Survival After Severe COVID-19: Long-Term Outcomes of Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit.

Background: Understanding the long-term sequelae of severe COVID-19 remains limited, particularly in the United States.

Objective: To examine long-term outcomes of patients who required intensive care unit (ICU) admission for severe COVID-19.

Design, Patients, And Main Measures: This is a prospective cohort study of patients who had severe COVID-19 requiring an ICU admission in a two-hospital academic health system in Southern California.

Substantia Nigra Volume Dissociates Bradykinesia and Rigidity from Tremor in Parkinson's Disease: A 7 Tesla Imaging Study.

Background: In postmortem analysis of late stage Parkinson's disease (PD) neuronal loss in the substantial nigra (SN) correlates with the antemortem severity of bradykinesia and rigidity, but not tremor.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between midbrain nuclei volume as an in vivo biomarker for surviving neurons in mild-to-moderate patients using 7.0 Tesla MRI.

The Internal Superior Laryngeal Nerve in Humans: Evidence for Pure Sensory Function.

Objectives: To determine if the internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve (iSLN) provides direct motor innervation to the interarytenoid muscle, a laryngeal adductor critical for airway protection. We studied the iSLN-evoked motor response in the interarytenoid and other laryngeal muscles. If the iSLN is purely sensory, there will be no detectable short latency motor response upon supramaximal stimulation, indicating the absence of a direct efferent conduction path.

Applying Machine Learning Algorithms for Automatic Detection of Swallowing from Sound.

Despite the severe consequences of dysfunctional swallowing, there is no simple method of monitoring swallowing outside of clinical settings. People who cannot swallow cannot eat safely, resulting in profound changes in quality of life and risk of death from aspiration pneumonia. A non-invasive swallowing detector may have widespread impact in both clinical care and research.

Sensory dysphagia: A case series and proposed classification of an under recognized swallowing disorder.

Background: Although sensory feedback is a vital regulator of deglutition, it is not comprehensively considered in the standard dysphagia evaluation. Difficulty swallowing secondary to sensory loss may be termed "sensory dysphagia" and may account for cases receiving diagnoses of exclusion, like functional or idiopathic dysphagia.

Methods And Results: Three cases of idiopathic dysphagia were suspected to have sensory dysphagia.

Prototype and Chimera-Type Galectins in Placentas with Spontaneous and Recurrent Miscarriages.

Galectins are galactose binding proteins and, in addition, factors for a wide range of pathologies in pregnancy. We have analyzed the expression of prototype (gal-1, -2, -7, -10) and chimera-type (gal-3) galectins in the placenta in cases of spontaneous abortions (SPA) and recurrent abortions (RA) in the first trimester. Fifteen placental samples from healthy pregnancies were used as a control group.

HIV-associated dementia in the Dominican Republic: a consequence of stigma, domestic abuse and limited health literacy.

A 38-year-old Dominican woman presented at an infectious disease clinic in Santo Domingo, with subacute dementia and psychomotor slowing. Based on physical findings and laboratory results, she was diagnosed with AIDS and HIV-associated dementia (HAD). She subsequently began combined antiretroviral therapy (cART).

Comparative analyses on expression of galectins1-4, 7-10 and 12 in first trimester placenta, decidua and isolated trophoblast cells in vitro.

Introduction: Galectins are members of the mammalian β-galactoside-binding proteins, which recognize Galβ1-4GlcNAc sequences of several cell surface oligosaccharides. Plenty of galectins are already described in human tissue, especially in placenta. Here, gal-1-4, 7-10 and gal-12 were investigated systematically in trophoblast and decidua cells of first trimester placentas.

Trophoblastic cell lines ACH1P and AC-1M32 react with a distinctive cytokine pattern toward Listeria monocytogenes and show morphologic differences.

Problem: The differential reaction of cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast towards infection with listeria monocytogenes (LM) is pivotal to its pathogenicity. In this study we tested the cytokine signature upon infection with listeria monocytogenes (LM) in an in vitro model.

Method Of Study: We compared two related trophoblastic cell lines (AC-1M32 and ACH1P).

Glycodelin A induces a tolerogenic phenotype in monocyte-derived dendritic cells in vitro.

Problem: Successful mammalian pregnancy requires a delicate immunological balance at the feto-maternal interface that allows the semi-allogeneic fetus to grow, while protecting mother and child from environmental pathogens. As in other mucosal tissues, antigen-recognition and -handling by professional antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells (DC) determine the course of the subsequent immune response. DC at the feto-maternal interface help shape this immunological equilibrium.

Distribution and maturity of dendritic cells in diseases of insufficient placentation.

Problem: The immunological equilibrium at the feto-maternal interphase contributes towards late gestational diseases like growth restriction (IUGR) pre-eclampsia (PE) and hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets (HELLP)-syndrome. The state of activation of decidual dendritic cells (DC) has emerged as one of the central players influencing this immunological equilibrium.

Method Of Study: Paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 27 pregnancies were immunostained for DC markers DEC-205, DC-SIGN, DC-LAMP and costained for DC-SIGN/CD56 and DC-SIGN/ vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) -1 and -2.