Auditory temporal processing in healthy aging: a magnetoencephalographic study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Impaired speech perception is one of the major sequelae of aging. In addition to peripheral hearing loss, central deficits of auditory processing are supposed to contribute to the deterioration of speech perception in older individuals. To test the hypothesis that auditory temporal processing is compromised in aging, auditory evoked magnetic fields were recorded during stimulation with sequences of 4 rapidly recurring speech sounds in 28 healthy individuals aged 20 – 78 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The decrement of the N1m amplitude during rapid auditory stimulation was not significantly different between older and younger adults. The amplitudes of the middle-latency P1m wave and of the long-latency N1m, however, were significantly larger in older than in younger participants.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of the present study do not provide evidence for the hypothesis that auditory temporal processing, as measured by the decrement (short-term habituation) of the major auditory evoked component, the N1m wave, is impaired in aging. The differences between these magnetoencephalographic findings and previously published behavioral data might be explained by differences in the experimental setting between the present study and previous behavioral studies, in terms of speech rate, attention, and masking noise. Significantly larger amplitudes of the P1m and N1m waves suggest that the cortical processing of individual sounds differs between younger and older individuals. This result adds to the growing evidence that brain functions, such as sensory processing, motor control and cognitive processing, can change during healthy aging, presumably due to experience-dependent neuroplastic mechanisms.</p

Multiply Relapsed Secondary CNS Non-Germinal Center Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Successfully Treated with CNS-Centric Therapy

Lyndsey L Fournier,1 ErinMarie O Kimbrough,1 Muhamad Alhaj Moustafa,1 Ke Li,2 Madiha Iqbal,1 Vivek Gupta,3 Han W Tun1 1Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA; 2Department of Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA; 3Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USACorrespondence: Han W Tun, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Mayo Clinic, 4500 San Pablo Road S, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, USA, Tel +1 904 953 2693, Fax +1 904 953 2315, Email [email protected]: Secondary central nervous system involvement by systemic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) carries a very poor prognosis. We present a female patient who had two episodes of intracerebral central nervous system (CNS)-only relapse of systemic non-germinal center diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (NGC-DLBCL). Her treatment at initial diagnosis consisted of induction with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) and intrathecal (IT) - methotrexate (MTX) followed by consolidation with autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) after high-dose carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan (BEAM) chemotherapy. She had the first CNS-only relapse 1.5 years post-ASCT and received whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT). She developed the second intracerebral CNS-only relapse 2 years post-WBRT. A CNS-centric therapeutic approach with salvage chemoimmunotherapy incorporating rituximab, high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX), high-dose cytarabine (HiDAC), and ibrutinib was utilized for her second CNS-only relapse. She underwent consolidation with a second ASCT following high-dose carmustine (BCNU) and thiotepa chemotherapy. Given her high risk of CNS recurrence, she was started on maintenance ibrutinib. To date, she has remained in complete remission for 3 years. In our experience, multiply relapsed secondary CNS lymphoma (SCNSL) with this response is very rare. We suggest one CNS-centric therapeutic approach that can potentially salvage patients with SCNSL who have not had prior exposure to adequate CNS-directed therapies but acknowledge that additional research is necessary to validate our findings.Keywords: SCNSL, relapsed CNS lymphoma, CNS lymphoma, secondary CNS DLBC

Short maternal stature and gestational weight gain among refugee and migrant women birthing appropriate for gestational age term newborns: a retrospective cohort on the Myanmar-Thailand border, 2004–2016

Introduction To examine the interactions between short maternal stature, body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) among appropriate for gestational age (AGA) term newborns in a population of refugees and migrants in Southeast Asia. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study from 2004 to 2016, including women delivering term, singleton newborns, with first trimester height, weight and gestation dated by ultrasound and a last body weight measured within 4 weeks of birth. AGA newborns were those not classified as small for gestational age or large for gestational age by either INTERGROWTH-21st or Gestation Related Optimal Weight standards. The influence of maternal stature on GWG in delivering an AGA newborn was analysed, with GWG compared with existing National Academy of Medicine (NAM) recommendations. Results 4340 women delivered AGA newborns. Mean maternal height (SD) was 151.5 cm (5.13), with 58.5% of women considered too short by INTERGROWTH-21st standards. Only one in four women (26.5%, 1150/4340) had GWG within NAM recommendations. Women of shorter stature had a significantly lower mean GWG compared with taller women in underweight and normal BMI categories (p<0.001 for both BMI categories). Mean GWG of overweight and obese women did not differ by height (p=1.0 and p=0.85, respectively) and fell within the lower range of NAM recommendations. Conclusion These results suggest that short maternal stature can be an important predictor of GWG and should be considered with prepregnancy BMI. Limited-resource settings and special populations need robust GWG recommendations that reflect height and BMI