Erupción primaveral juvenil

La EPJ fue descrita en el año 1954 por Anderson y colaboradores. Desde entonces, las referencias en la literatura son escasas. Esto podría deberse, en parte, al curso benigno y autolimitado por el que se caracteriza y podría ser más frecuente de lo que ha sido reflejado. Se han descrito brotes epidémicos infantiles o en personal militar. Desde el punto de vista epidemiológico, afecta, principalmente, a niños o varones jóvenes con orejas prominentes y ausencia de cabello que las cubre, generalmente, al inicio de la primavera, durante días fríos y soleados. De forma más infrecuente, también se han descrito casos en el sexo femenino. Las lesiones cutáneas aparecen pocas horas tras una exposición solar y se caracterizan por un eritema y edema de fondo, sobre el que aparecen pápulas eritematosas, vesículas y, posteriormente, costras. Su localización principal son los pabellones auriculares, y es rara la afectación en otros niveles. Estas lesiones se curan de forma espontánea y sin dejar cicatriz, y es posible la aparición de nuevos brotes en primaveras sucesivas, aunque, generalmente, de menor intensidad..

Effect of aspirin on the diagnostic accuracy of the faecal immunochemical test for colorectal advanced neoplasia

Background: Aspirin (ASA) is a drug that can cause gastrointestinal lesions and symptoms. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most prevalent type of cancer in Western countries. We assessed the effect of aspirin on the diagnostic accuracy of the faecal immunochemical test (FIT) for CRC and/or advanced neoplasia (AN) in patients undergoing colonoscopy for gastrointestinal symptoms. Methods: We conducted a prospective multicentre observational study of diagnostic tests that included patients with gastrointestinal symptoms undergoing colonoscopy between March 2012 and 2014 (the COLONPREDICT study). Symptoms were assessed and a FIT and blood tests assessing haemoglobin and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were performed. Results: The study included 3052 patients: A total of 2567 did not take aspirin (non-user group) and 485 (16%) took aspirin (user group). Continuous treatment with ASA did not change the AUC (0.88, 0.82; p = 0.06), sensitivity (92%, 88%; p = 0.5) or specificity (71%, 67%; p = 0.2) of the FIT for CRC detection. Similarly, we found no differences in the AUC (0.81, 0.79; p = 0.6), sensitivity (74%, 75.5%; p = 0.3) or specificity (76%, 73.6%; p = 0.3) for AN detection. Patients with an aspirin use of = 300 mg/day had a lower prevalence of AN and the sensitivity, specificity and AUC for AN for these patients were 54%, 68% and 0.66, significantly lower than for the non-user group (p = 0.03). Conclusions: Aspirin does not modify the diagnostic accuracy of FIT for CRC and/or AN in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Aspirin use of = 300 mg/day decreases the accuracy of the test

Predictive Value of Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Symptomatic Patients without Colorectal Cancer: A Post-Hoc Analysis within the COLONPREDICT Cohort

We aimed to assess the risk of cancer in patients with abdominal symptoms after a complete colonoscopy without colorectal cancer (CRC), according to the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) concentration, as well as its diagnostic accuracy. For this purpose, we performed a post-hoc analysis within a cohort of 1431 patients from the COLONPREDICT study, prospectively designed to assess the fecal immunochemical test accuracy in detecting CRC. Over 36.5 +/- 8.4 months, cancer was detected in 115 (8%) patients. Patients with CEA values higher than 3 ng/mL revealed an increased risk of cancer (HR 2.0, 95% CI 1.3-3.1), CRC (HR 4.4, 95% CI 1.1-17.7) and non-gastrointestinal cancer (HR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0-2.8). A new malignancy was detected in 51 (3.6%) patients during the first year and three variables were independently associated: anemia (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.3-5.8), rectal bleeding (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.7) and CEA level >3 ng/mL (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.7-7.1). However, CEA was increased only in 31.8% (95% CI, 16.4-52.7%) and 50% (95% CI, 25.4-74.6%) of patients with and without anemia, respectively, who would be diagnosed with cancer during the first year of follow-up. On the basis of this information, CEA should not be used to assist in the triage of patients presenting with lower bowel symptoms who have recently been ruled out a CRC

Stress detection using wearable physiological and sociometric sensors

Stress remains a significant social problem for individuals in modern societies. This paper presents a machine learning approach for the automatic detection of stress of people in a social situation by combining two sensor systems that capture physiological and social responses. We compare the performance using different classifiers including support vector machine, AdaBoost, and k-nearest neighbour. Our experimental results show that by combining the measurements from both sensor systems, we could accurately discriminate between stressful and neutral situations during a controlled Trier social stress test (TSST). Moreover, this paper assesses the discriminative ability of each sensor modality individually and considers their suitability for real time stress detection. Finally, we present an study of the most discriminative features for stress detection

Factors related to the development of health-promoting community activities in Spanish primary healthcare: two case-control studies.

Objective Spanish primary healthcare teams have the responsibility of performing health-promoting community activities (CAs), although such activities are not widespread. Our aim was to identify the factors related to participation in those activities. Design Two case–control studies. setting Performed in primary care of ve Spanish regions. subjects In the rst study, cases were teams that performed health-promoting CAs and controls were those that did not. In the second study (on case teams from the rst study), cases were professionals who developed these activities and controls were those who did not. Main outcome measures Team, professional and community characteristics collected through questionnaires (team managers/professionals) and from secondary sources. results The rst study examined 203 teams (103 cases, 100 controls). Adjusted factors associated with performing CAs were percentage of nurses (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.14), community socioeconomic status (higher vs lower OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.18 to 3.95) and performing undergraduate training (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.93). In the second study, 597 professionals responded (254 cases, 343 controls). Adjusted factors were professional classi cation (physicians do fewer activities than nurses and social workers do more), training in CAs (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1), team support (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.5 to 5.7), seniority (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09), nursing tutor (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.5), motivation (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.8 to 7.5), collaboration with non-governmental organisations (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1) and participation in neighbourhood activities (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.9 to 5.1). Conclusions Professional personal characteristics, such as social sensitivity, profession, to feel team support or motivation, have in uence in performing health-promoting CAs. In contrast to the opinion expressed by many professionals, workload is not related to performance of health-promoting CAs

An artificial intelligence method using FDG PET to predict treatment outcome in diffuse large B cell lymphoma patients

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) may improve response prediction in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a CNN using maximum intensity projection (MIP) images from 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) baseline scans to predict the probability of time-to-progression (TTP) within 2 years and compare it with the International Prognostic Index (IPI), i.e. a clinically used score. 296 DLBCL 18F-FDG PET/CT baseline scans collected from a prospective clinical trial (HOVON-84) were analysed. Cross-validation was performed using coronal and sagittal MIPs. An external dataset (340 DLBCL patients) was used to validate the model. Association between the probabilities, metabolic tumour volume and Dmaxbulk was assessed. Probabilities for PET scans with synthetically removed tumors were also assessed. The CNN provided a 2-year TTP prediction with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.74, outperforming the IPI-based model (AUC = 0.68). Furthermore, high probabilities (> 0.6) of the original MIPs were considerably decreased after removing the tumours (< 0.4, generally). These findings suggest that MIP-based CNNs are able to predict treatment outcome in DLBCL

Retrospective cohort study: Risk of gastrointestinal cancer in a symptomatic cohort after a complete colonoscopy: Role of faecal immunochemical test

BACKGROUND: Faecal immunochemical test (FIT) has been recommended to assess symptomatic patients for colorectal cancer (CRC) detection. Nevertheless, some conditions could theoretically favour blood originating in proximal areas of the gastrointestinal tract passing through the colon unmetabolized. A positive FIT result could be related to other gastrointestinal cancers (GIC). AIM: To assess the risk of GIC detection and related death in FIT-positive symptomatic patients (threshold 10 µg Hb/g faeces) without CRC. METHODS: Post hoc cohort analysis performed within two prospective diagnostic test studies evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of different FIT analytical systems for CRC and significant colonic lesion detection. Ambulatory patients with gastrointestinal symptoms referred consecutively for colonoscopy from primary and secondary healthcare, underwent a quantitative FIT before undergoing a complete colonoscopy. Patients without CRC were divided into two groups (positive and negative FIT) using the threshold of 10 µg Hb/g of faeces and data from follow-up were retrieved from electronic medical records of the public hospitals involved in the research. We determined the cumulative risk of GIC, CRC and upper GIC. Hazard rate (HR) was calculated adjusted by age, sex and presence of significant colonic lesion. RESULTS: We included 2709 patients without CRC and a complete baseline colonoscopy, 730 (26.9%) with FIT = 10 µgr Hb/gr. During a mean time of 45.5 ± 20.0 mo, a GIC was detected in 57 (2.1%) patients: An upper GIC in 35 (1.3%) and a CRC in 14 (0.5%). Thirty-six patients (1.3%) died due to GIC: 22 (0.8%) due to an upper GIC and 9 (0.3%) due to CRC. FIT-positive subjects showed a higher CRC risk (HR 3.8, 95%CI: 1.2-11.9) with no differences in GIC (HR 1.5, 95%CI: 0.8-2.7) or upper GIC risk (HR 1.0, 95%CI: 0.5-2.2). Patients with a positive FIT had only an increased risk of CRC-related death (HR 10.8, 95%CI: 2.1-57.1) and GIC-related death (HR 2.2, 95%CI: 1.1-4.3), with no differences in upper GIC-related death (HR 1.4, 95%CI: 0.6-3.3). An upper GIC was detected in 22 (0.8%) patients during the first year. Two variables were independently associated: anaemia (OR 5.6, 95%CI: 2.2-13.9) and age = 70 years (OR 2.7, 95%CI: 1.1-7.0). CONCLUSION: Symptomatic patients without CRC have a moderate risk increase in upper GIC, regardless of the FIT result. Patients with a positive FIT have an increased risk of post-colonoscopy CRC

The Role of Superior Temporal Cortex in Auditory Timing

Recently, there has been upsurge of interest in the neural mechanisms of time perception. A central question is whether the representation of time is distributed over brain regions as a function of stimulus modality, task and length of the duration used or whether it is centralized in a single specific and supramodal network. The answers seem to be converging on the former, and many areas not primarily considered as temporal processing areas remain to be investigated in the temporal domain. Here we asked whether the superior temporal gyrus, an auditory modality specific area, is involved in processing of auditory timing. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over left and right superior temporal gyri while participants performed either a temporal or a frequency discrimination task of single tones. A significant decrease in performance accuracy was observed after stimulation of the right superior temporal gyrus, in addition to an increase in response uncertainty as measured by the Just Noticeable Difference. The results are specific to auditory temporal processing and performance on the frequency task was not affected. Our results further support the idea of distributed temporal processing and speak in favor of the existence of modality specific temporal regions in the human brain

Neurobehavioral Mechanisms of Temporal Processing Deficits in Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) disrupts temporal processing, but the neuronal sources of deficits and their response to dopamine (DA) therapy are not understood. Though the striatum and DA transmission are thought to be essential for timekeeping, potential working memory (WM) and executive problems could also disrupt timing.The present study addressed these issues by testing controls and PD volunteers 'on' and 'off' DA therapy as they underwent fMRI while performing a time-perception task. To distinguish systems associated with abnormalities in temporal and non-temporal processes, we separated brain activity during encoding and decision-making phases of a trial. Whereas both phases involved timekeeping, the encoding and decision phases emphasized WM and executive processes, respectively. The methods enabled exploration of both the amplitude and temporal dynamics of neural activity. First, we found that time-perception deficits were associated with striatal, cortical, and cerebellar dysfunction. Unlike studies of timed movement, our results could not be attributed to traditional roles of the striatum and cerebellum in movement. Second, for the first time we identified temporal and non-temporal sources of impaired time perception. Striatal dysfunction was found during both phases consistent with its role in timekeeping. Activation was also abnormal in a WM network (middle-frontal and parietal cortex, lateral cerebellum) during encoding and a network that modulates executive and memory functions (parahippocampus, posterior cingulate) during decision making. Third, hypoactivation typified neuronal dysfunction in PD, but was sometimes characterized by abnormal temporal dynamics (e.g., lagged, prolonged) that were not due to longer response times. Finally, DA therapy did not alleviate timing deficits.Our findings indicate that impaired timing in PD arises from nigrostriatal and mesocortical dysfunction in systems that mediate temporal and non-temporal control-processes. However, time perception impairments were not improved by DA treatment, likely due to inadequate restoration of neuronal activity and perhaps corticostriatal effective-connectivity

Caenorhabditis elegans Semi-Automated Liquid Screen Reveals a Specialized Role for the Chemotaxis Gene cheB2 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Virulence

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes infections in a variety of animal and plant hosts. Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple model with which one can identify bacterial virulence genes. Previous studies with C. elegans have shown that depending on the growth medium, P. aeruginosa provokes different pathologies: slow or fast killing, lethal paralysis and red death. In this study, we developed a high-throughput semi-automated liquid-based assay such that an entire genome can readily be scanned for virulence genes in a short time period. We screened a 2,200-member STM mutant library generated in a cystic fibrosis airway P. aeruginosa isolate, TBCF10839. Twelve mutants were isolated each showing at least 70% attenuation in C. elegans killing. The selected mutants had insertions in regulatory genes, such as a histidine kinase sensor of two-component systems and a member of the AraC family, or in genes involved in adherence or chemotaxis. One mutant had an insertion in a cheB gene homologue, encoding a methylesterase involved in chemotaxis (CheB2). The cheB2 mutant was tested in a murine lung infection model and found to have a highly attenuated virulence. The cheB2 gene is part of the chemotactic gene cluster II, which was shown to be required for an optimal mobility in vitro. In P. aeruginosa, the main player in chemotaxis and mobility is the chemotactic gene cluster I, including cheB1. We show that, in contrast to the cheB2 mutant, a cheB1 mutant is not attenuated for virulence in C. elegans whereas in vitro motility and chemotaxis are severely impaired. We conclude that the virulence defect of the cheB2 mutant is not linked with a global motility defect but that instead the cheB2 gene is involved in a specific chemotactic response, which takes place during infection and is required for P. aeruginosa pathogenicity