Consecutive Macular Edema and Visual Outcome in Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion

Purposes. The study introduced the concept of “consecutive macular edema” and evaluated the validity of visual outcome in macular edema (ME) secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). Methods. Patients were categorized into the gainer group and the nongainer group according to the final visual acuity. We analyzed clinical characteristics involving total and consecutive duration of ME between the two groups. Results. Among the total 71 eyes of 71 patients, intravitreal bevacizumab injection (26 patients), triamcinolone (21), and natural course (33) were enrolled. The consecutive duration of ME was shorter in the gainer group than in the nongainer group (3.33 ± 1.50 and 5.24 ± 2.39 months; P=0.000). After exclusion of macular ischemia, consecutive duration of ME in gainer group was also significantly shorter than in nongainer group (3.62 ± 1.60 and 6.11 ± 4.20 months; P=0.010). Conclusions. The duration of ME in the nongainer group was longer than in the gainer group. In particular, the consecutive duration was an important factor in determining the final visual outcome. Clinical Trial Registration. Approval by Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee was obtained for this retrospective study

Spinal Myoclonus Developed during Cervical Epidural Drug Infusion in Postherpetic Neuralgia Patient

Postherpetic neuralgia is the most frequent complication of herpes zoster. Treatment of this neuropathic pain syndrome is difficult and often disappointing. Although postherpetic neuralgia is generally a self-limited condition, it can last indefinitely. Continuous epidural blockade for patients with acute zoster can shorten the duration of treatment. However, continuous epidural block has some complications such as infection, dural puncture, and total spinal and nerve damages. We report a case of myoclonus during continuous epidural block with ropivacaine, morphine, and ketamine in an acute zoster patient

Genome-edited HEADING DATE 3a knockout enhances leaf production in Perilla frutescens

Environmental cues regulate the transition of many plants from vegetative to flowering development. Day length, or photoperiod, is one cue that synchronizes flowering by changing seasons. Consequently, the molecular mechanism of flowering control is prominent in Arabidopsis and rice, where essential genes like FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) homolog, HEADING DATE 3a (Hd3a), have been connected to flowering regulation. Perilla is a nutrient-rich leaf vegetable, and the flowering mechanism remains largely elusive. We identified flowering-related genes under short-day conditions using RNA sequencing to develop an enhanced leaf production trait using the flowering mechanism in the perilla. Initially, an Hd3a-like gene was cloned from the perilla and defined as PfHd3a. Furthermore, PfHd3a is highly rhythmically expressed in mature leaves under short-day and long-day conditions. Ectopic expression of PfHd3a in Atft-1 mutant plants has been shown to complement Arabidopsis FT function, resulting in early flowering. In addition, our genetic approaches revealed that overexpression of PfHd3a in perilla caused early flowering. In contrast, the CRISPR/Cas9 generated PfHd3a-mutant perilla showed significantly late flowering, resulting in approximately 50% leaf production enhancement compared to the control. Our results suggest that PfHd3a plays a vital role in regulating flowering in the perilla and is a potential target for molecular breeding in the perilla

An elevated likelihood of stroke, ischemic heart disease, or heart failure in individuals with gout: a longitudinal follow-up study utilizing the National Health Information database in Korea

ObjectiveAccumulating evidence from other countries indicates potential associations between gout and cardiovascular diseases; however, the associations of gout with cardiovascular diseases, particularly stroke, ischemic heart disease, and heart failure, remain ambiguous in the Korean population. We hypothesized that individuals with gout are at a higher likelihood of stroke, ischemic heart disease, or heart failure. This study expands upon previous research by ensuring a comparable baseline between patient and control groups and analyzing 16 years of data derived from an extensive healthcare database.MethodsWe selected 22,480 patients with gout and 22,480 control individuals from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort database (2002–2019), and matched them at a 1:1 ratio according to sex, age, income, and residence. A Cox proportional hazard model with weighted overlap was employed to examine the relationship between gout and the risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease, or heart failure after adjustment for several covariates.ResultsThe incidences of stroke, ischemic heart disease, or heart failure in participants with gout were slightly higher than those in controls (stroke: 9.84 vs. 8.41 per 1000 person-years; ischemic heart disease: 9.77 vs. 7.15 per 1000 person-years; heart failure: 2.47 vs. 1.46 per 1000 person-years). After adjustment, the gout group had an 11% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.04–1.19), 28% (95% CI = 1.19–1.37), or 64% (95% CI = 1.41–1.91) higher likelihood of experiencing stroke, ischemic heart disease, or heart failure, respectively, than the control group.ConclusionThe present findings suggest that individuals with gout in the Korean population, particularly those aged ≥ 60 years, were more likely to have stroke, ischemic heart disease, or heart failure

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Survival analysis following early surgical success in intermittent exotropia surgery

AIM:To assess the consecutive recurrence following early success of intermittent exotropia surgery and to determine the clinical factors that affect the survival.METHODS:One hundred and thirty-five patients who underwent intermittent exotropia surgery and experienced early surgical success [≤5 prism diopters (PD) esophoria (E) to ≤10 PD exophoria (X) on the postoperative sixth month] were enrolled in this study. Their consecutive survival on the postoperative first year, second year and third year and at the last visit of fourth year or more, and the factors that might affect their survival, were analyzed. The final surgical outcomes after the postoperative fourth year were also investigated by dividing the patients into the success group (≤5 PD E to ≤10 PD X) and the failure group (>5 PD esodeviation or >10 PD exodeviation)RESULTS:The survival rates from the Kaplan-Meier analysis were 97.78%, 92.89%, 83.70% and 50.49% on the postoperative first, second and third years and fourth year or more, respectively. None of the clinical factors was determined to have affected the survival. The amount of the exodrift was largest (2.29 PD) between the first year and the second year, and smallest (1.47 PD) between the fourth year and the last visit. Sixty-three patients had their final visit after the postoperative fourth year, and 29 of them were in the failure group. Twenty-five patients in the failure group had an intermittent exotropia (IXT) of <20 PD with good to fair distant fusion; two had an IXT of <20 PD with poor distant fusion; one had an IXT of ≥20 PD with fair distant fusion; and another had delayed-onset consecutive esotropia. The exodeviation on the postoperative sixth month was smaller in the success group than in the failure group (2.81 PD vs 5.86 PD, P=0.012). The reoperation rate for recurrent IXT was 3.7%.CONCLUSION:The survival rate steadily decreases with the exodrift, but the amount of the exodrift decreases with long-term follow-up. The final outcomes demonstrate favorable results via surgical success or small-angle IXT with good fusion in most of the patients. A smaller deviation on the postoperative sixth month is associated with long-term survival

Comparing the initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy after robotic and laparoscopic colon cancer surgeries: A case-controlled study with propensity score matching

Purpose Early initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy after colon cancer surgery has shown better oncologic outcomes in previous studies. However, the clinical impact of robotic and laparoscopic surgeries on the initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy has not been widely evaluated. Hence, the study’s aim was to compare the influence of both surgical approaches on the initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy after colon cancer surgery. Methods From June 2011 to September 2017, 289 patients underwent curative robotic or laparoscopic surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II and III colon cancer. To control for different demographic factors in the two groups, propensity score case matching was used at a 1:4 ratio. Finally, 190 patients were matched with 38 patients of the robotic surgery group and 152 patients of the laparoscopic surgery group. Results The operation time was longer in the robotic surgery group (297 minutes vs. 170 minutes, respectively; P<0.001). However, conversion rate, number of retrieved lymph nodes, first flatus, first soft diet, length of stay, postoperative complication rate, and Clavien-Dindo grade were not significantly different between the two groups. Additionally, there was no difference in the time to initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy between the two groups (31.5 days vs. 29.0 days, respectively; P=0.226). Disease-free and overall survival rates were also not significantly different. Conclusion Robotic and laparoscopic surgeries showed no different impact on the initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy. This finding suggests that the two surgical approaches offer similar postoperative outcomes