Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production.

Infectious diseases are emerging globally at an unprecedented rate while global food demand is projected to increase sharply by 2100. Here, we synthesize the pathways by which projected agricultural expansion and intensification will influence human infectious diseases and how human infectious diseases might likewise affect food production and distribution. Feeding 11 billion people will require substantial increases in crop and animal production that will expand agricultural use of antibiotics, water, pesticides and fertilizer, and contact rates between humans and both wild and domestic animals, all with consequences for the emergence and spread of infectious agents.

Rapid prediction of stem cell mobilization using volume and conductivity data from automated hematology analyzers.

Background: Rapid analytics to predict circulating hematopoietic stem cells are valuable for optimal management of mobilization, particularly for the use of newer and costly mobilization agents such as plerixafor.

Study Design And Methods: We used stepwise, linear multiple regression modeling applied to cell population data collected by routine hematology analyzers (Beckman Coulter DxH 800) on patients undergoing autologous stem cell collection (n = 131). Beta coefficients were used to derive a formula for a stem cell index (SCI).

ECOLOGICAL THEORY. A general consumer-resource population model.

Food-web dynamics arise from predator-prey, parasite-host, and herbivore-plant interactions. Models for such interactions include up to three consumer activity states (questing, attacking, consuming) and up to four resource response states (susceptible, exposed, ingested, resistant). Articulating these states into a general model allows for dissecting, comparing, and deriving consumer-resource models.

Does biodiversity protect humans against infectious disease?

Control of human infectious disease has been promoted as a valuable ecosystem service arising from the conservation of biodiversity. There are two commonly discussed mechanisms by which biodiversity loss could increase rates of infectious disease in a landscape. First, loss of competitors or predators could facilitate an increase in the abundance of competent reservoir hosts.

Collected world and single center experience with endovascular treatment of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Background: Case and single center reports have documented the feasibility and suggested the effectiveness of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (RAAAs), but the role and value of such treatment remain controversial.

Objective: To clarify these we examined a collected experience with use of EVAR for RAAA treatment from 49 centers.

Methods: Data were obtained by questionnaires from these centers, updated from 13 centers committed to EVAR treatment whenever possible and included treatment details from a single center and information on 1037 patients treated by EVAR and 763 patients treated by open repair (OR).

Associative conditioning tunes transient dynamics of early olfactory processing.

Odors evoke complex spatiotemporal responses in the insect antennal lobe (AL) and mammalian olfactory bulb. However, the behavioral relevance of spatiotemporal coding remains unclear. In the present work we combined behavioral analyses with calcium imaging of odor induced activity in the honeybee AL to evaluate the relevance of this temporal dimension in the olfactory code.

Rationale and design of a multidisciplinary national real-world registry on carotid stenting: the Italian Registry for Carotid Stenting (RISC).

The Registro Italiano per lo Stenting Carotideo (RISC, Italian Registry for Carotid Stenting) has been organized by Italian specialists from different disciplines directly involved in the prevention of stroke due to carotid plaques through stenting of carotid lesions. The Registry has been endorsed by the national societies of 4 different specialties: vascular surgery, interventional cardiology, radiology, and neuroradiology. Each society contributed in the planning stage.

[Endovascular treatment of pararenal aortic aneurysms].

Endovascular procedures have emerged as an attractive alternative technique for the repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms with an increasing popularity and diffusion. Even if technology progresses are developing more and more efficient grafts and devices, at the moment the endovascular treatment is still not applicable to all patients. The most common reason for patient exclusion remains an unsuitable proximal implantation site.

Carotid plaque echolucency increases the risk of stroke in carotid stenting: the Imaging in Carotid Angioplasty and Risk of Stroke (ICAROS) study.

Background: Carotid artery stenting (CAS) has recently emerged as a potential alternative to carotid endarterectomy. Cerebral embolization is the most devastating complication of CAS, and the echogenicity of carotid plaque has been indicated as one of the risk factors involved. This is the first study to analyze the role of a computer-assisted highly reproducible index of echogenicity, namely the gray-scale median (GSM), on the risk of stroke during CAS.

What have we learned from the Imaging in Carotid Angioplasty and Risk of Stroke (ICAROS) study?

Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is used widely to treat carotid lesions. Indication to CAS is mostly based, both in trial and in clinical practice, on the percentage of stenosis and the presence or absence of preprocedural neurologic symptoms, whereas the features of the plaque are somehow disregarded and ignored. The most severe complication of CAS is stroke, related to cerebral embolization from carotid plaque.

WEB-WAP based telecare.

We have developed two telecare applications based on mobile telephony (WAP) and WEB. The first can be used to request Basic Life Support (BLS) guidelines any time by using a WAP device and to teach people and non-professionals involved in health care emergency situations. The second is a WEB-WAP based tool for medical data retrieval and at-home health care monitoring of chronically ill patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) or diabetes.

Renal artery aneurysm: improved renal function after coil embolization.

Purpose: To describe a case of improved renal function and renovascular hypertension after percutaneous treatment of a renal artery aneurysm.

Case Report: A 72-year-old hypertensive woman with a hilar saccular aneurysm of the right renal artery underwent percutaneous coil embolization under local anesthesia. Four individual, soft, detachable platinum embolization coils were successfully inserted in the aneurysm with incomplete aneurysm exclusion.

A methodological strategy for PAH genotyping in populations with a marked molecular heterogeneity of hyperphenylalaninemia.

The elucidation of the molecular basis of hyperphenylalaninemia in various world populations (PKU Consortium Database: http://www.mcgill/ca/pahdb/) has revealed a remarkable molecular heterogeneity at the locus encoding for phenylalanine hydroxylase. As a consequence, genotyping of HPA patients has prompted the establishment of an impressive number of mutatIon detection protocols.

[Transluminal treatment in aneurysm of the abdominal aorta. Role of diagnostic imaging].

Purpose: To emphasize the importance of diagnostic imaging: a) in the selection of patients to be treated with the transluminal approach b) during stent-graft positioning c) in the follow-up of treated patients.

Material And Methods: From January 1997 to May 1998, twenty-five patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) were treated with transfemoral stent-grafts (AneuRx Medtronic). All patients were submitted to a preoperative study including digital angiography (DSA) and Spiral CT.