Intensive glucose control in critically ill adults: a protocol for a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis.

Objective: The optimal target for blood glucose concentration in critically ill patients is unclear. We will perform a systematic review and meta-analysis with aggregated and individual patient data from randomized controlled trials, comparing intensive glucose control with liberal glucose control in critically ill adults.

Data Sources: MEDLINE®, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials, and clinical trials registries (World Health Organization, clinical trials.

Increased prevalence of Parkinson's disease in alkaptonuria.

Amongst a cohort of 88 alkaptonuria (AKU) patients attending the United Kingdom National Alkaptonuria Centre (NAC), four unrelated patients had co-existing Parkinson's disease (PD). Two of the NAC patients developed PD before receiving nitisinone (NIT) while the other two developed overt PD during NIT therapy. NIT lowers redox-active homogentisic acid (HGA) and profoundly increases tyrosine (TYR).

Variants in Mitochondrial ATP Synthase Cause Variable Neurologic Phenotypes.

Objective: ATP synthase (ATPase) is responsible for the majority of ATP production. Nevertheless, disease phenotypes associated with mutations in ATPase subunits are extremely rare. We aimed at expanding the spectrum of ATPase-related diseases.

Human d-lactate dehydrogenase deficiency by mutation in a patient with neurological manifestations and mitochondrial complex IV deficiency.

Background: d-lactate, one of the isomers of lactate, exists in a low concentration in healthy individuals and it can be oxidized to pyruvate catalyzed by d-lactate dehydrogenase. Excessive amount of d-lactate causes d-lactate acidosis associated with neurological manifestations.

Methods And Results: We report here a patient with developmental delay, cerebellar ataxia, and transient hepatomegaly.

Lysine methyltransferase G9a is an important modulator of trained immunity.

Objectives: Histone methyltransferase G9a, also known as Euchromatic Histone Lysine Methyltransferase 2 (EHMT2), mediates H3K9 methylation which is associated with transcriptional repression. It possesses immunomodulatory effects and is overexpressed in multiple types of cancer. In this study, we investigated the role of G9a in the induction of trained immunity, a innate immune memory, and its effects in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients treated with intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG).

A fatal case of -associated primary coenzyme Q deficiency.

Background: Primary coenzyme Q (CoQ) deficiencies are clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders associated with defects of genes involved in the CoQ biosynthesis pathway. -associated CoQ deficiency is very rare and only two cases have been reported.

Methods And Results: We report a patient with encephalo-myo-nephro-cardiopathy, persistent lactic acidosis, and basal ganglia lesions resulting in early infantile death.

Spontaneous Regression of Ovarian Carcinoma After Septic Peritonitis; A Unique Case Report.

Despite advances in therapy, ovarian cancer remains the most lethal gynecological malignancy and prognosis has not substantially improved over the past 3 decades. Immunotherapy is a promising new treatment option. However, the immunosuppressive cancer microenvironment must be overcome for immunotherapy to be successful.

[Chemohyperthermia using MMC in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer: Current status and future perspectives.].

In an effort to decrease recurrence and progression rates in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), transurethral resection of a bladder tumor is followed by intravesical instillations using Mitomycin-C (MMC) and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). In spite of these adjuvant treatment modalities, recurrence and progression rates remain high. Because of these limitations of current standard therapy and the shortage of BCG, there is a search for alternative forms of treatment in NMIBC.

Brain resting-state networks in adolescents with high-functioning autism: Analysis of spatial connectivity and temporal neurodynamics.

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is mainly characterized by functional and communication impairments as well as restrictive and repetitive behavior. The leading hypothesis for the neural basis of autism postulates globally abnormal brain connectivity, which can be assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Even in the absence of a task, the brain exhibits a high degree of functional connectivity, known as intrinsic, or resting-state, connectivity.

The impact of hemodynamic variability and signal mixing on the identifiability of effective connectivity structures in BOLD fMRI.

Purpose: Multiple computational studies have demonstrated that essentially all current analytical approaches to determine effective connectivity perform poorly when applied to synthetic functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) datasets. In this study, we take a theoretical approach to investigate the potential factors facilitating and hindering effective connectivity research in fMRI.

Materials And Methods: In this work, we perform a simulation study with use of Dynamic Causal Modeling generative model in order to gain new insights on the influence of factors such as the slow hemodynamic response, mixed signals in the network and short time series, on the effective connectivity estimation in fMRI studies.

ROC surface assessment of the ANB angle and Wits appraisal's diagnostic performance with a statistically derived 'gold standard': does normalizing measurements have any merit?

Objective: To assess the ANB angle's and Wits appraisal's diagnostic performance using an extended version of Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analysis, which renders ROC surfaces. These were calculated for both the conventional and normalized cephalometric tests (calculated by exchanging the patient's reference landmarks with those of the Procrustes superimposed sample mean shape).The required 'gold standard' was derived statistically, by applying generalized Procrustes superimposition (GPS) and principal component analysis (PCA) to the digitized landmarks, and ordering patients based upon their PC2 scores.

Temporal Cortex Activation to Audiovisual Speech in Normal-Hearing and Cochlear Implant Users Measured with Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Background: Speech understanding may rely not only on auditory, but also on visual information. Non-invasive functional neuroimaging techniques can expose the neural processes underlying the integration of multisensory processes required for speech understanding in humans. Nevertheless, noise (from functional MRI, fMRI) limits the usefulness in auditory experiments, and electromagnetic artifacts caused by electronic implants worn by subjects can severely distort the scans (EEG, fMRI).

Subject-Controlled, On-demand, Dorsal Genital Nerve Stimulation to Treat Urgency Urinary Incontinence; a Pilot.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of subject-controlled, on-demand, dorsal genital nerve (DGN) stimulation on non-neurogenic urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) in a domestic setting.

Materials And Methods: Non-neurogenic patients >18 years with overactive bladder symptoms and UUI were included. Exclusion criteria were mainly stress urinary incontinence.

Chemosensory anxiety cues moderate the experience of social exclusion - an fMRI investigation with Cyberball.

Recent evidence suggests that the experience of stress can be communicated between individuals via chemosensory cues. Little is known, however, about the impact of these cues on neurophysiological responses during a socially threatening situation. In the current investigation we implemented a widely used paradigm to study social exclusion-Cyberball-to examine whether chemosensory cues signaling anxiety modulate the neuronal effects of ostracism.

Platelet mitochondrial membrane potential in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD), which has been reported not to be restricted to striatal neurons. However, studies that analyzed mitochondrial function at the level of selected enzymatic activities in peripheral tissues have produced conflicting data. We considered the electron transport chain as a complex system with mitochondrial membrane potential as an integrative indicator for mitochondrial fitness.

Training shortens search times in children with visual impairment accompanied by nystagmus.

Perceptual learning (PL) can improve near visual acuity (NVA) in 4-9 year old children with visual impairment (VI). However, the mechanisms underlying improved NVA are unknown. The present study compares feature search and oculomotor measures in 4-9 year old children with VI accompanied by nystagmus (VI+nys [n = 33]) and children with normal vision (NV [n = 29]).

Noradrenaline-induced release of newly-synthesized accumbal dopamine: differential role of alpha- and beta-adrenoceptors.

Previous studies have shown that intra-accumbens infusion of isoproterenol (ISO), a beta-adrenoceptor-agonist, and phenylephrine (PE), an alpha-adrenoceptor-agonist, increase the release of accumbal dopamine (DA). In the present study we analyzed whether the ISO-induced release of DA is sensitive to pretreatment with the DA synthesis inhibitor alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine (AMPT). Earlier studies have shown that the PE-induced release of DA is derived from DA pools that are resistant to AMPT.

Individual differences in bodily freezing predict emotional biases in decision making.

Instrumental decision making has long been argued to be vulnerable to emotional responses. Literature on multiple decision making systems suggests that this emotional biasing might reflect effects of a system that regulates innately specified, evolutionarily preprogrammed responses. To test this hypothesis directly, we investigated whether effects of emotional faces on instrumental action can be predicted by effects of emotional faces on bodily freezing, an innately specified response to aversive relative to appetitive cues.

Integration of stress and leptin signaling by CART producing neurons in the rodent midbrain centrally projecting Edinger-Westphal nucleus.

Leptin targets the brain to regulate feeding, neuroendocrine function and metabolism. The leptin receptor is present in hypothalamic centers controlling energy metabolism as well as in the centrally projecting Edinger-Westphal nucleus (EWcp), a region implicated in the stress response and in various aspects of stress-related behaviors. We hypothesized that the stress response by cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)-producing EWcp-neurons would depend on the animal's energy state.

Candidate disease gene prediction using Gentrepid: application to a genome-wide association study on coronary artery disease.

Current single-locus-based analyses and candidate disease gene prediction methodologies used in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) do not capitalize on the wealth of the underlying genetic data, nor functional data available from molecular biology. Here, we analyzed GWAS data from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) on coronary artery disease (CAD). Gentrepid uses a multiple-locus-based approach, drawing on protein pathway- or domain-based data to make predictions.