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A manuscript 3D movie oculography method regarding calibrating cross-axis vestibulo-ocular response.
More research is needed into rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and ultrasound (US) synovitis is a promising factor for assisting in the management of RA; however, related research is extremely limited. The goal of this study was to evaluate the correlation of US synovitis joint count with clinical features, and its longitudinal changes with treatment response to etanercept in RA. We consecutively enrolled 117 people with active RA being treated with etanercept. learn more US synovitis joint count was evaluated in 28 joints at baseline (W0), week 4 (W4), week 12 (W12) and week 24 (W24) after initiation of etanercept treatment. The mean (±standard deviation), median, inter-quartile range, and total range of the US synovitis joint count at W0 were 9.3 ± 4.0, 9.0, 7.0-11.0 and 2.0-21.0, respectively. US synovitis joint count was positively associated with tenderness joint count, swollen joint count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, 28-joint Disease Activity Score based on erythrocyte sedimentation rate and Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index score. Then participants were categorized into response and non-response groups according to their response status at W24. Further analyses showed that US synovitis joint count gradually decreased from W0 to W24, and displayed a more notable declining trend in the response group compared with the non-response group. In addition, US synovitis joint count at W0 and W4 was similar between groups, but at W12 and W24 it was markedly decreased in the response group compared with the non-response group. In conclusion, US synovitis joint count correlates with disease activity, and its longitudinal decrease is associated with treatment response to etanercept in RA.Thrombin generation assay (TGA) is a useful tool to evaluate the initiation, propagation and inhibition of coagulation. TGA is a global test that is used to assess hemorrhagic risk in hemophilia patients, but it can also be used to study hypercoagulable states. The interest of TGA is to screen for cardiovascular risk, which is regularly associated with autoimmune disease (AID) such as antiphospholipid syndrome. Indeed, TGA has been used to evaluate hypercoagulability in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome treated with rivaroxaban versus warfarin. In other AIDs without thrombotic events, TGA measurement is elevated, mainly in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus and Behçet's disease. These findings in RA are correlated with the inflammatory activity of the disease. In systemic lupus erythematosus and Behçet's disease, TGA appears to reflect disease activity. In conclusion, TGA remains relatively under used in the clinical evaluation of AID, but it could play a greater role in the evaluation of certain potentially thrombogenic treatments in AID. Finally, TGA helps measuring AID activity, due to the clearlink between coagulation and inflammation, despite some limitations of interpretation mainly due to a lack of standardization.
Bullous haemorrhagic dermatitis (BHD) is an uncommon and highly particular side effect of various forms of heparins.

To better characterise the disease, we collected all cases from French Pharmacovigilance centres recorded over a 20-year period (37 cases) and performed a Medline literature search up to June 2020 (57 cases).

In all, 94 patients were identified (male/female ratio 2.2) of mean age 73.5±12.1 years (31-94). Patients were treated with enoxaparin (n=66), unfractionated heparin (n=11), fondaparinux (n=10), tinzaparin (n=4), bemiparin (n=1), reviparin (n=1), dalteparin (n=1), and 4 with other anticoagulants warfarin (n=3) and rivaroxaban (n=1). All cases presented with 1 to more than 100 haemorrhagic vesicles and bullae, distant from the injection sites, located mainly on the lower (75%) or upper limbs (69%). The lesions were asymptomatic, except in 5 patients who had pruritic or painful lesions. The interval between treatment initiation and BHD ranged from 6 hours to 30 days (mean 8.4±7 days). cal factors might play a role.
This is the largest comprehensive series of this adverse effect due to heparins or, more rarely, to other anticoagulants. Dermatologists must be aware of BHD, since this benign side effect does not necessarily require interruption of treatment. It is rare, considering the large-scale prescription of heparins, and occurs mainly in male patients aged over 70. Although the presentation is highly typical, the physiopathology is difficult to understand, as coagulation parameters are usually normal. Aging, skin fragility or mechanical factors might play a role.
To determine whether the prior usage of the flu vaccine is a risk factor for bacterial co-infection in patients with severe influenza.

This was a retrospective observational cohort study of subjects admitted to the ICU. link2 A propensity score matching, and logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders were carried out to evaluate the association between prior influenza vaccination and bacterial co-infection.

184 ICUs in Spain due to severe influenza.

Patients included in the Spanish prospective flu registry.

Flu vaccine prior to the hospital admission.

A total of 4175 subjects were included in the study. 489 (11.7%) received the flu vaccine prior to develop influenza infection. Prior vaccinated patients were older 71 [61-78], and predominantly male 65.4%, with at least one comorbid condition 88.5%. link3 Prior vaccination was not associated with bacterial co-infection in the logistic regression model (OR 1.017; 95%CI 0.803-1.288; p=0.885). After matching, the average treatment effect of prior influenza vaccine on bacterial co-infection was not statistically significant when assessed by propensity score matching (p=0.87), nearest neighbor matching (p=0.59) and inverse probability weighting (p=0.99).

No association was identified between prior influenza vaccine and bacterial coinfection in patients admitted to the ICU due to severe influenza. Post influenza vaccination studies are necessary to continue evaluating the possible benefits.
No association was identified between prior influenza vaccine and bacterial coinfection in patients admitted to the ICU due to severe influenza. Post influenza vaccination studies are necessary to continue evaluating the possible benefits.Healthcare utilisation and expenditure are highly concentrated in hospital inpatient services, in particular in end-of-life care with the peak occurring in the very last year of life, regardless of patient age. Few scientific studies have investigated hospital costs and stays of patients at the end of life, and even fewer studies have analysed their evolution over time. In this paper, we exploit hospitalisation data for the Lombardy region of Italy with the aim of studying the evolution of hospital casemix, costs and stays of chronic patients, and compare the last year of life of two cohorts of patients who died in 2005 and 2014. Despite an overall three-year increase in the age at death, the results showed a significant decrease in hospital costs and use due to reduced interventions and length of hospital stays. However, this was not associated with an increase in quality of life/conditions (as indicated by clinical casemix as a proxy) for end-of-life patients; patients' casemix characteristics and clinical condition, as measured by the number of comorbidities, disease severity, prevalence of pulmonary disease and heart failure diagnosis, significantly worsened over the decade. This gives rise to important health policy concerns on how to identify effective policies and possible changes in healthcare system organisation to move from hospital-centred care to a community-centred approach whose value has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blau syndrome (BS) is an autoinflammatory disease associated with mutations in nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2. Although treatments with anti-TNF agents have been reported to be effective, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear.

We aimed to elucidate the mechanisms of autoinflammation in patients with BS and to clarify how anti-TNF treatment controls the disease phenotype at the cellular level in clinical samples.

Macrophages were differentiated from monocytes of 7 BS patients, and global transcriptional profiles of 5 patients were analyzed with or without IFN-γ stimulation. Macrophages were also generated from BS-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and their transcriptome was examined for comparison.

Aberrant inflammatory responses were observed upon IFN-γ stimulation in macrophages from untreated BS patients, but not in those from patients treated with anti-TNF. iPSC-derived macrophages carrying a disease-associated mutation also showed IFN-γ-dependent acceleratenally similar cytokines inducing NF-κB-driven proinflammatory signaling during macrophage development is a prerequisite for accelerated inflammatory responses upon IFN-γ stimulation in BS.
Glass ionomer cements (GIC) can be used to protect dentine following caries removal. However, GIC have little biological activity on biological repair processes, which means that neo-dentine formation remains reliant on limited endogenous regenerative processes. Wnt/β-catenin signalling is known to play a central role in stimulating tertiary dentine formation following tooth damage and can be stimulated by a range of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK3) antagonists, including lithium ions.

Here, we created lithium-containing bioactive glass (BG) by substituting lithium for sodium ions in 45S5 BG. We then replaced between 10 and 40% of the powder phase of a commercial GIC with the lithium-substituted BG to create a range of formulations of 'LithGlassGIC'. In vitro physical properties of the resulting glasses were characterised and their ability to stimulate reactionary dentine formation in mouse molars in vivo was tested.

Lithium release from LithGlassGIC increased with increasing lithium content in the cement. In common with unmodified commercial GIC, all formations of LithGlassGIC showed in vitro toxicity when measured using an indirect cell culture assay based on ISO109935, precluding direct pulp contact. However, in a murine non-exposed pulp model of tooth damage, LithGlassGIC quickly released lithium ions, which could be transiently detected in the saliva and blood. LithGlassGIC also enhanced the formation of tertiary dentine, resulting in a thickening of the dentine at the damage site that restored lost dentine volume. Dentine regeneration was likely mediated by upregulation of Wnt/β-catenin activity, as LithGlassGIC placed in TCF/LefH2B-GFP reporter mice showed enhanced GFP activity.

We conclude that LithGlassGIC acts as a biological restorative material that promotes tertiary dentine formation and restores tooth structure.
We conclude that LithGlassGIC acts as a biological restorative material that promotes tertiary dentine formation and restores tooth structure.
Clinically used bioceramics have been characterized previously with different kinds of methods and comparison of results have proven to be difficult due to varieties of the material properties of interest. Therefore, in this study we compared clinically commonly used bioceramics of hydroxyapatite and carbonate apatite, two bioactive glasses 45S5 and S53P4, and alumina with respect of properties which according to the present knowledge are significant for bone biology.

Physicochemical properties of the materials were characterized by various methods. Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) was used to analyze the material vibrational features. X-ray Power Diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize the material crystal structure and scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (SEM-EDXA) was used to evaluate the morphology and size of the materials and to calculate their oxide content. The dissolution behavior of the materials, ion release and pH changes in Tris buffer in a continuous flow-through reaction for 24-hours were determined.
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