FOGS: A SNPSTR Marker Database to Combat Wildlife Trafficking and a Cell Culture Bank for Ex-Situ Conservation.

Illegal wildlife trade is a growing problem internationally. Poaching of animals not only leads to the extinction of populations and species but also has serious consequences for ecosystems and economies. This study introduces a molecular marker system that authorities can use to detect and substantiate wildlife trafficking.

Using the German National Medication Plan for Clinical Studies in Practice-Based Research Networks.

The German National Medication Plan (GNMP) can be a valuable and interoperable data source for clinical studies, due to its digital specification and mandatory provisioning for chronically ill patients. Digital transfer of a patients current GNMP from the Patient Data Management System (PDMS) into electronic case report forms would avoid error prone manual data capturing. It is also essential for studies in practice-based research networks (PBRN), where data capturing must have as little impact as possible on everyday practice.

How dispersal rates depend on the prey capture strategy: A case study of Georgia's spiders.

Large-scale barcoding projects help to aggregate information on genetic variability of multiple species throughout their ranges. Comparing DNA sequences of both non-conspecific and conspecific individuals from distant parts of their ranges helps to compare level of genetic isolation-by-distance patterns in different species and adaptive types. We compared mitochondrial CO1 gene sequences of 223 spiders from Georgia (Caucasus), representing 124 species and eight families, with 3097 homological sequences from spiders mostly from Europe, but also from other parts of the World.

External Validation of COVID-19 Risk Scores during Three Waves of Pandemic in a German Cohort-A Retrospective Study.

Several risk scores were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify patients at risk for critical illness as a basic step to personalizing medicine even in pandemic circumstances. However, the generalizability of these scores with regard to different populations, clinical settings, healthcare systems, and new epidemiological circumstances is unknown. The aim of our study was to compare the predictive validity of qSOFA, CRB65, NEWS, COVID-GRAM, and 4C-Mortality score.

Can we lower the platelet threshold of ≥ 50 × 10/L for performing a lumbar puncture safely in patients with hematological malignancies?

Lumbar punctures (LP) are routinely used to administer intrathecal chemotherapy for children and adults with hematologic malignancies. The current guidelines suggest a platelet threshold of ≥ 50 × 10/L prior to LP for intrathecal chemotherapy (ITC). This can be challenging in patients with hematological malignancies who are thrombocytopenic.

Effect of continuous positive airway pressure treatment on short-term memory performance over 24 h of sustained wakefulness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome.

Background: Few studies have examined the impact of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy on short-term memory (STM) over sustained wakefulness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). We have investigated if impaired STM can be reversed by CPAP treatment in a 24-h sustained wakefulness paradigm.

Methods: Our follow-up study was conducted with repeated-memory tasks within 12 OSAHS patients and 10 healthy controls who underwent three 32-h sessions, one before CPAP (T0) and the second (T3) and the third (T6), after 3 and 6 months of treatment, respectively, for OSAHS patients.

Floppy eyelid syndrome is associated with obstructive sleep apnoea: a prospective study on 127 patients.

A few investigations have raised the question of a possible relationship between obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) and floppy eyelid syndrome (FES). FES is an easily inverted floppy eyelid with papillary conjunctivis, and is a subset of the general pathology, lax eyelid syndrome. The aim of the current study is to determine whether OSAS severity is associated with FES.

Short-term memory performances during sustained wakefulness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome.

Both working and immediate memories were assessed every 4h by specific short-term memory tasks over sustained wakefulness in 12 patients with obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and 10 healthy controls. Results indicated that OSAHS patients exhibited lower working memory performances than controls on both backward digit span and complex Sternberg tasks. Speed and accuracy on Sternberg tasks were affected by memory load in both groups.

Effect of continuous positive airway pressure treatment on the subsequent EEG spectral power and sleepiness over sustained wakefulness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome.

Objective: To determine whether sleepiness and its evolution over sustained wakefulness could be reversed by nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS).

Methods: Twelve OSAHS patients underwent three 32-h sessions of study: one before CPAP therapy (T0), the second (T3) and the third (T6), respectively, after 3 and 6 months of therapy. Each session included one night of sleep followed by 24 h of sustained wakefulness, during which EEG recordings and subjective ratings were performed every hour.

Low level myocardial parvovirus B19 persistence is a frequent finding in patients with heart disease but unrelated to ongoing myocardial injury.

While myocardial parvovirus B19 (B19V), aside from enteroviruses (EV) and adenoviruses (ADV), has recently been found often in patients with myocarditis and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC), the pathogenetic significance of B19V genomes in those patients has not yet been sufficiently elucidated. In the present study, left ventricular endomyocardial biopsies from 24 patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) below 55% due to IDC, and tissue from the right atrial appendage of 10 control patients undergoing bypass surgery with normal LVEF (>55%) were investigated for B19V, ADV, and EV genomes by specific nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), by real time PCR or by reverse-transcription PCR, respectively. The myocardial tissue samples from the 10 controls were analyzed each in three different virological laboratories for B19V.

Narcolepsy is strongly associated with the T-cell receptor alpha locus.

Narcolepsy with cataplexy, characterized by sleepiness and rapid onset into REM sleep, affects 1 in 2,000 individuals. Narcolepsy was first shown to be tightly associated with HLA-DR2 (ref. 3) and later sublocalized to DQB1*0602 (ref.

Metformin-induced cholangiohepatitis.

Drug-induced cholangiohepatitis accounts for 20-50% of non-viral chronic hepatitis cases. Metformin is the most commonly prescribed oral anti-diabetic drug from the biguanide class used in treatment of overweight and obese type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Metformin-induced cholangiohepatitis with marked elevations in serum liver transaminases and intrahepatic cholestasis has been infrequently reported.

Severity of obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome and subsequent waking EEG spectral power.

It is well known that most patients with obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) suffer sleepiness, although the underlying mechanisms of this relationship remain unclear. The present study examined the relationship between nocturnal variables and the subsequent waking electroencephalogram (EEG), in order to determine if sleepiness was related to OSAHS severity and due to sleep fragmentation or to nocturnal hypoxaemia. In total, 12 moderate-to-severe OSAHS patients underwent a total sleep night followed by a 24-h period of sustained wakefulness where the waking EEG was measured every hour.

EEG spectral power and sleepiness during 24 h of sustained wakefulness in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Objective: This study investigated if obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) may be associated with higher activity in different frequency bands of the EEG during a sustained wakefulness paradigm.

Methods: Twelve OSA patients and 8 healthy controls were studied with the Karolinska Drowsiness Test (KDT) and subjective ratings of sleepiness (VAS and KSS) conducted every hour during 24 h of sustained wakefulness.

Results: The waking EEG activity, mainly in the low (0.

Outcome of sleepiness and fatigue scores in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome patients with and without restless legs syndrome after nasal CPAP.

Background & Purpose: The association of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and restless legs syndrome (RLS) has been reported in the literature for many years. Both conditions may be responsible for fatigue and somnolence complaints secondary to nocturnal sleep disruption. The primary concern of this study is to evaluate the outcome of fatigue and daytime sleepiness symptoms at baseline and after continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) treatment in OSAS patients with and without RLS.

Prostaglandin-mediated control of rat brain kynurenic acid synthesis--opposite actions by COX-1 and COX-2 isoforms.

Kynurenic acid (KYNA), an endogenous glutamate-receptor antagonist preferentially blocking NMDA-receptors, has analgesic properties and has also been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Recently, the non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac was found to increase rat brain KYNA. Here, we analyze whether cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 or COX-2 modulate the levels of rat brain KYNA.

Modulation of photic resetting in rats by lesions of projections to the suprachiasmatic nuclei expressing p75 neurotrophin receptor.

The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus (SCN) are the site of the master circadian clock in mammals. The SCN clock is mainly entrained by the light-dark cycle. Light information is conveyed from the retina to the SCN through direct, retinohypothalamic fibres.

[Cortical arousal, autonomic arousal. Evaluation techniques and clinical importance].

The respiratory disorders expressed by obstructive hypopneas and apneas during sleep, as well as the sequences of crescendo in respiratory effort without hypopneas or apneas which define the upper airway resistance syndrome, terminate with (thanks to) an arousal, defined by EEG changes. In some cases, the activation of the central nervous system is restricted to a sympathetic activation, which has been mainly studied in the cardiovascular area, and is not always accompanied by a cortical arousal. Various approaches (heart rate, blood pressure, pulse transit time, peripheral arterial tonometry) make the identification of sympathetic activation possible.

Treating rheumatoid arthritis early with disease modifying drugs reduces joint damage: a randomised double blind trial of sulphasalazine vs diclofenac sodium.

Background: Current disease management in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has moved towards "inverting the therapeutic pyramid" by introducing disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) early. Despite the logic of early DMARD therapy, there is a dearth of supportive evidence for this approach. We report a randomised controlled trial comparing sulphasalazine monotherapy with diclofenac monotherapy in early RA.

Cytologic diagnosis of vaginal papillary squamotransitional cell carcinoma. A case report.

Background: Papillary squamous and squamotransitional cell carcinomas of the cervix and vagina are infrequent morphologic variants of squamous cell carcinoma that may be underdiagnosed due to a bland histologic appearance. To our knowledge, this entity has not been previously detected by Pap smear evaluation.

Case: Vaginal wall pap smears were collected from a patient with a previous hysterectomy for microinvasive cervicovaginal squamous cell carcinoma and extensive carcinoma in situ.

Fine needle aspiration cytology of cellular hemangioma of infancy. A case report.

Background: Cellular hemangioma is a common benign vascular neoplasm of infants and children. The lesion typically occurs within the superficial dermis, where it is recognized as a strawberry nevus. Occasionally, this neoplasm is situated within deep soft tissues of the head or neck, with a particular predilection for the parotid gland region.

The painful shoulder: can consultants agree?

As a two-phase exercise in inter-district audit, with the emphasis on critical evaluation of routine clinical practice, three rheumatologists each examined the same 44 patients with shoulder pain, and recorded their diagnosis and the investigations and treatment they would carry out. In the first phase, 26 patients were seen by each rheumatologist separately; there was complete diagnostic agreement in only 46%, with wide variation in the frequency of requests for standard investigations, but all three rheumatologists recommended steroid injections for most patients. In the second phase, all three rheumatologists examined a further 18 patients together, discussed the symptoms and signs, and recorded their diagnoses separately.

Neutrophilic dermatosis in association with rheumatoid arthritis.

Extra-articular involvement of the skin in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is not uncommon. A patient with this condition is reported who developed an unusual cutaneous eruption associated with systemic upset. Skin biopsy showed a dense dermal neutrophilic infiltrate and after treatment with standard immunosuppressive agents had failed he responded to dapsone.

Dialysis arthropathy: a clinical, biochemical, radiological and histological study of 36 patients.

Out of a population of 97 haemodialysis patients, 36 patients with dialysis arthropathy were identified. Dialysis arthropathy is a chronic symmetrical polyarthritis which affected 97 per cent of the patients who had been undergoing cuprophane haemodialysis for more than 10 years. It commonly affected the shoulders, hips, hands, knees and wrists, worsening with time and extending to other joints.