MRI scanning in patients with new and existing CapSureFix Novus 5076 pacemaker leads: randomized trial results.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be safely performed in patients with magnetic resonance (MR)-conditional pacemaker systems but remains relatively contraindicated with non-MR-conditional pacemaker systems.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of MRI without positioning restrictions in patients with an MR-conditional pacemaker and currently a non-MR-conditional Medtronic CapSureFix Novus 5076 lead(s).

Methods: The study randomized 266 patients in a 2:1 ratio to the MRI group (177 patients) or to the control group (89 patients).

A population-based study on combined markers for early Parkinson's disease.

The prerequisite for an earlier diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD) are markers that are both sensitive and specific for clinically definite PD and its prediagnosic phases. Promising candidates include enlarged hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra (SN+) on transcranial sonography (TCS) and hyposmia. However, despite good sensitivity and specificity, both markers have yet failed to yield reliable predictions.

One versus two-step Roux-en-Y gastric bypass after gastric banding—data analysis of the German Bariatric Surgery Registry.

Background: Bariatric surgery outcomes have been examined in Germany since January 1, 2005. All data were registered prospectively in cooperation with the Institute of Quality Assurance in Surgery at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.

Methods: The data were collected from an online data bank.

Spinal fMRI reveals decreased descending inhibition during secondary mechanical hyperalgesia.

Mechanical hyperalgesia is one distressing symptom of neuropathic pain which is explained by central sensitization of the nociceptive system. This sensitization can be induced experimentally with the heat/capsaicin sensitization model. The aim was to investigate and compare spinal and supraspinal activation patterns of identical mechanical stimulation before and after sensitization using functional spinal magnetic resonance imaging (spinal fMRI).

Effects of the Extraterrestrial Environment on Plants: Recommendations for Future Space Experiments for the MELiSSA Higher Plant Compartment.

Due to logistical challenges, long-term human space exploration missions require a life support system capable of regenerating all the essentials for survival. Higher plants can be utilized to provide a continuous supply of fresh food, atmosphere revitalization, and clean water for humans. Plants can adapt to extreme environments on Earth, and model plants have been shown to grow and develop through a full life cycle in microgravity.

HSF-1-mediated cytoskeletal integrity determines thermotolerance and life span.

The conserved heat shock transcription factor-1 (HSF-1) is essential to cellular stress resistance and life-span determination. The canonical function of HSF-1 is to regulate a network of genes encoding molecular chaperones that protect proteins from damage caused by extrinsic environmental stress or intrinsic age-related deterioration. In Caenorhabditis elegans, we engineered a modified HSF-1 strain that increased stress resistance and longevity without enhanced chaperone induction.

A cost evaluation methodology for surgical technologies.

Objective: To create and validate a micro-costing methodology that surgeons and hospital administrators can use to evaluate the cost of implementing innovative surgical technologies.

Methods: Our analysis is broken down into several elements of fixed and variable costs which are used to effectively and easily calculate the cost of surgical operations. As an example of application, we use data from 86 robot assisted gastric bypass operations made in our hospital.

Neuroticism developmental courses--implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood.

Background: Neuroticism is frequently discussed as a risk factor for psychopathology. According to the maturity principle, neuroticism decreases over the course of life, but not uniformly across individuals. However, the implications of differences in personality maturation on mental health have not been well studied so far.

An easy and reproducible parameter for the assessment of the pressure gradient in patients with aortic stenosis disease: A magnetic resonance study.

Aim: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has been increasingly used as an alternative method to evaluate the severity of aortic stenosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether the indirect measurement of the aortic gradient (Calc-PG), derived from Gorlin's formula, is a reproducible parameter for gradient assessment. Then, we evaluated if this parameter is correlated with left ventricular hypertrophy, considered as a marker of severity of aortic stenosis, better than phase-contrast sequences-derived pressure gradient (PC-PG) and aortic valve area.

Analysis of activities in the daily lives of older adults exposed to the Pilates Method.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyse the Pilates Method (PM) to assess whether it can help to improve the performance of activities that older adults undertake in their daily lives.

Method: this is a pre-post experimental study with a convenience sample consisting of 22 women, aged from 65 to 74 years. Data collection was divided into three stages: 1) the Battery Test of Daily Life Activities for Physically Independent Elderly (BTDLAPIE); 2) 12 weeks of Pilates training, with 50-minute sessions twice a week; 3) Repetition of all BTDLAPIE tests.

Human face processing is tuned to sexual age preferences.

Human faces can motivate nurturing behaviour or sexual behaviour when adults see a child or an adult face, respectively. This suggests that face processing is tuned to detecting age cues of sexual maturity to stimulate the appropriate reproductive behaviour: either caretaking or mating. In paedophilia, sexual attraction is directed to sexually immature children.

[Revisional surgery and reoperations in obesity and metabolic surgery : Data analysis of the German bariatric surgery registry 2005-2012].

Background: Increasing numbers of interventions for obesity and metabolic surgery have led to an increase of primary bariatric operations as well as redo operations and revisional surgery after various primary bariatric procedures. Evidence-based guidelines for indications and choice of procedure for revisional surgery do not currently exist.

Aim: The spectrum of various revisional and redo operations following standard operative procedures for obesity and metabolic surgery is presented based on current data from the German bariatric surgery registry (GBSR, German nationwide survey on quality assurance in bariatric surgery) and a literature search.

First light of the Gemini Planet imager.

The Gemini Planet Imager is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a diffraction-suppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of the Gemini Planet Imager has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars.

Amygdala interneuron subtypes control fear learning through disinhibition.

Learning is mediated by experience-dependent plasticity in neuronal circuits. Activity in neuronal circuits is tightly regulated by different subtypes of inhibitory interneurons, yet their role in learning is poorly understood. Using a combination of in vivo single-unit recordings and optogenetic manipulations, we show that in the mouse basolateral amygdala, interneurons expressing parvalbumin (PV) and somatostatin (SOM) bidirectionally control the acquisition of fear conditioning--a simple form of associative learning--through two distinct disinhibitory mechanisms.

Influences of gender on complication rate and outcome after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass: data analysis of more than 10,000 operations from the German Bariatric Surgery Registry.

Background: Since 1 January 2005, bariatric surgery has been monitored in Germany. All related data are registered prospectively in cooperation with the Institute of Quality Assurance in Surgery at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg.

Methods: Data collection regarding obesity and metabolic surgery was started in an online database in 2005.

Spinal and supraspinal processing of thermal stimuli: an fMRI study.

Purpose: To assess and characterize responses to innocuous/noxious thermal stimuli and heat allodynia using functional spinal magnetic resonance imaging (spinal fMRI).

Materials And Methods: Spinal/supraspinal activation patterns of 16 healthy subjects were investigated by applying painful and nonpainful heat stimuli to dermatome C6 baseline and after sensitization with the heat/capsaicin model using fMRI (3T, single-shot TSE, TR 9000 msec, TE 38 msec, FOV 288 × 144 × 20 mm, matrix 192 × 96, voxel size 1 × 1 × 2 mm).

Results: Increased activity was observed in ipsi- and contralateral ventral and dorsal spinal horn during noxious heat and heat allodynia.

EEG-fMRI in myoclonic astatic epilepsy (Doose syndrome).

Objective: To identify neuronal networks underlying generalized spike and wave discharges (GSW) in myoclonic astatic epilepsy (MAE).

Methods: Simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings were performed in 13 children with MAE. Individual GSW-associated blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes were analyzed in every patient.

Are There Gender-Specific Aspects in Obesity and Metabolic Surgery? Data Analysis from the German Bariatric Surgery Registry.

Background: Since January 2005, the status of bariatric surgery in Germany has been examined in conjunction with a quality assurance study of the German Bariatric Surgery Registry (GBSR). All data are registered prospectively in cooperation with the Institute for Quality Assurance in Surgical Medicine at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany.

Methods: Data are registered in an online database.

Differential scales of protein quality control.

Proteins are notorious for their unpleasant behavior-continually at risk of misfolding, collecting damage, aggregating, and causing toxicity and disease. To counter these challenges, cells have evolved elaborate chaperone and quality control networks that can resolve damage at the level of the protein, organelle, cell, or tissue. On the smallest scale, the integrity of individual proteins is monitored during their synthesis.

[Iatrogenic splenic injuries in surgery of colorectal carcinoma: impact on the oncological long-term of outcome].

Introduction: Iatrogenic lesions of the spleen during surgery of colorectal carcinoma is considered a significant risk factor for a worse early postoperative outcome. With regard to the impact of iatrogenic splenic lesions particularly associated with splenectomy on the oncological long-term outcome, only limited valid data are available.

Methods: Data obtained in a prospective multicenter observational study were analyzed.