A lethal blistering autoimmune disease

Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of skin and muscle. Anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) associated dermatomyositis is a recently described variant that displays a unique dermatological phenotype consisting of punched-out cutaneous ulcers, palmar erythema, papules or blisters at typical sites of dermatomyositis. Moreover, anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis patients have an increased risk to develop a rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease with a potentially fatal course. Cutaneous ulcers are an important predictor for the development of interstitial lung disease. We report an illustrative case of anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis.</p

A lethal blistering autoimmune disease

Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of skin and muscle. Anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) associated dermatomyositis is a recently described variant that displays a unique dermatological phenotype consisting of punched-out cutaneous ulcers, palmar erythema, papules or blisters at typical sites of dermatomyositis. Moreover, anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis patients have an increased risk to develop a rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease with a potentially fatal course. Cutaneous ulcers are an important predictor for the development of interstitial lung disease. We report an illustrative case of anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis.</p

A lethal blistering autoimmune disease

Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of skin and muscle. Anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) associated dermatomyositis is a recently described variant that displays a unique dermatological phenotype consisting of punched-out cutaneous ulcers, palmar erythema, papules or blisters at typical sites of dermatomyositis. Moreover, anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis patients have an increased risk to develop a rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease with a potentially fatal course. Cutaneous ulcers are an important predictor for the development of interstitial lung disease. We report an illustrative case of anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis.</p

A lethal blistering autoimmune disease

Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of skin and muscle. Anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) associated dermatomyositis is a recently described variant that displays a unique dermatological phenotype consisting of punched-out cutaneous ulcers, palmar erythema, papules or blisters at typical sites of dermatomyositis. Moreover, anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis patients have an increased risk to develop a rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease with a potentially fatal course. Cutaneous ulcers are an important predictor for the development of interstitial lung disease. We report an illustrative case of anti-MDA5 associated dermatomyositis.</p

Fluctuations and Instabilities of Ferromagnetic Domain Wall pairs in an External Magnetic Field

Soliton excitations and their stability in anisotropic quasi-1D ferromagnets are analyzed analytically. In the presence of an external magnetic field, the lowest lying topological excitations are shown to be either soliton-soliton or soliton-antisoliton pairs. In ferromagnetic samples of macro- or mesoscopic size, these configurations correspond to twisted or untwisted pairs of Bloch walls. It is shown that the fluctuations around these configurations are governed by the same set of operators. The soliton-antisoliton pair has exactly one unstable mode and thus represents a critical nucleus for thermally activated magnetization reversal in effectively one-dimensional systems. The soliton-soliton pair is stable for small external fields but becomes unstable for large magnetic fields. From the detailed expression of this instability threshold and an analysis of nonlocal demagnetizing effects it is shown that the relative chirality of domain walls can be detected experimentally in thin ferromagnetic films. The static properties of the present model are equivalent to those of a nonlinear sigma-model with anisotropies. In the limit of large hard-axis anisotropy the model reduces to a double sine-Gordon model.Comment: 15 pages RevTex 3.0 (twocolumn), 9 figures available on request, to appear in Phys Rev B, Dec (1994

Statistical Mechanics of Nonuniform Magnetization Reversal

The magnetization reversal rate via thermal creation of soliton pairs in quasi-1D ferromagnetic systems is calculated. Such a model describes e.g. the time dependent coercivity of elongated particles as used in magnetic recording media. The energy barrier that has to be overcome by thermal fluctuations corresponds to a soliton-antisoliton pair whose size depends on the external field. In contrast to other models of first order phase transitions such as the phi^4 model, an analytical expression for this energy barrier is found for all values of the external field. The magnetization reversal rate is calculated using a functional Fokker-Planck description of the stochastic magnetization dynamics. Analytical results are obtained in the limits of small fields and fields close to the anisotropy field. In the former case the hard-axis anisotropy becomes effectively strong and the magnetization reversal rate is shown to reduce to the nucleation rate of soliton-antisoliton pairs in the overdamped double sine-Gordon model. The present theory therefore includes the nucleation rate of soliton-antisoliton pairs in the double sine-Gordon chain as a special case. These results demonstrate that for elongated particles, the experimentally observed coercivity is significantly lower than the value predicted by the standard theories of N\'eel and Brown.Comment: 21 pages RevTex 3.0 (twocolumn), 6 figures available on request, to appear in Phys Rev B, Dec (1994

Demographic, clinical and lifestyle-related correlates of accelerometer assessed physical activity and fitness in newly diagnosed patients with head and neck cancer

Introduction: Objective measurements of levels of physical activity and fitness in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) are lacking. Furthermore, demographic, clinical and lifestyle-related correlates of low levels of physical activity and fitness in patients with HNC are unknown. This study aims to investigate the levels of accelerometer that assessed physical activity and fitness in patients with HNC and to identify their demographical, clinical and lifestyle-related correlates. Methods: Two hundred and fifty-four patients who were recently diagnosed with HNC and participated in the NETherlands QUality of life and Biomedical cohort studies In head and neck Cancer (NET-QUBIC) study were included. Physical activity (accelerometer), cardiorespiratory fitness (Chester Step Test), hand grip strength (hand dynamometer) and lower body muscle function (30-second chair-stand test) were assessed. Multivariable linear regression analyses with a stepwise forward selection procedure were used. Results: Patients spent 229 min/d in physical activity of which 18 min/d in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The mean predicted VO2max was 27.9 ml/kg/min, the mean hand grip strength was 38.1 kg and the mean number of standings was 14.3. Patients with lower educational level, more comorbidity and higher tumor stage spent significantly less time in physical activity. Older patients, females and patients with a higher tumor stage had significantly lower cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Older patients, females, patients with more comorbidity, patients with normal weight and patients who have never smoked had significantly lower hand grip strength. Older patients, patients with lower educational level, smokers and patients with more comorbidity had a significantly lower function of lower body muscle. Conclusions: Pre-treatment levels of physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness and lower body muscle function are low in patients with HNC. Based on this study, exercise programs targeted and tailored to patients with low levels of physical activity and fitness can be developed