First case report of surgical site infection due to Buttiauxella agrestis in a neurocare center in India

Buttiauxella agrestis, a member of the Enterobacteriaceae family, is usually isolated from soil, water, fish, mollusks, and rarely associated with human infections. Here, we report a rare case of postcraniotomy surgical site infection by B. agrestis in a neurosurgical center which was easily controlled by antibiotic. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report from India implicating B. agrestis as a cause of human infection. The infection along with microbiological characteristics and clinical significance of the organism is described

The Relevance of Interictal Bold Changes to Lateralize Seizure Focus Using Simultaneous EEG-fMRI.

peer reviewed[en] BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The main challenge in assessing patients with epilepsy is the localization of neuronal networks involved in seizure generation and the lateralization of seizure onset. Electro encephalogram-functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) is a noninvasive multimodal imaging technique for epilepsies where the data is acquired based on the interictal epileptiform discharges (IED). Since this is a new technique, the specificity for lateralizing epileptic focus is yet to be established. The peak blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in an interictal recording is known to correlate with seizure onset focus. In this study we are proposing a simple and practical method without the need for high end post processing techniques of fmri data. The peak BOLD signal derived from EEG-fMRI aids to lateralise seizure focus in a given cerebral lobe (region of interest, ROI). This is a very useful tool in a clinical setting on a given individual clinical case, when other modalities may be conflicting or inconclusive. METHODS: We analyzed simultaneous EEG-fMRI of 10 different types of refractory epilepsy. The lateralization index was calculated from the statistical significant clusters obtained between the different ROI and results were validated with other modalities. RESULTS: Lateralization of seizure focus corroborated well in temporal and extratemporal lobe epilepsy, reflex epilepsy and lesional epilepsy. The only drawback of EEG-fMRI in our study was if insignificant BOLD changes were associated with the given IED. CONCLUSIONS: EEG-fMRI can be helpful additional tool in the pre-surgical work-up of refractory epilepsy particularly when lateralization with other modalities is conflicting or inconclusive

Sub-lobar dysplasia — A comprehensive evaluation with neuroimaging, magnetoencephalography and histopathology

Sublobar dysplasia, a rare cortical malformation has been defined in only 8 patients to date. It was identified on the basis of histopathological features and MRI findings. We report a right temporal sublobar dysplasia, with detailed evaluation including neuroimaging, magnetoencephalography and histopathology to further characterize the pathology. Additional pathological features included a deep collateral sulcus in the basal right temporal lobe, thinned out right corticospinal tract, and bilateral asymmetric basal ganglia changes. Magnetoencephalograpy localized the seizure focus to the posterior margin of the dysplasia. Histopathological evaluation helped exclude other types of dysplasia. Similar to a previous study, the child had Engel 1a outcome. Keywords: Sublobar dysplasia, Temporal lobe epilepsy, Tractography, Magnetoencephalography, Histopatholog

Pd-mediated functionalization of polysubstituted pyrroles: their evaluation as potential inhibitors of PDE4

Novel polysubstituted pyrroles have been designed and accessed via a one-pot multicomponent reaction followed by Pd-mediated C-C bond forming reactions. All the compounds synthesized were tested for their PDE4B inhibitory properties in vitro and two of them obtained via Heck reaction showed significant inhibition. The docking results suggested that these alkenyl derivatives containing ester moiety interact well with the PDE4B protein in silico where the ester carbonyl oxygen played a key role. The pyrrole framework presented here could be a new template for the identification of small molecule based novel inhibitors of PDE4. The single crystal X-ray data of a representative compound is presented