A new postulate on two stages of dandruff: a clinical perspective

Dandruff (pityriasis capitis, seborrheic dermatitis confined to the scalp) is a disease that has been around for centuries despite several treatment options. Almost every day new players are entering the market with various antidandruff products, perhaps due to an increase in the incidence of dandruff all over the world. Interestingly, clinicians, especially dermatologists, gave little attention to this problem. At the end, the dandruff sufferer is puzzled by the array of antidandruff products with varied claims entering the market day by day. Why have we not achieved complete treatment success against dandruff? Is dandruff a disease or disorder? It seems that our understanding about dandruff perfectly fits into the famous saying of Albert Einstein, “as the area of light increases, so does the circumferences of darkness.” Have dermatologists left dandruff unattended, only to be exploited by the personal care industry?

Dandruff: the most commercially exploited skin disease

The article discuss in detail about the prevalence, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations of dandruff including the etio-pathology. The article also discusses in detail about various treatment methods available for dandruff. The status of dandruff being amphibious – a disease/disorder, and relatively less medical intervention is sought after for the treatment, dandruff is the most commercially exploited skin and scalp disorder/disease by personal care industries.

IGF-1 protects against diabetic features in an in vivo model of Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is the most prevalent polyglutamine expansion disorder. HD is caused by an expansion of CAG triplet in the huntingtin (HTT) gene, associated with striatal and cortical neuronal loss. Central and peripheral metabolic abnormalities and altered insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels have been described in HD. Thus, we hypothesized that restoration of IGF-1-mediated signaling pathways could rescue R6/2 mice from metabolic stress and behavioral changes induced by polyglutamine expansion. We analyzed the in vivo effect of continuous peripheral IGF-1 administration on diabetic parameters, body weight and motor behavior in the hemizygous R6/2 mouse model of HD. We used 9 week-old and age-matched wild-type mice, subjected to continuously infused recombinant IGF-I or vehicle, for 14 days. IGF-1 treatment prevented the age-related decrease in body weight in R6/2 mice. Although blood glucose levels were higher in R6/2 mice, they did not reach a diabetic state. Even though, IGF-1 ameliorated poor glycemic control in HD mice. This seemed to be associated with a decrease in blood insulin levels in R6/2 mice, which was increased following IGF-1 infusion. Similarly, blood IGF-1 levels decreased during aging in both wild-type and R6/2 mice, being significantly improved upon its continuous infusion. Although no significant differences were found in motor function in R6/2-treated mice, IGF-1 treatment highly improved paw clasping scores. In summary, these results suggest that IGF-1 has a protective role against HD-associated impaired glucose tolerance, by enhancing blood insulin levels.

Cardiac Safety Data for Casopitant, a Neurokinin-1 Receptor Antagonist, Given with Anthracycline

Objectives: The NK-1 receptor antagonist casopitant is a promising agent for the prevention of chemotherapy-related and postoperative nausea and vomiting. However, findings suggestive of cardiac damage were noted in animal studies of long-term administration of casopitant at supratherapeutic doses. Cardiac evaluation of the concomitant use of casopitant with anthracyclines was therefore of particular interest due to myocyte loss associated with anthracycline use.Methods: Chemotherapy-naïve patients receiving anthracyclines as part of a Phase III moderately emetogenic chemotherapy study regimen were randomized to receive ondansetron and dexamethasone plus one of the following casopitant regimens: single-dose 150-mg oral casopitant (ORAL1); 3-day IV/oral casopitant (90 mg IV/50 mg oral/50 mg oral) (IV/ORAL); 3-day oral casopitant (150/50/50 mg) (ORAL3); or placebo. Serial cardiac troponin (cTnI) levels were measured using the Beckman assay. Although this assay is generally considered reliable within the range of 0.04-0.5 ng/mL, levels below the limit of quantitation (LOQ) (<0.04 ng/mL) were also evaluated in an attempt to identify patterns of change below LOQ. Further cardiac assessment consisting of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) monitoring was conducted in patients with cTnI levels ³0.12 ng/mL.Results: In total, 611 patients were evaluated: 155 ORAL1, 145 IV/ORAL, 159 ORAL3, and 152 placebo; no risk factor variation between groups was observed. Adverse events were balanced across treatment groups. Cardiovascular adverse events occurred in 3% of patients in each of the placebo, ORAL1, and ORAL/IV groups and in 2% of the ORAL3 group. Three patients (0.5%) had cTnI >0.12 ng/mL (1 each IV/ORAL, ORAL3, and placebo); all LVEF determinations were normal at follow-up, with the exception of 1 patient with mitral regurgitation but normal ejection fraction. A total of 59 patients (9.7%) had median cTnI 0.04-0.12 ng/mL. Of the remaining patients with cTnI below LOQ, median baseline levels across groups were similar (ORAL1 and IV/ORAL 0.008 ng/mL; ORAL3 0.01 ng/mL; placebo 0.009 ng/mL). After 4 cycles of anthracycline, median cTnI increased to 0.02 ng/mL in all groups, with no difference noted between casopitant and placebo groups.Conclusions: Thorough monitoring of cardiac-related toxicities including cardiac (S)AEs, ECG, and ejection fraction data showed no evidence of increased risk of cardiac damage in the casopitant groups compared with control. Subclinical elevations in cTnI occurred in patients receiving anthracyclines but were not considered to be related to or accentuated by simultaneous administration of casopitant. cTnI elevations were similar across treatment groups and were well below rates reported in the literature for a patient population receiving higher doses of anthracycline. Use of appropriate cardiac biomarkers in ranges below those commonly used to detect infarction may be valuable to detect or exclude subclinical toxicity of potentially cardiotoxic agents used in combination. Additional analysis is ongoing.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 1118.

Bioinformatic analysis of abundant, gender-enriched transcripts of adult Ascaris suum (Nematoda) using a semi-automated workflow platform

Expressed sequence tag (EST) data representing transcripts with a high level of differential hybridization in suppressive-subtractive hybridization (SSH)-based microarray analysis between adult female and male Ascaris suum were subjected to detailed bioinformatic analysis. A total of 361 ESTs clustered into 209 sequences, of which 52 and 157 represented transcripts that were enriched in female and male A. suum, respectively. Thirty (57.7%) of the 'female' subset of 52 sequences had orthologues/homologues in other parasitic nematodes and/or Caenorhabditis elegans, 13 (25%) exclusively in other parasitic nematodes and nine (17.3%) had no match in any other organism for which sequence data are currently available; the C. elegans orthologues encoded molecules involved in reproduction as well as embryonic and gamete development, such as vitellogenins and chitin-binding proteins. Of the 'male' subset of 157 sequences, 73 (46.5%) had orthologues/homologues in other parasitic nematodes and/or C. elegans, 57 (37.5%) in other parasitic nematodes only, and 22 (14.5%) had no significant similarity match in any other organism; the C. elegans orthologues encoded predominantly major sperm proteins (MSPs), kinases and phosphatases, actins, myosins and an Ancylostoma secreted protein-like molecule. The findings of the present study should support further genomic investigations of A. suum.

Primary mesenteric angiosarcoma in a child with associated lymphangiectasia: a case report

Angiosarcomas are rare tumors in children, usually occurring in soft tissue and liver. By contrast, angiosarcoma in adults usually occurs in the extremities in conjunction with lymphedema. Mesenteric angiosarcoma has only rarely been reported. When angiosarcomas arise in this location, they usually represent a 2nd malignancy following Hodgkin's lymphoma. We report a child who presented to the emergency room with an acute abdomen and underwent emergency surgery for a mesenteric angiosarcoma with associated lymphangiectasia of the bowel and mesentery. A brief review of the literature and the nomenclature of these unusual tumors are discussed.

Moving into the digital era: a novel experience with the first full-field digital mammography system in Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in women and represents a significant problem from the clinical and public health perspectives. The aim of this paper is to report our experience of transitioning from screen-film mammography (SFM) to computed radiography mammography (CRM), and finally to full-field digital mammography (FFDM), and to evaluate the performance of these three different types of mammographic systems.

METHODS

A total of 2,734 mammograms using the three different systems were carried out at the University of Malaya Medical Centre. These examinations were evaluated based on time from start of examination to reporting, image quality, archiving, reject and repeat rates and overall diagnostic accuracy for SFM, CRM and FFDM.

RESULTS

The time taken from the start of the examination to the radiologist interpretation and reporting were faster in both FFDM and CRM, compared to SFM. Image contrast with better contrast detail was almost equivocal for both CRM and FFDM, but lower for SFM. Easier image storage and archiving were available for CRM and FFDM in the form of magnetic optical discs, rather than hard copy storage as in SFM. The reject rate for FFDM was zero percent, compared to CRM and SFM which were two percent and two percent, respectively. The repeat rate for FFDM, CRM and SSFM was zero percent, 0.1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. Overall diagnostic accuracy of FFDM, CRM and SFM were comparable as no cancers were missed on all three systems as double blinded reporting was done.

CONCLUSION

FFDM does improve quality of mammography service by providing better workflow time and archiving system, with good diagnostic accuracy.

Generalized approach to Ewald sums

We derive Ewald sum formulas for potential energy and force for a system of point charges interacting with an arbitrary, long-range central potential. The system is made neutral by a uniform background of opposite charge interacting with the same potential. These formulas can be readily used in computer numerical simulations of model physical systems. In particular, expressions for the potential energy and the force have been obtained in both two and three dimensions for Coulomb and other power-law potentials, Yukawa systems, and for an electronic bilayer. We discuss numerical results and their accuracy for various systems and, based on our analysis, suggest values to be used for the parameters that appear in the Ewald sums.

A symmetrical indexing scheme for decagonal quasicrystals analogous to Miller-Bravais indexing of hexagonal crystals

The problems of redundancy and superfluous indices in indexing the planes and axes in a decagonal quasicrystal are considered, using a scheme of five coplanar vectors in the quasiperiodic plane and one perpendicular vector. Of all the indexing schemes in use, this scheme offers the maximum advantage. An analogy is drawn to the hexagonal system using Miller-Bravais indices. Based on this, a symmetry-based indexing system for decagonal phases is devised that follows a simplified approximate zone law analogous to the exact zone law for the hexagonal case. The indices based on this scheme will be designated as ;Frank indices'. High-symmetry electron diffraction zone-axis patterns as well as powder X-ray diffraction patterns are indexed using Frank indices and compared with those of other indexing schemes.