Academic radiology departments have added increasing numbers of entirely remote "work-from-home" or hybrid faculty. This change has presented both an opportunity to recruit and retain faculty as well as a set of challenges to maintaining the full academic mission and educational environment. In this article we describe our experience with creating a remote faculty position and the key elements that we believe made it successful.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Stroke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and its incidence increases with age. While acute therapies for stroke are currently limited to intravenous thrombolytics and endovascular thrombectomy, recent studies have implicated an important role for the gut microbiome in post-stroke neuroinflammation. After stroke, several immuno-regulatory pathways, including the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) pathway, become activated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) represents a significant achievement in the translation of scientific research to clinical application, but it is currently the only neuroprotective treatment for HIE. This review aims to revisit the use of TH for HIE and its longitudinal impact on patient outcomes to readers new to the field of HIE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Distinguishing between acute and chronic vertebral compression fractures typically requires advanced imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Recognizing specific radiographic findings associated with fracture acuity may improve the accuracy of radiographic assessment.
Methods: Patients with compression fractures that had both radiographic and MRI studies of the lumbar spine within a 30-day time frame were retrospectively reviewed.
Recent studies have highlighted the deleterious contributions of B cells to post-stroke recovery and cognitive decline. Different B cell subsets have been proposed on the basis of expression levels of transcription factors (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Substantial evidence from recent research suggests an influential and underappreciated force in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis: the pathological signals originate from outside the brain. Pathogenic bacteria produce amyloid-like proteins "curli" that form biofilms and show functional similarities to human amyloid-β (Aβ). These proteins may contribute to neurological disease progression via signaling cascade from the gut to the brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistorically, females have been underrepresented in biological research. With increased interest in the gut microbiome and the gut-brain axis, it is important for researchers to pursue studies that consider sex as a biological variable. The composition of the gut microbiome is influenced by environmental factors, disease, diet, and varies with age and by sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPost-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) encompasses a broad category of lymphoid and plasmacytic proliferations that occur following solid organ and/or allogeneic stem cell transplantation. PTLD manifests in the setting of chronic immunosuppression and is thought to be associated with the Epstein Barr Virus, although Epstein Barr Virus infection or reactivation is not required for the process to occur. Pathologic correlation is necessary for diagnosis with B-cell lymphocytes the most commonly isolated cellular etiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQualia are private conscious experiences of which the associated feelings can be reported to other people. Whether qualia are amenable to scientific exploration has often been questioned, which is challenged by the present article. The following arguments are given: 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroscientist
August 2015
This article examines the possible relevance of physical-mathematical multidimensional or quantum concepts aiming at understanding the (human) mind in a neurobiological context. Some typical features of the quantum and multidimensional concepts are briefly introduced, including entanglement, superposition, holonomic, and quantum field theories. Next, we consider neurobiological principles, such as the brain and its emerging (physical) mind, evolutionary and ontological origins, entropy, syntropy/neg-entropy, causation, and brain energy metabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe hypothesis defended here is that the process of mood-normalizing transitions fails in a significant proportion of patients suffering from major depressive disorder. Such a failure is largely unrelated to the psychological content. Evidence for the hypothesis is provided by the highly variable and unpredictable time-courses of the depressive episodes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Eval Clin Pract
June 2013
Rationale, Aims And Objective: We questioned: what kind of relationships between mental and neurobiological levels of complexity is or could become useful in the psychiatric practice? The concept of mind and associated mood states defended here is that they are physically emergent, subjective, qualitative, unified features of the brain. We compared our neurobiological assessment also to psychoanalytical practice (first person's perspective).
Argument: Applied to recent work on major depressive disorder (MDD), our ideas are among other supported by clinical and experimental studies on sleep deprivation, deep brain stimulation and epidemiological assessments of time-to-recovery.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
August 2012
Objectives: To investigate the potential of white blood cells as probes for central processes we have measured gene expression in both the anterior cingulate cortex and white blood cells using a putative animal model of negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
Methods: The model is based on the capability of ketamine to induce psychotic symptoms in healthy volunteers and to worsen such symptoms in schizophrenic patients. Classical fear conditioning is used to assess emotional processing and cognitive function in animals exposed to sub-chronic ketamine vs.
Unlabelled: Previous epidemiologic studies have evaluated the use of immunological markers as possible tools for measuring ageing and predicting age-related pathology. The importance of both genetic and environmental influences in regulation of these markers has been emphasized. In order to further evaluate this relationship, the present study aims to investigate the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on four key cytokines involved in the human immune response (Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10 and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCortisol and oxytocin have been shown to interact in both the regulation of stress responses and in memory function. In the present study we administered cortisol to 35 healthy female subjects in a within-subject double-blind placebo-controlled design, while measuring oxytocin levels, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels, and free recall of pleasant and of unpleasant words. We found that cortisol administration suppressed ACTH levels and (1) induced a decrease in oxytocin associated with ACTH suppression and (2) an increase in oxytocin that was independent from ACTH suppression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe defend the hypothesis that life-spanning population survivorship curves, as described by Gompertz' law and composed from cross-sectional data (here mortality), reflect an intrinsic aging principle active in each subject of that population. In other words Gompertz' law reflects aging of a prototypical subject, provided minimal (or no) external causes of death (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an enzyme which is activated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, has been suggested as a potential link between neuroinflammatory processes in neurodegenerative diseases (like Alzheimer's disease) and depression. The present study aimed to determine whether neuroinflammation-induced increased IDO levels in the mammalian brain will lead to depressive-like behavior. Neuroinflammation was initiated in mice by a single intracerebroventricular injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsidering psychiatry as a medical discipline, a diagnosis identifying a disorder should lead to an effective therapy. Such presumed causality is the basis of evidence-based psychiatry. We examined the strengths and weaknesses of research onto the causality of relationship between diagnosis and therapy of major depressive disorder and suggest what could be done to strengthen eventual claims on causality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Depressive disorder after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with increased cardiac morbidity and mortality. Immune activity such as inflammation might be implicated as an underlying mechanism. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the response to an antidepressant in post-MI depression is associated with changes of inflammatory markers in serum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have investigated effects of continuous SSRI administration and abrupt discontinuation on biochemical and behavioral indices of rat brain serotonin function, and attempted to identify underlying mechanisms. Biochemistry of serotonin was assessed with brain tissue assays and microdialysis; behavior was assessed as the acoustic startle reflex. Long-term SSRI administration to rats reduced the content of 5-HT and its main metabolite shortly after inhibition of 5-HT synthesis in many brain areas with more than 50%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe brain is often considered an ensemble of clusters of independently interacting neurons. Here the brain is proposed as an isoenergetic structure having little energy barriers that limit the distribution of neuronal information, thereby facilitating unitary brain functioning. Isoenergicity is achieved and maintained by energy metabolism and must be seen as an evolutionary conserved property.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo monitor temporal patterns of glucocorticoids hormones in living animals, most often blood samples are collected. Blood sampling is invasive and subjects may find it--in particular--unpleasant when multiple samples are collected. We have developed a microfiltration collection device (MCD) sampling continuously, pulse-free, over a selected period of time, with minimum invasiveness as the device is inserted with only one venipuncture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn medicine and biotechnology, close monitoring of molecular processes might assist to optimise therapeutic interventions and production of biochemicals, respectively. Here, we summarize the current status of two automatic and continuous sampling technologies, microdialysis and microfiltration, which facilitate both in vivo and in vitro monitoring of nearly any analyte, because they can be combined easily with many analytical techniques. Conventional microdialysis and microfiltration, which require collecting relatively large samples, are however often impractical and semi-quantitative; hence, we focus on ultraslow sampling to circumvent such limitations.
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