Plos One
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One major unanswered question in neuroscience is how the brain transitions between conscious and unconscious states. General anesthetics offer a controllable means to study these transitions. Induction of anesthesia is commonly attributed to drug-induced global modulation of neuronal function, while emergence from anesthesia has been thought to occur passively, paralleling elimination of the anesthetic from its sites in the central nervous system (CNS). ⋯ Single gene mutations that affect sleep-wake states are shown to collapse or widen anesthetic hysteresis without obvious confounding effects on volatile anesthetic uptake, distribution, or metabolism. We propose a fundamental and biologically conserved concept of neural inertia, a tendency of the CNS to resist behavioral state transitions between conscious and unconscious states. We demonstrate that such a barrier separates wakeful and anesthetized states for multiple anesthetics in both flies and mice, and argue that it contributes to the hysteresis observed when the brain transitions between conscious and unconscious states.
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Differentiating cerebral malaria (CM) from other causes of serious illness in African children is problematic, owing to the non-specific nature of the clinical presentation and the high prevalence of incidental parasitaemia. CM is associated with endothelial activation. In this study we tested the hypothesis that endothelium-derived biomarkers are associated with the pathophysiology of severe malaria and may help identify children with CM. ⋯ These results suggest that endothelial proteins are informative biomarkers of malarial disease severity. These results require validation in prospective studies to confirm that this group of biomarkers improves the diagnostic accuracy of CM from similar conditions causing fever and altered consciousness.
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Communication with patients is a core clinical skill in medicine that can be acquired through communication skills training. Meanwhile, the importance of transfer of communication skills to the workplace has not been sufficiently studied. This study aims to assess the efficacy of a 40-hour training program designed to improve patients' satisfaction and residents' communication skills during their daily clinical rounds. ⋯ The training program improved patients' satisfaction and allowed the transfer of residents' communication skills learning to the workplace. Transfer was directly related to training attendance but remained limited. Future studies should therefore focus on the improvement of the efficacy of communication skills training in order to ensure a more important training effect size on transfer.
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Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal illness whose pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests oxidative stress as a key player in the establishment/progression of lung fibrosis in animal models and possibly in human IPF. The aim of the present study was to characterize the cellular phenotype of fibroblasts derived from IPF patients and identify underlying molecular mechanisms. ⋯ Robust expression of α-SMA and type-I collagen, high and uniformly-distributed ROS levels, resistance to oxidative-stress induced cell death and constitutive activation of tyrosine kinase(s) signalling are distinctive features of the IPF phenotype. We suggest that this phenotype can be used as a model to identify the initial trigger of IPF.
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The objective of this study was to describe randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs) in child health published between 1948 and 2006, in terms of quantity, methodological quality, and publication and trial characteristics. We used the Trials Register of the Cochrane Child Health Field for overall trends and a sample from this to explore trial characteristics in more detail. ⋯ The quantity and quality of pediatric controlled trials has increased over time; however, much work remains to be done, particularly in improving methodological issues around conduct and reporting of trials.