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Screening has been successful in the early detection of some cancers, including cervical, colon, and breast. However, the success in mortality reduction by screening mammography has been limited in women with mammographically dense tissue. Magnetic resonance imaging has been used with success in the screening of high-risk women, but it is expensive. Also, its use in a screening program requires a contrast medium that has not been tested in humans or animals for long-term safety in humans or animals for repeated biannual or annual injections. Ultrasound also has the potential to be an ideal screening tool because it is relatively inexpensive and requires no injected contrast or ionizing radiation. However, the relatively poor conspicuity of some cancers by hand scanning and the considerable radiologist time necessary limit its use. Automated whole-breast ultrasound (AWBU) allows the radiologist to read the images quickly, at a convenient time, while being free from doing the scan. Two-dimensional AWBU uses a cine loop of axial images, with <1 mm image spacing, which are read on a high-resolution monitor to improve the conspicuity of small cancers. A blinded study of this system combined with screening mammography showed that adding AWBU both doubles overall cancer detection and triples the 1 cm-or-less invasive cancers found in dense-breasted women. As expected, mammography had a significantly greater detection rate of ductal carcinoma in situ than AWBU. As yet no clinical studies of other AWBU systems have been published. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Young adult and aged male Fisher 344 rats underwent kainate-induced convulsive status epilepticus (SE) for 4 h prior to sacrifice to determine potential aging-related differences in the effect of prolonged SE on the expression of hippocampal voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs). Immunohistochemistry was performed on hippocampal sections using antibodies directed against the α1 subunit of class A–D VGCCs. Compared to age-matched controls, SE animals showed a marked loss of α1A immunoreactivity (IR) in CA3 and the hilus, which was more prominent in aged animals. α1B-IR was decreased selectively in the stratum lucidum of CA3. α1C-IR was increased on neuronal somata in the pyramidal and granule cell layers of both age groups. In contrast, there was a marked decrease of α1C-IR in the neuropil of CA3 stratum pyramidale and portions of CA1, which was more pronounced in aged animals. α1D-IR was decreased in CA3 and the hilus, which was more prominent in aged animals. Nissl staining demonstrated mild somal dysmorphia in the pyramidal cell layer of CA3, which was more apparent in aged animals. Fluoro-Jade B staining was prominent in the stratum pyramidale of CA3 and in the hilus of aged SE animals. These results demonstrated that expression patterns of hippocampal high-threshold VGCC α1 subunits were altered variably during prolonged convulsive SE and were associated with prominent early degenerative changes in aged neurons in CA3 and the hilus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Military service members are at increased risk for suicide, but there are few strategies for detecting those who are at highest risk after a deployment. Using all available data collected from 4119 Military service members before and after their deployment to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, we tested whether predeployment characteristics clustered together to predict postdeployment suicidal risk. Latent class analysis showed that three classes best characterized the sample at predeployment. Class 1 had significantly higher scores on PTSD severity pre- and postdeployment than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps <.001). At postdeployment, Class 1 also had a greater proportion of endorsement of lifetime and past year suicidal ideation than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps <.05) and a greater proportion of lifetime suicide attempts than Class 3 (P <.001). Class 1 also had a greater proportion of endorsement of past-30-days intention to act on suicidal thoughts than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps <.05) and past-30-days specific plan for suicide than Classes 2 and 3 (Ps <.05). The study showed that based only on predeployment data, it is possible to determine which service members might be at highest risk for suicidal ideation and behavior at postdeployment. • Three classes were identified based on predeployment characteristics in vetarans • Class 1 had the highest scores on PTSD severity at postdeployment. • Class 1 had the highest proportion of suicide ideation and attempts at postdeployment. • It is possible to predict suicide risk at postdeployment based on predeployment data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Animal Models of Geriatric Epilepsy" by Lauren J. Murphree and colleagues is presented.

Abstract: This study characterized morphological changes in the cortex and hippocampus of Sprague–Dawley rats following photothrombotic infarction and epileptogenesis with emphasis on the distribution of neuropeptide Y (NPY) expression. Animals were lesioned in the left sensorimotor cortex and compared with age-matched naive and sham-operated controls by immunohistochemical techniques at 1, 3, 7, and 180 days post-lesioning (DPL). NPY immunostaining was assessed by light microscopy and quantified by the optical fractionator technique using unbiased stereological methods. At 1, 3, and 7 DPL, the number of NPY-positive somata in the lesioned cortex was increased significantly compared to controls and the contralateral cortex. At 180 DPL, lesioned epileptic animals with frequent seizure activity demonstrated significant increases of NPY expression in the cortex, CA1, CA3, hilar interneurons, and granule cells of the dentate gyrus. In addition to NPY immunostaining, neuronal degeneration, cell death/cell loss, and astroglial response were assessed with cell-specific markers. Nissl and NeuN staining showed reproducible infarctions at each investigated time point. FJB-positive somata were most abundant in the infarct core at 1 DPL, decreased markedly at 3 DPL, and virtually absent by 7 DPL. Activated astroglia were detected in the cortex and hippocampus following lesioning and the development of seizure activity. In summary, NPY protein expression and morphological changes following cortical photothrombosis were time-, region-, and pathologic state-dependent. Alterations in NPY expression may reflect reactive or compensatory responses of the rat brain to acute infarction and to the development and expression of epileptic seizures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Photothrombotic infarcts of the neocortex result in structural and functional alterations of cortical networks, including decreased GABAergic inhibition, and can generate epileptic seizures within 1 month of lesioning. In our study, we assessed the involvement and potential changes of cortical GABAA receptor (GABAAR) α1 subunits at 1, 3, 7, and 30 days after photothrombosis. Quantitative competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (cRT-PCR) and semi-quantitative Western blot analysis were used to investigate GABAAR α1 subunit mRNA and protein levels in proximal and distal regions of perilesional cortex and in homotopic areas of young adult Sprague-Dawley rats. GABAAR α1 subunit mRNA levels were decreased ipsilateral and contralateral to the infarct at 7 days, but were increased bilaterally at 30 days. GABAAR α1 subunit protein levels revealed no significant change in neocortical areas of both hemispheres of lesioned animals compared with protein levels of sham-operated controls at 1, 3, 7, and 30 days. At 30 days, GABAAR α1 subunit protein expression was significantly increased in lesioned animals within proximal and distal regions of perilesional cortex compared with distal neocortical areas contralaterally (Student''s t-test, p <0.05). Short- and long-term alterations of mRNA and protein levels of the GABAAR α1 subunit ipsilateral and contralateral to the lesion may influence alterations in cell surface receptor subtype expression and GABAAR function following ischemic infarction and may be associated with formative mechanisms of poststroke epileptogenesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Photothrombotic brain infarction can result in altered expression of cortical GABAA receptors and in epileptic seizures. We sought to determine whether infarct size and/or epileptic seizures resulted in a differential expression of cortical GABAA receptor subunit mRNA in adult rats. A reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used with internal standards for GABAA receptor subunits to quantify α1, β1, and γ2S subunit mRNA expression in cortex ipsilateral and contralateral to left cerebral infarcts in small or large infarct/nonepileptic cohorts, a large infarct/epileptic cohort, and a young adult control cohort. Unilateral hemispheric subunit mRNA was pooled for each cohort, quantified, and expressed as mean values±S.E.M. In general, the magnitude of mRNA expression (pg/1 μg total RNA) was different for the individual subunits: γ2S (104), α1 (102), and β1 (101). Hemispheric subunit mRNA expression for the different cohorts was compared by ANOVA testing, which noted significant differences for the α1 (P<0.001) and β1 (P<0.001) subunits in ipsilateral cortex. Bonferroni post-testing for α1 cohorts indicated that mRNA expression for the large infarct/epilepsy cohort (624.2±6.8 pg) was greater than all other cohorts (P<0.001); control (162.7±32.2 pg). For β1 cohorts, there was decreased mRNA expression in the large infarct/nonepileptic cohort (9.2±0.8 pg; P<0.01) and the large infarct/epileptic cohort (10.5±2.2 pg; P<0.05) compared to control (23.2±2.6 pg). Additionally, paired t-tests compared subunit mRNA expression within individual animal cohorts (ipsilateral vs. contralateral) and indicated decreased mRNA expression ipsilaterally for the β1 subunit in the small infarct cohort (14.2±2.6 vs. 22.9±3.0 pg; P=0.0102) and the large infarct/epilepsy cohort (10.5±2.3 vs. 18.0±3.6 pg; P=0.0462). These findings suggest that large photothrombotic infarcts of the neocortex can result in a long-lasting differential expression of GABAA receptor subunit mRNAs in ipsilateral cortex variably associated with the epileptic state. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]