Cost-effectiveness of universal serologic screening to prevent nontraumatic hip and vertebral fractures in patients with celiac disease.

Background & Aims: Patients with asymptomatic or poorly managed celiac disease can experience bone loss, placing them at risk for hip and vertebral fractures. We analyzed the cost-effectiveness of universal serologic screening (USS) vs symptomatic at-risk screening (SAS) strategies for celiac disease because of the risk of nontraumatic hip and vertebral fractures if untreated or undiagnosed.

Methods: We developed a lifetime Markov model of the screening strategies, each with male or female cohorts of 1000 patients who were 12 years old when screening began.

Chlamydia trachomatis infection may increase the risk of preeclampsia.

Background: Although the etiology of preeclampsia is not well understood, it has been suggested that excessive systemic inflammation may lead to oxidative stress, promoting the endothelial dysfunction characteristic of preeclampsia. Few prospective studies have examined the role of infection, an immune system stimulator, as a risk factor for preeclampsia.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study of the relationships between Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Chlamydophila pneumoniae (CP), cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) and preeclampsia among 509 preeclamptic cases and 336 normotensive controls nested within the Danish National Birth Cohort study.

Reticulamoeba is a long-branched Granofilosean (Cercozoa) that is missing from sequence databases.

We sequenced the 18S ribosomal RNA gene of seven isolates of the enigmatic marine amoeboflagellate Reticulamoeba Grell, which resolved into four genetically distinct Reticulamoeba lineages, two of which correspond to R. gemmipara Grell and R. minor Grell, another with a relatively large cell body forming lacunae, and another that has similarities to both R.

The Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR2): a catalog of unicellular eukaryote small sub-unit rRNA sequences with curated taxonomy.

The interrogation of genetic markers in environmental meta-barcoding studies is currently seriously hindered by the lack of taxonomically curated reference data sets for the targeted genes. The Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR(2), http://ssu-rrna.org/) provides a unique access to eukaryotic small sub-unit (SSU) ribosomal RNA and DNA sequences, with curated taxonomy.

Stimulating an immune response? Oral sex is associated with less endometritis.

Secondary analysis of the PID Evaluation and Clinical Health (PEACH) data suggests that among women presenting with signs and symptoms of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), those who reported oral sex were less likely to have endometritis (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.5 [0.3-0.

CBOL protist working group: barcoding eukaryotic richness beyond the animal, plant, and fungal kingdoms.

A group of protist experts proposes a two-step DNA barcoding approach, comprising a universal eukaryotic pre-barcode followed by group-specific barcodes, to unveil the hidden biodiversity of microbial eukaryotes.

Characteristics of Depressed Caregivers of Veterans With Dementia.

This study examined the characteristics of caregivers and persons with dementia (PWD) to determine their association with caregiver depression. Participants included 508 PWD (veterans) and 486 caregivers from Boston, Houston, Providence, Beaumont (Texas), and Oklahoma City, identified from diagnoses from medical records and recruited from February 2007 to July 2009, for a larger study evaluating Partners in Dementia Care, a care-coordination intervention. Characteristics evaluated for PWD included activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, cognitive impairment, and disruptive behavior.

The revised classification of eukaryotes.

This revision of the classification of eukaryotes, which updates that of Adl et al. [J. Eukaryot.

Review: managing posttraumatic stress disorder in combat veterans with comorbid traumatic brain injury.

Military deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq have been associated with elevated prevalence of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) among combat veterans. The diagnosis and management of PTSD when a comorbid TBI may also exist presents a challenge to interdisciplinary care teams at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and civilian medical facilities, particularly when the patient reports a history of blast exposure. Treatment recommendations from VA and Department of Defense's (DOD) recently updated VA/DOD Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Post-Traumatic Stress are considered from the perspective of simultaneously managing comorbid TBI.

Biomechanical response targets for physical and computational models of the pediatric trunk.

Objectives: This paper quantifies pediatric thoracoabdominal response to belt loading to guide the scaling of existing adult response data and to assess the validity of a juvenile porcine abdominal model for application to the development of physical and computational models of the human child.

Methods: Table-top belt-loading experiments were performed on 6, 7, and 15 year-old pediatric post-mortem human subjects (PMHS). Response targets are reported for diagonal belt and distributed loading of the anterior thorax and for horizontal belt loading of the abdomen.

Improved Strain and Psychosocial Outcomes for Caregivers of Individuals with Dementia: Findings from Project ANSWERS.

Purpose: This study examined the efficacy of a newly developed intervention, Acquiring New Skills While Enhancing Remaining Strengths (ANSWERS), for family caregivers of individuals with dementia. ANSWERS was designed for dyads comprised of an individual with dementia and his/her family caregiver. Using a strength-based approach, ANSWERS combined educational skills (traditionally used with caregivers) and cognitive rehabilitation skills training (traditionally used with individuals with dementia) into a single protocol for addressing the dyad's care issues and needs.

Second trimester anti-angiogenic proteins and preeclampsia.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the relationships between soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt1), soluble endoglin (sEng) and preeclampsia. STUDY DESIGN: We utilized a nested case-control study comprised of 211 preeclamptic women and 213 normotensive women with primiparous singleton pregnancies enrolled from ≥13 and <27 gestational weeks among the Danish National Birth Cohort of 100,000 women. Relationships between sFlt1, sEng and preeclampsia were estimated using smoothing splines in generalized linear models, adjusting for maternal age, body mass index, pre-existing hypertension, smoking, and gestational age.

Validation and justification of the phylum name Cryptomycota phyl. nov.

The recently proposed new phylum name Cryptomycota phyl. nov. is validly published in order to facilitate its use in future discussions of the ecology, biology, and phylogenetic relationships of the constituent organisms.

Marine fungi: their ecology and molecular diversity.

Fungi appear to be rare in marine environments. There are relatively few marine isolates in culture, and fungal small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) sequences are rarely recovered in marine clone library experiments (i.e.

Cost-effectiveness of early colectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastamosis versus standard medical therapy in severe ulcerative colitis.

Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases are costly chronic gastrointestinal diseases. We aimed to determine whether immediate colectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastamosis (IPAA) after diagnosis of severe ulcerative colitis (UC) was cost-effective compared to the standard medical therapy.

Methods: We created a Markov model simulating 2 cohorts of 21-year-old patients with severe UC, following them until 100 years of age or death, comparing early colectomy with IPAA strategy to the standard medical therapy strategy.

Negative caregiving effects among caregivers of veterans with dementia.

Objectives: : This investigation was guided by the stress process model and had two objectives: first, to describe the extent of negative caregiving effects for family caregivers of veterans with dementia, and second, to identify salient predictors of negative caregiving effects.

Design: : Data were obtained from baseline, structured telephone interviews with family caregivers of veterans enrolled in "Partners in Dementia Care," a clinical trial testing a care coordination intervention.

Participants: : The study included 486 family caregivers of veterans with dementia who received primary care from the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system and lived at home.

Irritability and social isolation in dementia patients with and without depression.

Unlabelled: This study examined the prevalence of irritability and social isolation in veterans with dementia, with and without depression. Participants were diagnosed with dementia and enrolled in a dementia care-coordination and support-service intervention. Participants were interviewed and underwent assessment with the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, a Patient Strain Measure and the Short Blessed Test.

Sound induced vertigo: superior canal dehiscence resulting from blast exposure.

Barotrauma is common in modern warfare. We present the first description of sound induced vertigo caused by superior canal dehiscence (SCD) precipitated by blast exposure. Patients who complain of balance or visual changes after military or terrorist blast exposure should be evaluated for SCD.

Concepts in protistology: species definitions and boundaries.

This paper summarises the Symposium 'Concepts in Protistology', during the VI European Congress of Protistology, Berlin, 25-29 July 2011. There is an increasing focus on cataloguing the number of species on earth, species barcoding initiatives, and the increasing need to reconcile molecular with morphological data in protists within a taxonomic framework. We identify several obstructions to defining species in protists, including the high incidence of asexuality, high levels of both morphological conservation and evolutionary convergence, high levels of genetic diversity that cannot so far be correlated with phenotypic characters, conflicting signals between both genetic and phenotypic taxonomic markers, and different requirements and challenges of species definition in different protist groups.

Event-specific enhancement of memory via brief electrical stimulation to the basolateral complex of the amygdala in rats.

The basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) modulates memory for emotional events, and direct activation of the BLA following a learning session can enhance subsequent memory. Yet optimal enhancement of episodic memory during emotional events would likely require that BLA activation occur close in time to the event and to be brief enough to target specific memories if some events are to be remembered better than others. In the present study, rats were given a novel object recognition memory task in which initial encounters with some of the objects were immediately followed by brief electrical stimulation of the BLA, and these objects were remembered better one day later as compared to objects for which the initial encounter was not followed by stimulation.

Massive haematoma formation associated with proximal popliteal artery haemangioendothelioma in a dog.

A mixed breed dog presented with diffuse unilateral hind limb swelling, which ultrasound and cytology confirmed to be caused by severe haematoma formation. Multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) angiography allowed distinct visualisation of an anomalous segment of the proximal popliteal artery, the presumed origin of the self-sustaining haematoma. Histopathology classified the malformed vessel as a haemangioendothelioma, a neoplasia of intermediate malignancy.

Incidence and US costs of corticosteroid-associated adverse events: a systematic literature review.

Objective: The objective of this systematic literature review was to evaluate the incidences and risks for adverse events (AEs) associated with oral and parenteral corticosteroids. An assessment was performed to estimate the costs of such AEs.

Methods: A systematic review of literature published from 2007 to 2009 was conducted to identify the incidence rates and risk ratios of corticosteroid-related AEs.

Recurrent PID, subsequent STI, and reproductive health outcomes: findings from the PID evaluation and clinical health (PEACH) study.

PEACH trial data were used to evaluate the relationship between subsequent sexually transmitted infection and recurrent pelvic inflammatory disease on infertility and chronic pelvic pain (CPP). Recurrent pelvic inflammatory disease was associated with an almost 2-fold increase in infertility and more than 4-fold increase in CPP. Subsequent sexually transmitted infection was associated with CPP, but not infertility.

New genera, species, and improved phylogeny of Glissomonadida (Cercozoa).

Glissomonadida is an important cercozoan order of predominantly biflagellate gliding bacterivores found largely in soil and freshwater. Their vast diversity is largely undescribed. We studied 23 mostly newly isolated strains by light microscopy and sequenced their 18S rDNA genes; nine represent new species.