The use of intra-articular aneshesia as a diagnostic tool in canine lameness

Lameness in dogs may be difficult to localize because of mild pathologic changes or inconclusive clinical findings. Intra-articular anesthesia is proposed as a diagnostic method to localize the source of lameness. After a description of the preparation, technique and puncture sites, an overview is given of a series of patients admitted for different joint problems. Intra-articular anesthesia proved to be applicable in any joint, provided that the clinician was experienced and the dog was under sedation. In 87% of the cases, intra-articular anesthesia was positive. Medial coronoid disease of the elbow joint was the most frequent indication for intra-articular anesthesia

Functional brain imaging of serotonin-2A receptors in impulsive dogs: a pilot study

Impulsive, disinhibited behavior in dogs, which comes to expression as aggression, has a major impact on public health. Measures taken without a real understanding of the underlying pathology are unlikely to be effective. It would therefore be not only of pathophysiological but also of clinical relevance to develop a research paradigm to investigate this aberrant behavior in dogs. The first aim of this article is to review the literature concerning functional-anatomical and biochemical research on animal impulsivity. On the basis of this research, a hypothesis involving the prefrontal serotonin-2A receptor in the frontal cortex is generated and the feasibility of quantifying the 5-HT2A receptor with Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and the highly selective receptor radioligand I-123-5I-R91150 is presented in a pilot study. If confirmed, this hypothesis may lead to the development of an in vivo research tool for investigating behavioral disorders and a modality for monitoring the effects of pharmacologic interventions and behavior therapy

The upper frequency limit for the use of phase locking to code temporal fine structure in humans:A compilation of viewpoints

The relative importance of neural temporal and place coding in auditory perception is still a matter of much debate. The current article is a compilation of viewpoints from leading auditory psychophysicists and physiologists regarding the upper frequency limit for the use of neural phase locking to code temporal fine structure in humans. While phase locking is used for binaural processing up to about 1500 Hz, there is disagreement regarding the use of monaural phase-locking information at higher frequencies. Estimates of the general upper limit proposed by the contributors range from 1500 to 10000 Hz. The arguments depend on whether or not phase locking is needed to explain psychophysical discrimination performance at frequencies above 1500 Hz, and whether or not the phase-locked neural representation is sufficiently robust at these frequencies to provide useable information. The contributors suggest key experiments that may help to resolve this issue, and experimental findings that may cause them to change their minds. This issue is of crucial importance to our understanding of the neural basis of auditory perception in general, and of pitch perception in particular

Electrophysiological measurements of peripheral vestibular function—A review of electrovestibulography

Electrocochleography (EcochG), incorporating the Cochlear Microphonic (CM), the Summating Potential (SP), and the cochlear Compound Action Potential (CAP), has been used to study cochlear function in humans and experimental animals since the 1930s, providing a simple objective tool to assess both hair cell (HC) and nerve sensitivity. The vestibular equivalent of ECochG, termed here Electrovestibulography (EVestG), incorporates responses of the vestibular HCs and nerve. Few research groups have utilized EVestG to study vestibular function. Arguably, this is because stimulating the cochlea in isolation with sound is a trivial matter, whereas stimulating the vestibular system in isolation requires significantly more technical effort. That is, the vestibular system is sensitive to both high-level sound and bone-conducted vibrations, but so is the cochlea, and gross electrical responses of the inner ear to such stimuli can be difficult to interpret. Fortunately, several simple techniques can be employed to isolate vestibular electrical responses. Here, we review the literature underpinning gross vestibular nerve and HC responses, and we discuss the nomenclature used in this field. We also discuss techniques for recording EVestG in experimental animals and humans and highlight how EVestG is furthering our understanding of the vestibular system

Cancer Biomarker Discovery: The Entropic Hallmark

Background: It is a commonly accepted belief that cancer cells modify their transcriptional state during the progression of the disease. We propose that the progression of cancer cells towards malignant phenotypes can be efficiently tracked using high-throughput technologies that follow the gradual changes observed in the gene expression profiles by employing Shannon's mathematical theory of communication. Methods based on Information Theory can then quantify the divergence of cancer cells' transcriptional profiles from those of normally appearing cells of the originating tissues. The relevance of the proposed methods can be evaluated using microarray datasets available in the public domain but the method is in principle applicable to other high-throughput methods. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using melanoma and prostate cancer datasets we illustrate how it is possible to employ Shannon Entropy and the Jensen-Shannon divergence to trace the transcriptional changes progression of the disease. We establish how the variations of these two measures correlate with established biomarkers of cancer progression. The Information Theory measures allow us to identify novel biomarkers for both progressive and relatively more sudden transcriptional changes leading to malignant phenotypes. At the same time, the methodology was able to validate a large number of genes and processes that seem to be implicated in the progression of melanoma and prostate cancer. Conclusions/Significance: We thus present a quantitative guiding rule, a new unifying hallmark of cancer: the cancer cell's transcriptome changes lead to measurable observed transitions of Normalized Shannon Entropy values (as measured by high-throughput technologies). At the same time, tumor cells increment their divergence from the normal tissue profile increasing their disorder via creation of states that we might not directly measure. This unifying hallmark allows, via the the Jensen-Shannon divergence, to identify the arrow of time of the processes from the gene expression profiles, and helps to map the phenotypical and molecular hallmarks of specific cancer subtypes. The deep mathematical basis of the approach allows us to suggest that this principle is, hopefully, of general applicability for other diseases