Plos One
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The brain-specific astroglial protein GFAP is a blood biomarker candidate indicative of intracerebral hemorrhage in patients with symptoms suspicious of acute stroke. Comparably little, however, is known about GFAP release in other neurological disorders. In order to identify potential "specificity gaps" of a future GFAP test used to diagnose intracerebral hemorrhage, we measured GFAP in the blood of a large and rather unselected collective of patients with neurological diseases. ⋯ Most acute and chronic neurological diseases, including typical stroke mimics, are not associated with detectable GFAP levels in the bloodstream. Our findings underline the hypothesis that rapid astroglial destruction as in acute intracerebral hemorrhage is mandatory for GFAP increase. A future GFAP blood test applied to identify patients with intracerebral hemorrhage is likely to have a high specificity.
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The potential population-level impact of private-sector initiatives for tuberculosis (TB) case finding in Southeast Asia remains uncertain. In 2011, the Indus Hospital TB Control Program in Karachi, Pakistan, undertook an aggressive case-finding campaign that doubled notification rates, providing an opportunity to investigate potential population-level effects. ⋯ Sustained, multifaceted, and innovative approaches to TB case-finding in Asian megacities can have substantial community-wide epidemiological impact.
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Twin pregnancies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) pose a high risk to mothers and newborns due to inherent biological risks and scarcity of health resources. We conducted a secondary analysis of the WHO Global Survey dataset to analyze maternal and perinatal outcomes in twin pregnancies and factors associated with perinatal morbidity and mortality in twins. ⋯ Twin pregnancy is a significant risk factor for maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality in low-resource settings; maternal risk and access to safe caesarean section may determine safest mode of delivery in LMICs. Improving obstetric care in twin pregnancies, particularly timely access to safe caesarean section, is required to reduce risk to mother and baby.
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Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a serious disorder that causes significant morbidity and mortality. The pathogenesis of PH involves complex derangements in multiple pathways including reductions in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). Hypoxia, a common PH stimulus, reduces PPARγ in experimental models. ⋯ Further, compared to lungs from littermate control mice, miR-27a levels were upregulated in lungs from endothelial-targeted PPARγ knockout (ePPARγ KO) mice. Knockdown of either SP1 or EGR1 was sufficient to significantly attenuate miR-27a expression in HPAECs. Collectively, these studies provide novel evidence that miR-27a and PPARγ mediate mutually repressive actions in hypoxic pulmonary vasculature and that targeting PPARγ may represent a novel therapeutic approach in PH to attenuate proliferative mediators that stimulate proliferation of pulmonary vascular cells.
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Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct which has been associated with dopaminergic neurotransmission. Nonetheless, until this moment, few studies addressed the relationship between different types of impulsivity and the single nucleotide polymorphism caused by a substitution of valine (val) with methionine (met) in the 158 codon of the Catechol-o-Methyltransferase gene (COMT-val158met). The present study aimed to investigate the association between val158met COMT polymorphism and impulsive behavior measured by two neuropsychological tests. ⋯ Our results suggest that met allele of val158met COMT polymorphism is associated with poor performance in decision-making/cognitive impulsivity task. The results reinforce the hypothesis that val and met alleles of the val158met polymorphism show functional dissociation and are related to different prefrontal processes.