Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic Value of Inflammatory and Cardiovascular Biomarkers for Prediction of 90-Day All-Cause Mortality after Acute Ischemic Stroke-Results from the Linz Stroke Unit Study.

BACKGROUND Early outcome prediction after acute ischemic stroke is of great interest. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognostic value of blood biomarkers in patients with acute ischemic stroke. METHODS We measured interleukin-6 (IL-6), d-dimer, amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T, and soluble ST2 plasma concentrations within 24 h after admission to our stroke unit in 721 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients. End point was 90-day all-cause mortality. RESULTS During follow-up 81 patients died (11%). In univariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses with the biochemical markers dichotomized according to median values, all baseline blood biomarkers were strong prognostic markers. However, in the multivariate analysis after adjustment for several clinical variables and the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS), only NIHSS >3 [risk ratio (RR) 7.87, 95% CI, 3.61-17.16; P < 0.001], IL-6 > 7 pg/mL (RR 4.09, 95% CI, 2.02-8.29; P < 0.001), and NT-proBNP >447 ng/L (RR 4.88, 95% CI, 2.41-9.88; P < 0.001) remained independent predictors. Using a simple multimarker approach combining these 3 complementary markers, we demonstrated that patients with increased NIHSS, IL-6, and NT-proBNP had the poorest outcome with a mortality rate of 38%, whereas no patient with negative readings for all 3 markers died during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS In this large cohort of patients with acute ischemic stroke, IL-6 and NT-proBNP at admission were strong and independent prognostic markers for 90-day all-cause mortality, and provided complementary prognostic information to the routinely used stroke severity score NIHSS.
A species-specific periplasmic flagellar protein of Serpulina (Treponema) hyodysenteriae

We have previously reported that a 46-kDa protein present in an outer membrane protein preparation seemed to be a species-specific antigen of Serpulina hyodysenteriae (Z. S. Li, N. S. Jensen, M. Bélanger, M.-C. L'Espérance, and M. Jacques, J. Clin. Microbiol. 30:2941-2947, 1992). The objective of this study was to further characterize this antigen. A Western blot (immunoblot) analysis and immunogold labeling with a monospecific antiserum against this protein confirmed that the protein was present in all S. hyodysenteriae reference strains but not in the nonpathogenic organism Serpulina innocens. The immunogold labeling results also indicated that the protein was associated with the periplasmic flagella of S. hyodysenteriae. N-terminal amino acid sequencing confirmed that the protein was in fact a periplasmic flagellar sheath protein. The molecular mass of this protein, first estimated to be 46 kDa by Western blotting, was determined to be 44 kDa when the protein was evaluated more precisely by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the protein was glycosylated, as determined by glycoprotein staining and also by N-glycosidase F treatment. Five other periplasmic flagellar proteins of S. hyodysenteriae, which may have been the core proteins and had molecular masses of 39, 35, 32, 30, and 29 kDa, were antigenically related and cross-reacted with the periplasmic flagellar proteins of S. innocens. Finally, serum from a pig experimentally infected with S. hyodysenteriae recognized the 44-kDa periplasmic flagellar sheath protein. Our results suggest that the 44-kDa periplasmic flagellar sheath protein of S. hyodysenteriae is a species-specific glycoprotein antigen.
Ethnic differences in hypertension and blood pressure control in the UK.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, the major causes of death in the UK and other Western countries. Despite this, many patients with hypertension remain undetected and inadequately treated. In order to accurately assess the effectiveness of health programmes aimed at hypertension, it is important first, to establish the mean blood pressure (BP) levels and the prevalence of hypertension in a population, particularly amongst the different ethnic groups, and second, to determine the proportion of people achieving adequate BP control (defined as BP <140/95 mmHg) on anti‐hypertensive medication, given the risk of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity associated with high blood pressure. Nevertheless, the epidemiological data on ethnic differences in BP and hypertension prevalence in the UK are conflicting. Detection, treatment, and control of hypertension among the three main ethnic groups in the UK is important, given that recent studies indicate substantial ethnic differences in cardiovascular mortality.1 For example, compared to Caucasians, Afro‐Caribbeans and people of African descent have a higher incidence of stroke2 and end‐stage renal failure,3 whereas coronary artery disease is less common. Conversely, South‐Asians (defined as people originating from the Indian subcontinent and East Africa) have a higher incidence of coronary heart disease.2 With advancing age, the prevalence of hypertension increases. In the Health Survey for England, for example, the prevalence of hypertension was 3.3% in those aged 140 mmHg (systolic) and/or 90 mmHg (diastolic), is a common problem.4 Several population‐based studies in …
Review: Prostate cancer epidemiology

Prostate cancer is common among men in the United States. Factors of possible importance in the etiology of prostate cancer include diet, primarily implicated by ecologic studies of national, regional, and ethnic variation in rates; endocrine function, implicated by the importance of endocrine function in normal prostatic growth and in the treatment of prostate cancer; genetic susceptibility, supported by familial aggregation; some aspect of sexual behavior, suggested by case‐control differences in sexual behavior; and occupational exposure, particularly cadmium exposure. Despite the public health importance of prostate cancer, it has received only moderate epidemiologic study; thus the etiologic importance of these and other possible determinants of prostrate cancer risk is uncertain [55].
Improved development of in vitro–derived bovine embryos by use of a nitric oxide scavenger in a cumulus–granulosa cell coculture system

This study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that nitric oxide (NO) affects prehatching development of bovine oocytes fertilized in vitro. In experiment 1, inseminated oocytes were cultured in a cumulus–granulosa cell (CG) coculture system to which 0.008 or 0.04 mM of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a spontaneous NO releaser, was added at 18 or 60 hr postinsemination. Embryo development was greatly (P < 0.001) inhibited by the addition of SNP, regardless of time of addition or SNP concentration. In experiment 2, eight‐cell embryos were cultured singly in a defined medium, to which 0.0016, 0.008, or 0.04 mM of SNP was added. Development to the blastocyst stage was greatly (P < 0.001) decreased after addition of SNP compared with no addition. Higher (P < 0.02) concentration of NO metabolites was found in developmentally arrested embryos than in developing embryos at 144 hr postinsemination (experiment 3). In experiment 4, blastocyst formation of oocytes cocultured with CGs was significantly (P < 0.02) increased after addition of hemoglobin (Hb, 1 μg/ml), an NO scavenger. Prehatching development of oocytes was significantly (P < 0.05) increased after addition of Hb at different time intervals (18, 60, or 144 hr postinsemination) in experiment 5. Embryo development was not enhanced by Hb addition to the culture medium in the absence of CGs (experiment 6). Prehatching development of eight‐cell embryos derived from a Hb‐containing culture system was not promoted by the further addition of Hb after transfer of the embryos to a defined and CG‐free single‐embryo culture system (experiment 7). In conclusion, NO, which may be secreted from CGs, has an inhibitory role in prehatching development of bovine oocytes fertilized in vitro, and use of an NO scavenger, Hb, in a coculture system enhances blastocyst formation. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 50:45–53, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Undifferentiated Sarcoma of the Kidney: a case report

Primary renal sarcoma is extremely rare and account for less than 1% of malignant renal tumors. We report a 24-year-old female with huge undifferentiated sarcoma arising from renal parenchyma of left kidney. The tumor was confined in the renal cortex without disruption of the renal capsule, which was difficult to be differentiated from renal cell carcinoma due to its unusual location. We present the imaging and histopathological findings of this rare case, and review the literatures.
Perinatal Outcomes in Pregnancies Managed with Antenatal Insulin Glargine

We compared perinatal outcomes in pregnancies in which insulin glargine was used in the management of patients with pregnancies in which standard insulin therapy was used at a single institution. A retrospective analysis of 114 pregnant patients with diabetes (pregestational or gestational) managed at a single center between January 2004 and August 2006 was undertaken. Sixty-five patients managed with insulin glargine were compared with 49 patients managed with neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin. Both groups were also treated with short-acting insulin (either regular, lispro, or aspart insulin). Maternal age, parity, prepregnancy weight, body mass index, duration of diabetes, hemoglobin A (1C) (at entry and final recorded) and gestational age at entry were similar for each group (glargine and NPH). Thirty patients had gestational diabetes (18 glargine and 12 NPH); there were no differences in numbers of patients in higher-order White's classification between the two groups. Cesarean section for obstetric reasons included labor abnormalities, malpresentation, fetal distress, and suspected macrosomia. There were no differences in gestational age at delivery, birth weight, preeclampsia, or frequency of cesarean section (total or for obstetric reasons). The frequency of shoulder dystocia was higher in the NPH group. Regarding neonatal outcomes, gestational age at delivery, birth weight, Apgar scores, admission to the neonatal intensive care unit, respiratory distress syndrome, hypoglycemia, and congenital anomalies were similar between the two groups. From this retrospective analysis, no adverse maternal or neonatal effects were seen from maternal administration of insulin glargine. A larger multicenter study is needed to confirm these findings. This preliminary report suggests that use of insulin glargine during pregnancy can be considered if maternal metabolic control is suboptimal using the standard split-mix regimen.
Transient Attention Degrades Perceived Apparent Motion

Transient spatial attention refers to the automatic selection of a location that is driven by the stimulus rather than a voluntary decision. Apparent motion is an illusory motion created by stationary stimuli that are presented successively at different locations. In this study we explored the effects of transient attention on apparent motion. The motion target presentation was preceded by either valid attentional cues that attract attention to the target location in advance (experiments 1–4), neutral cues that do not indicate a location (experiments 1, 3, and 4), or invalid cues that direct attention to a non-target location (experiment 2). Valid attentional cues usually improve performance in various tasks. Here, however, an attentional impairment was found. Observers' ability to discriminate the direction of motion diminished at the cued location. Analogous results were obtained regardless of cue type: singleton cue (experiment 1), central non-informative cue (experiment 2), or abrupt onset cue (experiment 3). Experiment 4 further demonstrated that reversed apparent motion is less likely with attention. This seemingly counterintuitive attentional degradation of perceived apparent motion is consistent with several recent findings, and together they suggest that transient attention facilitates spatial segregation and temporal integration but impairs spatial integration and temporal segregation.
‘Simplification’ of responses of complex cells in cat striate cortex: suppressive surrounds and ‘feedback’ inactivation

In mammalian striate cortex (V1), two distinct functional classes of neurones, the so‐called simple and complex cells, are routinely distinguished. They can be quantitatively differentiated from each other on the basis of the ratio between the phase‐variant (F1) component and the mean firing rate (F0) of spike responses to luminance‐modulated sinusoidal gratings (simple, F1/F0 > 1; complex, F1/F0 < 1). We investigated how recurrent cortico‐cortical connections affect the spatial phase‐variance of responses of V1 cells in the cat. F1/F0 ratios of the responses to optimally oriented drifting sine‐wave gratings covering the classical receptive field (CRF) of single V1 cells were compared to those of: (1) responses to gratings covering the CRFs combined with gratings of different orientations presented to the ‘silent’ surrounds; and (2) responses to CRF stimulation during reversible inactivation of postero‐temporal visual (PTV) cortex. For complex cells, the relative strength of the silent surround suppression on CRF‐driven responses was positively correlated with the extent of increases in F1/F0 ratios. Inactivation of PTV cortex increased F1/F0 ratios of CRF‐driven responses of complex cells only. Overall, activation of suppressive surrounds or inactivation of PTV ‘converted’ substantial proportions (50 and 30%, respectively) of complex cells into simple‐like cells (F1/F0 > 1). Thus, the simple–complex distinction depends, at least partly, on information coming from the silent surrounds and/or feedback from ‘higher‐order’ cortices. These results support the idea that simple and complex cells belong to the same basic cortical circuit and the spatial phase‐variance of their responses depends on the relative strength of different synaptic inputs.
Antiplatelet therapy and the risk of intracranial hemorrhage after intravenous tissue plasminogen activator therapy for acute ischemic stroke.

Intravenous administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is currently the only approved therapy for acute ischemic stroke. The drug works by splitting plasminogen into plasmin, ultimately leading to fibrin degradation at the site of cerebral artery occlusion. Even today, more than 10 years after the drug was approved in the United States (and subsequently around the world), its use has been hampered by the fear of inducing symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH). This adverse event was seen in 6% of patients treated in the original National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke trial1 that led to tPA's approval and was subsequently confirmed in multiple postmarketing studies.2,3 The predictors of SICH after tPA administration are well known: severe stroke (high National Institute of Health Stroke Scale score) and large hypodensity on the admission computed tomography. Other possible predictors include advanced age, elevated blood glucose, a platelet count of less than 50 000/ mL, and systolic blood pressure above 180 mm Hg.2,4 Previous works have examined the relationship between prior antiplatelet (AP) therapy and SICH after tPA administration. Notably, in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke tPA trial, there was no association between prior aspirin therapy and SICH.4 Another multicenter stroke survey showed an association of SICH with aspirin therapy that was lost after controlling for clinical and laboratory variables.2 Contrary to that, in this issue of Archives, Uyttenboogaart et al5 report a surprisingly high rate of SICH after tPA administration in patients undergoing longterm AP therapy. In their cohort of 309 patients derived from a single center in the Netherlands, AP therapy (mostly aspirin or an aspirin and di-pyridamole combination) before the stroke was associated with a 13.5% rate of SICH compared with 2.8% in patients without AP therapy. Drug compliance was not assessed in this study. As expected, patients undergoing AP therapy were older and had more vascular risk factors than patients not taking AP drugs. There were no differences in stroke severity, stroke subtype, blood pressure, blood glucose, or early changes on the admission computed tomographic scan. Despite the high rate of SICH, AP therapy was associated with an odds ratio of 2 for a favorable outcome. How does one settle these seemingly contradictory results and what lessons can we draw from this observation? Let us first look at the role of platelets in acute ischemic stroke.
The Effect of Quantisation Error on the Accuracy of Colour Transforms

Colour measurements are always performed with a limited accuracy. The experimental errors propagate through the processing. The quantised representation of the data is an additional source of error, not only on the input, but also in intermediate processing steps. This is not taken into account by existing error propagation methods. This text investigates the e ect of this quantisation and how it propagates with various colour transforms. We rst develop a mathematical model to describes the e ect. Secondly we give some experimental data that illustrates its results.
Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring for minimally invasive 1- and 2-level transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion: does it improve patient outcome?

BACKGROUND Despite the widespread use of intraoperative monitoring (IOM) in many types of spinal surgeries, an absence of data comparing monitored a nd unmonitored postoperative outcomes places IOM's efficacy into question. A lack of consensus among surgeons about when to use monitoring also raises concerns about its overuse in routine and low-risk procedures. METHODS We performed a retrospective database review of 112 patients undergoing a 1- or 2-level minimally invasive surgery transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF). Our analysis focused on patient demographics, use of IOM, length of surgery, hospital length of stay, the perioperative complication of pedicle screw malposition, and average hospital cost. RESULTS For the 73 patients who underwent MIS-TLIF with intraoperative neuromonitoring, their hospital length of stay (P=0.8) and need for pedicle screw revisions (P=0.93) were not statistically significant compared to the 39 patients who underwent MIS-TLIF procedures without IOM. The incidence of reoperation was 5.48% and 5.13%, and average length of stay was 3.25 days and 3.13 days, respectively. However, the cost of surgery and the length of surgery were significantly higher in the monitored group compared to the nonmonitored group (P=0.008 and P=0.009, respectively). CONCLUSION IOM is widely used in spine surgery, but our retrospective review shows that its use does not necessarily decrease the incidence of malpositioning of pedicle screws. In fact, no statistical difference was detected in the incidence of screw malposition in the 2 groups of patients. On the other hand, IOM adds cost and increases the length of surgery. Because the use of IOM did not make a difference in the incidence of pedicle screw malpositioning and because of the comparative cost analysis for both groups of patients, we believe that the use of IOM for MIS-TLIF provides no added benefit.
Characterization of sourdough lactic acid bacteria based on genotypic and cell-wall protein analyses.

AIMS To evaluate the effectiveness of two independent methods in differentiating a large population of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from wheat flours and sourdoughs and to correlate eventual differences/similarities among strains with their geographical origin and/or process parameters. METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred fifty strains belonging to Lactobacillus spp. and Weissella spp. , plus eight type strains, one for each species, and two unidentified isolates, were characterized by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and SDS-PAGE of cell-wall proteins. The RAPD analysis separated the eight type strains but did not always assign all the strains of a species to the same group, while SDS-PAGE cell-wall protein profiles were species-specific. Frequently, strains isolated from sourdoughs of the same geographical origin or produced by similar raw material/process parameters showed similar RAPD and/or cell-wall profiles. CONCLUSIONS The combined use of the RAPD and cell-wall protein analysis represents a useful tool to classify large adventitious microbial populations and to discriminate the diversity of the strains. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY This study represents a typing of a large collection of flour/sourdough LAB and provides evidence of the advantage of using two independent methods in the classification and traceability of microorganisms.
Impact of Institutional Volume on Outcomes of Catheter Directed Thrombolysis in the Treatment of Acute Proximal Deep Vein Thrombosis: A 6-Year US Experience (2005–2010)

Background— The use of catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) in the treatment of acute proximal lower-extremity deep vein thrombosis is increasing in the United States and has been linked to higher bleeding rates. Whether this relationship is interrelated with institution volume of CDT is unknown. Methods and Results— The Nationwide Inpatient Sample database was used to identify all patients admitted with a principal diagnosis of proximal or inferior vena caval deep vein thrombosis and treated with CDT from 2005 to 2010. Institutions were divided into high-volume (≥6 procedures a year) and low-volume (<6 procedures a year) centers. Propensity score matching was used to create 2 matched groups for comparative analysis. A total of 90 618 patients were hospitalized for proximal lower-extremity deep vein thrombosis, and 3649 patients (4.1%) underwent CDT. In-hospital mortality was significantly lower at high-volume centers (0.6% versus 1.5%; P=0.04) with a trend toward lower intracranial hemorrhage rates compared with low-volume centers (0.4% versus 1%; P=0.07). No significant difference was seen with blood transfusion (10.4% versus 10.8%; P=0.70), gastrointestinal bleeding (1.4% versus 1.8%; P=0.35), or pulmonary embolism rates (18.4% versus 17.9%; P=0.72). Median length of stay was similar (6 days) and hospital charges were higher ($65 500 versus $75 870) at high-volume centers. Conclusions— In this observational study, we found that an increase in institutional volume of CDT was associated with lower in-hospital mortality and lower intracranial hemorrhage rates. Further studies are needed to assess whether standardization of CDT protocols across all institutions in the United States improves outcomes.