The extent of the neurocognitive impairment in elderly survivors of war suffering from PTSD: meta-analysis and literature review.

Objectives: We performed a meta-analysis and systematic review on elderly survivors of war suffering from PTSD to estimate the variability in their cognitive impairment based on individual neuropsychological tests.

Methods: We included case control studies that explored the association of cognitive deficits in elderly PTSD civilian survivor of wars (age >60 years), using MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO from the inception to January 2018. We compared the cognitive performances in three comparisons i) PTSD+ vs.

Formation of a traumatic air cyst and ensuing hemopneumothorax during CT angiography in a patient with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) refers to a rare group of genetic disorders that makeup part of the connective tissue disorders consortium. It is characterized by clinical features such as skin hyperextensibility, joint hypermobility, and tissue fragility. A vascular subtype (EDS IV) exists, that predisposes affected patients to vascular injury and is well-known and documented.

The Levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor in Patients with Myofascial Pain Syndrome and in Healthy Controls.

Background: Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) plays an important role in muscle maintenance and repair. The role of IGF-2 in the muscle is less clear.

Objective: To compare the levels of IGF-1 and IGF-2 in participants with acute myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) versus healthy controls and to determine whether age, gender, body mass index (BMI), region of pain, and pain intensity are associated with IGF levels.

Performances on individual neurocognitive tests by people experiencing a current major depression episode: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background And Purposes: Previous meta-analyses on neurocognitive test performances in depression have provided effect sizes for cognitive domains. Most domain effect sizes have medium to high variance heterogeneity. Restriction to each test performance could reduce variance and clarify differing test effect sizes.

Correction to: Effect of Stimulus Polarity on Detection Thresholds in Cochlear Implant Users: Relationships with Average Threshold, Gap Detection, and Rate Discrimination.

The middle initial of Julie G. Arenberg's name was incorrect in the original publication; it is correct as displayed here.

Effect of Stimulus Polarity on Detection Thresholds in Cochlear Implant Users: Relationships with Average Threshold, Gap Detection, and Rate Discrimination.

Previous psychophysical and modeling studies suggest that cathodic stimulation by a cochlear implant (CI) may preferentially activate the peripheral processes of the auditory nerve, whereas anodic stimulation may preferentially activate the central axons. Because neural degeneration typically starts with loss of the peripheral processes, lower thresholds for cathodic than for anodic stimulation may indicate good local neural survival. We measured thresholds for 99-pulse-per-second trains of triphasic (TP) pulses where the central high-amplitude phase was either anodic (TP-A) or cathodic (TP-C).

A Dynamically Focusing Cochlear Implant Strategy Can Improve Vowel Identification in Noise.

Objectives: The standard, monopolar (MP) electrode configuration used in commercially available cochlear implants (CI) creates a broad electrical field, which can lead to unwanted channel interactions. Use of more focused configurations, such as tripolar and phased array, has led to mixed results for improving speech understanding. The purpose of the present study was to assess the efficacy of a physiologically inspired configuration called dynamic focusing, using focused tripolar stimulation at low levels and less focused stimulation at high levels.

Single-energy non-contrast hepatic steatosis criteria applied to virtual non-contrast images: is it still highly specific and positively predictive?

Aim: To determine the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of single-energy non-contrast hepatic steatosis criteria on dual-energy virtual non-contrast (VNC) images.

Materials And Methods: Forty-eight computed tomography (CT) examinations, which included single-energy non-contrast (TNC) and contrast-enhanced dual-energy CT angiography (CTA) of the abdomen, were enrolled. VNC images were reconstructed from the CTA.

Circulating biomarkers in acute myofascial pain: A case-control study.

The aims of the present study were to compare levels of circulating inflammatory biomarkers and growth factors between patients with myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) and healthy control participants, and to assess the relationship among inflammatory markers and growth factors in the two groups.Biomarkers levels were assessed in patients (n = 37) with myofascial pain complaints recruited from the hospital emergency department and non-MPS controls (n = 21), recruited via advertisements in the hospital and community.Blood levels of the cytokines, namely, interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and interleukin-12 (IL-12), and the chemokine, namely, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC), eotaxin, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and macrophage inflammatory proteins-1β (MIP-1β) were significantly higher in patients with MPS than controls.

Magnitude and variability of effect sizes for the associations between chronic pain and cognitive test performances: a meta-analysis.

Objectives And Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to estimate the size and variability of the association between chronic pain (CP) and poorer cognitive test performances as a function of individual tests, pain sub-types, and study sources on 22 studies having (1) a control group, (2) reported means and standard deviations (SDs) and (3) tests studied at least 3 times.

Results: CP patients performed significantly poorer with small to moderate effects (d = -.31 to -.

Coordinated movement, neuromuscular synaptogenesis and trans-synaptic signaling defects in Drosophila galactosemia models.

The multiple galactosemia disease states manifest long-term neurological symptoms. Galactosemia I results from loss of galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT), which converts galactose-1-phosphate + UDP-glucose to glucose-1-phosphate + UDP-galactose. Galactosemia II results from loss of galactokinase (GALK), phosphorylating galactose to galactose-1-phosphate.

Rate discrimination, gap detection and ranking of temporal pitch in cochlear implant users.

Cochlear implant (CI) users have poor temporal pitch perception, as revealed by two key outcomes of rate discrimination tests: (i) rate discrimination thresholds (RDTs) are typically larger than the corresponding frequency difference limen for pure tones in normal hearing listeners, and (ii) above a few hundred pulses per second (i.e. the "upper limit" of pitch), CI users cannot discriminate further increases in pulse rate.

Synaptic roles for phosphomannomutase type 2 in a new Drosophila congenital disorder of glycosylation disease model.

Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs) constitute a rapidly growing family of human diseases resulting from heritable mutations in genes driving the production and modification of glycoproteins. The resulting symptomatic hypoglycosylation causes multisystemic defects that include severe neurological impairments, revealing a particularly critical requirement for tightly regulated glycosylation in the nervous system. The most common CDG, CDG-Ia (PMM2-CDG), arises from phosphomannomutase type 2 (PMM2) mutations.

Two classes of matrix metalloproteinases reciprocally regulate synaptogenesis.

Synaptogenesis requires orchestrated intercellular communication between synaptic partners, with trans-synaptic signals necessarily traversing the extracellular synaptomatrix separating presynaptic and postsynaptic cells. Extracellular matrix metalloproteinases (Mmps) regulated by secreted tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (Timps), cleave secreted and membrane-associated targets to sculpt the extracellular environment and modulate intercellular signaling. Here, we test the roles of Mmp at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) model synapse in the reductionist Drosophila system, which contains just two Mmps (secreted Mmp1 and GPI-anchored Mmp2) and one secreted Timp.

Overelaborated synaptic architecture and reduced synaptomatrix glycosylation in a Drosophila classic galactosemia disease model.

Classic galactosemia (CG) is an autosomal recessive disorder resulting from loss of galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT), which catalyzes conversion of galactose-1-phosphate and uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glucose to glucose-1-phosphate and UDP-galactose, immediately upstream of UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine synthesis. These four UDP-sugars are essential donors for driving the synthesis of glycoproteins and glycolipids, which heavily decorate cell surfaces and extracellular spaces. In addition to acute, potentially lethal neonatal symptoms, maturing individuals with CG develop striking neurodevelopmental, motor and cognitive impairments.

Examining the electro-neural interface of cochlear implant users using psychophysics, CT scans, and speech understanding.

This study examines the relationship between focused-stimulation thresholds, electrode positions, and speech understanding in deaf subjects treated with a cochlear implant (CI). Focused stimulation is more selective than monopolar stimulation, which excites broad regions of the cochlea, so may be more sensitive as a probe of neural survival patterns. Focused thresholds are on average higher and more variable across electrodes than monopolar thresholds.

N-glycosylation requirements in neuromuscular synaptogenesis.

Neural development requires N-glycosylation regulation of intercellular signaling, but the requirements in synaptogenesis have not been well tested. All complex and hybrid N-glycosylation requires MGAT1 (UDP-GlcNAc:α-3-D-mannoside-β1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyl-transferase I) function, and Mgat1 nulls are the most compromised N-glycosylation condition that survive long enough to permit synaptogenesis studies. At the Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ), Mgat1 mutants display selective loss of lectin-defined carbohydrates in the extracellular synaptomatrix, and an accompanying accumulation of the secreted endogenous Mind the gap (MTG) lectin, a key synaptogenesis regulator.

Multipolar current focusing increases spectral resolution in cochlear implants.

Cochlear implants are highly successful neural prostheses that restore hearing in the deaf, often resulting in high levels of speech understanding in quiet listening conditions. In more challenging conditions, however, cochlear implant subjects often score much lower than their normal-hearing peers, possibly reflecting limits of the electrode-neural interface. In this study, we compare monopolar stimulation versus focused stimulation, using multipolar channels, to test if current focusing can increase spectral resolution.

Spartin regulates synaptic growth and neuronal survival by inhibiting BMP-mediated microtubule stabilization.

Troyer syndrome is a hereditary spastic paraplegia caused by human spartin (SPG20) gene mutations. We have generated a Drosophila disease model showing that Spartin functions presynaptically with endocytic adaptor Eps15 to regulate synaptic growth and function. Spartin inhibits bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling by promoting endocytic degradation of BMP receptor wishful thinking (Wit).

Developing biologically-based assessment tools for physical therapy management of neck pain.

Synopsis: Neck pain is a common and episodic condition that is treated using a spectrum of interventions known to be moderately effective but is associated with a significant incidence of chronic pain. Recently, there has been increased focus on defining biological aspects of neck pain. Studies have indicated that neurophysiological, biomechanical, and motor control abnormalities are present and may be useful either in prognosis or classification.

Injury measurement properties of serum interleukin-6 following lumbar decompression surgery.

Background: Circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) is frequently used to study surgical injury and inflammation. Measurement properties of serum IL-6 were examined following lumbar decompression surgery (LDS), including time course, sensitivity, and validity for detecting muscle trauma in comparison to the muscle cytoplasmic protein creatine kinase (CK).

Materials And Methods: Seven women and seven men had serial blood samples taken in the preoperative waiting areas, immediately after surgery, at 6, 12, 24, 48 h, 4 d, and at 6 to 7 d.

Validity of serum creatine kinase as a measure of muscle injury produced by lumbar surgery.

Background And Purpose: Serum creatine kinase (CK) concentrations have historically been used to investigate muscle disease and serious muscle damage, and there is a growing interest in the potential for a biochemical approach to quantifying skeletal muscle injury occurring in orthopedic surgeries and spinal injuries. The wide availability of CK measurement could foster spinal muscle injury research. However, measurement validity has never been systematically demonstrated in clinical settings.