Luminomagnetic Eu- and Dy-doped hydroxyapatite for multimodal imaging.

Multimodal imaging has recently attracted much attention due to the advantageous combination of different imaging modalities, like photoluminescence (PL) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the present study, luminescent and magnetic hydroxyapatites (HAp) were prepared via doping with europium (Eu) and dysprosium (Dy), respectively. Co-doping of Eu and Dy was used to combine the desired physical properties.

Semiautomated quantitative image analysis of glomerular immunohistochemistry markers desmin, vimentin, podocin, synaptopodin and WT-1 in acute and chronic rat kidney disease models.

Five different glomerular immunohistochemistry markers were evaluated and compared in four different acute and chronic rat kidney disease models. Progression of glomerular or podocyte damage was shown in the puromycin aminonucleoside nephrosis (PAN) and Zucker fatty/spontaneously hypertensive heart failure F1 hybrid (ZSF1) rat model. Progression and prevention of glomerular damage was demonstrated in the Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) and Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl SS) rat.

The turnover of synovial T cells is higher than in T cells in the peripheral blood in persistent oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) summarizes a group of inflammatory diseases of childhood. The etiology remains still unclear. In JIA, T cells have been demonstrated to play key roles in the pathogenesis.

[Colon triplication associated with ileum atresia in laparoschisis].

The present paper reports the unusual and rare case of a colon triplication associated with other findings never reported before, including the diagnostic and therapeutic management with consideration of the relevant, but rare scientific references in the medical literature. In the basic finding of an ileum atresia with laparoschisis, a colon triplication was incidentally found. The surgical procedure performed after the primarily planned Caesarean section within the 34(th) week of gravidity consisted of a bowel-preserving resection of the triplication including the ileum atresia and a subsequent Santulli anastomosis followed by a later excision of the ileostoma.

Optimal treatment of obesity-related hypertension: the Hypertension-Obesity-Sibutramine (HOS) study.

Background: Current guidelines for the treatment of hypertension do not provide specific recommendations for obese hypertensive patients. To identify an optimal treatment regimen for obese hypertensive patients, we studied the interactions between a drug-based weight loss approach by sibutramine and different antihypertensive drug regimens.

Methods And Results: This was a prospective, 16-week double-blind placebo-controlled randomized multicenter study in 171 obese hypertensive patients.

Reduced prefrontal response control in patients with schizophrenias: a subgroup analysis.

We investigated the function of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with the continuous performance test (CPT) in patients with chronic schizophrenias. We had previously shown that the NoGo anteriorisation (NGA), which consists of a more anterior center of gravity (centroid) of the event-related potentials during the inhibition of a prepared motor response, correlates with physiological activation of the ACC in healthy probands. However, in patients with schizophrenias, the event-related potentials are located more anteriorly in the Go condition and more posteriorly in the NoGo condition, which leads to a decreased NGA reflecting reduced activation of the ACC.

Allelic variants of the functional promoter polymorphism of the human serotonin transporter gene is associated with auditory cortical stimulus processing.

The loudness dependence (LD) of the auditory-evoked N1/P2 component has been shown to be related to the central serotonergic neurotransmission. Allelic variants in the promoter region of the 5-hydroxytryptamine transporter (5-HTT) gene were shown to modulate serotonergic activity. It was hypothesized that the three genotypes (l/l, s/l, s/s) differ with respect to LD.

Frontal and temporal dysfunction of auditory stimulus processing in schizophrenia.

Attention deficits have been consistently described in schizophrenia. Functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies have focused on anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) dysfunction as a possible mediator. However, recent basic research has suggested that the effect of attention is also observed as a relative amplification of activity in modality-associated cortical areas.

Single-tube nested competitive PCR with homologous competitor for quantitation of DNA target sequences: theoretical description of heteroduplex formation, evaluation of sensitivity, precision and linear range of the method.

Competitive PCR is a frequently used technique for quantitation of DNA and mRNA. However, the application of the most favourable homologous mutated competitors is impeded by the formation of heteroduplex molecules which complicates the data evaluation and may lead to quantitation errors. Moreover, in most cases a single quantitation of an unknown sample requires multiple competitive reactions for identification of the equivalence point.