Predictive Association of Pre-Operative Defect Areas in the Outer Retinal Layers With Visual Acuity in Macular Hole Surgery

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop methods to model the external limiting membrane (ELM) and ellipsoid zone (EZ) within the elevated cuff surrounding a macular hole (MH) to determine if the predicted size of the defect in these layers after virtual flattening was associated with the actual postoperative defect and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Methods: Patients were included who had undergone successful MH surgery. The defects in the ELM and EZ after virtual flattening were modeled using in-house software. Main outcomes were postoperative defects in ELM and EZ at 2 months and BCVA at 12 months. Results: Fifty-eight patients were included. BCVA improved from 0.87 (0.31) logMAR pre-operatively to 0.26 (0.21) at 12 months (P < 0.001). For both the ELM and EZ, the predicted virtually flattened pre-operative defects were associated with the actual postoperative defects at 2 months (R-2 = 0.33, P < 0.01 and R-2 = 0.50, P < 0.01, respectively). There was a significant association of BCVA at 12 months (adjusted R-2 = 0.85) with the pre-operative modeled area of the defect in the ELM (P < 0.01) and to a lesser extent with the defect in the EZ (P < 0.01) and base of the MH (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Virtually flattening of the pre-operative defect in the ELM provides important predictive information of visual acuity. Incorporation of tools into commercially available optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices to facilitate such measurements would provide the clinician with important prognostic information. Translational Relevance: We have developed methodology that can potentially be used to predict the postoperative state of the outer retinal layers and the associated visual outcome in patients undergoing surgery for MH

Specific detection of fungal pathogens by 18S rRNA gene PCR in microbial keratitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The sensitivity and specificity of 18S rRNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the detection of fungal aetiology of microbial keratitis was determined in thirty patients with clinical diagnosis of microbial keratitis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Corneal scrapings from patients were used for Gram stain, culture and PCR analysis. PCR was performed with primer pairs targeted to the 18S rRNA gene. The result of the PCR was compared with conventional culture and Gram staining method. The PCR positive samples were identified by DNA sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA gene. Main outcome measures were sensitivity and specificity of PCR in the detection of fungus in corneal keratitis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Combination of microscopy and culture gave a positive result in 11 of 30 samples of microbial keratitis. PCR detected 10 of 11 samples that were positive by conventional method. One of the 19 samples that was negative by conventional method was positive by PCR. Statistical analysis revealed that the PCR to have a sensitivity of 90.9% and specificity of 94.7% in the detection of a fungal aetiology in microbial keratitis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>PCR is a rapid, sensitive and useful method to detect fungal aetiology in microbial keratitis.</p

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Candidate Genes for Expansion and Transformation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells by NUP98-HOX Fusion Genes

BACKGROUND: Hox genes are implicated in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) regulation as well as in leukemia development through translocation with the nucleoporin gene NUP98. Interestingly, an engineered NUP98-HOXA10 (NA10) fusion can induce a several hundred-fold expansion of HSCs in vitro and NA10 and the AML-associated fusion gene NUP98-HOXD13 (ND13) have a virtually indistinguishable ability to transform myeloid progenitor cells in vitro and to induce leukemia in collaboration with MEIS1 in vivo. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: These findings provided a potentially powerful approach to identify key pathways mediating Hox-induced expansion and transformation of HSCs by identifying gene expression changes commonly induced by ND13 and NA10 but not by a NUP98-Hox fusion with a non-DNA binding homedomain mutation (N51S). The gene expression repertoire of purified murine bone marrow Sca-1+Lin- cells transduced with retroviral vectors encoding for these genes was established using the Affymetrix GeneChip MOE430A. Approximately seventy genes were differentially expressed in ND13 and NA10 cells that were significantly changed by both compared to the ND13(N51S) mutant. Intriguingly, several of these potential Hox target genes have been implicated in HSC expansion and self-renewal, including the tyrosine kinase receptor Flt3, the prion protein, Prnp, hepatic leukemia factor, Hlf and Jagged-2, Jag2. Consistent with these results, FLT3, HLF and JAG2 expression correlated with HOX A cluster gene expression in human leukemia samples. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion this study has identified several novel Hox downstream target genes and provides important new leads to key regulators of the expansion and transformation of hematopoietic stem cells by Hox

Deciphering the stem cell machinery as a basis for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying reprogramming

Stem cells provide fascinating prospects for biomedical applications by combining the ability to renew themselves and to differentiate into specialized cell types. Since the first isolation of embryonic stem (ES) cells about 30 years ago, there has been a series of groundbreaking discoveries that have the potential to revolutionize modern life science. For a long time, embryos or germ cell-derived cells were thought to be the only source of pluripotency—a dogma that has been challenged during the last decade. Several findings revealed that cell differentiation from (stem) cells to mature cells is not in fact an irreversible process. The molecular mechanism underlying cellular reprogramming is poorly understood thus far. Identifying how pluripotency maintenance takes place in ES cells can help us to understand how pluripotency induction is regulated. Here, we review recent advances in the field of stem cell regulation focusing on key transcription factors and their functional interplay with non-coding RNAs

Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to a pair of tau leptons in pp collisions

Peer reviewe