Search

We assessed and correlated neurochemical levels and cognitive functions in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left hippocampus in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and compared these with healthy controls Twenty-five right-handed euthymic patients (HAM-D score < 7, and YMRS score < 7) with bipolar disorder and 20 age and gender matched controls were compared for neurometabolites (n-acetylaspartate – tNAA, choline – Cho, creatinine – Cr, myoinositol – Ins, and glutamine/glutamate – Glu/Gln) measured in left DLPFC and left hippocampus using single voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and cognitive functions assessed using trail making test (TMT – A and B), wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), and wechsler memory scale (WMS-III Indian adaptation). The two groups were comparable on socio-demographic variables. tNAA levels in DLPFC and hippocampus, and glutamate levels in hippocampus were found to be significantly lower and Inositol and glutamine levels in hippocampus were found to be significantly higher in patients as compared to controls. Patients performed significantly poorly as compared to controls on TMT A & B, all subscales of WMS – III, 5 subscales of WCST, including perseverative responses and errors. The tNAA and glutamate levels in left DLPFC in patients correlated with scores on TMT A & B, and several subscales of WCST and WMS-III. tNAA concentration in left hippocampus in patients correlated with scores on subscales of WMS-III. Neurochemical dysfunction in select brain areas directly correlates with impairment in cognitive functions seen in patients with bipolar disorder in euthymic phase. • Brain MRS in left DLPFC and left hippocampus in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BD) shows abnormalities in neurochemical levels. • In BD, ↓ tNAA levels in DLPFC and hippocampus, ↓ glutamate levels in hippocampus and ↑ Inositol and glutamine levels in hippocampus. • In BD, tNAA and glutamate levels in DLPFC correlate with TMT A & B and several subscales of WCST and WMS-III. • In BD, tNAA concentration in hippocampus correlates with subscales of WMS-III. • In BD, neurochemical levels correlate significantly with the extent of cognitive dysfunction even in euthymic phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabonomics study provides a comprehensive metabolic profile of biological samples using techniques like mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The metabolites identified are later analysed using multivariate statistical methods. Metabonomics has the potential to provide putative biomarker/s for disease diagnosis and for monitoring the disease progression and can be used in patient management. Recently, a few metabonomics studies have been reported on blood sera, urine and intestinal mucosal biopsies of celiac disease (CeD) patients using proton NMR. Significantly decreased levels of amino acids, methylamine, lactate, lipids, pyruvate, creatinine, choline and glycoprotein and increased levels of glucose and ß-hydroxybutyrate have been reported in blood sera of CeD patients. In intestinal mucosal biopsies of CeD patients, a higher concentration of isoleucine, leucine, aspartate, succinate and pyruvate and lower concentration of glycerophosphocholine was seen as compared to controls. These studies indicates that the metabonomics study of CeD using in-vitro NMR spectroscopy helps in the determination of metabolic signature/s of the disease. It also provides an insight into the biochemistry of the disease and also helps in the identification of metabolites that could serve as putative biomarker/s for the diagnosis of CeD. This review focuses on the application of NMR based metabonomics in CeD and highlights the potential of NMR based metabonomics in the identification of biomarker/s for diagnosis and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching fundamentals of object oriented programming at introductory level remains to be a serious pedagogical challenge. The fact remains that object oriented programming subsumes many of the constructs of structured programming in addition to its own special constructs and abstractions. Researchers abroad have made several studies on the first course in programming and have gathered data related to learning difficulties of novice vis-à-vis their dropout rate, including any gender biases etc. Animation of program execution can be used to help the student "put the pieces together". Visualization is one approach to assisting the learner in finding out what task each piece can be expected to perform and how the pieces work together to perform the overall task of solving the problem at hand. The main purpose of this study has been to use the research findings to improve on the future offerings of the course in programming using "Object First" approach. In this paper, we try to find out different softwares which makes easier for novices to learn OO concepts through animation and visualisation techniques [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To investigate the potential of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and in vivo proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) in the differentiation of breast tissue of healthy lactating women volunteers and breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods DWI and MRS were carried out at 1.5 Tesla on 12 breast cancer patients and 12 normal lactating women volunteers. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and total choline (tCho) concentration were determined. Results tCho was observed in all breast cancer patients and in 10/12 lactating women. Additionally a peak at 3.8 ppm corresponding to lactose was seen in 10/12 of lactating women. Concentration of tCho was similar in malignant breast tissue of patients (3.51 ± 1.72 mmol/kg) and in normal breast tissue of lactating women (3.52 ± 1.70 mmol/kg). However, ADC was significantly higher in the normal breast tissue of lactating women (1.62 ± 0.22 × 10−3 mm2/s) compared with the malignant breast tissue of patients (1.01 ± 0.10 × 10−3 mm2/s). Conclusion Observation of lactose peak with higher ADC in the breast tissue of healthy lactating women volunteers may aid in differentiation of changes that occur in breast tissue due to normal physiological conditions like lactation compared with malignant transformation. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2015;41:169-174. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]