Klein

Over the past 30 years, the advent of fluoroscopically guided interventional procedures has resulted in dramatic increments in both X-ray exposure and physical demands that predispose interventionists to distinct occupational health hazards. The hazards of accumulated radiation exposure have been known for years, but until recently the other potential risks have been ill-defined and under-appreciated. The physical stresses inherent in this career choice appear to be associated with a predilection to orthopedic injuries, attributable in great part to the cumulative adverse effects of bearing the weight and design of personal protective apparel worn to reduce radiation risk and to the poor ergonomic design of interventional suites...

Efficient magnetic reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation enhancing agents after X-ray treatment are realized by functionalizing superparamagnetic magnetite (Fe3 O4 ) and Co-ferrite (CoFe2 O4 ) nanoparticles with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). The Fe3 O4 and CoFe2 O4 nanoparticles are synthesized using Massart's coprecipitation technique. Successful surface modification with the SAM forming compounds 1-methyl-3-(dodecylphosphonic acid) imidazolium bromide, or (2-{2-[2-hydroxy-ethoxy]-ethoxy}-ethyl phosphonic acid provides biocompatibility and long-term stability of the Fe3 O4 and CoFe2 O4 nanoparticles in cell media...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a single-course treatment with alemtuzumab in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review of all patients diagnosed with RRMS who were treated with alemtuzumab at our MS center and who had at least 12 month follow-up since the first dose. Data on radiological and clinical relapse were collected for the 2 years prior to patients' first dose of alemtuzumab and were tracked until the time of analysis...

Treatment with anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibodies has demonstrated clinical efficacy in a whole range of malignancies including advanced melanoma, renal cell cancer, bladder cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. Immune-related adverse events are a unique side effect of checkpoint regulator therapy including anti-PD-1 antibodies. Treatment-related autoimmunity can occur in any organ system, with the median onset usually within 5-15 weeks from the commencement of therapy, depending on the organ system involved...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine trajectories of cognitive and cortical changes over time in middle-aged patients with type 1 diabetes and proliferative retinopathy. METHODS: Twenty-five patients and 25 controls underwent neuropsychological assessment and neuroimaging twice in 3.56 ± 0.65 and 3.94 ± 0.91 years respectively (P = 0.098). Cognitive assessment included the domains of general cognitive ability, memory, information processing speed, executive functions, attention, motor and psychomotor speed...

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine phenotypic features that differentiate nonparkinsonian first-degree relatives of PD leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) G2019S multiplex families, regardless of carrier status, from healthy controls because nonparkinsonian individuals in multiplex families seem to share a propensity to present neurological features. METHODS: We included nonparkinsonian first-degree relatives of LRRK2 G2019S familial PD cases and unrelated healthy controls participating in established multiplex family LRRK2 cohorts...

OBJECTIVE: An increased neural response to making mistakes has emerged as a potential biomarker of anxiety across development. The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential elicited when people make mistakes on simple laboratory-based reaction time tasks that has been associated with risk for anxiety. This study examined whether the ERN prospectively predicted the first onset of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) over 1.5 years in adolescent girls. METHODS: The sample included 457 girls between the ages of 13...

BACKGROUND: Auditory environments can influence the communication function of individuals with hearing loss and the effects of hearing aids. Therefore, a tool that can objectively characterize a patient's real-world auditory environments is needed. PURPOSE: To use the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system to quantify the auditory environments of adults with hearing loss, to examine if the use of hearing aids changes a user's auditory environment, and to determine the association between LENA variables and self-report hearing aid outcome measures...

Purpose The mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor everolimus targets aberrant signaling through the PI3K/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, a mechanism of resistance to anti-estrogen therapy in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. We hypothesized that everolimus plus the selective ER downregulator fulvestrant would be more efficacious than fulvestrant alone in ER-positive metastatic breast cancer resistant to aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy. Patients and Methods This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II study included 131 postmenopausal women with ER-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, AI-resistant metastatic breast cancer randomly assigned to fulvestrant (500 mg days 1 and 15 of cycle 1, then day 1 of cycles 2 and beyond) plus everolimus or placebo...

We report a series of 5 case-patients who had Israeli spotted fever, of whom 2 had purpura fulminans and died. Four case-patients were given a diagnosis on the basis of PCR of skin biopsy specimens 3-4 days after treatment with doxycycline; 1 case-patient was given a diagnosis on the basis of seroconversion. Rickettsia spp. from the 2 case-patients who died were sequenced and identified as Rickettsia conorii subsp. israelensis. Purpura fulminans has been described in association with R. rickettsii and R. indica, but rarely with R...

Analysis of singly glycosylated peptides has evolved to a point where large-scale LC-MS analyses can be performed at almost the same scale as proteomics experiments. While collisionally activated dissociation (CAD) remains the mainstay of bottom-up analyses, it performs poorly for the middle-down analysis of multiply glycosylated peptides. With improvements in instrumentation, electron-activated dissociation (ExD) modes are becoming increasingly prevalent for proteomics experiments and for the analysis of fragile modifications such as glycosylation...

BACKGROUND: Recently, it has been shown that at group level, patients with limited brain metastases treated with stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) maintain their pre-treatment levels of neurocognitive functioning (NCF) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to evaluate NCF and HRQoL changes over time at the individual patient level. METHODS: NCF (seven domains assessed with a standardized test battery) and HRQoL (eight predetermined scales assessed with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and BN20 questionnaires) were measured prior to SRT and at 3 and/or 6 months follow-up...

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Increasing evidence suggests that synaptic functions of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is key to Alzheimer pathogenesis, may be carried out by its secreted ectodomain (APPs). The specific roles of APPsα and APPsβ fragments, generated by non-amyloidogenic or amyloidogenic APP processing, respectively, remain however unclear. Here, we expressed APPsα or APPsβ in the adult brain of conditional double knockout mice (cDKO) lacking APP and the related APLP2. APPsα efficiently rescued deficits in spine density, synaptic plasticity (LTP and PPF), and spatial reference memory of cDKO mice...

BACKGROUND: Emergency department (ED) treatment of hyperkalemia often involves shifting potassium into the intracellular space. There is uncertainty whether transcellular shifting causes insufficient potassium removal during hemodialysis, resulting in a subsequent need for further medical therapy or multiple sessions of hemodialysis. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether transcellular potassium shifting in ED patients with hyperkalemia who undergo hemodialysis is associated with recurrent hyperkalemia with or without repeat hemodialysis within 24 h...

Trace eyeblink conditioning is a hippocampus-dependent associative learning paradigm which is impaired in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and animal AD models. Learning in this paradigm accompanies changes in oscillatory activity in forebrain regions, some of which are loci of pathogenic changes in prodromal AD stages. These observations motivated us to examine how cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) during this paradigm are affected by two features of the asymptomatic, AD-related brain abnormality, entorhinal tau accumulation and mild cholinergic deficit...

BACKGROUND: Veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI) experience chronic symptoms that include fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairment. This symptom cluster may be the consequence of impaired tissue oxygen delivery due to red blood cell (RBC) dysfunction. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine whether the microrheological behavior of RBCs is altered in GWI. METHODS: We recruited 17 cases of GWI (GWI+) and 10 age matched controls (GWI-), and examined RBC deformability and aggregation via ektacytometry along with measurement of complete blood counts...

BACKGROUND: Perioperatively, patients' hemodynamics are modulated predominantly by intravenous fluid administration and vasoactive pharmacological support. Vasopressor agents are suspected to be detrimental on free flap survival by the cause of vasoconstriction of the pedicle with consecutive reduced overall flap perfusion and by aggravation of flap dissection. OBJECTIVE: A novel, standardized fluid restrictive perioperative hemodynamic management was assessed for its feasibility in clinical practice in free flap patients undergoing breast reconstruction...

After making an error, we usually slow down before our next response. This phenomenon is known as the posterror slowing (PES) effect. It has been interpreted to be an indicator of posterror behavioral adjustments and, therefore, has been linked to cognitive control. However, contradictory findings regarding PES and posterror accuracy cast doubt on such a relation. To determine whether behavior is adjusted after making an error, we investigated other features of behavior, such as the distribution of response times (RT) in a mental arithmetic task...

Recent work has implicated the Lateral Habenula (LHb) in the production of anxiogenic and aversive states. It is innervated by all the major monoamine neurotransmitter systems and has projections that have been shown to modulate the activity of both dopaminergic and serotonergic brain regions. Cocaine is a stimulant drug of abuse that potentiates neurotransmission in these monoamine systems and recent research suggests that the drug's behavioral effects may be related in part to its actions within the LHb. The present research was therefore devised to test the hypothesis that alterations in serotonin (5-HT) function within the LHb can affect the behavioral response to cocaine...