Is there a gender difference in noninvasive coronary imaging? Multislice computed tomography for noninvasive detection of coronary stenoses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) coronary angiography is the foremost alternative to invasive coronary angiography.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We sought to compare the diagnostic accuracy of MSCT in female and male patients with suspected coronary disease. Altogether 50 women and 95 men underwent MSCT with 0.5 mm detector collimation. Coronary artery stenoses of at least 50% on conventional coronary angiography were considered significant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The coronary vessel diameters of all four main coronary artery branches were significantly larger in men than in women. The diagnostic accuracy of MSCT in identifying patients with coronary artery disease was significantly lower for women (72%) compared with men (89%, <it>p </it>< 0.05). Also sensitivity (70% vs. 95%), positive predictive value (64% vs. 93%), and the rate of nondiagnostic examinations (14% vs. 4%, all: <it>p </it>< 0.05) were significantly worse for women. The effective radiation dose of MSCT coronary angiography was significantly higher in the examination of women (13.7 ± 1.2 mSv) than of men (11.7 ± 0.9 mSv, <it>p </it>< 0.001), mainly as a result of the fact that the radiosensitive female breast (contributing 24.5% of the dose in women) is in the x-ray path.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Noninvasive coronary angiography with MSCT might be less accurate and sensitive for women than men. Also, women are exposed to a significantly higher effective radiation dose than men.</p

A novel Botrytis species is associated with a newly emergent foliar disease in cultivated Hemerocallis.

Foliar tissue samples of cultivated daylilies (Hemerocallis hybrids) showing the symptoms of a newly emergent foliar disease known as 'spring sickness' were investigated for associated fungi. The cause(s) of this disease remain obscure. We isolated repeatedly a fungal species which proved to be member of the genus Botrytis, based on immunological tests. DNA sequence analysis of these isolates, using several different phyogenetically informative genes, indicated that they represent a new Botrytis species, most closely related to B. elliptica (lily blight, fire blight) which is a major pathogen of cultivated Lilium. The distinction of the isolates was confirmed by morphological analysis of asexual sporulating cultures. Pathogenicity tests on Hemerocallis tissues in vitro demonstrated that this new species was able to induce lesions and rapid tissue necrosis. Based on this data, we infer that this new species, described here as B. deweyae, is likely to be an important contributor to the development of 'spring sickness' symptoms. Pathogenesis may be promoted by developmental and environmental factors that favour assault by this necrotrophic pathogen. The emergence of this disease is suggested to have been triggered by breeding-related changes in cultivated hybrids, particularly the erosion of genetic diversity. Our investigation confirms that emergent plant diseases are important and deserve close monitoring, especially in intensively in-bred plants

Patient Acceptance of Noninvasive and Invasive Coronary Angiography

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive angiography using multislice computed tomography (MSCT) is superior to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for detection of coronary stenoses. We compared patient acceptance of these two noninvasive diagnostic tests and invasive conventional coronary angiography (Angio). METHODS AND FINDINGS: A total of 111 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease underwent MSCT, MRI, and Angio. Subsequently, patient acceptance of the three tests was evaluated with questionnaires in all patients. The main acceptance variables were preparation and information prior to the test, degree of concern, comfort, degree of helplessness, pain (on visual analog scales), willingness to undergo the test again, and overall satisfaction. Preparation for each test was not rated significantly differently, whereas patients were significantly more concerned about Angio than the two noninvasive tests (p<0.001). No pain during MSCT, MRI, and Angio as assessed on visual analog scales (0 to 100) was reported by 99, 93, and 31 patients, respectively. Among the 82 patients who felt pain during at least one procedure, both CT (0.9±4.5) and MRI (5.2±16.6) were significantly less painful than Angio (24.6±23.4, both p<0.001). MSCT was considered significantly more comfortable (1.49±0.64) than MRI (1.75±0.81, p<0.001). In both the no-revascularization (55 patients) and the revascularization group (56 patients), the majority of the patients (73 and 71%) would prefer MSCT to MRI and Angio for future imaging of the coronary arteries. None of the patients indicated to be unwilling to undergo MSCT again. The major advantages patients attributed to MSCT were its fast, uncomplicated, noninvasive, and painless nature. CONCLUSIONS: Noninvasive coronary angiography with MSCT is considered more comfortable than MRI and both MSCT and MRI are less painful than Angio. Patient preference for MSCT might tip the scales in favor of this test provided that the diagnostic accuracy of MSCT can be shown to be high enough for clinical application

Use of the new World Health Organization child growth standards to describe longitudinal growth of breastfed rural Bangladeshi infants and young children.

BACKGROUND: Although the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference has been widely used, in 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) released new standards for assessing growth of infants and children worldwide. OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the growth of breastfed rural Bangladeshi infants and young children based on the new WHO child growth standards and the NCHS reference. METHODS: We followed 1343 children in the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Intervention in Matlab (MINIMat) study from birth to 24 months of age. Weights and lengths of the children were measured monthly during infancy and quarterly in the second year of life. Anthropometric indices were calculated using both WHO standards and the NCHS reference. The growth pattern and estimates of undernutrition based on the WHO standards and the NCHS reference were compared. RESULTS: The mean birthweight was 2697 +/- 401 g, with 30% weighing <2500 g. The growth pattern of the MINIMat children more closely tracked the WHO standards than it did the NCHS reference. The rates of stunting based on the WHO standards were higher than the rates based on the NCHS reference throughout the first 24 months. The rates of underweight and wasting based on the WHO standards were significantly different from those based on the NCHS reference. CONCLUSIONS: This comparison confirms that use of the NCHS reference misidentifies undernutrition and the timing of growth faltering in infants and young children, which was a key rationale for constructing the new WHO standards. The new WHO child growth standards provide a benchmark for assessing the growth of breastfed infants and children

Leg length, skull circumference, and the incidence of dementia in Latin America and China: A 10/66 population-based cohort study

\ua9 2018 Prince et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background Adult leg length is influenced by nutrition in the first few years of life. Adult head circumference is an indicator of brain growth. Cross-sectional studies indicate inverse associations with dementia risk, but there have been few prospective studies. Methods Population-based cohort studies in urban sites in Cuba, Dominican Republic Puerto Rico and Venezuela, and rural and urban sites in Peru, Mexico and China. Sociodemographic and risk factor questionnaires were administered to all participants, and anthropometric measures taken, with ascertainment of incident dementia, and mortality, three to five years later. Results Of the original at risk cohort of 13,587 persons aged 65 years and over, 2,443 (18.0%) were lost to follow-up; 10,540 persons with skull circumference assessments were followed up for 40,466 person years, and 10,400 with leg length assessments were followed up for 39,954 person years. There were 1,009 cases of incident dementia, and 1,605 dementia free deaths. The fixed effect pooled meta-analysed adjusted subhazard ratio (ASHR) for leg length (highest vs. lowest quarter) was 0.80 (95% CI, 0.66–0.97) and for skull circumference was 1.02 (95% CI, 0.84–1.25), with no heterogeneity of effect between sites (I2 = 0%). Leg length measurements tended to be shorter at follow-up, particularly for those with baseline cognitive impairment and dementia. However, leg length change was not associated with dementia incidence (ASHR, per cm 1.006, 95% CI 0.992–1.020), and the effect of leg length was little altered after adjusting for baseline frailty (ASHR 0.82, 95% CI 0.67–0.99). A priori hypotheses regarding effect modification by gender or educational level were not supported. However, the effect of skull circumference was modified by gender (M vs F ASHR 0.86, 95% CI 0.75–0.98), but in the opposite direction to that hypothesized with a greater protective effect of larger skull dimensions in men. Conclusions Consistent findings across settings provide quite strong support for an association between adult leg length and dementia incidence in late-life. Leg length is a relatively stable marker of early life nutritional programming, which may confer brain reserve and protect against neu-rodegeneration in later life through mitigation of cardiometabolic risk. Further clarification of these associations could inform predictive models for future dementia incidence in the context of secular trends in adult height, and invigorate global efforts to improve childhood nutrition, growth and development

Deletion of the GABAA α2-subunit does not alter self dministration of cocaine or reinstatement of cocaine seeking

Rationale GABAA receptors containing α2-subunits are highly represented in brain areas that are involved in motivation and reward, and have been associated with addiction to several drugs, including cocaine. We have shown previously that a deletion of the α2-subunit results in an absence of sensitisation to cocaine. Objective We investigated the reinforcing properties of cocaine in GABAA α2-subunit knockout (KO) mice using an intravenous self-administration procedure. Methods α2-subunit wildtype (WT), heterozygous (HT) and KO mice were trained to lever press for a 30 % condensed milk solution. After implantation with a jugular catheter, mice were trained to lever press for cocaine (0.5 mg/kg/infusion) during ten daily sessions. Responding was extinguished and the mice tested for cue- and cocaine-primed reinstatement. Separate groups of mice were trained to respond for decreasing doses of cocaine (0.25, 0.125, 0.06 and 0.03 mg/kg). Results No differences were found in acquisition of lever pressing for milk. All genotypes acquired self-administration of cocaine and did not differ in rates of self-administration, dose dependency or reinstatement. However, whilst WT and HT mice showed a dose-dependent increase in lever pressing during the cue presentation, KO mice did not. Conclusions Despite a reported absence of sensitisation, motivation to obtain cocaine remains unchanged in KO and HT mice. Reinstatement of cocaine seeking by cocaine and cocaine-paired cues is also unaffected. We postulate that whilst not directly involved in reward perception, the α2-subunit may be involved in modulating the “energising” aspect of cocaine’s effects on reward-seeking

Systematic review of antiepileptic drugs’ safety and effectiveness in feline epilepsy

Understanding the efficacy and safety profile of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in feline epilepsy is a crucial consideration for managing this important brain disease. However, there is a lack of information about the treatment of feline epilepsy and therefore a systematic review was constructed to assess current evidence for the AEDs’ efficacy and tolerability in cats. The methods and materials of our former systematic reviews in canine epilepsy were mostly mirrored for the current systematic review in cats. Databases of PubMed, CAB Direct and Google scholar were searched to detect peer-reviewed studies reporting efficacy and/or adverse effects of AEDs in cats. The studies were assessed with regards to their quality of evidence, i.e. study design, study population, diagnostic criteria and overall risk of bias and the outcome measures reported, i.e. prevalence and 95% confidence interval of the successful and affected population in each study and in total

Satisfaction with Creativity: A Study of Organizational Characteristics and Individual Motivation

In answering the question of what influences satisfaction with creativity in the workplace, this work takes into account the extent to which the organization supports human aspiration to act creatively. The work throughout reflects a pragmatist approach to creativity and fulfillment, bridging it with needs theory in psychology. The empirical model uses survey data encompassing over 4,000 workers in Italian social enterprises. Results show that satisfaction with creativity is supported, at organizational level, by teamwork, autonomy, domain-relevant competences, as well as by inclusive, fair processes and relationships. At the individual level, satisfaction with creativity is enhanced by the strength of intrinsic initial motivations. The analysis of interaction terms shows that teamwork and workers' initial motivations are complementary in enhancing satisfaction with creativity, while a high degree of domain-relevant competences appears to substitute advice and supervision by superiors in accomplishing the desired level of creative action

A scanning electron microscopic study of hypercementosis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate morphological characteristics of teeth with hypercementosis that are relevant to endodontic practice. Twenty-eight extracted teeth with hypercementosis had their root apexes analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The teeth were divided according to tooth groups and type of hypercementosis. The following aspects were examined under SEM: the contour and regularity of the root surface; presence of resorption; presence and number of apical foramina, and the diameter of the main foramen. The progression of club shape hypercementosis was directly associated with the presence of foramina and apical foramen obstruction. Cases of focal hypercementosis presented foramina on the surface, even when sidelong located in the root. Circular cementum hyperplasia form was present in 2 out of 3 residual roots, which was the highest proportion among the tooth types. The detection of a large number of foramina in the apical third of teeth with hypercementosis or even the possible existence of apical foramen obliteration contributes to understand the difficulties faced during endodontic treatment of these cases

OREMPdb: a semantic dictionary of computational pathway models

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The information coming from biomedical ontologies and computational pathway models is expanding continuously: research communities keep this process up and their advances are generally shared by means of dedicated resources published on the web. In fact, such models are shared to provide the characterization of molecular processes, while biomedical ontologies detail a semantic context to the majority of those pathways. Recent advances in both fields pave the way for a scalable information integration based on aggregate knowledge repositories, but the lack of overall standard formats impedes this progress. Indeed, having different objectives and different abstraction levels, most of these resources "speak" different languages. Semantic web technologies are here explored as a means to address some of these problems.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Employing an extensible collection of interpreters, we developed OREMP (Ontology Reasoning Engine for Molecular Pathways), a system that abstracts the information from different resources and combines them together into a coherent ontology. Continuing this effort we present OREMPdb; once different pathways are fed into OREMP, species are linked to the external ontologies referred and to reactions in which they participate. Exploiting these links, the system builds species-sets, which encapsulate species that operate together. Composing all of the reactions together, the system computes all of the reaction paths from-and-to all of the species-sets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>OREMP has been applied to the curated branch of BioModels (2011/04/15 release) which overall contains 326 models, 9244 reactions, and 5636 species. OREMPdb is the semantic dictionary created as a result, which is made of 7360 species-sets. For each one of these sets, OREMPdb links the original pathway and the link to the original paper where this information first appeared. </p