple sources, applies advanced machine learning, and uses multi-modeling for analyzing disease dynamics and testing interventions in complex, heterogeneous populations. In the illustrative case studies, natural language processing from social media, news feeds, and websites was used for information extraction, biosurveillance, and situation awareness. Classification machine learning algorithms (support vector machines, random forests, and boosting) were used for disease predictions.

  15. Bayesian analysis of log Gaussian Cox processes for disease mapping

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Benes, Viktor; Bodlák, Karel; Møller, Jesper

    We consider a data set of locations where people in Central Bohemia have been infected by tick-borne encephalitis, and where population census data and covariates concerning vegetation and altitude are available. The aims are to estimate the risk map of the disease and to study the dependence...... of the risk on the covariates. Instead of using the common area level approaches we consider a Bayesian analysis for a log Gaussian Cox point process with covariates. Posterior characteristics for a discretized version of the log Gaussian Cox process are computed using markov chain Monte Carlo methods...

  16. Age-dependent branching processes for surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases with incubation period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marusia N Bojkova

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to review the recent results of the authors in the area of infectious disease modelling by means of branching stochastic processes. This is a new approach involving age-dependent branching models, which turned out to be more appropriate and flexible for describing the spread of an infection in a given population, than discrete time ones. Concretely, Bellman-Harris and Sevast’yanov’s branching processes are investigated. It is justified that the proposed models are proper candidates as models of infectious diseases with incubation period like measles, mumps, avian flu, etc. It is worth to notice that in general the developed methodology is applicable to the diseases that follow the so-called SIR (susceptible- infected-removed scheme in terms of epidemiological models. Two policies of extra-vaccination level are proposed and compared on the ground of simulation examples.

  17. One-loop corrections to the process e+e-→tt including hard bremsstrahlung

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fleischer, J.; Riemann, T.; Werthenbach, A.; Leike, A.

    2002-03-01

    Radiative corrections to the process e + e - → t anti t are calculated in one-loop approximation of the Standard Model. There exist results from several groups. This talk provides further comparisons of the complete electroweak contributions, including hard bremsstrahlung. The excellent final agreement of the different groups allows to continue by working on a code for an event generator for TESLA and an extension to e + e - → 6 fermions. (orig.)

  18. The adaptation process of mothers raising a child with complex congenital heart disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Jeong-Ah; Lee, Sunhee

    2018-01-01

    Mothers of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) tend to be concerned about their child's normal life. The majority of these mothers tend to experience negative psychological problems. In this study, the adaptation process of mothers raising a child with complex CHD was investigated based on the sociocultural context of Korea. The data collection was conducted by in-depth interviews and theoretical sampling was performed until the data were saturated. The collected data were analyzed using continuous theoretical comparisons. The results of the present study showed that the core category in the mothers' adaptation process was 'anxiety regarding the future', and the mothers' adaptation process consisted of the impact phase, standing against phase, and accepting phase. In the impact phase, the participants emotionally fluctuated between 'feelings of abandonment' and 'entertaining hope'. In the standing against phase, participants tended to dedicate everything to child-rearing while being affected by 'being encouraged by support' and 'being frustrated by tasks beyond their limits'. In the accepting phase, the subjects attempted to 'accept the child as is', 'resist hard feelings', and 'share hope'. Health-care providers need to develop programs that include information regarding CHD, how to care for a child with CHD, and effective child-rearing behaviors.

  19. Bringing Value-Based Perspectives to Care: Including Patient and Family Members in Decision-Making Processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Graeme Kohler

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available n a gap in consistent application of system-level strategies that can effectively translate organizational policies around patient and family engagement into practice. Methods The broad objective of this initiative was to develop a system-level implementation strategy to include patient and family advisors (PFAs at decision-making points in primary healthcare (PHC based on wellestablished evidence and literature. In this opportunity sponsored by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI a co-design methodology, also well-established was applied in identifying and developing a suitable implementation strategy to engage PFAs as members of quality teams in PHC. Diabetes management centres (DMCs was selected as the pilot site to develop the strategy. Key steps in the process included review of evidence, review of the current state in PHC through engagement of key stakeholders and a co-design approach. Results The project team included a diverse representation of members from the PHC system including patient advisors, DMC team members, system leads, providers, Public Engagement team members and CFHI improvement coaches. Key outcomes of this 18-month long initiative included development of a working definition of patient and family engagement, development of a Patient and Family Engagement Resource Guide and evaluation of the resource guide. Conclusion This novel initiative provided us an opportunity to develop a supportive system-wide implementation plan and a strategy to include PFAs in decision-making processes in PHC. The well-established co-design methodology further allowed us to include value-based (customer driven quality and experience of care perspectives of several important stakeholders including patient advisors. The next step will be to implement the strategy within DMCs, spread the strategy PHC, both locally and provincially with a focus on sustainability.

  20. Addison's disease secondary to connective tissue diseases: a report of six cases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhuo-li; Wang, Yu; Zhou, Wei; Hao, Yan-jie

    2009-04-01

    Addison's disease is an autoimmune process. However, Addison's disease associated with connective tissue diseases (CTD) is only occasionally reported. Here, we report six cases of Addison's disease secondary to a variety of CTD, which include systemic lupus erythematosus, Takayasu arteritis, systemic sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. The association of Addison's disease with Takayasu arteritis and AS is reported for the first time. We also found high prevalence of hypothyroidism as concomitant autoimmune disorder. Our case series highlight the autoimmune features of Addison's disease. Therefore, we suggest considering adrenal dysfunction in patients with CTD.

  1. Process, including membrane separation, for separating hydrogen from hydrocarbons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Richard W.; Lokhandwala, Kaaeid A.; He, Zhenjie; Pinnau, Ingo

    2001-01-01

    Processes for providing improved methane removal and hydrogen reuse in reactors, particularly in refineries and petrochemical plants. The improved methane removal is achieved by selective purging, by passing gases in the reactor recycle loop across membranes selective in favor of methane over hydrogen, and capable of exhibiting a methane/hydrogen selectivity of at least about 2.5 under the process conditions.

  2. Non-homogeneous Markov process models with informative observations with an application to Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Baojiang; Zhou, Xiao-Hua

    2011-05-01

    Identifying risk factors for transition rates among normal cognition, mildly cognitive impairment, dementia and death in an Alzheimer's disease study is very important. It is known that transition rates among these states are strongly time dependent. While Markov process models are often used to describe these disease progressions, the literature mainly focuses on time homogeneous processes, and limited tools are available for dealing with non-homogeneity. Further, patients may choose when they want to visit the clinics, which creates informative observations. In this paper, we develop methods to deal with non-homogeneous Markov processes through time scale transformation when observation times are pre-planned with some observations missing. Maximum likelihood estimation via the EM algorithm is derived for parameter estimation. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed method works well under a variety of situations. An application to the Alzheimer's disease study identifies that there is a significant increase in transition rates as a function of time. Furthermore, our models reveal that the non-ignorable missing mechanism is perhaps reasonable. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  3. @neurIST: infrastructure for advanced disease management through integration of heterogeneous data, computing, and complex processing services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benkner, Siegfried; Arbona, Antonio; Berti, Guntram; Chiarini, Alessandro; Dunlop, Robert; Engelbrecht, Gerhard; Frangi, Alejandro F; Friedrich, Christoph M; Hanser, Susanne; Hasselmeyer, Peer; Hose, Rod D; Iavindrasana, Jimison; Köhler, Martin; Iacono, Luigi Lo; Lonsdale, Guy; Meyer, Rodolphe; Moore, Bob; Rajasekaran, Hariharan; Summers, Paul E; Wöhrer, Alexander; Wood, Steven

    2010-11-01

    The increasing volume of data describing human disease processes and the growing complexity of understanding, managing, and sharing such data presents a huge challenge for clinicians and medical researchers. This paper presents the @neurIST system, which provides an infrastructure for biomedical research while aiding clinical care, by bringing together heterogeneous data and complex processing and computing services. Although @neurIST targets the investigation and treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the system's architecture is generic enough that it could be adapted to the treatment of other diseases. Innovations in @neurIST include confining the patient data pertaining to aneurysms inside a single environment that offers clinicians the tools to analyze and interpret patient data and make use of knowledge-based guidance in planning their treatment. Medical researchers gain access to a critical mass of aneurysm related data due to the system's ability to federate distributed information sources. A semantically mediated grid infrastructure ensures that both clinicians and researchers are able to seamlessly access and work on data that is distributed across multiple sites in a secure way in addition to providing computing resources on demand for performing computationally intensive simulations for treatment planning and research.

  4. Controlled but not cured: Structural processes and explanatory models of Chagas disease in tropical Bolivia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forsyth, Colin

    2015-11-01

    Dressler (2001:456) characterizes medical anthropology as divided between two poles: the constructivist, which focuses on the "meaning and significance that events have for people," and the structuralist, which emphasizes socioeconomic processes and relationships. This study synthesizes structuralist and constructivist perspectives by investigating how structural processes impact explanatory models of Chagas disease in a highly endemic area. The research took place from March-June 2013 through the Centro Medico Humberto Parra, a non-profit clinic servicing low income populations in Palacios, Bolivia and surrounding communities. Semistructured interviews (n = 68) and consensus analysis questionnaires (n = 48) were administered to people dealing with Chagas disease. In the interview narratives, respondents link Chagas disease with experiences of marginalization and rural poverty, and describe multilayered impediments to accessing treatment. They often view the disease as incurable, but this reflects inconsistent messages from the biomedical system. The consensus analysis results show strong agreement on knowledge of the vector, ethnomedical treatment, and structural factors related to Chagas disease. In interpreting Chagas disease, respondents account for the structural factors which place them at risk and impede access to care. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. A lipidomic concept in infectious diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khaled Mohamed Mohamed Koriem

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Infectious diseases resemble a great threat to the human health according to World Health Organization where about 17% of all deaths (≈9.2 million deaths in 2013 recorded are related to infectious diseases. The pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are the principle causes of infectious diseases. Ebola, AIDS, dengue, hepatitis, malaria, tuberculosis and schistosomiasis are among 216 infectious diseases found where the immunity represents the first line defense in infection. Lipidomic includes examination of different biological lipids in the biological cell. The lipidomic research covers all aspects of individual lipid molecule including its structure, function, connection with other cell constituents such as protein, lipid, and metabolite in both health and disease conditions. Details of cell biology obtained from different pathogens (viruses, bacteria, and parasites provide a great data on molecular structure of host-pathogen relation and consequently on infection process. The lipids here play a very important role in many processes involved in host-pathogen relations. The role of lipid in host-pathogen link includes many processes in (1 structural host constituents, (2 host recognition, (3 intracellular transferring, and (4 energy and resource homeostasis during pathogen duplication. There are many lipid phosphatases, kinases, and lipases molecules that greatly involved in these processes and controlling pathogen expression and infection progress. The cell lipid metabolism depends on an adequate energy stores that push the infection to be accelerated and disease symptoms to be appeared. Consequently, future lipidomics studies are the basic for detecting the lipid role in host-pathogen relations which help in therapy advances and biomarkers development.

  6. Reliability and limitation of various diagnostic methods including nuclear medicine in myocardial disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tokuyasu, Yoshiki; Kusakabe, Kiyoko; Yamazaki, Toshio

    1981-01-01

    Electrocardiography (ECG), echocardiography, nuclear method, cardiac catheterization, left ventriculography and endomyocardial biopsy (biopsy) were performed in 40 cases of cardiomyopathy (CM), 9 of endocardial fibroelastosis and 19 of specific heart muscle disease, and the usefulness and limitation of each method was comparatively estimated. In CM, various methods including biopsy were performed. The 40 patients were classified into 3 groups, i.e., hypertrophic (17), dilated (20) and non-hypertrophic.non-dilated (3) on the basis of left ventricular ejection fraction and hypertrophy of the ventricular wall. The hypertrophic group was divided into 4 subgroups: 9 septal, 4 apical, 2 posterior and 2 anterior. The nuclear study is useful in assessing the site of the abnormal ventricular thickening, perfusion defect and ventricular function. Echocardiography is most useful in detecting asymmetric septal hypertrophy. The biopsy gives the sole diagnostic clue, especially in non-hypertrophic.non-dilated cardiomyopathy. ECG is useful in all cases but correlation with the site of disproportional hypertrophy was not obtained. (J.P.N.)

  7. Diseases of white matter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holland, B.A.

    1987-01-01

    The diagnosis of white matter abnormalities was revolutionized by the advent of computed tomography (CT), which provided a noninvasive method of detection and assessment of progression of a variety of white matter processes. However, the inadequacies of CT were recognized early, including its relative insensitivity to small foci of abnormal myelin in the brain when correlated with autopsy findings and its inability to image directly white matter diseases of the spinal cord. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), on the other hand, sensitive to the slight difference in tissue composition of normal gray and white matter and to subtle increase in water content associated with myelin disorders, is uniquely suited for the examination of white matter pathology. Its clinical applications include the evaluation of the normal process of myelination in childhood and the various white matter diseases, including disorders of demyelination and dysmyelination

  8. Plasma processes including electron beam for off-gases purification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chmielewski, A.G.; Witman, S.; Licki, J.

    2011-01-01

    Complete text of publication follows. Non-thermal plasma technologies based on different methods of plasma generation are being applied for ozone generation for different applications, waste water and off-gases treatment. Plasmas create reactive species, in particular ions, radicals or other reactive compounds, which can decompose pollutant molecules, organic particulate matter or soot. Electron beam flue gas treatment is another plasma-based technology which has been successfully demonstrated on industrial scale coal fired power plants. High efficiency of SO 2 (> 95%) and NO x (> 70%) has been obtained and industrial plant applying this process has been built in Poland. The further investigations carried out all over the world have illustrated that the process can be applied for poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) destruction as well, and just recently research laboratories in the US and South Korea have reported in the feasibility of the process for mercury removal from the flue gas. The recent studies concern a new type of accelerators implementation in the industrial scale, application of the process in the high sulfur oil fired boilers and Diesel off - gases purification. The treatment of the flue gases with the high NOx concentration is a special challenge for the technology since the main energy consumption (and applied accelerators power) is related to this pollutant content in the processed off gases. The pulse beams and scavenger application can be a solution to reduce investment and operational costs. The further development of the technology is directly connected with high power accelerators development. Acknowledgement: The R and D activities are supported by the European Regional Development Found in the frame of the project PlasTEP 'Dissemination and fostering of plasma based technological innovation for environment protection in the Baltic Sea Region'.

  9. The Impact of Immunosenescence on Pulmonary Disease.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Murray, Michelle A

    2015-08-01

    The global population is aging with significant gains in life expectancy particularly in the developed world. Consequently, greater focus on understanding the processes that underlie physiological aging has occurred. Key facets of advancing age include genomic instability, telomere shortening, epigenetic changes, and declines in immune function termed immunosenescence. Immunosenescence and its associated chronic low grade systemic "inflamm-aging" contribute to the development and progression of pulmonary disease in older individuals. These physiological processes predispose to pulmonary infection and confer specific and unique clinical phenotypes observed in chronic respiratory disease including late-onset asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pulmonary fibrosis. Emerging concepts of the gut and airway microbiome further complicate the interrelationship between host and microorganism particularly from an immunological perspective and especially so in the setting of immunosenescence. This review focuses on our current understanding of the aging process, immunosenescence, and how it can potentially impact on various pulmonary diseases and the human microbiome.

  10. Shared communication processes within healthcare teams for rare diseases and their influence on healthcare professionals' innovative behavior and patient satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Budych Karolina

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A rare disease is a pattern of symptoms that afflicts less than five in 10,000 patients. However, as about 6,000 different rare disease patterns exist, they still have significant epidemiological relevance. We focus on rare diseases that affect multiple organs and thus demand that multidisciplinary healthcare professionals (HCPs work together. In this context, standardized healthcare processes and concepts are mainly lacking, and a deficit of knowledge induces uncertainty and ambiguity. As such, individualized solutions for each patient are needed. This necessitates an intensive level of innovative individual behavior and thus, adequate idea generation. The final implementation of new healthcare concepts requires the integration of the expertise of all healthcare team members, including that of the patients. Therefore, knowledge sharing between HCPs and shared decision making between HCPs and patients are important. The objective of this study is to assess the contribution of shared communication and decision-making processes in patient-centered healthcare teams to the generation of innovative concepts and consequently to improvements in patient satisfaction. Methods A theoretical framework covering interaction processes and explorative outcomes, and using patient satisfaction as a measure for operational performance, was developed based on healthcare management, innovation, and social science literature. This theoretical framework forms the basis for a three-phase, mixed-method study. Exploratory phase I will first involve collecting qualitative data to detect central interaction barriers within healthcare teams. The results are related back to theory, and testable hypotheses will be derived. Phase II then comprises the testing of hypotheses through a quantitative survey of patients and their HCPs in six different rare disease patterns. For each of the six diseases, the sample should comprise an average of 30 patients with

  11. Unsaturated Seepage Analysis of Cracked Soil including Development Process of Cracks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ling Cao

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Cracks in soil provide preferential pathways for water flow and their morphological parameters significantly affect the hydraulic conductivity of the soil. To study the hydraulic properties of cracks, the dynamic development of cracks in the expansive soil during drying and wetting has been measured in the laboratory. The test results enable the development of the relationships between the cracks morphological parameters and the water content. In this study, the fractal model has been used to predict the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC of the cracked soil, including the developmental process of the cracks. The cracked expansive soil has been considered as a crack-pore medium. A dual media flow model has been developed to simulate the seepage characteristics of the cracked expansive soil. The variations in pore water pressure at different part of the model are quite different due to the impact of the cracks. This study proves that seepage characteristics can be better predicted if the impact of cracks is taken into account.

  12. Impaired Processing of Serial Order Determines Working Memory Impairments in Alzheimer's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Belder, Maya; Santens, Patrick; Sieben, Anne; Fias, Wim

    2017-01-01

    Working memory (WM) problems are commonly observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the affected mechanisms leading to impaired WM are still insufficiently understood. The ability to efficiently process serial order in WM has been demonstrated to be fundamental to fluent daily life functioning. The decreased capability to mentally process serial position in WM has been put forward as the underlying explanation for generally compromised WM performance. Determine which mechanisms, such as order processing, are responsible for deficient WM functioning in AD. A group of AD patients (n = 32) and their partners (n = 25), assigned to the control group, were submitted to an extensive battery of neuropsychological and experimental tasks, assessing general cognitive state and functioning of several aspects related to serial order WM. The results revealed an impaired ability to bind item information to serial position within WM in AD patients compared to controls. It was additionally observed that AD patients experienced specific difficulties with directing spatial attention when searching for item information stored in WM. The processing of serial order and the allocation of attentional resources are both disrupted, explaining the generally reduced WM functioning in AD patients. Further studies should now clarify whether this observation could explain disease-related problems for other cognitive functions such as verbal expression, auditory comprehension, or planning.

  13. Healthy aging and disease : role for telomere biology?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhu, Haidong; Belcher, Matthew; van der Harst, Pim

    Aging is a biological process that affects most cells, organisms and species. Human aging is associated with increased susceptibility to a variety of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, neurological diseases and cancer. Despite the remarkable progress made during the

  14. Psychosocial intervention effects on adaptation, disease course and biobehavioral processes in cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoni, Michael H

    2013-03-01

    A diagnosis of cancer and subsequent treatments place demands on psychological adaptation. Behavioral research suggests the importance of cognitive, behavioral, and social factors in facilitating adaptation during active treatment and throughout cancer survivorship, which forms the rationale for the use of many psychosocial interventions in cancer patients. This cancer experience may also affect physiological adaptation systems (e.g., neuroendocrine) in parallel with psychological adaptation changes (negative affect). Changes in adaptation may alter tumor growth-promoting processes (increased angiogenesis, migration and invasion, and inflammation) and tumor defense processes (decreased cellular immunity) relevant for cancer progression and the quality of life of cancer patients. Some evidence suggests that psychosocial intervention can improve psychological and physiological adaptation indicators in cancer patients. However, less is known about whether these interventions can influence tumor activity and tumor growth-promoting processes and whether changes in these processes could explain the psychosocial intervention effects on recurrence and survival documented to date. Documenting that psychosocial interventions can modulate molecular activities (e.g., transcriptional indicators of cell signaling) that govern tumor promoting and tumor defense processes on the one hand, and clinical disease course on the other is a key challenge for biobehavioral oncology research. This mini-review will summarize current knowledge on psychological and physiological adaptation processes affected throughout the stress of the cancer experience, and the effects of psychosocial interventions on psychological adaptation, cancer disease progression, and changes in stress-related biobehavioral processes that may mediate intervention effects on clinical cancer outcomes. Very recent intervention work in breast cancer will be used to illuminate emerging trends in molecular probes of

  15. Efficacy of a Multimodal Cognitive Rehabilitation Including Psychomotor and Endurance Training in Parkinson's Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Reuter

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Mild cognitive impairment, especially executive dysfunction might occur early in the course of Parkinson's disease. Cognitive training is thought to improve cognitive performance. However, transfer of improvements achieved in paper and pencil tests into daily life has been difficult. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether a multimodal cognitive rehabilitation programme including physical exercises might be more successful than cognitive training programmes without motor training. 240 PD-patients were included in the study and randomly allocated to three treatment arms, group A cognitive training, group B cognitive training and transfer training and group C cognitive training, transfer training and psychomotor and endurance training. The primary outcome measure was the ADAS-Cog. The secondary outcome measure was the SCOPA-Cog. Training was conducted for 4 weeks on a rehabilitation unit, followed by 6 months training at home. Caregivers received an education programme. The combination of cognitive training using paper and pencil and the computer, transfer training and physical training seems to have the greatest effect on cognitive function. Thus, patients of group C showed the greatest improvement on the ADAS-Cog and SCOPA-COG and were more likely to continue with the training programme after the study.

  16. Controlled Carbon Source Addition to an Alternating Nitrification-Denitrification Wastewater Treatment Process Including Biological P Removal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Isaacs, Steven Howard; Henze, Mogens

    1995-01-01

    The paper investigates the effect of adding an external carbon source on the rate of denitrification in an alternating activated sludge process including biological P removal. Two carbon sources were examined, acetate and hydrolysate derived from biologically hydrolyzed sludge. Preliminary batch ...

  17. Influence of disease process and duration on acute phase proteins in serum and peritoneal fluid of horses with colic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pihl, Tina; Scheepers, E.; Sanz, M.

    2015-01-01

    and clinical variables were analyzed using multivariate linear regression analysis. Results: Increasing pre-admission duration of colic was associated with increased concentrations of APP in blood andPF. Blood concentrations of SAA and fibrinogen were associated with disease process (inflammatory, strangulations......: The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of demographics (age, sex, breed), disease process (sim-ple obstruction, strangulating obstruction, inflammatory), disease location, disease duration, hypovolemia, and admission hospi-tal on concentrations of APP, lactate and white blood cell counts...

  18. Parkinson disease: a role for autophagy?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Qian; Mao, Zixu

    2010-08-01

    Autophagy is a term used to describe the process by which lysosomes degrade intracellular components. Known originally as an adaptive response to nutrient deprivation, autophagy has now been recognized to play important roles in several human disorders including neurodegenerative diseases. Experimental results from genetic, cellular, and toxicological studies indicate that many of the etiological factors associated with Parkinson disease (PD) can perturb the autophagic process in various model systems. Thus, the emerging data support the view that dysregulation of autophagy may play a critical role in the pathogenic process of PD.

  19. Diagnostic and prognostic role of semantic processing in preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Venneri, Annalena; Jahn-Carta, Caroline; Marco, Matteo De; Quaranta, Davide; Marra, Camillo

    2018-06-13

    Relatively spared during most of the timeline of normal aging, semantic memory shows a subtle yet measurable decline even during the pre-clinical stage of Alzheimer's disease. This decline is thought to reflect early neurofibrillary changes and impairment is detectable using tests of language relying on lexical-semantic abilities. A promising approach is the characterization of semantic parameters such as typicality and age of acquisition of words, and propositional density from verbal output. Seminal research like the Nun Study or the analysis of the linguistic decline of famous writers and politicians later diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease supports the early diagnostic value of semantic processing and semantic memory. Moreover, measures of these skills may play an important role for the prognosis of patients with mild cognitive impairment.

  20. [Inpatients days in patients with respiratory diseases and periodontal disease].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernández-Plata, Rosario; Olmedo-Torres, Daniel; Martínez-Briseño, David; González-Cruz, Herminia; Casa-Medina, Guillermo; García-Sancho, Cecilia

    2017-01-01

    Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory gingival process that has been associated with the severity of respiratory diseases. In Mexico a prevalence of 78% was found in population with social security and > 60 years old. The aim of this study is to establish the association between periodontal disease and respiratory diseases according to the inpatient days. A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to December 2011. We included hospitalized patients, ≥ 18 years of age, without sedation or intubated. A dentist classified patients into two groups according to the severity of the periodontal disease: mild-to-moderate and severe. We estimated medians of inpatient days by disease and severity. Negative binomial models were adjusted to estimate incidence rate ratios and predicted inpatient days. 3,059 patients were enrolled. The median of observed and predicted inpatient days was higher in the group of severe periodontal disease (p disease, tuberculosis, and influenza had the highest incidence rates ratios of periodontal disease (p periodontal disease is positively -associated with inpatient days of patients with respiratory diseases.

  1. Glutathione dysregulation and the etiology and progression of human diseases.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ballatori, N.; Krance, S.M.; Notenboom, S.; Shi, S.; Tieu, K.; Hammond, C.L.

    2009-01-01

    Glutathione (GSH) plays an important role in a multitude of cellular processes, including cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis, and as a result, disturbances in GSH homeostasis are implicated in the etiology and/or progression of a number of human diseases, including cancer, diseases

  2. Bringing Value-Based Perspectives to Care: Including Patient and Family Members in Decision-Making Processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kohler, Graeme; Sampalli, Tara; Ryer, Ashley; Porter, Judy; Wood, Les; Bedford, Lisa; Higgins-Bowser, Irene; Edwards, Lynn; Christian, Erin; Dunn, Susan; Gibson, Rick; Ryan Carson, Shannon; Vallis, Michael; Zed, Joanna; Tugwell, Barna; Van Zoost, Colin; Canfield, Carolyn; Rivoire, Eleanor

    2017-03-06

    Recent evidence shows that patient engagement is an important strategy in achieving a high performing healthcare system. While there is considerable evidence of implementation initiatives in direct care context, there is limited investigation of implementation initiatives in decision-making context as it relates to program planning, service delivery and developing policies. Research has also shown a gap in consistent application of system-level strategies that can effectively translate organizational policies around patient and family engagement into practice. The broad objective of this initiative was to develop a system-level implementation strategy to include patient and family advisors (PFAs) at decision-making points in primary healthcare (PHC) based on wellestablished evidence and literature. In this opportunity sponsored by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI) a co-design methodology, also well-established was applied in identifying and developing a suitable implementation strategy to engage PFAs as members of quality teams in PHC. Diabetes management centres (DMCs) was selected as the pilot site to develop the strategy. Key steps in the process included review of evidence, review of the current state in PHC through engagement of key stakeholders and a co-design approach. The project team included a diverse representation of members from the PHC system including patient advisors, DMC team members, system leads, providers, Public Engagement team members and CFHI improvement coaches. Key outcomes of this 18-month long initiative included development of a working definition of patient and family engagement, development of a Patient and Family Engagement Resource Guide and evaluation of the resource guide. This novel initiative provided us an opportunity to develop a supportive system-wide implementation plan and a strategy to include PFAs in decision-making processes in PHC. The well-established co-design methodology further allowed us to

  3. Chagas disease study using satellite image processing: A Bolivian case

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vargas-Cuentas, Natalia I.; Roman-Gonzalez, Avid; Mantari, Alicia Alva; Muñoz, Luis AnthonyAucapuma

    2018-03-01

    Remote sensing is the technology that has enabled us to obtain information about the Earth's surface without directly contacting it. For this reason, currently, the Bolivian state has considered a list of interesting applications of remote sensing in the country, including the following: biodiversity and environment monitoring, mining and geology, epidemiology, agriculture, water resources and land use planning. The use of satellite images has become a great tool for epidemiology because with this technological advance we can determine the environment in which transmission occurs, the distribution of the disease and its evolution over time. In that context, one of the important diseases related to public health in Bolivia is Chagas disease, also known as South American Trypanosomiasis. Chagas is caused by a blood-sucking bug or Vinchuca, which causes serious intestinal and heart long term problems and affects 33.4% of the Bolivian population. This disease affects mostly humble people, so the Bolivian state invests millions of dollars to acquire medicine and distribute it for free. Due to the above reasons, the present research aims to analyze some areas of Bolivia using satellite images for developing an epidemiology study. The primary objective is to understand the environment in which the transmission of the disease happens, and the climatic conditions under which occurs, observe the behavior of the blood-sucking bug, identify in which months occur higher outbreaks, in which months the bug leaves its eggs, and under which weather conditions this happens. All this information would be contrasted with information extracted from the satellite images and data from the Ministry of Health, and the Institute of Meteorology in Bolivia. All this data will allow us to have a more integrated understanding of this disease and promote new possibilities to prevent and control it.

  4. Chronic Disease Management in Family Practice: Clinical Note.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-03-01

    disease management in the family practice selling. This paper discusses chronic disease management in the family practice selling....Chronic disease management is the process of evaluating and treating a medical condition or disease state which can not be readily cured so as to...minimize it’s negative impact on the individual. Examples of chronic disease management include the treatment of hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis

  5. ART-ML: a new markup language for modelling and representation of biological processes in cardiovascular diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karvounis, E C; Exarchos, T P; Fotiou, E; Sakellarios, A I; Iliopoulou, D; Koutsouris, D; Fotiadis, D I

    2013-01-01

    With an ever increasing number of biological models available on the internet, a standardized modelling framework is required to allow information to be accessed and visualized. In this paper we propose a novel Extensible Markup Language (XML) based format called ART-ML that aims at supporting the interoperability and the reuse of models of geometry, blood flow, plaque progression and stent modelling, exported by any cardiovascular disease modelling software. ART-ML has been developed and tested using ARTool. ARTool is a platform for the automatic processing of various image modalities of coronary and carotid arteries. The images and their content are fused to develop morphological models of the arteries in 3D representations. All the above described procedures integrate disparate data formats, protocols and tools. ART-ML proposes a representation way, expanding ARTool, for interpretability of the individual resources, creating a standard unified model for the description of data and, consequently, a format for their exchange and representation that is machine independent. More specifically, ARTool platform incorporates efficient algorithms which are able to perform blood flow simulations and atherosclerotic plaque evolution modelling. Integration of data layers between different modules within ARTool are based upon the interchange of information included in the ART-ML model repository. ART-ML provides a markup representation that enables the representation and management of embedded models within the cardiovascular disease modelling platform, the storage and interchange of well-defined information. The corresponding ART-ML model incorporates all relevant information regarding geometry, blood flow, plaque progression and stent modelling procedures. All created models are stored in a model repository database which is accessible to the research community using efficient web interfaces, enabling the interoperability of any cardiovascular disease modelling software

  6. Integrative neurobiology of metabolic diseases, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Dijk, Gertjan; van Heijningen, Steffen; Reijne, Aaffien C.; Nyakas, Csaba; van der Zee, Eddy A.; Eisel, Ulrich L. M.

    2015-01-01

    Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex, multifactorial disease with a number of leading mechanisms, including neuroinflammation, processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) to amyloid peptide, tau protein hyperphosphorylation, relocalization, and deposition. These mechanisms are propagated by

  7. Being Yourself and Thinking About the Future in People With Motor Neuron Disease: A Grounded Theory of Self-care Processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bassola, Barbara; Sansone, Valeria Ada; Lusignani, Maura

    2018-06-01

    Self-care is a crucial aspect in the management of people with motor neuron disease (MND). Nurses and healthcare professionals must know the processes used by patients in performing self-care to identify problems and help them. Decision-making processes, self-understanding, and political and social support influence the self-care process in chronic diseases. Little is known about the self-care process in MND. The aim of this study was to gain insight on the self-care processes in people with MND. A grounded theory method was chosen for this study. Data from interviews were gathered, and a simultaneous comparative analysis was conducted to identify categories and codes. Twenty-one people with spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis participated in the study. Five categories were identified as grounded in the data. The process starts from "being yourself in the care," and it develops thanks to "growing and changing" and with a "thinking about the future" approach. "Family role" and "you and who helps you" categories affect the process itself. The self-care process in people with MND is not seen in a daily perspective but changes with the evolution of the disease. For the growing patients with MND, changing, accepting and controlling the disease while deciding autonomously are the foundations of the process.

  8. A fast and robust hepatocyte quantification algorithm including vein processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Homeyer André

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Quantification of different types of cells is often needed for analysis of histological images. In our project, we compute the relative number of proliferating hepatocytes for the evaluation of the regeneration process after partial hepatectomy in normal rat livers. Results Our presented automatic approach for hepatocyte (HC quantification is suitable for the analysis of an entire digitized histological section given in form of a series of images. It is the main part of an automatic hepatocyte quantification tool that allows for the computation of the ratio between the number of proliferating HC-nuclei and the total number of all HC-nuclei for a series of images in one processing run. The processing pipeline allows us to obtain desired and valuable results for a wide range of images with different properties without additional parameter adjustment. Comparing the obtained segmentation results with a manually retrieved segmentation mask which is considered to be the ground truth, we achieve results with sensitivity above 90% and false positive fraction below 15%. Conclusions The proposed automatic procedure gives results with high sensitivity and low false positive fraction and can be applied to process entire stained sections.

  9. Effect of changes in human ecology and behavior on patterns of sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus infection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wasserheit, J N

    1994-01-01

    The last 20 years have witnessed six striking changes in patterns of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs): emergence of new STD organisms and etiologies, reemergence of old STDs, shifts in the populations in which STDs are concentrated, shifts in the etiological spectra of STD syndromes, alterations in the incidence of STD complications, and increases in antimicrobial resistance. For example, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) emerged to devastate the United States with a fatal pandemic involving at least 1 million people. The incidence of syphilis rose progressively after 1956 to reach a 40-year peak by 1990. In both cases, disease patterns shifted from homosexual men to include minority heterosexuals. Over the last decade, gonorrhea became increasingly concentrated among adolescents, and several new types of antimicrobial resistance appeared. Three interrelated types of environments affect STD patterns. The microbiologic, hormonal, and immunologic microenvironments most directly influence susceptibility, infectiousness, and development of sequelae. These microenvironments are shaped, in part, by the personal environments created by an individual's sexual, substance-use, and health-related behaviors. The personal environments are also important determinants of acquisition of infection and development of sequelae but, in addition, they mediate risk of exposure to infection. These are, therefore, the environments that most directly affect changing disease patterns. Finally, individuals' personal environments are, in turn, molded by powerful macroenvironmental forces, including socioeconomic, demographic, geographic, political, epidemiologic, and technological factors. Over the past 20 years, the profound changes that have occurred in many aspects of the personal environment and the macroenvironment have been reflected in new STD patterns. PMID:8146135

  10. Non-communicable diseases and global health governance: enhancing global processes to improve health development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magnusson, Roger S

    2007-05-22

    This paper assesses progress in the development of a global framework for responding to non-communicable diseases, as reflected in the policies and initiatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and the UN: the institutions most capable of shaping a coherent global policy. Responding to the global burden of chronic disease requires a strategic assessment of the global processes that are likely to be most effective in generating commitment to policy change at country level, and in influencing industry behaviour. WHO has adopted a legal process with tobacco (the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control), but a non-legal, advocacy-based approach with diet and physical activity (the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health). The paper assesses the merits of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the FCTC as distinct global processes for advancing health development, before considering what lessons might be learned for enhancing the implementation of the Global Strategy on Diet. While global partnerships, economic incentives, and international legal instruments could each contribute to a more effective global response to chronic diseases, the paper makes a special case for the development of international legal standards in select areas of diet and nutrition, as a strategy for ensuring that the health of future generations does not become dependent on corporate charity and voluntary commitments. A broader frame of reference for lifestyle-related chronic diseases is needed: one that draws together WHO's work in tobacco, nutrition and physical activity, and that envisages selective use of international legal obligations, non-binding recommendations, advocacy and policy advice as tools of choice for promoting different elements of the strategy.

  11. Non-communicable diseases and global health governance: enhancing global processes to improve health development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magnusson Roger S

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract This paper assesses progress in the development of a global framework for responding to non-communicable diseases, as reflected in the policies and initiatives of the World Health Organization (WHO, World Bank and the UN: the institutions most capable of shaping a coherent global policy. Responding to the global burden of chronic disease requires a strategic assessment of the global processes that are likely to be most effective in generating commitment to policy change at country level, and in influencing industry behaviour. WHO has adopted a legal process with tobacco (the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, but a non-legal, advocacy-based approach with diet and physical activity (the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The paper assesses the merits of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs and the FCTC as distinct global processes for advancing health development, before considering what lessons might be learned for enhancing the implementation of the Global Strategy on Diet. While global partnerships, economic incentives, and international legal instruments could each contribute to a more effective global response to chronic diseases, the paper makes a special case for the development of international legal standards in select areas of diet and nutrition, as a strategy for ensuring that the health of future generations does not become dependent on corporate charity and voluntary commitments. A broader frame of reference for lifestyle-related chronic diseases is needed: one that draws together WHO's work in tobacco, nutrition and physical activity, and that envisages selective use of international legal obligations, non-binding recommendations, advocacy and policy advice as tools of choice for promoting different elements of the strategy.

  12. Distributed cognition and process management enabling individualized translational research: The NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amanda E Links

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The National Institutes of Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program (NIH UDP applies translational research systematically to diagnose patients with undiagnosed diseases. The challenge is to implement an information system enabling scalable translational research. The authors hypothesized that similarly complex problems are resolvable through process management and the distributed cognition of communities. The team therefore built the NIH UDP Integrated Collaboration System (UDPICS to form virtual collaborative multidisciplinary research networks or communities. UDPICS supports these communities through integrated process management, ontology-based phenotyping, biospecimen management, cloud-based genomic analysis, and an electronic laboratory notebook. UDPICS provided a mechanism for efficient, transparent, and scalable translational research and thereby addressed many of the complex and diverse research and logistical problems of the NIH UDP. Full definition of the strengths and deficiencies of UDPICS will require formal qualitative and quantitative usability and process improvement measurement.

  13. Distributed Cognition and Process Management Enabling Individualized Translational Research: The NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program Experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Links, Amanda E; Draper, David; Lee, Elizabeth; Guzman, Jessica; Valivullah, Zaheer; Maduro, Valerie; Lebedev, Vlad; Didenko, Maxim; Tomlin, Garrick; Brudno, Michael; Girdea, Marta; Dumitriu, Sergiu; Haendel, Melissa A; Mungall, Christopher J; Smedley, Damian; Hochheiser, Harry; Arnold, Andrew M; Coessens, Bert; Verhoeven, Steven; Bone, William; Adams, David; Boerkoel, Cornelius F; Gahl, William A; Sincan, Murat

    2016-01-01

    The National Institutes of Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program (NIH UDP) applies translational research systematically to diagnose patients with undiagnosed diseases. The challenge is to implement an information system enabling scalable translational research. The authors hypothesized that similar complex problems are resolvable through process management and the distributed cognition of communities. The team, therefore, built the NIH UDP integrated collaboration system (UDPICS) to form virtual collaborative multidisciplinary research networks or communities. UDPICS supports these communities through integrated process management, ontology-based phenotyping, biospecimen management, cloud-based genomic analysis, and an electronic laboratory notebook. UDPICS provided a mechanism for efficient, transparent, and scalable translational research and thereby addressed many of the complex and diverse research and logistical problems of the NIH UDP. Full definition of the strengths and deficiencies of UDPICS will require formal qualitative and quantitative usability and process improvement measurement.

  14. Building an ontology of pulmonary diseases with natural language processing tools using textual corpora.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baneyx, Audrey; Charlet, Jean; Jaulent, Marie-Christine

    2007-01-01

    Pathologies and acts are classified in thesauri to help physicians to code their activity. In practice, the use of thesauri is not sufficient to reduce variability in coding and thesauri are not suitable for computer processing. We think the automation of the coding task requires a conceptual modeling of medical items: an ontology. Our task is to help lung specialists code acts and diagnoses with software that represents medical knowledge of this concerned specialty by an ontology. The objective of the reported work was to build an ontology of pulmonary diseases dedicated to the coding process. To carry out this objective, we develop a precise methodological process for the knowledge engineer in order to build various types of medical ontologies. This process is based on the need to express precisely in natural language the meaning of each concept using differential semantics principles. A differential ontology is a hierarchy of concepts and relationships organized according to their similarities and differences. Our main research hypothesis is to apply natural language processing tools to corpora to develop the resources needed to build the ontology. We consider two corpora, one composed of patient discharge summaries and the other being a teaching book. We propose to combine two approaches to enrich the ontology building: (i) a method which consists of building terminological resources through distributional analysis and (ii) a method based on the observation of corpus sequences in order to reveal semantic relationships. Our ontology currently includes 1550 concepts and the software implementing the coding process is still under development. Results show that the proposed approach is operational and indicates that the combination of these methods and the comparison of the resulting terminological structures give interesting clues to a knowledge engineer for the building of an ontology.

  15. Comparing different policy scenarios to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods in UK: impact on cardiovascular disease mortality using a modelling approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreira, Patricia V L; Baraldi, Larissa Galastri; Moubarac, Jean-Claude; Monteiro, Carlos Augusto; Newton, Alex; Capewell, Simon; O'Flaherty, Martin

    2015-01-01

    The global burden of non-communicable diseases partly reflects growing exposure to ultra-processed food products (UPPs). These heavily marketed UPPs are cheap and convenient for consumers and profitable for manufacturers, but contain high levels of salt, fat and sugars. This study aimed to explore the potential mortality reduction associated with future policies for substantially reducing ultra-processed food intake in the UK. We obtained data from the UK Living Cost and Food Survey and from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. By the NOVA food typology, all food items were categorized into three groups according to the extent of food processing: Group 1 describes unprocessed/minimally processed foods. Group 2 comprises processed culinary ingredients. Group 3 includes all processed or ultra-processed products. Using UK nutrient conversion tables, we estimated the energy and nutrient profile of each food group. We then used the IMPACT Food Policy model to estimate reductions in cardiovascular mortality from improved nutrient intakes reflecting shifts from processed or ultra-processed to unprocessed/minimally processed foods. We then conducted probabilistic sensitivity analyses using Monte Carlo simulation. Approximately 175,000 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths might be expected in 2030 if current mortality patterns persist. However, halving the intake of Group 3 (processed) foods could result in approximately 22,055 fewer CVD related deaths in 2030 (minimum estimate 10,705, maximum estimate 34,625). An ideal scenario in which salt and fat intakes are reduced to the low levels observed in Group 1 and 2 could lead to approximately 14,235 (minimum estimate 6,680, maximum estimate 22,525) fewer coronary deaths and approximately 7,820 (minimum estimate 4,025, maximum estimate 12,100) fewer stroke deaths, comprising almost 13% mortality reduction. This study shows a substantial potential for reducing the cardiovascular disease burden through a healthier food system

  16. Socio-Emotional Adaptation Theory: Charting the Emotional Process of Alzheimer's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halpin, Sean N; Dillard, Rebecca L; Puentes, William J

    2017-08-01

    The emotional reactions to the progression of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease (MCI/AD) oftentimes present as cognitive or behavioral changes, leading to misguided interventions by Formal Support (paid health care providers). Despite a rich body of literature identifying cognitive and behavioral staging of MCI/AD, the emotional changes that accompany these diagnoses have been largely ignored. The objective of this study was to develop a model of the emotional aspects of MCI/AD. One hour, semistructured interviews, with 14 patient-Informal Support Partner dyads (N = 28) interviewed concurrently; patients were in various stages of MCI/AD. An interdisciplinary team employed a grounded theory coding process to detect emotional characteristics of the participants with MCI/AD. Emotional reactions were categorized into depression/sadness, apathy, concern/fear, anger/frustration, and acceptance. The emotions did not present linearly along the course of the disease and were instead entwined within a set of complex (positive/negative) interactions including: relationship with the Informal Support Partner (i.e., teamwork vs infantilization), relationship with the Formal Support (i.e., patient vs disengaged), coping (i.e., adaptive vs nonadaptive), and perceived control (i.e., internal vs external locus-of-control). For example, a person with poor formal and informal support and external locus-of-control may become depressed, a condition that is known to negatively affect cognitive status. Understanding the emotional reactions of individuals diagnosed with MCI/AD will provide clinicians with information needed to develop treatments suited to current needs of the patient and provide Informal Support Partners insight into cognitive and physical changes associated with MCI/AD. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  17. Multisystem Disease, Including Eosinophilia and Progressive Hyper-Creatine-Kinase-emia over 10 Years, Suggests Mitochondrial Disorder

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josef Finsterer

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Eosinophilia has not been reported as a manifestation of a mitochondrial disorder (MID. Here, we report a patient with clinical features suggesting a MID and permanent eosinophilia, multisystem disease, and progressive hyper-creatine-kinase (CK-emia for at least 10 years. Materials and Methods: Methods applied included a clinical exam, blood chemical investigations, electrophysiological investigations, imaging, and invasive cardiological investigations. The patient was repeatedly followed up over several years. He required replacement cardiac surgery. Results: In a 57-year-old male, eosinophilia was first detected at the age of 44 years and has remained almost constantly present until today. In addition to eosinophilia, he developed progressive hyper-CK-emia at the age of 47 years. His history was further positive for hepatopathy, hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism, renal insufficiency, spontaneous Achilles tendon rupture, double vision, exercise intolerance, muscle aching, mild hypoacusis, sensory neuropathy, seizures, and mitral insufficiency/stenosis requiring valve replacement therapy, oral anticoagulation, and pacemaker implantation. Based on the multisystem nature of his abnormalities and permanent hyper-CK-emia, a MID was suspected. Conclusion: Eosinophilia can be associated with a MID with myopathy, possibly as a reaction to myofiber necrosis. If eosinophilia is associated with progressive hyper-CK-emia and multisystem disease, a MID should be suspected.

  18. Occupational Disease Registries-Characteristics and Experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davoodi, Somayeh; Haghighi, Khosro Sadeghniat; Kalhori, Sharareh Rostam Niakan; Hosseini, Narges Shams; Mohammadzadeh, Zeinab; Safdari, Reza

    2017-06-01

    Due to growth of occupational diseases and also increase of public awareness about their consequences, attention to various aspects of diseases and improve occupational health and safety has found great importance. Therefore, there is the need for appropriate information management tools such as registries in order to recognitions of diseases patterns and then making decision about prevention, early detection and treatment of them. These registries have different characteristics in various countries according to their occupational health priorities. Aim of this study is evaluate dimensions of occupational diseases registries including objectives, data sources, responsible institutions, minimum data set, classification systems and process of registration in different countries. In this study, the papers were searched using the MEDLINE (PubMed) Google scholar, Scopus, ProQuest and Google. The search was done based on keyword in English for all motor engines including "occupational disease", "work related disease", "surveillance", "reporting", "registration system" and "registry" combined with name of the countries including all subheadings. After categorizing search findings in tables, results were compared with each other. Important aspects of the registries studied in ten countries including Finland, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Czech Republic, Malaysia, United States, Singapore, Russia and Turkey. The results show that surveyed countries have statistical, treatment and prevention objectives. Data sources in almost the rest of registries were physicians and employers. The minimum data sets in most of them consist of information about patient, disease, occupation and employer. Some of countries have special occupational related classification systems for themselves and some of them apply international classification systems such as ICD-10. Finally, the process of registration system was different in countries. Because occupational diseases are often

  19. Empowering employees with chronic diseases: process evaluation of an intervention aimed at job retention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varekamp, Inge; Krol, Boudien; van Dijk, Frank J H

    2011-01-01

    Employees with a chronic disease may experience work-related problems that contribute to the risk of job loss. We developed a group-based intervention programme aimed at clarifying problems, making these a subject of discussion at work, and realizing solutions. This process evaluation investigates the intervention's feasibility and the satisfaction of 64 participants in eight groups. Data were collected through process evaluation forms and self-report questionnaires. The recruitment of participants was time-consuming. Highly educated women working in the service sector were overrepresented. The programme was administered as planned, although components were sometimes only discussed briefly, due to lack of time. Satisfaction with the overall programme among participants was high; it was perceived as effective and there were only three dropouts. In particular, the focus on feelings and thoughts about having a chronic disease was highly valued, as were the exchange of experiences and role-playing directed at more assertive communication. A vocational rehabilitation programme aimed at job retention is feasible and is perceived to be effective. Such a programme should address psychosocial aspects of working with a chronic disease beside practical problems. The recruitment of participants is time-consuming. Cooperation with outpatient clinics is necessary in order to reach all groups of employees with a chronic disease that might benefit from job retention programmes. ISRCTN77240155.

  20. Farber's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... management, and therapy of rare diseases, including the lipid storage diseases. Research on lipid storage diseases within the Network includes ... management, and therapy of rare diseases, including the lipid storage diseases. Research on lipid storage diseases within the Network includes ...

  1. Development process of muzzle flows including a gun-launched missile

    OpenAIRE

    Zhuo Changfei; Feng Feng; Wu Xiaosong

    2015-01-01

    Numerical investigations on the launch process of a gun-launched missile from the muzzle of a cannon to the free-flight stage have been performed in this paper. The dynamic overlapped grids approach are applied to dealing with the problems of a moving gun-launched missile. The high-resolution upwind scheme (AUSMPW+) and the detailed reaction kinetics model are adopted to solve the chemical non-equilibrium Euler equations for dynamic grids. The development process and flow field structure of m...

  2. Sequential inflammatory processes define human progression from M. tuberculosis infection to tuberculosis disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scriba, Thomas J; Penn-Nicholson, Adam; Shankar, Smitha; Hraha, Tom; Thompson, Ethan G; Sterling, David; Nemes, Elisa; Darboe, Fatoumatta; Suliman, Sara; Amon, Lynn M; Mahomed, Hassan; Erasmus, Mzwandile; Whatney, Wendy; Johnson, John L; Boom, W Henry; Hatherill, Mark; Valvo, Joe; De Groote, Mary Ann; Ochsner, Urs A; Aderem, Alan; Hanekom, Willem A; Zak, Daniel E

    2017-11-01

    Our understanding of mechanisms underlying progression from Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to pulmonary tuberculosis disease in humans remains limited. To define such mechanisms, we followed M. tuberculosis-infected adolescents longitudinally. Blood samples from forty-four adolescents who ultimately developed tuberculosis disease (“progressors”) were compared with those from 106 matched controls, who remained healthy during two years of follow up. We performed longitudinal whole blood transcriptomic analyses by RNA sequencing and plasma proteome analyses using multiplexed slow off-rate modified DNA aptamers. Tuberculosis progression was associated with sequential modulation of immunological processes. Type I/II interferon signalling and complement cascade were elevated 18 months before tuberculosis disease diagnosis, while changes in myeloid inflammation, lymphoid, monocyte and neutrophil gene modules occurred more proximally to tuberculosis disease. Analysis of gene expression in purified T cells also revealed early suppression of Th17 responses in progressors, relative to M. tuberculosis-infected controls. This was confirmed in an independent adult cohort who received BCG re-vaccination; transcript expression of interferon response genes in blood prior to BCG administration was associated with suppression of IL-17 expression by BCG-specific CD4 T cells 3 weeks post-vaccination. Our findings provide a timeline to the different immunological stages of disease progression which comprise sequential inflammatory dynamics and immune alterations that precede disease manifestations and diagnosis of tuberculosis disease. These findings have important implications for developing diagnostics, vaccination and host-directed therapies for tuberculosis. Clincialtrials.gov, NCT01119521.

  3. Ischemic stroke: carotid and vertebral artery disease

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vilela, P.; Goulao, A. [Hospital Garcia de Orta, Servico de Neurorradiologia, Almada (Portugal)

    2005-03-01

    Ischemic strokes may have distinct aetiologies, including several different intrinsic arterial pathological disorders. The diagnosis and understanding of these arterial diseases is critical for the correct management of stroke as different treatment approaches are undertaken according to the aetiology. Atherosclerosis is by far the most common arterial disease among adults, and other pathological processes include arterial dissection, small vessel disease, inflammatory and non-inflammatory vasculopathy and vasomotor disorders. In children, there are several vasculopathies responsible for vaso-occlusive disease such as sickle-cell anemia, acute regressive angiopathy and Moya-Moya disease, neurofibromatosis, dissections, vasculitis associated with intracranial and systemic infections. An overview of the major carotid and vertebral pathological diseases responsible for ischemic stroke in adults and children, highlighting the accuracy of the different imaging modalities for its diagnosis and the imaging appearance of these diseases, is given. (orig.)

  4. Ischemic stroke: carotid and vertebral artery disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vilela, P.; Goulao, A.

    2005-01-01

    Ischemic strokes may have distinct aetiologies, including several different intrinsic arterial pathological disorders. The diagnosis and understanding of these arterial diseases is critical for the correct management of stroke as different treatment approaches are undertaken according to the aetiology. Atherosclerosis is by far the most common arterial disease among adults, and other pathological processes include arterial dissection, small vessel disease, inflammatory and non-inflammatory vasculopathy and vasomotor disorders. In children, there are several vasculopathies responsible for vaso-occlusive disease such as sickle-cell anemia, acute regressive angiopathy and Moya-Moya disease, neurofibromatosis, dissections, vasculitis associated with intracranial and systemic infections. An overview of the major carotid and vertebral pathological diseases responsible for ischemic stroke in adults and children, highlighting the accuracy of the different imaging modalities for its diagnosis and the imaging appearance of these diseases, is given. (orig.)

  5. Articles which include chevron film cooling holes, and related processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bunker, Ronald Scott; Lacy, Benjamin Paul

    2014-12-09

    An article is described, including an inner surface which can be exposed to a first fluid; an inlet; and an outer surface spaced from the inner surface, which can be exposed to a hotter second fluid. The article further includes at least one row or other pattern of passage holes. Each passage hole includes an inlet bore extending through the substrate from the inlet at the inner surface to a passage hole-exit proximate to the outer surface, with the inlet bore terminating in a chevron outlet adjacent the hole-exit. The chevron outlet includes a pair of wing troughs having a common surface region between them. The common surface region includes a valley which is adjacent the hole-exit; and a plateau adjacent the valley. The article can be an airfoil. Related methods for preparing the passage holes are also described.

  6. iPSC-Based Models to Unravel Key Pathogenetic Processes Underlying Motor Neuron Disease Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irene Faravelli

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Motor neuron diseases (MNDs are neuromuscular disorders affecting rather exclusively upper motor neurons (UMNs and/or lower motor neurons (LMNs. The clinical phenotype is characterized by muscular weakness and atrophy leading to paralysis and almost invariably death due to respiratory failure. Adult MNDs include sporadic and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sALS-fALS, while the most common infantile MND is represented by spinal muscular atrophy (SMA. No effective treatment is ccurrently available for MNDs, as for the vast majority of neurodegenerative disorders, and cures are limited to supportive care and symptom relief. The lack of a deep understanding of MND pathogenesis accounts for the difficulties in finding a cure, together with the scarcity of reliable in vitro models. Recent progresses in stem cell field, in particular in the generation of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs has made possible for the first time obtaining substantial amounts of human cells to recapitulate in vitro some of the key pathogenetic processes underlying MNDs. In the present review, recently published studies involving the use of iPSCs to unravel aspects of ALS and SMA pathogenesis are discussed with an overview of their implications in the process of finding a cure for these still orphan disorders.

  7. Patients' considerations in the decision-making process of initiating disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nota, Ingrid; Drossaert, Constance H.C.; Taal, Erik; van de Laar, Mart A F J

    2015-01-01

    Objectives To explore what considerations patients have when deciding about disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and what information patients need to participate in the decision-making process. Methods In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with 32 inflammatory arthritis

  8. [Myths and taboos of motherhood: focusing on the health-disease process].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luz, Anna Maria Hecker; Berni, Neiva Iolanda de Oliveira; Selli, Lucilda

    2007-01-01

    To learn about myths and taboos related with motherhood and their implications in the health/disease process. Study carried out using a qualitative approach, in a natural setting, with women of poor classes who experienced motherhood. The selection of subjects was performed intentionally, and data collection was made by means of semi-structured interviews and participant observation at the moment those women were given healthcare attention. Data analysis followed the content analysis. The topic under study permeates, as an ideology, the women's lives. The myths and taboos are related to health/disease: postpartum hygiene; protection of the newborn's integrity; menses; alternatives for a solution of health problems; and gender issues, the conducts the women follow to avoid becoming "saucy" being evidenced. In the research, it was possible to capture elements that translate the cultural values of the women's daily lives and the need for associating scientific knowledge with popular practices.

  9. Optimal therapy in Gaucher disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ozlem Goker-Alpan

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Ozlem Goker-AlpanLysosomal Diseases Research and Treatment Unit, Center for Clinical Trials, O&O Alpan LLC, Springfield, VA, USAAbstract: Gaucher disease (GD, the inherited deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase, presents with a wide range of symptoms of varying severity, and primarily affects the skeletal, hematologic and nervous systems. To date, the standard of care has included enzyme replacement therapy with imiglucerase. Although imiglucerase is highly effective in reversing the visceral and hematologic manifestations, skeletal disease is slow to respond, pulmonary involvement is relatively resistant, and the CNS involvement is not impacted. Because of the recent manufacturing and processing problems, the research and development of alternative therapeutics has become more pressing. The divergent phenotypes and the heterogeneity involving different organ systems implicates the involvement of several pathological processes that include enzyme deficiency, substrate accumulation, protein misfolding, and macrophage activation, that differ in each patient with GD. Thus, the therapy should be tailored individually in order to target multiple pathways that interplay in GD.Keywords: glucocerebrosidase, enzyme replacement therapy, substrate reduction therapy, protein misfolding and chaperone therapy, macrophage

  10. Accurate Identification of Fatty Liver Disease in Data Warehouse Utilizing Natural Language Processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redman, Joseph S; Natarajan, Yamini; Hou, Jason K; Wang, Jingqi; Hanif, Muzammil; Feng, Hua; Kramer, Jennifer R; Desiderio, Roxanne; Xu, Hua; El-Serag, Hashem B; Kanwal, Fasiha

    2017-10-01

    Natural language processing is a powerful technique of machine learning capable of maximizing data extraction from complex electronic medical records. We utilized this technique to develop algorithms capable of "reading" full-text radiology reports to accurately identify the presence of fatty liver disease. Abdominal ultrasound, computerized tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging reports were retrieved from the Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse from a random national sample of 652 patients. Radiographic fatty liver disease was determined by manual review by two physicians and verified with an expert radiologist. A split validation method was utilized for algorithm development. For all three imaging modalities, the algorithms could identify fatty liver disease with >90% recall and precision, with F-measures >90%. These algorithms could be used to rapidly screen patient records to establish a large cohort to facilitate epidemiological and clinical studies and examine the clinic course and outcomes of patients with radiographic hepatic steatosis.

  11. A CASE STUDY ON POINT PROCESS MODELLING IN DISEASE MAPPING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viktor Beneš

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available We consider a data set of locations where people in Central Bohemia have been infected by tick-borne encephalitis (TBE, and where population census data and covariates concerning vegetation and altitude are available. The aims are to estimate the risk map of the disease and to study the dependence of the risk on the covariates. Instead of using the common area level approaches we base the analysis on a Bayesian approach for a log Gaussian Cox point process with covariates. Posterior characteristics for a discretized version of the log Gaussian Cox process are computed using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. A particular problem which is thoroughly discussed is to determine a model for the background population density. The risk map shows a clear dependency with the population intensity models and the basic model which is adopted for the population intensity determines what covariates influence the risk of TBE. Model validation is based on the posterior predictive distribution of various summary statistics.

  12. Joint diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Weissman, S.D.

    1989-01-01

    The authors discuss how x-ray examination is essential in the diagnosis and evaluation of the arthritides. Most arthritides are first suspected by the clinician, and x-ray evaluation of these entities along with laboratory testing is important for confirmation of the clinical diagnosis and in staging of the disease process. Several arthritides are often diagnosed first by the podiatrist on x-ray evaluation, including pseudogout, ankylosing spondylitis, early rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative joint disease, and tuberculosis of bone. The joint responds to insult in only a limited number of ways that become apparent on x-ray. The soft tissues surrounding the joint, the articulating bones, and alignment of the joint space may all be involved by the arthritic process. On roentgenographic examination, the soft tissues must be examined for edema, masses, calcifications, and atrophy. The articulating bones must be examined for demineralization, erosions, osteophytes, periosteal reaction, cysts and sclerosis

  13. Developing Disease-Modifying Treatments in Alzheimer's Disease - A Perspective from Roche and Genentech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doody, R

    2017-01-01

    Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease for which no preventative or disease-modifying treatments currently exist. Pathological hallmarks include amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyper-phosphorylated tau protein. Evidence suggests that both pathologies are self-propagating once established. However, the lag time between neuropathological changes in the brain and the onset of even subtle clinical symptomatology means that patients are often diagnosed late when pathology, and neurodegeneration secondary to these changes, may have been established for several years. Complex pathological pathways associated with susceptibility to AD and changes that occur downstream of the neuropathologic process further contribute to the challenging endeavour of developing novel disease-modifying therapy. Recognising this complexity, effective management of AD must include reliable screening and early diagnosis in combination with effective therapeutic management of the pathological processes. Roche and Genentech are committed to addressing these unmet needs through developing a comprehensive portfolio of diagnostics and novel therapies. Beginning with the most scientifically supported targets, this approach includes two targeted amyloid-β monoclonal antibody therapies, crenezumab and gantenerumab, and an anti-tau monoclonal antibody, RO7105705, as well as a robust biomarker platform to aid in the early identification of people at risk or in the early stages of AD. Identification and implementation of diagnostic tools will support the enrolment of patients into clinical trials; furthermore, these tools should also support evaluation of the clinical efficacy and safety profile of the novel therapeutic agents tested in these trials. This review discusses the therapeutic agents currently under clinical development.

  14. Verb Agreements during On-Line Sentence Processing in Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, C.C.; Grossman, M.

    2005-01-01

    An on-line ''word detection'' paradigm was used to assess the comprehension of thematic and transitive verb agreements during sentence processing in individuals diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's Disease (AD, n=15) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD, n=14). AD, FTD, and control participants (n=17) were asked to listen for a word in a sentence.…

  15. Occupational Disease Registries–Characteristics and Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davoodi, Somayeh; Haghighi, Khosro Sadeghniat; Kalhori, Sharareh Rostam Niakan; Hosseini, Narges Shams; Mohammadzadeh, Zeinab; Safdari, Reza

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: Due to growth of occupational diseases and also increase of public awareness about their consequences, attention to various aspects of diseases and improve occupational health and safety has found great importance. Therefore, there is the need for appropriate information management tools such as registries in order to recognitions of diseases patterns and then making decision about prevention, early detection and treatment of them. These registries have different characteristics in various countries according to their occupational health priorities. Aim: Aim of this study is evaluate dimensions of occupational diseases registries including objectives, data sources, responsible institutions, minimum data set, classification systems and process of registration in different countries. Material and Methods: In this study, the papers were searched using the MEDLINE (PubMed) Google scholar, Scopus, ProQuest and Google. The search was done based on keyword in English for all motor engines including “occupational disease”, “work related disease”, “surveillance”, “reporting”, “registration system” and “registry” combined with name of the countries including all subheadings. After categorizing search findings in tables, results were compared with each other. Results: Important aspects of the registries studied in ten countries including Finland, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Czech Republic, Malaysia, United States, Singapore, Russia and Turkey. The results show that surveyed countries have statistical, treatment and prevention objectives. Data sources in almost the rest of registries were physicians and employers. The minimum data sets in most of them consist of information about patient, disease, occupation and employer. Some of countries have special occupational related classification systems for themselves and some of them apply international classification systems such as ICD-10. Finally, the process of registration system was

  16. Multisystem Radiologic Manifestations of Erdheim-Chester Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umairullah Lodhi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Erdheim-Chester Disease is a rare form of multiorgan non-Langerhans’ cell histiocytosis that affects individuals between the ages of 50 and 70 with an equal distribution among males and females. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality that is mostly due to infiltration of critical organs. Some of the sites that Erdheim-Chester Disease affects include the skeletal system, central nervous system, cardiovascular system, lungs, kidneys (retroperitoneum, and skin. The most common presenting symptom of Erdheim-Chester Disease is bone pain although a large majority of patients are diagnosed incidentally during a workup for a different disease process. Diagnosing Erdheim-Chester Disease is challenging due its rarity and mimicry to other infiltrative processes. Therefore, a multimodality diagnostic approach is employed with imaging being at the forefront. As of date, a comprehensive radiologic review of the manifestations of Erdheim-Chester Disease has rarely been reported. Here we present radiologic findings of an individual suffering from Erdheim-Chester Disease.

  17. Working Memory in Children With Neurocognitive Effects From Sickle Cell Disease: Contributions of the Central Executive and Processing Speed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Kelsey E.; Schatz, Jeffrey

    2017-01-01

    Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for working memory deficits due to multiple disease processes. We assessed working memory abilities and related functions in 32 school-age children with SCD and 85 matched comparison children using Baddeley’s working memory model as a framework. Children with SCD performed worse than controls for working memory, central executive function, and processing/rehearsal speed. Central executive function was found to mediate the relationship between SCD status and working memory, but processing speed did not. Cognitive remediation strategies that focus on central executive processes may be important for remediating working memory deficits in SCD. PMID:27759435

  18. Empowering employees with chronic diseases: process evaluation of an intervention aimed at job retention

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Varekamp, Inge; Krol, Boudien; van Dijk, Frank J. H.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose Employees with a chronic disease may experience work-related problems that contribute to the risk of job loss. We developed a group-based intervention programme aimed at clarifying problems, making these a subject of discussion at work, and realizing solutions. This process evaluation

  19. Empowering employees with chronic diseases : process evaluation of an intervention aimed at job retention

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Varekamp, Inge; Krol, Boudien; van Dijk, Frank J. H.

    Purpose Employees with a chronic disease may experience work-related problems that contribute to the risk of job loss. We developed a group-based intervention programme aimed at clarifying problems, making these a subject of discussion at work, and realizing solutions. This process evaluation

  20. Dupuytren's: a systems biology disease.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rehman, S.; Goodacre, R.; Day, P.J.; Bayat, A.; Westerhoff, H.V.

    2011-01-01

    Dupuytren's disease (DD) is an ill-defined fibroproliferative disorder of the palm of the hands leading to digital contracture. DD commonly occurs in individuals of northern European extraction. Cellular components and processes associated with DD pathogenesis include altered gene and protein

  1. Analytical and Experimental Performance Evaluation of BLE Neighbor Discovery Process Including Non-Idealities of Real Chipsets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Perez-Diaz de Cerio

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to evaluate from a real perspective the performance of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE as a technology that enables fast and reliable discovery of a large number of users/devices in a short period of time. The BLE standard specifies a wide range of configurable parameter values that determine the discovery process and need to be set according to the particular application requirements. Many previous works have been addressed to investigate the discovery process through analytical and simulation models, according to the ideal specification of the standard. However, measurements show that additional scanning gaps appear in the scanning process, which reduce the discovery capabilities. These gaps have been identified in all of the analyzed devices and respond to both regular patterns and variable events associated with the decoding process. We have demonstrated that these non-idealities, which are not taken into account in other studies, have a severe impact on the discovery process performance. Extensive performance evaluation for a varying number of devices and feasible parameter combinations has been done by comparing simulations and experimental measurements. This work also includes a simple mathematical model that closely matches both the standard implementation and the different chipset peculiarities for any possible parameter value specified in the standard and for any number of simultaneous advertising devices under scanner coverage.

  2. Ubiquitination in Periodontal Disease: A Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsuchida, Sachio; Satoh, Mamoru; Takiwaki, Masaki; Nomura, Fumio

    2017-07-10

    Periodontal disease (periodontitis) is a chronic inflammatory condition initiated by microbial infection that leads to gingival tissue destruction and alveolar bone resorption. The periodontal tissue's response to dental plaque is characterized by the accumulation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes, macrophages, and lymphocytes, all of which release inflammatory mediators and cytokines to orchestrate the immunopathogenesis of periodontal disease. Ubiquitination is achieved by a mechanism that involves a number of factors, including an ubiquitin-activating enzyme, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, and ubiquitin-protein ligase. Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification restricted to eukaryotes that are involved in essential host processes. The ubiquitin system has been implicated in the immune response, development, and programmed cell death. Increasing numbers of recent reports have provided evidence that many approaches are delivering promising reports for discovering the relationship between ubiquitination and periodontal disease. The scope of this review was to investigate recent progress in the discovery of ubiquitinated protein in diseased periodontium and to discuss the ubiquitination process in periodontal diseases.

  3. Fate of heavy metals including mercury in a sewage sludge incineration process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seo, Yong-Chil; Kim, Jeong-Hun; Pudasainee, Deepak; Yoon, Young-Sik; Cho, Sung-Jin

    2010-01-01

    Thermal treatment technology for sewage sludge incineration has several advantages. However, emission of heavy metals including mercury, into the environment from such technology utilization has been a major concern. In this paper heavy metals including mercury emission and distribution behavior within the different streams of a fluidized bed sewage sludge incineration process is presented. Emission of heavy metals and mercury at the inlet and outlet of APCDs and each incoming and outgoing streams were sampled and analyzed. Mercury and its speciation in flue gas were sampled and analyzed by Ontario Hydro Method. Solid and liquid samples were analyzed by US EPA method 7470A and 7471A, respectively. Heavy metals were sampled by US EPA method and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. At the inlet of APCDs Cr, Ni and Pb were mainly enriched in coarse particles whereas, As was enriched in fine particles. Hg emission concentration in flue gas, on average was 326.73 μg/ Sm 3 and 4.44 μg/ Sm 3 at inlet APCDs and the stack emission, overall removal efficiency of APCDs was 98.6%. More than 83.3% of Hg was speciated into oxidized form at the inlet of APCD. Oxidized Hg was removed in wet APCDs leaving behind elemental Hg as dominant species in stack emission. Hg was mainly distributed in waste water (57.5%), other effluent and sludge (27.6%), waste water from spray dry reactor (12.3%), fly ash in hopper (2.5%). Further, detailed investigations would give more reliable mass distribution data and insight to control mercury from such sources. (author)

  4. Mitochondrial quality control in cardiac diseases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliane Campos

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Disruption of mitochondrial homeostasis is a hallmark of cardiac diseases. Therefore, maintenance of mitochondrial integrity through different surveillance mechanisms is critical for cardiomyocyte survival. In this review, we discuss the most recent findings on the central role of mitochondrial quality control processes including regulation of mitochondrial redox balance, aldehyde metabolism, proteostasis, dynamics and clearance in cardiac diseases, highlighting their potential as therapeutic targets.

  5. Computed tomography manifestations of peritoneal diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gordon, K.; Lee, W.K.; Hennessy, O.

    2005-01-01

    The peritoneal cavity is a potential space that is divided by the peritoneal reflections into various complex subspaces. It can be involved in many disease processes including developmental, inflammatory, neoplastic and traumatic conditions. Computed tomography is highly sensitive and consistent in detecting peritoneal pathology. This pictorial essay aims to emphasize and illustrate the CT features of the spectrum of peritoneal diseases. Copyright (2005) Blackwell Science Pty Ltd

  6. Possible association between celiac disease and bacterial transglutaminase in food processing: a hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerner, Aaron; Matthias, Torsten

    2015-08-01

    The incidence of celiac disease is increasing worldwide, and human tissue transglutaminase has long been considered the autoantigen of celiac disease. Concomitantly, the food industry has introduced ingredients such as microbial transglutaminase, which acts as a food glue, thereby revolutionizing food qualities. Several observations have led to the hypothesis that microbial transglutaminase is a new environmental enhancer of celiac disease. First, microbial transglutaminase deamidates/transamidates glutens such as the endogenous human tissue transglutaminase. It is capable of crosslinking proteins and other macromolecules, thereby changing their antigenicity and resulting in an increased antigenic load presented to the immune system. Second, it increases the stability of protein against proteinases, thus diminishing foreign protein elimination. Infections and the crosslinked nutritional constituent gluten and microbial transglutaminase increase the permeability of the intestine, where microbial transglutaminases are necessary for bacterial survival. The resulting intestinal leakage allows more immunogenic foreign molecules to induce celiac disease. The increased use of microbial transglutaminase in food processing may promote celiac pathogenesis ex vivo, where deamidation/transamidation starts, possibly explaining the surge in incidence of celiac disease. If future research substantiates this hypothesis, the findings will affect food product labeling, food additive policies of the food industry, and consumer health education. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute.

  7. Working Memory in Children With Neurocognitive Effects From Sickle Cell Disease: Contributions of the Central Executive and Processing Speed

    OpenAIRE

    Smith, Kelsey E.; Schatz, Jeffrey

    2016-01-01

    Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for working memory deficits due to multiple disease processes. We assessed working memory abilities and related functions in 32 school-age children with SCD and 85 matched comparison children using Baddeley’s working memory model as a framework. Children with SCD performed worse than controls for working memory, central executive function, and processing/rehearsal speed. Central executive function was found to mediate the relationship betwee...

  8. Nutrition and Allergic Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R.J.J. van Neerven

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The development of IgE-mediated allergic diseases is influenced by many factors, including genetic and environmental factors such as pollution and farming, but also by nutrition. In the last decade, substantial progress has been made in our understanding of the impact that nutrition can have on allergic diseases. Many studies have addressed the effect of breastfeeding, pre-, pro- and synbiotics, vitamins and minerals, fiber, fruit and vegetables, cow’s milk, and n-3 fatty acids, on the development of allergies. In addition, nutrition can also have indirect effects on allergic sensitization. This includes the diet of pregnant and breastfeeding women, which influences intrauterine development, as well as breastmilk composition. These include the diet of pregnant and breastfeeding women that influences intrauterine development as well as breastmilk composition, effects of food processing that may enhance allergenicity of foods, and effects via modulation of the intestinal microbiota and their metabolites. This editorial review provides a brief overview of recent developments related to nutrition and the development and management of allergic diseases.

  9. Elimination of neglected diseases in latin america and the Caribbean: a mapping of selected diseases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Cristina Schneider

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available In Latin America and the Caribbean, around 195 million people live in poverty, a situation that increases the burden of some infectious diseases. Neglected diseases, in particular, are often restricted to poor, marginalized sections of the population. Tools exist to combat these diseases, making it imperative to work towards their elimination. In 2009, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO received a mandate to support the countries in the Region in eliminating neglected diseases and other poverty-related infections. The objective of this study is to analyze the presence of selected diseases using geo-processing techniques. Five diseases with information available at the first sub-national level (states were mapped, showing the presence of the disease ("hotspots" and overlap of diseases ("major hotspots". In the 45 countries/territories (approximately 570 states of the Region, there is: lymphatic filariasis in four countries (29 states, onchocerciasis in six countries (25 states, schistosomiasis in four countries (39 states, trachoma in three countries (29 states, and human rabies transmitted by dogs in ten countries (20 states. Of the 108 states with one or more of the selected diseases, 36 states present the diseases in overlapping areas ("major hotspots". Additional information about soil-transmitted helminths was included. The analysis suggests a majority of the selected diseases are not widespread and can be considered part of an unfinished agenda with elimination as a goal. Integrated plans and a comprehensive approach, ensuring access to existing diagnostic and treatment methods, and establishing a multi-sectoral agenda that addresses social determinants, including access to adequate water and sanitation, are required. Future studies can include additional diseases, socio-economic and environmental variables.

  10. Elimination of neglected diseases in latin america and the Caribbean: a mapping of selected diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneider, Maria Cristina; Aguilera, Ximena Paz; Barbosa da Silva Junior, Jarbas; Ault, Steven Kenyon; Najera, Patricia; Martinez, Julio; Requejo, Raquel; Nicholls, Ruben Santiago; Yadon, Zaida; Silva, Juan Carlos; Leanes, Luis Fernando; Periago, Mirta Roses

    2011-02-15

    In Latin America and the Caribbean, around 195 million people live in poverty, a situation that increases the burden of some infectious diseases. Neglected diseases, in particular, are often restricted to poor, marginalized sections of the population. Tools exist to combat these diseases, making it imperative to work towards their elimination. In 2009, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) received a mandate to support the countries in the Region in eliminating neglected diseases and other poverty-related infections. The objective of this study is to analyze the presence of selected diseases using geo-processing techniques. Five diseases with information available at the first sub-national level (states) were mapped, showing the presence of the disease ("hotspots") and overlap of diseases ("major hotspots"). In the 45 countries/territories (approximately 570 states) of the Region, there is: lymphatic filariasis in four countries (29 states), onchocerciasis in six countries (25 states), schistosomiasis in four countries (39 states), trachoma in three countries (29 states), and human rabies transmitted by dogs in ten countries (20 states). Of the 108 states with one or more of the selected diseases, 36 states present the diseases in overlapping areas ("major hotspots"). Additional information about soil-transmitted helminths was included. The analysis suggests a majority of the selected diseases are not widespread and can be considered part of an unfinished agenda with elimination as a goal. Integrated plans and a comprehensive approach, ensuring access to existing diagnostic and treatment methods, and establishing a multi-sectoral agenda that addresses social determinants, including access to adequate water and sanitation, are required. Future studies can include additional diseases, socio-economic and environmental variables.

  11. Respiratory disease associated with occupational inhalation to hop (Humulus lupulus) during harvest and processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reeb-Whitaker, Carolyn K; Bonauto, David K

    2014-11-01

    There is little published evidence for occupational respiratory disease caused by hop dust inhalation. In the United States, hops are commercially produced in the Pacific Northwest region. To describe occupational respiratory disease in hop workers. Washington State workers' compensation claims filed by hop workers for respiratory disease were systematically identified and reviewed. Incidence rates of respiratory disease in hop workers were compared with rates in field vegetable crop farm workers. Fifty-seven cases of respiratory disease associated with hop dust inhalation were reported from 1995 to 2011. Most cases (61%) were diagnosed by the attending health care practitioner as having work-related asthma. Seven percent of cases were diagnosed as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the remaining cases were diagnosed as allergic respiratory disorders (eg, allergic rhinitis) or asthma-associated symptoms (eg, dyspnea). Cases were associated with hop harvesting, secondary hop processing, and indirect exposure. The incidence rate of respiratory disease in hop workers was 15 cases per 10,000 full-time workers, which was 30 times greater than the incidence rate for field vegetable crop workers. A strong temporal association between hop dust exposure and respiratory symptoms and a clear association between an increase in hop dust concentrations and the clinical onset of symptoms were apparent in 3 cases. Occupational exposure to hop dust is associated with respiratory disease. Respiratory disease rates were higher in hop workers than in a comparison group of agricultural workers. Additional research is needed before hop dust can be confirmed as a causative agent for occupational asthma. Copyright © 2014 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Therapeutics of Neurotransmitters in Alzheimer's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandimalla, Ramesh; Reddy, P Hemachandra

    2017-01-01

    Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, characterized by the loss of memory, multiple cognitive impairments and changes in the personality and behavior. Several decades of intense research have revealed that multiple cellular changes are involved in disease process, including synaptic damage, mitochondrial abnormalities and inflammatory responses, in addition to formation and accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau. Although tremendous progress has been made in understanding the impact of neurotransmitters in the progression and pathogenesis of AD, we still do not have a drug molecule associated with neurotransmitter(s) that can delay disease process in elderly individuals and/or restore cognitive functions in AD patients. The purpose of our article is to assess the latest developments in neurotransmitters research using cell and mouse models of AD. We also updated the current status of clinical trials using neurotransmitters' agonists/antagonists in AD.

  13. Impaired visuospatial transformation but intact sequence processing in Parkinson disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leek, E Charles; Kerai, Julie H; Johnston, Stephen J; Hindle, John V; Bracewell, R Martyn

    2014-09-01

    We examined whether visuospatial deficits in Parkinson disease (PD) can be explained by a domain-general, nonspatial impairment in the sequencing or serial chaining of mental operations. PD has been shown to be associated with impaired visuospatial processing, but the mechanisms of this impairment remain unclear. Thirteen patients with PD and 20 age-matched, neurologically normal controls performed a visuospatial grid navigation task requiring sequential spatial transformations. The participants also performed a control task of serial number subtraction designed to assess their nonvisuospatial sequencing. The tasks were matched in structure and difficulty. The patients were impaired on the visuospatial task but not in serial number subtraction. This finding suggests that visuospatial processing impairments in PD do not derive from a general impairment affecting sequencing or serial chaining. We argue that visuospatial deficits in PD result from impairments to spatial transformation routines involved in the computation of mappings between spatial locations. These routines are mediated by dopaminergic pathways linking the basal ganglia, prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and parietal cortex.

  14. Contribution of Neuroepigenetics to Huntington's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francelle, Laetitia; Lotz, Caroline; Outeiro, Tiago; Brouillet, Emmanuel; Merienne, Karine

    2017-01-01

    Unbalanced epigenetic regulation is thought to contribute to the progression of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease (HD), a genetic disorder considered as a paradigm of epigenetic dysregulation. In this review, we attempt to address open questions regarding the role of epigenetic changes in HD, in the light of recent advances in neuroepigenetics. We particularly discuss studies using genome-wide scale approaches that provide insights into the relationship between epigenetic regulations, gene expression and neuronal activity in normal and diseased neurons, including HD neurons. We propose that cell-type specific techniques and 3D-based methods will advance knowledge of epigenome in the context of brain region vulnerability in neurodegenerative diseases. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying epigenetic changes and of their consequences in neurodegenerative diseases is required to design therapeutic strategies more effective than current strategies based on histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. Researches in HD may play a driving role in this process.

  15. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease - A multisystem disease?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikolasevic, Ivana; Milic, Sandra; Turk Wensveen, Tamara; Grgic, Ivana; Jakopcic, Ivan; Stimac, Davor; Wensveen, Felix; Orlic, Lidija

    2016-01-01

    Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common comorbidities associated with overweight and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Importantly, NAFLD is one of its most dangerous complications because it can lead to severe liver pathologies, including fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatic cellular carcinoma. Given the increasing worldwide prevalence of obesity, NAFLD has become the most common cause of chronic liver disease and therefore is a major global health problem. Currently, NAFLD is predominantly regarded as a hepatic manifestation of MetS. However, accumulating evidence indicates that the effects of NAFLD extend beyond the liver and are negatively associated with a range of chronic diseases, most notably cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). It is becoming increasingly clear that these diseases are the result of the same underlying pathophysiological processes associated with MetS, such as insulin resistance, chronic systemic inflammation and dyslipidemia. As a result, they have been shown to be independent reciprocal risk factors. In addition, recent data have shown that NAFLD actively contributes to aggravation of the pathophysiology of CVD, T2DM, and CKD, as well as several other pathologies. Thus, NAFLD is a direct cause of many chronic diseases associated with MetS, and better detection and treatment of fatty liver disease is therefore urgently needed. As non-invasive screening methods for liver disease become increasingly available, detection and treatment of NAFLD in patients with MetS should therefore be considered by both (sub-) specialists and primary care physicians. PMID:27920470

  16. Valuing Treatments for Parkinson Disease Incorporating Process Utility: Performance of Best-Worst Scaling, Time Trade-Off, and Visual Analogue Scales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weernink, Marieke G M; Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Catharina G M; IJzerman, Maarten J; van Til, Janine A

    2016-01-01

    The objective of this study was to compare treatment profiles including both health outcomes and process characteristics in Parkinson disease using best-worst scaling (BWS), time trade-off (TTO), and visual analogue scales (VAS). From the model comprising of seven attributes with three levels, six unique profiles were selected representing process-related factors and health outcomes in Parkinson disease. A Web-based survey (N = 613) was conducted in a general population to estimate process-related utilities using profile-based BWS (case 2), multiprofile-based BWS (case 3), TTO, and VAS. The rank order of the six profiles was compared, convergent validity among methods was assessed, and individual analysis focused on the differentiation between pairs of profiles with methods used. The aggregated health-state utilities for the six treatment profiles were highly comparable for all methods and no rank reversals were identified. On the individual level, the convergent validity between all methods was strong; however, respondents differentiated less in the utility of closely related treatment profiles with a VAS or TTO than with BWS. For TTO and VAS, this resulted in nonsignificant differences in mean utilities for closely related treatment profiles. This study suggests that all methods are equally able to measure process-related utility when the aim is to estimate the overall value of treatments. On an individual level, such as in shared decision making, BWS allows for better prioritization of treatment alternatives, especially if they are closely related. The decision-making problem and the need for explicit trade-off between attributes should determine the choice for a method. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  17. Age Features Of Peptic And Duodenal Ulcer Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Е.А. Islamova

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Peptic ulcer disease is one of the most widespread diseases. 6-10 % of adult population in Russia suffer from it. Demographic processes in the Russian Federation determine the increase of patients' number aged over 60 with peptic ulcer disease. It counts 10-35 % of all patients with this disease. The modern views on pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease, including factor of Helicobacter pylori, in patients of different age groups have been highlighted in the article. Pathogenetic features and clinical morphological manifestations of peptic ulcer disease in young and aged patients have been considered

  18. Understanding Neurological Disease Mechanisms in the Era of Epigenetics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qureshi, Irfan A.; Mehler, Mark F.

    2015-01-01

    The burgeoning field of epigenetics is making a significant impact on our understanding of brain evolution, development, and function. In fact, it is now clear that epigenetic mechanisms promote seminal neurobiological processes, ranging from neural stem cell maintenance and differentiation to learning and memory. At the molecular level, epigenetic mechanisms regulate the structure and activity of the genome in response to intracellular and environmental cues, including the deployment of cell type–specific gene networks and those underlying synaptic plasticity. Pharmacological and genetic manipulation of epigenetic factors can, in turn, induce remarkable changes in neural cell identity and cognitive and behavioral phenotypes. Not surprisingly, it is also becoming apparent that epigenetics is intimately involved in neurological disease pathogenesis. Herein, we highlight emerging paradigms for linking epigenetic machinery and processes with neurological disease states, including how (1) mutations in genes encoding epigenetic factors cause disease, (2) genetic variation in genes encoding epigenetic factors modify disease risk, (3) abnormalities in epigenetic factor expression, localization, or function are involved in disease pathophysiology, (4) epigenetic mechanisms regulate disease-associated genomic loci, gene products, and cellular pathways, and (5) differential epigenetic profiles are present in patient-derived central and peripheral tissues. PMID:23571666

  19. Estrogen-related and other disease diagnoses preceding Parkinson's disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Latourelle, Jeanne C; Dybdal, Merete; Destefano, Anita L

    2010-01-01

    Estrogen exposure has been associated with the occurrence of Parkinson's disease (PD), as well as many other disorders, and yet the mechanisms underlying these relations are often unknown. While it is likely that estrogen exposure modifies the risk of various diseases through many different...... mechanisms, some estrogen-related disease processes might work in similar manners and result in association between the diseases. Indeed, the association between diseases need not be due only to estrogen-related factors, but due to similar disease processes from a variety of mechanisms....

  20. A retrospective study of disease in elasmobranchs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garner, M M

    2013-05-01

    This report reviews diseases of 1546 elasmobranchs representing at least 60 species submitted to Northwest ZooPath from 1994 to 2010. Cownose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus) (78), southern rays (Dasyatis americana) (75), dusky smooth-hounds (Mustelus canis) (74), bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo) (66), and bamboo sharks (Hemiscylliidae) (56) were the most commonly submitted species. Infectious/inflammatory disease was most common (33.5%) followed by nutritional (11.9%, mostly emaciation), traumatic (11.3%), cardiovascular (5.5%, mostly shock), and toxin-associated disease (3.7%). Bacterial infections (518/1546, 15%) included sepsis (136/518, 26%), dermatitis (7%), branchitis (6%), and enteritis (4%). Fungal infections (10/1546, 0.6%) included dermatitis (30%), hepatitis (30%), and branchitis (20%). Viral or suspected viral infections or disease processes (15/1546, 1%) included papillomatosis (47%), herpesvirus (20%), and adenovirus (7%). Parasitic infections (137/1546, 9%) included nematodiasis (36/137, 26%), ciliate infections (23%), trematodiasis (20%), coccidiosis (6%), myxozoanosis (5%), amoebiasis (4%), cestodiasis (1%), and flagellate infections (1%). Inflammation of unknown cause (401/1546, 26%) included enteritis (55/401, 14%), branchitis (9%), encephalitis (9%), and dermatitis (7%). Traumatic diseases (174/1546, 11.3%) included skin trauma (103/174, 60%), stress/maladaptation (9%), and gut trauma (7%). Toxicoses (57/1546, 4%) included toxic gill disease (16/57, 26%), gas bubble disease (19%), fenbendazole (7%), ammonia (7%), chlorine (5%), and chloramine (3%). Species trends included visceral nematodiasis in black-nosed sharks (Carcharhinus acronotus) (55%); sepsis in dusky smooth-hounds (41%), blue-spotted stingrays (36%), southern rays (36%), and wobeggong sharks (Orectolobus spp) (69%); emaciation in bamboo (33%) and bonnethead (32%) sharks and freshwater stingrays (Potamotrygon motoro) (32%); and trauma in bonnethead sharks (30%).

  1. Src family kinases in chronic kidney disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jun; Zhuang, Shougang

    2017-09-01

    Src family kinases (SFKs) belong to nonreceptor protein tyrosine kinases and have been implicated in the regulation of numerous cellular processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, migration and invasion, and angiogenesis. The role and mechanisms of SFKs in tumorgenesis have been extensively investigated, and some SFK inhibitors are currently under clinical trials for tumor treatment. Recent studies have also demonstrated the importance of SFKs in regulating the development of various fibrosis-related chronic diseases (e.g., idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, liver fibrosis, renal fibrosis, and systemic sclerosis). In this article, we summarize the roles of SFKs in various chronic kidney diseases, including glomerulonephritis, diabetic nephropathy, human immunodeficiency virus-associated nephropathy, autosomal dominant form of polycystic kidney disease, and obesity-associated kidney disease, and discuss the mechanisms involved. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

  2. Human intronless genes: Functional groups, associated diseases, evolution, and mRNA processing in absence of splicing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grzybowska, Ewa A.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Functional characteristics of intronless genes (IGs). ► Diseases associated with IGs. ► Origin and evolution of IGs. ► mRNA processing without splicing. -- Abstract: Intronless genes (IGs) constitute approximately 3% of the human genome. Human IGs are essentially different in evolution and functionality from the IGs of unicellular eukaryotes, which represent the majority in their genomes. Functional analysis of IGs has revealed a massive over-representation of signal transduction genes and genes encoding regulatory proteins important for growth, proliferation, and development. IGs also often display tissue-specific expression, usually in the nervous system and testis. These characteristics translate into IG-associated diseases, mainly neuropathies, developmental disorders, and cancer. IGs represent recent additions to the genome, created mostly by retroposition of processed mRNAs with retained functionality. Processing, nuclear export, and translation of these mRNAs should be hampered dramatically by the lack of splice factors, which normally tightly cover mature transcripts and govern their fate. However, natural IGs manage to maintain satisfactory expression levels. Different mechanisms by which IGs solve the problem of mRNA processing and nuclear export are discussed here, along with their possible impact on reporter studies.

  3. miRNAs in inflammatory skin diseases and their clinical implications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Løvendorf, Marianne B; Skov, Lone

    2015-01-01

    biological processes. The clinical implications of miRNAs are intriguing, both from a diagnostic and a therapeutic perspective. Accordingly, there is emerging evidence for the clinical potential of miRNAs as both biomarkers and possible therapeutic targets in skin diseases. Future studies will hopefully...... incomplete; however, it is known that miRNAs are implicated in various cellular processes of both normal and diseased skin. Some miRNAs appear to be consistently deregulated in several different inflammatory skin diseases, including psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, indicating a common role in fundamental...

  4. Molecular identification of a yellow perch viral disease associated with exposure to oil sands process affected waters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hogan, N.; Van den Heuvel, M.; Phalen, L.

    2010-01-01

    Large volumes of tailings and process affected water are generated as a result of oil sand mining processes. This presentation discussed the safe incorporation of these wastes into the terrestrial and aquatic landscape. A study was conducted in which yellow perch were stocked into experimental ponds, namely Demonstration Pond and South Bison Pond, during the periods of 1995-1997 and 2008-2010. Demonstration Pond was comprised of mature fine tailings capped with natural surface water, while South Bison Pond was formed at a site surrounded by overburden or lean oil sands. Disease surveys were conducted at these experimental ponds and also at Mildred, Sucker, and Kimowin Lakes. External white nodular lesions, characteristic of lymphocystis disease were observed on perch at all sites except Kimowin Lake. The identity of the virus was confirmed by DNA extraction and PCR with genotype generic major capsid protein gene primers. The presence of lymphocystis disease virus in perch was confirmed through sequencing of PCR results. The viral genotype appeared to be different from any previously isolated viral genotype. During the course of the study, there was an increasing incidence of the disease at Demonstration Pond and a decreasing incidence at the South Bison Pond. The intensity of the disease was found to be proportional to the incidence, which was positively correlated with changes in naphthenic acid concentration.

  5. Genome-wide association study of CSF levels of 59 alzheimer's disease candidate proteins: significant associations with proteins involved in amyloid processing and inflammation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kauwe, John S K; Bailey, Matthew H; Ridge, Perry G; Perry, Rachel; Wadsworth, Mark E; Hoyt, Kaitlyn L; Staley, Lyndsay A; Karch, Celeste M; Harari, Oscar; Cruchaga, Carlos; Ainscough, Benjamin J; Bales, Kelly; Pickering, Eve H; Bertelsen, Sarah; Fagan, Anne M; Holtzman, David M; Morris, John C; Goate, Alison M

    2014-10-01

    Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 42 amino acid species of amyloid beta (Aβ42) and tau levels are strongly correlated with the presence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology including amyloid plaques and neurodegeneration and have been successfully used as endophenotypes for genetic studies of AD. Additional CSF analytes may also serve as useful endophenotypes that capture other aspects of AD pathophysiology. Here we have conducted a genome-wide association study of CSF levels of 59 AD-related analytes. All analytes were measured using the Rules Based Medicine Human DiscoveryMAP Panel, which includes analytes relevant to several disease-related processes. Data from two independently collected and measured datasets, the Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), were analyzed separately, and combined results were obtained using meta-analysis. We identified genetic associations with CSF levels of 5 proteins (Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 4 (CCL4), Interleukin 6 receptor (IL6R) and Matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP3)) with study-wide significant p-values (pprocessing and pro-inflammatory signaling. SNPs associated with ACE, IL6R and MMP3 protein levels are located within the coding regions of the corresponding structural gene. The SNPs associated with CSF levels of CCL4 and CCL2 are located in known chemokine binding proteins. The genetic associations reported here are novel and suggest mechanisms for genetic control of CSF and plasma levels of these disease-related proteins. Significant SNPs in ACE and MMP3 also showed association with AD risk. Our findings suggest that these proteins/pathways may be valuable therapeutic targets for AD. Robust associations in cognitively normal individuals suggest that these SNPs also influence regulation of these proteins more generally and may therefore be relevant to other diseases.

  6. Processing of self versus non-self in Alzheimer’s disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rebecca Louise Bond

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Despite considerable evidence for abnormalities of self-awareness in Alzheimer’s disease (AD, the cognitive mechanisms of altered self-processing in AD have not been fully defined. Here we addressed this issue in a detailed analysis of self/non-self-processing in three patients with AD. We designed a novel neuropsychological battery comprising tests of tactile body schema coding, attribution of tactile events to self versus external agents, and memory for self- versus non-self-generated vocal information, administered in conjunction with a daily life measure of self/non-self-processing (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Three male AD patients (aged 54 to 68 years; one with a pathogenic mutation in the Presenilin 1 gene, one with a pathogenic mutation in the Amyloid Precursor Protein gene, and one with a CSF protein profile supporting underlying AD pathology were studied in relation to a group of eight healthy older male individuals (aged 58 to 74 years. Compared to healthy controls, all patients had relatively intact tactile body schema processing. In contrast, all patients showed impaired memory for words previously presented using the patient’s own voice whereas memory for words presented in other voices was less consistently affected. Two patients showed increased levels of emotional contagion and reduced perspective taking on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Our findings suggest that AD may be associated with deficient self /non-self differentiation over time despite a relatively intact body image: this profile of altered self-processing contrasts with the deficit of tactile body schema previously described in frontotemporal dementia associated with C9orf72 mutations. We present these findings as a preliminary rationale to direct future systematic study in larger patient cohorts.

  7. Preattentive processing of heart cues and the perception of heart symptoms in congenital heart disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Karsdorp, Petra A.; Kindt, Merel; Everaerd, Walter; Mulder, Barbara J. M.

    2007-01-01

    The present study was aimed at clarifying whether preattentive processing of heart cues results in biased perception of heart sensations in patients with congenital heart disease (ConHD) who are also highly trait anxious. Twenty-six patients with ConHD and 22 healthy participants categorized

  8. [Various pathways leading to the progression of chronic liver diseases].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egresi, Anna; Lengyel, Gabriella; Somogyi, Anikó; Blázovics, Anna; Hagymási, Krisztina

    2016-02-21

    As the result of various effects (viruses, metabolic diseases, nutritional factors, toxic agents, autoimmune processes) abnormal liver function, liver steatosis and connective tissue remodeling may develop. Progression of this process is complex including various pathways and a number of factors. The authors summarize the factors involved in the progression of chronic liver disease. They describe the role of cells and the produced inflammatory mediators and cytokines, as well as the relationship between the disease and the intestinal flora. They emphasize the role of oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death in disease progression. Insulin resistance and micro-elements (iron, copper) in relation to liver damage are also discussed, and genetic and epigenetic aspects underlying disease progression are summarized. Discovery of novel treatment options, assessment of the effectiveness of treatment, as well as the success and proper timing of liver transplantation may depend on a better understanding of the process of disease progression.

  9. Including refugees in disease elimination: challenges observed from a sleeping sickness programme in Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palmer, Jennifer J; Robert, Okello; Kansiime, Freddie

    2017-01-01

    Ensuring equity between forcibly-displaced and host area populations is a key challenge for global elimination programmes. We studied Uganda's response to the recent refugee influx from South Sudan to identify key governance and operational lessons for national sleeping sickness programmes working with displaced populations today. A refugee policy which favours integration of primary healthcare services for refugee and host populations and the availability of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to detect sleeping sickness at this health system level makes Uganda well-placed to include refugees in sleeping sickness surveillance. Using ethnographic observations of coordination meetings, review of programme data, interviews with sleeping sickness and refugee authorities and group discussions with health staff and refugees (2013-2016), we nevertheless identified some key challenges to equitably integrating refugees into government sleeping sickness surveillance. Despite fears that refugees were at risk of disease and posed a threat to elimination, six months into the response, programme coordinators progressed to a sentinel surveillance strategy in districts hosting the highest concentrations of refugees. This meant that RDTs, the programme's primary surveillance tool, were removed from most refugee-serving facilities, exacerbating existing inequitable access to surveillance and leading refugees to claim that their access to sleeping sickness tests had been better in South Sudan. This was not intentionally done to exclude refugees from care, rather, four key governance challenges made it difficult for the programme to recognise and correct inequities affecting refugees: (a) perceived donor pressure to reduce the sleeping sickness programme's scope without clear international elimination guidance on surveillance quality; (b) a problematic history of programme relations with refugee-hosting districts which strained supervision of surveillance quality; (c) difficulties that

  10. Obesity: a chronic relapsing progressive disease process. A position statement of the World Obesity Federation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bray, G A; Kim, K K; Wilding, J P H

    2017-07-01

    This paper considers the argument for obesity as a chronic relapsing disease process. Obesity is viewed from an epidemiological model, with an agent affecting the host and producing disease. Food is the primary agent, particularly foods that are high in energy density such as fat, or in sugar-sweetened beverages. An abundance of food, low physical activity and several other environmental factors interact with the genetic susceptibility of the host to produce positive energy balance. The majority of this excess energy is stored as fat in enlarged, and often more numerous fat cells, but some lipid may infiltrate other organs such as the liver (ectopic fat). The enlarged fat cells and ectopic fat produce and secrete a variety of metabolic, hormonal and inflammatory products that produce damage in organs such as the arteries, heart, liver, muscle and pancreas. The magnitude of the obesity and its adverse effects in individuals may relate to the virulence or toxicity of the environment and its interaction with the host. Thus, obesity fits the epidemiological model of a disease process except that the toxic or pathological agent is food rather than a microbe. Reversing obesity will prevent most of its detrimental effects. © 2017 World Obesity Federation.

  11. Magnesium in Disease Prevention and Overall Health12

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volpe, Stella Lucia

    2013-01-01

    Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral and the second most abundant intracellular divalent cation and has been recognized as a cofactor for >300 metabolic reactions in the body. Some of the processes in which magnesium is a cofactor include, but are not limited to, protein synthesis, cellular energy production and storage, reproduction, DNA and RNA synthesis, and stabilizing mitochondrial membranes. Magnesium also plays a critical role in nerve transmission, cardiac excitability, neuromuscular conduction, muscular contraction, vasomotor tone, blood pressure, and glucose and insulin metabolism. Because of magnesium’s many functions within the body, it plays a major role in disease prevention and overall health. Low levels of magnesium have been associated with a number of chronic diseases including migraine headaches, Alzheimer’s disease, cerebrovascular accident (stroke), hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Good food sources of magnesium include unrefined (whole) grains, spinach, nuts, legumes, and white potatoes (tubers). This review presents recent research in the areas of magnesium and chronic disease, with the goal of emphasizing magnesium’s role in disease prevention and overall health. PMID:23674807

  12. Multiple factors, including non-motor impairments, influence decision making with regard to exercise participation in Parkinson's disease: a qualitative enquiry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, Christine; Clemson, Lindy; Canning, Colleen G

    2016-01-01

    To explore how the meaning of exercise and other factors interact and influence the exercise behaviour of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) enrolled in a 6-month minimally supervised exercise program to prevent falls, regardless of whether they completed the prescribed exercise or not. This qualitative study utilised in-depth semi-structured interviews analysed using grounded theory methodology. Four main themes were constructed from the data: adapting to change and loss, the influence of others, making sense of the exercise experience and hope for a more active future. Participation in the PD-specific physiotherapy program involving group exercise provided an opportunity for participants to reframe their identity of their "active" self. Three new influences on exercise participation were identified and explored: non-motor impairments of apathy and fatigue, the belief in a finite energy quota, and the importance of feedback. A model was developed incorporating the themes and influences to explain decision-making for exercise participation in this group. Complex and interacting issues, including non-motor impairments, need to be considered in order to enhance the development and ongoing implementation of effective exercise programmes for people with PD. Exercise participation can assist individuals to reframe their identity as they are faced with losses associated with Parkinson's disease and ageing. Non-motor impairments of apathy and fatigue may influence exercise participation in people with Parkinson's disease. Particular attention needs to be paid to the provision of feedback in exercise programs for people with Parkinson's disease as it important for their decision-making about continuing exercise.

  13. Towards RNAi based therapy of liver diseases : diversity and complexity of shRNA and miRNA processing and functions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maczuga, Piotr

    2013-01-01

    Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder characterized by high levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and increasing the risk of cardio vascular diseases. FH and many other liver diseases can possibly be treated with RNA interference (RNAi). RNAi is a natural process

  14. Vicious circles in inflammatory bowel disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sonnenberg, Amnon; Collins, Judith F

    2006-10-01

    Inflammatory bowel disease can present with a bewildering array of disease manifestations whose overall impact on patient health is difficult to disentangle. The multitude of disease complications and therapeutic side effects result in conflicting ideas on how to best manage a patient. The aim of the study is to test the usefulness of influence diagrams in resolving conflicts centered on managing complex disease processes. The influences of a disease process and the ensuing medical interventions on the health of a patient with inflammatory bowel disease are modeled by an influence diagram. Patient health is the focal point of multiple influences affecting its overall strength. Any downstream influence represents the focal point of other preceding upstream influences. The mathematics underlying the influence diagram is similar to that of a decision tree. Its formalism allows one to consider additive and inhibitory influences and include in the same analysis qualitatively different types of parameters, such as diagnoses, complications, side effects, and therapeutic outcomes. Three exemplary cases are presented to illustrate the potential use of influence diagrams. In all three case scenarios, Crohn's disease resulted in disease manifestations that seemingly interfered with its own therapy. The presence of negative feedback loops rendered the management of each case particularly challenging. The analyses by influence diagrams revealed subtle interactions among the multiple influences and their joint contributions to the patient's overall health that would have been difficult to appreciate by verbal reasoning alone. Influence diagrams represent a decision tool that is particularly suited to improve decision-making in inflammatory bowel disease. They highlight key factors of a complex disease process and help to assess their quantitative interactions.

  15. Group-Level EEG-Processing Pipeline for Flexible Single Trial-Based Analyses Including Linear Mixed Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frömer, Romy; Maier, Martin; Abdel Rahman, Rasha

    2018-01-01

    Here we present an application of an EEG processing pipeline customizing EEGLAB and FieldTrip functions, specifically optimized to flexibly analyze EEG data based on single trial information. The key component of our approach is to create a comprehensive 3-D EEG data structure including all trials and all participants maintaining the original order of recording. This allows straightforward access to subsets of the data based on any information available in a behavioral data structure matched with the EEG data (experimental conditions, but also performance indicators, such accuracy or RTs of single trials). In the present study we exploit this structure to compute linear mixed models (LMMs, using lmer in R) including random intercepts and slopes for items. This information can easily be read out from the matched behavioral data, whereas it might not be accessible in traditional ERP approaches without substantial effort. We further provide easily adaptable scripts for performing cluster-based permutation tests (as implemented in FieldTrip), as a more robust alternative to traditional omnibus ANOVAs. Our approach is particularly advantageous for data with parametric within-subject covariates (e.g., performance) and/or multiple complex stimuli (such as words, faces or objects) that vary in features affecting cognitive processes and ERPs (such as word frequency, salience or familiarity), which are sometimes hard to control experimentally or might themselves constitute variables of interest. The present dataset was recorded from 40 participants who performed a visual search task on previously unfamiliar objects, presented either visually intact or blurred. MATLAB as well as R scripts are provided that can be adapted to different datasets.

  16. Attorney General forces Infectious Diseases Society of America to redo Lyme guidelines due to flawed development process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, L; Stricker, R B

    2009-05-01

    Lyme disease is one of the most controversial illnesses in the history of medicine. In 2006 the Connecticut Attorney General launched an antitrust investigation into the Lyme guidelines development process of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). In a recent settlement with IDSA, the Attorney General noted important commercial conflicts of interest and suppression of scientific evidence that had tainted the guidelines process. This paper explores two broad ethical themes that influenced the IDSA investigation. The first is the growing problem of conflicts of interest among guidelines developers, and the second is the increasing centralisation of medical decisions by insurance companies, which use treatment guidelines as a means of controlling the practices of individual doctors and denying treatment for patients. The implications of the first-ever antitrust investigation of medical guidelines and the proposed model to remediate the tainted IDSA guidelines process are also discussed.

  17. Towards first principle medical diagnostics: on the importance of disease-disease and sign-sign interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramezanpour, Abolfazl; Mashaghi, Alireza

    2017-07-01

    A fundamental problem in medicine and biology is to assign states, e.g. healthy or diseased, to cells, organs or individuals. State assignment or making a diagnosis is often a nontrivial and challenging process and, with the advent of omics technologies, the diagnostic challenge is becoming more and more serious. The challenge lies not only in the increasing number of measured properties and dynamics of the system (e.g. cell or human body) but also in the co-evolution of multiple states and overlapping properties, and degeneracy of states. We develop, from first principles, a generic rational framework for state assignment in cell biology and medicine, and demonstrate its applicability with a few simple theoretical case studies from medical diagnostics. We show how disease-related statistical information can be used to build a comprehensive model that includes the relevant dependencies between clinical and laboratory findings (signs) and diseases. In particular, we include disease-disease and sign-sign interactions and study how one can infer the probability of a disease in a patient with given signs. We perform comparative analysis with simple benchmark models to check the performances of our models. We find that including interactions can significantly change the statistical importance of the signs and diseases. This first principles approach, as we show, facilitates the early diagnosis of disease by taking interactions into accounts, and enables the construction of consensus diagnostic flow charts. Additionally, we envision that our approach will find applications in systems biology, and in particular, in characterizing the phenome via the metabolome, the proteome, the transcriptome, and the genome.

  18. Asbestos related diseases among workers of asbestos processing plants in relation to type of production and asbestos use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szeszenia-Dąbrowska, Neonila; Świątkowska, Beata; Sobala, Wojciech; Szubert, Zuzanna; Wilczyńska, Urszula

    2015-01-01

    Asbestos dust is one of the most dangerous pneumoconiotic and carcinogenic agents. The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of asbestosis and pleural mesothelioma, depending on asbestos consumption and the type of manufactured products, among former asbestos workers in Poland. The study subjects included employees of 18 large state-owned asbestos processing enterprises operating in the Polish market in 1945-1998. The study is based on data obtained from asbestos company records and the Central Register of Occupational Diseases data on the cases of asbestosis and mesothelioma for the period from 1970 till 2012 as well as data from Amiantus Programme. The analysis was performed for 5 sectors comprising plants classified according to the products manufactured and applied production technology. In the study period, 2160 cases of asbestosis and 138 cases of mesothelioma were reported. The plants processed a total of about 2 million tons of asbestos, including about 7.5% of crocidolite. Total asbestosis consumption was a strong predictor of the rate of asbestosis incidence (R2 = 0.68, p = 0.055). The highest risk occurrence of asbestosis was observed in the production of textiles and sealing products. Mesothelioma occurred only in plants where crocidolite had been ever processed. Total asbestos consumption was a strong predictor of the rate of asbestosis incidence. The observation confirms the relationship between exposure to crocidolite and the occurrence of mesothelioma, regardless of the manufactured products, and suggests the absence of such a link for the total volume of asbestos consumption.

  19. Self-management interventions including action plans for exacerbations versus usual care in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenferink, Anke; Brusse-Keizer, Marjolein; van der Valk, Paul Dlpm; Frith, Peter A; Zwerink, Marlies; Monninkhof, Evelyn M; van der Palen, Job; Effing, Tanja W

    2017-08-04

    Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) self-management interventions should be structured but personalised and often multi-component, with goals of motivating, engaging and supporting the patients to positively adapt their behaviour(s) and develop skills to better manage disease. Exacerbation action plans are considered to be a key component of COPD self-management interventions. Studies assessing these interventions show contradictory results. In this Cochrane Review, we compared the effectiveness of COPD self-management interventions that include action plans for acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) with usual care. To evaluate the efficacy of COPD-specific self-management interventions that include an action plan for exacerbations of COPD compared with usual care in terms of health-related quality of life, respiratory-related hospital admissions and other health outcomes. We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register of trials, trials registries, and the reference lists of included studies to May 2016. We included randomised controlled trials evaluating a self-management intervention for people with COPD published since 1995. To be eligible for inclusion, the self-management intervention included a written action plan for AECOPD and an iterative process between participant and healthcare provider(s) in which feedback was provided. We excluded disease management programmes classified as pulmonary rehabilitation or exercise classes offered in a hospital, at a rehabilitation centre, or in a community-based setting to avoid overlap with pulmonary rehabilitation as much as possible. Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. We resolved disagreements by reaching consensus or by involving a third review author. Study authors were contacted to obtain additional information and missing outcome data where possible. When appropriate, study results were pooled using a random-effects modelling meta-analysis. The primary

  20. From COPD epidemiology to studies of pathophysiological disease mechanisms: challenges with regard to study design and recruitment process: Respiratory and Cardiovascular Effects in COPD (KOLIN).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindberg, Anne; Linder, Robert; Backman, Helena; Eriksson Ström, Jonas; Frølich, Andreas; Nilsson, Ulf; Rönmark, Eva; Johansson Strandkvist, Viktor; Behndig, Annelie F; Blomberg, Anders

    2017-01-01

    Background : Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a largely underdiagnosed disease including several phenotypes. In this report, the design of a study intending to evaluate the pathophysiological mechanism in COPD in relation to the specific phenotypes non-rapid and rapid decline in lung function is described together with the recruitment process of the study population derived from a population based study. Method : The OLIN COPD study includes a population-based COPD cohort and referents without COPD identified in 2002-04 ( n  = 1986), and thereafter followed annually since 2005. Lung function decline was estimated from baseline in 2002-2004 to 2010 (first recruitment phase) or to 2012/2013 (second recruitment phase). Individuals who met the predefined criteria for the following four groups were identified; group A) COPD grade 2-3 with rapid decline in FEV 1 and group B) COPD grade 2-3 without rapid decline in FEV 1 (≥60 and ≤30 ml/year, respectively), group C) ever-smokers, and group D) non-smokers with normal lung function. Groups A-C included ever-smokers with >10 pack years. The intention was to recruit 15 subjects in each of the groups A-D. Results : From the database groups A-D were identified; group A n  = 37, group B n  = 29, group C n  = 41, and group D n  = 55. Fifteen subjects were recruited from groups C and D, while this goal was not reached in the groups A ( n  = 12) and B ( n  = 10). The most common reasons for excluding individuals identified as A or B were comorbidities contraindicating bronchoscopy, or inflammatory diseases/immune suppressive medication expected to affect the outcome. Conclusion : The study is expected to generate important results regarding pathophysiological mechanisms associated with rate of decline in lung function among subjects with COPD and the in-detail described recruitment process, including reasons for non-participation, is a strength when interpreting the results in forthcoming studies.

  1. Bimodal fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (BFAHP) for coronary heart disease risk assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sabahi, Farnaz

    2018-04-04

    Rooted deeply in medical multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM), risk assessment is very important especially when applied to the risk of being affected by deadly diseases such as coronary heart disease (CHD). CHD risk assessment is a stochastic, uncertain, and highly dynamic process influenced by various known and unknown variables. In recent years, there has been a great interest in fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), a popular methodology for dealing with uncertainty in MCDM. This paper proposes a new FAHP, bimodal fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (BFAHP) that augments two aspects of knowledge, probability and validity, to fuzzy numbers to better deal with uncertainty. In BFAHP, fuzzy validity is computed by aggregating the validities of relevant risk factors based on expert knowledge and collective intelligence. By considering both soft and statistical data, we compute the fuzzy probability of risk factors using the Bayesian formulation. In BFAHP approach, these fuzzy validities and fuzzy probabilities are used to construct a reciprocal comparison matrix. We then aggregate fuzzy probabilities and fuzzy validities in a pairwise manner for each risk factor and each alternative. BFAHP decides about being affected and not being affected by ranking of high and low risks. For evaluation, the proposed approach is applied to the risk of being affected by CHD using a real dataset of 152 patients of Iranian hospitals. Simulation results confirm that adding validity in a fuzzy manner can accrue more confidence of results and clinically useful especially in the face of incomplete information when compared with actual results. Applying the proposed BFAHP on CHD risk assessment of the dataset, it yields high accuracy rate above 85% for correct prediction. In addition, this paper recognizes that the risk factors of diastolic blood pressure in men and high-density lipoprotein in women are more important in CHD than other risk factors. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All

  2. Anthesis, the infectious process and disease progress curves for fusarium head blight in wheat

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erlei Melo Reis

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Fusarium head blight of wheat (Triticum aestivum, caused by the fungus Gibberella zeae, is a floral infecting disease that causes quantitative and qualitative losses to winter cereals. In Brazil, the sanitary situation of wheat has led to research in order to develop strategies for sustainable production, even under adverse weather conditions. To increase the knowledge of the relationship among the presence of anthesis, the infectious process, the disease progress and the saprophytic fungi present in wheat anthers, studies were conducted in the experimental field of University of Passo Fundo (UPF, using the cultivar Marfim, in the 2011 growing season. The disease incidence in spikes and spikelets was evaluated. The presence of exserted anthers increased the spike exposure time to the inoculum. The final incidence of fusarium head blight, in the field, was dependent on the presence of exserted anthers. The disease followed an aggregation pattern and its evolution increased with time, apparently showing growth according to secondary cycles. The fungi isolated from exserted anthers (Alternaria sp., Fusarium sp., Drechslera spp. and Epicoccum sp. did not compete for the infection site of fusarium head blight in wheat, not interfering with the incidence of F. graminearum.

  3. Assessment of socioemotional processes facilitates the distinction between frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narme, Pauline; Mouras, Harold; Roussel, Martine; Devendeville, Agnès; Godefroy, Olivier

    2013-01-01

    We explored the value of a battery of socioemotional tasks for differentiating between frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Patients with FTLD (n = 13) or AD (n = 13) and healthy controls (n = 26) underwent a neuropsychological assessment and the socioemotional battery (an empathy questionnaire, an emotion recognition task, and theory of mind tasks). Socioemotional processes were markedly impaired in FTLD but relatively unaffected in mild AD. The computed Socioemotional Index discriminated more accurately between FTLD from AD than behavioral and executive assessments did. Furthermore, impairments in socioemotional processes were correlated with indifference to others.

  4. Renal disease in patients with celiac disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boonpheng, Boonphiphop; Cheungpasitporn, Wisit; Wijarnpreecha, Karn

    2018-04-01

    Celiac disease, an inflammatory disease of small bowel caused by sensitivity to dietary gluten and related protein, affects approximately 0.5-1% of the population in the Western world. Extra-intestinal symptoms and associated diseases are increasingly recognized including diabetes mellitus type 1, thyroid disease, dermatitis herpetiformis and ataxia. There have also been a number of reports of various types of renal involvement in patients with celiac disease including diabetes nephropathy, IgA nephropathy, membranous nephropathy, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome related to malabsorption, oxalate nephropathy, and associations of celiac disease with chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease. This review aims to present the current literature on possible pathologic mechanisms underlying renal disease in patients with celiac disease.

  5. Understanding the process of patient satisfaction with nurse-led chronic disease management in general practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahomed, Rosemary; St John, Winsome; Patterson, Elizabeth

    2012-11-01

      To investigate the process of patient satisfaction with nurse-led chronic disease management in Australian general practice.   Nurses working in the primary care context of general practice, referred to as practice nurses, are expanding their role in chronic disease management; this is relatively new to Australia. Therefore, determining patient satisfaction with this trend is pragmatically and ethically important. However, the concept of patient satisfaction is not well understood particularly in relation to care provided by practice nurses.   A grounded theory study underpinned by a relativist ontological position and a relativist epistemology.   Grounded theory was used to develop a theory from data collected through in-depth interviews with 38 participants between November 2007-April 2009. Participants were drawn from a larger project that trialled a practice nurse-led, collaborative model of chronic disease management in three Australian general practices. Theoretical sampling, data collection, and analysis were conducted concurrently consistent with grounded theory methods.   Patients undergo a cyclical process of Navigating Care involving three stages, Determining Care Needs, Forming Relationship, and Having Confidence. The latter two processes are inter-related and a feedback loop from them informs subsequent cycles of Determining Care Needs. If any of these steps fails to develop adequately, patients are likely to opt out of nurse-led care.   Navigating Care explains how and why time, communication, continuity, and trust in general practitioners and nurses are important to patient satisfaction. It can be used in identifying suitable patients for practice nurse-led care and to inform the practice and organization of practice nurse-led care to enhance patient satisfaction. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  6. Therapeutics of Neurotransmitters in Alzheimer’s Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandimalla, Ramesh; Reddy, P. Hemachandra

    2018-01-01

    Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, characterized by the loss of memory, multiple cognitive impairments and changes in the personality and behavior. Several decades of intense research have revealed that multiple cellular changes are involved in disease process, including synaptic damage, mitochondrial abnormalities and inflammatory responses, in addition to formation and accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau. Although tremendous progress has been made in understanding the impact of neurotransmitters in the progression and pathogenesis of AD, we still do not have a drug molecule associated with neurotransmitter(s) that can delay disease process in elderly individuals and/or restore cognitive functions in AD patients. The purpose of our article is to assess the latest developments in neurotransmitters research using cell and mouse models of AD. We also updated the current status of clinical trials using neurotransmitters’ agonists/antagonists in AD. PMID:28211810

  7. Quantitative modelling of amyloidogenic processing and its influence by SORLA in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Vanessa; Baum, Katharina; Lao, Angelyn; Rateitschak, Katja; Schmitz, Yvonne; Teichmann, Anke; Wiesner, Burkhard; Petersen, Claus Munck; Nykjaer, Anders; Wolf, Jana; Wolkenhauer, Olaf; Willnow, Thomas E

    2012-01-04

    The extent of proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) into neurotoxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides is central to the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accordingly, modifiers that increase Aβ production rates are risk factors in the sporadic form of AD. In a novel systems biology approach, we combined quantitative biochemical studies with mathematical modelling to establish a kinetic model of amyloidogenic processing, and to evaluate the influence by SORLA/SORL1, an inhibitor of APP processing and important genetic risk factor. Contrary to previous hypotheses, our studies demonstrate that secretases represent allosteric enzymes that require cooperativity by APP oligomerization for efficient processing. Cooperativity enables swift adaptive changes in secretase activity with even small alterations in APP concentration. We also show that SORLA prevents APP oligomerization both in cultured cells and in the brain in vivo, eliminating the preferred form of the substrate and causing secretases to switch to a less efficient non-allosteric mode of action. These data represent the first mathematical description of the contribution of genetic risk factors to AD substantiating the relevance of subtle changes in SORLA levels for amyloidogenic processing as proposed for patients carrying SORL1 risk alleles.

  8. Mobile technologies for disease surveillance in humans and animals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mwabukusi, Mpoki; Karimuribo, Esron D; Rweyemamu, Mark M; Beda, Eric

    2014-04-23

    A paper-based disease reporting system has been associated with a number of challenges. These include difficulties to submit hard copies of the disease surveillance forms because of poor road infrastructure, weather conditions or challenging terrain, particularly in the developing countries. The system demands re-entry of the data at data processing and analysis points, thus making it prone to introduction of errors during this process. All these challenges contribute to delayed acquisition, processing and response to disease events occurring in remote hard to reach areas. Our study piloted the use of mobile phones in order to transmit near to real-time data from remote districts in Tanzania (Ngorongoro and Ngara), Burundi (Muyinga) and Zambia (Kazungula and Sesheke). Two technologies namely, digital and short messaging services were used to capture and transmit disease event data in the animal and human health sectors in the study areas based on a server-client model. Smart phones running the Android operating system (minimum required version: Android 1.6), and which supported open source application, Epicollect, as well as the Open Data Kit application, were used in the study. These phones allowed collection of geo-tagged data, with the opportunity of including static and moving images related to disease events. The project supported routine disease surveillance systems in the ministries responsible for animal and human health in Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as data collection for researchers at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. During the project implementation period between 2011 and 2013, a total number of 1651 diseases event-related forms were submitted, which allowed reporters to include GPS coordinates and photographs related to the events captured. It was concluded that the new technology-based surveillance system is useful in providing near to real-time data, with potential for enhancing timely response in rural remote areas of

  9. Contribution of Neuroepigenetics to Huntington’s Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francelle, Laetitia; Lotz, Caroline; Outeiro, Tiago; Brouillet, Emmanuel; Merienne, Karine

    2017-01-01

    Unbalanced epigenetic regulation is thought to contribute to the progression of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s disease (HD), a genetic disorder considered as a paradigm of epigenetic dysregulation. In this review, we attempt to address open questions regarding the role of epigenetic changes in HD, in the light of recent advances in neuroepigenetics. We particularly discuss studies using genome-wide scale approaches that provide insights into the relationship between epigenetic regulations, gene expression and neuronal activity in normal and diseased neurons, including HD neurons. We propose that cell-type specific techniques and 3D-based methods will advance knowledge of epigenome in the context of brain region vulnerability in neurodegenerative diseases. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying epigenetic changes and of their consequences in neurodegenerative diseases is required to design therapeutic strategies more effective than current strategies based on histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. Researches in HD may play a driving role in this process. PMID:28194101

  10. Autophagy in Inflammatory Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander J. S. Choi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Autophagy provides a mechanism for the turnover of cellular organelles and proteins through a lysosome-dependent degradation pathway. During starvation, autophagy exerts a homeostatic function that promotes cell survival by recycling metabolic precursors. Additionally, autophagy can interact with other vital processes such as programmed cell death, inflammation, and adaptive immune mechanisms, and thereby potentially influence disease pathogenesis. Macrophages deficient in autophagic proteins display enhanced caspase-1-dependent proinflammatory cytokine production and the activation of the inflammasome. Autophagy provides a functional role in infectious diseases and sepsis by promoting intracellular bacterial clearance. Mutations in autophagy-related genes, leading to loss of autophagic function, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease. Furthermore, autophagy-dependent mechanisms have been proposed in the pathogenesis of several pulmonary diseases that involve inflammation, including cystic fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension. Strategies aimed at modulating autophagy may lead to therapeutic interventions for diseases associated with inflammation.

  11. Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heneka, Michael T.; Carson, Monica J.; El Khoury, Joseph; Landreth, Gary E.; Brosseron, Frederik; Feinstein, Douglas L.; Jacobs, Andreas H.; Wyss-Coray, Tony; Vitorica, Javier; Ransohoff, Richard M.; Herrup, Karl; Frautschy, Sally A.; Finsen, Bente; Brown, Guy C.; Verkhratsky, Alexei; Yamanaka, Koji; Koistinaho, Jari; Latz, Eicke; Halle, Annett; Petzold, Gabor C.; Town, Terrence; Morgan, Dave; Shinohara, Mari L.; Perry, V. Hugh; Holmes, Clive; Bazan, Nicolas G.; Brooks, David J.; Hunot, Stephane; Joseph, Bertrand; Deigendesch, Nikolaus; Garaschuk, Olga; Boddeke, Erik; Dinarello, Charles A.; Breitner, John C.; Cole, Greg M.; Golenbock, Douglas T.; Kummer, Markus P.

    2018-01-01

    Increasing evidence suggests that Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis is not restricted to the neuronal compartment but strongly interacts with immunological mechanisms in the brain. Misfolded and aggregated proteins bind to pattern recognition receptors on micro- and astroglia and trigger an innate immune response, characterized by the release of inflammatory mediators, which contribute to disease progression and severity. Genome wide analysis suggests that several genes, which increase the risk for sporadic Alzheimer's disease en-code for factors that regulate glial clearance of misfolded proteins and the inflammatory reaction. External factors, including systemic inflammation and obesity are likely to interfere with the immunological processes of the brain and further promote disease progression. This re-view provides an overview on the current knowledge and focuses on the most recent and exciting findings. Modulation of risk factors and intervention with the described immune mechanisms are likely to lead to future preventive or therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease. PMID:25792098

  12. Transfer RNA and human disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jamie A Abbott

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Pathological mutations in tRNA genes and tRNA processing enzymes are numerous and result in very complicated clinical phenotypes. Mitochondrial tRNA (mt-tRNA genes are hotspots for pathological mutations and over 200 mt-tRNA mutations have been linked to various disease states. Often these mutations prevent tRNA aminoacylation. Disrupting this primary function affects protein synthesis and the expression, folding, and function of oxidative phosphorylation enzymes. Mitochondrial tRNA mutations manifest in a wide panoply of diseases related to cellular energetics, including COX deficiency (cytochrome C oxidase, mitochondrial myopathy, MERRF (Myoclonic Epilepsy with Ragged Red Fibers, and MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes. Diseases caused by mt-tRNA mutations can also affect very specific tissue types, as in the case of neurosensory non-syndromic hearing loss and pigmentary retinopathy, diabetes mellitus, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Importantly, mitochondrial heteroplasmy plays a role in disease severity and age of onset as well. Not surprisingly, mutations in enzymes that modify cytoplasmic and mitochondrial tRNAs are also linked to a diverse range of clinical phenotypes. In addition to compromised aminoacylation of the tRNAs, mutated modifying enzymes can also impact tRNA expression and abundance, tRNA modifications, tRNA folding, and even tRNA maturation (e.g., splicing. Some of these pathological mutations in tRNAs and processing enzymes are likely to affect non-canonical tRNA functions, and contribute to the diseases without significantly impacting on translation. This chapter will review recent literature on the relation of mitochondrial and cytoplasmic tRNA, and enzymes that process tRNAs, to human disease. We explore the mechanisms involved in the clinical presentation of these various diseases with an emphasis on neurological disease.

  13. Transfer RNA and human disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbott, Jamie A; Francklyn, Christopher S; Robey-Bond, Susan M

    2014-01-01

    Pathological mutations in tRNA genes and tRNA processing enzymes are numerous and result in very complicated clinical phenotypes. Mitochondrial tRNA (mt-tRNA) genes are "hotspots" for pathological mutations and over 200 mt-tRNA mutations have been linked to various disease states. Often these mutations prevent tRNA aminoacylation. Disrupting this primary function affects protein synthesis and the expression, folding, and function of oxidative phosphorylation enzymes. Mitochondrial tRNA mutations manifest in a wide panoply of diseases related to cellular energetics, including COX deficiency (cytochrome C oxidase), mitochondrial myopathy, MERRF (Myoclonic Epilepsy with Ragged Red Fibers), and MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes). Diseases caused by mt-tRNA mutations can also affect very specific tissue types, as in the case of neurosensory non-syndromic hearing loss and pigmentary retinopathy, diabetes mellitus, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Importantly, mitochondrial heteroplasmy plays a role in disease severity and age of onset as well. Not surprisingly, mutations in enzymes that modify cytoplasmic and mitochondrial tRNAs are also linked to a diverse range of clinical phenotypes. In addition to compromised aminoacylation of the tRNAs, mutated modifying enzymes can also impact tRNA expression and abundance, tRNA modifications, tRNA folding, and even tRNA maturation (e.g., splicing). Some of these pathological mutations in tRNAs and processing enzymes are likely to affect non-canonical tRNA functions, and contribute to the diseases without significantly impacting on translation. This chapter will review recent literature on the relation of mitochondrial and cytoplasmic tRNA, and enzymes that process tRNAs, to human disease. We explore the mechanisms involved in the clinical presentation of these various diseases with an emphasis on neurological disease.

  14. MANAGEMENT OF SICKLE CELL DISEASE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rajesh

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Sickle cell disease (SCD is a genetically transmitted multisystem disease1 which includes a group of disorders that differs in severity sign and symptoms, The disease is not uniformly seen everywhere but it has some topographical distribution. In India, it is frequently seen in Central India, in and around the vicinity of Chhattisgarh in some religions in caste like kurmis, satnami, mahar, other backward caste and some tribes, it has great pathological significance considering the high morbidity and mortality resulting from the disease process. We have studied the cases of SCD from 2001 to 2015 series of such patients, since there is no cure of this disease, in regards to prevention of this genetic autosomal recessive disorder by marriage counseling, the incidence can be significantly reduced by avoiding consanguineous marriages in the susceptible community.

  15. Survey of Network-Based Approaches to Research of Cardiovascular Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anida Sarajlić

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs are the leading health problem worldwide. Investigating causes and mechanisms of CVDs calls for an integrative approach that would take into account its complex etiology. Biological networks generated from available data on biomolecular interactions are an excellent platform for understanding interconnectedness of all processes within a living cell, including processes that underlie diseases. Consequently, topology of biological networks has successfully been used for identifying genes, pathways, and modules that govern molecular actions underlying various complex diseases. Here, we review approaches that explore and use relationships between topological properties of biological networks and mechanisms underlying CVDs.

  16. Merkel Cell Carcinomas Arising in Autoimmune Disease Affected Patients Treated with Biologic Drugs, Including Anti-TNF.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rotondo, John Charles; Bononi, Ilaria; Puozzo, Andrea; Govoni, Marcello; Foschi, Valentina; Lanza, Giovanni; Gafà, Roberta; Gaboriaud, Pauline; Touzé, Françoise Antoine; Selvatici, Rita; Martini, Fernanda; Tognon, Mauro

    2017-07-15

    Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to characterize Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC) arisen in patients affected by autoimmune diseases and treated with biologic drugs. Experimental Design: Serum samples from patients with MCC were analyzed for the presence and titer of antibodies against antigens of the oncogenic Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). IgG antibodies against the viral oncoproteins large T (LT) and small T (ST) antigens and the viral capsid protein-1 were analyzed by indirect ELISA. Viral antigens were recombinant LT/ST and virus-like particles (VLP), respectively. MCPyV DNA sequences were studied using PCR methods in MCC tissues and in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Immunohistochemical (IHC) analyses were carried out in MCC tissues to reveal MCPyV LT oncoprotein. Results: MCPyV DNA sequences identified in MCC tissues showed 100% homology with the European MKL-1 strain. PBMCs from patients tested MCPyV-negative. Viral DNA loads in the three MCC tissues were in the 0.1 to 30 copy/cell range. IgG antibodies against LT/ST were detected in patients 1 and 3, whereas patient 2 did not react to the MCPyV LT/ST antigen. Sera from the three patients with MCC contained IgG antibodies against MCPyV VP1. MCC tissues tested MCPyV LT-antigen-positive in IHC assays, with strong LT expression with diffuse nuclear localization. Normal tissues tested MCPyV LT-negative when employed as control. Conclusions: We investigated three new MCCs in patients affected by rheumatologic diseases treated with biologic drugs, including TNF. A possible cause-effect relationship between pharmacologic immunosuppressive treatment and MCC onset is suggested. Indeed, MCC is associated with MCPyV LT oncoprotein activity. Clin Cancer Res; 23(14); 3929-34. ©2017 AACR . ©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.

  17. Newly Diagnosed Meniere's Disease: Clinical Course With Initiation of Noninvasive Treatment Including an Accounting of Vestibular Migraine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sbeih, Firas; Christov, Florian; Gluth, Michael B

    2018-05-01

    To describe the course of Meniere's disease with noninvasive treatment during the first few years after initial diagnosis. A retrospective review of consecutive patients with newly diagnosed definite Meniere's disease between 2013 and 2016 and a minimum follow-up of 1 year. Patients received a written plan for low sodium, water therapy, and treatment with a diuretic and/or betahistine. Subjects were screened and treated for vestibular migraine as needed. Vertigo control and hearing status at most recent follow-up were assessed. Forty-four subjects had an average follow up of 24.3 months. Thirty-four percent had Meniere's disease and vestibular migraine, and 84% had unilateral Meniere's disease. Seventy-five percent had vertigo well controlled at most recent follow-up, with only noninvasive treatments. Age, gender, body mass index, presence of vestibular migraine, bilateral disease, and duration of follow-up did not predict noninvasive treatment failure. Worse hearing threshold at 250 Hz and lower pure tone average (PTA) at the time of diagnosis did predict failure. Fifty-two percent of ears had improved PTA at most recent visit, 20% had no change, and 28% were worse Conclusions: Encountering excellent vertigo control and stable hearing after a new diagnosis of Meniere's disease is possible with noninvasive treatments. Worse hearing status at diagnosis predicted treatment failure.

  18. PREVALENCE OF CELIAC DISEASE PREDISPOSING GENOTYPES, INCLUDING HLA-DQ2.2 VARIANT, IN BRAZILIAN CHILDREN.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Selleski, Nicole; Almeida, Lucas Malta; Almeida, Fernanda Coutinho de; Pratesi, Claudia Beatriz; Nóbrega, Yanna Karla de Medeiros; Gandolfi, Lenora

    2018-01-01

    Celiac disease is an autoimmune enteropathy triggered by the ingestion of gluten in genetically susceptible individuals. Almost all celiac patients carry immune recognition genes coding for HLA-DQ2.5 and DQ8 heterodimers. Over the last few years, great importance has been given to HLA-DQ2.2 as probable predisposing variant, although controversies still exist regarding its relevance. The aim of our study was to determine the possible existence of an association between HLA-DQ2.2 and celiac disease in Brazilian children by analyzing the prevalence of the predisposing variants for celiac disease in a representative group of children of a population in which this determination is still missing. HLA-DQ typing was performed in samples from a group of celiac (n=100) and non-celiac children (n=110). All samples were tested for the presence of the following variants: DQA1*05-DQB1*02 (DQ2.5), DQA1*03-DQB1*03:02 (DQ8) and DQA1*02:01-DQB1*02:02 (DQ2.2). Fisher`s exact test was used for statistical analysis. In the group of 100 celiac children, 78 (78%) were positive for DQ2, 13 (13 %) were DQ2/DQ8 and 6 (6%) were DQ8 positives. The HLA-DQ pattern in the 110 non-celiac children was as follows: positive for DQ2 in 33 (29.9%) samples, in 2 (1.8 %) was positive for DQ2/DQ8 and in 15 (13.6%) was positive for DQ8. We found significant differences between the distribution of some but not all of the analyzed alleles when comparing celiac and non-celiac children. The genotyping of celiac disease HLA-DQ predisposing alleles showed similarities with HLA-DQ patterns found in both European and non-European populations, which may be a reflection of the miscegenation, which gave origin to the current Brazilian population. No significant association was found between DQ2.2 variant and celiac disease in the studied population.

  19. PREVALENCE OF CELIAC DISEASE PREDISPOSING GENOTYPES, INCLUDING HLA-DQ2.2 VARIANT, IN BRAZILIAN CHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicole SELLESKI

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Celiac disease is an autoimmune enteropathy triggered by the ingestion of gluten in genetically susceptible individuals. Almost all celiac patients carry immune recognition genes coding for HLA-DQ2.5 and DQ8 heterodimers. Over the last few years, great importance has been given to HLA-DQ2.2 as probable predisposing variant, although controversies still exist regarding its relevance. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to determine the possible existence of an association between HLA-DQ2.2 and celiac disease in Brazilian children by analyzing the prevalence of the predisposing variants for celiac disease in a representative group of children of a population in which this determination is still missing. METHODS: HLA-DQ typing was performed in samples from a group of celiac (n=100 and non-celiac children (n=110. All samples were tested for the presence of the following variants: DQA1*05-DQB1*02 (DQ2.5, DQA1*03-DQB1*03:02 (DQ8 and DQA1*02:01-DQB1*02:02 (DQ2.2. Fisher`s exact test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: In the group of 100 celiac children, 78 (78% were positive for DQ2, 13 (13 % were DQ2/DQ8 and 6 (6% were DQ8 positives. The HLA-DQ pattern in the 110 non-celiac children was as follows: positive for DQ2 in 33 (29.9% samples, in 2 (1.8 % was positive for DQ2/DQ8 and in 15 (13.6% was positive for DQ8. We found significant differences between the distribution of some but not all of the analyzed alleles when comparing celiac and non-celiac children. CONCLUSION: The genotyping of celiac disease HLA-DQ predisposing alleles showed similarities with HLA-DQ patterns found in both European and non-European populations, which may be a reflection of the miscegenation, which gave origin to the current Brazilian population. No significant association was found between DQ2.2 variant and celiac disease in the studied population.

  20. Analysis and evalaution in the production process and equipment area of the low-cost solar array project. [including modifying gaseous diffusion and using ion implantation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldman, H.; Wolf, M.

    1979-01-01

    The manufacturing methods for photovoltaic solar energy utilization are assessed. Economic and technical data on the current front junction formation processes of gaseous diffusion and ion implantation are presented. Future proposals, including modifying gaseous diffusion and using ion implantation, to decrease the cost of junction formation are studied. Technology developments in current processes and an economic evaluation of the processes are included.

  1. Eye movement analysis and cognitive processing: detecting indicators of conversion to Alzheimer’s disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pereira ML

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Marta LG Freitas Pereira, Marina von Zuben A Camargo, Ivan Aprahamian, Orestes V ForlenzaLaboratory of Neuroscience (LIM-27, Department and Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BrazilAbstract: A great amount of research has been developed around the early cognitive ­impairments that best predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD. Given that mild cognitive impairment (MCI is no longer considered to be an intermediate state between normal aging and AD, new paths have been traced to acquire further knowledge about this condition and its subtypes, and to determine which of them have a higher risk of conversion to AD. It is now known that other deficits besides episodic and semantic memory impairments may be present in the early stages of AD, such as visuospatial and executive function deficits. Furthermore, recent investigations have proven that the hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe structures are not only involved in memory functioning, but also in visual processes. These early changes in memory, visual, and executive processes may also be detected with the study of eye movement patterns in pathological conditions like MCI and AD. In the present review, we attempt to explore the existing literature concerning these patterns of oculomotor changes and how these changes are related to the early signs of AD. In particular, we argue that deficits in visual short-term memory, specifically in iconic memory, attention processes, and inhibitory control, may be found through the analysis of eye movement patterns, and we discuss how they might help to predict the progression from MCI to AD. We add that the study of eye movement patterns in these conditions, in combination with neuroimaging techniques and appropriate neuropsychological tasks based on rigorous concepts derived from cognitive psychology, may highlight the early presence of cognitive impairments in the course of the disease

  2. Challenges in personalised management of chronic diseases-heart failure as prominent example to advance the care process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brunner-La Rocca, Hans-Peter; Fleischhacker, Lutz; Golubnitschaja, Olga; Heemskerk, Frank; Helms, Thomas; Hoedemakers, Thom; Allianses, Sandra Huygen; Jaarsma, Tiny; Kinkorova, Judita; Ramaekers, Jan; Ruff, Peter; Schnur, Ivana; Vanoli, Emilio; Verdu, Jose; Zippel-Schultz, Bettina

    2015-01-01

    Chronic diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Europe, accounting for more than 2/3 of all death causes and 75 % of the healthcare costs. Heart failure is one of the most prominent, prevalent and complex chronic conditions and is accompanied with multiple other chronic diseases. The current approach to care has important shortcomings with respect to diagnosis, treatment and care processes. A critical aspect of this situation is that interaction between stakeholders is limited and chronic diseases are usually addressed in isolation. Health care in Western countries requires an innovative approach to address chronic diseases to provide sustainability of care and to limit the excessive costs that may threaten the current systems. The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases combined with their enormous economic impact and the increasing shortage of healthcare providers are among the most critical threats. Attempts to solve these problems have failed, and future limitations in financial resources will result in much lower quality of care. Thus, changing the approach to care for chronic diseases is of utmost social importance.

  3. IPM strategies and their dilemmas including an introduction to www.Eurowheat.org

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Lise Nistrup; Hovmøller, Mogens Støvring; Hansen, Jens Grønbech

    2014-01-01

    Information about disease management in winter wheat (Triticum aestiva) in eight European countries was collated and analysed by scientists and extension workers within a European Network for Durable Exploitation (ENDURE). This included information about specific disease thresholds, decision...... information platformwww.EuroWheat.org was used for dissemination of information and results including information on control thresholds, cultural practices which can influence disease attack, fungicide efficacy, fungicide resistance and pathogen virulence, which are all elements supporting IPM for disease...... control in wheat. The platform is open to all users. The target groups of EuroWheat information are researchers, advisors, breeders and similar partners dealing with disease management in wheat....

  4. Interactive case vignettes utilizing simulated pathologist-clinician encounters with whole slide imaging and video tutorials of whole slide scans improves student understanding of disease processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam J Horn

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: One of the drawbacks of studying pathology in the second year of medical school in a classroom setting is the relatively limited exposure to patient encounters/clinical rotations, making it difficult to understand and fully appreciate the significance of the course material, specifically the molecular and tissue aspects of disease. In this study, we determined if case vignettes incorporating pathologist-clinician encounters with whole slide imaging (WSI and narrated/annotated videos of whole slide (WS scans in addition to clinical data improved student understanding of pathologic disease processes. Materials and Methods: Case vignettes were created for several genitourinary disease processes that utilized clinical data including narratives of pathologist-clinician encounters, WSI, and annotated video tutorials of WS scans (designed to simulate "double-heading". The students were encouraged to view the virtual slide first, with the video tutorials being provided to offer additional assistance. The case vignettes were created to be interactive with a detailed explanation of each correct and incorrect question choice. The cases were made available to all second year medical students via a website and could be viewed only after completing a 10 question pre-test. A post-test could be completed after viewing all cases followed by a brief satisfaction survey. Results: Ninety-six students completed the pre-test with an average score of 7.7/10. Fifty-seven students completed the post-test with an average score of 9.4/10. Thirty-six students completed the satisfaction survey. 94% agreed or strongly agreed that this was a useful exercise and 91% felt that it helped them better understand the topics. Conclusion: The development of interactive case vignettes incorporating simulated pathologist-clinician encounters with WSI and video tutorials of WS scans helps to improve student enthusiasm to learn and grasp pathologic aspects of disease

  5. Susceptibility based upon Chemical Interaction with Disease ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    One of the challenges facing toxicology and risk assessment is that numerous host and environmental factors may modulate vulnerability and risk. An area of increasing interest is the potential for chemicals to interact with background aging and disease processes, an interaction that may yield cumulative damage, altered chemical potency, and increased disease incidence. This review outlines the interactions possible between chemicals and background disease and identifies the type of information needed to evaluate such interactions. Key among these is the existence of a clinically relevant and easy to measure biomarker of disease risk which allows the identification of vulnerable individuals based upon the level of risk biomarker. The impact of toxic chemicals on this biomarker can then be used to predict how the chemical modifies disease risk as long as related mechanistic and toxicological data are consistent with toxicant effect on the disease process. Several case studies are briefly presented which describe the toxic chemical, the clinical biomarker and the impacted disease including: fine particulate matter/decreased heart rate variability/increased cardiopulmonary events; cadmium/decreased glomerular filtration rate/increased chronic kidney disease; methyl mercury/decreased paraoxonase-1/increased cardiovascular risk; trichloroethylene/increased anti-nuclear antibody/autoimmunity; dioxin/increased CYP1A1/hypertension. These case studies point o

  6. Transition processes in solid-phase electrochemical systems including sulfur-containing components

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arkhipova, N.V.; Mikhajlova, A.M.; Seryanov, Yu.V.

    2005-01-01

    Transition processes in direct-contact systems Li/Sb 2 S 3 and Li/Sb 2 S 5 are studied. As shown by potentiodynamic voltammetry, an Li 3 SbS 3 interphase is the most probable product of the cathodic reduction at direct-contact interfaces. At certain polarizations and current densities, under potentiodynamic and galvanostatic conditions, the main current-producing processes that lead to the formation of the Li 3 SbS 3 interphase compete with passivating cathodic reactions which occur via the mechanism of monolayer adsorption and result in the formation of an Li 2 S product which blocks grains of the lithium thiostibnite interphase. Effective transfer coefficients of passivating reactions are twice those of the main current-producing cathodic reactions [ru

  7. Imaging epigenetics in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lista, Simone; Garaci, Francesco G; Toschi, Nicola; Hampel, Harald

    2013-01-01

    Sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent, complex and chronically progressive brain disease. Its course is non-linear, dynamic, adaptive to maladaptive, and compensatory to decompensatory, affecting large-scale neural networks through a plethora of mechanistic and signaling pathway alterations that converge into regional and cell type-specific neurodegeneration and, finally, into clinically overt cognitive and behavioral decline. This decline includes reductions in the activities of daily living, quality of life, independence, and life expectancy. Evolving lines of research suggest that epigenetic mechanisms may play a crucial role during AD development and progression. Epigenetics designates molecular mechanisms that alter gene expression without modifications of the genetic code. This topic includes modifications on DNA and histone proteins, the primary elements of chromatin structure. Accumulating evidence has revealed the relevant processes that mediate epigenetic modifications and has begun to elucidate how these processes are apparently dysregulated in AD. This evidence has led to the clarification of the roles of specific classes of therapeutic compounds that affect epigenetic pathways and characteristics of the epigenome. This insight is accompanied by the development of new methods for studying the global patterns of DNA methylation and chromatin alterations. In particular, high-throughput sequencing approaches, such as next-generation DNA sequencing techniques, are beginning to drive the field into the next stage of development. In parallel, genetic imaging is beginning to answer additional questions through its ability to uncover genetic variants, with or without genome-wide significance, that are related to brain structure, function and metabolism, which impact disease risk and fundamental network-based cognitive processes. Neuroimaging measures can further be used to define AD systems and endophenotypes. The integration of genetic neuroimaging

  8. Pig farmers' perceptions, attitudes, influences and management of information in the decision-making process for disease control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alarcon, Pablo; Wieland, Barbara; Mateus, Ana L P; Dewberry, Chris

    2014-10-01

    The objectives of this study were (1) to explore the factors involved in the decision-making process used by pig farmers for disease control and (2) to investigate pig farmers' attitudes and perceptions about different information sources relating to disease control. In 2011 a qualitative study involving 20 face-to-face interviews with English pig farmers was conducted. The questionnaire was composed of three parts. The first part required farmers to identify two diseases they had experienced and which were difficult to recognize and/or control. They were asked to report how the disease problem was recognized, how the need for control was decided, and what affected the choice of control approach. For the latter, a structure related to the Theory of Planned Behaviour was used. Their verbal responses were classified as associated with: (1) attitude and beliefs, (2) subjective norms, or (3) perceived behavioural control (PBC). In the second part, five key sources of information for disease control (Defra, BPEX, research from academia, internet and veterinarians) and the factors related to barriers to knowledge were investigated. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. A qualitative analysis of the text of the interview transcripts was carried out using templates. Drivers for disease control were 'pig mortality', 'feeling of entering in an economically critical situation', 'animal welfare' and 'feeling of despair'. Veterinarians were perceived by several participating farmers as the most trusted information source on disease control. However, in particular non-sustainable situations, other producers, and especially experiences from abroad, seemed to considerably influence the farmers' decision-making. 'Lack of knowledge', 'farm structure and management barriers' and 'economic constrains' were identified in relation to PBC. Several negative themes, such as 'lack of communication', 'not knowing where to look', and 'information bias' were associated with research from

  9. An image processing technique for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Massoud Mahmoudian

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available

    • BACKGROUND: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD reportedly hibit hypersensitivity to much diluted tropicam solution (0.005%, a M4 muscarinic receptor antagonist. Therefore aocular application of 0.005% tropicamide ma be useful for screening dementia. The aim of this study was to simplify the pupil response test by using a new image analyzing system, which consists of a cheap, simple, and easy to use web-camera and a computer.
    • METHODS: Intraocular tropicamide of 0.005% concentration was administered in 3 groups: Alzheimer's disease patients (n = 8, average age = 76 ± 5, non-Alzheimer's disease elderly (n = 6, average age = 65 ± 7, and young subjects (n = 8, average age = 28 ± 5. Every 5 minutes for 60 minutes, image of the eye's shape were taken, and the diameter of the pupils was measured.
    • RESULTS: The results showed that differences in pupil dilation rate between Alzheimer's disease and non-Alzheimer's disease subjects were statistically significant. ROC analysis showed that after 35 minutes the sensitivity and specificity of the test were 100%.
    • CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we concluded that this recording system might be an appropriate and reliable tool for pupil response diagnosis test of Alzheimer's disease.
    • KEYWORDS: Alzheimer’s Disease, Tropicamide, Pupil.

  10. Mapping Disease Data: A Usability Test of an Internet-Based System of Disease Status Disclosure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gareth Enticott

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Disease maps are important tools in the management of disease. By communicating risk, disease maps can help raise awareness of disease and encourage farmers and veterinarians to employ best practice to eliminate the spread of disease. However, despite the importance of disease maps in communicating risk and the existence of various online disease maps, there are few studies that explicitly examine their usability. Where disease maps are complicated to use, it seems that they are unlikely to be used effectively. The paper outlines an attempt to create an open access, online, searchable map of incidents of bovine tuberculosis in England and Wales, and analyzes its usability among veterinarians. The paper describes the process of creating the map before describing the results of a series of usability trials. Results show the map to score highly on different measures of usability. However, the trials also revealed a number of social and technical limitations and challenges facing the use of online disease maps, including reputational dangers, role confusion, data accuracy, and data representation. The paper considers the challenges facing disease maps and their potential role in designing new methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of disease prevention initiatives.

  11. Parkinson's Disease: Leucine-Rich Repeat Kinase 2 and Autophagy, Intimate Enemies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José M. Bravo-San Pedro

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Parkinson's disease is the second common neurodegenerative disorder, after Alzheimer's disease. It is a clinical syndrome characterized by loss of dopamine-generating cells in the substancia nigra, a region of the midbrain. The etiology of Parkinson's disease has long been through to involve both genetic and environmental factors. Mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 gene cause late-onset Parkinson's disease with a clinical appearance indistinguishable from Parkinson's disease idiopathic. Autophagy is an intracellular catabolic mechanism whereby a cell recycles or degrades damage proteins and cytoplasmic organelles. This degradative process has been associated with cellular dysfunction in neurodegenerative processes including Parkinson's disease. We discuss the role of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 in autophagy, and how the deregulations of this degradative mechanism in cells can be implicated in the Parkinson's disease etiology.

  12. Does radiographic arthrosis correlate with cartilage pathology in Labrador Retrievers affected by medial coronoid process disease?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrell, Michael; Heller, Jane; Solano, Miguel; Fitzpatrick, Noel; Sparrow, Tim; Kowaleski, Mike

    2014-02-01

    To compare radiographic elbow arthrosis with arthroscopic cartilage pathology in Labrador retrievers with elbow osteoarthritis secondary to medial coronoid process (MCP) disease. Retrospective epidemiological study. Labrador retrievers (n = 317; 592 elbow joints). Data were collected retrospectively (June 2007-June 2011) to identify Labrador retrievers with thoracic limb lameness and elbow pain, a complete set of elbow radiographs, and a comprehensive arthroscopic surgery report. Each radiograph was scored for osteophytosis on the anconeal process and ulnar subtrochlear sclerosis using a modification of the International Elbow Working Group (IEWG) scoring system. Elbows affected by traumatic MCP fracture, humeral condylar osteochondrosis, or ununited anconeal process were excluded. The arthroscopic report was used to generate a composite cartilage score (CCS; 0 = normal, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe) for each elbow joint. Ordinal regression analysis was performed to test the relationship between radiographic arthrosis score and CCS. There was a significant relationship between radiographic elbow arthrosis and CCS (P arthrosis can be used to predict the severity of arthroscopic cartilage pathology in Labrador retrievers affected by MCP disease. © Copyright 2014 by The American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

  13. Phenotypic Screening Identifies Modulators of Amyloid Precursor Protein Processing in Human Stem Cell Models of Alzheimer’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Philip W. Brownjohn

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Summary: Human stem cell models have the potential to provide platforms for phenotypic screens to identify candidate treatments and cellular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders. Amyloid precursor protein (APP processing and the accumulation of APP-derived amyloid β (Aβ peptides are key processes in Alzheimer's disease (AD. We designed a phenotypic small-molecule screen to identify modulators of APP processing in trisomy 21/Down syndrome neurons, a complex genetic model of AD. We identified the avermectins, commonly used as anthelmintics, as compounds that increase the relative production of short Aβ peptides at the expense of longer, potentially more toxic peptides. Further studies demonstrated that this effect is not due to an interaction with the core γ-secretase responsible for Aβ production. This study demonstrates the feasibility of phenotypic drug screening in human stem cell models of Alzheimer-type dementia, and points to possibilities for indirectly modulating APP processing, independently of γ-secretase modulation. : In this article, Livesey and colleagues perform a phenotypic drug screen in a human stem cell model of Alzheimer's disease. The anthelminthic avermectins are identified as a family of compounds that increase the production of short Aβ peptides over longer more toxic Aβ forms. The effect is analogous to existing γ-secretase modulators, but is independent of the core γ-secretase complex. Keywords: neural stem cells, Alzheimer's disease, phenotypic screening, iPSCs, human neurons, dementia, Down syndrome, amyloid beta, ivermectin, selamectin

  14. Numerical methods for realizing nonstationary Poisson processes with piecewise-constant instantaneous-rate functions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Harrod, Steven; Kelton, W. David

    2006-01-01

    Nonstationary Poisson processes are appropriate in many applications, including disease studies, transportation, finance, and social policy. The authors review the risks of ignoring nonstationarity in Poisson processes and demonstrate three algorithms for generation of Poisson processes...

  15. The Study on the Thyroid Disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Mun Ho

    1982-01-01

    Several recent advances in our knowledge of thyroid physiology have broad application to the diagnosis and management of thyroid disorders. For in the thyroid, more than other end-ocrine organs, pathophysiology can be translated directly into the diagnosis and management of thyroid disease. Graves' disease is a syndrome including goiter with hyperthyroidism, exophthalmos and dermatopathy. The pathogenesis of Graves' disease is not yet clearly identified, but various autoantibodies to the thyroid gland and immunapathalogic studied indicate that autoimmune processes are involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. The diagnosis and management of Graves' disease are largely dependent on radionuclide technique as radioimmunoassay, radioactive iodine therapy and so on. Several laboratory tests are also developed to determine the remission of this disease including TRH stimulation test, T 3 , suppression test and detection of thyroid stimulating immunoglobulins. Autoimmune thyroiditis is almost certainly a primary immunologic disease and the incidence tends to increase recently, mainly due to the application of biopsy technique is thyroid diseases. Thyroid nodules have been a great challenge to physicians because of the possibility of malignancy. But recently, cytologic examination of thyroid aspirate provides a very simple and also reliable diagnostic method in patients with thyroid nodules. In 163 patients with thyroid nodules, only 19.3% was revealed to be malignant. Therefore cytologic examination of thyroid aspirate and thyroid biopsy should be included in the diagnosis of nodular patients prior to surgical intervention. In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented on the pathogenesis, clinical features, laboratory findings and therapeutic modalities of various thyroid diseases on the basis of over 80 researches performed during the past 20 years at radioisotope clinic, Seoul National University Hospital.

  16. Toward First Principle Medical Diagnostics: On the Importance of Disease-Disease and Sign-Sign Interactions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abolfazl Ramezanpour

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available A fundamental problem in medicine and biology is to assign states, e.g., healthy or diseased, to cells, organs or individuals. State assignment or making a diagnosis is often a nontrivial and challenging process and, with the advent of omics technologies, the diagnostic challenge is becoming more and more serious. The challenge lies not only in the increasing number of measured properties and dynamics of the system (e.g., cell or human body but also in the co-evolution of multiple states and overlapping properties, and degeneracy of states. We develop, from first principles, a generic rational framework for state assignment in cell biology and medicine, and demonstrate its applicability with a few simple theoretical case studies from medical diagnostics. We show how disease–related statistical information can be used to build a comprehensive model that includes the relevant dependencies between clinical and laboratory findings (signs and diseases. In particular, we include disease-disease and sign–sign interactions and study how one can infer the probability of a disease in a patient with given signs. We perform comparative analysis with simple benchmark models to check the performances of our models. We find that including interactions can significantly change the statistical importance of the signs and diseases. This first principles approach, as we show, facilitates the early diagnosis of disease by taking interactions into accounts, and enables the construction of consensus diagnostic flow charts. Additionally, we envision that our approach will find applications in systems biology, and in particular, in characterizing the phenome via the metabolome, the proteome, the transcriptome, and the genome.

  17. Big-bang nucleosynthesis with a long-lived CHAMP including He4 spallation process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamanaka, Masato; Jittoh, Toshifumi; Kohri, Kazunori; Koike, Masafumi; Sato, Joe; Sugai, Kenichi; Yazaki, Koichi

    2014-03-01

    We propose helium-4 spallation processes induced by long-lived stau in supersymmetric standard models, and investigate an impact of the processes on light elements abundances. We show that, as long as the phase space of helium-4 spallation processes is open, they are more important than stau-catalyzed fusion and hence constrain the stau property. This talk is based on the work of ref. [1].

  18. Land cover variation and West Nile virus prevalence: Patterns, processes, and implications for disease control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ezenwa, V.O.; Milheim, L.E.; Coffey, M.F.; Godsey, M.S.; King, R.J.; Guptill, S.C.

    2007-01-01

    Identifying links between environmental variables and infectious disease risk is essential to understanding how human-induced environmental changes will effect the dynamics of human and wildlife diseases. Although land cover change has often been tied to spatial variation in disease occurrence, the underlying factors driving the correlations are often unknown, limiting the applicability of these results for disease prevention and control. In this study, we described associations between land cover composition and West Nile virus (WNV) infection prevalence, and investigated three potential processes accounting for observed patterns: (1) variation in vector density; (2) variation in amplification host abundance; and (3) variation in host community composition. Interestingly, we found that WNV infection rates among Culex mosquitoes declined with increasing wetland cover, but wetland area was not significantly associated with either vector density or amplification host abundance. By contrast, wetland area was strongly correlated with host community composition, and model comparisons suggested that this factor accounted, at least partially, for the observed effect of wetland area on WNV infection risk. Our results suggest that preserving large wetland areas, and by extension, intact wetland bird communities, may represent a valuable ecosystem-based approach for controlling WNV outbreaks. ?? Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

  19. Alzheimer’s Disease and HLA-A2: Linking Neurodegenerative to Immune Processes through an In Silico Approach

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    Ricardo A. Cifuentes

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available There is a controversial relationship between HLA-A2 and Alzheimer’s disease (AD. It has been suggested a modifier effect on the risk that depends on genetic loadings. Thus, the aims of this study were to evaluate this relationship and to reveal genes associated with both concepts the HLA-A gene and AD. Consequently, we did first a classical systematic review and a meta-analysis of case-control studies. Next, by means of an in silico approach, we used experimental knowledge of protein-protein interactions to evaluate the top ranked genes shared by both concepts, previously found through text mining. The meta-analysis did not show a significant pooled OR (1.11, 95% CI: 0.98 to 1.24 in Caucasians, in spite of the fact that four of the included studies had a significant OR > 1 and none of them a significant OR < 1. In contrast, the in silico approach retrieved nonrandomly shared genes by both concepts (P = 0.02, which additionally encode truly interacting proteins. The network of proteins encoded by APP, ICAM-1, ITGB2, ITGAL, SELP, SELL, IL2, IL1B, CD4, and CD8A linked immune to neurodegenerative processes and highlighted the potential roles in AD pathogenesis of endothelial regulation, infectious diseases, specific antigen presentation, and HLA-A2 in maintaining synapses.

  20. Tumor cell anaplasia and multinucleation are predictors of disease recurrence in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, including among just the human papillomavirus-related cancers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, James S; Scantlebury, Juliette B; Luo, Jingqin; Thorstad, Wade L

    2012-07-01

    Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is frequently related to high risk human papillomavirus. This tumor expresses p16, frequently has a nonkeratinizing morphology, and has improved outcomes. Despite having a good prognosis, tumors can have focal or diffuse nuclear anaplasia or multinucleation, the significance of which is unknown. From a database of 270 oropharyngeal SCCs with known histologic typing (using our established system) and p16 immunohistochemistry, all surgically resected cases (149) were reviewed. Anaplasia was defined as any × 40 field with ≥ 3 tumor nuclei with diameters ≥ 5 lymphocyte nuclei (~25 μm), and multinucleation was defined as any × 40 field with ≥ 3 tumor cells with multiple nuclei. p16 was positive in 128 cases (85.9%), 64 cases (43.0%) showed anaplasia, and 71 (47.7%) showed multinucleation. Anaplasia and multinucleation were highly related (Panaplasia or multinucleation had worse overall, disease-specific, and disease-free survival (Panaplasia and multinucleation both predicted worse disease-specific survival (hazard ratio 9.9, P=0.04; and hazard ratio 11.9, P=0.02, respectively) independent of the other variables. In summary, among surgically resectable oropharyngeal SCC (including among just the p16-positive cohort), tumor cell anaplasia and multinucleation independently correlated with disease recurrence and poorer survival.

  1. Dysregulation of RNA Mediated Gene Expression in Motor Neuron Diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonçalves, Inês do Carmo G; Rehorst, Wiebke A; Kye, Min Jeong

    2016-01-01

    Recent findings indicate an important role for RNA-mediated gene expression in motor neuron diseases, including ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and SMA (spinal muscular atrophy). ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is an adult-onset progressive neurodegenerative disorder, whereby SMA or "children's Lou Gehrig's disease" is considered a pediatric neurodevelopmental disorder. Despite the difference in genetic causes, both ALS and SMA share common phenotypes; dysfunction/loss of motor neurons that eventually leads to muscle weakness and atrophy. With advanced techniques in molecular genetics and cell biology, current data suggest that these two distinct motor neuron diseases share more than phenotypes; ALS and SMA have similar cellular pathological mechanisms including mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and dysregulation in RNA-mediated gene expression. Here, we will discuss the current findings on these two diseases with specific focus on RNA-mediated gene regulation including miRNA expression, pre-mRNA processing and RNA binding proteins.

  2. Motivational Interviewing and Medication Review in Coronary Heart Disease (MIMeRiC): Intervention Development and Protocol for the Process Evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Östbring, Malin Johansson; Eriksson, Tommy; Petersson, Göran; Hellström, Lina

    2018-01-30

    Trials of complex interventions are often criticized for being difficult to interpret because the effects of apparently similar interventions vary across studies dependent on context, targeted groups, and the delivery of the intervention. The Motivational Interviewing and Medication Review in Coronary heart disease (MIMeRiC) trial is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an intervention aimed at improving pharmacological secondary prevention. Guidelines for the development and evaluation of complex interventions have recently highlighted the need for better reporting of the development of interventions, including descriptions of how the intervention is assumed to work, how this theory informed the process evaluation, and how the process evaluation relates to the outcome evaluation. This paper aims to describe how the intervention was designed and developed. The aim of the process evaluation is to better understand how and why the intervention in the MIMeRiC trial was effective or not effective. The research questions for evaluating the process are based on the conceptual model of change processes assumed in the intervention and will be analyzed by qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative data are used to evaluate the medication review in terms of drug-related problems, to describe how patients' beliefs about medicines are affected by the intervention, and to evaluate the quality of motivational interviewing. Qualitative data will be used to analyze whether patients experienced the intervention as intended, how cardiologists experienced the collaboration and intervention, and how the intervention affected patients' overall experience of care after coronary heart disease. The development and piloting of the intervention are described in relation to the theoretical framework. Data for the process evaluation will be collected until March 2018. Some process evaluation questions will be analyzed before, and others will be analyzed after the outcomes of the

  3. OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS AND AGE-RELATED DISEASES: REALITIES AND PROSPECTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. M. Drapkina

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids in cardiology is so high that in many countries omega-3 fatty acids are included into the treatment protocols for patients with cardiovascular diseases. This therapeutic class slows down oxidative stress and chronic inflammation processes, thereby providing a significant contribution to the complex treatment of hypertension. Besides, omega-3 fatty acids slow down the aging process and prevent the development of age-related diseases affecting the rate of telomere shortening.

  4. Calprotectin in rheumatic diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ometto, Francesca; Friso, Lara; Astorri, Davide; Botsios, Costantino; Raffeiner, Bernd; Punzi, Leonardo; Doria, Andrea

    2017-04-01

    Calprotectin is a heterodimer formed by two proteins, S100A8 and S100A9, which are mainly produced by activated monocytes and neutrophils in the circulation and in inflamed tissues. The implication of calprotectin in the inflammatory process has already been demonstrated, but its role in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and monitoring of rheumatic diseases has gained great attention in recent years. Calprotectin, being stable at room temperature, is a candidate biomarker for the follow-up of disease activity in many autoimmune disorders, where it can predict response to treatment or disease relapse. There is evidence that a number of immunomodulators, including TNF-α inhibitors, may reduce calprotectin expression. S100A8 and S100A9 have a potential role as a target of treatment in murine models of autoimmune disorders, since the direct or indirect blockade of these proteins results in amelioration of the disease process. In this review, we will go over the biologic functions of calprotectin which might be involved in the etiology of rheumatic disorders. We will also report evidence of its potential use as a disease biomarker. Impact statement Calprotectin is an acute-phase protein produced by monocytes and neutrophils in the circulation and inflamed tissues. Calprotectin seems to be more sensitive than CRP, being able to detect minimal residual inflammation and is a candidate biomarker in inflammatory diseases. High serum levels are associated with some severe manifestations of rheumatic diseases, such as glomerulonephritis and lung fibrosis. Calprotectin levels in other fluids, such as saliva and synovial fluid, might be helpful in the diagnosis of rheumatic diseases. Of interest is also the potential role of calprotectin as a target of treatment.

  5. Motor Control Abnormalities in Parkinson’s Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazzoni, Pietro; Shabbott, Britne; Cortés, Juan Camilo

    2012-01-01

    The primary manifestations of Parkinson’s disease are abnormalities of movement, including movement slowness, difficulties with gait and balance, and tremor. We know a considerable amount about the abnormalities of neuronal and muscle activity that correlate with these symptoms. Motor symptoms can also be described in terms of motor control, a level of description that explains how movement variables, such as a limb’s position and speed, are controlled and coordinated. Understanding motor symptoms as motor control abnormalities means to identify how the disease disrupts normal control processes. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, movement slowness, for example, would be explained by a disruption of the control processes that determine normal movement speed. Two long-term benefits of understanding the motor control basis of motor symptoms include the future design of neural prostheses to replace the function of damaged basal ganglia circuits, and the rational design of rehabilitation strategies. This type of understanding, however, remains limited, partly because of limitations in our knowledge of normal motor control. In this article, we review the concept of motor control and describe a few motor symptoms that illustrate the challenges in understanding such symptoms as motor control abnormalities. PMID:22675667

  6. Uneven dietary development: linking the policies and processes of globalization with the nutrition transition, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hawkes Corinna

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract In a "nutrition transition", the consumption of foods high in fats and sweeteners is increasing throughout the developing world. The transition, implicated in the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases worldwide, is rooted in the processes of globalization. Globalization affects the nature of agri-food systems, thereby altering the quantity, type, cost and desirability of foods available for consumption. Understanding the links between globalization and the nutrition transition is therefore necessary to help policy makers develop policies, including food policies, for addressing the global burden of chronic disease. While the subject has been much discussed, tracing the specific pathways between globalization and dietary change remains a challenge. To help address this challenge, this paper explores how one of the central mechanisms of globalization, the integration of the global marketplace, is affecting the specific diet patterns. Focusing on middle-income countries, it highlights the importance of three major processes of market integration: (I production and trade of agricultural goods; (II foreign direct investment in food processing and retailing; and (III global food advertising and promotion. The paper reveals how specific policies implemented to advance the globalization agenda account in part for some recent trends in the global diet. Agricultural production and trade policies have enabled more vegetable oil consumption; policies on foreign direct investment have facilitated higher consumption of highly-processed foods, as has global food marketing. These dietary outcomes also reflect the socioeconomic and cultural context in which these policies are operating. An important finding is that the dynamic, competitive forces unleashed as a result of global market integration facilitates not only convergence in consumption habits (as is commonly assumed in the "Coca-Colonization" hypothesis, but adaptation to

  7. Uneven dietary development: linking the policies and processes of globalization with the nutrition transition, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkes, Corinna

    2006-01-01

    In a "nutrition transition", the consumption of foods high in fats and sweeteners is increasing throughout the developing world. The transition, implicated in the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases worldwide, is rooted in the processes of globalization. Globalization affects the nature of agri-food systems, thereby altering the quantity, type, cost and desirability of foods available for consumption. Understanding the links between globalization and the nutrition transition is therefore necessary to help policy makers develop policies, including food policies, for addressing the global burden of chronic disease. While the subject has been much discussed, tracing the specific pathways between globalization and dietary change remains a challenge. To help address this challenge, this paper explores how one of the central mechanisms of globalization, the integration of the global marketplace, is affecting the specific diet patterns. Focusing on middle-income countries, it highlights the importance of three major processes of market integration: (I) production and trade of agricultural goods; (II) foreign direct investment in food processing and retailing; and (III) global food advertising and promotion. The paper reveals how specific policies implemented to advance the globalization agenda account in part for some recent trends in the global diet. Agricultural production and trade policies have enabled more vegetable oil consumption; policies on foreign direct investment have facilitated higher consumption of highly-processed foods, as has global food marketing. These dietary outcomes also reflect the socioeconomic and cultural context in which these policies are operating. An important finding is that the dynamic, competitive forces unleashed as a result of global market integration facilitates not only convergence in consumption habits (as is commonly assumed in the "Coca-Colonization" hypothesis), but adaptation to products targeted at different

  8. Mobile technologies for disease surveillance in humans and animals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mpoki Mwabukusi

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available A paper-based disease reporting system has been associated with a number of challenges. These include difficulties to submit hard copies of the disease surveillance forms because of poor road infrastructure, weather conditions or challenging terrain, particularly in the developing countries. The system demands re-entry of the data at data processing and analysis points, thus making it prone to introduction of errors during this process. All these challenges contribute to delayed acquisition, processing and response to disease events occurring in remote hard to reach areas. Our study piloted the use of mobile phones in order to transmit near to real-time data from remote districts in Tanzania (Ngorongoro and Ngara, Burundi (Muyinga and Zambia (Kazungula and Sesheke. Two technologies namely, digital and short messaging services were used to capture and transmit disease event data in the animal and human health sectors in the study areas based on a server–client model. Smart phones running the Android operating system (minimum required version: Android 1.6, and which supported open source application, Epicollect, as well as the Open Data Kit application, were used in the study. These phones allowed collection of geo-tagged data, with the opportunity of including static and moving images related to disease events. The project supported routine disease surveillance systems in the ministries responsible for animal and human health in Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as data collection for researchers at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. During the project implementation period between 2011 and 2013, a total number of 1651 diseases event-related forms were submitted, which allowed reporters to include GPS coordinates and photographs related to the events captured. It was concluded that the new technology-based surveillance system is useful in providing near to real-time data, with potential for enhancing

  9. Including pathogen risk in life cycle assessment of wastewater management. 1. Estimating the burden of disease associated with pathogens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harder, Robin; Heimersson, Sara; Svanström, Magdalena; Peters, Gregory M

    2014-08-19

    The environmental performance of wastewater and sewage sludge management is commonly assessed using life cycle assessment (LCA), whereas pathogen risk is evaluated with quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). This study explored the application of QMRA methodology with intent to include pathogen risk in LCA and facilitate a comparison with other potential impacts on human health considered in LCA. Pathogen risk was estimated for a model wastewater treatment system (WWTS) located in an industrialized country and consisting of primary, secondary, and tertiary wastewater treatment, anaerobic sludge digestion, and land application of sewage sludge. The estimation was based on eight previous QMRA studies as well as parameter values taken from the literature. A total pathogen risk (expressed as burden of disease) on the order of 0.2-9 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per year of operation was estimated for the model WWTS serving 28,600 persons and for the pathogens and exposure pathways included in this study. The comparison of pathogen risk with other potential impacts on human health considered in LCA is detailed in part 2 of this article series.

  10. Convergent molecular defects underpin diverse neurodegenerative diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tofaris, George K; Buckley, Noel J

    2018-02-19

    In our ageing population, neurodegenerative disorders carry an enormous personal, societal and economic burden. Although neurodegenerative diseases are often thought of as clinicopathological entities, increasing evidence suggests a considerable overlap in the molecular underpinnings of their pathogenesis. Such overlapping biological processes include the handling of misfolded proteins, defective organelle trafficking, RNA processing, synaptic health and neuroinflammation. Collectively but in different proportions, these biological processes in neurons or non-neuronal cells lead to regionally distinct patterns of neuronal vulnerability and progression of pathology that could explain the disease symptomology. With the advent of patient-derived cellular models and novel genetic manipulation tools, we are now able to interrogate this commonality despite the cellular complexity of the brain in order to develop novel therapeutic strategies to prevent or arrest neurodegeneration. Here, we describe broadly these concepts and their relevance across neurodegenerative diseases. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  11. Emotion processing for arousal and neutral content in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satler, Corina; Uribe, Carlos; Conde, Carlos; Da-Silva, Sergio Leme; Tomaz, Carlos

    2010-02-01

    Objective. To assess the ability of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients to perceive emotional information and to assign subjective emotional rating scores to audiovisual presentations. Materials and Methods. 24 subjects (14 with AD, matched to controls for age and educational levels) were studied. After neuropsychological assessment, they watched a Neutral story and then a story with Emotional content. Results. Recall scores for both stories were significantly lower in AD (Neutral and Emotional: P = .001). CG assigned different emotional scores for each version of the test, P = .001, while ratings of AD did not differ, P = .32. Linear regression analyses determined the best predictors of emotional rating and recognition memory for each group among neuropsychological tests battery. Conclusions. AD patients show changes in emotional processing on declarative memory and a preserved ability to express emotions in face of arousal content. The present findings suggest that these impairments are due to general cognitive decline.

  12. Modelling the impacts of pests and diseases on agricultural systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donatelli, M; Magarey, R D; Bregaglio, S; Willocquet, L; Whish, J P M; Savary, S

    2017-07-01

    The improvement and application of pest and disease models to analyse and predict yield losses including those due to climate change is still a challenge for the scientific community. Applied modelling of crop diseases and pests has mostly targeted the development of support capabilities to schedule scouting or pesticide applications. There is a need for research to both broaden the scope and evaluate the capabilities of pest and disease models. Key research questions not only involve the assessment of the potential effects of climate change on known pathosystems, but also on new pathogens which could alter the (still incompletely documented) impacts of pests and diseases on agricultural systems. Yield loss data collected in various current environments may no longer represent a adequate reference to develop tactical, decision-oriented, models for plant diseases and pests and their impacts, because of the ongoing changes in climate patterns. Process-based agricultural simulation modelling, on the other hand, appears to represent a viable methodology to estimate the impacts of these potential effects. A new generation of tools based on state-of-the-art knowledge and technologies is needed to allow systems analysis including key processes and their dynamics over appropriate suitable range of environmental variables. This paper offers a brief overview of the current state of development in coupling pest and disease models to crop models, and discusses technical and scientific challenges. We propose a five-stage roadmap to improve the simulation of the impacts caused by plant diseases and pests; i) improve the quality and availability of data for model inputs; ii) improve the quality and availability of data for model evaluation; iii) improve the integration with crop models; iv) improve the processes for model evaluation; and v) develop a community of plant pest and disease modelers.

  13. A taxonomy for disease management: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Disease Management Taxonomy Writing Group.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krumholz, Harlan M; Currie, Peter M; Riegel, Barbara; Phillips, Christopher O; Peterson, Eric D; Smith, Renee; Yancy, Clyde W; Faxon, David P

    2006-09-26

    form of postacute care, that are included in disease management. (4) Delivery personnel describes the network of healthcare providers involved in the delivery of disease management interventions, including nurses, case managers, physicians, pharmacists, case workers, dietitians, physical therapists, psychologists, and information systems specialists. (5) Method of communication identifies a broad range of disease management delivery systems that may include in-person visitation, audiovisual information packets, and some form of electronic or telecommunication technology. (6) Intensity and complexity distinguish between the frequency and duration of exposure, as well as the mix of program components, with respect to the target for disease management. (7) Environment defines the context in which disease management interventions are typically delivered and includes inpatient or hospital-affiliated outpatient programs, community or home-based programs, or some combination of these factors. (8) Clinical outcomes include traditional, frequently assessed primary and secondary outcomes, as well as patient-centered measures, such as adherence to medication, self-management, and caregiver burden. This statement presents a taxonomy for disease management that describes critical program attributes and allows for comparisons across interventions. Routine application of the taxonomy may facilitate better comparisons of structure, process, and outcome measures across a range of disease management programs and should promote uniformity in the design and conduct of studies that seek to validate disease management strategies.

  14. Motivational processes in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: results from the Motivational Reserve in Alzheimer's (MoReA) study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forstmeier, Simon; Maercker, Andreas

    2015-11-17

    Brain reserve, i.e., the ability of the brain to tolerate age- and disease-related changes in a way that cognitive function is still maintained, is assumed to be based on the lifelong training of various abilities. The Motivational Reserve in Alzheimer's (MoReA) is a longitudinal study that aims to examine motivational processes as a protective factor in mild Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This paper presents the results of motivational variables, frequency of diagnoses, and prediction of global cognition as well as depression in a one-year longitudinal study. The sample consists of 64 subjects with MCI and 47 subjects with mild AD at baseline. At baseline, the physical/neurological examinations, standard clinical assessment, neuropsychological testing, and assessment of motivational variables were performed. At follow-up (FU) one year later, neuropsychological testing including cognition, functional abilities, behavioral and affective symptoms, and global clinical assessments of severity have been repeated. AD cases have lower motivational capacities as measured with a midlife motivation-related occupational score and informant-reported present motivational processes, but do not differ with regard to delay of gratification (DoG) and self-reported motivational processes. DoG and delay discounting (DD) were relatively stable during the measurement interval. However, 20 % of the MCI cases converted to mild AD at FU, and 17 % of the mild AD cases converted to moderate AD. The rate of depression of Alzheimer's disease was 9 at baseline and 21 % at FU, and the rate of apathy was 7 and 14 %, respectively. Global cognition at FU was mainly predicted by baseline global cognition but also by one of the motivational variables (scenario test). Depression at FU was predicted mainly by two motivational variables (self-reported and informant-reported motivational processes). This research might inform motivation-related strategies for

  15. Economic value evaluation in disease management programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magnezi, Racheli; Reicher, Sima; Shani, Mordechai

    2008-05-01

    Chronic disease management has been a rapidly growing entity in the 21st century as a strategy for managing chronic illnesses in large populations. However, experience has shown that disease management programs have not been able to demonstrate their financial value. The objectives of disease management programs are to create quality benchmarks, such as principles and guidelines, and to establish a uniform set of metrics and a standardized methodology for evaluating them. In order to illuminate the essence of disease management and its components, as well as the complexity and the problematic nature of performing economic calculations of their profitability and value, we collected data from several reports that dealt with the economic intervention of disease management programs. The disease management economic evaluation is composed of a series of steps, including the following major categories: data/information technology, information generation, assessment/recommendations, actionable customer plans, and program assessment/reassessment. We demonstrate the elements necessary for economic analysis. Disease management is one of the most innovative tools in the managed care environment and is still in the process of being defined. Therefore, objectives should include the creation of quality measures, such as principles and guidelines, and the establishment of a uniform set of metrics and a standardized methodology for evaluating them.

  16. Process for removing and detoxifying cadmium from scrap metal including mixed waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kronberg, J.W.

    1994-01-01

    Cadmium-bearing scrap from nuclear applications, such as neutron shielding and reactor control and safety rods, must usually be handled as mixed waste since it is radioactive and the cadmium in it is both leachable and highly toxic. Removing the cadmium from this scrap, and converting it to a nonleachable and minimally radioactive form, would greatly simplify disposal or recycling. A process now under development will do this by shredding the scrap; leaching it with reagents which selectively dissolve out the cadmium; reprecipitating the cadmium as its highly insoluble sulfide; then fusing the sulfide into a glassy matrix to bring its leachability below EPA limits before disposal. Alternatively, the cadmium may be recovered for reuse. A particular advantage of the process is that all reagents (except the glass frit) can easily be recovered and reused in a nearly closed cycle, minimizing the risk of radioactive release. The process does not harm common metals such as aluminum, iron and stainless steel, and is also applicable to non-nuclear cadmium-bearing scrap such as nickel-cadmium batteries

  17. Old Fashioned vs. Ultra-Processed-Based Current Diets: Possible Implication in the Increased Susceptibility to Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease in Childhood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguayo-Patrón, Sandra V.; Calderón de la Barca, Ana M.

    2017-01-01

    Ultra-processed foods are ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat products created to replace traditional homemade meals and dishes due to convenience and accessibility. Because of their low-fiber and high-fat and sugar composition, these foodstuffs could induce a negative impact on health. They are partially responsible for obesity and chronic non-transmissible diseases; additionally, they could impact in the prevalence of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. The rationale is that the nutritional composition of ultra-processed foodstuffs can induce gut dysbiosis, promoting a pro-inflammatory response and consequently, a “leaky gut”. These factors have been associated with increased risk of autoimmunity in genetically predisposed children. In addition, food emulsifiers, commonly used in ultra-processed products could modify the gut microbiota and intestinal permeability, which could increase the risk of autoimmunity. In contrast, unprocessed and minimally processed food-based diets have shown the capacity to promote gut microbiota eubiosis, anti-inflammatory response, and epithelial integrity, through bacterial butyrate production. Thus, to decrease the susceptibility to autoimmunity, genetically predisposed children should avoid ultra-processed food products and encourage the consumption of fresh and minimally processed foods. PMID:29140275

  18. Old Fashioned vs. Ultra-Processed-Based Current Diets: Possible Implication in the Increased Susceptibility to Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease in Childhood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra V. Aguayo-Patrón

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Ultra-processed foods are ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat products created to replace traditional homemade meals and dishes due to convenience and accessibility. Because of their low-fiber and high-fat and sugar composition, these foodstuffs could induce a negative impact on health. They are partially responsible for obesity and chronic non-transmissible diseases; additionally, they could impact in the prevalence of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. The rationale is that the nutritional composition of ultra-processed foodstuffs can induce gut dysbiosis, promoting a pro-inflammatory response and consequently, a “leaky gut”. These factors have been associated with increased risk of autoimmunity in genetically predisposed children. In addition, food emulsifiers, commonly used in ultra-processed products could modify the gut microbiota and intestinal permeability, which could increase the risk of autoimmunity. In contrast, unprocessed and minimally processed food-based diets have shown the capacity to promote gut microbiota eubiosis, anti-inflammatory response, and epithelial integrity, through bacterial butyrate production. Thus, to decrease the susceptibility to autoimmunity, genetically predisposed children should avoid ultra-processed food products and encourage the consumption of fresh and minimally processed foods.

  19. Old Fashioned vs. Ultra-Processed-Based Current Diets: Possible Implication in the Increased Susceptibility to Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease in Childhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguayo-Patrón, Sandra V; Calderón de la Barca, Ana M

    2017-11-15

    Ultra-processed foods are ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat products created to replace traditional homemade meals and dishes due to convenience and accessibility. Because of their low-fiber and high-fat and sugar composition, these foodstuffs could induce a negative impact on health. They are partially responsible for obesity and chronic non-transmissible diseases; additionally, they could impact in the prevalence of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. The rationale is that the nutritional composition of ultra-processed foodstuffs can induce gut dysbiosis, promoting a pro-inflammatory response and consequently, a "leaky gut". These factors have been associated with increased risk of autoimmunity in genetically predisposed children. In addition, food emulsifiers, commonly used in ultra-processed products could modify the gut microbiota and intestinal permeability, which could increase the risk of autoimmunity. In contrast, unprocessed and minimally processed food-based diets have shown the capacity to promote gut microbiota eubiosis, anti-inflammatory response, and epithelial integrity, through bacterial butyrate production. Thus, to decrease the susceptibility to autoimmunity, genetically predisposed children should avoid ultra-processed food products and encourage the consumption of fresh and minimally processed foods.

  20. E-education in pathology including certification of e-institutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kayser, Klaus; Ogilvie, Robert; Borkenfeld, Stephan; Kayser, Gian

    2011-03-30

    E-education or electronically transferred continuous education in pathology is one major application of virtual microscopy. The basic conditions and properties of acoustic and visual information transfer, of teaching and learning processes, as well as of knowledge and competence, influence its implementation to a high degree. Educational programs and structures can be judged by access to the basic conditions, by description of the teaching resources, methods, and its program, as well as by identification of competences, and development of an appropriate evaluation system. Classic teaching and learning methods present a constant, usually non-reversible information flow. They are subject to personal circumstances of both teacher and student. The methods of information presentation need to be distinguished between static and dynamic, between acoustic and visual ones. Electronic tools in education include local manually assisted tools (language assistants, computer-assisted design, etc.), local passive tools (slides, movies, sounds, music), open access tools (internet), and specific tools such as Webinars. From the medical point of view information content can be divided into constant (gross and microscopic anatomy) and variable (disease related) items. Most open access available medical courses teach constant information such as anatomy or physiology. Mandatory teaching resources are image archives with user-controlled navigation and labelling, student-oriented user manuals, discussion forums, and expert consultation. A classic undergraduate electronic educational system is WebMic which presents with histology lectures. An example designed for postgraduate teaching is the digital lung pathology system. It includes a description of diagnostic and therapeutic features of 60 rare and common lung diseases, partly in multimedia presentation. Combining multimedia features with the organization structures of a virtual pathology institution will result in a virtual pathology

  1. Contemporary disease management in Quebec.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gogovor, Amédé; Savoie, Michelle; Moride, Yola; Krelenbaum, Marilyn; Montague, Terrence

    2008-01-01

    Health or disease management (DM) has emerged as a promising solution to improve the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes in a cost-efficient way. This solution is particularly relevant in the care of our increasing, and aging, patient populations with multiple chronic diseases. This article reviews the recent history and current status of DM in the province of Quebec and summarizes its evolving perspectives and future prospects. Most DM projects in Quebec have developed from a public-private partnership, and they have addressed several disease states. The results of completed programs confirmed the presence of care gaps--the differences between best and usual care in several disease states. They also identified process changes leading to improved practices and enhanced professional satisfaction among stakeholders. Priorities identified for further research include increased knowledge of the underlying causes of care gaps and greater concentration on the measurement of clinical, humanistic and fiscal outcomes and their causal links to DM structures and processes. Although still embryonic in Quebec and Canada, the available evidence suggests that DM partnerships are practical and functional vehicles to expedite knowledge creation and transfer in the care of whole populations of patients. Future projects offer the promise of updated knowledge and continuously improved care and outcomes.

  2. Eye movement analysis and cognitive processing: detecting indicators of conversion to Alzheimer’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, Marta LG Freitas; Camargo, Marina von Zuben A; Aprahamian, Ivan; Forlenza, Orestes V

    2014-01-01

    A great amount of research has been developed around the early cognitive impairments that best predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Given that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is no longer considered to be an intermediate state between normal aging and AD, new paths have been traced to acquire further knowledge about this condition and its subtypes, and to determine which of them have a higher risk of conversion to AD. It is now known that other deficits besides episodic and semantic memory impairments may be present in the early stages of AD, such as visuospatial and executive function deficits. Furthermore, recent investigations have proven that the hippocampus and the medial temporal lobe structures are not only involved in memory functioning, but also in visual processes. These early changes in memory, visual, and executive processes may also be detected with the study of eye movement patterns in pathological conditions like MCI and AD. In the present review, we attempt to explore the existing literature concerning these patterns of oculomotor changes and how these changes are related to the early signs of AD. In particular, we argue that deficits in visual short-term memory, specifically in iconic memory, attention processes, and inhibitory control, may be found through the analysis of eye movement patterns, and we discuss how they might help to predict the progression from MCI to AD. We add that the study of eye movement patterns in these conditions, in combination with neuroimaging techniques and appropriate neuropsychological tasks based on rigorous concepts derived from cognitive psychology, may highlight the early presence of cognitive impairments in the course of the disease. PMID:25031536

  3. Regulatory Role of N6 -methyladenosine (m6 A) Methylation in RNA Processing and Human Diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Wenqiang; Ji, Xinying; Guo, Xiangqian; Ji, Shaoping

    2017-09-01

    N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A) modification is an abundant and conservative RNA modification in bacterial and eukaryotic cells. m 6 A modification mainly occurs in the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) and near the stop codons of mRNA. Diverse strategies have been developed for identifying m 6 A sites in single nucleotide resolution. Dynamic regulation of m 6 A is found in metabolism, embryogenesis, and developmental processes, indicating a possible epigenetic regulation role along RNA processing and exerting biological functions. It has been known that m 6 A editing involves in nuclear RNA export, mRNA degradation, protein translation, and RNA splicing. Deficiency of m 6 A modification will lead to kinds of diseases, such as obesity, cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), infertility, and developmental arrest. Some specific inhibitors against methyltransferase and demethylase have been developed to selectively regulate m 6 A modification, which may be advantageous for treatment of m 6 A related diseases. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 2534-2543, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Model Selection and Evaluation Based on Emerging Infectious Disease Data Sets including A/H1N1 and Ebola

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wendi Liu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the present study is to apply simple ODE models in the area of modeling the spread of emerging infectious diseases and show the importance of model selection in estimating parameters, the basic reproduction number, turning point, and final size. To quantify the plausibility of each model, given the data and the set of four models including Logistic, Gompertz, Rosenzweg, and Richards models, the Bayes factors are calculated and the precise estimates of the best fitted model parameters and key epidemic characteristics have been obtained. In particular, for Ebola the basic reproduction numbers are 1.3522 (95% CI (1.3506, 1.3537, 1.2101 (95% CI (1.2084, 1.2119, 3.0234 (95% CI (2.6063, 3.4881, and 1.9018 (95% CI (1.8565, 1.9478, the turning points are November 7,November 17, October 2, and November 3, 2014, and the final sizes until December 2015 are 25794 (95% CI (25630, 25958, 3916 (95% CI (3865, 3967, 9886 (95% CI (9740, 10031, and 12633 (95% CI (12515, 12750 for West Africa, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, respectively. The main results confirm that model selection is crucial in evaluating and predicting the important quantities describing the emerging infectious diseases, and arbitrarily picking a model without any consideration of alternatives is problematic.

  5. Going through the motions: incorporating movement analyses into disease research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dougherty, Eric R; Seidel, Dana P; Carlson, Colin J; Spiegel, Orr; Getz, Wayne M

    2018-04-01

    Though epidemiology dates back to the 1700s, most mathematical representations of epidemics still use transmission rates averaged at the population scale, especially for wildlife diseases. In simplifying the contact process, we ignore the heterogeneities in host movements that complicate the real world, and overlook their impact on spatiotemporal patterns of disease burden. Movement ecology offers a set of tools that help unpack the transmission process, letting researchers more accurately model how animals within a population interact and spread pathogens. Analytical techniques from this growing field can also help expose the reverse process: how infection impacts movement behaviours, and therefore other ecological processes like feeding, reproduction, and dispersal. Here, we synthesise the contributions of movement ecology in disease research, with a particular focus on studies that have successfully used movement-based methods to quantify individual heterogeneity in exposure and transmission risk. Throughout, we highlight the rapid growth of both disease and movement ecology and comment on promising but unexplored avenues for research at their overlap. Ultimately, we suggest, including movement empowers ecologists to pose new questions, expanding our understanding of host-pathogen dynamics and improving our predictive capacity for wildlife and even human diseases. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

  6. Systematic review with meta-analysis: online psychological interventions for mental and physical health outcomes in gastrointestinal disorders including irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanlon, I; Hewitt, C; Bell, K; Phillips, A; Mikocka-Walus, A

    2018-06-14

    Online psychotherapy has been successfully used as supportive treatment in many chronic illnesses. However, there is a lack of evidence on its role in the management of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. To examine whether online psychological interventions improve mental and physical outcomes in gastrointestinal diseases. We searched CINAHL Plus, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Health Management Information Consortium, PsycINFO, British Nursing Index, Cochrane Library, a specialised register of the IBD/FBD Cochrane Group, MEDLINE (PubMed) WHO International Clinical Trial Registry, ClinicalTrials.gov, and reference lists of all papers included in the review. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess internal validity. Where possible, data were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. We identified 11 publications (encompassing nine studies) meeting inclusion criteria. One study had a high risk of selection bias (allocation concealment), all studies had a high risk of performance and detection bias. Eight studies were included in the meta-analyses (6 on irritable bowel syndrome [IBS] and two on inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]). Online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was shown to significantly improve gastrointestinal symptom-specific anxiety (MD: -8.51, 95% CI -12.99 to -4.04, P = 0.0002) and lessen symptom-induced disability (MD: -2.78, 95% CI -5.43 to -0.12, P = 0.04) in IBS post intervention. There was no significant effect of online CBT on any other outcomes in IBS. No significant effect of online psychotherapy was demonstrated in IBD. There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of online CBT to manage mental and physical outcomes in gastrointestinal diseases. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Emotion Processing for Arousal and Neutral Content in Alzheimer's Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Corina Satler

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. To assess the ability of Alzheimer's disease (AD patients to perceive emotional information and to assign subjective emotional rating scores to audiovisual presentations. Materials and Methods. 24 subjects (14 with AD, matched to controls for age and educational levels were studied. After neuropsychological assessment, they watched a Neutral story and then a story with Emotional content. Results. Recall scores for both stories were significantly lower in AD (Neutral and Emotional: P=.001. CG assigned different emotional scores for each version of the test, P=.001, while ratings of AD did not differ, P=.32. Linear regression analyses determined the best predictors of emotional rating and recognition memory for each group among neuropsychological tests battery. Conclusions. AD patients show changes in emotional processing on declarative memory and a preserved ability to express emotions in face of arousal content. The present findings suggest that these impairments are due to general cognitive decline.

  8. Age by Disease Biological Interactions: Implications for Late-Life Depression

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brandon eMcKinney

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Onset of depressive symptoms after the age of 65, or late-life depression (LLD, is common and poses a significant burden on affected individuals, caretakers and society. Evidence suggests a unique biological basis for LLD, but current hypotheses do not account for its pathophysiological complexity. Here we propose a novel etiological framework for LLD, the age-by-disease biological interaction hypothesis, based on the observations that the subset of genes that undergoes lifelong progressive changes in expression is restricted to a specific set of biological processes, and that a disproportionate number of these age-dependent genes have been previously and similarly implicated in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression. The age-by-disease biological interaction hypothesis posits that age-dependent biological processes (i are pushed in LLD-promoting directions by changes in gene expression naturally occurring during brain aging, which (ii directly contribute to pathophysiological mechanisms of LLD, and (iii that individual variability in rates of age-dependent changes determines risk or resiliency to develop age-related disorders, including LLD. We review observations supporting this hypothesis, including consistent and specific age-dependent changes in brain gene expression, and their overlap with neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disease pathways. We then review preliminary reports supporting the genetic component of this hypothesis. Other potential biological mediators of age-dependent gene changes are proposed. We speculate that studies examining the relative contribution of these mechanisms to age-dependent changes and related disease mechanisms will not only provide critical information on the biology of normal aging of the human brain, but will inform our understanding our age-dependent diseases, in time fostering the development of new interventions for prevention and treatment of age-dependent diseases

  9. Proteases and proteolysis in Alzheimer disease: a multifactorial view on the disease process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Strooper, Bart

    2010-04-01

    Alzheimer disease is characterized by the accumulation of abnormally folded protein fragments, i.e., amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) and tau that precipitate in amyloid plaques and neuronal tangles, respectively. In this review we discuss the complicated proteolytic pathways that are responsible for the generation and clearance of these fragments, and how disturbances in these pathways interact and provide a background for a novel understanding of Alzheimer disease as a multifactorial disorder. Recent insights evolve from the static view that the morphologically defined plaques and tangles are disease driving towards a more dynamic, biochemical view in which the intermediary soluble Abeta oligomers and soluble tau fragments are considered as the main mediators of neurotoxicity. The relevance of proteolytic pathways, centered on the generation and clearance of toxic Abeta, on the cleavage and nucleation of tau, and on the general proteostasis of the neurons, then becomes obvious. Blocking or stimulating these pathways provide, or have the potential to provide, interesting drug targets, which raises the hope that we will be able to provide a cure for this dreadful disorder.

  10. The stability of AQT processing speed, ADAS-Cog and MMSE during acetylcholinesterase inhibitor treatment in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiig, E H; Annas, P; Basun, H; Andreasen, N; Lannfelt, L; Zetterberg, H; Blennow, K; Minthon, L

    2010-03-01

    To explore the longitudinal stability of measures of cognition during treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AchEI) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Cognitive status was measured in a cohort of 60 patients at 6 months after initiation of treatment with AchEI (baseline) and after an additional 6 months of treatment (endpoint). A Quick Test of Cognitive Speed (AQT), Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog), and MMSE were administered concurrently. Correlations (rho) between age and AQT processing speed were non-significant, but were significant for ADAS-Cog and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). AQT and ADAS-Cog means did not differ significantly between baseline and endpoint. There was a small, significant reduction in MMSE point scores. Measures of stability (Spearman's rho) were moderate-to-high for all tests. Means for subgroups did not differ as a function of medication type. AQT processing speed, ADAS-Cog, and MMSE measures proved stable during the second 6 months of treatment with AChEI.

  11. Relationships between structure, process and outcome to assess quality of integrated chronic disease management in a rural South African setting: applying a structural equation model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ameh, Soter; Gómez-Olivé, Francesc Xavier; Kahn, Kathleen; Tollman, Stephen M; Klipstein-Grobusch, Kerstin

    2017-03-23

    South Africa faces a complex dual burden of chronic communicable and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In response, the Integrated Chronic Disease Management (ICDM) model was initiated in primary health care (PHC) facilities in 2011 to leverage the HIV/ART programme to scale-up services for NCDs, achieve optimal patient health outcomes and improve the quality of medical care. However, little is known about the quality of care in the ICDM model. The objectives of this study were to: i) assess patients' and operational managers' satisfaction with the dimensions of ICDM services; and ii) evaluate the quality of care in the ICDM model using Avedis Donabedian's theory of relationships between structure (resources), process (clinical activities) and outcome (desired result of healthcare) constructs as a measure of quality of care. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 in seven PHC facilities in the Bushbuckridge municipality of Mpumalanga Province, north-east South Africa - an area underpinned by a robust Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). The patient satisfaction questionnaire (PSQ-18), with measures reflecting structure/process/outcome (SPO) constructs, was adapted and administered to 435 chronic disease patients and the operational managers of all seven PHC facilities. The adapted questionnaire contained 17 dimensions of care, including eight dimensions identified as priority areas in the ICDM model - critical drugs, equipment, referral, defaulter tracing, prepacking of medicines, clinic appointments, waiting time, and coherence. A structural equation model was fit to operationalise Donabedian's theory, using unidirectional, mediation, and reciprocal pathways. The mediation pathway showed that the relationships between structure, process and outcome represented quality systems in the ICDM model. Structure correlated with process (0.40) and outcome (0.75). Given structure, process correlated with outcome (0.88). Of the 17 dimensions of care in

  12. Enhanced peripheral visual processing in congenitally deaf humans is supported by multiple brain regions, including primary auditory cortex

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gregory D. Scott

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Brain reorganization associated with altered sensory experience clarifies the critical role of neuroplasticity in development. An example is enhanced peripheral visual processing associated with congenital deafness, but the neural systems supporting this have not been fully characterized. A gap in our understanding of deafness-enhanced peripheral vision is the contribution of primary auditory cortex. Previous studies of auditory cortex that use anatomical normalization across participants were limited by inter-subject variability of Heschl’s gyrus. In addition to reorganized auditory cortex (cross-modal plasticity, a second gap in our understanding is the contribution of altered modality-specific cortices (visual intramodal plasticity in this case, as well as supramodal and multisensory cortices, especially when target detection is required across contrasts. Here we address these gaps by comparing fMRI signal change for peripheral versus perifoveal visual stimulation (11-15° vs. 2°-7° in congenitally deaf and hearing participants in a blocked experimental design with two analytical approaches: a Heschl’s gyrus region of interest analysis and a whole brain analysis. Our results using individually-defined primary auditory cortex (Heschl’s gyrus indicate that fMRI signal change for more peripheral stimuli was greater than perifoveal in deaf but not in hearing participants. Whole-brain analyses revealed differences between deaf and hearing participants for peripheral versus perifoveal visual processing in extrastriate visual cortex including primary auditory cortex, MT+/V5, superior-temporal auditory and multisensory and/or supramodal regions, such as posterior parietal cortex, frontal eye fields, anterior cingulate, and supplementary eye fields. Overall, these data demonstrate the contribution of neuroplasticity in multiple systems including primary auditory cortex, supramodal and multisensory regions, to altered visual processing in

  13. DSP30 and interleukin-2 as a mitotic stimulant in B-cell disorders including those with a low disease burden.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dun, Karen A; Riley, Louise A; Diano, Giuseppe; Adams, Leanne B; Chiu, Eleanor; Sharma, Archna

    2018-05-01

    Chromosome abnormalities detected during cytogenetic investigations for B-cell malignancy offer prognostic information that can have wide ranging clinical impacts on patients. These impacts may include monitoring frequency, treatment type, and disease staging level. The use of the synthetic oligonucleotide DSP30 combined with interleukin 2 (IL2) has been described as an effective mitotic stimulant in B-cell disorders, not only in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) but also in a range of other B-cell malignancies. Here, we describe the comparison of two B-cell mitogens, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and DSP30 combined with IL2 as mitogens in a range of common B-cell disorders excluding CLL. The results showed that DSP30/IL2 was an effective mitogen in mature B-cell disorders, revealing abnormal cytogenetic results in a range of B-cell malignancies. The abnormality rate increased when compared to the use of LPS to 64% (DSP30/IL2) from 14% (LPS). In a number of cases the disease burden was proportionally very low, less than 10% of white cells. In 37% of these cases, the DSP30 culture revealed abnormal results. Importantly, we also obtained abnormal conventional cytogenetics results in 3 bone marrow cases in which immunophenotyping showed an absence of an abnormal B-cell clone. In these cases, the cytogenetics results correlated with the provisional diagnosis and altered their staging level. The use of DSP30 and IL2 is recommended for use in many B-cell malignancies as an effective mitogen and their use has been shown to enable successful culture of the malignant clone, even at very low levels of disease. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Suppurative processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vinner, M.G.

    1983-01-01

    Suppurative process in the case of bronchiectatic disease, abscess and gang rene of lungs, has been described. Characteristic signs of roentgenologic pictu re of the above-mentioned diseases are considered. It is shown,that in most cas es roentgenologic studies give a possibility to make a high-quality diagnosis of suppurative processes

  15. Aptamer and its applications in neurodegenerative diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qu, Jing; Yu, Shuqing; Zheng, Yuan; Zheng, Yan; Yang, Hui; Zhang, Jianliang

    2017-02-01

    Aptamers are small single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotide fragments or small peptides, which can bind to targets by high affinity and specificity. Because aptamers are specific, non-immunogenic and non-toxic, they are ideal materials for clinical applications. Neurodegenerative disorders are ravaging the lives of patients. Even though the mechanism of these diseases is still elusive, they are mainly characterized by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the central nervous system. So it is essential to develop potential measures to slow down or prevent the onset of these diseases. With the advancements of the technologies, aptamers have opened up new areas in this research field. Aptamers could bind with these related target proteins to interrupt their accumulation, subsequently blocking or preventing the process of neurodegenerative diseases. This review presents recent advances in the aptamer generation and its merits and limitations, with emphasis on its applications in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis.

  16. Hodgkin's disease part 1: pathology, staging, and management of early stage disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mauch, Peter; Yahalom, Joachim

    1995-01-01

    Over the past 25 years there have been dramatic improvements in our understanding of the epidemiology, biology, natural history, and treatment of Hodgkins disease. Hodgkin's disease is one of the few cancers where both chemotherapy and radiation therapy have provided dramatic improvements in cure of this once uniformly fatal disease. Part 1 of the refresher course on Hodgkin's disease will include a review of: 1) New Findings in epidemiology, immunohistochemistry and molecular biology of the Reed-Sternberg cell including association with Epstein-Barr virus; 2) Review of pathology including discussions of NS 1 vs NS2, and nodular LP subclassifications; 3) Recommendations for staging including the role of staging laparotomy in Hodgkin's disease; 4) Standard techniques for commonly used radiation therapy fields for Hodgkin's disease and 5) Treatment of early stage Hodgkin's disease including an overview on recent and current clinical trials

  17. Rumination and behavioural factors in Parkinson's disease depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Julien, Camille L; Rimes, Katharine A; Brown, Richard G

    2016-03-01

    Parkinson's disease is associated with high rates of depression. There is growing interest in non-pharmacological management including psychological approaches such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. To date, little research has investigated whether processes that underpin cognitive models of depression, on which such treatment is based, apply in patients with Parkinson's disease. The study aimed to investigate the contribution of core psychological factors to the presence and degree of depressive symptoms. 104 participants completed questionnaires measuring mood, motor disability and core psychological variables, including maladaptive assumptions, rumination, cognitive-behavioural avoidance, illness representations and cognitive-behavioural responses to symptoms. Regression analyses revealed that a small number of psychological factors accounted for the majority of depression variance, over and above that explained by overall disability. Participants reporting high levels of rumination, avoidance and symptom focusing experienced more severe depressive symptoms. In contrast, pervasive negative dysfunctional beliefs did not independently contribute to depression variance. Specific cognitive (rumination and symptom focusing) and behavioural (avoidance) processes may be key psychological markers of depression in Parkinson's disease and therefore offer important targets for tailored psychological interventions. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Close relationship processes and health: implications of attachment theory for health and disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pietromonaco, Paula R; Uchino, Bert; Dunkel Schetter, Christine

    2013-05-01

    Health psychology has contributed significantly to understanding the link between psychological factors and health and well-being, but it has not often incorporated advances in relationship science into hypothesis generation and study design. We present one example of a theoretical model, following from a major relationship theory (attachment theory) that integrates relationship constructs and processes with biopsychosocial processes and health outcomes. We briefly describe attachment theory and present a general framework linking it to dyadic relationship processes (relationship behaviors, mediators, and outcomes) and health processes (physiology, affective states, health behavior, and health outcomes). We discuss the utility of the model for research in several health domains (e.g., self-regulation of health behavior, pain, chronic disease) and its implications for interventions and future research. This framework revealed important gaps in knowledge about relationships and health. Future work in this area will benefit from taking into account individual differences in attachment, adopting a more explicit dyadic approach, examining more integrated models that test for mediating processes, and incorporating a broader range of relationship constructs that have implications for health. A theoretical framework for studying health that is based in relationship science can accelerate progress by generating new research directions designed to pinpoint the mechanisms through which close relationships promote or undermine health. Furthermore, this knowledge can be applied to develop more effective interventions to help individuals and their relationship partners with health-related challenges. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

  19. Valvular Heart Disease in Heart Failure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppe MC Rosano

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Structural valvular heart disease may be the cause of heart failure or may worsen the clinical status of patients with heart failure. Heart failure may also develop in patients treated with valve surgery. Patients with heart failure with valvular heart disease are at increased risk of events including sudden cardiac death. Before considering intervention (surgical or percutaneous all patients should receive appropriate medical and device therapy taking into account that vasodilators must be used with caution in patients with severe aortic stenosis. Numerous percutaneous and/or hybrid procedures have been introduced in the past few years and they are changing the management of valvular heart disease. In patients with heart failure and valvular heart disease, either primary or functional, the whole process of decision-making should be staged through a comprehensive evaluation of the risk– benefit ratio of different treatment strategies and should be made by a multidisciplinary ‘heart team’ with a particular expertise in valvular heart disease. The heart team should include heart failure cardiologists, cardiac surgeons/structural valve interventionists, imaging specialists, anaesthetists, geriatricians and intensive care specialists. This article will review recent developments and distill practical guidance in the management of this important heart failure co-morbidity.

  20. An approach to and web-based tool for infectious disease outbreak intervention analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daughton, Ashlynn R.; Generous, Nicholas; Priedhorsky, Reid; Deshpande, Alina

    2017-04-01

    Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death globally. Decisions surrounding how to control an infectious disease outbreak currently rely on a subjective process involving surveillance and expert opinion. However, there are many situations where neither may be available. Modeling can fill gaps in the decision making process by using available data to provide quantitative estimates of outbreak trajectories. Effective reduction of the spread of infectious diseases can be achieved through collaboration between the modeling community and public health policy community. However, such collaboration is rare, resulting in a lack of models that meet the needs of the public health community. Here we show a Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) model modified to include control measures that allows parameter ranges, rather than parameter point estimates, and includes a web user interface for broad adoption. We apply the model to three diseases, measles, norovirus and influenza, to show the feasibility of its use and describe a research agenda to further promote interactions between decision makers and the modeling community.

  1. The role of infection in morphea disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatemeh Farhangdoost

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Morphea is a skin disorder that leads to the sclerosis of the dermis and subcutaneous tissue. In epidemiologic studies, the incidence rate of approximately 0.4 to 2.7 per 100,000 people has been reported that is equal in adults and children. Based on clinical findings of disease and presentations, morphea disease has been divided into four major types including plaque-type, linear, generalized and a miscellaneous group with morphologically distinct phenotypes. Overall, plaque-type is the most common type of morphea. This disease is characterized by three main histopathologic features that include deposition of collagen in the dermis sometimes with extension to subcutis, vascular changes and an inflammatory cell infiltration, particularly in early lesions. Morphea is a multifactorial process that its main underlying cause is not completely known but the most common causes related to the genesis of morphea including trauma, radiation, medications, infection, autoimmunity and microchimerism. In this paper, we review the literature about the role of infection in the genesis of morphea.

  2. Development of a two-dimensional simulation code (koad) including atomic processes for beam direct energy conversion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamamoto, Y.; Yoshikawa, K.; Hattori, Y.

    1987-01-01

    A two-dimensional simulation code for the beam direct energy conversion called KVAD (Kyoto University Advanced DART) including various loss mechanisms has been developed, and shown excellent agreement with the authors' experiments using the He + beams. The beam direct energy converter (BDC) is the device to recover the kinetic energy of unneutralized ions in the neutral beam injection (NBI) system directly into electricity. The BDC is very important and essential not only to the improvements of NBI system efficiency, but also to the relaxation of high heat flux problems on the beam dump with increase of injection energies. So far no simulation code could have successfully predicted BDC experimental results. The KUAD code applies, an optimized algorithm for vector processing, the finite element method (FEM) for potential calculation, and a semi-automatic method for spatial segmentations. Since particle trajectories in the KVAD code are analytically solved, very high speed tracings of the particle could be achieved by introducing an adjacent element matrix to identify the neighboring triangle elements and electrodes. Ion space charges are also analytically calculated by the Cloud in Cell (CIC) method, as well as electron space charges. Power losses due to atomic processes can be also evaluated in the KUAD code

  3. Cell ageing: a flourishing field for neurodegenerative diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dora Brites

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Cellular senescence is viewed as an irreversible cell-cycle arrest mechanism involving a complexity of biological progressive processes and the acquisition of diverse cellular phenotypes. Several cell-intrinsic and extrinsic causes (stresses may lead to diverse cellular signaling cascades that include oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, DNA damage, excessive accumulation of misfolded proteins, impaired microRNA processing and inflammation. Here we review recent advances in the causes and consequences of brain cell ageing, including the senescence of endothelial cells at the central nervous system barriers, as well as of neurons and glial cells. We address what makes ageing an important risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cerebrovascular disease. In particular, we highlight the importance of defects in mitochondrial dynamics, in the cathepsin activity imbalance, in cell-cell communication, in the accumulation of misfolded and unfolded proteins and in the microRNA profiling as having potential impact on cellular ageing processes. Another important aspect is that the absence of specific senescence biomarkers has hampered the characterization of senescent cells in ageing and age-associated diseases. In accordance, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP or secretome was shown to vary in distinct cell types and upon different stressors, and SASP heterogeneity is believed to create subsets of senenescent cells. In addition to secreted proteins, we then place extracellular vesicles (exosomes and ectosomes as important mediators of intercellular communication with pathophysiological roles in disease spreading, and as emerging targets for therapeutic intervention. We also discuss the application of engineered extracellular vesicles as vehicles for drug delivery. Finally, we summarize current knowledge on methods to rejuvenate senescent cells

  4. Function and modulation of premotor brainstem parasympathetic cardiac neurons that control heart rate by hypoxia-, sleep-, and sleep-related diseases including obstructive sleep apnea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dergacheva, Olga; Weigand, Letitia A; Dyavanapalli, Jhansi; Mares, Jacquelyn; Wang, Xin; Mendelowitz, David

    2014-01-01

    Parasympathetic cardiac vagal neurons (CVNs) in the brainstem dominate the control of heart rate. Previous work has determined that these neurons are inherently silent, and their activity is largely determined by synaptic inputs to CVNs that include four major types of synapses that release glutamate, GABA, glycine, or serotonin. Whereas prior reviews have focused on glutamatergic, GABAergic and glycinergic pathways, and the receptors in CVNs activated by these neurotransmitters, this review focuses on the alterations in CVN activity with hypoxia-, sleep-, and sleep-related cardiovascular diseases including obstructive sleep apnea. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Basics of Radiation Biology When Treating Hyperproliferative Benign Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Franz Rödel

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available For decades, low- and moderate-dose radiation therapy (RT has been shown to exert a beneficial therapeutic effect in a multitude of non-malignant conditions including painful degenerative muscoloskeletal and hyperproliferative disorders. Dupuytren and Ledderhose diseases are benign fibroproliferative diseases of the hand/foot with fibrotic nodules and fascial cords, which determine debilitating contractures and deformities of fingers/toes, while keloids are exuberant scar formations following burn damage, surgery, and trauma. Although RT has become an established and effective option in the management of these diseases, experimental studies to illustrate cellular composites and factors involved remain to be elucidated. More recent findings, however, indicate the involvement of radiation-sensitive targets like mitotic fibroblasts/myofibroblasts as well as inflammatory cells. Radiation-related molecular mechanisms affecting these target cells include the production of free radicals to hamper proliferative activity and interference with growth factors and cytokines. Moreover, an impairment of activated immune cells involved in both myofibroblast proliferative and inflammatory processes may further contribute to the clinical effects. We here aim at briefly describing mechanisms contributing to a modulation of proliferative and inflammatory processes and to summarize current concepts of treating hyperproliferative diseases by low and moderate doses of ionizing radiation.

  6. Does Vitamin C Influence Neurodegenerative Diseases and Psychiatric Disorders?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luchowska-Kocot, Dorota; Kiełczykowska, Małgorzata; Musik, Irena; Kurzepa, Jacek

    2017-01-01

    Vitamin C (Vit C) is considered to be a vital antioxidant molecule in the brain. Intracellular Vit C helps maintain integrity and function of several processes in the central nervous system (CNS), including neuronal maturation and differentiation, myelin formation, synthesis of catecholamine, modulation of neurotransmission and antioxidant protection. The importance of Vit C for CNS function has been proven by the fact that targeted deletion of the sodium-vitamin C co-transporter in mice results in widespread cerebral hemorrhage and death on post-natal day one. Since neurological diseases are characterized by increased free radical generation and the highest concentrations of Vit C in the body are found in the brain and neuroendocrine tissues, it is suggested that Vit C may change the course of neurological diseases and display potential therapeutic roles. The aim of this review is to update the current state of knowledge of the role of vitamin C on neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic sclerosis, as well as psychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. The particular attention is attributed to understanding of the mechanisms underlying possible therapeutic properties of ascorbic acid in the presented disorders. PMID:28654017

  7. The process of trying to quit smoking from the perspective of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundh, Lena; Hylander, Ingrid; Törnkvist, Lena

    2012-09-01

    To investigate why some patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have difficulty quitting smoking and to develop a theoretical model that describes their perspectives on these difficulties. Grounded theory method was used from the selection of participants to the analyses of semi-structured interviews with 14 patients with COPD. Four additional interviews were conducted to ensure relevance. The analysis resulted in a theoretical model that illustrates the process of 'Patients with COPD trying to quit smoking'. The model illuminates factors related to the decision to try to quit smoking, including pressure-filled mental states and constructive or destructive pressure-relief strategies. The constructive strategies lead either to success in quitting or to continuing to try to quit. The destructive strategies can lead to losing hope and becoming resigned to continuing to smoke. The theoretical model 'Patients trying to quit smoking' contributes to a better understanding of the pressure-filled mental states and destructive strategies experienced by some patients with COPD in the process of trying to quit. This better understanding can help nurses individualise counselling. Moreover, patients' own awareness of these states and strategies may facilitate their efforts to quit. The information in the model can also be used as a supplement to methods such as motivational interviewing (MI). © 2011 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences © 2011 Nordic College of Caring Science.

  8. [Prevalence of severe periodontal disease and its association with respiratory disease in hospitalized adult patients in a tertiary care center].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fernández-Plata, Rosario; Olmedo-Torres, Daniel; Martínez-Briseño, David; García-Sancho, Cecilia; Franco-Marina, Francisco; González-Cruz, Herminia

    2015-01-01

    Severe periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory gingival process associated with systemic diseases. To determine the prevalence of severe periodontal disease and its association with respiratory diseases among hospitalized patients at the Institute of Respiratory Diseases "Ismael Cosio Villegas" (INER) in 2011. A cross-sectional study was developed. The severe periodontal disease was diagnosed by the Department of Stomatology. The International Classification of Diseases 10th revision was used. A multinomial logistic was fit to estimate relative-risk. Three thousand and fifty-nine patients were included; 772/3,059 (25.2%) had severe periodontal disease. After controlling for age, sex, inpatient days, death, and socioeconomic status, the infectious respiratory diseases that were significantly associated with severe periodontal disease were: HIV/AIDS (RR: 10.6; 95% CI: 9.1-23.3; p abscess (RR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.6-7.8; p = 0.002). Lung cancer and pleural diseases were also significantly associated with severe periodontal disease. High prevalence of severe periodontal disease was observed in the different respiratory diseases. Severe periodontal disease was associated with both infectious and non-infectious respiratory diseases. It is important to study an oral health intervention.

  9. Dental caries and pulpal disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zero, Domenick T; Zandona, Andrea Ferreira; Vail, Mychel Macapagal; Spolnik, Kenneth J

    2011-01-01

    This article reviews the diagnostic process, from the first clinically evident stages of the caries process to development of pulpal pathosis. The caries diagnostic process includes 4 interconnected components-staging caries lesion severity, assessing caries lesion activity, and risk assessments at the patient and tooth surface level - which modify treatment decisions for the patient. Pulpal pathosis is diagnosed as reversible pulpitis, irreversible pulpitis (asymptomatic), irreversible pulpitis (symptomatic), and pulp necrosis. Periapical disease is diagnosed as symptomatic apical periodontitis, asymptomatic apical periodontitis, acute apical abscess, and chronic apical abscess. Ultimately, the goal of any diagnosis should be to achieve better treatment decisions and health outcomes for the patient. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Intranasal PRGF-Endoret enhances neuronal survival and attenuates NF-κB-dependent inflammation process in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anitua, Eduardo; Pascual, Consuelo; Pérez-Gonzalez, Rocio; Orive, Gorka; Carro, Eva

    2015-04-10

    Parkinson's disease is a common neurodegenerative disorder of unknown pathogenesis characterized by the loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. Oxidative stress, microglial activation and inflammatory responses seem to contribute to the pathogenesis. Recent data showed that growth factors mediate neuroprotection in rodent models of Parkinson's disease, modulating pro-inflammatory processes. Based on our recent studies showing that plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF-Endoret) mediates neuroprotection as inflammatory moderator in Alzheimer's disease, in the present study we examined the effects of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF-Endoret) in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-lesioned mouse as a translational therapeutic approach for Parkinson's disease. We found substantial neuroprotection by PRGF-Endoret in our model of Parkinson's disease, which resulted in diminished inflammatory responses and improved motor performance. Additionally, these effects were associated with robust reduction in nuclear transcription factor-κB (NF-κB) activation, and nitric oxide (NO), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) expression in the substantia nigra. We propose that PRGF-Endoret can prevent dopaminergic degeneration via an NF-κB-dependent signaling process. As the clinical safety profile of PRGF-Endoret is already established, these data suggest that PRGF-Endoret provides a novel neuroprotective strategy for Parkinson's disease. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Processing graspable object images and their nouns is impaired in Parkinson's disease patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buccino, Giovanni; Dalla Volta, Riccardo; Arabia, Gennarina; Morelli, Maurizio; Chiriaco, Carmelina; Lupo, Angela; Silipo, Franco; Quattrone, Aldo

    2018-03-01

    According to embodiment, the recruitment of the motor system is necessary to process language material expressing a motor content. Coherently, an impairment of the motor system should affect the capacity to process language items with a motor content. The aim of the present study was to assess the capacity to process graspable objects and their nouns in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and healthy controls. Participants saw photos and nouns depicting graspable and non-graspable objects. Scrambled images and pseudo-words served as control stimuli. At 150 msec after stimulus presentation, they had to respond when the stimulus referred to a real object, and refrain from responding when it was meaningless (go-no go paradigm). In the control group, participants gave slower motor responses for stimuli (both photos and nouns) related to graspable objects as compared to non-graspable ones. This in keeping with data obtained in a previous study with young healthy participants. In the PD group, motor responses were similar for both graspable and non-graspable items. Moreover, error number was significantly greater than in controls. These findings support the notion that when the motor circuits are lesioned, like in PD, patients do not show the typical modulation of motor responses and have troubles in processing graspable objects and their nouns. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  12. Development of a Conceptual Model of Disease Progression for Use in Economic Modeling of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabberer, Maggie; Gonzalez-McQuire, Sebastian; Muellerova, Hana; Briggs, Andrew H; Rutten-van Mölken, Maureen P M H; Chambers, Mike; Lomas, David A

    2017-05-01

    To develop and validate a new conceptual model (CM) of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for use in disease progression and economic modeling. The CM identifies and describes qualitative associations between disease attributes, progression and outcomes. A literature review was performed to identify any published CMs or literature reporting the impact and association of COPD disease attributes with outcomes. After critical analysis of the literature, a Steering Group of experts from the disciplines of health economics, epidemiology and clinical medicine was convened to develop a draft CM, which was refined using a Delphi process. The refined CM was validated by testing for associations between attributes using data from the Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints (ECLIPSE). Disease progression attributes included in the final CM were history and occurrence of exacerbations, lung function, exercise capacity, signs and symptoms (cough, sputum, dyspnea), cardiovascular disease comorbidities, 'other' comorbidities (including depression), body composition (body mass index), fibrinogen as a biomarker, smoking and demographic characteristics (age, gender). Mortality and health-related quality of life were determined to be the most relevant final outcome measures for this model, intended to be the foundation of an economic model of COPD. The CM is being used as the foundation for developing a new COPD model of disease progression and to provide a framework for the analysis of patient-level data. The CM is available as a reference for the implementation of further disease progression and economic models.

  13. Differential patterns of implicit emotional processing in Alzheimer's disease and healthy aging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    García-Rodríguez, Beatriz; Fusari, Anna; Rodríguez, Beatriz; Hernández, José Martín Zurdo; Ellgring, Heiner

    2009-01-01

    Implicit memory for emotional facial expressions (EFEs) was investigated in young adults, healthy old adults, and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Implicit memory is revealed by the effect of experience on performance by studying previously encoded versus novel stimuli, a phenomenon referred to as perceptual priming. The aim was to assess the changes in the patterns of priming as a function of aging and dementia. Participants identified EFEs taken from the Facial Action Coding System and the stimuli used represented the emotions of happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust. In the study phase, participants rated the pleasantness of 36 faces using a Likert-type scale. Subsequently, the response to the 36 previously studied and 36 novel EFEs was tested when they were randomly presented in a cued naming task. The results showed that implicit memory for EFEs is preserved in AD and aging, and no specific age-related effects on implicit memory for EFEs were observed. However, different priming patterns were evident in AD patients that may reflect pathological brain damage and the effect of stimulus complexity. These findings provide evidence of how progressive neuropathological changes in the temporal and frontal areas may affect emotional processing in more advanced stages of the disease.

  14. Why industry propaganda and political interference cannot disguise the inevitable role played by human exposure to aluminum in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Exley, Christopher

    2014-01-01

    In the aluminum age, it is clearly unpalatable for aluminum, the globe's most successful metal, to be implicated in human disease. It is unpalatable because for approximately 100 years human beings have reaped the rewards of the most abundant metal of the Earth's crust without seriously considering the potential consequences for human health. The aluminum industry is a pillar of the developed and developing world and irrespective of the tyranny of human exposure to aluminum it cannot be challenged without significant consequences for businesses, economies, and governments. However, no matter how deep the dependency or unthinkable the withdrawal, science continues to document, if not too slowly, a burgeoning body burden of aluminum in human beings. Herein, I will make the case that it is inevitable both today and in the future that an individual's exposure to aluminum is impacting upon their health and is already contributing to, if not causing, chronic diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. This is the logical, if uncomfortable, consequence of living in the aluminum age.

  15. Speech-Language Therapists' Process of Including Significant Others in Aphasia Rehabilitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hallé, Marie-Christine; Le Dorze, Guylaine; Mingant, Anne

    2014-01-01

    Background: Although aphasia rehabilitation should include significant others, it is currently unknown how this recommendation is adopted in speech-language therapy practice. Speech-language therapists' (SLTs) experience of including significant others in aphasia rehabilitation is also understudied, yet a better understanding of clinical…

  16. Health and economic benefits of reducing sugar intake in the USA, including effects via non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a microsimulation model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vreman, Rick A; Goodell, Alex J; Rodriguez, Luis A; Porco, Travis C; Lustig, Robert H; Kahn, James G

    2017-01-01

    Objectives Excessive consumption of added sugars in the human diet has been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary heart disease (CHD) and other elements of the metabolic syndrome. Recent studies have shown that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a critical pathway to metabolic syndrome. This model assesses the health and economic benefits of interventions aimed at reducing intake of added sugars. Methods Using data from US National Health Surveys and current literature, we simulated an open cohort, for the period 2015–2035. We constructed a microsimulation model with Markov chains for NAFLD (including steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)), body mass index, T2D and CHD. We assessed reductions in population disease prevalence, disease-attributable disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and costs, with interventions that reduce added sugars consumption by either 20% or 50%. Findings The model estimated that a 20% reduction in added sugars intake will reduce prevalence of hepatic steatosis, NASH, cirrhosis, HCC, obesity, T2D and CHD. Incidence of T2D and CHD would be expected to decrease by 19.9 (95% CI 12.8 to 27.0) and 9.4 (95% CI 3.1 to 15.8) cases per 100 000 people after 20 years, respectively. A 20% reduction in consumption is also projected to annually avert 0.767 million (M) DALYs (95% CI 0.757M to 0.777M) and a total of US$10.3 billion (B) (95% CI 10.2B to 10.4B) in discounted direct medical costs by 2035. These effects increased proportionally when added sugars intake were reduced by 50%. Conclusions The decrease in incidence and prevalence of disease is similar to results in other models, but averted costs and DALYs were higher, mainly due to inclusion of NAFLD and CHD. The model suggests that efforts to reduce consumption of added sugars may result in significant public health and economic benefits. PMID:28775179

  17. Self-management interventions including action plans for exacerbations versus usual care in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lenferink, Anke; Brusse-Keizer, Marjolein; van der Valk, Paul D.L.P.M.; Frith, Peter A.; Zwerink, Marlies; Monninkhof, Evelyn M.; van der Palen, Job; Effing-Tijdhof, Tanja W

    2017-01-01

    Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) self-management interventions should be structured but personalised and often multi-component, with goals of motivating, engaging and supporting the patients to positively adapt their behaviour(s) and develop skills to better manage disease.

  18. Epidemiology and diagnostics of venous disease in Poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mateusz Curyło

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Poland. The percentage of people who die from cardiovascular disease is decreasing year by year, but adequate patient education and access to specialist physicians are still required. Chronic venous disease is one of the disorders of this system, whose probability of occurrence increases with age. Other risk factors include gender, type of occupation, obesity, eating habits and constipation, pregnancy, and genetic factor. The symptoms of the disease include: pain, lower limb edema, fatigue / leg pain, tingling, enlargement of the small blood vessels, enlargement and constriction of the subcutaneous veins, skin lesions, skin discolouration, itching of the skin of the legs, congestive dermatitis, ulcers. The degree of disease is determined using the CEAP scale. Prophylactic and early detection of disease results in shorter treatment times and reduced costs. Unfortunately, a large number of primary care physicians are skipping the physical examination of the lower limb, thus prolonging the diagnosis process and the patient being treated for a more advanced disease. Studies show that there is a difference in the incidence of chronic venous disease and the severity of the disease, depending on the province that has been affected. This may indicate the need to standardize nationwide training methods for doctors. The most common method of treatment is the combination of pharmacotherapy and compression therapy.

  19. Consultation on microbiological criteria for foods to be further processed including by irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    Many foods carry microorganisms that may have serious consequences for the health of the consumer. There is thus often a need for processing to eliminate the resulting health hazards. Concern has been expressed that treatments, especially irradiation, might be applied to clean up food that has not been hygienically processed. Adherence to good manufacturing practice can greatly assist food processors to ensure food quality and safety. Figs

  20. Refsum Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... night blindness due to degeneration of the retina (retinitis pigmentosa). If the disease progresses, other symptoms may include ... night blindness due to degeneration of the retina (retinitis pigmentosa). If the disease progresses, other symptoms may include ...

  1. Complications of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parasa, S; Sharma, P

    2013-06-01

    Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is on the rise with more than 20% of the western population reporting symptoms and is the most common gastrointestinal disorder in the United States. This increase in GORD is not exactly clear but has been attributed to the increasing prevalence of obesity, changing diet, and perhaps the decreasing prevalence of H. pylori infection. Complications of GORD could be either benign or malignant. Benign complications include erosive oesophagitis, bleeding and peptic strictures. Premalignant and malignant lesions include Barrett's metaplasia, and oesophageal cancer. Management of both the benign and malignant complications can be challenging. With the use of proton-pump inhibitors, peptic strictures (i.e., strictures related to reflux) have significantly declined. Several aspects of Barrett's management remain controversial including the stage in the disease process which needs to be intervened, type of the intervention and surveillance of these lesions to prevent development of high grade dysplasia and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Radiology of chronic diseases of the ankle joint

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rand, T.; Trattnig, S.; Breitenseher, M.; Imhof, H.; Wagesreither, S.

    1999-01-01

    The etiology of chronic diseases of the ankle joint comprises a wide spectrum including chronic inflammatory processes and chronic degenerative, tumorous and neuropathic processes, as well as some specific syndromes based on chronic changes of the ankle joint. Of the inflammatory processes, chronic juvenile arthritis (JVC) is the most common disease. However, also Reiter disease, psoriasis or chronic monoarthritid diseases such as gout, as well as granulomatous diseases (tuberculosis, sarcoidosis) and fungal infections, may affect the ankle joint in a chronic course. Chronic degenerative changes are usually secondary due to abnormal positioning of the joint constituents or repetitive trauma. Neuropathic changes, as frequently seen in the course of diabetes, present with massive osseous destruction and malposition of the articular constituents. Chronic osseous as well as cartilaginous and synovial changes are seen in hemoplici patients. Chronic traumatic changes are represented by pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), and chondromatosis, both with a predilection for the ankle joint. Due to the possibilities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diagnosis of chronic ankle changes includes chronic ligamentous, tendinous and soft tissue changes. With the use MRI, specific syndromes can be defined which particularly affect the ankle joint in a chronic way, such as the os trigonum syndrome, the anterolateral impingement syndrome and the sinus tarsi syndrome. Nevertheless, plain film radiographs are still the basic element of any investigation. MRI, however, can be potentially used as a second investigation, saving an unnecessary cascade of investigations with ultrasound and CT. The latter investigations are used only with very specific indications, for instance CT for subtle bone structures and sonography for a limited investigation of tendons or evaluation of fluid. Particularly due to the possibilities of MRI and the development of special gradient-echo imaging or

  3. The Helicobacter pylori theory and duodenal ulcer disease. A case study of the research process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, A H; Gjørup, T

    1995-01-01

    should be selected for H. pylori eradication treatment. CONCLUSION: Descriptive clinical studies and laboratory studies of disease mechanisms were the prevailing types of research about H. pylori. Comparatively few therapeutic intervention studies were done; this fact may have hampered the acceptance......OBJECTIVES: To describe the medical research process from the time of the generation of a new theory to its implementation in clinical practice. The Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) theory, i.e. the theory that H. pylori plays a significant causal role in duodenal ulcer disease was chosen as a case....... MATERIAL: Abstracts from 1984 to 1993, identified in the CD-Rom, Medline system, ("Silverplatter"), using the search terms Campylobacter pylori and Helicobacter pylori, and reviews and editorials about H. pylori in some of the most widespread clinical journals. RESULTS: 2204 papers on H. pylori were...

  4. Collagenous mucosal inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freeman, Hugh J

    2005-07-01

    Collagenous mucosal inflammatory diseases involve the columnar-lined gastric and intestinal mucosa and have become recognized increasingly as a significant cause of symptomatic morbidity, particularly in middle-aged and elderly women, especially with watery diarrhea. Still, mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of this diarrhea remain poorly understood and require further elucidation. The prognosis and long-term outcome of these disorders has been documented only to a limited extent. Recent clinical and pathologic studies have indicated that collagenous mucosal inflammatory disease is a more extensive pathologic process that concomitantly may involve several sites in the gastric and intestinal mucosa. The dominant pathologic lesion is a distinct subepithelial hyaline-like deposit that has histochemical and ultrastructural features of collagen overlying a microscopically defined inflammatory process. An intimate relationship with other autoimmune connective tissue disorders is evident, particularly celiac disease. This is intriguing because these collagenous disorders have not been shown to be gluten dependent. Collagenous mucosal inflammatory disorders may represent a relatively unique but generalized inflammatory response to a multitude of causes, including celiac disease, along with a diverse group of pharmacologic agents. Some recent reports have documented treatment success but histopathologic reversal has been more difficult to substantiate owing to the focal, sometimes extensive nature, of this pathologic process.

  5. Classic and New Animal Models of Parkinson's Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javier Blesa

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Neurological disorders can be modeled in animals so as to recreate specific pathogenic events and behavioral outcomes. Parkinson’s Disease (PD is the second most common neurodegenerative disease of an aging population, and although there have been several significant findings about the PD disease process, much of this process still remains a mystery. Breakthroughs in the last two decades using animal models have offered insights into the understanding of the PD disease process, its etiology, pathology, and molecular mechanisms. Furthermore, while cellular models have helped to identify specific events, animal models, both toxic and genetic, have replicated almost all of the hallmarks of PD and are useful for testing new neuroprotective or neurorestorative strategies. Moreover, significant advances in the modeling of additional PD features have come to light in both classic and newer models. In this review, we try to provide an updated summary of the main characteristics of these models as well as the strengths and weaknesses of what we believe to be the most popular PD animal models. These models include those produced by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA, 1-methyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropiridine (MPTP, rotenone, and paraquat, as well as several genetic models like those related to alpha-synuclein, PINK1, Parkin and LRRK2 alterations.

  6. Early Developmental Conditioning of Later Health and Disease: Physiology or Pathophysiology?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanson, M. A.; Gluckman, P. D.

    2014-01-01

    Extensive experimental animal studies and epidemiological observations have shown that environmental influences during early development affect the risk of later pathophysiological processes associated with chronic, especially noncommunicable, disease (NCD). This field is recognized as the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). We discuss the extent to which DOHaD represents the result of the physiological processes of developmental plasticity, which may have potential adverse consequences in terms of NCD risk later, or whether it is the manifestation of pathophysiological processes acting in early life but only becoming apparent as disease later. We argue that the evidence suggests the former, through the operation of conditioning processes induced across the normal range of developmental environments, and we summarize current knowledge of the physiological processes involved. The adaptive pathway to later risk accords with current concepts in evolutionary developmental biology, especially those concerning parental effects. Outside the normal range, effects on development can result in nonadaptive processes, and we review their underlying mechanisms and consequences. New concepts concerning the underlying epigenetic and other mechanisms involved in both disruptive and nondisruptive pathways to disease are reviewed, including the evidence for transgenerational passage of risk from both maternal and paternal lines. These concepts have wider implications for understanding the causes and possible prevention of NCDs such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, for broader social policy and for the increasing attention paid in public health to the lifecourse approach to NCD prevention. PMID:25287859

  7. Shared activity patterns arising at genetic susceptibility loci reveal underlying genomic and cellular architecture of human disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Baillie, J Kenneth; Bretherick, Andrew; Haley, Christopher S

    2018-01-01

    Genetic variants underlying complex traits, including disease susceptibility, are enriched within the transcriptional regulatory elements, promoters and enhancers. There is emerging evidence that regulatory elements associated with particular traits or diseases share similar patterns...... the regulation of the OCT1 cation transporter and genetic variants underlying circulating cholesterol levels. NDA strongly implicates particular cell types and tissues in disease pathogenesis. For example, distinct groupings of disease-associated regulatory regions implicate two distinct biological processes...... in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis; a further two separate processes are implicated in Crohn's disease. Thus, our functional analysis of genetic predisposition to disease defines new distinct disease endotypes. We predict that patients with a preponderance of susceptibility variants in each group are likely...

  8. The Role of MicroRNAs in Kidney Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sydwell Mukhadi

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available MicroRNAs (miRNAs are short noncoding RNAs that regulate pathophysiological processes that suppress gene expression by binding to messenger RNAs. These biomolecules can be used to study gene regulation and protein expression, which will allow better understanding of many biological processes such as cell cycle progression and apoptosis that control the fate of cells. Several pathways have also been implicated to be involved in kidney diseases such as Transforming Growth Factor-β, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase signaling, and Wnt signaling pathways. The discovery of miRNAs has provided new insights into kidney pathologies and may provide new innovative and effective therapeutic strategies. Research has demonstrated the role of miRNAs in a variety of kidney diseases including renal cell carcinoma, diabetic nephropathy, nephritic syndrome, renal fibrosis, lupus nephritis and acute pyelonephritis. MiRNAs are implicated as playing a role in these diseases due to their role in apoptosis, cell proliferation, differentiation and development. As miRNAs have been detected in a stable condition in different biological fluids, they have the potential to be tools to study the pathogenesis of human diseases with a great potential to be used in disease prognosis and diagnosis. The purpose of this review is to examine the role of miRNA in kidney disease.

  9. Quantitative assessment of the multiple processes responsible for bilirubin homeostasis in health and disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Levitt DG

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available David G Levitt,1 Michael D Levitt2 1Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; 2Research Service, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, USAAbstract: Serum bilirubin measurements are commonly obtained for the evaluation of ill patients and to screen for liver disease in routine physical exams. An enormous research effort has identified the multiple mechanisms involved in the production and metabolism of conjugated (CB and unconjugated bilirubin (UB. While the qualitative effects of these mechanisms are well understood, their expected quantitative influence on serum bilirubin homeostasis has received less attention. In this review, each of the steps involved in bilirubin production, metabolism, hepatic cell uptake, and excretion is quantitatively examined. We then attempt to predict the expected effect of normal and defective function on serum UB and CB levels in health and disease states including hemolysis, extra- and intrahepatic cholestasis, hepatocellular diseases (eg, cirrhosis, hepatitis, and various congenital defects in bilirubin conjugation and secretion (eg, Gilbert's, Dubin–Johnson, Crigler–Najjar, Rotor syndromes. Novel aspects of this review include: 1 quantitative estimates of the free and total UB and CB in the plasma, hepatocyte, and bile; 2 detailed discussion of the important implications of the recently recognized role of the hepatic OATP transporters in the maintenance of CB homeostasis; 3 discussion of the differences between the standard diazo assay versus chromatographic measurement of CB and UB; 4 pharmacokinetic implications of the extremely high-affinity albumin binding of UB; 5 role of the enterohepatic circulation in physiologic jaundice of newborn and fasting hyperbilirubinemia; and 6 insights concerning the clinical interpretation of bilirubin measurements.Keywords: liver, conjugation, diazo, albumin, Rotor

  10. Mitochondrial Fusion Proteins and Human Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michela Ranieri

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Mitochondria are highly dynamic, complex organelles that continuously alter their shape, ranging between two opposite processes, fission and fusion, in response to several stimuli and the metabolic demands of the cell. Alterations in mitochondrial dynamics due to mutations in proteins involved in the fusion-fission machinery represent an important pathogenic mechanism of human diseases. The most relevant proteins involved in the mitochondrial fusion process are three GTPase dynamin-like proteins: mitofusin 1 (MFN1 and 2 (MFN2, located in the outer mitochondrial membrane, and optic atrophy protein 1 (OPA1, in the inner membrane. An expanding number of degenerative disorders are associated with mutations in the genes encoding MFN2 and OPA1, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2A and autosomal dominant optic atrophy. While these disorders can still be considered rare, defective mitochondrial dynamics seem to play a significant role in the molecular and cellular pathogenesis of more common neurodegenerative diseases, for example, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. This review provides an overview of the basic molecular mechanisms involved in mitochondrial fusion and focuses on the alteration in mitochondrial DNA amount resulting from impairment of mitochondrial dynamics. We also review the literature describing the main disorders associated with the disruption of mitochondrial fusion.

  11. Periodontal disease level-butyric acid putatively contributes to the ageing blood: A proposed link between periodontal diseases and the ageing process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cueno, Marni E; Seki, Keisuke; Ochiai, Kuniyasu; Imai, Kenichi

    2017-03-01

    Periodontal diseases are partly attributable to periodontopathic bacteria found in the host, whereas, butyric acid (BA) is a common secondary metabolite produced by periodontopathic bacterial pathogens. BA has been linked to oxidative stress induction while oxidative stress has long been associated with the ageing process. However, the possible link between BA-induced oxidative stress and the ageing process has never been elucidated. Here, we attempted to show the possible role of periodontal diseaselevel-BA (PDL-BA) in influencing the rat blood ageing process. We injected PDL-BA into the young rat gingiva and, after 24h, heart blood extraction was performed. Blood obtained from PDL-BA-treated young rats was compared to untreated young and middle-aged rats. We found that cytosolic, but not mitochondrial, heme was affected 24h post-injection. In addition, we observed that PDL-BA treatment altered blood NOX activation, NADPH-related oxidative stress components (H 2 O 2 and GR), calcium homeostasis, cell death signals (CASP3 and CASP1), and age-related markers (SIRT1 and mTOR) in young rats, with some components more closely mimicking levels found in middle-aged rats. In this regard, we propose that PDL-BA may play a role in contributing to the rat blood ageing process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Periodontal Disease and Systemic Diseases: An Update for the Clinician.

    Science.gov (United States)

    John, Vanchit; Alqallaf, Hawra; De Bedout, Tatiana

    2016-01-01

    A link between periodontal disease and various systemic diseases has been investigated for several years. Interest in unearthing such a link has grown as the health care profession is looking for a better understanding of disease processes and their relationships to periodontal and other oral diseases. The article aims to provide recent information on the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic diseases such as; cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, musculoskeletal, and reproductive system related abnormalities.

  13. A Call to Include Severe Combined Immunodeficiency in Newborn Screening Program

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raz Somech

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Quantification of the T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs has recently emerged as a useful non-invasive clinical and research tool to investigate thymic activity. It allows the identification of T cell production by the thymus. Quantification of TREC copies has recently been implemented as the preferred test to screen neonates with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID or significant lymphopenia. Neonatal genetic screening for SCID is highly important in countries with high rates of consanguinous marriages, such as Israel, and can be used for early diagnosis, enabling prompt therapeutic intervention that will save lives and improve the outcome of these patients. TREC measurement is also applicable in clinical settings where T cell immunity is involved, including any T cell immunodeficiencies, HIV infection, the aging process, autoimmune diseases, and immune reconstitution after bone marrow transplantation.

  14. Widening the adoption of workflows to include human and human-machine scientific processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salayandia, L.; Pinheiro da Silva, P.; Gates, A. Q.

    2010-12-01

    Scientific workflows capture knowledge in the form of technical recipes to access and manipulate data that help scientists manage and reuse established expertise to conduct their work. Libraries of scientific workflows are being created in particular fields, e.g., Bioinformatics, where combined with cyber-infrastructure environments that provide on-demand access to data and tools, result in powerful workbenches for scientists of those communities. The focus in these particular fields, however, has been more on automating rather than documenting scientific processes. As a result, technical barriers have impeded a wider adoption of scientific workflows by scientific communities that do not rely as heavily on cyber-infrastructure and computing environments. Semantic Abstract Workflows (SAWs) are introduced to widen the applicability of workflows as a tool to document scientific recipes or processes. SAWs intend to capture a scientists’ perspective about the process of how she or he would collect, filter, curate, and manipulate data to create the artifacts that are relevant to her/his work. In contrast, scientific workflows describe the process from the point of view of how technical methods and tools are used to conduct the work. By focusing on a higher level of abstraction that is closer to a scientist’s understanding, SAWs effectively capture the controlled vocabularies that reflect a particular scientific community, as well as the types of datasets and methods used in a particular domain. From there on, SAWs provide the flexibility to adapt to different environments to carry out the recipes or processes. These environments range from manual fieldwork to highly technical cyber-infrastructure environments, i.e., such as those already supported by scientific workflows. Two cases, one from Environmental Science and another from Geophysics, are presented as illustrative examples.

  15. Melatonin and human mitochondrial diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reza Sharafati-Chaleshtori

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the main causative factors in a wide variety of complications such as neurodegenerative disorders, ischemia/reperfusion, aging process, and septic shock. Decrease in respiratory complex activity, increase in free radical production, increase in mitochondrial synthase activity, increase in nitric oxide production, and impair in electron transport system and/or mitochondrial permeability are considered as the main factors responsible for mitochondrial dysfunction. Melatonin, the pineal gland hormone, is selectively taken up by mitochondria and acts as a powerful antioxidant, regulating the mitochondrial bioenergetic function. Melatonin increases the permeability of membranes and is the stimulator of antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and catalase. It also acts as an inhibitor of lipoxygenase. Melatonin can cause resistance to oxidation damage by fixing the microsomal membranes. Melatonin has been shown to retard aging and inhibit neurodegenerative disorders, ischemia/reperfusion, septic shock, diabetes, cancer, and other complications related to oxidative stress. The purpose of the current study, other than introducing melatonin, was to present the recent findings on clinical effects in diseases related to mitochondrial dysfunction including diabetes, cancer, gastrointestinal diseases, and diseases related to brain function.

  16. Periodontal disease and anemias associated with Crohn's disease. A case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagpal, Swati; Acharya, Anirudh B; Thakur, Srinath L

    2012-03-01

    Crohn's disease (CD) is an inflammatory bowel disease with oral findings, including periodontal manifestations. Anemias, such as iron deficiency and anemia of chronic disease (ACD), are the most common hematologic complications of CD. Periodontitis has systemic effects, and may tend toward anemia, which can be explained by depressed erythropoiesis. In the report presented here, the authors review a case of Crohn's disease diagnosed 10 years previous to the patient presenting with a changing anemic profile and periodontal disease. A discussion of patient and disease management is included.

  17. Disease Manifestations and Pathogenic Mechanisms of Group A Streptococcus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Timothy C.; McArthur, Jason D.; Cole, Jason N.; Gillen, Christine M.; Henningham, Anna; Sriprakash, K. S.; Sanderson-Smith, Martina L.; Nizet, Victor

    2014-01-01

    SUMMARY Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A Streptococcus (GAS), causes mild human infections such as pharyngitis and impetigo and serious infections such as necrotizing fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Furthermore, repeated GAS infections may trigger autoimmune diseases, including acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis, acute rheumatic fever, and rheumatic heart disease. Combined, these diseases account for over half a million deaths per year globally. Genomic and molecular analyses have now characterized a large number of GAS virulence determinants, many of which exhibit overlap and redundancy in the processes of adhesion and colonization, innate immune resistance, and the capacity to facilitate tissue barrier degradation and spread within the human host. This improved understanding of the contribution of individual virulence determinants to the disease process has led to the formulation of models of GAS disease progression, which may lead to better treatment and intervention strategies. While GAS remains sensitive to all penicillins and cephalosporins, rising resistance to other antibiotics used in disease treatment is an increasing worldwide concern. Several GAS vaccine formulations that elicit protective immunity in animal models have shown promise in nonhuman primate and early-stage human trials. The development of a safe and efficacious commercial human vaccine for the prophylaxis of GAS disease remains a high priority. PMID:24696436

  18. Mathematical modeling of biological processes

    CERN Document Server

    Friedman, Avner

    2014-01-01

    This book on mathematical modeling of biological processes includes a wide selection of biological topics that demonstrate the power of mathematics and computational codes in setting up biological processes with a rigorous and predictive framework. Topics include: enzyme dynamics, spread of disease, harvesting bacteria, competition among live species, neuronal oscillations, transport of neurofilaments in axon, cancer and cancer therapy, and granulomas. Complete with a description of the biological background and biological question that requires the use of mathematics, this book is developed for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students with only basic knowledge of ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations; background in biology is not required. Students will gain knowledge on how to program with MATLAB without previous programming experience and how to use codes in order to test biological hypothesis.

  19. Wilson’s Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Figen Hanağası

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Wilson’s disease is a autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism. Clinical phenotypes include hepatic, haemolytic, neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Wilson’s disease is caused by mutations in the ATP7B gene. ATP7B encodes a hepatic copper-transporting protein, which is important for copper excretion into bile. Neurological symptoms in Wilson’s disease include variable combinations of dysathria, ataxia, parkinsonism, dystonia and tremor. Wilson’s disease is lethal if untreated. This review discusses the epidemiology, genetics, clinical features, etiopathophysiology, diagnostic tests, and treatment of Wilson’s disease

  20. The stomach in health and disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunt, R H; Camilleri, M; Crowe, S E; El-Omar, E M; Fox, J G; Kuipers, E J; Malfertheiner, P; McColl, K E L; Pritchard, D M; Rugge, M; Sonnenberg, A; Sugano, K; Tack, J

    2016-01-01

    The stomach is traditionally regarded as a hollow muscular sac that initiates the second phase of digestion. Yet this simple view ignores the fact that it is the most sophisticated endocrine organ with unique physiology, biochemistry, immunology and microbiology. All ingested materials, including our nutrition, have to negotiate this organ first, and as such, the stomach is arguably the most important segment within the GI tract. The unique biological function of gastric acid secretion not only initiates the digestive process but also acts as a first line of defence against food-borne microbes. Normal gastric physiology and morphology may be disrupted by Helicobacter pylori infection, the most common chronic bacterial infection in the world and the aetiological agent for most peptic ulcers and gastric cancer. In this state-of-the-art review, the most relevant new aspects of the stomach in health and disease are addressed. Topics include gastric physiology and the role of gastric dysmotility in dyspepsia and gastroparesis; the stomach in appetite control and obesity; there is an update on the immunology of the stomach and the emerging field of the gastric microbiome. H. pylori-induced gastritis and its associated diseases including peptic ulcers and gastric cancer are addressed together with advances in diagnosis. The conclusions provide a future approach to gastric diseases underpinned by the concept that a healthy stomach is the gateway to a healthy and balanced host. This philosophy should reinforce any public health efforts designed to eradicate major gastric diseases, including stomach cancer. PMID:26342014

  1. Plasmalogens Inhibit APP Processing by Directly Affecting γ-Secretase Activity in Alzheimer's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rothhaar, Tatjana L.; Grösgen, Sven; Haupenthal, Viola J.; Burg, Verena K.; Hundsdörfer, Benjamin; Mett, Janine; Riemenschneider, Matthias; Grimm, Heike S.; Hartmann, Tobias; Grimm, Marcus O. W.

    2012-01-01

    Lipids play an important role as risk or protective factors in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previously it has been shown that plasmalogens, the major brain phospholipids, are altered in AD. However, it remained unclear whether plasmalogens themselves are able to modulate amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing or if the reduced plasmalogen level is a consequence of AD. Here we identify the plasmalogens which are altered in human AD postmortem brains and investigate their impact on APP processing resulting in Aβ production. All tested plasmalogen species showed a reduction in γ-secretase activity whereas β- and α-secretase activity mainly remained unchanged. Plasmalogens directly affected γ-secretase activity, protein and RNA level of the secretases were unaffected, pointing towards a direct influence of plasmalogens on γ-secretase activity. Plasmalogens were also able to decrease γ-secretase activity in human postmortem AD brains emphasizing the impact of plasmalogens in AD. In summary our findings show that decreased plasmalogen levels are not only a consequence of AD but that plasmalogens also decrease APP processing by directly affecting γ-secretase activity, resulting in a vicious cycle: Aβ reduces plasmalogen levels and reduced plasmalogen levels directly increase γ-secretase activity leading to an even stronger production of Aβ peptides. PMID:22547976

  2. [Rheumatoid arthritis as a connective tissue disease].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Targońska-Stępniak, Bożena

    2018-01-01

    The available data indicate that seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) develops as a result of systemic, autoimmune reaction directed against a range of "self" peptides/proteins that have undergone specific forms of post-translational modification. The development and progress of autoimmunity may be triggered by non-specific, local inflammatory processes outside the joints, for example in the oral or respiratory mucous membrane. The disease occurs in genetically susceptible individuals under the influence of environmental risk factors that promote autoimmunity and consequently the inflammatory process. Smoking is particularly linked with RA pathogenesis. Synovitis of multiple, symmetrical, peripheral joints is the most typical feature of RA which results in irreversible damage to joints structure and as a consequence in disability of patients. However, the inflammatory process in the course of RA has a systemic, constitutional nature. Therefore, extra-articular symptoms with internal organ involvement may occur additionally to synovitis, what is an unfavorable prognostic factor. Extra-articular manifestations of RA are associated with the high disease activity both inflammatory and immunological. They occur in patients with severe form of the disease and contribute to a significant lifespan reduction. This is usually associated with progressive atherosclerosis and cardiovascular complications. The systemic inhibition of an abnormal immune system activity is the mainstay of the effective RA treatment. The currently used disease modifying antirheumatic drugs affect the activity and function of different constituents of the immune system, including B and T lymphocytes and the main pro-inflammatory cytokines, and contribute to autoimmune and inflammatory processes.

  3. Fast phase processing in off-axis holography by CUDA including parallel phase unwrapping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Backoach, Ohad; Kariv, Saar; Girshovitz, Pinhas; Shaked, Natan T

    2016-02-22

    We present parallel processing implementation for rapid extraction of the quantitative phase maps from off-axis holograms on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of the computer using computer unified device architecture (CUDA) programming. To obtain efficient implementation, we parallelized both the wrapped phase map extraction algorithm and the two-dimensional phase unwrapping algorithm. In contrast to previous implementations, we utilized unweighted least squares phase unwrapping algorithm that better suits parallelism. We compared the proposed algorithm run times on the CPU and the GPU of the computer for various sizes of off-axis holograms. Using the GPU implementation, we extracted the unwrapped phase maps from the recorded off-axis holograms at 35 frames per second (fps) for 4 mega pixel holograms, and at 129 fps for 1 mega pixel holograms, which presents the fastest processing framerates obtained so far, to the best of our knowledge. We then used common-path off-axis interferometric imaging to quantitatively capture the phase maps of a micro-organism with rapid flagellum movements.

  4. Consumers' conceptualization of ultra-processed foods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ares, Gastón; Vidal, Leticia; Allegue, Gimena; Giménez, Ana; Bandeira, Elisa; Moratorio, Ximena; Molina, Verónika; Curutchet, María Rosa

    2016-10-01

    Consumption of ultra-processed foods has been associated with low diet quality, obesity and other non-communicable diseases. This situation makes it necessary to develop educational campaigns to discourage consumers from substituting meals based on unprocessed or minimally processed foods by ultra-processed foods. In this context, the aim of the present work was to investigate how consumers conceptualize the term ultra-processed foods and to evaluate if the foods they perceive as ultra-processed are in concordance with the products included in the NOVA classification system. An online study was carried out with 2381 participants. They were asked to explain what they understood by ultra-processed foods and to list foods that can be considered ultra-processed. Responses were analysed using inductive coding. The great majority of the participants was able to provide an explanation of what ultra-processed foods are, which was similar to the definition described in the literature. Most of the participants described ultra-processed foods as highly processed products that usually contain additives and other artificial ingredients, stressing that they have low nutritional quality and are unhealthful. The most relevant products for consumers' conceptualization of the term were in agreement with the NOVA classification system and included processed meats, soft drinks, snacks, burgers, powdered and packaged soups and noodles. However, some of the participants perceived processed foods, culinary ingredients and even some minimally processed foods as ultra-processed. This suggests that in order to accurately convey their message, educational campaigns aimed at discouraging consumers from consuming ultra-processed foods should include a clear definition of the term and describe some of their specific characteristics, such as the type of ingredients included in their formulation and their nutritional composition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. Inferring time derivatives including cell growth rates using Gaussian processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swain, Peter S.; Stevenson, Keiran; Leary, Allen; Montano-Gutierrez, Luis F.; Clark, Ivan B. N.; Vogel, Jackie; Pilizota, Teuta

    2016-12-01

    Often the time derivative of a measured variable is of as much interest as the variable itself. For a growing population of biological cells, for example, the population's growth rate is typically more important than its size. Here we introduce a non-parametric method to infer first and second time derivatives as a function of time from time-series data. Our approach is based on Gaussian processes and applies to a wide range of data. In tests, the method is at least as accurate as others, but has several advantages: it estimates errors both in the inference and in any summary statistics, such as lag times, and allows interpolation with the corresponding error estimation. As illustrations, we infer growth rates of microbial cells, the rate of assembly of an amyloid fibril and both the speed and acceleration of two separating spindle pole bodies. Our algorithm should thus be broadly applicable.

  6. Cerebral correlates of psychotic syndromes in neurodegenerative diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jellinger, Kurt A

    2012-05-01

    Psychosis has been recognized as a common feature in neurodegenerative diseases and a core feature of dementia that worsens most clinical courses. It includes hallucinations, delusions including paranoia, aggressive behaviour, apathy and other psychotic phenomena that occur in a wide range of degenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease, synucleinopathies (Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies), Huntington's disease, frontotemporal degenerations, motoneuron and prion diseases. Many of these psychiatric manifestations may be early expressions of cognitive impairment, but often there is a dissociation between psychotic/behavioural symptoms and the rather linear decline in cognitive function, suggesting independent pathophysiological mechanisms. Strictly neuropathological explanations are likely to be insufficient to explain them, and a large group of heterogeneous factors (environmental, neurochemical changes, genetic factors, etc.) may influence their pathogenesis. Clinico-pathological evaluation of behavioural and psychotic symptoms (PS) in the setting of neurodegenerative and dementing disorders presents a significant challenge for modern neurosciences. Recognition and understanding of these manifestations may lead to the development of more effective preventive and therapeutic options that can serve to delay long-term progression of these devastating disorders and improve the patients' quality of life. A better understanding of the pathophysiology and distinctive pathological features underlying the development of PS in neurodegenerative diseases may provide important insights into psychotic processes in general. © 2011 The Author Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine © 2011 Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  7. Recruitment of subjects into clinical trials for Alzheimer disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knebl, Janice A; Patki, Deepti

    2010-09-01

    Alzheimer disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder affecting millions of Americans. It reduces the ability of the individual to remain independent, places a burden on caregivers, and substantially increases healthcare costs. New treatments are being tested in numerous clinical trials with the goal of preventing or delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease, slowing or modifying the disease's course, or finding a cure for patients with the disease. Alzheimer disease research can successfully proceed only if individuals who have this illness are willing to participate in clinical trials. However, recruitment and retention of subjects in clinical trials for Alzheimer disease is a challenging task. Furthermore, because of reductions in decision-making capacities of individuals with Alzheimer disease, clinical trials also need to involve caregivers. The present article delineates unique hurdles encountered in the recruitment process for Alzheimer disease clinical trials. The article also identifies strategies for effective recruitment of subjects in Alzheimer disease clinical trials, including guidelines to help principal investigators and clinical research coordinators reach recruitment goals.

  8. Noradrenergic Modulation of Cognition in Health and Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga Borodovitsyna

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Norepinephrine released by the locus coeruleus modulates cellular processes and synaptic transmission in the central nervous system through its actions at a number of pre- and postsynaptic receptors. This transmitter system facilitates sensory signal detection and promotes waking and arousal, processes which are necessary for navigating a complex and dynamic sensory environment. In addition to its effects on sensory processing and waking behavior, norepinephrine is now recognized as a contributor to various aspects of cognition, including attention, behavioral flexibility, working memory, and long-term mnemonic processes. Two areas of dense noradrenergic innervation, the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, are particularly important with regard to these functions. Due to its role in mediating normal cognitive function, it is reasonable to expect that noradrenergic transmission becomes dysfunctional in a number of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases characterized by cognitive deficits. In this review, we summarize the unique role that norepinephrine plays in prefrontal cortical and hippocampal function and how its interaction with its various receptors contributes to cognitive behaviors. We further assess the changes that occur in the noradrenergic system in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia and how these changes contribute to cognitive decline in these pathologies.

  9. Magnetic resonance imaging of Alzheimer's disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lehericy, Stephane; Marjanska, Malgorzata; Mesrob, Lilia; Kinkingnehun, Serge; Sarazin, Marie

    2007-01-01

    A modern challenge for neuroimaging techniques is to contribute to the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Early diagnosis includes recognition of pre-demented conditions, such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or having a high risk of developing AD. The role of neuroimaging therefore extends beyond its traditional role of excluding other conditions such as neurosurgical lesions. In addition, early diagnosis would allow early treatment using currently available therapies or new therapies in the future. Structural imaging can detect and follow the time course of subtle brain atrophy as a surrogate marker for pathological processes. New MR techniques and image analysis software can detect subtle brain microstructural, perfusion or metabolic changes that provide new tools to study the pathological processes and detect pre-demented conditions. This review focuses on markers of macro- and microstructural, perfusion, diffusion and metabolic MR imaging and spectroscopy in AD. (orig.)

  10. Splicing regulatory factors, ageing and age-related disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latorre, Eva; Harries, Lorna W

    2017-07-01

    Alternative splicing is a co-transcriptional process, which allows for the production of multiple transcripts from a single gene and is emerging as an important control point for gene expression. Alternatively expressed isoforms often have antagonistic function and differential temporal or spatial expression patterns, yielding enormous plasticity and adaptability to cells and increasing their ability to respond to environmental challenge. The regulation of alternative splicing is critical for numerous cellular functions in both pathological and physiological conditions, and deregulated alternative splicing is a key feature of common chronic diseases. Isoform choice is controlled by a battery of splicing regulatory proteins, which include the serine arginine rich (SRSF) proteins and the heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) classes of genes. These important splicing regulators have been implicated in age-related disease, and in the ageing process itself. This review will outline the important contribution of splicing regulator proteins to ageing and age-related disease. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Disease Compass- a navigation system for disease knowledge based on ontology and linked data techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kozaki, Kouji; Yamagata, Yuki; Mizoguchi, Riichiro; Imai, Takeshi; Ohe, Kazuhiko

    2017-06-19

    Medical ontologies are expected to contribute to the effective use of medical information resources that store considerable amount of data. In this study, we focused on disease ontology because the complicated mechanisms of diseases are related to concepts across various medical domains. The authors developed a River Flow Model (RFM) of diseases, which captures diseases as the causal chains of abnormal states. It represents causes of diseases, disease progression, and downstream consequences of diseases, which is compliant with the intuition of medical experts. In this paper, we discuss a fact repository for causal chains of disease based on the disease ontology. It could be a valuable knowledge base for advanced medical information systems. We developed the fact repository for causal chains of diseases based on our disease ontology and abnormality ontology. This section summarizes these two ontologies. It is developed as linked data so that information scientists can access it using SPARQL queries through an Resource Description Framework (RDF) model for causal chain of diseases. We designed the RDF model as an implementation of the RFM for the fact repository based on the ontological definitions of the RFM. 1554 diseases and 7080 abnormal states in six major clinical areas, which are extracted from the disease ontology, are published as linked data (RDF) with SPARQL endpoint (accessible API). Furthermore, the authors developed Disease Compass, a navigation system for disease knowledge. Disease Compass can browse the causal chains of a disease and obtain related information, including abnormal states, through two web services that provide general information from linked data, such as DBpedia, and 3D anatomical images. Disease Compass can provide a complete picture of disease-associated processes in such a way that fits with a clinician's understanding of diseases. Therefore, it supports user exploration of disease knowledge with access to pertinent information

  12. Theory of mind and decision-making processes are impaired in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xi, Chunhua; Zhu, Youling; Mu, Yanfang; Chen, Bing; Dong, Bin; Cheng, Huaidong; Hu, Panpan; Zhu, Chunyan; Wang, Kai

    2015-02-15

    Prefrontal cortex plays a vital role in the theory of mind (ToM) and decision making, as shown in functional brain imaging and lesion studies. Considering the primary neuropathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) involving the frontal lobe system, patients with PD are expected to exhibit deficits in ToM and social decision making. The aim of this study was to investigate affective ToM and decision making in patients with PD and healthy controls (HC) in a task assessing affective ToM (Reading the Mind in the Eyes, RME) and two decision-making tasks (Iowa Gambling Task, IGT; Game of Dice Task, GDT). Consistent with previous findings, patients with PD were impaired in the affective ToM task, and when making decisions under ambiguity and in risk situations. The score of emotion recognition in the RME task was negatively correlated with the severity of the disease and positively correlated with the total number of advantageous cards chosen in the IGT. However, the final capital in the GDT was correlated with memory impairment. The present study implies that affective ToM and decision making under ambiguity may share similar neural mechanisms, while decision making under ambiguity and decision making under risk may involve processing within different neural networks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Dysregulation of Histone Acetyltransferases and Deacetylases in Cardiovascular Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yonggang Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Cardiovascular disease (CVD remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide despite advances in its prevention and management. A comprehensive understanding of factors which contribute to CVD is required in order to develop more effective treatment options. Dysregulation of epigenetic posttranscriptional modifications of histones in chromatin is thought to be associated with the pathology of many disease models, including CVD. Histone acetyltransferases (HATs and deacetylases (HDACs are regulators of histone lysine acetylation. Recent studies have implicated a fundamental role of reversible protein acetylation in the regulation of CVDs such as hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, diabetic cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, and heart failure. This reversible acetylation is governed by enzymes that HATs add or HDACs remove acetyl groups respectively. New evidence has revealed that histone acetylation regulators blunt cardiovascular and related disease states in certain cellular processes including myocyte hypertrophy, apoptosis, fibrosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation. The accumulating evidence of the detrimental role of histone acetylation in cardiac disease combined with the cardioprotective role of histone acetylation regulators suggests that the use of histone acetylation regulators may serve as a novel approach to treating the millions of patients afflicted by cardiac diseases worldwide.

  14. Facebook Groups for the Management of Chronic Diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Partridge, Stephanie R; Gallagher, Patrick; Freeman, Becky; Gallagher, Robyn

    2018-01-17

    The use of Facebook groups by health care researchers and professionals for chronic disease management, namely type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease, is in its early stages and challenges are emerging. While Facebook groups offer great potential to deliver health support, research of Facebook groups for chronic disease management remains in its infancy, with robust evidence not yet available. Designing Facebook groups that are acceptable to users, health care researchers as well as health care professionals is a challenge, and there is a poor fit with traditional research and evaluation methods. Key recommendations for future research of Facebook groups for chronic disease management include: (1) iterative content development with input from the target patient population; (2) further understanding of the potential role of group "champions"; (3) ensuring the social media policies of health care institutions allow for real time online communication; and (4) utilizing comprehensive evaluation strategies, including the use of process evaluations. ©Stephanie R Partridge, Patrick Gallagher, Becky Freeman, Robyn Gallagher. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 17.01.2018.

  15. Comparison of different approaches applied in Analytic Hierarchy Process - an example of information needs of patients with rare diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pauer, Frédéric; Schmidt, Katharina; Babac, Ana; Damm, Kathrin; Frank, Martin; von der Schulenburg, J-Matthias Graf

    2016-09-09

    The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is increasingly used to measure patient priorities. Studies have shown that there are several different approaches to data acquisition and data aggregation. The aim of this study was to measure the information needs of patients having a rare disease and to analyze the effects of these different AHP approaches. The ranking of information needs is then used to display information categories on a web-based information portal about rare diseases according to the patient's priorities. The information needs of patients suffering from rare diseases were identified by an Internet research study and a preliminary qualitative study. Hence, we designed a three-level hierarchy containing 13 criteria. For data acquisition, the differences in outcomes were investigated using individual versus group judgements separately. Furthermore, we analyzed the different effects when using the median and arithmetic and geometric means for data aggregation. A consistency ratio ≤0.2 was determined to represent an acceptable consistency level. Forty individual and three group judgements were collected from patients suffering from a rare disease and their close relatives. The consistency ratio of 31 individual and three group judgements was acceptable and thus these judgements were included in the study. To a large extent, the local ranks for individual and group judgements were similar. Interestingly, group judgements were in a significantly smaller range than individual judgements. According to our data, the ranks of the criteria differed slightly according to the data aggregation method used. It is important to explain and justify the choice of an appropriate method for data acquisition because response behaviors differ according to the method. We conclude that researchers should select a suitable method based on the thematic perspective or investigated topics in the study. Because the arithmetic mean is very vulnerable to outliers, the geometric mean

  16. Alzheimer's disease: neuroprogesterone, epoxycholesterol, and ABC transporters as determinants of neurodesmosterol tissue levels and its role in amyloid protein processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Javitt, Norman B

    2013-01-01

    Evidence is emerging that during the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), changes in the synthesis and metabolism of cholesterol and progesterone are occurring that may or may not affect the progression of the disease. The concept arose from the recognition that dehydrocholesterol 24-reductase (DHCR24/Seladin-1), one of the nine enzymes in the endoplasmic reticulum that determines the transformation of lanosterol to cholesterol, is selectively reduced in late AD. As a consequence, the tissue level of desmosterol increases, affecting the expression of ABC transporters and the structure of lipid rafts, both determinants of amyloid-β processing. However, the former effect is considered beneficial and the latter detrimental to processing. Other determinants of desmosterol tissue levels are 24,25 epoxycholesterol and the ABCG1 and ABCG4 transporters. Progesterone and its metabolites are determinants of tissue levels of desmosterol and several other sterol intermediates in cholesterol synthesis. Animal models indicate marked elevations in the tissue levels of these sterols at early time frames in the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. The low level of neuroprogesterone and metabolites in AD are consonant with the low level of desmosterol and may have a role in amyloid-β processing. The sparse data that has accumulated appears to be a sufficient basis for proposing a systematic evaluation of the biologic roles of sterol intermediates in the slowly progressive neurodegeneration characteristic of AD.

  17. Non-muscle myosin II in disease: mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karen A. Newell-Litwa

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The actin motor protein non-muscle myosin II (NMII acts as a master regulator of cell morphology, with a role in several essential cellular processes, including cell migration and post-synaptic dendritic spine plasticity in neurons. NMII also generates forces that alter biochemical signaling, by driving changes in interactions between actin-associated proteins that can ultimately regulate gene transcription. In addition to its roles in normal cellular physiology, NMII has recently emerged as a critical regulator of diverse, genetically complex diseases, including neuronal disorders, cancers and vascular disease. In the context of these disorders, NMII regulatory pathways can be directly mutated or indirectly altered by disease-causing mutations. NMII regulatory pathway genes are also increasingly found in disease-associated copy-number variants, particularly in neuronal disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Furthermore, manipulation of NMII-mediated contractility regulates stem cell pluripotency and differentiation, thus highlighting the key role of NMII-based pharmaceuticals in the clinical success of stem cell therapies. In this Review, we discuss the emerging role of NMII activity and its regulation by kinases and microRNAs in the pathogenesis and prognosis of a diverse range of diseases, including neuronal disorders, cancer and vascular disease. We also address promising clinical applications and limitations of NMII-based inhibitors in the treatment of these diseases and the development of stem-cell-based therapies.

  18. Health and economic benefits of reducing sugar intake in the USA, including effects via non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a microsimulation model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vreman, Rick A; Goodell, Alex J; Rodriguez, Luis A; Porco, Travis C; Lustig, Robert H; Kahn, James G

    2017-08-03

    Excessive consumption of added sugars in the human diet has been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary heart disease (CHD) and other elements of the metabolic syndrome. Recent studies have shown that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a critical pathway to metabolic syndrome. This model assesses the health and economic benefits of interventions aimed at reducing intake of added sugars. Using data from US National Health Surveys and current literature, we simulated an open cohort, for the period 2015-2035. We constructed a microsimulation model with Markov chains for NAFLD (including steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)), body mass index, T2D and CHD. We assessed reductions in population disease prevalence, disease-attributable disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and costs, with interventions that reduce added sugars consumption by either 20% or 50%. The model estimated that a 20% reduction in added sugars intake will reduce prevalence of hepatic steatosis, NASH, cirrhosis, HCC, obesity, T2D and CHD. Incidence of T2D and CHD would be expected to decrease by 19.9 (95% CI 12.8 to 27.0) and 9.4 (95% CI 3.1 to 15.8) cases per 100 000 people after 20 years, respectively. A 20% reduction in consumption is also projected to annually avert 0.767 million (M) DALYs (95% CI 0.757M to 0.777M) and a total of US$10.3 billion (B) (95% CI 10.2B to 10.4B) in discounted direct medical costs by 2035. These effects increased proportionally when added sugars intake were reduced by 50%. The decrease in incidence and prevalence of disease is similar to results in other models, but averted costs and DALYs were higher, mainly due to inclusion of NAFLD and CHD. The model suggests that efforts to reduce consumption of added sugars may result in significant public health and economic benefits. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All

  19. Oral Health and Coronary Artery Disease, A Review Article

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alireza Rostami

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Atherosclerosis is the most common cause of myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke. Various risk factors have been identified for atherosclerosis. Recently, bacterial and viral organisms, which are involved in chronic inflammatory processes, have been also implicated in atherosclerosis development. Individuals with a prior history of periodontal diseases and/or tooth loss are considered to be at a higher risk for peripheral arterial disease, compared to those without periodontal diseases or tooth loss. Evidence suggests that periodontitis contributes to the overall burden of infection and inflammation and may lead to cardiovascular events and stroke in susceptible patients. In this article, we aimed to review the available data on the relationship between periodontal diseases and cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary artery disease. At least sixty papers were reviewed during 2014-15. Of these, 44 were included in our study.

  20. Genotator: A disease-agnostic tool for genetic annotation of disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jung Jae-Yoon

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Disease-specific genetic information has been increasing at rapid rates as a consequence of recent improvements and massive cost reductions in sequencing technologies. Numerous systems designed to capture and organize this mounting sea of genetic data have emerged, but these resources differ dramatically in their disease coverage and genetic depth. With few exceptions, researchers must manually search a variety of sites to assemble a complete set of genetic evidence for a particular disease of interest, a process that is both time-consuming and error-prone. Methods We designed a real-time aggregation tool that provides both comprehensive coverage and reliable gene-to-disease rankings for any disease. Our tool, called Genotator, automatically integrates data from 11 externally accessible clinical genetics resources and uses these data in a straightforward formula to rank genes in order of disease relevance. We tested the accuracy of coverage of Genotator in three separate diseases for which there exist specialty curated databases, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Parkinson's Disease, and Alzheimer Disease. Genotator is freely available at http://genotator.hms.harvard.edu. Results Genotator demonstrated that most of the 11 selected databases contain unique information about the genetic composition of disease, with 2514 genes found in only one of the 11 databases. These findings confirm that the integration of these databases provides a more complete picture than would be possible from any one database alone. Genotator successfully identified at least 75% of the top ranked genes for all three of our use cases, including a 90% concordance with the top 40 ranked candidates for Alzheimer Disease. Conclusions As a meta-query engine, Genotator provides high coverage of both historical genetic research as well as recent advances in the genetic understanding of specific diseases. As such, Genotator provides a real-time aggregation of ranked

  1. Genotator: a disease-agnostic tool for genetic annotation of disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wall, Dennis P; Pivovarov, Rimma; Tong, Mark; Jung, Jae-Yoon; Fusaro, Vincent A; DeLuca, Todd F; Tonellato, Peter J

    2010-10-29

    Disease-specific genetic information has been increasing at rapid rates as a consequence of recent improvements and massive cost reductions in sequencing technologies. Numerous systems designed to capture and organize this mounting sea of genetic data have emerged, but these resources differ dramatically in their disease coverage and genetic depth. With few exceptions, researchers must manually search a variety of sites to assemble a complete set of genetic evidence for a particular disease of interest, a process that is both time-consuming and error-prone. We designed a real-time aggregation tool that provides both comprehensive coverage and reliable gene-to-disease rankings for any disease. Our tool, called Genotator, automatically integrates data from 11 externally accessible clinical genetics resources and uses these data in a straightforward formula to rank genes in order of disease relevance. We tested the accuracy of coverage of Genotator in three separate diseases for which there exist specialty curated databases, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Parkinson's Disease, and Alzheimer Disease. Genotator is freely available at http://genotator.hms.harvard.edu. Genotator demonstrated that most of the 11 selected databases contain unique information about the genetic composition of disease, with 2514 genes found in only one of the 11 databases. These findings confirm that the integration of these databases provides a more complete picture than would be possible from any one database alone. Genotator successfully identified at least 75% of the top ranked genes for all three of our use cases, including a 90% concordance with the top 40 ranked candidates for Alzheimer Disease. As a meta-query engine, Genotator provides high coverage of both historical genetic research as well as recent advances in the genetic understanding of specific diseases. As such, Genotator provides a real-time aggregation of ranked data that remains current with the pace of research in the disease

  2. Process Review for Development of Quantitative Risk Analyses for Transboundary Animal Disease to Pathogen-Free Territories

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathan Miller

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Outbreaks of transboundary animal diseases (TADs have the potential to cause significant detriment to animal, human, and environmental health; severe economic implications; and national security. Challenges concerning data sharing, model development, decision support, and disease emergence science have recently been promoted. These challenges and recommendations have been recognized and advocated in the disciplines intersecting with outbreak prediction and forecast modeling regarding infectious diseases. To advance the effective application of computation and risk communication, analytical products ought to follow a collaboratively agreed common plan for implementation. Research articles should seek to inform and assist prioritization of national and international strategies in developing established criteria to identify and follow best practice standards to assess risk model attributes and performance. A well-defined framework to help eliminate gaps in policy, process, and planning knowledge areas would help alleviate the intense need for the formation of a comprehensive strategy for countering TAD outbreak risks. A quantitative assessment that accurately captures the risk of introduction of a TAD through various pathways can be a powerful tool in guiding where government, academic, and industry resources ought to be allocated, whether implementation of additional risk management solutions is merited, and where research efforts should be directed to minimize risk. This review outlines a part of a process for the development of quantitative risk analysis to collect, analyze, and communicate this knowledge. A more comprehensive and unabridged manual was also developed. The framework used in supporting the application of aligning computational tools for readiness continues our approach to apply a preparedness mindset to challenges concerning threats to global biosecurity, secure food systems, and risk-mitigated agricultural economies.

  3. Contribution of inflammatory pathways to Fabry disease pathogenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rozenfeld, Paula; Feriozzi, Sandro

    2017-11-01

    Lysosomal storage diseases are usually considered to be pathologies in which the passive deposition of unwanted materials leads to functional changes in lysosomes. Lysosomal deposition of unmetabolized glycolipid substrates stimulates the activation of pathogenic cascades, including immunological processes, and particularly the activation of inflammation. In lysosomal storage diseases, the inflammatory response is continuously being activated because the stimulus cannot be eliminated. Consequently, inflammation becomes a chronic process. Lysosomes play a role in many steps of the immune response. Leukocyte perturbation and over-expression of immune molecules have been reported in Fabry disease. Innate immunity is activated by signals originating from dendritic cells via interactions between toll-like receptors and globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and/or globotriaosylsphingosine (lyso-Gb3). Evidence indicates that these glycolipids can activate toll-like receptors, thus triggering inflammation and fibrosis cascades. In the kidney, Gb3 deposition is associated with the increased release of transforming growth factor beta and with epithelial-to-mesenchymal cell transition, leading to the over-expression of pro-fibrotic molecules and to renal fibrosis. Interstitial fibrosis is also a typical feature of heart involvement in Fabry disease. Endomyocardial biopsies show infiltration of lymphocytes and macrophages, suggesting a role for inflammation in causing tissue damage. Inflammation is present in all tissues and may be associated with other potentially pathologic processes such as apoptosis, impaired autophagy, and increases in pro-oxidative molecules, which could all contribute synergistically to tissue damage. In Fabry disease, the activation of chronic inflammation over time leads to organ damage. Therefore, enzyme replacement therapy must be started early, before this process becomes irreversible. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights

  4. A disease state fingerprint for evaluation of Alzheimer's disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mattila, Jussi; Koikkalainen, Juha; Virkki, Arho

    2011-01-01

    Diagnostic processes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are evolving. Knowledge about disease-specific biomarkers is constantly increasing and larger volumes of data are being measured from patients. To gain additional benefits from the collected data, a novel statistical modeling and data visualization...... interpretation of the information. To model the AD state from complex and heterogeneous patient data, a statistical Disease State Index (DSI) method underlying the DSF has been developed. Using baseline data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the ability of the DSI to model disease...

  5. Crohn Disease: Epidemiology, Diagnosis, and Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feuerstein, Joseph D; Cheifetz, Adam S

    2017-07-01

    Crohn disease is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease condition characterized by skip lesions and transmural inflammation that can affect the entire gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus. For this review article, we performed a review of articles in PubMed through February 1, 2017, by using the following Medical Subject Heading terms: crohns disease, crohn's disease, crohn disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Presenting symptoms are often variable and may include diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, and in certain cases fevers or chills. There are 3 main disease phenotypes: inflammatory, structuring, and penetrating. In addition to the underlying disease phenotype, up to a third of patients will develop perianal involvement of their disease. In addition, in some cases, extraintestinal manifestations may develop. The diagnosis is typically made with endoscopic and/or radiologic findings. Disease management is usually with pharmacologic therapy, which is determined on the basis of disease severity and underlying disease phenotype. Although the goal of management is to control the inflammation and induce a clinical remission with pharmacologic therapy, most patients will eventually require surgery for their disease. Unfortunately, surgery is not curative and patients still require ongoing therapy even after surgery for disease recurrence. Importantly, given the risks of complications from both Crohn disease and the medications used to treat the disease process, primary care physicians play an important role in optimizing the preventative care management to reduce the risk of complications. Copyright © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Acid sphingomyelinase modulates the autophagic process by controlling lysosomal biogenesis in Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jong Kil; Jin, Hee Kyung; Park, Min Hee; Kim, Bo-ra; Lee, Phil Hyu; Nakauchi, Hiromitsu; Carter, Janet E; He, Xingxuan; Schuchman, Edward H; Bae, Jae-sung

    2014-07-28

    In Alzheimer's disease (AD), abnormal sphingolipid metabolism has been reported, although the pathogenic consequences of these changes have not been fully characterized. We show that acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) is increased in fibroblasts, brain, and/or plasma from patients with AD and in AD mice, leading to defective autophagic degradation due to lysosomal depletion. Partial genetic inhibition of ASM (ASM(+/-)) in a mouse model of familial AD (FAD; amyloid precursor protein [APP]/presenilin 1 [PS1]) ameliorated the autophagocytic defect by restoring lysosomal biogenesis, resulting in improved AD clinical and pathological findings, including reduction of amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition and improvement of memory impairment. Similar effects were noted after pharmacologic restoration of ASM to the normal range in APP/PS1 mice. Autophagic dysfunction in neurons derived from FAD patient induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) was restored by partial ASM inhibition. Overall, these results reveal a novel mechanism of ASM pathogenesis in AD that leads to defective autophagy due to impaired lysosomal biogenesis and suggests that partial ASM inhibition is a potential new therapeutic intervention for the disease. © 2014 Lee et al.

  7. Bone scintigraphy in systemic and metabolic diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Engels, H.J.; Schmidt, H.A.E.

    1984-01-01

    Bone scintigraphy is a very sensitive method to identify pathological processes affecting the bone. Its specificity is, however, considerably lower than its sensitivity, particularly in systemic diseases. We therefore investigated the possibilities of differential diagnosis based on typical sites or patterns of distribution. The Paget syndrome with characteristic manifestation in the pelvic region, including crutch-shaped accumulation in the proximal femur, may be diagnosed by scintigraphy alone. If these typical sites are absent, however, differential diagnosis is difficult. Differential diagnosis for multiple myeloma, fibrous dysplasia, enchondromatosis, hyperparathyroidism, osteopathies, osteomalacia, inflammatory rheumatic diseases is also required and should be based on further examinations, taking into consideration the history, clinical signs and course. In this connexion scintigraphy is relevant both for early assessment and documentation of the spread of pathological processes and for the follow-up. (orig.) [de

  8. [Geographical differences in clinical characteristics and management of stable outpatients with coronary artery disease: comparison between the Italian and international population included in the Worldwide CLARIFY registry].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pozzoli, Massimo; Tavazzi, Luigi

    2014-04-01

    Limited data are available regarding specific differences among countries in demographic and clinical characteristics and treatment of patients with stable coronary artery disease. CLARIFY is an international, prospective and longitudinal registry including more than 33 000 patients with stable coronary artery disease enrolled in 45 countries worldwide. Data were used to compare the characteristics of patients enrolled in Italy with those enrolled in Europe and in the rest of the world. Baseline data were available for 33 283 patients, 2112 of whom from Italy and 12 614 from the remaining western European countries. Italian patients were found to be older, more frequently smoker, hypertensive and with sedentary habits. In addition, they presented more frequently a history of myocardial infarction, carotid arterial disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition, when compared with patients of both European and international cohorts, more Italian patients had undergone coronary angiography and angioplasty. As far as treatment was concerned, a greater number of Italian patients were taking ivabradine, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers, nitrates, thienopyridines, while those taking beta-blockers, calcium antagonists and other antianginal medications were fewer. Among ambulatory patients with stable coronary artery disease, there are important geographic differences in terms of risk factors, clinical characteristics, surgical and pharmacological treatment.

  9. Monograph on alternaria diseases of crucifers. Technical bulletin No. 1994-6E

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Verma, P R

    1994-12-31

    The brassicas include an important group of oilseed crops such as canola and commercial vegetables such as cabbage and broccoli. Infection by species of the fungus Alternaria causes severe yield losses to those crops. This document compiles the most recent information on fundamental and applied knowledge of Alternaria species infecting Brassicaceae crops and weeds. It includes a review of the symptoms, geographical distribution, yield losses, and disease assessment methods of infections from the four most widely distributed species of Alternaria; information on the characteristics of the pathogen, its host range, disease cycle, process of infection, epidemiology, fine structures and electron microscopy, resistance, and phytotoxins; and techniques for disease infection and management. The document concludes with an evaluation of future strategies and priorities in the management of Alternaria diseases.

  10. Cerebellar abnormalities contribute to disability including cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katrin Weier

    Full Text Available The cerebellum is known to be involved not only in motor but also cognitive and affective processes. Structural changes in the cerebellum in relation to cognitive dysfunction are an emerging topic in the field of neuro-psychiatric disorders. In Multiple Sclerosis (MS cerebellar motor and cognitive dysfunction occur in parallel, early in the onset of the disease, and the cerebellum is one of the predilection sites of atrophy. This study is aimed at determining the relationship between cerebellar volumes, clinical cerebellar signs, cognitive functioning and fatigue in MS. Cerebellar volumetry was conducted using T1-weighted MPRAGE magnetic resonance imaging of 172 MS patients. All patients underwent a clinical and brief neuropsychological assessment (information processing speed, working memory, including fatigue testing. Patients with and without cerebellar signs differed significantly regarding normalized cerebellar total volume (nTCV, normalized brain volume (nBV and whole brain T2 lesion volume (LV. Patients with cerebellar dysfunction likewise performed worse in cognitive tests. A regression analysis indicated that age and nTCV explained 26.3% of the variance in SDMT (symbol digit modalities test performance. However, only age, T2 LV and nBV remained predictors in the full model (r(2 = 0.36. The full model for the prediction of PASAT (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test scores (r(2 = 0.23 included age, cerebellar and T2 LV. In the case of fatigue, only age and nBV (r(2 = 0.17 emerged as significant predictors. These data support the view that cerebellar abnormalities contribute to disability, including cognitive impairment in MS. However, this contribution does not seem to be independent of, and may even be dominated by wider spread MS pathology as reflected by nBV and T2 LV.

  11. Leveraging health information exchange to improve population health reporting processes: lessons in using a collaborative-participatory design process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Revere, Debra; Dixon, Brian E; Hills, Rebecca; Williams, Jennifer L; Grannis, Shaun J

    2014-01-01

    Surveillance, or the systematic monitoring of disease within a population, is a cornerstone function of public health. Despite significant investment in information technologies (IT) to improve the public's health, health care providers continue to rely on manual, spontaneous reporting processes that can result in incomplete and delayed surveillance activities. Participatory design principles advocate including real users and stakeholders when designing an information system to ensure high ecological validity of the product, incorporate relevance and context into the design, reduce misconceptions designers can make due to insufficient domain expertise, and ultimately reduce barriers to adoption of the system. This paper focuses on the collaborative and informal participatory design process used to develop enhanced, IT-enabled reporting processes that leverage available electronic health records in a health information exchange to prepopulate notifiable-conditions report forms used by public health authorities. Over nine months, public health stakeholders, technical staff, and informatics researchers were engaged in a multiphase participatory design process that included public health stakeholder focus groups, investigator-engineering team meetings, public health survey and census regarding high-priority data elements, and codesign of exploratory prototypes and final form mock-ups. A number of state-mandated report fields that are not highly used or desirable for disease investigation were eliminated, which allowed engineers to repurpose form space for desired and high-priority data elements and improve the usability of the forms. Our participatory design process ensured that IT development was driven by end user expertise and needs, resulting in significant improvements to the layout and functionality of the reporting forms. In addition to informing report form development, engaging with public health end users and stakeholders through the participatory design

  12. [Premorbid psychological processes in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in patients with vascular dementia].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, J; Stadtmüller, G; Qualmann, J; Bauer, H

    1995-01-01

    We analyzed the premorbid biographies of 21 patients with Alzheimer's disease for possible common features. Eleven age-matched patients suffering from vascular dementia served as a control group. The observations from our qualitative study indicate that persons with a conflict-avoiding, submissive, premorbid personality predominate among Alzheimer patients. Persons who later became Alzheimer patients tended to leave important daily-life decisions to their partners (or other persons of reference). Prior to the onset of the very first neuropsychological deficits, persons who later became Alzheimer patients were found to stay in a lasting situation in which they were subject to a treatment that could be designated as "caring tutelage." Subsequently, most patients became subject to an increasingly patronizing and restricting treatment. Further elements that were frequently found as part of the premorbid development were physical or psychological burden, loss of social contacts, and loss of motivation. In contrast, assertive and dominant premorbid traits predominated in the group of vascular patients. The premorbid biographical situation of persons who later became vascular patients was characterized by a loss of the control which these persons had hitherto exerted over partners, their families, or the situation at their working place. We advance the hypothesis that in Alzheimer's disease the described psychological phenomena are part of a preclinical process, during which biological, psychological, and social factors interact, finally joining into the clinical stage of the disease. Possibilities for psychotherapeutic interventions are discussed.

  13. Basal Ganglia, Dopamine and Temporal Processing: Performance on Three Timing Tasks on and off Medication in Parkinson's Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Catherine R. G.; Malone, Tim J. L.; Dirnberger, Georg; Edwards, Mark; Jahanshahi, Marjan

    2008-01-01

    A pervasive hypothesis in the timing literature is that temporal processing in the milliseconds and seconds range engages the basal ganglia and is modulated by dopamine. This hypothesis was investigated by testing 12 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), both "on" and "off" dopaminergic medication, and 20 healthy controls on three timing tasks.…

  14. Applications of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics in the Investigation of Oxidative Stress-Related Processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bersch, Beate; Groves, Matthew; Johann, Klare; Torda, Andrew; Ortiz, Dario; Laher, I.

    2014-01-01

    Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated dysfunction of certain biological processes is implicated in different diseases in humans, including cardiovascular, cancer, or neurodegenerative disorders. Not only human cells and tissues are affected by ROS but also all other biological systems, including

  15. Periodontal disease and pregnancy outcomes: time to move on?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srinivas, Sindhu K; Parry, Samuel

    2012-02-01

    Maternal periodontal disease is a highly prevalent condition that has been studied extensively in relation to adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm delivery, preeclampsia, and low birth weight. Investigators speculate that hematogenous transport of bacteria and/or pro-inflammatory mediators from sites of periodontal infection into the placenta, fetal membranes, and amniotic cavity induces pathological processes that lead to these adverse outcomes. Preliminary observational studies supported this hypothesis, but more recent work by our group and others do not demonstrate an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes among women with periodontal disease, and most randomized trials fail to demonstrate improved perinatal outcomes following treatment of periodontal disease in pregnancy.

  16. Dilemma of Renal Disease in Elderly

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    El Essawy Abdel

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The aging process results in profound anatomic and functional changes in a number of human body systems. Changes in kidney function with normal aging are the most dramatic of any human organ or organ system. These include anatomical, physiological, hemodynamic and immunological changes. Increased propensities of systemic diseases and exposure to poly-pharmacy of the aged group have an additive deleterious effect. The aforementioned changes have its implications on clinical presentations, management and prognosis of all renal diseases in elderly. Atypical presentation, more frequent and longer course are the characteristics of acute renal failure in this age group. Also, presentation of glomerular diseases, clinical course, prognosis, decision of performing a renal biopsy and use of immunosuppressive drugs in elderly specially those subgroup above 80 years of age are still a big challenges that needs a consensus and standardization.

  17. Occupational Neurotoxic Diseases in Taiwan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chi-Hung Liu

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Occupational neurotoxic diseases have become increasingly common in Taiwan due to industrialization. Over the past 40 years, Taiwan has transformed from an agricultural society to an industrial society. The most common neurotoxic diseases also changed from organophosphate poisoning to heavy metal intoxication, and then to organic solvent and semiconductor agent poisoning. The nervous system is particularly vulnerable to toxic agents because of its high metabolic rate. Neurological manifestations may be transient or permanent, and may range from cognitive dysfunction, cerebellar ataxia, Parkinsonism, sensorimotor neuropathy and autonomic dysfunction to neuromuscular junction disorders. This study attempts to provide a review of the major outbreaks of occupational neurotoxins from 1968 to 2012. A total of 16 occupational neurotoxins, including organophosphates, toxic gases, heavy metals, organic solvents, and other toxic chemicals, were reviewed. Peer-reviewed articles related to the electrophysiology, neuroimaging, treatment and long-term follow up of these neurotoxic diseases were also obtained. The heavy metals involved consisted of lead, manganese, organic tin, mercury, arsenic, and thallium. The organic solvents included n-hexane, toluene, mixed solvents and carbon disulfide. Toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide were also included, along with toxic chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls, tetramethylammonium hydroxide, organophosphates, and dimethylamine borane. In addition we attempted to correlate these events to the timeline of industrial development in Taiwan. By researching this topic, the hope is that it may help other developing countries to improve industrial hygiene and promote occupational safety and health care during the process of industrialization.

  18. Viral capsid assembly as a model for protein aggregation diseases: Active processes catalyzed by cellular assembly machines comprising novel drug targets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marreiros, Rita; Müller-Schiffmann, Andreas; Bader, Verian; Selvarajah, Suganya; Dey, Debendranath; Lingappa, Vishwanath R; Korth, Carsten

    2015-09-02

    Viruses can be conceptualized as self-replicating multiprotein assemblies, containing coding nucleic acids. Viruses have evolved to exploit host cellular components including enzymes to ensure their replicative life cycle. New findings indicate that also viral capsid proteins recruit host factors to accelerate their assembly. These assembly machines are RNA-containing multiprotein complexes whose composition is governed by allosteric sites. In the event of viral infection, the assembly machines are recruited to support the virus over the host and are modified to achieve that goal. Stress granules and processing bodies may represent collections of such assembly machines, readily visible by microscopy but biochemically labile and difficult to isolate by fractionation. We hypothesize that the assembly of protein multimers such as encountered in neurodegenerative or other protein conformational diseases, is also catalyzed by assembly machines. In the case of viral infection, the assembly machines have been modified by the virus to meet the virus' need for rapid capsid assembly rather than host homeostasis. In the case of the neurodegenerative diseases, it is the monomers and/or low n oligomers of the so-called aggregated proteins that are substrates of assembly machines. Examples for substrates are amyloid β peptide (Aβ) and tau in Alzheimer's disease, α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease, prions in the prion diseases, Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) in subsets of chronic mental illnesses, and others. A likely continuum between virus capsid assembly and cell-to-cell transmissibility of aggregated proteins is remarkable. Protein aggregation diseases may represent dysfunction and dysregulation of these assembly machines analogous to the aberrations induced by viral infection in which cellular homeostasis is pathologically reprogrammed. In this view, as for viral infection, reset of assembly machines to normal homeostasis should be the goal of protein aggregation

  19. Multi-disease data management system platform for vector-borne diseases.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lars Eisen

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Emerging information technologies present new opportunities to reduce the burden of malaria, dengue and other infectious diseases. For example, use of a data management system software package can help disease control programs to better manage and analyze their data, and thus enhances their ability to carry out continuous surveillance, monitor interventions and evaluate control program performance.We describe a novel multi-disease data management system platform (hereinafter referred to as the system with current capacity for dengue and malaria that supports data entry, storage and query. It also allows for production of maps and both standardized and customized reports. The system is comprised exclusively of software components that can be distributed without the user incurring licensing costs. It was designed to maximize the ability of the user to adapt the system to local conditions without involvement of software developers. Key points of system adaptability include 1 customizable functionality content by disease, 2 configurable roles and permissions, 3 customizable user interfaces and display labels and 4 configurable information trees including a geographical entity tree and a term tree. The system includes significant portions of functionality that is entirely or in large part re-used across diseases, which provides an economy of scope as new diseases downstream are added to the system at decreased cost.We have developed a system with great potential for aiding disease control programs in their task to reduce the burden of dengue and malaria, including the implementation of integrated vector management programs. Next steps include evaluations of operational implementations of the current system with capacity for dengue and malaria, and the inclusion in the system platform of other important vector-borne diseases.

  20. Evolution of the archaeal and mammalian information processing systems: towards an archaeal model for human disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyu, Zhe; Whitman, William B

    2017-01-01

    Current evolutionary models suggest that Eukaryotes originated from within Archaea instead of being a sister lineage. To test this model of ancient evolution, we review recent studies and compare the three major information processing subsystems of replication, transcription and translation in the Archaea and Eukaryotes. Our hypothesis is that if the Eukaryotes arose within the archaeal radiation, their information processing systems will appear to be one of kind and not wholly original. Within the Eukaryotes, the mammalian or human systems are emphasized because of their importance in understanding health. Biochemical as well as genetic studies provide strong evidence for the functional similarity of archaeal homologs to the mammalian information processing system and their dissimilarity to the bacterial systems. In many independent instances, a simple archaeal system is functionally equivalent to more elaborate eukaryotic homologs, suggesting that evolution of complexity is likely an central feature of the eukaryotic information processing system. Because fewer components are often involved, biochemical characterizations of the archaeal systems are often easier to interpret. Similarly, the archaeal cell provides a genetically and metabolically simpler background, enabling convenient studies on the complex information processing system. Therefore, Archaea could serve as a parsimonious and tractable host for studying human diseases that arise in the information processing systems.

  1. Amyloid precursor protein and endosomal-lysosomal dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease: inseparable partners in a multifactorial disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nixon, Ralph A

    2017-07-01

    Abnormalities of the endosomal-lysosomal network (ELN) are a signature feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). These include the earliest known cytopathology that is specific to AD and that affects endosomes and induces the progressive failure of lysosomes, each of which are directly linked by distinct mechanisms to neurodegeneration. The origins of ELN dysfunction and β-amyloidogenesis closely overlap, which reflects their common genetic basis, the established early involvement of endosomes and lysosomes in amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing and clearance, and the pathologic effect of certain APP metabolites on ELN functions. Genes that promote β-amyloidogenesis in AD (APP, PSEN1/2, and APOE4) have primary effects on ELN function. The importance of primary ELN dysfunction to pathogenesis is underscored by the mutations in more than 35 ELN-related genes that, thus far, are known to cause familial neurodegenerative diseases even though different pathogenic proteins may be involved. In this article, I discuss growing evidence that implicates AD gene-driven ELN disruptions as not only the antecedent pathobiology that underlies β-amyloidogenesis but also as the essential partner with APP and its metabolites that drive the development of AD, including tauopathy, synaptic dysfunction, and neurodegeneration. The striking amelioration of diverse deficits in animal AD models by remediating ELN dysfunction further supports a need to integrate APP and ELN relationships, including the role of amyloid-β, into a broader conceptual framework of how AD arises, progresses, and may be effectively therapeutically targeted.-Nixon, R. A. Amyloid precursor protein and endosomal-lysosomal dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease: inseparable partners in a multifactorial disease. © FASEB.

  2. Double pendulum model for a tennis stroke including a collision process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Youn, Sun-Hyun

    2015-10-01

    By means of adding a collision process between the ball and racket in the double pendulum model, we analyzed the tennis stroke. The ball and the racket system may be accelerated during the collision time; thus, the speed of the rebound ball does not simply depend on the angular velocity of the racket. A higher angular velocity sometimes gives a lower rebound ball speed. We numerically showed that the proper time-lagged racket rotation increased the speed of the rebound ball by 20%. We also showed that the elbow should move in the proper direction in order to add the angular velocity of the racket.

  3. Nutrition Therapy in Elderly with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Minidian Fasitasari

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Nutrition is an important health element for elderly people and influence aging process. Malnutrition prevalence is increasing in this population. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD is one of the chronic diseases in elderly that is related to malnutrition. The association between malnutrition and pulmonary disease (including COPD has been known for a long time. Malnutrition has negative impacts on pulmonary structure, elasticity, and function, strength and endurance of respiratory muscles, pulmonary immunity defense mechanism, and breath control. Inversely, pulmonary disease (including COPD will increase energy need and may reduce dietary intake. Nutrition intervention in COPD patient is intended for regulating anorexia, improving pulmonary function, and controlling weight loss. Nutrient requirements will be calculated according to the results of nutrition assessment. This article will discuss about nutrition therapy in elderly with COPD. It describes respiratory system in aging, association COPD and nutrition, and nutrition assessment, as well as nutrition intervention in elderly people with COPD.

  4. Self-management interventions including action plans for exacerbations versus usual care in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Review)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lenferink, Anke; Brusse-Keizer, Marjolein; van der Valk, Paul; Frith, Peter A.; Zwerink, Marlies; Monninkhof, Evelyn M.; van der Palen, J.A.M.; Effing, Tanja

    2017-01-01

    Background  Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) self-management interventions should be structured but personalised and often multi-component, with goals ofmotivating, engaging and supporting the patients to positively adapt their behaviour(s) and develop skills to better manage disease.

  5. Prepulse inhibition is associated with attention, processing speed, and 123I-FP-CIT SPECT in Parkinson's disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zoetmulder, Marielle; Biernat, Heidi B; Nikolic, Miki

    2014-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Prepulse inhibition is a measure of sensorimotor gating, which reflects the ability to filter or 'gate' irrelevant information. Prepulse inhibition is dramatically altered in basal ganglia disorders associated with dysfunction in the midbrain dopaminergic system, and corresponding......'s disease have been extensively studied in relation to motor function, less is known about the potential role of sensorimotor processes in cognitive function. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the relationship between prepulse inhibition, cognition and nigrostriatal dysfunction, as measured with 123I......-FP-CIT-SPECT scanning, in patients with Parkinson's disease. METHODS: 38 Parkinson patients were assessed with prepulse inhibition, neuropsychological tests, and neurological investigation. A subset of these patients underwent 123I-FP-CIT-SPECT scanning. RESULTS: Patients with a higher level of prepulse inhibition...

  6. A qualitative study assessing patient perspectives in the process of decision-making on disease modifying therapies (DMT's) in multiple sclerosis (MS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ceuninck van Capelle, Archibald de; Meide, Hanneke van der; Vosman, Frans J H; Visser, Leo H

    2017-01-01

    Physicians commonly advise patients to begin disease modifying therapies (DMT's) shortly after the establishment of a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) to prevent further relapses and disease progression. However, little is known about the meaning for patients going through the process of the diagnosis of MS and of making decisions on DMT's in early MS. To explore the patient perspective on using DMT's for MS. Methods: Ten participants with a recent (approach. The analysis revealed the following themes: (1) Constant confrontation with the disease, (2) Managing inevitable decline, (3) Hope of delaying the progression of the disease, and, (4) The importance of social support. The themes show that patients associate the recommendation to begin DMT's (especially injectable DMT's) with views about their bodies as well as their hopes about the future. Both considering and adhering to treatment are experienced by patients as not only matters of individual and rational deliberation, but also as activities that are lived within a web of relationships with relatives and friends. From the patient perspective, the use of DMT's is not a purely rational and individual experience. More attention to the use of DMT's as relational and lived phenomena will improve the understanding of the process of decision-making for DMT's in MS.

  7. Bioactive Nutrients and Nutrigenomics in Age-Related Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tania Rescigno

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The increased life expectancy and the expansion of the elderly population are stimulating research into aging. Aging may be viewed as a multifactorial process that results from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors, which include lifestyle. Human molecular processes are influenced by physiological pathways as well as exogenous factors, which include the diet. Dietary components have substantive effects on metabolic health; for instance, bioactive molecules capable of selectively modulating specific metabolic pathways affect the development/progression of cardiovascular and neoplastic disease. As bioactive nutrients are increasingly identified, their clinical and molecular chemopreventive effects are being characterized and systematic analyses encompassing the “omics” technologies (transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics are being conducted to explore their action. The evolving field of molecular pathological epidemiology has unique strength to investigate the effects of dietary and lifestyle exposure on clinical outcomes. The mounting body of knowledge regarding diet-related health status and disease risk is expected to lead in the near future to the development of improved diagnostic procedures and therapeutic strategies targeting processes relevant to nutrition. The state of the art of aging and nutrigenomics research and the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of bioactive nutrients on the main aging-related disorders are reviewed herein.

  8. Exercise and Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease: Theoretical Considerations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Astrid M. Hooghiemstra

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aims: Although studies show a negative relationship between physical activity and the risk for cognitive impairment and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, studies concerning early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD are lacking. This review aims to justify the value of exercise interventions in EOAD by providing theoretical considerations that include neurobiological processes. Methods: A literature search on key words related to early-onset dementia, exercise, imaging, neurobiological mechanisms, and cognitive reserve was performed. Results/Conclusion: Brain regions and neurobiological processes contributing to the positive effects of exercise are affected in EOAD and, thus, provide theoretical support for exercise interventions in EOAD. Finally, we present the design of a randomized controlled trial currently being conducted in early-onset dementia patients.

  9. Treatment of Crohn's disease with cannabis: an observational study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naftali, Timna; Lev, Lihi Bar; Yablecovitch, Doron; Yablekovitz, Doron; Half, Elisabeth; Konikoff, Fred M

    2011-08-01

    The marijuana plant cannabis is known to have therapeutic effects, including improvement of inflammatory processes. However, no report of patients using cannabis for Crohn's disease (CD) was ever published. To describe the effects of cannabis use in patients suffering from CD. In this retrospective observational study we examined disease activity, use of medication, need for surgery, and hospitalization before and after cannabis use in 30 patients (26 males) with CD. Disease activity was assessed by the Harvey Bradshaw index for Crohn's disease. Of the 30 patients 21 improved significantly after treatment with cannabis. The average Harvey Bradshaw index improved from 14 +/- 6.7 to 7 +/- 4.7 (P disease in humans. The results indicate that cannabis may have a positive effect on disease activity, as reflected by reduction in disease activity index and in the need for other drugs and surgery. Prospective placebo-controlled studies are warranted to fully evaluate the efficacy and side effects of cannabis in CD.

  10. RNAi Therapeutics in Autoimmune Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seunghee Cha

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Since the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi, excitement has grown over its potential therapeutic uses. Targeting RNAi pathways provides a powerful tool to change biological processes post-transcriptionally in various health conditions such as cancer or autoimmune diseases. Optimum design of shRNA, siRNA, and miRNA enhances stability and specificity of RNAi-based approaches whereas it has to reduce or prevent undesirable immune responses or off-target effects. Recent advances in understanding pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases have allowed application of these tools in vitro as well as in vivo with some degree of success. Further research on the design and delivery of effectors of RNAi pathway and underlying molecular basis of RNAi would warrant practical use of RNAi-based therapeutics in human applications. This review will focus on the approaches used for current therapeutics and their applications in autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren’s syndrome.

  11. Brain Imaging in Alzheimer Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Keith A.; Fox, Nick C.; Sperling, Reisa A.; Klunk, William E.

    2012-01-01

    Imaging has played a variety of roles in the study of Alzheimer disease (AD) over the past four decades. Initially, computed tomography (CT) and then magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used diagnostically to rule out other causes of dementia. More recently, a variety of imaging modalities including structural and functional MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) studies of cerebral metabolism with fluoro-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) and amyloid tracers such as Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB) have shown characteristic changes in the brains of patients with AD, and in prodromal and even presymptomatic states that can help rule-in the AD pathophysiological process. No one imaging modality can serve all purposes as each have unique strengths and weaknesses. These modalities and their particular utilities are discussed in this article. The challenge for the future will be to combine imaging biomarkers to most efficiently facilitate diagnosis, disease staging, and, most importantly, development of effective disease-modifying therapies. PMID:22474610

  12. Big-bang nucleosynthesis with a long-lived charged massive particle including He4 spallation processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jittoh, Toshifumi; Kohri, Kazunori; Koike, Masafumi; Sato, Joe; Sugai, Kenichi; Yamanaka, Masato; Yazaki, Koichi

    2011-08-01

    We propose helium-4 spallation processes induced by long-lived stau in supersymmetric standard models, and investigate an impact of the processes on light elements abundances. We show that, as long as the phase space of helium-4 spallation processes is open, they are more important than stau-catalyzed fusion and hence constrain the stau property.

  13. Synaptic activity and bioenergy homeostasis: implications in brain trauma and neurodegenerative diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natasha eKhatri

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Powered by glucose metabolism, the brain is the most energy-demanding organ in our body, accounting for a quarter of total oxygen consumption. Adequate ATP production and regulation of the metabolic processes are essential for the maintenance of synaptic transmission and neuronal function. Glutamatergic synaptic activity utilizes the largest portion of bioenergy for synaptic events including neurotransmitter synthesis, vesicle recycling, and most importantly the postsynaptic activities leading to channel activation and rebalancing of ionic gradients. Bioenergy homeostasis is coupled with synaptic function via activities of the sodium pumps, glutamate transporters, glucose transport and mitochondria translocation. Energy insufficiency will be sensed by the AMP-activated dependent protein kinase (AMPK, a master metabolic regulator that stimulates the catalytic process to enhance energy production. A decline in energy supply and a disruption in bioenergy homeostasis play a critical role in multiple neuropathological conditions including ischemia, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injuries.

  14. Associated Autoimmune Diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... gland in the neck, thick and coarse hair. Addison’s Disease Arare disease involving the adrenal gland. The prevalence of celiac disease in people with addison’s disease is significant. Symptoms of Addison’s may include weight ...

  15. HISTAMINE H3 RECEPTOR INVERSE AGONISTS ON COGNITIVE AND MOTOR PROCESSES: RELEVANCE TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, ADHD, SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DRUG ABUSE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Divya eVohora

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Histamine H3 receptor antagonists/ inverse agonists possess potential to treat diverse disease states of the central nervous system (CNS. Cognitive dysfunction and motor impairments are the hallmark of multifarious neurodegenerative and/or psychiatric disorders. This review presents the various neurobiological/ neurochemical evidences available so far following H3 receptor inverse agonists/ antagonists in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, schizophrenia and drug abuse each of which is accompanied by deficits of some aspects of cognitive and/or motor functions. Whether the H3 receptor inverse agonism modulates the neurochemical basis underlying the disease condition or affects only the cognitive/motor component of the disease process is discussed with the aim to provide a rationale for their use in diverse disease states that are interlinked and are accompanied by some common motor, cognitive and attentional deficits.

  16. The role of insufficient copper in lipid synthesis and fatty-liver disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morrell, Austin; Tallino, Savannah; Yu, Lei; Burkhead, Jason L

    2017-04-01

    The essential transition metal copper is important in lipid metabolism, redox balance, iron mobilization, and many other critical processes in eukaryotic organisms. Genetic diseases where copper homeostasis is disrupted, including Menkes disease and Wilson disease, indicate the importance of copper balance to human health. The severe consequences of insufficient copper supply are illustrated by Menkes disease, caused by mutation in the X-linked ATP7A gene encoding a protein that transports copper from intestinal epithelia into the bloodstream and across the blood-brain barrier. Inadequate copper supply to the body due to poor diet quality or malabsorption can disrupt several molecular level pathways and processes. Though much of the copper distribution machinery has been described and consequences of disrupted copper handling have been characterized in human disease as well as animal models, physiological consequences of sub-optimal copper due to poor nutrition or malabsorption have not been extensively studied. Recent work indicates that insufficient copper may be important in a number of common diseases including obesity, ischemic heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. Specifically, marginal copper deficiency (CuD) has been reported as a potential etiologic factor in diseases characterized by disrupted lipid metabolism such as non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease (NAFLD). In this review, we discuss the available data suggesting that a significant portion of the North American population may consume insufficient copper, the potential mechanisms by which CuD may promote lipid biosynthesis, and the interaction between CuD and dietary fructose in the etiology of NAFLD. © 2016 IUBMB Life, 69(4):263-270, 2017. © 2017 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

  17. Using biological networks to improve our understanding of infectious diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicola J. Mulder

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death, particularly in developing countries. Although many drugs are available for treating the most common infectious diseases, in many cases the mechanism of action of these drugs or even their targets in the pathogen remain unknown. In addition, the key factors or processes in pathogens that facilitate infection and disease progression are often not well understood. Since proteins do not work in isolation, understanding biological systems requires a better understanding of the interconnectivity between proteins in different pathways and processes, which includes both physical and other functional interactions. Such biological networks can be generated within organisms or between organisms sharing a common environment using experimental data and computational predictions. Though different data sources provide different levels of accuracy, confidence in interactions can be measured using interaction scores. Connections between interacting proteins in biological networks can be represented as graphs and edges, and thus studied using existing algorithms and tools from graph theory. There are many different applications of biological networks, and here we discuss three such applications, specifically applied to the infectious disease tuberculosis, with its causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis and host, Homo sapiens. The applications include the use of the networks for function prediction, comparison of networks for evolutionary studies, and the generation and use of host–pathogen interaction networks.

  18. Modeling congenital disease and inborn errors of development in Drosophila melanogaster

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moulton, Matthew J.; Letsou, Anthea

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT Fly models that faithfully recapitulate various aspects of human disease and human health-related biology are being used for research into disease diagnosis and prevention. Established and new genetic strategies in Drosophila have yielded numerous substantial successes in modeling congenital disorders or inborn errors of human development, as well as neurodegenerative disease and cancer. Moreover, although our ability to generate sequence datasets continues to outpace our ability to analyze these datasets, the development of high-throughput analysis platforms in Drosophila has provided access through the bottleneck in the identification of disease gene candidates. In this Review, we describe both the traditional and newer methods that are facilitating the incorporation of Drosophila into the human disease discovery process, with a focus on the models that have enhanced our understanding of human developmental disorders and congenital disease. Enviable features of the Drosophila experimental system, which make it particularly useful in facilitating the much anticipated move from genotype to phenotype (understanding and predicting phenotypes directly from the primary DNA sequence), include its genetic tractability, the low cost for high-throughput discovery, and a genome and underlying biology that are highly evolutionarily conserved. In embracing the fly in the human disease-gene discovery process, we can expect to speed up and reduce the cost of this process, allowing experimental scales that are not feasible and/or would be too costly in higher eukaryotes. PMID:26935104

  19. Kernel-imbedded Gaussian processes for disease classification using microarray gene expression data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheung Leo

    2007-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Designing appropriate machine learning methods for identifying genes that have a significant discriminating power for disease outcomes has become more and more important for our understanding of diseases at genomic level. Although many machine learning methods have been developed and applied to the area of microarray gene expression data analysis, the majority of them are based on linear models, which however are not necessarily appropriate for the underlying connection between the target disease and its associated explanatory genes. Linear model based methods usually also bring in false positive significant features more easily. Furthermore, linear model based algorithms often involve calculating the inverse of a matrix that is possibly singular when the number of potentially important genes is relatively large. This leads to problems of numerical instability. To overcome these limitations, a few non-linear methods have recently been introduced to the area. Many of the existing non-linear methods have a couple of critical problems, the model selection problem and the model parameter tuning problem, that remain unsolved or even untouched. In general, a unified framework that allows model parameters of both linear and non-linear models to be easily tuned is always preferred in real-world applications. Kernel-induced learning methods form a class of approaches that show promising potentials to achieve this goal. Results A hierarchical statistical model named kernel-imbedded Gaussian process (KIGP is developed under a unified Bayesian framework for binary disease classification problems using microarray gene expression data. In particular, based on a probit regression setting, an adaptive algorithm with a cascading structure is designed to find the appropriate kernel, to discover the potentially significant genes, and to make the optimal class prediction accordingly. A Gibbs sampler is built as the core of the algorithm to make

  20. Information processing in micro and meso-scale neural circuits during normal and disease states

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luongo, Francisco

    Neural computation can occur at multiple spatial and temporal timescales. The sum total of all of these processes is to guide optimal behaviors within the context of the constraints imposed by the physical world. How the circuits of the brain achieves this goal represents a central question in systems neuroscience. Here I explore the many ways in which the circuits of the brain can process information at both the micro and meso scale. Understanding the way information is represented and processed in the brain could shed light on the neuropathology underlying complex neuropsychiatric diseases such as autism and schizophrenia. Chapter 2 establishes an experimental paradigm for assaying patterns of microcircuit activity and examines the role of dopaminergic modulation on prefrontal microcircuits. We find that dopamine type 2 (D2) receptor activation results in an increase in spontaneous activity while dopamine type 1 (D1) activation does not. Chapter 3 of this dissertation presents a study that illustrates how cholingergic activation normally produces what has been suggested as a neural substrate of attention; pairwise decorrelation in microcircuit activity. This study also shows that in two etiologicall distinct mouse models of autism, FMR1 knockout mice and Valproic Acid exposed mice, this ability to decorrelate in the presence of cholinergic activation is lost. This represents a putative microcircuit level biomarker of autism. Chapter 4 examines the structure/function relationship within the prefrontal microcircuit. Spontaneous activity in prefrontal microcircuits is shown to be organized according to a small world architecture. Interestingly, this architecture is important for one concrete function of neuronal microcircuits; the ability to produce temporally stereotyped patterns of activation. In the final chapter, we identify subnetworks in chronic intracranial electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings using pairwise electrode coherence and dimensionality reduction

  1. MR imaging of abnormal synovial processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quinn, S.F.; Sanchez, R.; Murray, W.T.; Silbiger, M.L.; Ogden, J.; Cochran, C.

    1987-01-01

    MR imaging can directly image abnormal synovium. The authors reviewed over 50 cases with abnormal synovial processes. The abnormalities include Baker cysts, semimembranous bursitis, chronic shoulder bursitis, peroneal tendon ganglion cyst, periarticular abscesses, thickened synovium from rheumatoid and septic arthritis, and synovial hypertrophy secondary to Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. MR imaging has proved invaluable in identifying abnormal synovium, defining the extent and, to a limited degree, characterizing its makeup

  2. Ebola Virus Disease: Essential Public Health Principles for Clinicians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristi L. Koenig

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Ebola Virus Disease (EVD has become a public health emergency of international concern. The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have developed guidance to educate and inform healthcare workers and travelers worldwide. Symptoms of EVD include abrupt onset of fever, myalgias, and headache in the early phase, followed by vomiting, diarrhea and possible progression to hemorrhagic rash, life-threatening bleeding, and multi-organ failure in the later phase. The disease is not transmitted via airborne spread like influenza, but rather from person-to-person, or animal to person, via direct contact with bodily fluids or blood. It is crucial that emergency physicians be educated on disease presentation and how to generate a timely and accurate differential diagnosis that includes exotic diseases in the appropriate patient population. A patient should be evaluated for EVD when both suggestive symptoms, including unexplained hemorrhage, AND risk factors within 3 weeks prior, such as travel to an endemic area, direct handling of animals from outbreak areas, or ingestion of fruit or other uncooked foods contaminated with bat feces containing the virus are present. There are experimental therapies for treatment of EVD virus; however the mainstay of therapy is supportive care. Emergency department personnel on the frontlines must be prepared to rapidly identify and isolate febrile travelers if indicated. All healthcare workers involved in care of EVD patients should wear personal protective equipment. Despite the intense media focus on EVD rather than other threats, emergency physicians must master and follow essential public health principles for management of all infectious diseases. This includes not only identification and treatment of individuals, but also protection of healthcare workers and prevention of spread, keeping in mind the possibility of other more common disease processes. [West J Emerg Med. 2014;15(7:–0.

  3. Microbial Diseases in the Teaching-learning Process of Deaf People: A Possible Dialogue

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberta Silva Rizzo

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Special Education remains a major challenge in society. Thus, many methodologies and didactic-pedagogic resources have been deployed in order to further the teaching and learning process in different subjects, with emphasis on Science teaching. By understanding the importance of diseases caused by microorganisms, the game titled “Knowing the unseen world - challenging signal” was conceived as a didactic proposal to inform and enlighten deaf students from Elementary School on this subject, applying visual tools. Therefore, its construction took the National Curriculum Parameters (NCP for Natural Sciences as a guiding, and the development of the graphic art consisted of simple and low cost materials. As a result, it was obtained a teaching resource with signs of LIBRAS that meets the objectives and contents that addresses of the three main themes of the NCPs. So, this is a suggestion to work the microbial content in a less abstract and more attractive form to deaf students, providing an opportunity to address issues specified in science curriculum in order to support the teaching-learning process focused on scientific literacy and the appropriation of knowledge related to the development of skills and abilities necessary to the current society.

  4. A disease state fingerprint for evaluation of Alzheimer's disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mattila, Jussi; Koikkalainen, Juha; Virkki, Arho

    2011-01-01

    Diagnostic processes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are evolving. Knowledge about disease-specific biomarkers is constantly increasing and larger volumes of data are being measured from patients. To gain additional benefits from the collected data, a novel statistical modeling and data visualization...... interpretation of the information. To model the AD state from complex and heterogeneous patient data, a statistical Disease State Index (DSI) method underlying the DSF has been developed. Using baseline data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the ability of the DSI to model disease......'s degree of similarity to previously diagnosed disease population. A summary of patient data and results of the computation are displayed in a succinct Disease State Fingerprint (DSF) visualization. The visualization clearly discloses how patient data contributes to the AD state, facilitating rapid...

  5. Understanding the biology of bone sarcoma from early initiating events through late events in metastasis and disease progression.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Limin eZhu

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The two most common primary bone malignancies, osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma, are both aggressive, highly metastatic cancers that most often strike teens, though both can be found in younger children and adults. Despite distinct origins and pathogenesis, both diseases share several mechanisms of progression and metastasis, including neovascularization, invasion, anoikis resistance, chemoresistance and evasion of the immune response. Some of these processes are well-studies in more common carcinoma models, and the observation from adult diseases may be readily applied to pediatric bone sarcomas. Neovascularization, which includes angiogenesis and vasculogenesis, is a clear example of a process that is likely to be similar between carcinomas and sarcomas, since the responding cells are the same in each case. Chemoresistance mechanisms also may be similar between other cancers and the bone sarcomas. Since osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are mesenchymal in origin, the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transformation is largely absent in bone sarcomas, necessitating different approaches to study progression and metastasis in these diseases. One process that is less well-studied in bone sarcomas is dormancy, which allows micrometastatic disease to remain viable but not growing in distant sites – typically the lungs – for months or years before renewing growth to become overt metastatic disease. By understanding the basic biology of these processes, novel therapeutic strategies may be developed that could improve survival in children with osteosarcoma or Ewing sarcoma.

  6. Modifications to the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus 2A Peptide: Influence on Polyprotein Processing and Virus Replication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kjær, Jonas; Belsham, Graham J

    2018-04-15

    Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) has a positive-sense single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) genome that includes a single, large open reading frame encoding a polyprotein. The cotranslational "cleavage" of this polyprotein at the 2A/2B junction is mediated by the 2A peptide (18 residues in length) using a nonproteolytic mechanism termed "ribosome skipping" or "StopGo." Multiple variants of the 2A polypeptide with this property among the picornaviruses share a conserved C-terminal motif [D(V/I)E(S/T)NPG↓P]. The impact of 2A modifications within this motif on FMDV protein synthesis, polyprotein processing, and virus viability were investigated. Amino acid substitutions are tolerated at residues E 14 , S 15 , and N 16 within the 2A sequences of infectious FMDVs despite their reported "cleavage" efficiencies at the 2A/2B junction of only ca. 30 to 50% compared to that of the wild type (wt). In contrast, no viruses containing substitutions at residue P 17 , G 18 , or P 19 , which displayed little or no "cleavage" activity in vitro , were rescued, but wt revertants were obtained. The 2A substitutions impaired the replication of an FMDV replicon. Using transient-expression assays, it was shown that certain amino acid substitutions at residues E 14 , S 15 , N 16 , and P 19 resulted in partial "cleavage" of a protease-free polyprotein, indicating that these specific residues are not essential for cotranslational "cleavage." Immunofluorescence studies, using full-length FMDV RNA transcripts encoding mutant 2A peptides, indicated that the 2A peptide remained attached to adjacent proteins, presumably 2B. These results show that efficient "cleavage" at the 2A/2B junction is required for optimal virus replication. However, maximal StopGo activity does not appear to be essential for the viability of FMDV. IMPORTANCE Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes one of the most economically important diseases of farm animals. Cotranslational "cleavage" of the FMDV polyprotein precursor at

  7. Screen-detected gallstone disease and cardiovascular disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shabanzadeh, Daniel Mønsted; Skaaby, Tea; Sørensen, Lars Tue

    2017-01-01

    Knowledge about temporal associations for screen-detected gallstone disease and cardiovascular disease is limited. The objective of this study was to determine if screen-detected gallstones or cholecystectomy was associated with development of cardiovascular disease. A cohort study of three...... of cardiovascular disease through nationwide registers until December 2014. Multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed including traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors and apolipoprotein E genotype. Gallstone disease was identified in 10% (591/5928) of participants at baseline of whom 6.8% had...... gallstones and 3.2% had cholecystectomy. The study population was followed for a period of 32 years with only 1% lost to follow-up. Gallstone disease was associated with all cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio (HR) 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.17;1.59]) and to the subgroups coronary artery (HR 1...

  8. The association of antidepressant drug usage with cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer disease: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moraros, John; Nwankwo, Chijioke; Patten, Scott B.

    2016-01-01

    1 Objective To determine if antidepressant drug usage is associated with cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer disease (AD). 2 Method We conducted a systematic search of Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library. An initial screen by abstracts and titles was performed, and relevant full articles were then reviewed and assessed for their methodologic quality. Crude effect estimates were extracted from the included articles and a pooled estimate was obtained using a random effects model. 3 Results Five articles were selected from an initial pool of 4,123 articles. Use of antidepressant drugs was associated with a significant twofold increase in the odds of some form of cognitive impairment or dementia (OR = 2.17). Age was identified as a likely modifier of the association between antidepressant use and some form of cognitive impairment or AD/dementia. Studies that included participants with an average age equal to or greater than 65 years showed an increased odds of some form of cognitive impairment with antidepressant drug usage (OR = 1.65), whereas those with participants less than age 65 revealed an even stronger association (OR = 3.25). 4 Conclusions Antidepressant drug usage is associated with AD/dementia and this is particularly evident if usage begins before age 65. This association may arise due to confounding by depression or depression severity. However, biological mechanisms potentially linking antidepressant exposure to dementia have been described, so an etiological effect of antidepressants is possible. With this confirmation that an association exists, clarification of underlying etiologic pathways requires urgent attention. PMID:28029715

  9. Inflammatory chronic disease of the colon: How to image

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ambrosini, Roberta; Barchiesi, Annalisa; Di Mizio, Veronica; Di Terlizzi, Marco; Leo, Luca; Filippone, Antonella; Canalis, Luigi; Fossaceca, Rita; Carriero, Alessandro

    2007-01-01

    Inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease and UC, is a chronic disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. The inflammatory process in UC is confined to the mucosa and submucosa and it involves only the colon. In contrast, in Crohn's disease the inflammation process extends through the bowel wall layers and it can involve any part of gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, inflammatory bowel disease of the colon may be associated with complications, such as toxic megacolon, fulminant colitis, acute bleeding, fistulas and abscesses. Radiographic imaging studies are useful for the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, and may be used to assess the extent and severity of disease, rule out complications, and monitor the response to therapy. The double-contrast barium study is a valuable technique for diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease colonic alterations, even in patients with early mucosal abnormalities. The earliest finding of UC is characterized by a fine granular appeareance of the colonic mucosa, usually involving the rectosigmoid junction. In chronic UC double-contrast enema may reveal marked colonic shortening with tubular narrowing of the bowel and loss of haustration. The earliest radiographics findings of Crohn's disease are represented by aphthous ulcers. As disease progresses, aphthous ulcers may enlarge and coalesce to form stellate or linear areas of ulceration. In advanced Crohn's disease, transmural ulceration may lead to the development of fissures, sinus tracts, fistulas, and abscesses. Cross sectional studies such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and sometimes ultrasound, are useful alternative tools not only in the assessment of bowel wall abnormalities, but also for the assessment of extraluminal alterations in patients with advanced disease

  10. Molecular insights into the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and its relationship to normal aging.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexei A Podtelezhnikov

    Full Text Available Alzheimer's disease (AD is a complex neurodegenerative disorder that diverges from the process of normal brain aging by unknown mechanisms. We analyzed the global structure of age- and disease-dependent gene expression patterns in three regions from more than 600 brains. Gene expression variation could be almost completely explained by four transcriptional biomarkers that we named BioAge (biological age, Alz (Alzheimer, Inflame (inflammation, and NdStress (neurodegenerative stress. BioAge captures the first principal component of variation and includes genes statistically associated with neuronal loss, glial activation, and lipid metabolism. Normally BioAge increases with chronological age, but in AD it is prematurely expressed as if some of the subjects were 140 years old. A component of BioAge, Lipa, contains the AD risk factor APOE and reflects an apparent early disturbance in lipid metabolism. The rate of biological aging in AD patients, which cannot be explained by BioAge, is associated instead with NdStress, which includes genes related to protein folding and metabolism. Inflame, comprised of inflammatory cytokines and microglial genes, is broadly activated and appears early in the disease process. In contrast, the disease-specific biomarker Alz was selectively present only in the affected areas of the AD brain, appears later in pathogenesis, and is enriched in genes associated with the signaling and cell adhesion changes during the epithelial to mesenchymal (EMT transition. Together these biomarkers provide detailed description of the aging process and its contribution to Alzheimer's disease progression.

  11. Human diseases with genetically altered DNA repair processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cleaver, J.E.; Bootsma, D.; Friedberg, E.

    1975-01-01

    DNA repair of single-strand breaks (produced by ionizing radiation) and of base damage (produced by ultraviolet (uv) light) are two repair mechanisms that most mammalian cells possess. Genetic defects in these repair mechanisms are exemplified by cells from the human premature-aging disease, progeria, which fail to rejoin single-strand breaks, and the skin disease, xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), which exhibits high actinic carcinogenesis and involves failure to repair base damage. In terms of the response of XP cells, many chemical carcinogens can be classified as either x-ray-like (i.e., they cause damage that XP cells can repair) or uv-like (i.e., they cause damage that XP cells cannot repair). The first group contains some of the more strongly carcinogenic chemicals (e.g., alkylating agents). XP occurs in at least two clinical forms, and somatic cell hybridization indicates at least three complementation groups. In order to identify cell lines from various different laboratories unambiguously, a modified nomenclature of XP lines is proposed. (U.S.)

  12. Human diseases with genetically altered DNA repair processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cleaver, J.E.; Bootsma, D.; Friedberg, E.

    1975-01-01

    DNA repair of single-strand breaks (produced by ionizing radiation) and of base damage (produced by ultraviolet (UV) light) are two repair mechanisms that most mammalian cells possess. Genetic defects in these repair mechanisms are exemplified by cells from the human premature-aging disease, progeria, which fail to rejoin single-strand breaks, and the skin disease, xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), which exhibits high actinic carcinogenesis and involves failure to repair base damage. In terms of the response of XP cells, many chemical carcinogens can be classified as either X-ray-like (i.e., they cause damage that XP cells can repair) or UV-like (i.e., they cause damage that XP cells cannot repair). The first group contains some of the more strongly carcinogenic chemicals (e.g., alkylating agents). XP occurs in at least two clinical forms, and somatic cell hybridization indicates at least three complementation groups. In order to identify cell lines from various different laboratories unambiguously, a modified nomenclature of XP lines is proposed

  13. Osteomyelitis and Osteonecrosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hugh J Freeman

    1997-01-01

    Full Text Available Osteomyelitis and osteonecrosis are skeletal disorders seen in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD. Osteomyelitis usually occurs in the pelvic bones, especially in complicated Crohn's disease, presumably by direct extension from a pelvic inflammatory mass, abscess or fistulous tract. Diagnosis of osteomyelitis may be difficult and can lead to spinal extension of the septic process with a resultant neurological deficit, including paraplegia. Osteonecrosis or avascular necrosis has been reported in patients with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, often, but not exclusively, during or following steroid treatment. The disease is often multifocal, but its natural history is unknown, especially if diagnosed early with modern imaging methods, such as magnetic resonance. In IBD patients, the relationship between osteonecrosis and steroid use is unknown. An adverse steroid effect on bones, especially the femoral heads, may develop in some patients with IBD but, to date, this hypothesis remains unproven. Critical evaluation of published data reveals no consistent association between osteonecrosis and steroid treatment in IBD patients.

  14. Stepwise approach to myopathy in systemic disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chawla, Jasvinder

    2011-01-01

    Muscle diseases can constitute a large variety of both acquired and hereditary disorders. Myopathies in systemic disease results from several different disease processes including endocrine, inflammatory, paraneoplastic, infectious, drug- and toxin-induced, critical illness myopathy, metabolic, and myopathies with other systemic disorders. Patients with systemic myopathies often present acutely or sub acutely. On the other hand, familial myopathies or dystrophies generally present in a chronic fashion with exceptions of metabolic myopathies where symptoms on occasion can be precipitated acutely. Most of the inflammatory myopathies can have a chance association with malignant lesions; the incidence appears to be specifically increased only in patients with dermatomyositis. In dealing with myopathies associated with systemic illnesses, the focus will be on the acquired causes. Management is beyond the scope of this chapter. Prognosis is based upon the underlying cause and, most of the time, carries a good prognosis. In order to approach a patient with suspected myopathy from systemic disease, a stepwise approach is utilized.

  15. State of rare disease management in Southeast Asia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shafie, Asrul Akmal; Chaiyakunapruk, Nathorn; Supian, Azuwana; Lim, Jeremy; Zafra, Matt; Hassali, Mohamed Azmi Ahmad

    2016-08-02

    Rare diseases, also referred to as orphan diseases, are characterised by their low prevalence with majority of them are chronically debilitating and life threatening. Given the low prevalence and the widely dispersed but very small patient base for each disease, there may often be a disproportion in the availability of treatments and resources to manage patients, spur research and train experts. This is especially true in Southeast Asian countries that are currently in the process of implementing or revising their universal health coverage schemes. This paper aims to examine the status of rare disease management in Southeast Asian countries. It will serve as the basis for a more active discussion on how countries in the region can address an under-recognised rare disease burden and enhance national and regional capacities. The study consists of literature reviews and key stakeholders interviews in six focus countries, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand and five countries as best practice, comprising of France, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Rare disease management initiatives across each country were examined based on the World Health Organization's framework for action in strengthening health systems. The results suggest rare disease management remains challenging across Southeast Asia, as many of the focus countries face fundamental issues from basic healthcare systems to funding. Nonetheless, there are substantial improvement opportunities, including leveraging best practices from around the world and organising a multi-stakeholder and regional approach and strategy. Southeast Asian countries have made significant progress in the management of rare disease, but there remain key areas for substantial development opportunities.

  16. Mental disturbances in Parkinson's disease and related disorders: the role of excitotoxins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obál, Izabella; Majláth, Zsófia; Toldi, József; Vécsei, László

    2014-01-01

    The pathomechanism behind the neurodegenerative process in Parkinson's disease involves damage to the dopaminergic and nondopaminergic systems with dysfunctioning of the dopaminergic-glutamatergic circuitry in the basal ganglional neural processing. Excitotoxicity may contribute markedly to neuronal damage and loss. Beside the cardinal motor signs of the disease, non-motor symptoms, including mental disturbances, are characteristic features of the clinical course. Affective or autonomic changes may precede motor symptoms. Neuroprotective drugs are not yet available. However, new modes of therapy targeting the defective dopaminergic-glutamatergic system might also be effective both for symptomatologic treatment and for neuroprotection. Alterations in the kynurenine pathway have been demonstrated in Parkinson's disease. Preclinical studies suggest that intervention in the kynurenine pathway may result in neuroprotection and additionally alleviate the symptoms through influencing the glutamatergic neurotransmission.

  17. Network-based prediction and knowledge mining of disease genes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carson, Matthew B; Lu, Hui

    2015-01-01

    In recent years, high-throughput protein interaction identification methods have generated a large amount of data. When combined with the results from other in vivo and in vitro experiments, a complex set of relationships between biological molecules emerges. The growing popularity of network analysis and data mining has allowed researchers to recognize indirect connections between these molecules. Due to the interdependent nature of network entities, evaluating proteins in this context can reveal relationships that may not otherwise be evident. We examined the human protein interaction network as it relates to human illness using the Disease Ontology. After calculating several topological metrics, we trained an alternating decision tree (ADTree) classifier to identify disease-associated proteins. Using a bootstrapping method, we created a tree to highlight conserved characteristics shared by many of these proteins. Subsequently, we reviewed a set of non-disease-associated proteins that were misclassified by the algorithm with high confidence and searched for evidence of a disease relationship. Our classifier was able to predict disease-related genes with 79% area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), which indicates the tradeoff between sensitivity and specificity and is a good predictor of how a classifier will perform on future data sets. We found that a combination of several network characteristics including degree centrality, disease neighbor ratio, eccentricity, and neighborhood connectivity help to distinguish between disease- and non-disease-related proteins. Furthermore, the ADTree allowed us to understand which combinations of strongly predictive attributes contributed most to protein-disease classification. In our post-processing evaluation, we found several examples of potential novel disease-related proteins and corresponding literature evidence. In addition, we showed that first- and second-order neighbors in the PPI network

  18. The emerging role of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in neurodegenerative diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sahar eAl-Mahdawi

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available DNA methylation primarily occurs within human cells as a 5-methylcytosine (5mC modification of the cytosine bases in CpG dinucleotides. 5mC has proven to be an important epigenetic mark that is involved in the control of gene transcription for processes such as development and differentiation. However, recent studies have identified an alternative modification, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC, which is formed by oxidation of 5mC by ten-eleven translocation (TET enzymes. The overall levels of 5hmC in the mammalian genome are approximately 10% of 5mC levels, although higher levels have been detected in tissues of the central nervous system (CNS. The functions of 5hmC are not yet fully known, but evidence suggests that 5hmC may be both an intermediate product during the removal of 5mC by passive or active demethylation processes and also an epigenetic modification in its own right, regulating chromatin or transcriptional factors involved in processes such as neurodevelopment or environmental stress response. This review highlights our current understanding of the role that 5hmC plays in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS, Friedreich ataxia (FRDA, Huntington’s disease (HD, and Parkinson’s disease (PD.

  19. Surgical Management of Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreatic Uncinate Process in a Cancer Hospital in Egypt

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sameh Roshdy

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Introduction Pancreatic carcinoma affecting the uncinate process is a challenging surgical condition. Several considerations affect the management plan, including the need for vascular resection and the ability to achieve a clear margin. Methods The data of 19 patients who had curative resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma of the uncinate process were reviewed. Operative mortality and morbidity, and disease-free survival (DFS were calculated. Results The study population included 13 male and 6 female patients with a mean age of 55 years. Nine patients (47.4% had stage I disease, seven patients (36.8% had stage II disease, and three patients (15.8% had stage III disease. A total of 12 patients had Whipple procedure and 7 patients had total pancreatectomy. In total, there were 9 R0 and 10 R1 resections. Operative mortality rate was 10.5% (2/19, postoperative leakage rate was 21.1% (4/19, and wound sepsis rate was 21.1%. Median DFS was 19.2 months. Survival was superior in the Whipple procedure group than in the total pancreatectomy group (median survival 19 months vs 4 months, respectively. Vascular resection and retroperitoneal safety margin status did not affect disease relapse. Conclusion Non-metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma of the uncinate process should be offered R0 or R1 resection whenever technically feasible.

  20. Mechanistic modeling of aberrant energy metabolism in human disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vineet eSangar

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Dysfunction in energy metabolism—including in pathways localized to the mitochondria—has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide array of disorders, ranging from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases to type II diabetes. The inherent complexities of energy and mitochondrial metabolism present a significant obstacle in the effort to understand the role that these molecular processes play in the development of disease. To help unravel these complexities, systems biology methods have been applied to develop an array of computational metabolic models, ranging from mitochondria-specific processes to genome-scale cellular networks. These constraint-based models can efficiently simulate aspects of normal and aberrant metabolism in various genetic and environmental conditions. Development of these models leverages—and also provides a powerful means to integrate and interpret—information from a wide range of sources including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and enzyme kinetics. Here, we review a variety of mechanistic modeling studies that explore metabolic functions, deficiency disorders, and aberrant biochemical pathways in mitochondria and related regions in the cell.

  1. Human gene therapy and imaging in neurological diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jacobs, Andreas H.; Winkler, Alexandra; Castro, Maria G.; Lowenstein, Pedro

    2005-01-01

    Molecular imaging aims to assess non-invasively disease-specific biological and molecular processes in animal models and humans in vivo. Apart from precise anatomical localisation and quantification, the most intriguing advantage of such imaging is the opportunity it provides to investigate the time course (dynamics) of disease-specific molecular events in the intact organism. Further, molecular imaging can be used to address basic scientific questions, e.g. transcriptional regulation, signal transduction or protein/protein interaction, and will be essential in developing treatment strategies based on gene therapy. Most importantly, molecular imaging is a key technology in translational research, helping to develop experimental protocols which may later be applied to human patients. Over the past 20 years, imaging based on positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been employed for the assessment and ''phenotyping'' of various neurological diseases, including cerebral ischaemia, neurodegeneration and brain gliomas. While in the past neuro-anatomical studies had to be performed post mortem, molecular imaging has ushered in the era of in vivo functional neuro-anatomy by allowing neuroscience to image structure, function, metabolism and molecular processes of the central nervous system in vivo in both health and disease. Recently, PET and MRI have been successfully utilised together in the non-invasive assessment of gene transfer and gene therapy in humans. To assess the efficiency of gene transfer, the same markers are being used in animals and humans, and have been applied for phenotyping human disease. Here, we review the imaging hallmarks of focal and disseminated neurological diseases, such as cerebral ischaemia, neurodegeneration and glioblastoma multiforme, as well as the attempts to translate gene therapy's experimental knowledge into clinical applications and the way in which this process is being promoted through the use of

  2. Alzheimer's disease and intelligence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeo, R A; Arden, R; Jung, R E

    2011-06-01

    A significant body of evidence has accumulated suggesting that individual variation in intellectual ability, whether assessed directly by intelligence tests or indirectly through proxy measures, is related to risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in later life. Important questions remain unanswered, however, such as the specificity of risk for AD vs. other forms of dementia, and the specific links between premorbid intelligence and development of the neuropathology characteristic of AD. Lower premorbid intelligence has also emerged as a risk factor for greater mortality across myriad health and mental health diagnoses. Genetic covariance contributes importantly to these associations, and pleiotropic genetic effects may impact diverse organ systems through similar processes, including inefficient design and oxidative stress. Through such processes, the genetic underpinnings of intelligence, specifically, mutation load, may also increase the risk of developing AD. We discuss how specific neurobiologic features of relatively lower premorbid intelligence, including reduced metabolic efficiency, may facilitate the development of AD neuropathology. The cognitive reserve hypothesis, the most widely accepted account of the intelligence-AD association, is reviewed in the context of this larger literature.

  3. Cannabinoids for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: moving towards the clinic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isidro eFerrer

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The limited effectiveness of current therapies against Alzheimer’s disease highlights the need for intensifying research efforts devoted to developing new agents for preventing or retarding the disease process. During the last few years, targeting the endogenous cannabinoid system has emerged as a potential therapeutic approach to treat Alzheimer. The endocannabinoid system is composed by a number of cannabinoid receptors, including the well-characterized CB1 and CB2 receptors, with their endogenous ligands and the enzymes related to the synthesis and degradation of these endocannabinoid compounds. Several findings indicate that the activation of both CB1 and CB2 receptors by natural or synthetic agonists, at non-psychoactive doses, have beneficial effects in Alzheimer experimental models by reducing the harmful A peptide action and tau phosphorylation, as well as by promoting the brain’s intrinsic repair mechanisms. Moreover, endocannabinoid signaling has been demonstrated to modulate numerous concomitant pathological processes, including neuroinflammation, excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress. The present paper summarizes the main experimental studies demonstrating the polyvalent properties of cannabinoid compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, which together encourage progress towards a clinical trial.

  4. A framework for investigating geographical variation in diseases, based on a study of Legionnaires' disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhopal, R S

    1991-11-01

    Demonstration of geographical variations in disease can yield powerful insight into the disease pathway, particularly for environmentally acquired conditions, but only if the many problems of data interpretation can be solved. This paper presents the framework, methods and principles guiding a study of the geographical epidemiology of Legionnaires' Disease in Scotland. A case-list was constructed and disease incidence rates were calculated by geographical area; these showed variation. Five categories of explanation for the variation were identified: short-term fluctuations of incidence in time masquerading as differences by place; artefact; and differences in host-susceptibility, agent virulence, or environment. The methods used to study these explanations, excepting agent virulence, are described, with an emphasis on the use of previously existing data to test hypotheses. Examples include the use of mortality, census and hospital morbidity data to assess the artefact and host-susceptibility explanations; and the use of ratios of serology tests to disease to examine the differential testing hypothesis. The reasoning and process by which the environmental focus of the study was narrowed and the technique for relating the geographical pattern of disease to the putative source are outlined. This framework allows the researcher to plan for the parallel collection of the data necessary both to demonstrate geographical variation and to point to the likely explanation.

  5. Lyme Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, George C.

    1991-01-01

    This overview of the public health significance of Lyme disease includes the microbiological specifics of the infectious spirochete, the entomology and ecology of the ticks which are the primary disease carrier, the clinical aspects and treatment stages, the known epidemiological patterns, and strategies for disease control and for expanded public…

  6. Infection, disease, and biosocial processes at the end of the Indus Civilization.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gwen Robbins Schug

    Full Text Available In the third millennium B.C., the Indus Civilization flourished in northwest India and Pakistan. The late mature phase (2200-1900 B.C. was characterized by long-distance exchange networks, planned urban settlements, sanitation facilities, standardized weights and measures, and a sphere of influence over 1,000,000 square kilometers of territory. Recent paleoclimate reconstructions from the Beas River Valley demonstrate hydro-climatic stress due to a weakened monsoon system may have impacted urban centers like Harappa by the end of the third millennium B.C. the impact of environmental change was compounded by concurrent disruptions to the regional interaction sphere. Climate, economic, and social changes contributed to the disintegration of this civilization after 1900 B.C. We assess evidence for paleopathology to infer the biological consequences of climate change and socio-economic disruption in the post-urban period at Harappa, one of the largest urban centers in the Indus Civilization. Bioarchaeological evidence demonstrates the prevalence of infection and infectious disease increased through time. Furthermore, the risk for infection and disease was uneven among burial communities. Corresponding mortuary differences suggest that socially and economically marginalized communities were most vulnerable in the context of climate uncertainty at Harappa. Combined with prior evidence for increasing levels of interpersonal violence, our data support a growing pathology of power at Harappa after 2000 B.C. Observations of the intersection between climate change and social processes in proto-historic cities offer valuable lessons about vulnerability, insecurity, and the long-term consequences of short-term strategies for coping with climate change.

  7. Varied autopsy findings in five treated patients with Gaucher disease and parkinsonism include the absence of Gaucher cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monestime, Gianina; Borger, Daniel K; Kim, Jenny; Lopez, Grisel; Allgaeuer, Michael; Jain, Dhanpat; Vortmeyer, Alexander; Wang, Hao-Wei; Sidransky, Ellen

    2016-05-01

    Enzyme replacement therapy is standard of care for patients with Gaucher disease, as it significantly improves skeletal, visceral, and hematological symptoms. Few pathological studies have documented the extent of pathological findings in treated patients. Autopsy findings in five treated patients, who ultimately developed parkinsonism, ranged from the complete absence of Gaucher pathology to extensive involvement of multiple tissues, without correlation to age, genotype, spleen status, or dose/duration of therapy. Additional autopsies may elucidate modifiers and biomarkers contributing to disease burden and response to therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  8. Kinetic models of gene expression including non-coding RNAs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhdanov, Vladimir P., E-mail: zhdanov@catalysis.r

    2011-03-15

    In cells, genes are transcribed into mRNAs, and the latter are translated into proteins. Due to the feedbacks between these processes, the kinetics of gene expression may be complex even in the simplest genetic networks. The corresponding models have already been reviewed in the literature. A new avenue in this field is related to the recognition that the conventional scenario of gene expression is fully applicable only to prokaryotes whose genomes consist of tightly packed protein-coding sequences. In eukaryotic cells, in contrast, such sequences are relatively rare, and the rest of the genome includes numerous transcript units representing non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). During the past decade, it has become clear that such RNAs play a crucial role in gene expression and accordingly influence a multitude of cellular processes both in the normal state and during diseases. The numerous biological functions of ncRNAs are based primarily on their abilities to silence genes via pairing with a target mRNA and subsequently preventing its translation or facilitating degradation of the mRNA-ncRNA complex. Many other abilities of ncRNAs have been discovered as well. Our review is focused on the available kinetic models describing the mRNA, ncRNA and protein interplay. In particular, we systematically present the simplest models without kinetic feedbacks, models containing feedbacks and predicting bistability and oscillations in simple genetic networks, and models describing the effect of ncRNAs on complex genetic networks. Mathematically, the presentation is based primarily on temporal mean-field kinetic equations. The stochastic and spatio-temporal effects are also briefly discussed.

  9. Addison′s disease

    OpenAIRE

    Soumya Brata Sarkar; Subrata Sarkar; Supratim Ghosh; Subhankar Bandyopadhyay

    2012-01-01

    Addison's disease is a rare endocrinal disorder, with several oral and systemic manifestations. A variety of pathological processes may cause Addison's disease. Classically, hyperpigmentation is associated with the disease, and intraoral pigmentation is perceived as the initial sign and develops earlier than the dermatological pigmentation. The symptoms of the disease usually progress slowly and an event of illness or accident can make the condition worse and may lead to a life-threatening cr...

  10. Improvement of the safety of a clinical process using failure mode and effects analysis: Prevention of venous thromboembolic disease in critical patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viejo Moreno, R; Sánchez-Izquierdo Riera, J Á; Molano Álvarez, E; Barea Mendoza, J A; Temprano Vázquez, S; Díaz Castellano, L; Montejo González, J C

    2016-11-01

    To improve critical patient safety in the prevention of venous thromboembolic disease, using failure mode and effects analysis as safety tool. A contemporaneous cohort study covering the period January 2014-March 2015 was made in 4 phases: phase 1) prior to failure mode and effects analysis; phase 2) conduction of mode analysis and implementation of the detected improvements; phase 3) evaluation of outcomes, and phase 4) (post-checklist introduction impact. Patients admitted to the adult polyvalent ICU of a third-level hospital center. A total of 196 patients, older than 18 years, without thromboembolic disease upon admission to the ICU and with no prior anticoagulant treatment. A series of interventions were implemented following mode analysis: training, and introduction of a protocol and checklist to increase preventive measures in relation to thromboembolic disease. Indication and prescription of venous thrombosis prevention measures before and after introduction of the measures derived from the failure mode and effects analysis. A total of 59, 97 and 40 patients were included in phase 1, 3 and 4, respectively, with an analysis of the percentage of subjects who received thromboprophylaxis. The failure mode and effects analysis was used to detect potential errors associated to a lack of training and protocols referred to thromboembolic disease. An awareness-enhancing campaign was developed, with staff training and the adoption of a protocol for the prevention of venous thromboembolic disease. The prescription of preventive measures increased in the phase 3 group (91.7 vs. 71.2%, P=.001). In the post-checklist group, prophylaxis was prescribed in 97.5% of the patients, with an increase in the indication of dual prophylactic measures (4.7, 6.7 and 41%; P<.05). There were no differences in complications rate associated to the increase in prophylactic measures. The failure mode and effects analysis allowed us to identify improvements in the prevention of

  11. Disease severity and slower psychomotor speed in adults with sickle cell disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jorgensen, Dana R; Metti, Andrea; Butters, Meryl A; Mettenburg, Joseph M; Rosano, Caterina; Novelli, Enrico M

    2017-09-26

    Psychomotor slowing is common in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), but little is known about its severity in adults. We conducted a cross-sectional study to quantify psychomotor speed, measured with the digit symbol substitution test (DSST), in relationship with disease severity in adults with SCD attending an outpatient clinic (n = 88, age 36.3 years). Genotype was used to group patients in "severe" (homozygous for hemoglobin S or compound heterozygous with β 0 thalassemia) or "moderate" groups (compound heterozygous for HbS, with either HbC or β + thalassemia). Analyses were repeated after exclusion of patients with a history of stroke (n = 11). Mild impairment in processing speed was detectable in both the "severe" and the "moderate" group (30% and 9%, respectively; age-adjusted P = .14). Compared with the "moderate" group, those in the "severe" group had significantly lower standardized DSST scores ( P = .004), independent of adjustment for factors that differed between the groups: hemoglobin, ferritin, hydroxyurea use, blood pressure parameters, and stroke history. Results were similar after excluding patients with stroke. Psychomotor slowing in SCD differs in relationship to genotype; this difference appears unrelated to history of stroke or severity of anemia and other risk factors examined cross-sectionally. Although less prevalent, mild cognitive impairment was also detectable in patients with a less severe genotype. Longitudinal studies of SCD should include all diseases genotypes and examine factors that would reduce the risk of slow processing speed and perhaps more general cognitive impairment in each subgroup.

  12. Pulmonary granulomatous diseases and pulmonary manifestations of systemic granulomatous disease. Including tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteriosis; Pulmonale granulomatoese Erkrankungen und pulmonale Manifestationen systemischer Granulomatosen. Inklusive Tuberkulose und nichttuberkuloese Mykobakteriosen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Piel, S. [Universitaet Heidelberg, Zentrum fuer interstitielle und seltene Lungenerkrankungen, Pneumologie und Beatmungsmedizin, Thoraxklinik, Heidelberg (Germany); Kreuter, M.; Herth, F. [Universitaet Heidelberg, Zentrum fuer interstitielle und seltene Lungenerkrankungen, Pneumologie und Beatmungsmedizin, Thoraxklinik, Heidelberg (Germany); Universitaetsklinikum Heidelberg, Translational Lung Research Center (TLRC), Heidelberg (Germany); Kauczor, H.U. [Universitaetsklinikum Heidelberg, Abteilung fuer Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie, Heidelberg (Germany); Universitaetsklinikum Heidelberg, Translational Lung Research Center (TLRC), Heidelberg (Germany); Heussel, C.P. [Universitaet Heidelberg, Abteilung fuer Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie mit Nuklearmedizin, Thoraxklinik, Heidelberg (Germany); Universitaetsklinikum Heidelberg, Translational Lung Research Center (TLRC), Heidelberg (Germany)

    2016-10-15

    Granulomas as signs of specific inflammation of the lungs are found in various diseases with pulmonary manifestations and represent an important imaging finding. The standard imaging modality for the work-up of granulomatous diseases of the lungs is most often thin-slice computed tomography (CT). There are a few instances, e. g. tuberculosis, sarcoidosis and silicosis, where a chest radiograph still plays an important role. Further radiological modalities are usually not needed in the routine work-up of granulomatous diseases of the chest. In special cases magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET)-CT scans play an important role, e. g. detecting cardiac sarcoidosis by cardiac MRI or choline C-11 PET-CT in diagnosing lung carcinoma in scar tissue after tuberculosis. The accuracy of thin-slice CT is very high for granulomatous diseases. In cases of chronic disease and fibrotic interstitial lung disease it is important to perform thin-slice CT in order to diagnose a specific disease pattern. Thin-slice CT is also highly sensitive in detecting disease complications and comorbidities, such as malignancies. Given these indications thin-slice CT is generally accepted in the routine daily practice. A thin-slice CT and an interdisciplinary discussion are recommended in many cases with a suspected diagnosis of pulmonary granulomatous disease due to clinical or radiographic findings. (orig.) [German] Granulome als Zeichen der spezifischen Entzuendung im Lungengewebe treten bei zahlreichen Erkrankungen mit pulmonaler Manifestation auf und stellen einen wichtigen Befund in der Bildgebung dar. Das radiologische Standardverfahren bei pulmonalen Granulomatosen ist meistens die Duennschichtcomputertomographie, in wenigen Faellen, wie z. B. bei Tuberkulose, Sarkoidose und Silikose, spielt die Roentgenthoraxuebersicht immer noch eine wichtige Rolle. Bei der Standardabklaerung der meisten Granulomatosen ist die Hinzunahme weiterer Verfahren nicht

  13. The process addictions and the new ASAM definition of addiction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, David E

    2012-01-01

    Addiction is a primary, chronic disease involving brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry; it can lead to relapse, progressive development, and the potential for fatality if not treated. While pathological use of alcohol and, more recently, psychoactive substances have been accepted as addictive diseases, developing brain science has set the stage for inclusion of the process addictions, including food, sex, shopping and gambling problems, in a broader definition of addiction as set forth by the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 2011.

  14. Mathematical Modeling of Protein Misfolding Mechanisms in Neurological Diseases: A Historical Overview.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carbonell, Felix; Iturria-Medina, Yasser; Evans, Alan C

    2018-01-01

    Protein misfolding refers to a process where proteins become structurally abnormal and lose their specific 3-dimensional spatial configuration. The histopathological presence of misfolded protein (MP) aggregates has been associated as the primary evidence of multiple neurological diseases, including Prion diseases, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. However, the exact mechanisms of MP aggregation and propagation, as well as their impact in the long-term patient's clinical condition are still not well understood. With this aim, a variety of mathematical models has been proposed for a better insight into the kinetic rate laws that govern the microscopic processes of protein aggregation. Complementary, another class of large-scale models rely on modern molecular imaging techniques for describing the phenomenological effects of MP propagation over the whole brain. Unfortunately, those neuroimaging-based studies do not take full advantage of the tremendous capabilities offered by the chemical kinetics modeling approach. Actually, it has been barely acknowledged that the vast majority of large-scale models have foundations on previous mathematical approaches that describe the chemical kinetics of protein replication and propagation. The purpose of the current manuscript is to present a historical review about the development of mathematical models for describing both microscopic processes that occur during the MP aggregation and large-scale events that characterize the progression of neurodegenerative MP-mediated diseases.

  15. Adapting Knowledge Translation Strategies for Rare Rheumatic Diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cellucci, Tania; Lee, Shirley; Webster, Fiona

    2016-08-01

    Rare rheumatic diseases present unique challenges to knowledge translation (KT) researchers. There is often an urgent need to transfer knowledge from research findings into clinical practice to facilitate earlier diagnosis and better outcomes. However, existing KT frameworks have not addressed the specific considerations surrounding rare diseases for which gold standard evidence is not available. Several widely adopted models provide guidance for processes and problems associated with KT. However, they do not address issues surrounding creation or synthesis of knowledge for rare diseases. Additional problems relate to lack of awareness or experience in intended knowledge users, low motivation, and potential barriers to changing practice or policy. Strategies to address the challenges of KT for rare rheumatic diseases include considering different levels of evidence available, linking knowledge creation and transfer directly, incorporating patient and physician advocacy efforts to generate awareness of conditions, and selecting strategies to address barriers to practice or policy change.

  16. AACE/ACE Disease State Clinical Review: Medical Management of Cushing Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamrahian, Amir H; Yuen, Kevin C J; Hoffman, Andrew R

    2014-07-01

    To review available medical therapies for patients with Cushing disease and to provide a roadmap for their use in clinical practice. PubMed searches were performed to identify all of the available published data on medical management of Cushing disease. Medical therapy is usually not the first-line treatment for patients with Cushing disease but may be used to improve clinical manifestations of Cushing disease in patients who are not suitable candidates for surgery, following unsuccessful surgery or recurrence, or as a "bridge therapy" in those who have undergone radiotherapy. Medical therapy may also be used in preoperative preparation of patients with severe disease. Current available medical options for patients with Cushing disease include centrally acting agents, steroidogenesis inhibitors, and a glucocorticoid receptor antagonists. At present, there are no head-to-head studies comparing the efficacy, tolerability, and safety of different U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- and non-FDA-approved drugs in patients with Cushing disease. With the initiation of new studies and the completion of ongoing clinical trials, the number of FDA-approved drugs for medical treatment of Cushing disease is expected to increase. Medical therapy has an important adjunctive role in the management of patients with Cushing disease. The decision to initiate medical treatment depends on many factors, including patient characteristics and preference. Long-term studies are needed to better define the clinical efficacy, safety, and tolerability of medical treatment of Cushing disease, including the role of combination therapies.

  17. Modeling human gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases using microphysiological culture systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartman, Kira G; Bortner, James D; Falk, Gary W; Ginsberg, Gregory G; Jhala, Nirag; Yu, Jian; Martín, Martín G; Rustgi, Anil K; Lynch, John P

    2014-09-01

    Gastrointestinal illnesses are a significant health burden for the US population, with 40 million office visits each year for gastrointestinal complaints and nearly 250,000 deaths. Acute and chronic inflammations are a common element of many gastrointestinal diseases. Inflammatory processes may be initiated by a chemical injury (acid reflux in the esophagus), an infectious agent (Helicobacter pylori infection in the stomach), autoimmune processes (graft versus host disease after bone marrow transplantation), or idiopathic (as in the case of inflammatory bowel diseases). Inflammation in these settings can contribute to acute complaints (pain, bleeding, obstruction, and diarrhea) as well as chronic sequelae including strictures and cancer. Research into the pathophysiology of these conditions has been limited by the availability of primary human tissues or appropriate animal models that attempt to physiologically model the human disease. With the many recent advances in tissue engineering and primary human cell culture systems, it is conceivable that these approaches can be adapted to develop novel human ex vivo systems that incorporate many human cell types to recapitulate in vivo growth and differentiation in inflammatory microphysiological environments. Such an advance in technology would improve our understanding of human disease progression and enhance our ability to test for disease prevention strategies and novel therapeutics. We will review current models for the inflammatory and immunological aspects of Barrett's esophagus, acute graft versus host disease, and inflammatory bowel disease and explore recent advances in culture methodologies that make these novel microphysiological research systems possible. © 2014 by the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

  18. Discovery of candidate disease genes in ENU-induced mouse mutants by large-scale sequencing, including a splice-site mutation in nucleoredoxin.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melissa K Boles

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available An accurate and precisely annotated genome assembly is a fundamental requirement for functional genomic analysis. Here, the complete DNA sequence and gene annotation of mouse Chromosome 11 was used to test the efficacy of large-scale sequencing for mutation identification. We re-sequenced the 14,000 annotated exons and boundaries from over 900 genes in 41 recessive mutant mouse lines that were isolated in an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU mutation screen targeted to mouse Chromosome 11. Fifty-nine sequence variants were identified in 55 genes from 31 mutant lines. 39% of the lesions lie in coding sequences and create primarily missense mutations. The other 61% lie in noncoding regions, many of them in highly conserved sequences. A lesion in the perinatal lethal line l11Jus13 alters a consensus splice site of nucleoredoxin (Nxn, inserting 10 amino acids into the resulting protein. We conclude that point mutations can be accurately and sensitively recovered by large-scale sequencing, and that conserved noncoding regions should be included for disease mutation identification. Only seven of the candidate genes we report have been previously targeted by mutation in mice or rats, showing that despite ongoing efforts to functionally annotate genes in the mammalian genome, an enormous gap remains between phenotype and function. Our data show that the classical positional mapping approach of disease mutation identification can be extended to large target regions using high-throughput sequencing.

  19. Degenerative Nerve Diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degenerative nerve diseases affect many of your body's activities, such as balance, movement, talking, breathing, and heart function. Many ... viruses. Sometimes the cause is not known. Degenerative nerve diseases include Alzheimer's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Friedreich's ...

  20. Cerebrospinal fluid levels of catecholamines and its metabolites in Parkinson's disease

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dammann Andersen, Andreas; Blaabjerg, Morten; Binzer, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Levodopa (l-DOPA, l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) is the most effective drug in the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD), but chronic use initiates a maladaptive process leading to l-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID). Risk factors for early onset LID include younger age, more severe diseas...

  1. Lung disease and coal mining: what pulmonologists need to know.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Go, Leonard H T; Krefft, Silpa D; Cohen, Robert A; Rose, Cecile S

    2016-03-01

    Coal mine workers are at risk for a range of chronic respiratory diseases including coal workers' pneumoconiosis, diffuse dust-related fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The purpose of this review is to describe coal mining processes and associated exposures to inform the diagnostic evaluation of miners with respiratory symptoms. Although rates of coal workers' pneumoconiosis declined after regulations were enacted in the 1970s, more recent data shows a reversal in this downward trend. Rapidly progressive pneumoconiosis with progressive massive fibrosis (complicated coal workers' pneumoconiosis) is being observed with increased frequency in United States coal miners, with histologic findings of silicosis and mixed-dust pneumoconiosis. There is increasing evidence of decline in lung function in individuals with pneumoconiosis. Multiple recent cohort studies suggest increased risk of lung cancer in coal miners. A detailed understanding of coal mining methods and processes allows clinicians to better evaluate and confirm chronic lung diseases caused by inhalational hazards in the mine atmosphere.

  2. Sublethal RNA Oxidation as a Mechanism for Neurodegenerative Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark A. Smith

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available Although cellular RNA is subjected to the same oxidative insults as DNA and other cellular macromolecules, oxidative damage to RNA has not been a major focus in investigations of the biological consequences of free radical damage. In fact, because it is largely single-stranded and its bases lack the protection of hydrogen bonding and binding by specific proteins, RNA may be more susceptible to oxidative insults than is DNA. Oxidative damage to protein-coding RNA or non-coding RNA will, in turn, potentially cause errors in proteins and/or dysregulation of gene expression. While less lethal than mutations in the genome, such sublethal insults to cells might be associated with underlying mechanisms of several chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative disease. Recently, oxidative RNA damage has been described in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and prion diseases. Of particular interest, oxidative RNA damage can be demonstrated in vulnerable neurons early in disease, suggesting that RNA oxidation may actively contribute to the onset of the disease. An increasing body of evidence suggests that, mechanistically speaking, the detrimental effects of oxidative RNA damage to protein synthesis are attenuated, at least in part, by the existence of protective mechanisms that prevent the incorporation of the damaged ribonucleotides into the translational machinery. Further investigations aimed at understanding the processing mechanisms related to oxidative RNA damage and its consequences may provide significant insights into the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and other degenerative diseases and lead to better therapeutic strategies.

  3. Improved MDCT monitoring of pelvic myeloma bone disease through the use of a novel longitudinal bone subtraction post-processing algorithm

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Horger, Marius; Thaiss, Wolfgang M.; Nikolaou, Konstantin; Kloth, Christopher [Eberhard-Karls-University Tuebingen, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Tuebingen (Germany); Ditt, Hendrik [Sector Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Siemens AG Healthcare, Forchheim (Germany); Weisel, Katja [Eberhard-Karls-University Tuebingen, Department of Internal Medicine II, Tuebingen (Germany); Fritz, Jan [Johns Hopkins University School of Medcine, Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Baltimore, MD (United States); Liao, Shu [Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, PA (United States)

    2017-07-15

    To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a novel CT post-processing software that generates subtraction maps of baseline and follow-up CT examinations in the course of myeloma bone lesions. This study included 61 consecutive myeloma patients who underwent repeated whole-body reduced-dose MDCT at our institution between November 2013 and June 2015. CT subtraction maps classified a progressive disease (PD) vs. stable disease (SD)/remission. Bone subtraction maps (BSMs) only and in combination with 1-mm (BSM+) source images were compared with 5-mm axial/MPR scans. Haematological response categories at follow-up were: complete remission (n = 9), very good partial remission (n = 2), partial remission (n = 17) and SDh (n = 19) vs. PDh (n = 14). Five-millimetre CT scan yielded PD (n = 14) and SD/remission (n = 47) whereas bone subtraction + 1-mm axial scans (BSM+) reading resulted in PD (n = 18) and SD/remission (n = 43). Sensitivity/ specificity/accuracy for 5-mm/1-mm/BSM(alone)/BSM + in ''lesion-by-lesion'' reading was 89.4 %/98.9 %/98.3 %/ 99.5 %; 69.1 %/96.9 %/72 %/92.1 % and 83.8 %/98.4 %/92.1 %/98.3 %, respectively. The use of BSM+ resulted in a change of response classification in 9.8 % patients (n = 6) from SD to PD. BSM reading is more accurate for monitoring myeloma compared to axial scans whereas BSM+ yields similar results with 1-mm reading (gold standard) but by significantly reduced reading time. (orig.)

  4. Improved MDCT monitoring of pelvic myeloma bone disease through the use of a novel longitudinal bone subtraction post-processing algorithm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horger, Marius; Thaiss, Wolfgang M.; Nikolaou, Konstantin; Kloth, Christopher; Ditt, Hendrik; Weisel, Katja; Fritz, Jan; Liao, Shu

    2017-01-01

    To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a novel CT post-processing software that generates subtraction maps of baseline and follow-up CT examinations in the course of myeloma bone lesions. This study included 61 consecutive myeloma patients who underwent repeated whole-body reduced-dose MDCT at our institution between November 2013 and June 2015. CT subtraction maps classified a progressive disease (PD) vs. stable disease (SD)/remission. Bone subtraction maps (BSMs) only and in combination with 1-mm (BSM+) source images were compared with 5-mm axial/MPR scans. Haematological response categories at follow-up were: complete remission (n = 9), very good partial remission (n = 2), partial remission (n = 17) and SDh (n = 19) vs. PDh (n = 14). Five-millimetre CT scan yielded PD (n = 14) and SD/remission (n = 47) whereas bone subtraction + 1-mm axial scans (BSM+) reading resulted in PD (n = 18) and SD/remission (n = 43). Sensitivity/ specificity/accuracy for 5-mm/1-mm/BSM(alone)/BSM + in ''lesion-by-lesion'' reading was 89.4 %/98.9 %/98.3 %/ 99.5 %; 69.1 %/96.9 %/72 %/92.1 % and 83.8 %/98.4 %/92.1 %/98.3 %, respectively. The use of BSM+ resulted in a change of response classification in 9.8 % patients (n = 6) from SD to PD. BSM reading is more accurate for monitoring myeloma compared to axial scans whereas BSM+ yields similar results with 1-mm reading (gold standard) but by significantly reduced reading time. (orig.)

  5. The association of antidepressant drug usage with cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moraros, John; Nwankwo, Chijioke; Patten, Scott B; Mousseau, Darrell D

    2017-03-01

    To determine if antidepressant drug usage is associated with cognitive impairment or dementia, including Alzheimer disease (AD). We conducted a systematic search of Medline, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library. An initial screen by abstracts and titles was performed, and relevant full articles were then reviewed and assessed for their methodologic quality. Crude effect estimates were extracted from the included articles and a pooled estimate was obtained using a random effects model. Five articles were selected from an initial pool of 4,123 articles. Use of antidepressant drugs was associated with a significant twofold increase in the odds of some form of cognitive impairment or dementia (OR = 2.17). Age was identified as a likely modifier of the association between antidepressant use and some form of cognitive impairment or AD/dementia. Studies that included participants with an average age equal to or greater than 65 years showed an increased odds of some form of cognitive impairment with antidepressant drug usage (OR = 1.65), whereas those with participants less than age 65 revealed an even stronger association (OR = 3.25). Antidepressant drug usage is associated with AD/dementia and this is particularly evident if usage begins before age 65. This association may arise due to confounding by depression or depression severity. However, biological mechanisms potentially linking antidepressant exposure to dementia have been described, so an etiological effect of antidepressants is possible. With this confirmation that an association exists, clarification of underlying etiologic pathways requires urgent attention. © 2016 The Authors. Depression and Anxiety published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay gliadin assessment in processed food products available for persons with celiac disease: a feasibility study for developing a gluten-free food database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agakidis, Charalampos; Karagiozoglou-Lampoudi, Thomais; Kalaitsidou, Marina; Papadopoulos, Theodoros; Savvidou, Afroditi; Daskalou, Efstratia; Dimitrios, Triantafyllou

    2011-12-01

    Inappropriate food labeling and unwillingness of food companies to officially register their own gluten-free products in the Greek National Food Intolerance Database (NFID) result in a limited range of processed food products available for persons with celiac disease (CDP). The objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of developing a gluten-free food product database based on the assessment of the gluten content in processed foods available for CDP. Gluten was assessed in 41 processed food products available for CDP. Group A consisted of 26 products for CDP included in the NFID, and group B contained 15 food products for CDP not registered in the NFID but listed in the safe lists of the local Celiac Association (CA). High-sensitivity ω-gliadin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for analysis. Gluten was lower than 20 ppm in 37 of 41 analyzed products (90.2%): in 24 of 26 (92.3%) products in group A and in 13 of 15 (86.7%) products in group B (P = .61). No significant difference was found between the 2 groups regarding gluten content. No product in either group contained gluten in excess of 100 ppm. Most of the analyzed products included in the Greek NFID or listed in the lists of the local CA, even those not officially labeled "gluten free," can be safely consumed by CDP. The use of commercially available ω-gliadin ELISA is able to identify those products that contain inappropriate levels of gluten, making feasible it to develop an integrated gluten-free processed food database.

  7. Preattentive processing of heart cues and the perception of heart symptoms in congenital heart disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karsdorp, Petra A; Kindt, Merel; Everaerd, Walter; Mulder, Barbara J M

    2007-08-01

    The present study was aimed at clarifying whether preattentive processing of heart cues results in biased perception of heart sensations in patients with congenital heart disease (ConHD) who are also highly trait anxious. Twenty-six patients with ConHD and 22 healthy participants categorized heart-related (heart rate) or neutral sensations (constant vibration) as either heart or neutral. Both sensations were evoked using a bass speaker that was attached on the chest of the participant. Before each physical sensation, a subliminal heart-related or neutral prime was presented. Biased perception of heart-sensations would become evident by a delayed categorization of the heart-related sensations. In line with the prediction, a combination of high trait anxiety and ConHD resulted in slower responses after a heart-related sensation that was preceded by a subliminal heart cue. Preattentive processing of harmless heart cues may easily elicit overperception of heart symptoms in highly trait anxious patients with ConHD.

  8. Does the cholinesterase inhibitor, donepezil, benefit both declarative and non-declarative processes in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winstein, Carolee J; Bentzen, Kirk R; Boyd, Lara; Schneider, Lon S

    2007-07-01

    Previous research suggests separate neural networks for implicit (non-declarative) and explicit (declarative) memory processes. A core cognitive impairment in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a pronounced declarative memory and learning deficit with relative preservation of non-declarative memory. Cholinesterase inhibitors has been purported to enhance cognitive function, and previous clinical trials consistently showed that donepezil, a reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), led to statistically significant improvements in cognition and patient function. This prospective pilot study is a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial investigating 10 patients with AD. Our purpose was to examine the relationship between declarative and non-declarative capability with particular emphasis on implicit sequence learning. Patients were assessed at baseline and again at 4-weeks. After participants' baseline data were obtained, each was double-blindly randomized to one of two groups: donepezil or placebo. At baseline participants were tested with two outcome measures (Serial Reaction Time Task, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale). Participants were given either 5 mg donepezil or an identically appearing placebo to be taken nightly for 4 weeks (28 tablets), and then retested. The donepezil group demonstrated a greater likelihood of increases in both non-declarative and declarative processes. The placebo group was mixed without clearly definable trends or patterns. When the data were examined for coincidental changes in the two outcome measures together they are suggestive of a benefit from donepezil treatment for non-declarative and declarative processes.

  9. The Emerging Role of MicroRNA-155 in Cardiovascular Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard Y. Cao

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available MicroRNAs have been demonstrated to be involved in human diseases, including cardiovascular diseases. Growing evidences suggest that microRNA-155, a typical multifunctional microRNA, plays a crucial role in hematopoietic lineage differentiation, immunity, inflammation, viral infections, and vascular remodeling, which is linked to cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm, heart failure, and diabetic heart disease. The effects of microRNA-155 in different cell types through different target genes result in different mechanisms in diseases. MicroRNA-155 has been intensively studied in atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. Contradictory results of microRNA-155 either promoting or preventing the pathophysiological process of atherosclerosis illustrate the complexity of this pleiotropic molecule. Therefore, more comprehensive studies of the underlying mechanisms of microRNA-155 involvement in cardiovascular diseases are required. Furthermore, a recent clinical trial of Miravirsen targeting microRNA-122 sheds light on exploiting microRNA-155 as a novel target to develop effective therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular diseases in the near future.

  10. Hypothalamic inflammation: a double-edged sword to nutritional diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Dongsheng; Liu, Tiewen

    2015-01-01

    The hypothalamus is one of the master regulators of various physiological processes, including energy balance and nutrient metabolism. These regulatory functions are mediated by discrete hypothalamic regions that integrate metabolic sensing with neuroendocrine and neural controls of systemic physiology. Neurons and non-neuronal cells in these hypothalamic regions act supportively to execute metabolic regulations. Under conditions of brain and hypothalamic inflammation, which may result from overnutrition-induced intracellular stresses or disease-associated systemic inflammatory factors, extracellular and intracellular environments of hypothalamic cells are disrupted, leading to central metabolic dysregulations and various diseases. Recent research has begun to elucidate the effects of hypothalamic inflammation in causing diverse components of metabolic syndrome leading to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These new understandings have provocatively expanded previous knowledge on the cachectic roles of brain inflammatory response in diseases, such as infections and cancers. This review describes the molecular and cellular characteristics of hypothalamic inflammation in metabolic syndrome and related diseases as opposed to cachectic diseases, and also discusses concepts and potential applications of inhibiting central/hypothalamic inflammation to treat nutritional diseases. PMID:22417140

  11. A consistent causality-based view on a timed process algebra including urgent interactions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Katoen, Joost P.; Latella, Diego; Langerak, Romanus; Brinksma, Hendrik; Bolognesi, Tommaso

    1998-01-01

    This paper discusses a timed variant of a process algebra akin to LOTOS, baptized UPA, in a causality-based setting. Two timed features are incorporated—a delay function which constrains the occurrence time of atomic actions and an urgency operator that forces (local or synchronized) actions to

  12. Endocrine autoimmune diseases and female infertility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sen, Aritro; Kushnir, Vitaly A; Barad, David H; Gleicher, Norbert

    2014-01-01

    An increasing body of evidence suggests that immune-mediated processes affect female reproductive success at multiple levels. Crosstalk between endocrine and immune systems regulates a large number of biological processes that affect target tissues, and this crosstalk involves gene expression, cytokine and/or lymphokine release and hormone action. In addition, endocrine-immune interactions have a major role in the implantation process of the fetal (paternally derived) semi-allograft, which requires a reprogramming process of the maternal immune system from rejection to temporary tolerance for the length of gestation. Usually, the female immune system is supportive of all of these processes and, therefore, facilitates reproductive success. Abnormalities of the female immune system, including autoimmunity, potentially interfere at multiple levels. The relevance of the immune system to female infertility is increasingly recognized by investigators, but clinically is often not adequately considered and is, therefore, underestimated. This Review summarizes the effect of individual autoimmune endocrine diseases on female fertility, and points towards selected developments expected in the near future.

  13. Differentiated effects of deep brain stimulation and medication on somatosensory processing in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sridharan, Kousik Sarathy; Højlund, Andreas; Johnsen, Erik Lisbjerg; Sunde, Niels Aagaard; Johansen, Lars Gottfried; Beniczky, Sándor; Østergaard, Karen

    2017-07-01

    Deep brain stimulation (DBS) and dopaminergic medication effectively alleviate the motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, but their effects on the sensory symptoms of PD are still not well understood. To explore early somatosensory processing in PD, we recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) from thirteen DBS-treated PD patients and ten healthy controls during median nerve stimulation. PD patients were measured during DBS-treated, untreated and dopaminergic-medicated states. We focused on early cortical somatosensory processing as indexed by N20m, induced gamma augmentation (31-45Hz and 55-100Hz) and induced beta suppression (13-30Hz). PD patients' motor symptoms were assessed by UPDRS-III. Using Bayesian statistics, we found positive evidence for differentiated effects of treatments on the induced gamma augmentation (31-45Hz) with highest gamma in the dopaminergic-medicated state and lowest in the DBS-treated and untreated states. In contrast, UPDRS-III scores showed beneficial effects of both DBS and dopaminergic medication on the patients' motor symptoms. Furthermore, treatments did not affect the amplitude of N20m. Our results suggest differentiated effects of DBS and dopaminergic medication on cortical somatosensory processing in PD patients despite consistent ameliorating effects of both treatments on PD motor symptoms. The differentiated effect suggests differences in the effect mechanisms of the two treatments. Copyright © 2017 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Pathogenesis Differ in Krabbe Disease Variants

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Spratley, Samantha J; Hill, Chris H; Viuff, Agnete H

    2016-01-01

    different mutations have been identified in GALC that cause Krabbe disease but the mechanisms by which they cause disease remain unclear. We have generated monoclonal antibodies against full-length human GALC and used these to monitor the trafficking and processing of GALC variants in cell-based assays...

  15. Medication adherence in inflammatory bowel disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Webber Chan

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory condition with intestinal and extraintestinal manifestations. Medications are the cornerstone of treatment of IBD. However, patients often adhere to medication poorly. Adherence to medications is defined as the process by which patients take their medications as prescribed. Treatment non-adherence is a common problem among chronic diseases, averaging 50% in developed countries and is even poorer in developing countries. In this review, we will examine the adherence data in IBD which vary greatly depending on the study population, route of administration, and methods of adherence measurement used. We will also discuss the adverse clinical outcomes related to non-adherence to medical treatment including increased disease activity, flares, loss of response to anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy, and so forth. There are many methods to measure medication adherence namely direct and indirect methods, each with their advantages and drawbacks. Finally, we will explore different intervention strategies to improve adherence to medications.

  16. The utility of including pathology reports in improving the computational identification of patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Chen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Celiac disease (CD is a common autoimmune disorder. Efficient identification of patients may improve chronic management of the disease. Prior studies have shown searching International Classification of Diseases-9 (ICD-9 codes alone is inaccurate for identifying patients with CD. In this study, we developed automated classification algorithms leveraging pathology reports and other clinical data in Electronic Health Records (EHRs to refine the subset population preselected using ICD-9 code (579.0. Materials and Methods: EHRs were searched for established ICD-9 code (579.0 suggesting CD, based on which an initial identification of cases was obtained. In addition, laboratory results for tissue transglutaminse were extracted. Using natural language processing we analyzed pathology reports from upper endoscopy. Twelve machine learning classifiers using different combinations of variables related to ICD-9 CD status, laboratory result status, and pathology reports were experimented to find the best possible CD classifier. Ten-fold cross-validation was used to assess the results. Results: A total of 1498 patient records were used including 363 confirmed cases and 1135 false positive cases that served as controls. Logistic model based on both clinical and pathology report features produced the best results: Kappa of 0.78, F1 of 0.92, and area under the curve (AUC of 0.94, whereas in contrast using ICD-9 only generated poor results: Kappa of 0.28, F1 of 0.75, and AUC of 0.63. Conclusion: Our automated classification system presented an efficient and reliable way to improve the performance of CD patient identification.

  17. Animal Models for Periodontal Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helieh S. Oz

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Animal models and cell cultures have contributed new knowledge in biological sciences, including periodontology. Although cultured cells can be used to study physiological processes that occur during the pathogenesis of periodontitis, the complex host response fundamentally responsible for this disease cannot be reproduced in vitro. Among the animal kingdom, rodents, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and nonhuman primates have been used to model human periodontitis, each with advantages and disadvantages. Periodontitis commonly has been induced by placing a bacterial plaque retentive ligature in the gingival sulcus around the molar teeth. In addition, alveolar bone loss has been induced by inoculation or injection of human oral bacteria (e.g., Porphyromonas gingivalis in different animal models. While animal models have provided a wide range of important data, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the findings are applicable to humans. In addition, variability in host responses to bacterial infection among individuals contributes significantly to the expression of periodontal diseases. A practical and highly reproducible model that truly mimics the natural pathogenesis of human periodontal disease has yet to be developed.

  18. Animal Models for Periodontal Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oz, Helieh S.; Puleo, David A.

    2011-01-01

    Animal models and cell cultures have contributed new knowledge in biological sciences, including periodontology. Although cultured cells can be used to study physiological processes that occur during the pathogenesis of periodontitis, the complex host response fundamentally responsible for this disease cannot be reproduced in vitro. Among the animal kingdom, rodents, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and nonhuman primates have been used to model human periodontitis, each with advantages and disadvantages. Periodontitis commonly has been induced by placing a bacterial plaque retentive ligature in the gingival sulcus around the molar teeth. In addition, alveolar bone loss has been induced by inoculation or injection of human oral bacteria (e.g., Porphyromonas gingivalis) in different animal models. While animal models have provided a wide range of important data, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the findings are applicable to humans. In addition, variability in host responses to bacterial infection among individuals contributes significantly to the expression of periodontal diseases. A practical and highly reproducible model that truly mimics the natural pathogenesis of human periodontal disease has yet to be developed. PMID:21331345

  19. Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis causes Crohn's disease in some inflammatory bowel disease patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naser, Saleh A; Sagramsingh, Sudesh R; Naser, Abed S; Thanigachalam, Saisathya

    2014-06-21

    Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory condition that plagues millions all over the world. This debilitating bowel disease can start in early childhood and continue into late adulthood. Signs and symptoms are usually many and multiple tests are often required for the diagnosis and confirmation of this disease. However, little is still understood about the cause(s) of CD. As a result, several theories have been proposed over the years. One theory in particular is that Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is intimately linked to the etiology of CD. This fastidious bacterium also known to cause Johne's disease in cattle has infected the intestines of animals for years. It is believed that due to the thick, waxy cell wall of MAP it is able to survive the process of pasteurization as well as chemical processes seen in irrigation purification systems. Subsequently meat, dairy products and water serve as key vehicles in the transmission of MAP infection to humans (from farm to fork) who have a genetic predisposition, thus leading to the development of CD. The challenges faced in culturing this bacterium from CD are many. Examples include its extreme slow growth, lack of cell wall, low abundance, and its mycobactin dependency. In this review article, data from 60 studies showing the detection and isolation of MAP by PCR and culture techniques have been reviewed. Although this review may not be 100% comprehensive of all studies, clearly the majority of the studies overwhelmingly and definitively support the role of MAP in at least 30%-50% of CD patients. It is very possible that lack of detection of MAP from some CD patients may be due to the absence of MAP role in these patients. The latter statement is conditional on utilization of methodology appropriate for detection of human MAP strains. Ultimately, stratification of CD and inflammatory bowel disease patients for the presence or absence of MAP is necessary for appropriate and effective

  20. Towards a general framework for including noise impacts in LCA

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cucurachi, Stefano; Heijungs, Reinout; Ohlau, Katrin

    Purpose Several damages have been associated with the exposure of human beings to noise. These include auditory effects, i.e., hearing impairment, but also non-auditory physiological ones such as hypertension and ischemic heart disease, or psychological ones such as annoyance, depression, sleep

  1. Catalyst support structure, catalyst including the structure, reactor including a catalyst, and methods of forming same

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Norman, Staci A.; Aston, Victoria J.; Weimer, Alan W.

    2017-05-09

    Structures, catalysts, and reactors suitable for use for a variety of applications, including gas-to-liquid and coal-to-liquid processes and methods of forming the structures, catalysts, and reactors are disclosed. The catalyst material can be deposited onto an inner wall of a microtubular reactor and/or onto porous tungsten support structures using atomic layer deposition techniques.

  2. Primary immunodeficiency disease: a model for case management of chronic diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burton, Janet; Murphy, Elyse; Riley, Patty

    2010-01-01

    Patient-centered chronic care management is a new model for the management of rare chronic diseases such as primary immunodeficiency disease (PIDD). This approach emphasizes helping patients become experts on the management of their disease as informed, involved, and interactive partners in healthcare decisions with providers. Because only a few patients are affected by rare illnesses, these patients are forced to become knowledgeable about their disease and therapies and to seek treatment from a healthcare team, which includes physicians and nurse specialists who are equipped to manage the complexity of the disease and its comorbidities. Importantly, therapy for PIDD can be self-administered at home, which has encouraged the transition toward a proactive stance that is at the heart of patient-centered chronic care management. We discuss the evolution of therapy, the issues with the disease, and challenges with its management within the framework of other chronic disease management programs. Suggestions and rationale to move case management of PIDD forward are presented with the intent that sharing our experiences will improve process and better manage outcomes in this patient population. The patient-centered model for the management of PIDD is applicable to the primary care settings, where nurse case managers assist patients through education, support them and their families, and facilitate access to community resources in an approach, which has been described as "guided care." The model also applies specifically to immunology centers where patients receive treatment or instruction on its self-administration at home. Patient-centered management of PIDD, with its emphasis on full involvement of patients in their treatment, has the potential to improve compliance with treatment, and thus patient outcomes, as well as patients' quality of life. The patient-centered model expands the traditional model of chronic disease management, which relies on evidence

  3. N-isopropyl-p-123I iodoamphetamine single photon emission computed tomography study of Parkinson's disease with dementia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsui, Hideaki; Udaka, Fukashi; Miyoshi, Takafumi; Hara, Narihiro; Tamura, Akiko; Oda, Masaya; Kubori, Tamotsu; Nishinaka, Kazuto; Kameyama, Masakuni

    2005-01-01

    Intellectual deterioration occurs in 10-40% of patients with Parkinson's disease. However, there are many conflicting studies on its relation with brain perfusion and the nature of this dementing process remains controversial. The objective of this study was to compare cortical perfusion by SPECT using 123 I-IMP between Parkinson's disease patients with dementia and those without dementia and to investigate the correlation between dementia in Parkinson's disease and brain perfusion in various areas. Fifty-two cases of Parkinson's disease and 10 control cases were studied. The Parkinson's disease with dementia group included 30 cases and the Parkinson's disease without dementia group included 22 cases. By multiple logistic regression method, we demonstrated significant hypoperfusion in the occipital cortex in Parkinson's disease with dementia. The cause of dementia in Parkinson's disease may vary. We demonstrated that occipital hypoperfusion was closely correlated to dementia in Parkinson's disease compared to frontal, parietal and temporal perfusion. (author)

  4. Genetics Home Reference: prion disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... which have overlapping signs and symptoms, include familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS), and fatal ... Sc . Sporadic forms of prion disease include sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), sporadic fatal insomnia (sFI), and variably protease- ...

  5. Development of a quality-of-life instrument for autoimmune bullous disease: the Autoimmune Bullous Disease Quality of Life questionnaire.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sebaratnam, Deshan F; Hanna, Anna Marie; Chee, Shien-ning; Frew, John W; Venugopal, Supriya S; Daniel, Benjamin S; Martin, Linda K; Rhodes, Lesley M; Tan, Jeremy Choon Kai; Wang, Charles Qian; Welsh, Belinda; Nijsten, Tamar; Murrell, Dédée F

    2013-10-01

    Quality-of-life (QOL) evaluation is an increasingly important outcome measure in dermatology, with disease-specific QOL instruments being the most sensitive to changes in disease status. To develop a QOL instrument specific to autoimmune bullous disease (AIBD). A comprehensive item generation process was used to build a 45-item pilot Autoimmune Bullous Disease Quality of Life (ABQOL) questionnaire, distributed to 70 patients with AIBD. Experts in bullous disease refined the pilot ABQOL before factor analysis was performed to yield the final ABQOL questionnaire of 17 questions. We evaluated validity and reliability across a range of indices. Australian dermatology outpatient clinics and private dermatology practices. PATIENTS AND EXPOSURE: Patients with a histological diagnosis of AIBD. The development of an AIBD-specific QOL instrument. Face and content validity were established through the comprehensive patient interview process and expert review. In terms of convergent validity, the ABQOL was found to have a moderate correlation with scores on the Dermatology Life Quality Index (R = 0.63) and the General Health subscale of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (R = 0.69; P = .009) and low correlation with the Pemphigus Disease Area Index (R = 0.42) and Autoimmune Bullous Disease Skin Disorder Intensity Score (R = 0.48). In terms of discriminant validity, the ABQOL was found to be more sensitive than the Dermatology Life Quality Index (P = .02). The ABQOL was also found to be a reliable instrument evaluated by internal consistency (Cronbach α coefficient, 0.84) and test-retest reliability (mean percentage variation, 0.92). The ABQOL has been shown to be a valid and reliable instrument that may serve as an end point in clinical trials. Future work should include incorporating patient weighting on questions to further increase content validity and translation of the measure to other languages. anzctr.org.au Identifier: ACTRN12612000750886.

  6. Danish Register of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lange P

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Peter Lange,1,2 Sandra Søgaard Tøttenborg,1 Anne Dichmann Sorknæs,3 Jørgen Steen Andersen,4 Mette Søgaard,5 Henrik Nielsen,5 Reimar Wernich Thomsen,5 Katrine Abildtrup Nielsen6 1Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 2Lung Diseases Department, Respiratory Medicine Section, Lung Diseases Department, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 3Medical Department, Odense Universitetshospital–Svendborg Hospital, Svendborg, 4Danish College of General Practitioners, Copenhagen, 5Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, 6Registry Support Centre of Clinical Quality and Health Informatics (West, Århus, Denmark Aim of database: The Danish Register of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (DrCOPD is a nationwide database aiming to describe the quality of treatment of all patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD in Denmark. Study population: DrCOPD comprises data on all patients with a diagnosis of COPD. In the hospital setting, both in- and outpatients are included. In the setting of the general practice (GP, DrCOPD aims to include all patients with a COPD diagnosis who attend an annual control visit for COPD. Main variables: DrCOPD includes information on forced expiratory volume in 1 second, smoking status, body mass index, dyspnea, treatment modalities such as rehabilitation, smoking cessation, medical treatment, and the use of noninvasive ventilation during hospitalization due to exacerbations. The outcome variables include frequency of readmission and death 30 days after discharge from hospital. Descriptive data: Since 2008, the registration in the Danish hospitals has gradually become more comprehensive. In 2014, ~90% of 16,106 eligible patients had complete data sets that showed an improvement in the processes describing quality of care, including increased offering of smoking cessation, rehabilitation, and correct treatment with inhaled

  7. Association of Relationship between Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johar, N; Dhodapkar, S V; Kumar, R; Verma, T; Jajoo, A

    2017-04-01

    The present study was undertaken to determine the relationship between periodontal and cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have shown some co-relation between the two conditions. We included 186 patients divided into four groups. First two Groups (A1 & A2) were the patients with cardiac disease (100 in numbers) whilst Groups (B1 & B2) (86 in numbers) were treated as controls (without cardiac disease). Following markers of periodontal disease were assessed - plaque index, calculus index, gingival and periodontal index. Markers of cardiovascular disease included were LDL, HDL, total cholesterol and CRP. Ramfjords periodontal index was used to assess the extent of periodontal disease. In the present study there was a significant increase in CRP levels in Group A1 (CVD + PD) compared to controls and overall the two cardiac groups showed a significant increase in CRP compared to controls. There was a non-significant change in lipid profile markers (LDL, HDL and total cholesterol). Periodontal Disease Index (PDI) was also increased in Group A1 compared to other groups except Group B1 and overall in cardiac groups compared to non-cardiac (PD) groups. In this study no correlation between periodontal and cardiovascular disease was found. This may be due intake of statins by few patients in Group A with a confirmed diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

  8. DNA repair processes and their impairment in some human diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cleaver, J.E.

    1977-01-01

    Some human diseases show enhanced sensitivity to the action of environmental mutagens, and among these several are known which are defective in the repair of damaged DNA. Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is mainly defective in excision repair of a large variety of damaged DNA bases caused by ultraviolet light and chemical mutagens. XP involves at least 6 distinct groups, some of which may lack cofactors required for excising damage from chromatin. As a result of these defects the sensitivity of XP cells to many mutagens is increased 5- to 10-fold. Ataxia telangiectasia and Fanconi's anemia may similarly involve defects in repair of certain DNA base damage or cross-links, respectively. But most of these and other mutagen-sensitive diseases only show increases of about 2-fold in sensitivity to mutagens, and the biochemical defects in the diseases may be more complex and less directly involved in DNA repair than in XP. (Auth.)

  9. Targeting MicroRNA Function in Respiratory Diseases: Mini-review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven eMaltby

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available MicroRNAs (miRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules that modulate expression of the majority of genes by inhibiting protein translation. Growing literature has identified functional roles for miRNAs across a broad range of biological processes. As such, miRNAs are recognised as potential disease biomarkers and novel targets for therapies. While several miRNA-targeted therapies are currently in clinical trials (e.g. for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection and cancer, no therapies have targeted miRNAs in respiratory diseases in the clinic. In this mini-review, we review the current knowledge on miRNA expression and function in respiratory diseases, intervention strategies to target miRNA function and considerations specific to respiratory diseases. Altered miRNA expression profiles have been reported in a number of respiratory diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. These include alterations in isolated lung tissue, as well as sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluids and peripheral blood or serum. The observed alterations in easily accessible body fluids (e.g. serum have been proposed as new biomarkers that may inform disease diagnosis and patient management. In a subset of studies, miRNA-targeted interventions also improved disease outcomes, indicating functional roles for altered miRNA expression in disease pathogenesis. In fact, direct administration of miRNA-targeting molecules to the lung has yielded promising results in a number of animal models. The ability to directly administer compounds to the lung holds considerable promise and may limit potential off-target effects and side effects caused by the systemic administration required to treat other diseases.

  10. Attitudes and behaviour of adult pakistani diabetic population towards their disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Javed, A.; Mahmood, A.

    2014-01-01

    To assess the variations in attitudes and behaviour towards the disease process and interaction with the social environment of the diabetic persons due to long standing disease. Methods: This cross sectional study included four hundred participants of both gender, with confirmed type II diabetes for at least 5 years. A pre-validated questionnaire was used to evaluate the effects of the disease sufferings on the attitudes and behaviours towards social environment and disease. Frequency analysis was used to analyze the data using SPSS version 16.0. Results: 31.07% of diabetic population never noticed the change in their behaviour while 43.93% and 25% sometimes and always acknowledged the change in their behaviour, respectively. Less than one third consult their physicians regularly to manage their disease. 47.5% have no hope for their cure and 40% think that they have become a liability to their co-workers. Only 25.5% realize the importance of exercise in disease management. 27.5% of people undergo depression due to diabetes. More than half of the participants had to change their lifestyles after being diagnosed for diabetes. Significantly, less people (5%) believe that their disease has affected their married life. Conclusion: Sufferings of the diabetic individuals alter their behaviour towards their social environment along with their attitude. The study provides a substantial preliminary data to evaluate the effects of disease process on one's personality which may help to manage the disease more effectively. (author)

  11. Chronic Disease and Childhood Development: Kidney Disease and Transplantation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Susan D.; Simmons, Roberta G.

    As part of a larger study of transplantation and chronic disease and the family, 124 children (10-18 years old) who were chronically ill with kidney disease (n=72) or were a year or more post-transplant (n=52) were included in a study focusing on the effects of chronic kidney disease and transplantation on children's psychosocial development. Ss…

  12. Shared activity patterns arising at genetic susceptibility loci reveal underlying genomic and cellular architecture of human disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baillie, J Kenneth; Bretherick, Andrew; Haley, Christopher S; Clohisey, Sara; Gray, Alan; Neyton, Lucile P A; Barrett, Jeffrey; Stahl, Eli A; Tenesa, Albert; Andersson, Robin; Brown, J Ben; Faulkner, Geoffrey J; Lizio, Marina; Schaefer, Ulf; Daub, Carsten; Itoh, Masayoshi; Kondo, Naoto; Lassmann, Timo; Kawai, Jun; Mole, Damian; Bajic, Vladimir B; Heutink, Peter; Rehli, Michael; Kawaji, Hideya; Sandelin, Albin; Suzuki, Harukazu; Satsangi, Jack; Wells, Christine A; Hacohen, Nir; Freeman, Thomas C; Hayashizaki, Yoshihide; Carninci, Piero; Forrest, Alistair R R; Hume, David A

    2018-03-01

    Genetic variants underlying complex traits, including disease susceptibility, are enriched within the transcriptional regulatory elements, promoters and enhancers. There is emerging evidence that regulatory elements associated with particular traits or diseases share similar patterns of transcriptional activity. Accordingly, shared transcriptional activity (coexpression) may help prioritise loci associated with a given trait, and help to identify underlying biological processes. Using cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) profiles of promoter- and enhancer-derived RNAs across 1824 human samples, we have analysed coexpression of RNAs originating from trait-associated regulatory regions using a novel quantitative method (network density analysis; NDA). For most traits studied, phenotype-associated variants in regulatory regions were linked to tightly-coexpressed networks that are likely to share important functional characteristics. Coexpression provides a new signal, independent of phenotype association, to enable fine mapping of causative variants. The NDA coexpression approach identifies new genetic variants associated with specific traits, including an association between the regulation of the OCT1 cation transporter and genetic variants underlying circulating cholesterol levels. NDA strongly implicates particular cell types and tissues in disease pathogenesis. For example, distinct groupings of disease-associated regulatory regions implicate two distinct biological processes in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis; a further two separate processes are implicated in Crohn's disease. Thus, our functional analysis of genetic predisposition to disease defines new distinct disease endotypes. We predict that patients with a preponderance of susceptibility variants in each group are likely to respond differently to pharmacological therapy. Together, these findings enable a deeper biological understanding of the causal basis of complex traits.

  13. Pathophysiological Role of Neuroinflammation in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Psychiatric Disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heeok Hong

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Brain diseases and disorders such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, depression, schizophrenia, autism, and addiction lead to reduced quality of daily life through abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotional states, and behavior. While the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood, human and animal studies have supported a role of neuroinflammation in the etiology of these diseases. In the central nervous system, an increased inflammatory response is capable of activating microglial cells, leading to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α. In turn, the pro-inflammatory cytokines aggravate and propagate neuroinflammation, degenerating healthy neurons and impairing brain functions. Therefore, activated microglia may play a key role in neuroinflammatory processes contributing to the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders and neurodegeneration.

  14. Involvement of microRNAs in physiological and pathological processes in the lung

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kriegova Eva

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract To date, at least 900 different microRNA (miRNA genes have been discovered in the human genome. These short, single-stranded RNA molecules originate from larger precursor molecules that fold to produce hairpin structures, which are subsequently processed by ribonucleases Drosha/Pasha and Dicer to form mature miRNAs. MiRNAs play role in the posttranscriptional regulation of about one third of human genes, mainly via degradation of target mRNAs. Whereas the target mRNAs are often involved in the regulation of diverse physiological processes ranging from developmental timing to apoptosis, miRNAs have a strong potential to regulate fundamental biological processes also in the lung compartment. However, the knowledge of the role of miRNAs in physiological and pathological conditions in the lung is still limited. This review, therefore, summarizes current knowledge of the mechanism, function of miRNAs and their contribution to lung development and homeostasis. Besides the involvement of miRNAs in pulmonary physiological conditions, there is evidence that abnormal miRNA expression may lead to pathological processes and development of various pulmonary diseases. Next, the review describes current state-of-art on the miRNA expression profiles in smoking-related diseases including lung cancerogenesis, in immune system mediated pulmonary diseases and fibrotic processes in the lung. From the current research it is evident that miRNAs may play role in the posttranscriptional regulation of key genes in human pulmonary diseases. Further studies are, therefore, necessary to explore miRNA expression profiles and their association with target mRNAs in human pulmonary diseases.

  15. Mitochondria, Cybrids, Aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swerdlow, Russell H.; Koppel, Scott; Weidling, Ian; Hayley, Clay; Ji, Yan; Wilkins, Heather M.

    2018-01-01

    Mitochondrial and bioenergetic function change with advancing age and may drive aging phenotypes. Mitochondrial and bioenergetic changes are also documented in various age-related neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In some instances AD mitochondrial and bioenergetic changes are reminiscent of those observed with advancing age, but are greater in magnitude. Mitochondrial and bioenergetic dysfunction could, therefore, link neurodegeneration to brain aging. Interestingly, mitochondrial defects in AD patients are not brain-limited, and mitochondrial function can be linked to classic AD histologic changes including amyloid precursor protein processing to beta amyloid. Also, transferring mitochondria from AD subjects to cell lines depleted of endogenous mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) creates cytoplasmic hybrid (cybrid) cell lines that recapitulate specific biochemical, molecular, and histologic AD features. Such findings have led to the formulation of a “mitochondrial cascade hypothesis” that places mitochondrial dysfunction at the apex of the AD pathology pyramid. Data pertinent to this premise are reviewed. PMID:28253988

  16. Is PIGD a legitimate motor subtype in Parkinson disease?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotagal, Vikas

    2016-06-01

    Parkinson disease is a chronic progressive syndrome with a broad array of clinical features. Different investigators have suggested the heterogeneous motor manifestations of early Parkinson disease can be conceptualized through a taxonomy of clinical subtypes including tremor-predominant and postural instability and gait difficulty-predominant subtypes. Although it is theoretically valuable to distinguish subtypes of Parkinson disease, the reality is that few patients fit these discrete categories well and many transition from exhibiting elements of one subtype to elements of another. In the time since the initial description of the postural instability and gait difficulty-predominant subtype, Parkinson disease clinical research has blossomed in many ways - including an increased emphasis on the role of medical comorbidities and extranigral pathologies in Parkinson disease as markers of prognostic significance. By conceptualizing the pathogenesis of an expansive disease process in the limited terms of categorical motor subtypes, we run the risk of overlooking or misclassifying clinically significant pathogenic risk factors that lead to the development of motor milestones such as falls and related axial motor disability. Given its critical influence on quality of life and overall prognosis, we are in need of a model of postural instability and gait difficulty-predominant features in Parkinson disease that emphasizes the overlooked pathological influence of aging and medical comorbidities on the development of axial motor burden and postural instability and gait difficulty-predominant features. This Point of View proposes thinking of postural instability and gait difficulties in Parkinson disease not as a discrete subtype, but rather as multidimensional continuum influenced by several overlapping age-related pathologies.

  17. Vascular Endothelial Dysfunction in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: Pharmacological and Nonpharmacological Targets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonietta Gerarda Gravina

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic inflammatory conditions involving primarily the gastrointestinal tract. However, they may be also associated with systemic manifestations and comorbidities. The relationship between chronic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction has been extensively demonstrated. Mucosal immunity and gastrointestinal physiology are modified in inflammatory bowel diseases, and these modifications are mainly sustained by alterations of endothelial function. The key elements involved in this process are cytokines, inflammatory cells, growth factors, nitric oxide, endothelial adhesion molecules, and coagulation cascade factors. In this review, we discuss available data in literature concerning endothelial dysfunction in patients affected by inflammatory bowel disease and we focus our attention on both pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapeutic targets.

  18. 22q11.2q13 duplication including SOX10 causes sex-reversal and peripheral demyelinating neuropathy, central dysmyelinating leukodystrophy, Waardenburg syndrome, and Hirschsprung disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falah, Nadia; Posey, Jennifer E; Thorson, Willa; Benke, Paul; Tekin, Mustafa; Tarshish, Brocha; Lupski, James R; Harel, Tamar

    2017-04-01

    Diagnosis of genetic syndromes may be difficult when specific components of a disorder manifest at a later age. We present a follow up of a previous report [Seeherunvong et al., (2004); AJMGA 127: 149-151], of an individual with 22q duplication and sex-reversal syndrome. The subject's phenotype evolved to include peripheral and central demyelination, Waardenburg syndrome type IV, and Hirschsprung disease (PCWH; MIM 609136). DNA microarray analysis defined the duplication at 22q11.2q13, including SOX10. Sequencing of the coding region of SOX10 did not reveal any mutations. Our data suggest that SOX10 duplication can cause disorders of sex development and PCWH, supporting the hypothesis that SOX10 toxic gain of function rather than dominant negative activity underlies PCWH. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Furan and Alkylated Furans in Heat Processed Food, Including Home Cooked Products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fromberg, Arvid; Mariotti, Maria S.; Pedreschi, Franco

    2014-01-01

    of carbohydrates. Interestingly, breakfast cereals, dry bread products, and dried fruit products including raisins, plums and bananas contained furan at levels up to 387 mu g/kg. Furan was also found in the dry ingredients of cookies and bread, and in snacks such as crisps and popcorn. The 2-alkylfurans, 2...

  20. Tai Chi Exercise to Improve Non-Motor Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nocera, Joe R; Amano, Shinichi; Vallabhajosula, Srikant; Hass, Chris J

    2013-08-20

    A substantial number of individuals with Parkinson's disease exhibit debilitating non-motor symptoms that decrease quality of life. To date, few treatment options exist for the non-motor symptomatology related to Parkinson's disease. The goal of this pilot investigation was to determine the effects of Tai Chi exercise on the non-motor symptomology in Parkinson's disease. Twenty-one individuals with Parkinson's disease were enrolled in a Tai Chi intervention (n=15) or a noncontact control group (n=6). Participants assigned to Tai Chi participated in 60-minute Tai Chi sessions three times per week, for 16 weeks. Pre and post measures included indices of cognitive-executive function including visuomotor tracking and attention, selective attention, working memory, inhibition, processing speed and task switching. Additionally, all participants were evaluated on the Parkinson's disease Questionnaire-39 and Tinetti's Falls Efficacy Scale. Results indicated that the Tai Chi training group had significantly better scores following the intervention than the control group on the Parkinson's disease Questionnaire-39 total score as well as the emotional well-being sub score. Trends for improvement were noted for the Tai Chi group on Digits Backwards, Tinetti's Falls Efficacy Scale, and the activities of daily living and communication sub scores of the Parkinson's disease Questionnaire-39. This research provides initial data that supports future studies to definitively establish efficacy of Tai Chi to improve non-motor features of Parkinson's disease.

  1. Multiple mechanisms of transmission of the Caribbean coral disease white plague

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clemens, E.; Brandt, M. E.

    2015-12-01

    White plague is one of the most devastating coral diseases in the Caribbean, and yet important aspects of its epidemiology, including how the disease transmits, remain unknown. This study tested potential mechanisms and rates of transmission of white plague in a laboratory setting. Transmission mechanisms including the transport of water, contact with macroalgae, and predation via corallivorous worms and snails were tested on the host species Orbicella annularis. Two of the tested mechanisms were shown to transmit disease: water transport and the corallivorous snail Coralliophila abbreviata. Between these transmission mechanisms, transport of water between a diseased coral and a healthy coral resulted in disease incidence significantly more frequently in exposed healthy corals. Transmission via water transport also occurred more quickly and was associated with higher rates of tissue loss (up to 3.5 cm d-1) than with the corallivorous snail treatment. In addition, water that was in contact with diseased corals but was filtered with a 0.22-μm filter prior to being introduced to apparently healthy corals also resulted in the transmission of disease signs, but at a much lower rate than when water was not filtered. This study has provided important information on the transmission potential of Caribbean white plague disease and highlights the need for a greater understanding of how these processes operate in the natural environment.

  2. Disease-Specific Care: Spine Surgery Program Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koerner, Katie; Franker, Lauren; Douglas, Barbara; Medero, Edgardo; Bromeland, Jennifer

    2017-10-01

    Minimal literature exists describing the process for development of a Joint Commission comprehensive spine surgery program within a community hospital health system. Components of a comprehensive program include structured communication across care settings, preoperative education, quality outcomes tracking, and patient follow-up. Organizations obtaining disease-specific certification must have clear knowledge of the planning, time, and overall commitment, essential to developing a successful program. Health systems benefit from disease-specific certification because of their commitment to a higher standard of service. Certification standards establish a framework for organizational structure and management and provide institutions a competitive edge in the marketplace. A framework for the development of a spine surgery program is described to help guide organizations seeking disease-specific certification. In developing a comprehensive program, it is critical to define the program's mission and vision, identify key stakeholders, implement clinical practice guidelines, and evaluate program outcomes.

  3. Disrupting beta-amyloid aggregation for Alzheimer disease treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estrada, L D; Soto, C

    2007-01-01

    Alzheimer's disease is a devastating degenerative disorder for which there is no cure or effective treatment. Although the etiology of Alzheimer's disease is not fully understood, compelling evidence indicates that deposition of aggregates composed by a misfolded form of the amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) is the central event in the disease pathogenesis. Therefore, an attractive therapeutic strategy is to prevent or reverse Abeta misfolding and aggregation. Diverse strategies have been described to identify inhibitors of this process, including screening of libraries of small molecules chemical compounds, rational design of synthetic peptides, assessment of natural Abeta-binding proteins and stimulation of the immune system by vaccination. In this article we describe these different approaches, their principles and their potential strengths and weaknesses. Overall the available data suggest that the development of drugs to interfere with Abeta misfolding and aggregation is a feasible target that hold great promise for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

  4. Lysosomal storage diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferreira, Carlos R.; Gahl, William A.

    2016-01-01

    Lysosomes are cytoplasmic organelles that contain a variety of different hydrolases. A genetic deficiency in the enzymatic activity of one of these hydrolases will lead to the accumulation of the material meant for lysosomal degradation. Examples include glycogen in the case of Pompe disease, glycosaminoglycans in the case of the mucopolysaccharidoses, glycoproteins in the cases of the oligosaccharidoses, and sphingolipids in the cases of Niemann-Pick disease types A and B, Gaucher disease, Tay-Sachs disease, Krabbe disease, and metachromatic leukodystrophy. Sometimes, the lysosomal storage can be caused not by the enzymatic deficiency of one of the hydrolases, but by the deficiency of an activator protein, as occurs in the AB variant of GM2 gangliosidosis. Still other times, the accumulated lysosomal material results from failed egress of a small molecule as a consequence of a deficient transporter, as in cystinosis or Salla disease. In the last couple of decades, enzyme replacement therapy has become available for a number of lysosomal storage diseases. Examples include imiglucerase, taliglucerase and velaglucerase for Gaucher disease, laronidase for Hurler disease, idursulfase for Hunter disease, elosulfase for Morquio disease, galsulfase for Maroteaux-Lamy disease, alglucosidase alfa for Pompe disease, and agalsidase alfa and beta for Fabry disease. In addition, substrate reduction therapy has been approved for certain disorders, such as eliglustat for Gaucher disease. The advent of treatment options for some of these disorders has led to newborn screening pilot studies, and ultimately to the addition of Pompe disease and Hurler disease to the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP) in 2015 and 2016, respectively. PMID:29152458

  5. Oral fungal immunomodulatory protein-Flammulina velutipes has influence on pulmonary inflammatory process and potential treatment for allergic airway disease: A mouse model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Po-Yu Chu

    2017-06-01

    Conclusion: Oral FIP-fve had an anti-inflammatory effect on the acute phase of the airway inflammatory process induced by HDM in the mouse model and might have a potentially therapeutic role for allergic airway diseases.

  6. Burn mortality in patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knowlin, Laquanda; Reid, Trista; Williams, Felicia; Cairns, Bruce; Charles, Anthony

    2017-08-01

    Burn shock, a complex process, which develops following burn leads to severe and unique derangement of cardiovascular function. Patients with preexisting comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases may be more susceptible. We therefore sought to examine the impact of preexisting cardiovascular disease on burn outcomes. A retrospective analysis of patients admitted to a regional burn center from 2002 to 2012. Independent variables analyzed included basic demographics, burn mechanism, presence of inhalation injury, TBSA, pre-existing comorbidities, and length of ICU/hospital stay. Bivariate analysis was performed and Poisson regression modeling was utilized to estimate the incidence of being in the ICU and mortality. There were a total of 5332 adult patients admitted over the study period. 6% (n=428) had a preexisting cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease patients had a higher mortality rate (16%) compared to those without cardiovascular disease (3%, pwill likely be a greater number of individuals at risk for worse outcomes following burn. This knowledge can help with burn prognostication. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

  7. Modified Harrington Procedure for Acetabular Insuficiency Due to Metastatic Malignant Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WI Faisham

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Extensive peri-acetabular osteolysis caused by malignant disease process is a major surgical challenge as conventional hip arthroplasty is not adequate. We describe a modified use of the Harrington procedure for acetabular insufficiency secondary to metastatic disease in twelve patients. The procedures include application of multiple threaded pins to bridge the acetabular columns, anti-protrusio cage and cemented acetabular cup. Eleven patients were able to walk pain free and achieved a mean Musculoskeletal Tumour Society Functional Score of 80 (range, 68 to 86.

  8. [Information processing speed and influential factors in multiple sclerosis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, M L; Xu, E H; Dong, H Q; Zhang, J W

    2016-04-19

    To study the information processing speed and the influential factors in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. A total of 36 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), 21 patients with secondary progressive MS (SPMS), and 50 healthy control subjects from Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University between April 2010 and April 2012 were included into this cross-sectional study.Neuropsychological tests was conducted after the disease had been stable for 8 weeks, including information processing speed, memory, executive functions, language and visual perception.Correlation between information processing speed and depression, fatigue, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) were studied. (1)MS patient groups demonstrated cognitive deficits compared to healthy controls.The Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) (control group 57±12; RRMS group 46±17; SPMS group 35±10, Pinformation processing (Pinformation processing speed, verbal memory and executive functioning are seen in MS patients, especially in SPMS subtype, while visual-spatial function is relatively reserved.Age, white matter change scales, EDSS scores, depression are negatively associated with information processing speed.

  9. Oxidative stress as a mechanism of added sugar-induced cardiovascular disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prasad, Kailash; Dhar, Indu

    2014-12-01

    Added sugars comprising of table sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, molasses, and other sweeteners in the prepared processed foods and beverages have been implicated in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. This article deals with the reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a mechanism of sugar-induced cardiovascular diseases. There is an association between the consumption of high levels of serum glucose with cardiovascular diseases. Various sources of sugar-induced generation of ROS, including mitochondria, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase, advanced glycation end products, insulin, and uric acid have been discussed. The mechanism by which ROS induce the development of atherosclerosis, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias have been discussed in detail. In conclusion, the data suggest that added sugars induce atherosclerosis, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias and that these effects of added sugars are mediated through ROS.

  10. HIV and Cardiovascular Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Select a Language: Fact Sheet 652 HIV and Cardiovascular Disease HIV AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE WHY SHOULD PEOPLE WITH HIV CARE ABOUT CVD? ... OF CVD? WHAT ABOUT CHANGING MEDICATIONS? HIV AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes a group of problems ...

  11. The chick eye in vision research: An excellent model for the study of ocular disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wisely, C Ellis; Sayed, Javed A; Tamez, Heather; Zelinka, Chris; Abdel-Rahman, Mohamed H; Fischer, Andy J; Cebulla, Colleen M

    2017-11-01

    The domestic chicken, Gallus gallus, serves as an excellent model for the study of a wide range of ocular diseases and conditions. The purpose of this manuscript is to outline some anatomic, physiologic, and genetic features of this organism as a robust animal model for vision research, particularly for modeling human retinal disease. Advantages include a sequenced genome, a large eye, relative ease of handling and maintenance, and ready availability. Relevant similarities and differences to humans are highlighted for ocular structures as well as for general physiologic processes. Current research applications for various ocular diseases and conditions, including ocular imaging with spectral domain optical coherence tomography, are discussed. Several genetic and non-genetic ocular disease models are outlined, including for pathologic myopia, keratoconus, glaucoma, retinal detachment, retinal degeneration, ocular albinism, and ocular tumors. Finally, the use of stem cell technology to study the repair of damaged tissues in the chick eye is discussed. Overall, the chick model provides opportunities for high-throughput translational studies to more effectively prevent or treat blinding ocular diseases. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Morgellons disease and delusions of parasitosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robles, David T; Olson, Jonathan M; Combs, Heidi; Romm, Sharon; Kirby, Phil

    2011-02-01

    Morgellons disease is a controversial and poorly defined symptom cluster of skin lesions and somatic symptoms, most notably 'fibers' in the skin. Because of widespread coverage in the media and on the Internet, there are an increasing number of patients presenting to dermatologists. We present three patients who believed that they had fibers in their skin. We offer a discussion of delusions of parasitosis to demonstrate similarities between these conditions. It has been suggested by a limited number of healthcare providers that an unknown infectious agent underlies this symptom complex yet no available evidence supports this assertion. Laboratory values that would be reflective of an infectious process (e.g. elevated white blood cells, sedimentation rate, C reactive protein) are routinely normal and biopsies often reflect only nonspecific findings such as acute and chronic inflammation with erosion or ulceration. Patients with Morgellons disease generally lack insight into their disease and reject the need for psychiatric help. The goal is to build trust and refrain from minimizing what the patient experiences. Attentive examination of the patient's skin and fragments they present is necessary to rule out a true underlying pathologic process and to establish a trusting relationship. A supportive, non-confrontational approach is ideal. The patient is best treated by a team of practitioners of several specialties, including dermatologists, psychiatrists, and counselors.

  13. Mitochondrial dysfunction in the neuro-degenerative and cardio-degenerative disease, Friedreich's ataxia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiang, Shannon; Kalinowski, Danuta S; Jansson, Patric J; Richardson, Des R; Huang, Michael L-H

    2017-08-04

    Mitochondrial homeostasis is essential for maintaining healthy cellular function and survival. The detrimental involvement of mitochondrial dysfunction in neuro-degenerative diseases has recently been highlighted in human conditions, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease. Friedreich's ataxia (FA) is another neuro-degenerative, but also cardio-degenerative condition, where mitochondrial dysfunction plays a crucial role in disease progression. Deficient expression of the mitochondrial protein, frataxin, is the primary cause of FA, which leads to adverse alterations in whole cell and mitochondrial iron metabolism. Dys-regulation of iron metabolism in these compartments, results in the accumulation of inorganic iron deposits in the mitochondrial matrix that is thought to potentiate oxidative damage observed in FA. Therefore, the maintenance of mitochondrial homeostasis is crucial in the progression of neuro-degenerative conditions, particularly in FA. In this review, vital mitochondrial homeostatic processes and their roles in FA pathogenesis will be discussed. These include mitochondrial iron processing, mitochondrial dynamics (fusion and fission processes), mitophagy, mitochondrial biogenesis, mitochondrial energy production and calcium metabolism. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Neuroinflammation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. A rational framework for the search of novel therapeutic approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morales, Inelia; Guzmán-Martínez, Leonardo; Cerda-Troncoso, Cristóbal; Farías, Gonzalo A; Maccioni, Ricardo B

    2014-01-01

    Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in people over 60 years old. The molecular and cellular alterations that trigger this disease are still diffuse, one of the reasons for the delay in finding an effective treatment. In the search for new targets to search for novel therapeutic avenues, clinical studies in patients who used anti-inflammatory drugs indicating a lower incidence of AD have been of value to support the neuroinflammatory hypothesis of the neurodegenerative processes and the role of innate immunity in this disease. Neuroinflammation appears to occur as a consequence of a series of damage signals, including trauma, infection, oxidative agents, redox iron, oligomers of τ and β-amyloid, etc. In this context, our theory of Neuroimmunomodulation focus on the link between neuronal damage and brain inflammatory process, mediated by the progressive activation of astrocytes and microglial cells with the consequent overproduction of proinflammatory agents. Here, we discuss about the role of microglial and astrocytic cells, the principal agents in neuroinflammation process, in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. In this context, we also evaluated the potential relevance of natural anti-inflammatory components, which include curcumin and the novel Andean Compound, as agents for AD prevention and as a coadjuvant for AD treatments.

  15. Radiation protection at radioisotope processing facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hillier, L.R.; Decaire, R.

    2002-01-01

    MDS Inc. is Canada's largest diversified health and life sciences company and provides health care services and products to prevent, diagnose and treat disease. MDS Nordion Inc. is a subsidiary of MDS Inc. and is located in Ottawa, Ontario. It provides much of the world's supply of radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine primarily to diagnose, but also to treat disease. MDS Nordion is composed of three major production divisions at its Ottawa location and serves customers in three major markets. These are primarily: radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine (Nuclear Medicine Division), radiation processing for sterilization of medical equipment and supplies, and food (Ion Technologies Division), and teletherapy equipment used in cancer treatment (Therapy Systems Division). MDS Nordion supplies customers in over 100 countries, exporting more than 95 percent of its product processed in Canada. Every year, 15 to 20 million diagnostic imaging tests are carried out in hospitals around the world, using radioisotopes supplied by MDS Nordion. In addition, 150 to 200 million cubic feet (that's enough to cover an entire CFL field - including the end zones - stacked over half a kilometer high) of single use medical products are sterilized using MDS Nordion supplied equipment. MDS Nordion receives medical isotopes from AECL, Chalk River Laboratories and processes the material to purify and quantify the radioisotope product. Sealed sources, comprised of cobalt 60, are supplied from CANDU reactors. Production processes include ventilated shielded cells with remote manipulators, gloveboxes and fumehoods, to effectively control the safety of the workplace and the environment, and to prevent contamination of the products. The facilities are highly regulated by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for safety and environmental protection. Products are also regulated by Health Canada and the US-Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (author)

  16. [Quality indicators for National Disease Management Guidelines using the example of the National Disease Management Guideline for "Chronic Heart Failure"].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nothacker, Monika Judith; Langer, Thomas; Weinbrenner, Susanne

    2011-01-01

    Together with an expert committee a structured approach to determining quality indicators for National Disease Management Guidelines has been developed. The key steps of this approach include: introducing guideline authors to the methodology at an early stage of the process of guideline development, pre-selecting recommendations of the guideline which are potentially measurable by means of quality indicators, assessing the potentially measurable quality indicators in written form using five criteria (including their importance for the health care system and clarity of definitions) and approving them in a formal consensus process. For lack of a database these quality indicators must be regarded as preliminary. For the National Disease Management Guideline "Chronic Heart Failure" nine rate-based indicators have been chosen. The indicators correspond to important strong recommendations (grade of recommendation: A) from the fields of diagnosis (two), general therapeutic strategy (two), specific treatment (three), clinical monitoring (one) and co-ordination of care (one). In a second step, the quality indicators have to be validated within a pilot project. The determination and assessment of the potential quality indicators have revealed room for improvement of guideline development. In particular, there is a need for more health care data and for specification of recommendations.

  17. Homozygous deletion of six genes including corneodesmosin on chromosome 6p21.3 is associated with generalized peeling skin disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teye, Kwesi; Hamada, Takahiro; Krol, Rafal P; Numata, Sanae; Ishii, Norito; Matsuda, Mitsuhiro; Ohata, Chika; Furumura, Minao; Hashimoto, Takashi

    2014-07-01

    Peeling skin syndrome (PSS) is a rare autosomal recessive form of ichthyosis showing skin exfoliation. PSS is divided into acral and generalized PSS, and the latter is further classified into non-inflammatory type (PSS type A) and inflammatory type (PSS type B). PSS type B is now called peeling skin disease (PSD). Different loss-of-function mutations in the corneodesmosin (CDSN) gene have been reported to cause PSD. The aim of this study was to determine genetic basis of disease in a 14-year-old Japanese patient with PSD. Immunohistochemical study showed lack of corneodesmosin (CDSN) in the skin, and standard PCR for genomic DNA failed to amplify CDSN product, suggesting CDSN defect. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification and genomic quantitative real-time PCR analyses detected large homozygous deletion of 59,184bp extending from 40.6kb upstream to 13.2kb downstream of CDSN, which included 6 genes (TCF19, CCHCR1, PSORS1C2, PSORS1C1, CDSN and C6orf15). The continuous gene lost did not result in additional clinical features. Inverted repeats with 85% similarity flanking the deletion breakpoint were considered to mediate the deletion by non-homologous end joining or fork stalling and template switching/microhomology-mediated break-induced replication. Parents were clinically unaffected and were heterozygote carriers of the same deletion, which was absent in 284 ethnically matched control alleles. We also developed simple PCR method, which is useful for detection of this deletion. Although 5 other genes were also deleted, homozygous deletion of CDSN was considered to be responsible for this PSD. Copyright © 2014 Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Gut Microbiota in Cardiovascular Health and Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, W.H. Wilson; Kitai, Takeshi; Hazen, Stanley L

    2017-01-01

    Significant interest in recent years has focused on gut microbiota-host interaction because accumulating evidence has revealed that intestinal microbiota play an important role in human health and disease, including cardiovascular diseases. Changes in the composition of gut microbiota associated with disease, referred to as dysbiosis, have been linked to pathologies such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition to alterations in gut microbiota composition, the metabolic potential of gut microbiota has been identified as a contributing factor in the development of diseases. Recent studies revealed that gut microbiota can elicit a variety of effects on the host. Indeed, the gut microbiome functions like an endocrine organ, generating bioactive metabolites, that can impact host physiology. Microbiota interact with the host through a number of pathways, including the trimethylamine (TMA)/ trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) pathway, short-chain fatty acids pathway, and primary and secondary bile acids pathways. In addition to these “metabolism dependent” pathways, metabolism independent processes are suggested to also potentially contribute to CVD pathogenesis. For example, heart failure associated splanchnic circulation congestion, bowel wall edema and impaired intestinal barrier function are thought to result in bacterial translocation, the presence of bacterial products in the systemic circulation and heightened inflammatory state. These are believed to also contribute to further progression of heart failure and atherosclerosis. The purpose of the current review is to highlight the complex interplay between microbiota, their metabolites and the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases. We will also discuss the roles of gut microbiota in normal physiology and the potential of modulating intestinal microbial inhabitants as novel therapeutic targets. PMID:28360349

  19. Parallel processing for nonlinear dynamics simulations of structures including rotating bladed-disk assemblies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsieh, Shang-Hsien

    1993-01-01

    The principal objective of this research is to develop, test, and implement coarse-grained, parallel-processing strategies for nonlinear dynamic simulations of practical structural problems. There are contributions to four main areas: finite element modeling and analysis of rotational dynamics, numerical algorithms for parallel nonlinear solutions, automatic partitioning techniques to effect load-balancing among processors, and an integrated parallel analysis system.

  20. Medications Used for Cognitive Enhancement in Patients With Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Alzheimer's Disease, and Parkinson's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Wen-Yu; Lane, Hsien-Yuan; Lin, Chieh-Hsin

    2018-01-01

    Cognitive impairment, which frequently occurs in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease, has a significant impact on the daily lives of both patients and their family. Furthermore, since the medications used for cognitive enhancement have limited efficacy, the issue of cognitive enhancement still remains a clinically unsolved challenge. We reviewed the clinical studies (published between 2007 and 2017) that focused on the efficacy of medications used for enhancing cognition in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and memantine are the standard treatments for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Some studies have reported selective cognitive improvement in patients with schizophrenia following galantamine treatment. Newer antipsychotics, including paliperidone, lurasidone, aripiprazole, ziprasidone, and BL-1020, have also been reported to exert cognitive benefits in patients with schizophrenia. Dopaminergic medications were found to improve language function in patients with Parkinson's disease. However, no beneficial effects on cognitive function were observed with dopamine agonists in patients with schizophrenia. The efficacies of nicotine and its receptor modulators in cognitive improvement remain controversial, with the majority of studies showing that varenicline significantly improved the cognitive function in schizophrenic patients. Several studies have reported that N -methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDAR) enhancers improved the cognitive function in patients with chronic schizophrenia. NMDAR enhancers might also have cognitive benefits in patients with Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, has also been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on attention, processing speed, and memory in female patients with schizophrenia. Clinical trials with

  1. Using hyperspectral imaging technology to identify diseased tomato leaves

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Cuiling; Wang, Xiu; Zhao, Xueguan; Meng, Zhijun; Zou, Wei

    2016-11-01

    In the process of tomato plants growth, due to the effect of plants genetic factors, poor environment factors, or disoperation of parasites, there will generate a series of unusual symptoms on tomato plants from physiology, organization structure and external form, as a result, they cannot grow normally, and further to influence the tomato yield and economic benefits. Hyperspectral image usually has high spectral resolution, not only contains spectral information, but also contains the image information, so this study adopted hyperspectral imaging technology to identify diseased tomato leaves, and developed a simple hyperspectral imaging system, including a halogen lamp light source unit, a hyperspectral image acquisition unit and a data processing unit. Spectrometer detection wavelength ranged from 400nm to 1000nm. After hyperspectral images of tomato leaves being captured, it was needed to calibrate hyperspectral images. This research used spectrum angle matching method and spectral red edge parameters discriminant method respectively to identify diseased tomato leaves. Using spectral red edge parameters discriminant method produced higher recognition accuracy, the accuracy was higher than 90%. Research results have shown that using hyperspectral imaging technology to identify diseased tomato leaves is feasible, and provides the discriminant basis for subsequent disease control of tomato plants.

  2. Resilience in women with autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rojas, Manuel; Rodriguez, Yhojan; Pacheco, Yovana; Zapata, Elizabeth; Monsalve, Diana M; Mantilla, Rubén D; Rodríguez-Jimenez, Monica; Ramírez-Santana, Carolina; Molano-González, Nicolás; Anaya, Juan-Manuel

    2017-12-28

    To evaluate the relationship between resilience and clinical outcomes in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Focus groups, individual interviews, and chart reviews were done to collect data on 188 women with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, namely rheumatoid arthritis (n=51), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=70), systemic sclerosis (n=35), and Sjögren's syndrome (n=32). Demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables were assessed including disease activity by patient reported outcomes. Resilience was evaluated by using the Brief Resilience Scale. Bivariate, multiple linear regression, and classification and regression trees were used to analyse data. Resilience was influenced by age, duration of disease, and socioeconomic status. Lower resilience scores were observed in younger patients (50years) had higher resilience scores regardless of socioeconomic status. There was no influence of disease activity on resilience. A particular behaviour was observed in systemic sclerosis in which patients with high socioeconomic status and regular physical activity had higher resilience scores. Resilience in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases is a continuum process influenced by age and socioeconomic status. The ways in which these variables along with exercise influence resilience deserve further investigation. Copyright © 2017 Société française de rhumatologie. Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

  3. Neuroimaging in pre-motor Parkinson's disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas R. Barber

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The process of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease begins long before the onset of clinical motor symptoms, resulting in substantial cell loss by the time a diagnosis can be made. The period between the onset of neurodegeneration and the development of motoric disease would be the ideal time to intervene with disease modifying therapies. This pre-motor phase can last many years, but the lack of a specific clinical phenotype means that objective biomarkers are needed to reliably detect prodromal disease. In recent years, recognition that patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD are at particularly high risk of future parkinsonism has enabled the development of large prodromal cohorts in which to investigate novel biomarkers, and neuroimaging has generated some of the most promising results to date. Here we review investigations undertaken in RBD and other pre-clinical cohorts, including modalities that are well established in clinical Parkinson's as well as novel imaging methods. Techniques such as high resolution MRI of the substantia nigra and functional imaging of Parkinsonian brain networks have great potential to facilitate early diagnosis. Further longitudinal studies will establish their true value in quantifying prodromal neurodegeneration and predicting future Parkinson's.

  4. [Anatomy and pathogenesis of diverticular disease].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wedel, T; Böttner, M

    2014-04-01

    Although diverticular disease is one of the most frequent gastrointestinal disorders the pathogenesis is not yet sufficiently clarified. The aim is to define the anatomy and pathogenesis of diverticular disease considering the risk factors and description of structural and functional alterations of the bowel wall. This article gives an appraisal of the literature, presentation and evaluation of classical etiological factors, analysis and discussion of novel pathogenetic concepts. Colonic diverticulosis is defined as an acquired out-pouching of multiple and initially asymptomatic pseudodiverticula through muscular gaps in the colon wall. Diverticular disease is characterized by diverticular bleeding and/or inflammatory processes (diverticulitis) with corresponding complications (e.g. abscess formation, fistula, covered and open perforation, peritonitis and stenosis). Risk factors for diverticular disease include increasing age, genetic predisposition, congenital connective tissue diseases, low fiber diet, high meat consumption and pronounced overweight. Alterations of connective tissue cause a weakening of preformed exit sites of diverticula and rigidity of the bowel wall with reduced flexibility. It is assumed that intestinal innervation disorders and structural alterations of the musculature induce abnormal contractile patterns with increased intraluminal pressure, thereby promoting the development of diverticula. Moreover, an increased release of pain-mediating neurotransmitters is considered to be responsible for persistent pain in chronic diverticular disease. According to the present data the pathogenesis of diverticular disease cannot be attributed to a single factor but should be considered as a multifactorial event.

  5. Rheumatic Diseases and Obesity: Adipocytokines as Potential Comorbidity Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rossana Scrivo

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Inflammation has been recognized as a common trait in the pathogenesis of multifactorial diseases including obesity, where a low-grade inflammation has been established and may be responsible for the cardiovascular risk related to the disease. Obesity has also been associated with the increased incidence and a worse outcome of rheumatoid arthritis (RA and osteoarthritis (OA. RA is characterized by systemic inflammation, which is thought to play a key role in accelerated atherosclerosis and in the increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, an important comorbidity in patients with RA. The inflammatory process underlying the cardiovascular risk both in obesity and RA may be mediated by adipocytokines, a heterogeneous group of soluble proteins mainly secreted by the adipocytes. Many adipocytokines are mainly produced by white adipose tissue. Adipocytokines may also be involved in the pathogenesis of OA since a positive association with obesity has been found for weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing joints, suggesting that, in addition to local overload, systemic factors may contribute to joint damage. In this review we summarize the current knowledge on experimental models and clinical studies in which adipocytokines were examined in obesity, RA, and OA and discuss the potential of adipocytokines as comorbidity biomarkers for cardiovascular risk.

  6. Knowledge acquisition in patients with heart disease

    OpenAIRE

    Rydell Karlsson, Monica

    2007-01-01

    The general aim was to evaluate different aspects of the knowledge acquisition process in patients with heart disease. Three different education programs were evaluated. In Paper I 208 patients with systolic heart failure (HF) aged >60 years, were included. They were randomized to the nurse-based outpatient clinic or to the patients´ general practitioners (GP). The aim was to assess effects of a nurse-based management program intended to increase the knowledge of the H...

  7. Natural language processing using online analytic processing for assessing recommendations in radiology reports.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dang, Pragya A; Kalra, Mannudeep K; Blake, Michael A; Schultz, Thomas J; Stout, Markus; Lemay, Paul R; Freshman, David J; Halpern, Elkan F; Dreyer, Keith J

    2008-03-01

    The study purpose was to describe the use of natural language processing (NLP) and online analytic processing (OLAP) for assessing patterns in recommendations in unstructured radiology reports on the basis of patient and imaging characteristics, such as age, gender, referring physicians, radiology subspecialty, modality, indications, diseases, and patient status (inpatient vs outpatient). A database of 4,279,179 radiology reports from a single tertiary health care center during a 10-year period (1995-2004) was created. The database includes reports of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, radiography, mammography, angiography, special procedures, and unclassified imaging tests with patient demographics. A clinical data mining and analysis NLP program (Leximer, Nuance Inc, Burlington, Massachusetts) in conjunction with OLAP was used for classifying reports into those with recommendations (I(REC)) and without recommendations (N(REC)) for imaging and determining I(REC) rates for different patient age groups, gender, imaging modalities, indications, diseases, subspecialties, and referring physicians. In addition, temporal trends for I(REC) were also determined. There was a significant difference in the I(REC) rates in different age groups, varying between 4.8% (10-19 years) and 9.5% (>70 years) (P OLAP revealed considerable differences between recommendation trends for different imaging modalities and other patient and imaging characteristics.

  8. What drives quality improvement in chronic kidney disease (CKD) in primary care: process evaluation of the Quality Improvement in Chronic Kidney Disease (QICKD) trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nihat, Akin; de Lusignan, Simon; Thomas, Nicola; Tahir, Mohammad Aumran; Gallagher, Hugh

    2016-04-06

    This study is a process evaluation of the Quality Improvement in Chronic Kidney Disease (QICKD) study, comparing audit-based education (ABE) and sending clinical guidelines and prompts (G&P) with usual practice, in improving systolic blood pressure control in primary care. This evaluation aimed to explore how far clinical staff in participating practices were aware of the intervention, and why change in practice might have taken place. 4 primary care practices in England: 2 received ABE, and 2 G&P. We purposively selected 1 northern/southern/city and rural practice from each study arm (from a larger pool of 132 practices as part of the QICKD trial). The 4 study practices were purposively sampled, and focus groups conducted with staff from each. All staff members were invited to attend. Focus groups in each of 4 practices, at the mid-study point and at the end. 4 additional trial practices not originally selected for in-depth process evaluation took part in end of trial focus groups, to a total of 12 focus groups. These were recorded, transcribed and analysed using the framework approach. 5 themes emerged: (1) involvement in the study made participants more positive about the CKD register; (2) clinicians did not always explain to patients that they had CKD; (3) while practitioners improved their monitoring of CKD, many were sceptical that it improved care and were more motivated by pay-for-performance measures; (4) the impact of study interventions on practice was generally positive, particularly the interaction with specialists, included in ABE; (5) the study stimulated ideas for future clinical practice. Improving quality in CKD is complex. Lack of awareness of clinical guidelines and scepticism about their validity are barriers to change. While pay-for-performance incentives are the main driver for change, quality improvement interventions can have a complementary influence. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already

  9. Effects of inflammatory bowel disease on students' adjustment to college.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almadani, S Bashar; Adler, Jeremy; Browning, Jeff; Green, Elan H; Helvie, Karla; Rizk, Rafat S; Zimmermann, Ellen M

    2014-12-01

    Successful adjustment to college is required for academic success. We investigated whether inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) activity affects this adjustment process. We created an online survey that included a Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), a general quality of life survey (SF-12), a disease-specific short IBD quality of life survey (SIBDQ), and disease activity indices. Undergraduate students across the United States were recruited via social media. Surveys were completed by 65 students with Crohn's disease (CD), 28 with ulcerative colitis, and 214 healthy students (controls). Disease-specific quality of life (SIBDQ results) correlated with IBD disease activity (rho = -0.79; P academic work (P academic challenges (P academically successful (P academics-especially among students with CD. Successful adjustment is important for academic success, affecting graduation rates and future economic success. Strategies to increase disease control and provide social and emotional support during college could improve adjustment to college and academic performance, and increase patients' potential. Copyright © 2014 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Abnormal Base Excision Repair at Trinucleotide Repeats Associated with Diseases: A Tissue-Selective Mechanism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agathi-Vasiliki Goula

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available More than fifteen genetic diseases, including Huntington’s disease, myotonic dystrophy 1, fragile X syndrome and Friedreich ataxia, are caused by the aberrant expansion of a trinucleotide repeat. The mutation is unstable and further expands in specific cells or tissues with time, which can accelerate disease progression. DNA damage and base excision repair (BER are involved in repeat instability and might contribute to the tissue selectivity of the process. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms of trinucleotide repeat instability, focusing more specifically on the role of BER.

  11. Transgenic Rat Model of Huntington's Disease: A Histopathological Study and Correlations with Neurodegenerative Process in the Brain of HD Patients.

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Mazurová, Y.; Anděrová, Miroslava; Němečková, I.; Bezrouk, A.

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 2014, Aug 03 (2014), s. 291531 ISSN 2314-6133 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP304/12/G069 Grant - others:GA MŠk(CZ) Prvouk P37 Institutional support: RVO:68378041 Keywords : Huntington's Disease * neurodegenerative process in the brain Subject RIV: FH - Neurology Impact factor: 1.579, year: 2014

  12. The MicroRNA Interaction Network of Lipid Diseases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandhro, Abdul H.; Shoombuatong, Watshara; Nantasenamat, Chanin; Prachayasittikul, Virapong; Nuchnoi, Pornlada

    2017-01-01

    Background: Dyslipidemia is one of the major forms of lipid disorder, characterized by increased triglycerides (TGs), increased low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and decreased high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in blood. Recently, MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported to involve in various biological processes; their potential usage being a biomarkers and in diagnosis of various diseases. Computational approaches including text mining have been used recently to analyze abstracts from the public databases to observe the relationships/associations between the biological molecules, miRNAs, and disease phenotypes. Materials and Methods: In the present study, significance of text mined extracted pair associations (miRNA-lipid disease) were estimated by one-sided Fisher's exact test. The top 20 significant miRNA-disease associations were visualized on Cytoscape. The CyTargetLinker plug-in tool on Cytoscape was used to extend the network and predicts new miRNA target genes. The Biological Networks Gene Ontology (BiNGO) plug-in tool on Cytoscape was used to retrieve gene ontology (GO) annotations for the targeted genes. Results: We retrieved 227 miRNA-lipid disease associations including 148 miRNAs. The top 20 significant miRNAs analysis on CyTargetLinker provides defined, predicted and validated gene targets, further targeted genes analyzed by BiNGO showed targeted genes were significantly associated with lipid, cholesterol, apolipoprotein, and fatty acids GO terms. Conclusion: We are the first to provide a reliable miRNA-lipid disease association network based on text mining. This could help future experimental studies that aim to validate predicted gene targets. PMID:29018475

  13. Detection and measurement of plant disease symptoms using visible-wavelength photography and image analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Disease assessment is required for many purposes including predicting yield loss, monitoring and forecasting epidemics, judging host resistance, and for studying fundamental biological host-pathogen processes. Inaccurate and/or imprecise assessments can result in incorrect conclusions or actions. Im...

  14. Monitoring emerging diseases of fish and shellfish using electronic sources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thrush, M A; Dunn, P L; Peeler, E J

    2012-10-01

    New and emerging fish and shellfish diseases represent an important constraint to the growth and sustainability of many aquaculture sectors and have also caused substantial economic and environmental impacts in wild stocks. This paper details the results of 8 years of a monitoring programme for emerging aquatic animal diseases reported around the world. The objectives were to track global occurrences and, more specifically, to identify and provide advanced warning of disease threats that may affect wild and farmed fish stocks in the UK. A range of electronic information sources, including Internet newsletters, alerting services and news agency releases, was systematically searched for reports of new diseases, new presentations of known pathogens and known diseases occurring in new geographic locations or new host species. A database was established to log the details of key findings, and 250 emerging disease events in 52 countries were recorded during the period of study. These included 14 new diseases and a further 16 known diseases in new species. Viruses and parasites accounted for the majority of reports (55% and 24%, respectively), and known diseases occurring in new locations were the most important emerging disease category (in which viruses were dominant). Emerging diseases were reported disproportionally in salmonid species (33%), in farmed populations (62%) and in Europe and North America (80%). The lack of reports from some regions with significant aquaculture or fishery production may indicate that emerging diseases are not being recognized in these areas owing to insufficient surveillance or testing or that these events are being under-reported. The results are discussed in relation to processes underpinning disease emergence in the aquatic environment. © 2011 Crown Copyright. Reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office and Centre for Environment Fisheries & Aquaculture Science.

  15. Neuroprotective and Therapeutic Strategies against Parkinson’s Disease: Recent Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sumit Sarkar

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Parkinsonism is a progressive motor disease that affects 1.5 million Americans and is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. Typical neuropathological features of Parkinson’s disease (PD include degeneration of dopaminergic neurons located in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra that project to the striatum (nigro-striatal pathway and depositions of cytoplasmic fibrillary inclusions (Lewy bodies which contain ubiquitin and α-synuclein. The cardinal motor signs of PD are tremors, rigidity, slow movement (bradykinesia, poor balance, and difficulty in walking (Parkinsonian gait. In addition to motor symptoms, non-motor symptoms that include autonomic and psychiatric as well as cognitive impairments are pressing issues that need to be addressed. Several different mechanisms play an important role in generation of Lewy bodies; endoplasmic reticulum (ER stress induced unfolded proteins, neuroinflammation and eventual loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of mid brain in PD. Moreover, these diverse processes that result in PD make modeling of the disease and evaluation of therapeutics against this devastating disease difficult. Here, we will discuss diverse mechanisms that are involved in PD, neuroprotective and therapeutic strategies currently in clinical trial or in preclinical stages, and impart views about strategies that are promising to mitigate PD pathology.

  16. Reduced short-term memory capacity in Alzheimer's disease: the role of phonological, lexical, and semantic processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caza, Nicole; Belleville, Sylvie

    2008-05-01

    Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often reported to have reduced verbal short-term memory capacity, typically attributed to their attention/executive deficits. However, these individuals also tend to show progressive impairment of semantic, lexical, and phonological processing which may underlie their low short-term memory capacity. The goals of this study were to assess the contribution of each level of representation (phonological, lexical, and semantic) to immediate serial recall performance in 18 individuals with AD, and to examine how these linguistic effects on short-term memory were modulated by their reduced capacity to manipulate information in short-term memory associated with executive dysfunction. Results showed that individuals with AD had difficulty recalling items that relied on phonological representations, which led to increased lexicality effects relative to the control group. This finding suggests that patients have a greater reliance on lexical/semantic information than controls, possibly to make up for deficits in retention and processing of phonological material. This lexical/semantic effect was not found to be significantly correlated with patients' capacity to manipulate verbal material in short-term memory, indicating that language processing and executive deficits may independently contribute to reducing verbal short-term memory capacity in AD.

  17. Inflammatory diseases of the myelon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spitzer, C.; Krings, T.; Block, F.; Universitaetsklinikum Aachen

    2001-01-01

    Myelitis is defined as inflammatory disease of the spinal cord irrespective of the underlying aetiology or pathologic-anatomic alterations. It can be caused by direct infections, postinfectious or postvaccinal immunological processes or other (auto)immunological diseases such as multiple sclerosis or systemic vasculitis. The clinical presentation is diverse and varies from temporary sensory deficits to persistent tetraplegia with respiratory insufficiency. Diagnostic work-up must include a thorough anamnesis, clinical-neurological examination, neurophysiological studies, analysis of blood and cerebospinal fluid and neuroradiological investigations. Most important is the spinal MRI: small lesions as well as large lesions throughout the extent of the cord with accompanying edema can be identified reliably. Furthermore, neuroradiological examination can proof or rule out important differential diagnoses. In particular in acute transverse myelitis a quick diagnostic work-up with a spinal MRI is indispensible in order to start an appropriate therapy as soon as possible. (orig.) [de

  18. Infection processes of xylem-colonizing pathogenic bacteria: possible explanations for the scarcity of qualitative disease resistance genes against them in crops.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bae, Chungyun; Han, Sang Wook; Song, Yu-Rim; Kim, Bo-Young; Lee, Hyung-Jin; Lee, Je-Min; Yeam, Inhwa; Heu, Sunggi; Oh, Chang-Sik

    2015-07-01

    Disease resistance against xylem-colonizing pathogenic bacteria in crops. Plant pathogenic bacteria cause destructive diseases in many commercially important crops. Among these bacteria, eight pathogens, Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, X. campestris pv. campestris, Erwinia amylovora, Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis, Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, and Xylella fastidiosa, infect their host plants through different infection sites and paths and eventually colonize the xylem tissues of their host plants, resulting in wilting symptoms by blocking water flow or necrosis of xylem tissues. Noticeably, only a relatively small number of resistant cultivars in major crops against these vascular bacterial pathogens except X. oryzae pv. oryzae have been found or generated so far, although these pathogens threaten productivity of major crops. In this review, we summarize the lifestyles of major xylem-colonizing bacterial pathogens and then discuss the progress of current research on disease resistance controlled by qualitative disease resistance genes or quantitative trait loci against them. Finally, we propose infection processes of xylem-colonizing bacterial pathogens as one of possible reasons for why so few qualitative disease resistance genes against these pathogens have been developed or identified so far in crops.

  19. Introduction of new vaccines: decision-making process in Bangladesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uddin, Jasim; Sarma, Haribondhu; Bari, Tajul I; Koehlmoos, Tracey P

    2013-06-01

    The understanding of the decision-making process in the introduction of new vaccines helps establish why vaccines are adopted or not. It also contributes to building a sustainable demand for vaccines in a country. The purpose of the study was to map and analyze the formal decision-making process in relation to the introduction of new vaccines within the context of health policy and health systems and identify the ways of making decisions to introduce new vaccines in Bangladesh. During February-April 2011, a qualitative assessment was made at the national level to evaluate the decision-making process around the adoption of new vaccines in Bangladesh. The study population included: policy-level people, programme heads or associates, and key decision-makers of the Government, private sector, non-governmental organizations, and international agencies at the national level. In total, 13 key informants were purposively selected. Data were collected by interviewing key informants and reviewing documents. Data were analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that the actors from different sectors at the policy level were involved in the decision-making process in the introduction of new vaccines. They included policy-makers from the ministries of health and family welfare, finance, and local government and rural development; academicians; researchers; representatives from professional associations; development partners; and members of different committees on EPI. They contributed to the introduction of new vaccines in their own capacity. The burden of disease, research findings on vaccine-preventable diseases, political issues relating to outbreaks of certain diseases, initiatives of international and local stakeholders, pressure of development partners, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) support, and financial matters were the key factors in the introduction of new vaccines in Bangladesh. The slow introduction and uptake of new vaccines is a concern

  20. Incidence of gallstone disease and complications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shabanzadeh, Daniel Mønsted

    2018-01-01

    PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review was to describe the epidemiology of gallstone disease in the era of ultrasound screening and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent general population cohorts, including ultrasound screenings, have contributed to our understanding...... of formation and clinical course of gallstone disease. Cohorts of symptomatic gallstone disease have been informative about symptom recurrence and need of treatment. Preventive targets for gallstone formation may include obesity and the associated metabolic changes. The presence of gallstone disease is best...... described as a continuum from asymptomatic to symptomatic disease, with the latter including both pain attacks and complicated disease. Symptomatic disease causes a persistent high risk of symptom recurrence and need of cholecystectomy. The majority of gallstone carriers will remain asymptomatic and about...