A Novel β-Globin Variant, Hb Raklev [β 75(E19) :c.227T > A (Leu→Gln)].

We present a new hemoglobin variant, Hb Raklev, characterized by the substitution of leucine with glutamine at position 75 in the β-globin chain. This variant was discovered inadvertently during an HbA evaluation using high performance liquid chromatography in a symptomless 54-year-old Caucasian woman, with the same variant also identified in her 16-year-old daughter. Purification of the hemoglobin revealed possibly diminished 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate (2,3-BPG) sensitivity, which may result in heightened oxygen affinity.

Reduced gray matter brain volume and cortical thickness in adults with type 1 diabetes and neuropathy.

In this study we investigated brain morphology in adults with diabetic neuropathy. We aimed to characterize gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness, and to explore associations between whole brain morphology and clinical characteristics. 46 adults with type 1 diabetes and distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy (DSPN) and 28 healthy controls underwent magnetic resonance imaging scans.

Reduced Thalamic Volume and Metabolites in Type 1 Diabetes with Polyneuropathy.

Objective: Thalamus is essential in processing of sensory information. This study explored the associations between thalamic volume and intra-thalamic metabolites and associations to clinical and experimental characteristics of sensory function in adults with diabetic polyneuropathy.

Methods: 48 adults with type 1 diabetes and confirmed distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy (DPSN) and 28 healthy controls participated in a cross-sectional study and underwent a brain magnetic resonance imaging scan.

Pulmonary artery pressure as a method for assessing hydration status in an anuric hemodialysis patient - a case report.

Background: Setting the dry weight and maintaining fluid balance is still a difficult challenge in dialysis patients. Overhydration is common and associated with increased cardiac morbidity and mortality. Pulmonary hypertension is associated with volume overload in end-stage renal dysfunction patients.

Peripheral, synaptic and central neuronal transmission is affected in type 1 diabetes.

Aims: We hypothesized that adults with type 1 diabetes and severe polyneuropathy have alterations in neuronal transmission at different anatomical levels. The aims were to investigate upstream sensory neuronal activation in terms of peripheral, spinal, precortical, and cortical transmission.

Methods: 48 participants with type-1 diabetes and polyneuropathy, and 21 age-matched healthy participants were included.

Diabetic Neuropathy Influences Control of Spinal Mechanisms.

Purpose: Comprehensive evaluation of the upstream sensory processing in diabetic symmetrical polyneuropathy (DSPN) is sparse. The authors investigated the spinal nociceptive withdrawal reflex and the related elicited somatosensory evoked cortical potentials. They hypothesized that DSPN induces alterations in spinal and supraspinal sensory-motor processing compared with age- and gender-matched healthy controls.

Liraglutide treatment reduced interleukin-6 in adults with type 1 diabetes but did not improve established autonomic or polyneuropathy.

Aims: Type 1 diabetes can be complicated with neuropathy that involves immune-mediated and inflammatory pathways. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists such as liraglutide, have shown anti-inflammatory properties, and thus we hypothesized that long-term treatment with liraglutide induced diminished inflammation and thus improved neuronal function.

Methods: The study was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of adults with type 1 diabetes and confirmed symmetrical polyneuropathy.

Brain spectroscopy reveals that N-acetylaspartate is associated to peripheral sensorimotor neuropathy in type 1 diabetes.

Aims: Emerging evidence shows, that distal symmetric peripheral neuropathy (DSPN) also involves alterations in the central nervous system. Hence, the aims were to investigate brain metabolites in white matter of adults with diabetes and DSPN, and to compare any cerebral disparities with peripheral nerve characteristics.

Methods: In type 1 diabetes, brain metabolites of 47 adults with confirmed DSPN were compared with 28 matched healthy controls using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) in the parietal region including the sensorimotor fiber tracts.

[Ulnar neuropathy in a poultry worker].

Three months after he was employed as a poultry worker, a 48-year-old man developed involuntary jerks of his right first, fourth, and fifth fingers, paraesthesiae, weakness, and eventually wasting of the first dorsal interosseous muscle. His job entailed repetitive lifting of boxes weighing 10-25 kg with flexion of the elbow, pronation of the forearm, and ulnar deviation of the wrist. A nerve conduction study indicated ulnar neuropathy just distal to the elbow.