Early variation of ultrasound halo sign with treatment and relation with clinical features in patients with giant cell arteritis

Objectives To compare the ultrasound characteristics with clinical features, final diagnosis and outcome; and to evaluate the halo size following glucocorticoid treatment in patients with newly diagnosed GCA. Methods Patients with suspected GCA, recruited from an international cohort, had an ultrasound of temporal (TA) and axillary (AX) arteries performed within 7 days of commencing glucocorticoids. We compared differences in clinical features at disease presentation, after 2 weeks and after 6 months, according to the presence or absence of halo sign. We undertook a cross-sectional analysis of the differences in halo thickness using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results A total of 345 patients with 6 months follow-up data were included; 226 (65.5%) had a diagnosis of GCA. Jaw claudication and visual symptoms were more frequent in patients with halo sign (P =0.018 and P =0.003, respectively). Physical examination abnormalities were significantly associated with the presence of ipsilateral halo (P 0.05). However, the presence of halo at baseline failed to predict future ischaemic events occurring during follow-up. Conclusion In newly diagnosed GCA, TA halo is associated with the presence of ischaemic features and its size decreases following glucocorticoid treatment, supporting its early use as a marker of disease activity, in addition to its diagnostic role

Recommended adult immunization schedule, United States, 2020

In October 2019, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to approve the Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule for Ages 19 Years or Older, United States, 2020. The 2020 adult immunization schedule, available at www.cdc.gov/vaccines /schedules/hcp/imz/adult.html, summarizes ACIP recommendations in 2 tables and accompanying notes (Figure). The full ACIP recommendations for each vaccine are available at www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/index.html. The 2020 schedule has also been approved by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and by the American College of Physicians (www .acponline.org), American Academy of Family Physicians (www.aafp.org), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (www.acog.org), and American College of Nurse-Midwives (www.midwife.org)

Measurement of hadron and lepton-pair production at 130 GeV<root s<140 GeV at LEP

Contains fulltext : 26240.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

ISSR markers based on GA and AG repeats reveal genetic relationship among rice varieties tolerant to drought, flood, or salinity

Drought, flood, salinity, or a combination of these limits rice production. Several rice varieties are well known for their tolerance to specific abiotic stresses. We determined genetic relationship among 12 rice varieties including 9 tolerant to drought, flood, or salinity using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Based on all markers, the nine tolerant varieties formed one cluster distinct from the cluster of three control varieties. The salt-tolerant varieties were closest to two flood-tolerant varieties, and together they were distinct from the drought-tolerant varieties. (GA)8YG was the most informative primer, showing the highest polymorphic information content (PIC) and resolving power (Rp). The drought-, flood-, and salt-tolerant varieties grouped in three distinct clusters within the group of tolerant varieties, when (GA)8YG was used. Sabita was the only exception. The two aus varieties, Nagina22 and FR13A, were separated and grouped with the drought- and flood-tolerant varieties, respectively, but they were together in dendrograms based on other primers. The results show that ISSR markers associated with (GA)8YG delineated the three groups of stress-tolerant varieties from each other and can be used to identify genes/new alleles associated with the three abiotic stresses in rice germplasm