Clinical assessment applications of ambulatory biosensors.

Ambulatory biosensor assessment includes a diverse set of rapidly developing and increasingly technologically sophisticated strategies to acquire minimally disruptive measures of physiological and motor variables of persons in their natural environments. Numerous studies have measured cardiovascular variables, physical activity, and biochemicals such as cortisol in psychopathology and treatment research. The physiological concomitants of many behavior and medical disorders and the benefits of a multimethod assessment strategy provide strong rationales for clinical applications of ambulatory biosensor measurement.

Evolution of the human fear-circuitry and acute sociogenic pseudoneurological symptoms: the Neolithic balanced-polymorphism hypothesis.

In light of the increasing threat of large-scale massacres such as terrorism against non-combatants (civilians), more attention is warranted not only to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but also to acute sociogenic pseudoneurological ("conversion") symptoms, especially epidemic sociogenic symptoms. We posit that conversion disorders are etiologically related to specific evolutionary pressures (inescapable threats to life) in the late stage of the human environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA). Bracha et al.

Increased bronchoalveolar lavage human beta-defensin type 2 in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome after lung transplantation.

Human beta-defensin-2 (HBD)2 is an antimicrobial peptide that participates in the innate host immune defense. HBD2 is present in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid during conditions associated with airway inflammation but not in normal subjects. We measured HBD2 concentrations by semiquantitative Western analysis in BAL of prelung transplant patients (PRE) and postlung-transplant BAL associated with either "quiescent" histopathology (i.