The Impact of Hepatitis C Virus Infection on Buprenorphine Dose in Pregnancy.

Objective: Buprenorphine (BUP) is commonly used for opioid maintenance therapy in pregnancy. Our goal was to determine whether liver dysfunction related to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection impacts BUP dosing requirements in pregnancy.

Study Design: This was a retrospective cohort study of pregnant women with antenatal exposure to BUP to compare dosing between individuals positive versus negative for HCV infection.

Lymphovascular space invasion in uterine corpus cancer: What is its prognostic significance in the absence of lymph node metastases?

Objective: Lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) is a poor prognostic indicator in uterine cancer, primarily due to its association with lymph node metastases. We sought to determine if LVSI provides any prognostic information for uterine cancer subjects in the absence of nodal disease.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed using a database of women treated for uterine cancer at MUSC from 2005 to 2012.

Calpain inhibitor attenuated optic nerve damage in acute optic neuritis in rats.

Optic neuritis (ON), which is an acute inflammatory autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), often occurs in multiple sclerosis (MS). ON is an early diagnostic sign in most MS patients caused by damage to the optic nerve leading to visual dysfunction. Various features of both MS and ON can be studied following induction of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS, in Lewis rats.

Neuroprotective effects of genistein in VSC4.1 motoneurons exposed to activated microglial cytokines.

Pro-inflammatory cytokines released from activated microglia may be responsible for neuronal damage and resulting motor deficits associated with CNS disorders such as spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. Estrogen (17β-estradiol) is capable of ameliorating motoneuron death following spinal cord injury, but has a number of deleterious side effects. Genistein (GEN), an estrogen receptor beta agonist and potent antioxidant, may represent an alternative to estrogen in treating neurodegenerative disorders.