[Development of two outpatient interdisciplinary group modules in the treatment of patients with pain and risk of chronification].

Background And Objective: An early treatment of patients who suffer from pain and show risk factors for chronification is meaningful as these patients can benefit from an early interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment (IMST). In view of the insufficient treatment, two outpatient treatment modules for the secondary prevention of pain chronification are developed within the framework of PAIN2020: the educative and accompanying IMST (E‑IMST and B‑IMST).

Material And Methods: The developmental process of both IMSTs is presented.

Preadaptation of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus SIVsmm Facilitated Env-Mediated Counteraction of Human Tetherin by Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2.

The host restriction factor tetherin inhibits virion release from infected cells and poses a significant barrier to successful zoonotic transmission of primate lentiviruses to humans. While most simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV), including the direct precursors of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2, use their Nef protein to counteract tetherin in their natural hosts, they fail to antagonize the human tetherin ortholog. Pandemic HIV-1 group M and epidemic group O strains overcame this hurdle by adapting their Vpu and Nef proteins, respectively, whereas HIV-2 group A uses its envelope (Env) glycoprotein to counteract human tetherin.

Early silent microstructural degeneration and atrophy of the thalamocortical network in multiple sclerosis.

Recent studies on patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrated thalamic atrophy. Here we addressed the following question: Is early thalamic atrophy in patients with CIS and relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) mainly a direct consequence of white matter (WM) lesions-as frequently claimed-or is the atrophy stronger correlated to "silent" (nonlesional) microstructural thalamic alterations? One-hundred and ten patients with RRMS, 12 with CIS, and 30 healthy controls were admitted to 3 T magnetic resonance imaging. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was computed from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess thalamic and WM microstructure.

Volume estimation of the thalamus using freesurfer and stereology: consistency between methods.

Freely available automated MR image analysis techniques are being increasingly used to investigate neuroanatomical abnormalities in patients with neurological disorders. It is important to assess the specificity and validity of automated measurements of structure volumes with respect to reliable manual methods that rely on human anatomical expertise. The thalamus is widely investigated in many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders using MRI, but thalamic volumes are notoriously difficult to quantify given the poor between-tissue contrast at the thalamic gray-white matter interface.

Nerve fiber impairment of anterior thalamocortical circuitry in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.

Background: Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is a syndrome of idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) without structural brain abnormalities detectable by MRI or CT.

Objective: In the present study, we addressed the question of whether diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) can detect disease-specific white matter (WM) abnormalities in patients with JME.

Methods: We performed whole head DTI at 3 T in 10 patients with JME, 8 age-matched patients with cryptogenic partial epilepsy (CPE), and 67 age-matched healthy volunteers.

Anterior cingulate reflects susceptibility to framing during attractiveness evaluation.

Human cognitive decisions can be strongly susceptible to the manner in which options are presented ('framing effect'). Here we investigated the neural basis of response adjustments induced by changing frames during intuitive decisions. Evidence exists that the anterior cingulate cortex plays a general role in behavioral adjustments.

Fractionated perioperative high dose rate brachytherapy using a tissue equivalent bendy applicator.

Intraoperative radiation techniques allow an additional local dose in areas at high-risk for local failure. With brachytherapy techniques, perioperative radiation can be fractionated. Fractionated treatment might offer an interesting alternative to a single dose, both to increase the therapeutic ratio and to protect late reacting tissues at risk.

Comparative studies concerning the suitability of European hamsters and Syrian golden hamsters for investigations on smoke exposure.

The suitability of the European hamster and the Syrian golden hamster for experiments with tobacco smoke has been tested under various conditions by exposure of the animals to total smoke and the gas vapour phase of two cigarettes. Respiration rate, tidal volume and CO-Hb concentrations were measured before and after the exposures. The results demonstrate that the European hamster tolerates smoke inhalation under all conditions studied better than the Syrian golden hamster.