2,802 research outputs found
Course of neuromyelitis optica during inadvertent pregnancy in a patient treated with rituximab
In neuromyelitis optica (NMO), the monoclonal B-cell antibody rituximab is a therapeutic option. Little is known about the course of NMO and the safety of rituximab during pregnancy. In this study, we report the clinical course of a patient with NMO after application of rituximab 1 week before inadvertent conception. Mother and child did not experience any adverse event, and the postpartum development of the baby was completely normal up to 15 months. Clinical course of NMO was stable during the entire pregnancy. This case illustrates a favorable outcome in a pregnant NMO patient and her child after therapy with rituximab
Concurrent TNFRSF1A R92Q and pyrin E230K mutations in a child with multiple sclerosis
We report a 16-year-old female patient with a severe course of multiple sclerosis and concomitant symptoms suggestive of a hereditary autoinflammatory disease. Genetic analyses revealed that she inherited a TNFRSF1A R92Q mutation from her mother and a pyrin E230K mutation from her father. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient with severe childhood multiple sclerosis and mutations in two genes which predispose to hereditary autoinflammatory disorders. We speculate that these mutations contribute to early multiple sclerosis manifestation and enhance the inflammatory damage inflicted by the autoimmune response
Magnetization dynamics in dysprosium orthoferrites via inverse Faraday effect
The ultrafast non-thermal control of magnetization has recently become
feasible in canted antiferromagnets through photomagnetic instantaneous pulses
[A.V. Kimel {\it et al.}, Nature {\bf 435}, 655 (2005)]. In this experiment
circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses set up a strong magnetic field
along the wave vector of the radiation through the inverse Faraday effect,
thereby exciting non-thermally the spin dynamics of dysprosium orthoferrites. A
theoretical study is performed by using a model for orthoferrites based on a
general form of free energy whose parameters are extracted from experimental
measurements. The magnetization dynamics is described by solving coupled
sublattice Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations whose damping term is associated
with the scattering rate due to magnon-magnon interaction. Due to the inverse
Faraday effect and the non-thermal excitation, the effect of the laser is
simulated by magnetic field Gaussian pulses with temporal width of the order of
hundred femtoseconds. When the field is along the z-axis, a single resonance
mode of the magnetization is excited. The amplitude of the magnetization and
out-of-phase behavior of the oscillations for fields in z and -z directions are
in good agreement with the cited experiment. The analysis of the effect of the
temperature shows that magnon-magnon scattering mechanism affects the decay of
the oscillations on the picosecond scale. Finally, when the field pulse is
along the x-axis, another mode is excited, as observed in experiments. In this
case the comparison between theoretical and experimental results shows some
discrepancies whose origin is related to the role played by anisotropies in
orthoferrites.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Review: ‘Gimme five’: future challenges in multiple sclerosis. ECTRIMS Lecture 2009
This article is based on the ECTRIMS lecture given at the 25th ECTRIMS meeting which was held in Düsseldorf, Germany, from 9 to 12 September 2009. Five challenges have been identified: (1) safeguarding the principles of medical ethics; (2) optimizing the risk/benefit ratio; (3) bridging the gap between multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmune encephalitis; (4) promoting neuroprotection and repair; and (5) tailoring multiple sclerosis therapy to the individual patient. Each of these challenges will be discussed and placed in the context of current research into the pathogenesis and treatment of multiple sclerosis
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