TLR2-dependent inflammatory response to Porphyromonas gingivalis is MyD88 independent, whereas MyD88 is required to clear infection.

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a gram-negative anaerobe considered to be a major periodontal pathogen. TLR2 plays a central role in the response to P. gingivalis infection in vivo.

The diagnostic and prognostic value of ProGRP in lung cancer.

Aim: To investigate the diagnostic and prognostic significance of pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (ProGRP) in non-small cell (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and compare this marker with other known serum markers in lung cancer.

Patients And Methods: Serum levels of ProGRP, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), CYFRA 21-1 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were measured in 37 patients with benign pulmonary disease (BPD), 88 with advanced NSCLC and 37 with SCLC.

Results: The ProGRP assay showed a better clinical performance than that of NSE in discriminating between SCLC and BPD or NSCLC, especially at specificity higher than 90%.

Third trimester fetal intracranial hemorrhage owing to vitamin K deficiency associated with hyperemesis gravidarum.

In rare cases, severe fetal vitamin K deficiency bleeding may occur in utero as a result of insufficient vitamin K placental transfer. We present a case of a 32-week-preterm infant born with severe intracranial hemorrhage to a pregnant woman who suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum. Neonatal hematologic status was compatible with vitamin K deficiency whereas the maternal coagulation function was normal.

Pediatric tissue expansion: our experience with 103 expanded flap reconstructive procedures in 41 children.

Background: Tissue expansion is a well-recognized technique for reconstructing a wide variety of skin and soft tissue defects. Its application in the pediatric population has enabled the plastic surgeon to achieve functional and aesthetic goals that were previously unobtainable.

Objectives: To review the use of tissue expansion in the pediatric population, with particular emphasis on indication, operative technique, regional considerations and how to avoid complications.

The follow-up of patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer by urine cytology, abdominal ultrasound and urine CYFRA 21-1: a pilot study.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of urine cytology, bladder ultrasound (US), urine cytokeratin 19 fragment assay (CYFRA 21-1) and the combination of these noninvasive modalities in the detection of recurrent bladder cancer.

Patients And Methods: In a total of 154 patients that were followed with cystoscopy after endoscopic resection of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, we performed and analyzed results of 311 observations that included cytology, CYFRA 21-1, US. The urine concentration of CYFRA 21-1 was measured by an immunoradiometric assay.

Pathogenesis and management of iron deficiency anemia: emerging role of celiac disease, helicobacter pylori, and autoimmune gastritis.

The causes of iron deficiency vary significantly during different stages of life, and according to gender and socioeconomic circumstances. Although dietary iron is important, iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is mostly attributed to blood loss and may be the presenting clinical feature of occult bleeding from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract heralding underlying malignancy. Conventional GI diagnostic workup fails to establish the cause of iron deficiency in about one third of patients.

Executive functioning, awareness, and participation in daily life after mild traumatic brain injury: a preliminary study.

Objective: We investigated the relationship of executive functioning and self-awareness to participation in daily life of people after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) referred to occupational therapy in the postacute phase.

Method: Thirteen participants who sustained mTBI (average time since injury = 4.7 months, mean age = 43.

Kettle test--a brief measure of cognitive functional performance. Reliability and valdity in stroke rehabilitation.

Objectives: We examined the reliability and validity of the Kettle Test, a brief performance measure based on a complex everyday task designed to tap into basic and higher level cognitive processes.

Method: Participants included 21 people attending stroke rehabilitation and 4 occupational therapists for the reliability analysis, 36 people at discharge from stroke rehabilitation, and 36 age-matched healthy control participants for the validity analyses. Instruments included a battery of conventional cognitive measures and functional outcomes.

Involvement of Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 in the innate immune response to Treponema denticola and its outer sheath components.

Treponema denticola is considered an important oral pathogen in the development and progression of periodontal diseases. In the present study, the mechanisms of recognition and activation of murine macrophages by T. denticola and its major outer sheath protein (MSP) and lipooligosaccharide (LOS or glycolipid) were investigated.

Endoscopic ultrasound: doubtful accuracy for restaging esophageal cancer after preoperative chemotherapy.

Background: The role of endoscopic ultrasound in evaluating the response of esophageal cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is controversial.

Objectives: To evaluate the accuracy of EUS in restaging patients who underwent NAC.

Methods: The disease stage of patients with esophageal cancer was established by means of the TNM classification system.

Oral vs. pharyngeal dysphagia: surface electromyography randomized study.

Background: A clear differential diagnosis between oral and pharyngeal dysphagia remains an unsolved problem. Disorders of the oral cavity are frequently overlooked when dysphagia/odybophagia complaints are assessed. Surface electromyographic (sEMG) studies were performed on randomly assigned patients with oral and pharyngeal pathology to evaluate their dysphagia complaints for the sake of differential diagnosis.

Multitasking human endometrium: a review of endometrial biopsy as a diagnostic tool, therapeutic applications, and a source of adult stem cells.

Unlabelled: The endometrium is one of the most fascinating tissues in the human body. Its sole purpose is to enable implantation of an embryo during a very short window of opportunity in the menstrual cycle. When implantation does not take place, the endometrial cells are shed, enabling growth of a new endometrial layer the following month.

[School health services: parents' and teachers' opinions].

Background: Although School Health Services (SHS) are an efficient way of providing health care to children and adolescents, in recent years they have been curtailed in Israel.

Objectives: To study parents' and teachers' knowledge about the content of SHS, their use and importance, and their preferred way of delivering these services.

Methodology: From December 2006 - January 2007, teachers (n=304) of 2nd-12th-grade pupils and the pupils' parents (n=808) in state schools of the Hebrew education system (both secular and religious) were interviewed by phone.

The intergenerational effects of trauma from terror: A real possibility.

The goals of this article are to discuss the potential risk of children whose parents were traumatized by terror, to present literature on parenting in the context of terror, and to consider factors that may mediate the transmission of trauma-effects from parents to children. Mediators considered are parents' traumatic distress, disturbed parent-child interactions, trauma-related disturbances in parents' thinking, and effects of stress on children's neural functioning. Also discussed are genetic and environmental factors that may moderate the transmission of intergenerational effects and promote children's risk and resilience.

Impact of perinatal corticosteroids on neuromotor development and outcome: review of the literature and new meta-analysis.

Perinatal corticosteroids are like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they reduce risk for major morbidity and even mortality; on the other hand, they modify growth and development of body systems, with short- and long-term consequences. The relationship between corticosteroids and neurodevelopmental outcome has been extensively studied in randomized controlled trials, cohort and case-control studies and meta-analyses.

Microcephaly, lymphedema, chorioretinopathy and atrial septal defect: a case report and review of the literature.

Background: The rare congenital combination of microcephaly, lymphedema and chorioretinopathy (MLCD) has been described. Recently, three cases with these clinical characteristics have been diagnosed as having, in addition, various congenital cardiac anomalies, which may be part of this genetic entity that presents with variable expression.

Clinical Observation: Here we present a new case of a one-year-old infant who was born with microcephaly and lymphedema and atrial septal defect (ASD) and developed chorioretinopathy at the age of 6 months.

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum: is a chest X-ray enough? A single-center case series.

Background: Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is a rare entity that usually occurs in young males without any apparent precipitating factor. Several case series have been published focusing on clinical features, workup and prognosis. Due to the rarity of this entity, there is no consensus on the most appropriate treatment.

Lung function and cardiopulmonary exercise capacity in patients with corrected tetralogy of Fallot.

Background: Since surgical repair of tetralogy of Fallot was introduced, follow-up studies have shown that the majority of patients lead active lives and have no subjective exercise limitation.

Objectives: To examine lung function, cardiopulmonary functional capacity and echo-Doppler assessment of pulmonary pressure in adult patients 20 years after repair of TOF.

Methods: Unselected consecutive patients performed full lung function testing, progressive cardiopulmonary exercise, and echo-Doppler assessments of pulmonary pressure.

Pregnancy outcome after gestational exposure to the new macrolides: a prospective multi-center observational study.

Objectives: To determine whether the use of the new macrolides (azithromycin, clarithromycin, roxithromycin) during the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of major malformations.

Study Design: In a prospective multi-center study, pregnancy outcome was compared between pregnant women exposed to one of the new macrolides during the first trimester of pregnancy and two comparison groups one exposed to other antibiotics and the other to other non-teratogenic medications. All women enrolled in the study called one of the three participating teratogen information services (TIS).

Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and cholinergic modulation in Myasthenia Gravis and neuroinflammation.

The cholinergic network affects various cellular functions including neurotransmission, and immune reactions. In Myasthenia Gravis (MG), diagnosis and symptomatic therapy are based on cholinergic modulation by acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI). In Alzheimer's disease (AD) a neurodegenerative disorder associated with inflammatory pathology, cholinergic systems cell loss occurs early.

Inflammatory response to chlorhexidine, minocycline HCl and doxycycline HCl in an in vivo mouse model.

Aim: To examine the effect of locally delivered antimicrobial drugs on the inflammatory response in an in vivo mouse chamber model.

Material And Methods: Two weeks following chamber implantation, 24 BALB/c mice, in the experimental group, were given an intra-chamber challenge of heat-killed Porphyromonas gingivalis, followed immediately by injection of the specific antimicrobial drug: 2000 microg/ml chlorhexidine (CHX); 1500 microg/ml minocycline HCl;and 1500 microg/ml doxycycline HCl (concentrations achieved in the periodontal pocket with commercial controlled-release delivery systems). A second group of 24 animals received only the antimicrobial treatment without P.

Renal parenchymal hypoxia, hypoxia response and the progression of chronic kidney disease.

Renal parenchymal hypoxia, documented under a variety of clinical conditions, conceivably contributes to the progression chronic kidney disease. In this review, normal physiologic medullary hypoxia and abnormal profiles of renal pO(2) in chronic kidney diseases are presented, and the mechanisms leading to anomalous renal tissue oxygenation are discussed. Direct measurements of pO(2) with oxygen electrodes, immunostaining with pimonidazole (which binds to regions with very low pO(2)), or the detection of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-alpha (which accumulates in hypoxic regions, initiating hypoxia-adaptive responses), all serve to detect the distribution and extent of renal parenchymal hypoxia under experimental settings.

Hypnotizability and blink rate: a test of the dopamine hypothesis.

Evidence suggests a role for central dopaminergic activity in determining an individual's level of hypnotizability. The authors measured the correlation between blink rate, which has been shown to correlate with central dopaminergic activity, and hypnotizability. Forty-eight healthy participants were evaluated for hypnotizability by the Harvard Group Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C.