Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Increased Myocardial Susceptibility To Repetitive Ischemia With High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity, Geeta D Thakker, Nikolaos G Frangogiannis, Pawel T Zymek, Saumya Sharma, Joe L Raya, Philip M Barger, Heinrich Taegtmeyer, Mark L Entman, Christie M Ballantyne

Journal Articles

Obesity and diabetes are frequently associated with cardiovascular disease. When a normal heart is subjected to brief/sublethal repetitive ischemia and reperfusion (I/R), adaptive responses are activated to preserve cardiac structure and function. These responses include but are not limited to alterations in cardiac metabolism, reduced calcium responsiveness, and induction of antioxidant enzymes. In a model of ischemic cardiomyopathy inducible by brief repetitive I/R, we hypothesized that dysregulation of these adaptive responses in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice would contribute to enhanced myocardial injury. DIO C57BL/6J mice were subjected to 15 min of daily repetitive I/R while under short-acting anesthesia, a protocol …

Foxm1b Transcriptionally Regulates Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression And Promotes The Angiogenesis And Growth Of Glioma Cells., Yujian Zhang, Nu Zhang, Bingbing Dai, Mingguang Liu, Raymond Sawaya, Keping Xie, Suyun Huang

Journal Articles

We previously found that FoxM1B is overexpressed in human glioblastomas and that forced FoxM1B expression in anaplastic astrocytoma cells leads to the formation of highly angiogenic glioblastoma in nude mice. However, the molecular mechanisms by which FoxM1B enhances glioma angiogenesis are currently unknown. In this study, we found that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a direct transcriptional target of FoxM1B. FoxM1B overexpression increased VEGF expression, whereas blockade of FoxM1 expression suppressed VEGF expression in glioma cells. Transfection of FoxM1 into glioma cells directly activated the VEGF promoter, and inhibition of FoxM1 expression by FoxM1 siRNA suppressed VEGF promoter activation. …

Sustained Attention In Children With Two Etiologies Of Early Hydrocephalus., Maegan D. Swartwout, Paul T. Cirino, Amy W. Hampson, Jack M. Fletcher, Michael E. Brandt, Maureen Dennis

Journal Articles

Several studies have shown that children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) and hydrocephalus have attention problems on parent ratings and difficulties in stimulus orienting associated with a posterior brain attention system. Less is known about response control and inhibition associated with an anterior brain attention system. Using the Gordon Vigilance Task (Gordon, 1983), we studied error rate, reaction time, and performance over time for sustained attention, a key anterior attention function, in 101 children with SBM, 17 with aqueductal stenosis (AS; another condition involving congenital hydrocephalus), and 40 typically developing controls (NC). In SBM, we investigated the relation between cognitive …

3d Mprage Improves Classification Of Cortical Lesions In Multiple Sclerosis, F Nelson, A Poonawalla, P Hou, J S Wolinsky, P A Narayana

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Gray matter lesions are known to be common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and are suspected to play an important role in disease progression and clinical disability. A combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, double-inversion recovery (DIR), and phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR), has been used for detection and classification of cortical lesions. This study shows that high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition with gradient echo (MPRAGE) improves the classification of cortical lesions by allowing more accurate anatomic localization of lesion morphology.

METHODS: 11 patients with MS with previously identified cortical lesions were scanned using DIR, PSIR, and 3D MPRAGE. …

Aggressive Vs Conservative Phototherapy For Infants With Extremely Low Birth Weight, Brenda H Morris, William Oh, Jon E Tyson, David K Stevenson, Dale L Phelps, T Michael O'Shea, Georgia E Mcdavid, Rebecca L Perritt, Krisa P Van Meurs, Betty R Vohr, Cathy Grisby, Qing Yao, Claudia Pedroza, Abhik Das, W Kenneth Poole, Waldemar A Carlo, Shahnaz Duara, Abbot R Laptook, Walid A Salhab, Seetha Shankaran, Brenda B Poindexter, Avroy A Fanaroff, Michele C Walsh, Maynard R Rasmussen, Barbara J Stoll, C Michael Cotten, Edward F Donovan, Richard A Ehrenkranz, Ronnie Guillet, Rosemary D Higgins

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether aggressive phototherapy to prevent neurotoxic effects of bilirubin benefits or harms infants with extremely low birth weight (1000 g or less).

METHODS: We randomly assigned 1974 infants with extremely low birth weight at 12 to 36 hours of age to undergo either aggressive or conservative phototherapy. The primary outcome was a composite of death or neurodevelopmental impairment determined for 91% of the infants by investigators who were unaware of the treatment assignments.

RESULTS: Aggressive phototherapy, as compared with conservative phototherapy, significantly reduced the mean peak serum bilirubin level (7.0 vs. 9.8 mg per deciliter [120 …

The Performance Of Human Papillomavirus High-Risk Dna Testing In The Screening And Diagnostic Settings, Marylou Cárdenas-Turanzas, Graciela M Nogueras-Gonzalez, Michael E Scheurer, Karen Adler-Storthz, J L Benedet, J Robert Beck, Michele Follen, Scott B Cantor

Journal Articles

OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate the performance of the human papillomavirus high-risk DNA test in patients 30 years and older.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Screening (n=835) and diagnosis (n=518) groups were defined based on prior Papanicolaou smear results as part of a clinical trial for cervical cancer detection. We compared the Hybrid Capture II (HCII) test result with the worst histologic report. We used cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2/3 or worse as the reference of disease. We calculated sensitivities, specificities, positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR-), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and areas under the ROC curves for the …

Effect Of Progressive Mandibular Advancement On Pharyngeal Airway Size In Anesthetized Adults., Samuel T Kuna, Lee C Woodson, Daneshvari R Solanki, Oliver Esch, Donald E Frantz, Mali Mathru

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: General anesthesia in adult humans is associated with narrowing or complete closure of the pharyngeal airway. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of progressive mandibular advancement on pharyngeal airway size in normal adults during intravenous infusion of propofol for anesthesia.

METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in nine normal adults during wakefulness and during propofol anesthesia. A commercially available intraoral appliance was used to manually advance the mandible. Images were obtained during wakefulness without the appliance and during anesthesia with the participants wearing the appliance under three conditions: without mandibular advancement, advancement to 50% maximum …

Characteristics Of A Spina Bifida Population Including North American Caucasian And Hispanic Individuals, Kit Sing Au, Phong X Tran, Chester C Tsai, Michelle R O'Byrne, Jone-Ing Lin, Alanna C Morrison, Amy W Hampson, Paul Cirino, Jack M Fletcher, Kathryn K Ostermaier, Gayle H Tyerman, Sabine Doebel, Hope Northrup

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Meningomyelocele (MM) is a common human birth defect. MM is a disorder of neural development caused by contributions from genes and environmental factors that result in the NTD and lead to a spectrum of physical and neurocognitive phenotypes.

METHODS: A multidisciplinary approach has been taken to develop a comprehensive understanding of MM through collaborative efforts from investigators specializing in genetics, development, brain imaging, and neurocognitive outcome. Patients have been recruited from five different sites: Houston and the Texas-Mexico border area; Toronto, Canada; Los Angeles, California; and Lexington, Kentucky. Genetic risk factors for MM have been assessed by genotyping and …

Characterization Of The Inflammatory Cells In Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms In Patients With Marfan Syndrome, Familial Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms, And Sporadic Aneurysms, Rumin He, Dong-Chuan Guo, Wei Sun, Christina L Papke, Senthil Duraisamy, Anthony L Estrera, Hazim J Safi, Chul Ahn, L Maximilian Buja, Frank C Arnett, Jingwu Zhang, Yong-Jian Geng, Dianna M Milewicz

Journal Articles

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to characterize the inflammatory infiltrate in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm in patients with Marfan syndrome, familial thoracic aortic aneurysm, or nonfamilial thoracic aortic aneurysm.

BACKGROUND: Thoracic aortic aneurysms are associated with a pathologic lesion termed "medial degeneration," which is described as a noninflammatory lesion. Thoracic aortic aneurysms are a complication of Marfan syndrome and can be inherited in an autosomal dominant manner of familial thoracic aortic aneurysm.

METHODS: Full aortic segments were collected from patients undergoing elective repair with Marfan syndrome (n = 5), familial thoracic aortic aneurysm (n = 6), and thoracic aortic aneurysms (n …

Genetic Variation In Genes For The Xenobiotic-Metabolizing Enzymes Cyp1a1, Ephx1, Gstm1, Gstt1, And Gstp1 And Susceptibility To Colorectal Cancer In Lynch Syndrome., Mala Pande, Christopher I Amos, Daniel R Osterwisch, Jinyun Chen, Patrick M Lynch, Russell Broaddus, Marsha L Frazier

Journal Articles

Individuals with Lynch syndrome are predisposed to cancer due to an inherited DNA mismatch repair gene mutation. However, there is significant variability observed in disease expression likely due to the influence of other environmental, lifestyle, or genetic factors. Polymorphisms in genes encoding xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes may modify cancer risk by influencing the metabolism and clearance of potential carcinogens from the body. In this retrospective analysis, we examined key candidate gene polymorphisms in CYP1A1, EPHX1, GSTT1, GSTM1, and GSTP1 as modifiers of age at onset of colorectal cancer among 257 individuals with Lynch syndrome. We found that subjects heterozygous for CYP1A1 I462V …

Effects Of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy And Whole-Body Hypothermia On Neonatal Auditory Function: A Pilot Study, Ulrike Mietzsch, Nehal A Parikh, Amber L Williams, Seetha Shankaran, Robert E Lasky

Journal Articles

We assessed the effects of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and whole-body hypothermia therapy on auditory brain stem evoked responses (ABRs) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs). We performed serial assessments of ABRs and DPOAEs in newborns with moderate or severe HIE, randomized to hypothermia ( N = 4) or usual care ( N = 5). Participants were five boys and four girls with mean gestational age (standard deviation) of 38.9 (1.8) weeks. During the first week of life, peripheral auditory function, as measured by the DPOAEs, was disrupted in all nine subjects. ABRs were delayed but central transmission was intact, suggesting …

Influence Of Host Interleukin-10 Polymorphisms On Development Of Traveler's Diarrhea Due To Heat-Labile Enterotoxin-Producing Escherichia Coli In Travelers From The United States Who Are Visiting Mexico, Jose Flores, Herbert L Dupont, Stephanie A Lee, Jaime Belkind-Gerson, Mercedes Paredes, Jamal A Mohamed, Lisa Y Armitige, Dong-Chuan Guo, Pablo C Okhuysen

Journal Articles

Up to 60% of U.S. visitors to Mexico develop traveler's diarrhea (TD), mostly due to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains that produce heat-labile (LT) and/or heat-stable (ST) enterotoxins. Distinct single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the interleukin-10 (IL-10) promoter have been associated with high, intermediate, or low production of IL-10. We conducted a prospective study to investigate the association of SNPs in the IL-10 promoter and the occurrence of TD in ETEC LT-exposed travelers. Sera from U.S. travelers to Mexico collected on arrival and departure were studied for ETEC LT seroconversion by using cholera toxin as the antigen. Pyrosequencing was performed to …

Obesity And Cardiac Metabolism In Women, Heinrich Taegtmeyer, Mohamed F Algahim

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Pcr-Based Assay Using Occult Blood Detection Cards For Detection Of Diarrheagenic Escherichia Coli In Specimens From Us Travelers To Mexico With Acute Diarrhea, Kevin A Grimes, Jamal A Mohamed, Herbert L Dupont, Ranjit S Padda, Zhi-Dong Jiang, Jose Flores, Jaime Belkind-Gerson, Francisco G Martinez-Sandoval, Pablo C Okhuysen

Journal Articles

Large field studies of travelers' diarrhea for multiple destinations are limited by the need to perform stool cultures on site in a timely manner. A method for the collection, transport, and storage of fecal specimens that does not require immediate processing and refrigeration and that is stable for months would be advantageous. This study was designed to determine if enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) DNA could be identified from cards that were processed for the evaluation of fecal occult blood. U.S. students traveling to Mexico during 2005 to 2007 were monitored for the occurrence of diarrheal …

Intensive Care For Extreme Prematurity--Moving Beyond Gestational Age, Jon E Tyson, Nehal A Parikh, John Langer, Charles Green, Rosemary D Higgins

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Decisions regarding whether to administer intensive care to extremely premature infants are often based on gestational age alone. However, other factors also affect the prognosis for these patients.

METHODS: We prospectively studied a cohort of 4446 infants born at 22 to 25 weeks' gestation (determined on the basis of the best obstetrical estimate) in the Neonatal Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to relate risk factors assessable at or before birth to the likelihood of survival, survival without profound neurodevelopmental impairment, and survival without neurodevelopmental impairment at a corrected age of 18 to …

The Effect Of Body Mass Index On Therapeutic Response To Bacterial Vaginosis In Pregnancy, Joan M Mastrobattista, Mark A Klebanoff, J Christopher Carey, John C Hauth, Cora A Macpherson, J Ernest, Margaret Cotroneo, Kenneth J Leveno, Ronald Wapner, Michael Varner, Jay D Iams, Atef Moawad, Baha M Sibai, Menachem Miodovnik, Mitchell Dombrowski, Mary J O'Sullivan, J Peter Vandorsten, Oded Langer

Journal Articles

Our objective was to determine the effect of body mass index (BMI) on response to bacterial vaginosis (BV) treatment. A secondary analysis was conducted of two multicenter trials of therapy for BV and TRICHOMONAS VAGINALIS. Gravida were screened for BV between 8 and 22 weeks and randomized between 16 and 23 weeks to metronidazole or placebo. Of 1497 gravida with asymptomatic BV and preconceptional BMI, 738 were randomized to metronidazole; BMI was divided into categories: < 25, 25 to 29.9, and > or = 30. Rates of BV persistence at follow-up were compared using the Mantel-Haenszel chi square. Multiple logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect …

Verb Generation In Children With Spina Bifida., Maureen Dennis, Derryn Jewell, Ross Hetherington, Christine Burton, Michael E. Brandt, Susan E. Blaser, Jack M Fletcher

Journal Articles

We investigated verb generation in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM; n = 55) and in typically developing controls (n = 32). Participants completed 6 blocks (40 trials each) of a task requiring them to produce a semantically related verb in response to a target noun and an additional 40 trials on which they were simply required to read target nouns aloud. After controlling for reading response time, groups did not differ significantly in verb generation response time or learning. Children with SBM produced more non-verb errors than controls and tended to repeat their mistakes over blocks. Verb generation performance …

Clinical And Microbiological Aspects Of Linezolid Resistance Mediated By The Cfr Gene Encoding A 23s Rrna Methyltransferase, Cesar A Arias, Martha Vallejo, Jinnethe Reyes, Diana Panesso, Jaime Moreno, Elizabeth Castañeda, Maria V Villegas, Barbara E Murray, John P Quinn

Journal Articles

The cfr (chloramphenicol-florfenicol resistance) gene encodes a 23S rRNA methyltransferase that confers resistance to linezolid. Detection of linezolid resistance was evaluated in the first cfr-carrying human hospital isolate of linezolid and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (designated MRSA CM-05) by dilution and diffusion methods (including Etest). The presence of cfr was investigated in isolates of staphylococci colonizing the patient's household contacts and clinical isolates recovered from patients in the same unit where MRSA CM-05 was isolated. Additionally, 68 chloramphenicol-resistant Colombian MRSA isolates recovered from hospitals between 2001 and 2004 were screened for the presence of the cfr gene. In addition to erm(B), …

Focal White Matter Changes In Spasmodic Dysphonia: A Combined Diffusion Tensor Imaging And Neuropathological Study., Kristina Simonyan, Fernanda Tovar-Moll, John Ostuni, Mark Hallett, Victor F Kalasinsky, Michael R Lewin-Smith, Elisabeth J Rushing, Alexander O Vortmeyer, Christy L Ludlow

Journal Articles

Spasmodic dysphonia is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary spasms in the laryngeal muscles during speech production. Although the clinical symptoms are well characterized, the pathophysiology of this voice disorder is unknown. We describe here, for the first time to our knowledge, disorder-specific brain abnormalities in these patients as determined by a combined approach of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and postmortem histopathology. We used DTI to identify brain changes and to target those brain regions for neuropathological examination. DTI showed right-sided decrease of fractional anisotropy in the genu of the internal capsule and bilateral increase of overall water diffusivity in …

Eomesodermin, A Target Gene Of Pou4f2, Is Required For Retinal Ganglion Cell And Optic Nerve Development In The Mouse., Chai-An Mao, Takae Kiyama, Ping Pan, Yasuhide Furuta, Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, William H Klein

Journal Articles

The mechanisms regulating retinal ganglion cell (RGC) development are crucial for retinogenesis and for the establishment of normal vision. However, these mechanisms are only vaguely understood. RGCs are the first neuronal lineage to segregate from pluripotent progenitors in the developing retina. As output neurons, RGCs display developmental features very distinct from those of the other retinal cell types. To better understand RGC development, we have previously constructed a gene regulatory network featuring a hierarchical cascade of transcription factors that ultimately controls the expression of downstream effector genes. This has revealed the existence of a Pou domain transcription factor, Pou4f2, that …

Correlates Of Tobacco Cessation Counseling Among Hispanic Physicians In The Us: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study., Francisco G Soto Mas, Héctor G Balcázar, Julia Valderrama Alberola, Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Physician advice is an important motivator for attempting to stop smoking. However, physicians' lack of intervention with smokers has only modestly improved in the last decade. Although the literature includes extensive research in the area of the smoking intervention practices of clinicians, few studies have focused on Hispanic physicians. The purpose of this study was to explore the correlates of tobacco cessation counseling practices among Hispanic physicians in the US. METHODS: Data were collected through a validated survey instrument among a cross-sectional sample of self-reported Hispanic physicians practicing in New Mexico, and who were members of the New Mexico …

Searching For The Majority: Algorithms Of Voluntary Control., Jin Fan, Kevin G. Guise, Xun Liu, Hongbin Wang

Journal Articles

Voluntary control of information processing is crucial to allocate resources and prioritize the processes that are most important under a given situation; the algorithms underlying such control, however, are often not clear. We investigated possible algorithms of control for the performance of the majority function, in which participants searched for and identified one of two alternative categories (left or right pointing arrows) as composing the majority in each stimulus set. We manipulated the amount (set size of 1, 3, and 5) and content (ratio of left and right pointing arrows within a set) of the inputs to test competing hypotheses …

Juvenile Onset Central Nervous System Folate Deficiency And Rheumatoid Arthritis, Mary Kay Koenig, Maria Perez, Sheldon Rothenberg, Ian J Butler

Journal Articles

Isolated cerebral folate deficiency was detected in a 13-year-old girl with cognitive and motor difficulties and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Her serum contains autoantibodies that block membrane-bound folate receptors that are on the choroid plexus and diminish the uptake of folate into the spinal fluid. Whereas her serum folate exceeded 21 ng/mL, her spinal fluid contained 3.2 ng/mL of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate as a consequence of the autoantibodies diminishing the uptake of this folate.

Genes In Glucose Metabolism And Association With Spina Bifida, Christina M Davidson, Hope Northrup, Terri M King, Jack M Fletcher, Irene Townsend, Gayle H Tyerman, Kit Sing Au

Journal Articles

The authors test single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coding sequences of 12 candidate genes involved in glucose metabolism and obesity for associations with spina bifida. Genotyping was performed on 507 children with spina bifida and their parents plus anonymous control DNAs from Hispanic and Caucasian individuals. The transmission disequilibrium test was performed to test for genetic associations between transmission of alleles and spina bifida in the offspring (P < .05). A statistically significant association between Lys481 of HK1 (G allele), Arg109Lys of LEPR (G allele), and Pro196 of GLUT1 (A allele) was found ( P = .019, .039, and .040, respectively). Three SNPs on 3 genes involved with glucose metabolism and obesity may be associated with increased susceptibility to spina bifida.