Articles: function.
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Smokers report more pain and worse functioning. The evidence from pain clinics suggests that depression affects this relationship: The association between smoking and chronic pain is weakened when controlling for depression. This study explored the relationship between smoking, pain and depression in a large general population-based cohort (Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study). ⋯ In contrast to smokers treated in pain clinics, a history of MDD mediated the relationship between smoking and pain intensity, but not pain-related disability in smokers in the community.
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Observational Study
Alterations in the Functional Connectivity of Frontal Lobe Networks Preceding Emergence Delirium in Children.
This study aimed to characterize the electroencephalogram in children who emerged with emergence delirium (ED) compared with children without ED using methods that involved the assessment of cortical functional connectivity. ⋯ ED is associated with arousal from an indeterminate state before the onset of sleep-like electroencephalogram patterns. Increased frontal lobe cortical functional connectivity observed in ED, immediately after the termination of sevoflurane anesthesia, will have important implications for the development of methods to predict ED, the design of preventative strategies, and efforts to better understand its pathophysiology.
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Protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB) is a common and treatable cause of chronic wet cough in children in which the mechanisms are not understood. This study investigates the IL-1 pathway and a neutrophil gene expression signature in PBB. ⋯ PBB is characterized by increased IL-1β pathway activation. IL-1β and related mediators were associated with BAL neutrophils, cough symptoms, and disease recurrence, providing insight into PBB pathogenesis.
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Osteopontin (OPN) is a phosphorylated acidic glycoprotein that can function as both an extracellular matrix molecule and a cytokine. Published data support that OPN is upregulated in surgical lung tissue samples of patients with COPD. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of OPN in sputum supernatants of patients with COPD and to investigate possible associations with mediators and cells involved in the inflammatory and remodeling process as well as with the extent of emphysema. ⋯ OPN levels are higher in patients with COPD compared with healthy subjects. OPN may play a role in the neutrophilic inflammation and in the pathogenesis of emphysema.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Oct 2014
Dexmedetomidine provides neuroprotection: impact on ketamine-induced neuroapoptosis in the developing rat brain.
Ketamine and dexmedetomidine are increasingly used in combination in pediatric patients. This study examined the hypothesis that dexmedetomidine attenuated ketamine-induced neurotoxicity. ⋯ In conclusion, ketamine caused neuroapoptosis and impaired brain functions in the developing rat brain which can be effectively attenuated by dexmedetomidine. Dexmedetomidine alone was not neurotoxic to the developing brain.