Q fever endocarditis of the tricuspid valve transmitted in an urban setting with no livestock exposure: Case report.

Background: Coxiella burnetii is a bacterium with extreme tenacity and contagiousness that is mainly transmitted by inhalation of contaminated aerosols. Nevertheless, a transmission by ticks is under discussion. We report a case of Q fever in an urban environment and far away from sheep breeding that caused a rare right-sided endocarditis.

Impact of climate change on vector- and rodent-borne infectious diseases.

Background: Endemic and imported vector- and rodent-borne infectious agents can be linked to high morbidity and mortality. Therefore, vector- and rodent-borne human diseases and the effects of climate change are important public health issues.

Methods: For this review, the relevant literature was identified and evaluated according to the thematic aspects and supplemented with an analysis of surveillance data for Germany.

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy for the investigation of blood-sucking arthropods dyed via artificial membrane feeding.

Physical methods to control pest arthropods are increasing in importance, but detailed knowledge of the effects of some of these methods on the target organisms is lacking. The aim of this study was to use light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) in anatomical studies of blood-sucking arthropods in vivo to assess the suitability of this method to investigate the morphological structures of arthropods and changes in these structures over time, using the human louse Pediculus humanus (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae) as sample organism. Plasma treatment was used as an example of a procedure employed to control arthropods.

Inhalation of publicly available indoor insecticide spray caused myocardial infarction type II: a case report.

We report on a 70-year-old woman who tried to eliminate ants from her kitchen by applying a publicly available insecticide spray. Immediately afterwards, she felt dyspnoea, superseded by heavy chest pain. High-sensitivity troponin concentration increased from 33 to 149 ng/L (cut-off 50 ng/L).

International recommendations for an effective control of head louse infestations.

Head louse infestations continue to be a concern of public health in most countries, including the most developed ones. The present recommendations are intended to inform and stress the role and impact of the different authorities, institutions, industry, and the public in the control of head lice in order to reduce the prevalence of this parasite. We encourage health authorities to pursue more effective methods to correctly identify such infestations, and evaluate existing and new pediculicides, medical devices, louse repellents, and louse- and nit-removal remedies.

Research paper on abiotic factors and their influence on Ixodes ricinus activity-observations over a two-year period at several tick collection sites in Germany.

Tick-borne diseases are a public health issue. To predict vector tick abundance and activity, it is necessary to understand the driving factors for these variables. In this study, the activity of Ixodes ricinus was investigated in forest and meadow habitats in Germany with a focus on abiotic factors.

Erratum: Ten Bosch et al. Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Comb-A Physical Approach for Pediculosis Treatment.

Due to an error during production and a corrupted data set, subsection 3.3.1 in the result section of the published paper [1] was displaying incorrect data [.

Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Comb-A Physical Approach for Pediculosis Treatment.

Pediculosis, that is the infestation of humans with (head lice), poses a worldwide problem that is as old as mankind itself. Over the centuries, man has developed a variety of remedies, all of which have ultimately culminated in the use of chemical agents. Some of these remedies are known to produce successful results.

The first German map of georeferenced ixodid tick locations.

Background: Georeferenced locations of ixodid ticks are required to depict the observed distribution of species. Further, they are used as input data for species distribution models also known as niche models. The latter were applied to describe current and future (projected) tick distributions.

Localizing Broca's area for transcranial magnetic stimulation: Comparison of surface distance measurements and stereotaxic positioning.

Background: Precise placement of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coils over target regions is crucial for correct interpretation of TMS effects. Modern frameless stereotaxic systems yield high accuracy, but require extensive equipment and cannot be used in every setting, for example, during functional imaging sessions.

Objective: The aim of this study was the development of a method for TMS-coil placement based on individual imaging data without the need for external tracking devices.

From the left to the right: How the brain compensates progressive loss of language function.

In normal right-handed subjects language production usually is a function oft the left brain hemisphere. Patients with aphasia following brain damage to the left hemisphere have a considerable potential to compensate for the loss of this function. Sometimes, but not always, areas of the right hemisphere which are homologous to language areas of the left hemisphere in normal subjects are successfully employed for compensation but this integration process may need time to develop.

Neuroimaging-guided rTMS of the left inferior frontal gyrus interferes with repetition priming.

Neuroimaging studies of right-handed normal volunteers under semantic word generation tasks have consistently reported left lateralized activation of the anterior inferior frontal gyrus (ifg) which decreased during task repetition. This repetition-related activation decrease has been interpreted as the neurophysiological correlate of repetition priming, a mechanism of implicit memory for initial semantic processing. We interfered with left lateralized ifg activation, as identified by O-15-water PET activation, using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in five right-handed male normal subjects, once using new (unprimed) nouns and once using known (primed) nouns for the procedure.

Essential language function of the right hemisphere in brain tumor patients.

Neuroimaging studies of language networks in patients with brain lesions of the left language-dominant hemisphere have shown activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). We tested the functional relevance of right IFG activation using neuroimaging-guided repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to disturb language function over bilateral IFG in right-handed patients with brain tumors and controls. All subjects were susceptible to TMS over the left IFG.

Metabolic rates in small brain nuclei determined by high-resolution PET.

Unlabelled: Identification of small nuclei in the brain by PET has been limited by the spatial resolution of conventional scanners. The new detector technology and advanced signal analysis of a high-resolution research tomograph (HRRT) has improved 3-dimensional spatial resolution to 2.2 mm at sufficient efficiency and permitted the quantification of tracer concentrations in small volumes.

[Different patterns of regional brain activation during emotional stimulation in alexithymics in comparison with normal controls].

Objective: This study was designed to determine patterns of regional brain activation during emotional stimulation in alexithymics as compared with normal controls.

Method: We used 15O-water positron emission tomography and an emotional stimulation paradigm based upon autobiographic recall of either happy, sad or emotionally neutral situations. 10 normal subjects without medical or psychiatrical history were compared with 9 patients with somatoform disorder without any other DSM-IV diagnosis.