Duration of rhinovirus shedding in the upper respiratory tract in the first year of life.

Background: Current molecular diagnostic methods have detected rhinovirus RNA in a high proportion of asymptomatic infants and children, raising the question of the clinical significance of these findings. This study investigates the prevalence of prolonged rhinovirus RNA presence in the upper respiratory tract of infants during the first year of life.

Methods: In a longitudinal study, infants were followed from birth up to 12 months.

Phialemonium infection complicating chronic suppurative otitis media.

Phialemonium infection in humans is rare. We report a 7-year-old healthy boy who presented with chronic otorrhea, which persisted despite adequate antibiotic therapy and four preservative tympanomastoidectomy operations. Following 3 years of intermittent topical antibiotic therapy, cultures eventually grew Phialemonium, which necessitated a more extensive operation, combined with systemic/topical anti-fungal agent to achieve clinical cure.

Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctiva injection and tearing presenting as sphenoiditis.

Headaches secondary to paranasal sinus disease are a common problem in otolaryngology practice. However, short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCTs) are an extremely rare presentation of sinusitis. We report for the first time an unusual case of acute sinusitis presenting with SUNCTs-like symptoms with radiographically-proven isolated ipsilateral sphenoiditis, without any other intracranial pathologies.

Effect of the 2009 influenza A/H1N1 pandemic on viral respiratory infections in the first year of life.

Background: The effect of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic on viral epidemiology of upper and lower respiratory tract infections (URI and LRI) in healthy infants in the first year of life has not been well studied.

Methods: A total of 180 healthy infants were enrolled from birth and monitored for occurrences of URI, LRI and acute otitis media complications until the first acute otitis media episode or between 6 and 12 months of age. Nasopharyngeal specimens collected during acute respiratory illnesses were tested for 18 viruses.

Fragile X mental retardation protein regulates protein expression and mRNA translation of the potassium channel Kv4.2.

A prominent characteristic of the inherited intellectual impairment disease fragile X syndrome (FXS) is neuronal hyperexcitability, resulting in a variety of symptoms, such as hyperactivity, increased sensitivity to sensory stimuli, and a high incidence of epileptic seizures. These symptoms account for a significant part of the disease pattern, but the underlying molecular mechanisms of neuronal hyperexcitability in FXS remain poorly understood. FXS is caused by loss of expression of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which regulates synaptic protein synthesis and is a key player to limit signaling pathways downstream of metabotropic glutamate receptors 1/5 (mGlu1/5).