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Background: Loin pain haematuria syndrome (LPHS) and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) are the most important non-urological conditions to cause chronic severe kidney-related pain. Multidisciplinary programmes and surgical methods have shown inconsistent results with respect to pain reduction. Percutaneous catheter-based renal denervation (RDN) could be a less invasive treatment option for these patients. Methods: Our aim was to explore the change in perceived pain and use of analgesic medication from baseline to 3, 6 and 12 months after RDN...

Background: This study examines effects of mobility and multimorbidity on hospitalization and inpatient and post-acute care (PAC) facility days among older men. Methods: Prospective study of 1701 men (mean age 79.3 years) participating in MrOS Study Year 7 (Y7) examination (2007-2008) linked with their Medicare claims. At Y7, mobility ascertained by usual gait speed and categorized as poor, intermediate, or good. Multimorbidity quantified by applying Elixhauser algorithm to inpatient and outpatient claims and categorized as none, mild-moderate, or high...

Background: Malignant glioma (MG) is a devastating neuro-oncologic disease with almost invariably poor prognosis. Prognostic awareness (PA) is the awareness of incurable disease and shortened life-expectancy (LE). Accurate PA is associated with favorable psychological outcomes at the end-of-life (EOL) for patients with cancer, however little is known about PA or prognostic communication in MG. Moreover, research has yet to evaluate the impact of cognitive impairment on PA and preferred forms of communication...

This study examines whether race/ethnicity moderates relationships of (a) diabetes stress and general life stressors with (b) diabetes outcomes of glycemic control and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) among emerging adults (aged 18-25 years) with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Using a T1D Exchange Registry sample of non-Hispanic White, African American, and Hispanic emerging adults ( N  = 3,440), multiple group analyses were used to determine whether race/ethnicity moderates the relationships between stress and diabetes outcomes...

BACKGROUND: Recurrence rates for atypical and anaplastic meningiomas range between 9% and 50% after gross total resection and between 36% and 83% after subtotal resection. Optimal treatment of recurrent meningiomas exhibiting atypical/anaplastic histology is complicated because they are often refractory to both surgery and radiation. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical determinants of recurrence and treatment-specific outcomes in patients with recurrent meningiomas exhibiting atypical/anaplastic histology at our institution...

Background: Treatment algorithms are are considered as key to improve outcomes by enhancing the quality of care. This is the first randomized controlled study to evalutate the clinical effect of algorithm-guided treatment in inpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: Inpatients, aged 18-70 years with MDD from 10 German psychiatric departments were randomized to 5 different treatment arms (from 2000 to 2005), three of which were standardized stepwise drug treatment algorithms (ALGO)...

In rats, learning and memory performance decline during normal aging, which makes this rodent species a suitable model to evaluate therapeutic strategies. In aging rats, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), is known to significantly improve spatial memory accuracy as compared to control counterparts. A constellation of gene expression changes underlie the hippocampal phenotype of aging but no studies on the effects of IGF-I on the hippocampal transcriptome of old rodents have been documented. Here, we assessed the effects of IGF-I gene therapy on spatial memory performance in old female rats and compared them with changes in the hippocampal transcriptome...

After the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in 1986, contaminated soils, vegetation from the Red Forest, and other radioactive debris were buried within trenches. In this area, trench T22 has long been a pilot site for the study of radionuclide migration in soil. Here, we used 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes to obtain a comprehensive view of the bacterial and archaeal diversity in soils collected inside and in the vicinity of the trench T22 and to investigate the impact of radioactive waste disposal on prokaryotic communities...

BACKGROUND: The management of brainstem arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) is a formidable challenge. bAVMs harbor higher morbidity and mortality compared to other locations. OBJECTIVE: To review the outcomes following stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) of bAVMs in a multicenter study. METHODS: Six medical centers contributed data from 205 patients through the International Gamma Knife Research Foundation. Median age was 32 yr (6-81). Median nidus volume was 1...

The clinical benefits of perioperative antioxidant vitamin therapy in cardiac patients remain controversial. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the strength of the evidence supporting the perioperative use of antioxidant vitamins in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. We searched 4 databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Science Citation Index and Cochrane Library) for randomized controlled trials that reported the effects of antioxidant vitamin therapy on patients undergoing cardiac surgery until 6 June 2016...

Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) cleaves SNAP25 at the motor nerve terminals (MNT) and inhibits stimulus evoked acetylcholine release (SEAR). This causes skeletal muscle paralysis. However, younger neonatal mice (<P7; less than 7 days old) are resistant to the neuroparalytic effects of BoNT/A. That is, in vivo injection of BoNT/A at the innervations of Extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle in the hindlimbs inhibited the toe spread reflex within 24 hours following BoNT/A injection in adult mouse and in older (> P7) neonatal mice younger than 7 days-age remained unaffected by BoNT/A injection...

The contribution of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation to modifying carbon allocation to developing wood of trees is not well defined. To clarify the role of transcriptional regulation, the enzyme activity patterns of eight central primary metabolism enzymes across phloem, cambium, and developing wood of aspen (Populus tremula L.) were compared with transcript levels obtained by RNA sequencing of sequential stem sections from the same trees. Enzymes were selected on the basis of their importance in sugar metabolism and in linking primary metabolism to lignin biosynthesis...

Aim: To analyse differences in children and adolescents aged ≤18 years admitted to the leprosy ward in a rural Ethiopian hospital >16 years. Methods: We retrospectively collected data from leprosy admission registry books on patients with leprosy who were admitted to a referral hospital from September 2000 to September 2016. Results: There were 2129 admissions for leprosy during the study period: 180 (8.4%) patients were s ≤ 18 years old...

Chloroplasts divide to maintain consistent size, shape, and number in leaf mesophyll cells. Altered expression of chloroplast division proteins in Arabidopsis results in abnormal chloroplast morphology. To better understand the influence of chloroplast morphology on chloroplast movement and photosynthesis, we compared the chloroplast photorelocation and photosynthetic responses of a series of Arabidopsis chloroplast division mutants with a wide variety of chloroplast phenotypes. Chloroplast movement was monitored by red light reflectance imaging of whole plants under increasing intensities of white light...

LncRNA TUG1, a tumor oncogene associated with various human cancers, has been reported to be involved in regulating various cellular processes, such as proliferation, apoptosis and invasion through targeting multiple genes. However, its biological function in thyroid cancer cells has not been elucidated. The aim of this study is to measure TUG1 expression level and evaluate its function in thyroid cancer cells. LncRNA TUG1 expression levels in thyroid cancer tissues and three thyroid cancer cell lines (the ATC cell lines SW1736 and KAT18 and the FTC cell line FTC133) were assessed by qRT-PCR and compared with that of the human normal breast epithelial cell HGC-27...

Study Objectives: REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia affecting 33 to 46% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The existence of a unique and specific impaired cognitive profile in PD patients with RBD is still controversial. We extensively assessed cognitive functions to identify whether RBD is associated with more severe cognitive deficits in nondemented patients with PD. Methods: One hundred and sixty-two participants, including 53 PD patients with RBD, 40 PD patients without RBD, and 69 healthy subjects, underwent polysomnography, a neurological assessment, and an extensive neuropsychological exam to assess attention, executive functions, episodic learning and memory, visuospatial abilities, and language...

Genome alignments provide a powerful basis to transfer gene annotations from a well-annotated reference genome to many other aligned genomes. The completeness of these annotations crucially depends on the sensitivity of the underlying genome alignment. Here, we investigated the impact of the genome alignment parameters and found that parameters with a higher sensitivity allow the detection of thousands of novel alignments between orthologous exons that have been missed before. In particular, comparisons between species separated by an evolutionary distance of >0...

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Purpose To assess the impact of pre-pregnancy obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30 kg/m(2)) on the gestational and perinatal outcomes. Methods Retrospective cohort study of 731 pregnant women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m(2) at the first prenatal care visit, comparing them with 3,161 women with a BMI between 18.5 kg/m(2) and 24.9 kg/m(2). Maternal and neonatal variables were assessed. Statistical analyses reporting the demographic features of the pregnant women (obese and normal) were performed with descriptive statistics followed by two-sided independent Student's t tests for the continuous variables, and the chi-squared (χ(2)) test, or Fisher's exact test, for the categorical variables...

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to compare the safety and effectiveness of Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) with conventional care in gastrectomy for gastric cancer. METHODS: Search strategy from Pubmed, Embase, Web of science, Cochrane library and reference lists was performed. The collected studies were randomized controlled trials and published only in English, and undergoing ERAS in gastrectomy for gastric cancer from January 1994 to August 2016. RESULTS: A total of eight studies including 801 patients were included...