Characterization of focused ultrasound blood-brain barrier disruption effect on inflammation as a function of treatment parameters.

The technology of focused ultrasound-mediated disruption of the blood-brain barrier (FUS-BBB opening) has now been used in over 20 Phase 1 clinical trials to validate the safety and feasibility of BBB opening for drug delivery in patients with brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases. The primary treatment parameters, FUS intensity and microbubble dose, are chosen to balance sufficient BBB disruption to achieve drug delivery against potential acute vessel damage leading to microhemorrhage. However, other safety considerations due to second order effects caused by BBB disruption, such as inflammation and alteration of neurovascular function, are only beginning to be understood.

Modelling the age pattern of fertility: an individual-level approach.

Fitting statistical models to aggregate data is still the dominant approach in many demographic and biodemographic applications. Although these macro-level models have proven useful for a variety of tasks, they often have no demographic interpretation. Individual-level modelling, on the other hand, offers a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying observed patterns.

Spine Pseudogout Following Breast Cancer Treatment: A Report of Two Cases.

Calcium pyrophosphate disease (CPPD) is a commonly diagnosed crystal-induced disease that typically presents as acute monoarticular or oligoarticular arthritis. It is less commonly seen in the spine, and its clinical importance in this area is still relatively understudied. Isolated spinal CPPD is quite rare; a diagnosis of spinal CPPD is almost always accompanied by peripheral CPPD.

Blood immune profiles reveal a CXCR3/CCR5 axis of dysregulation in early sepsis.

We report on a pilot study exploring whether blood immune signatures can reveal early specific indicator profiles for patients meeting sepsis criteria upon hospital admission. We analysed samples of sepsis-suspected patients (N=20) and age-spanning healthy controls (N=12), using flow cytometry-based assays. We measured inflammatory markers from plasma fractions, and immunophenotyped freshly isolated unfixed PBMCs for leukocytes subsets representation and expression of activation markers, including chemokine receptors.