Substance P is responsible for physiological alterations such as increased chloride ion secretion and glucose malabsorption in cryptosporidiosis.

Cryptosporidiosis, caused by the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium, causes self-limited diarrhea in immunocompetent hosts and severe life-threatening diarrhea in AIDS patients. Highly active antiretroviral therapy has been used to effectively treat cryptosporiosis in some but not all AIDS patients. Therefore, there is an urgent need for innovative drugs to treat this disease.

Bilateral perysilvian polymicrogyria in Chiari I malformation.

Case Report: We report on a 7-year-old girl with generalized epilepsy and mental retardation.

Discussion: Neurologic examination was normal and only facial dysmorphic features, compatible with frontonasal dysplasia, were observed. However, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed Chiari I malformation together with bilateral opercular polymicrogyria.

Essential role for platelets in organ injury and inflammation in resuscitated hemorrhagic shock.

Platelets are known to contribute to ischemia/reperfusion in several organs, but their role in inflammation and organ injury after hemorrhagic shock (HS) has not been examined. To address this issue, we rendered mice thrombocytopenic (20% of normal platelet count) by treatment with pOp3, a rat monoclonal antibody against platelet glycoprotein Ibalpha, 24 h before subjecting them to either a standard HS or sham protocol. Liver apoptosis increased 3- to 5-fold (P<0.

Maternal corticosteroids to prevent intrauterine exposure to hyperthermia and inflammation: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: Intrauterine exposure to hyperthermia at term is associated with adverse neonatal neurologic outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine whether prophylactic maternal corticosteroid treatment prevents fetal exposure to hyperthermia and inflammatory cytokines after epidural analgesia.

Study Design: A 2-phase, randomized, institutional review board-approved, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was performed.

Spinal cord and vertebral stroke: a paediatric case.

Spinal cord ischaemia is a rare entity and very few cases of simultaneous spinal cord and vertebral body infarction have been reported: all of them in adult age. We observed a 15-year-old girl with abrupt onset of myelopathy and pain at the vertebral column studied by means of serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and in whom bone infarction was a confirmatory sign of the vascular origin of the spinal lesion. This is to the best of our knowledge the first paediatric case described in the literature.

Interleukin-6 treatment reverses apoptosis and blunts susceptibility to intraperitoneal bacterial challenge following hemorrhagic shock.

Background: Resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock (HS) predisposes to subsequent infections. Susceptibility to infection following sepsis has been attributed to apoptosis. Interleukin (IL)-6 has been shown to have antiapoptotic properties and to decrease postresuscitation inflammation in rodent and porcine models of HS.

Neuronal precursor-restricted transduction via in utero CNS gene delivery of a novel bipartite HSV amplicon/transposase hybrid vector.

The ability to modify genetically in utero the precursors of neuronal lineage contributing to multiple postmitotic cell types in the adult central nervous system would provide a means to evaluate strategies to ameliorate conditions affecting cellular patterning, metabolism, or survival. The herpes simplex virus (HSV)-derived amplicon, a vector devoid of viral genes and with the largest known payload capacity, normally exists episomally within nuclei of transduced cells, thus precluding conveyance during mitosis. Herein, we modify the Tc1-like Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system to create an integrating amplicon vector platform wherein provision of transposase in trans effectively catalyzes integration of a transgenomic segment.

Early correlation of microglial activation with enhanced tumor necrosis factor-alpha and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 expression specifically within the entorhinal cortex of triple transgenic Alzheimer's disease mice.

Background: Alzheimer's disease is a complex neurodegenerative disorder characterized pathologically by a temporal and spatial progression of beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposition, neurofibrillary tangle formation, and synaptic degeneration. Inflammatory processes have been implicated in initiating and/or propagating AD-associated pathology within the brain, as inflammatory cytokine expression and other markers of inflammation are pronounced in individuals with AD pathology. The current study examines whether inflammatory processes are evident early in the disease process in the 3xTg-AD mouse model and if regional differences in inflammatory profiles exist.

The Milan Project: a newborn hearing screening programme.

Aim: Since 1997 a newborn hearing screening programme has been implemented by the U.O. Neurologia-Neurofisiopatologia and Dipartimento di Neonatologia of the Istituti Clinici di Perfezionamento ICP in Milan for both babies with no risk and those at risk of hearing impairment.

Chemoembolization of the hepatic artery with BCNU for metastatic uveal melanoma: results of a phase II study.

Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults and the liver is the most common site for systemic metastases. We conducted a phase II clinical trial for patients with hepatic metastases from uveal melanoma using chemoembolization of the hepatic artery with 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) dissolved in ethiodized oil. Gelatin sponge particles were used as a transiently occlusive agent.

Epileptic seizures, epilepsy and epileptic syndromes in newborns: a nosological approach to 94 new cases by the 2001 proposed diagnostic scheme for people with epileptic seizures and with epilepsy.

Purpose: To assess the advantages of the 2001 ILAE proposed diagnostic scheme for classification of newborns with epileptic seizures over the 1989 ILAE classification.

Method: Clinical features, seizure semiology and duration, neurological evaluation, ictal and interictal EEG, brain imaging and outcome at the end of the neonatal period (44 weeks post-conceptional age) of 94 newborns with EEG confirmed seizures were analyzed. The 2001 ILAE classification was applied where possible.

Metabolic and perceptual responses during Spinning cycle exercise.

Purpose: The present investigation was undertaken to compare metabolic and perceptual responses between exercise performed at constant intensity (CON) and with a Spinning protocol of variable intensity (VAR).

Method: Fifteen subjects, including seven males and eight females (23 +/- 5 yr, 72 +/- 17 kg, and 171 +/- 10 cm), underwent two experimental trials. During each trial, subjects performed a 30-min cycle exercise protocol that was followed by a 30-min recovery period.

DNA CpG hypomethylation induces heterochromatin reorganization involving the histone variant macroH2A.

In mammalian heterochromatin, cytosine bases of CpG dinucleotides are symmetrically modified by methylation. Patterns of CpG methylation are maintained by the action of Dnmt1, the mammalian maintenance cytosine methyltransferase enzyme. We genetically manipulated the levels of CpG methylation and found that extensive chromatin alterations occur in pericentric heterochromatin.

HSV amplicon-mediated Abeta vaccination in Tg2576 mice: differential antigen-specific immune responses.

Given the participation of amyloid beta (Abeta) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis the derivation of experimental therapeutics to prevent Abeta fibrillogenesis and/or enhance removal of parenchymal amyloid deposits represent viable disease-modifying approaches. Active Abeta-based immunotherapies have shown promise in mouse AD models, but application in human trials was accompanied by moderate brain inflammation in a subset of patients. Immune-shaping vaccine platforms may mitigate adverse effects.

Interleukin-6 infusion blunts proinflammatory cytokine production without causing systematic toxicity in a swine model of uncontrolled hemorrhagic shock.

Background: Serum elevations of interleukin-6 (IL-6) correlate with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and mortality in critically injured trauma patients. Data from rodent models of controlled hemorrhage suggest that recombinant IL-6 (rIL-6) infusion protects tissue at risk for ischemia-reperfusion injury. Exogenous rIL-6 administered during shock appears to abrogate inflammation, providing a protective rather than a deleterious influence.

Advancements in immersive VR as a tool for preoperative planning for laparoscopic surgery.

The utility of three-dimensional (3D) models for planning laparoscopic surgery and surgical training has been demonstrated. (1) Computed tomography (CT) scans with oral and intravenous contrast medium are frequently used for preoperative evaluation of patients undergoing complex laparoscopic surgery. Immersive 3D VR overcomes many of the conceptual limitations encountered when conveying or teaching 3D relationships via 2D images traditionally produced by these scans.

Using semi-automated image processing and desktop systems to incorporate actual patient volumetric data in immersive surgical planning and viewing systems for multiple patients.

This paper describes how patient specific volumetric data are managed from image acquisition through final processing for the purposes of creating a 3D VR rendering of user selected and manipulated 3D models. The system described here allows for the development of quick, inexpensive, and clinician manipulated patient-specific models. The utility of this process is demonstrated by being able to move VRML models to desktop or immersive environments for both pre-operative planning and patient-specific surgical and anatomical training.

Inclusion of 3-D computed tomography rendering and immersive VR in a third year medical student surgery curriculum.

Computed tomography (CT) scans are frequently used for preoperative evaluation of patients undergoing complex surgery and are therefore commonly encountered by medical students on their surgical rotations. Interpretation of these CT scan images is therefore an integral component of all medical students' surgical rotations. Additionally, advanced rendering available from modem scanners and registration of multimodal or serial scans require the student to understand how volumetric anatomy relates to cross-sectional anatomy.

Increased susceptibility to liver injury after hemorrhagic shock in rats chronically fed ethanol: role of nuclear factor-kappa B, interleukin-6, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.

Chronic ethanol use preceding severe trauma and hemorrhagic shock (HS) is associated with an increased incidence of multiorgan failure (MOF) and death; however, the molecular basis for this increased susceptibility is unknown. We previously demonstrated that production of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), mediated by nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B), each make essential contributions to organ injury and inflammation in a rodent model of controlled HS, and we proposed in this study to examine the hypothesis that the increased susceptibility to MOF after shock/trauma in the setting of chronic ethanol use is due to an exaggerated activation of NF-kappa B and production of these proinflammatory cytokines. We observed increased HS-induced liver injury 4 h after resuscitation in rats fed the ethanol-containing Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet for 8 weeks compared with rats fed the control liquid diet (3-fold increase in serum alanine aminotransferase [ALT], P = 0.