Developing chicken cardiac muscle mitochondria are resistant to variations in incubation oxygen levels.

Background: Chronic exposure to hypoxia during vertebrate development can produce abnormal cardiovascular morphology and function. The aim of this study was to examine cardiac mitochondria function in an avian model, the chicken, in response to embryonic development under hypoxic (15% O), normoxic (21% O), or hyperoxic (40% O) incubation conditions.

Methods: Chicken embryos were incubated in hypoxia, normoxia, or hyperoxia beginning on day 5 of incubation through hatching.

Imaging update on developmental dysplasia of the hip with the role of MRI.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to review developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), a well-described entity previously evaluated with a standard multimodality imaging algorithm, typically consisting of ultrasound and radiography depending on patient age.

Conclusion: MRI is increasingly used because it is a noninvasive imaging modality that offers excellent anatomic detail, enabling the differentiation of ossified and unossified components of the hip. The radiologist should be aware of the increasing role of MRI and recognize the critical MRI findings of DDH.

A potential means of improving the evaluation of deformity corrections with Taylor spatial frames over time by using volumetric imaging: preliminary results.

Objective: In this study we explore the possibility of accurately and cost-effectively monitoring tibial deformation induced by Taylor Spatial Frames (TSFs), using time-separated computed tomography (CT) scans and a volume fusion technique to determine tibial rotation and translation.

Materials And Methods: Serial CT examinations (designated CT-A and CT-B, separated by a time interval of several months) of two patients were investigated using a previously described and validated volume fusion technique, in which user-defined landmarks drive the 3D registration of the two CT volumes. Both patients had undergone dual osteotomies to correct for tibial length and rotational deformity.

Plasma BDNF is reduced among middle-aged and elderly women with impaired insulin function: evidence of a compensatory mechanism.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a regulatory role in neuronal differentiation and synaptic plasticity and has been linked to glucose regulation and cognition. Associations among plasma BDNF, cognition, and insulin function were explored. Forty-one participants with impaired insulin function (IIF), ranging from insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), were matched with 41 healthy controls on gender, age, education, and IQ.

Diabetes, sugar-coated but harmful to the brain.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus appears to directly impair cognition and brain function, independent of its associated cardiovascular disease. This is supported by the presence of similar findings among adults with insulin resistance (pre-diabetes) and obese children with type 2 diabetes, years before overt cardiovascular disease. Hippocampal based memory performance is impaired early in the disease, although deficits in executive function, attention, and psychomotor speed are also seen in more chronic disease and/or poorer disease control, particularly in the presence of co-morbidities such as hypertension.