Cortisol and C-reactive protein (CRP) regulation in severe mental disorders.

Background: People with schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) show abnormalities in the biological stress system and low-grade inflammation. However, whether the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis-immune regulation is disrupted in SZ and BD, is yet to be determined.

Methods: Cortisol and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured in blood samples collected at or before 10 am in participants with SZ (N = 257), BD (N = 153), and healthy controls (N = 40).

Symptomatic Progression, Recurrence, and Long-Term Follow-Up of Patients With Intracranial Epidermoid Cysts.

Background And Objectives: Intracranial epidermoid cysts are rare, slow-growing but highly recurrent tumors with incompletely understood symptoms, progression, complications, and outcomes. The aim of the study was to characterize the symptomatology, surgical management, and long-term outcomes of these tumors.

Methods: This single-center retrospective analysis identified patients with pathologically confirmed intracranial epidermoid cysts from 1989 to 2023.

Design, fabrication, and testing of a new soft-pouch robot with 6 degrees of freedom to expand the reach of open and endonasal skull base approaches.

Objective: Most robots currently used in neurosurgery aid surgeons in placing spinal hardware and guiding electrodes and biopsy probes toward brain targets. These robots are inflexible, cannot turn corners, and exert excessive force when dissecting and retracting brain tissue, limiting their applicability in cranial base surgery. In this study, the authors present a novel soft-pouch robot prototype driven by compressed air and capable of gentle tissue manipulation.

The Atrioventricular Conduction Axis in Man and Mouse.

Those using the mouse for the purposes of electrophysiological research presume that the morphology of the conduction axis is comparable with the human arrangement. As yet, however, to the best of our knowledge, no direct comparison has been made between the species. By comparing our extensive histological findings in the human heart with comparable serially-sectioned datasets prepared from adult murine hearts, we aimed to provide this information.

The association between salivary oxytocin, age, and puberty in children with and without OCD.

The oxytocin system has been thought to contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Few studies, only involving adults, have investigated this hypothesis and have found inconsistent results regarding oxytocin system activity and OCD. We investigated whether salivary oxytocin concentrations differed between children and adolescents with and without OCD and qualified our comparative analysis by investigating the possible covariates age, pubertal stage, and sex.