Initial experience involving treatment and retreatment with carmustine wafers in combination with oral temozolomide: long-term survival in a child with relapsed glioblastoma multiforme.

Background: Glioblastomas occur infrequently in children, and the prognosis is better than for glioblastomas seen in adults. Aggressive treatment is justified in pediatric patients.

Observations: We present the case of a 6-year-old child with malignant posterior temporal glioma treated with surgery, radiotherapy, local chemotherapy with carmustine wafers, and oral therapy with temozolomide, both at initial diagnosis and at relapse 18 months later.

Molecular characterization of Brazilian infectious bursal disease virus isolated from 1997 to 2005.

This retrospective study concerned 41 infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) isolates obtained from Brazilian broiler and layers flocks by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Twenty-five of them were identified as very virulent (vv) by restriction enzyme analysis and by further nucleotide and phylogenetic analysis. All of them had the typical amino acid residues, and all clustered in a phylogenetic tree with the vvIBDV strains.

Structural injury to the human sciatic nerve after intraneural needle insertion.

Background: Recent clinical reports suggest that intraneural needle placement may not always lead to neurologic injury. To explain the absence of neurologic complications in these reports, we studied the risk and extent of nerve injury after intentional needle-nerve placement in a cryopreserved human sciatic nerve.

Methods: The sciatic nerve was dissected from a cryopreserved cadaver through partial exposure.

Myoadenylate deaminase deficiency: clinico-pathological and molecular study of a series of 27 Spanish cases.

Myoadenylate deaminase deficiency (MADD) is the most common metabolic muscle disorder. Here we report the largest study to date of MADD in Spanish patients, including clinical, histological, and molecular data. Most of the patients presented with moderate clinical symptoms of exercise intolerance, including myalgia, fatigability and cramps.

Differential involvement of dopamine D1 receptors in morphine- and lithium-conditioned saccharin avoidance.

Conditioned saccharin avoidance (CSA) can be produced when either lithium chloride (LiCl) or a reinforcing drug, such as morphine, is administered following exposure to the taste of saccharin. In this study we investigated the involvement of dopamine (DA) transmission in the acquisition of morphine and LiCl-CSA. CSA was evaluated in a two-bottle choice paradigm with two conditioning pairings between saccharin and morphine or LiCl as unconditioned stimulus (US).

Probabilistic phylogenetic inference with insertions and deletions.

A fundamental task in sequence analysis is to calculate the probability of a multiple alignment given a phylogenetic tree relating the sequences and an evolutionary model describing how sequences change over time. However, the most widely used phylogenetic models only account for residue substitution events. We describe a probabilistic model of a multiple sequence alignment that accounts for insertion and deletion events in addition to substitutions, given a phylogenetic tree, using a rate matrix augmented by the gap character.

Apoplastic polyamine oxidation plays different roles in local responses of tobacco to infection by the necrotrophic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and the biotrophic bacterium Pseudomonas viridiflava.

The role of polyamine (PA) metabolism in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) defense against pathogens with contrasting pathogenic strategies was evaluated. Infection by the necrotrophic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum resulted in increased arginine decarboxylase expression and activity in host tissues, as well as putrescine and spermine accumulation in leaf apoplast. Enhancement of leaf PA levels, either by using transgenic plants or infiltration with exogenous PAs, led to increased necrosis due to infection by S.

Independent influences upon mother-toddler role reversal: infant-mother attachment disorganization and role reversal in mother's childhood.

In role reversal a child takes an inappropriate parental, spousal, or peer role with the caregiver. The study assessed attachment disorganization with mother in infancy in the Strange Situation (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978) and role reversal at 2 years old in videotaped mother-child interactions. By closely observing role reversal at this early age, results fill in the picture concerning the link between disorganized infant-mother attachment and controlling role reversal at 6 years old (Main & Cassidy, 1988; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985).

Identification of differentially expressed small non-coding RNAs in the legume endosymbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti by comparative genomics.

Bacterial small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) are being recognized as novel widespread regulators of gene expression in response to environmental signals. Here, we present the first search for sRNA-encoding genes in the nitrogen-fixing endosymbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti, performed by a genome-wide computational analysis of its intergenic regions. Comparative sequence data from eight related alpha-proteobacteria were obtained, and the interspecies pairwise alignments were scored with the programs eQRNA and RNAz as complementary predictive tools to identify conserved and stable secondary structures corresponding to putative non-coding RNAs.

[Controlling diabetes mellitus and its complications in Medellín, Colombia, 2001-2003].

Objectives: To identify the principal sociodemographic, clinical, and behavioral characteristics of patients participating in diabetic care programs in the city of Medellín, Colombia, and to evaluate progress toward the goal of metabolic control and diabetic care standards.

Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was done, analyzing the clinical records of patients who had been participating for at least 6 months in the diabetic care programs of nine health care centers in Medellín. The study period ran from January 2001 to December 2003.

Immunogenicity and safety of an experimental adjuvanted hepatitis B candidate vaccine in liver transplant patients.

Patients with chronic liver disease are at higher risk of hepatitis B (HB) virus infection before and after liver transplantation, and they commonly have a suboptimal immune response to HB vaccines. In this randomized trial, we compared the immunogenicity of primary vaccination with 2 doses of an experimental adjuvanted HB vaccine (adjuvant system 04 containing aluminium and monophosphoryl lipid A [HB-AS04]) to that of 3 double doses of a licensed HB vaccine in 93 liver transplant candidates. Depending on the waiting list for liver transplantation, a booster dose of HB-AS04 or double booster dose of the licensed HB vaccine was given before or after surgery, at 6 to 12 months after initiation of the vaccination course.

Morphine-conditioned single-trial place preference: role of nucleus accumbens shell dopamine receptors in acquisition, but not expression.

Rationale: A large body of evidence indicates an involvement of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway innervating the ventral striatum in the motivational effects of drug abuse.

Objective: The goal of the study is to clarify the role of DA D1 and D2 receptors of the rat nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell and core in the motivational effects of morphine as studied by conditioned place preference (CPP).

Methods: The effect of the intracerebral infusion of DA antagonists specific for DA D1 (SCH 39166) and D2 receptors (L-sulpiride) was studied in a single-trial place conditioning paradigm with fixed assignment of the drug to the unpreferred compartment.

Role of anionic phospholipids in the adaptation of Bacillus subtilis to high salinity.

The importance of the content of anionic phospholipids [cardiolipin (CL) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG)] in the osmotic adaptation and in the membrane structure of Bacillus subtilis cultures was investigated. Insertion mutations in the three putative cardiolipin synthase genes (ywiE, ywnE and ywjE) were obtained. Only the ywnE mutation resulted in a complete deficiency in cardiolipin and thus corresponds to a true clsA gene.

Fabry disease: an ultrastructural comparative study of skin in hemizygous and heterozygous patients.

Fabry disease is a rare X-linked lysosomal storage disorder due to alpha galactosidase A deficiency, better known after the advent of a promising treatment, a periodical enzyme replacement. As other hereditary X-linked disorders, females have historically been considered non-affected carriers, although they are, actually, clinically and pathologically affected to a variable degree. Some women are asymptomatic, but the majority present milder forms of the disease and later onset.

Recent use of signs by chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) in interactions with humans.

In light of the controversy about the linguistic properties of chimpanzee signing behavior, the recent sign use of 5 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) with long histories of sign use was analyzed while they interacted with longtime human companions. Four corpora from 1992 to 1999 consisting of 3,448 sign utterances were examined. The chimpanzees predominantly used object and action signs.

Nicotine-conditioned single-trial place preference: selective role of nucleus accumbens shell dopamine D1 receptors in acquisition.

Rationale: Experimental evidence indicates that the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway innervating the ventral striatum is critically involved in the motivational effects of drug abuse. However, the role of DA transmission of the two main subdivisions of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the shell and the core, in the motivational properties of nicotine is unknown.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of DA D1 and D2 receptors of the rat NAc shell and core in the motivational effects of nicotine using a conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm.

Macrophagic myofasciitis in childhood: a controversial entity.

Macrophagic myofasciitis is an unusual inflammatory myopathy, which has been almost exclusively reported in French adults with diffuse arthromyalgias and asthenia. It is characterized by an infiltrate of densely packed macrophages, with granular periodic-acid-Schiff positive content, on muscle biopsies at the site of vaccination. The presence of aluminum inclusions in these macrophages points to an inappropriate reaction to aluminum used as an adjuvant in some vaccines.

Beta-sarcoglycanopathy (LGMD 2E) in a Spanish family.

Out of 10 autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophies reported, 4 are caused by mutations in the genes encoding for sarcoglycans (alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-SG). Beta-sarcoglycanopathy (limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2E) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder which usually presents a severe progressive clinical course. A complete immunohistochemical evaluation of the sarcoglycan complex should be carried out to direct the mutation analysis approach.

Differential role of dopamine in drug- and lithium-conditioned saccharin avoidance.

Rats learn to avoid palatable saccharin solutions that predict the systemic administration of reinforcing drugs as well as malaise-inducing lithium chloride (conditioned saccharin avoidance, CSA). In the present study the involvement of dopamine (DA) transmission in the acquisition of morphine, nicotine and lithium-conditioned CSA was investigated in a two-bottle choice paradigm. Nicotine tartrate (0.

Miliary brain metastases presenting as rapidly progressive dementia.

We report the case of a 79-year-old woman who developed a rapidly progressive dementia (RPD) with severe memory impairment, early visual hallucinations and extrapyramidal signs. Symptoms started suddenly after hip replacement surgery following an accidental fall. Motor epileptic seizures appeared at the end of the illness.

Autosomal dominant congenital fibre type disproportion: a clinicopathological and imaging study of a large family.

Congenital fibre type disproportion (CFTD) is considered a non-progressive or slowly progressive muscle disease with relative smallness of type 1 fibres on pathological examination. Although generally benign, CFTD has a variable natural course and severe progression has been observed in some patients. The pathogenesis of the disorder is unknown and many authors consider CFTD a syndrome with multiple aetiologies rather than a separate clinical entity.

Factors associated with the presence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with the presence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC).

Methods: We studied 98 patients with CHC [47 with NASH (group HCV/NASH), 51 without NASH (group HCV)] and 85 with NASH not infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) (group NASH). We determined factors associated with the presence of NASH in patients with hepatitis C.

Evolutionary models for insertions and deletions in a probabilistic modeling framework.

Background: Probabilistic models for sequence comparison (such as hidden Markov models and pair hidden Markov models for proteins and mRNAs, or their context-free grammar counterparts for structural RNAs) often assume a fixed degree of divergence. Ideally we would like these models to be conditional on evolutionary divergence time. Probabilistic models of substitution events are well established, but there has not been a completely satisfactory theoretical framework for modeling insertion and deletion events.