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Dementia occurring in young people may be difficult to recognize. We compared the time to diagnosis between young- (YOD, age 65) and late-onset dementia (LOD).Time between the onset of symptoms and the diagnosis was measured in YOD and LOD patients consecutively seen in a cognitive neurology clinic. Multivariable regression analyses were performed to identify determinants of time to diagnosis.Mean time to diagnosis in 95 YOD patients was 11.2 months longer than in 73 LOD patients (p = 0.022). The delay was driven by a longer time taken by YOD patients to be seen in the specialist centre, which in turn was related to the presence of language disturbances and coexisting depression.Young people take longer than elderly people to receive a dementia diagnosis because they take longer to be referred to dementia specialist centres. More awareness on YOD is needed in primary care and the public.

The aim of the work was to compare the five most widely used ELISA diagnostic kits on the territory of the Russian Federation, which are used for screening for HIV infection.Materials and methods. 5442 samples from visitors of diagnostic centers who came for blood donation for non-infectious analyses, cohorts with a high risk of HIV infection, as well as patients with potentially interfering conditions were used as a material for the study. Additionally, seroconversion panels and a panel of viral diversity were used to evaluate the analytical characteristics. The following test systems were compared: Architect HIV Ag/Ab Combo (Abbott), Genscreen Ultra HIV Ag-Ab (Bio-Rad), CombiBest HIV-1,2 AG/AT (Vector-Best), DS-ELISA-HIVAGAT-SCREEN (Diagnostic Systems), HIV-1,2-AG/AT (Medical-Biological Union).Conclusion. The diagnostic sensitivity of all tests was 100% with the exception of one (Medical-Biological Union), in which it turned out to be 99,54%. Diagnostic specificity ranged from 99,58% to 99,89%, but unexpectedly strongly depended on the test population, decreasing on a group with a high risk of HIV infection to 93,26% (Vector-Best). The convergence between initial and repeat reactive samples ranged from 100% (Abbott) to 89,51% (Vector-Best). The results of the analysis of seroconversion panels showed that the tests differed slightly from each other, receiving positive results from 22,12% (Diagnostic Systems) to 27,88% (Abbott) samples. When testing the panel of viral diversity, diagnostic tests from foreign manufacturers showed better results, revealing 100% (Abbott) and 85,9% (Bio-Rad). The smallest number of panel samples was detected by the kit of the Medical-Biological Union (52,1%). This work is the only study where the 4th generation ELISA kits, widely used in the Russian Federation for screening for HIV infection, were compared in an extensive sampling. The results obtained make it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of the listed kits in routine diagnostic practice.

Upper limb recovery is a complex process and a strong challenge in the rehabilitation of patients after stroke. Several studies have been conducted to compare the efficacy of conventional and robotic rehabilitation to restore the upper limb motor impairment following a stroke. However, the evolution of the upper limb motor ability during an intervention, as well as the time point when the patient stops improving (the so call plateau), are rarely measured, and never compared between the two approaches. These latter aspects are very important considering the need for an optimization of the economic resources. In this study, the time course of the upper limb motor recovery of 24 subacute stroke patients undergoing a 30-session robotic or conventional treatment was analyzed through the upper extremity portion of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment scale (FMA-UE). The FMA-UE was administered before the treatment, and after 10, 20, and 30 rehabilitation sessions. Statistical analysis showed that, according to the FMA-UE, the time course in the two groups was similar: patients did not change between the baseline and the 10-session assessment, while they improved between 10 and 20 sessions, and between 20 and 30 sessions, with most of the gain observed between 10 and 20 sessions. This result suggests that 30-session robotic or conventional rehabilitation programs induce a similar curve trend in the upper limb motor recovery of patients with subacute stroke, with an important increase in the middle of the program and without reaching a clear plateau in the analyzed time interval.

Additional file 4: Supplemental Table 1. Incidence of initial and repeated positive results of clinical specimen testing.

The ongoing mass extinction of animal species at an unprecedented rate is largely caused by human activities. Progressive habitat destruction and fragmentation is resulting in accelerated loss of biodiversity on a global scale. Over decades, captive breeding programs of non-domestic species were characterized by efforts to optimize species-specific husbandry, to increase studbook-based animal exchange, and to improve enclosure designs. To counter the ongoing dramatic loss of biodiversity, new approaches are warranted. Recently, new ideas, particularly the application of assisted reproduction technologies (ART), have been incorporated into classical zoo breeding programs. These technologies include semen and oocyte collection, artificial insemination, and in-vitro embryo generation. More futuristic ideas of advanced ART (aART) implement recent advances in biotechnology and stem-cell related approaches such as cloning, inner cell mass transfer (ICM), and the stem-cell-associated techniques (SCAT) for the generation of gametes and ultimately embryos of highly endangered species, such as the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) of which only two female individuals are left. Both, ART and aART greatly depend on and benefit from the rapidly evolving cryopreservation techniques and biobanking not only of genetic, but also of viable cellular materials suitable for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). The availability of cryopreserved materials bridges gaps in time and space, thereby optimizing the available genetic variability and enhancing the chance to restore viable populations.

Extracellular Vesicles analysis in cerebrospinal fluid of transgenic pigs: a model for biomarker discovery in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Introduction: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is often diagnostically challenging. Only limited data exist on the performance of interferon-ã release assays (IGRA) and molecular assays in children with TBM in routine clinical practice, particularly in the European setting. Methods: Multicentre, retrospective study involving 27 healthcare institutions providing care for children with tuberculosis (TB) in nine European countries. Results: Of 118 children included, 54 (45.8%) had definite, 38 (32.2%) probable and 26 (22.0%) possible TBM; 39 (33.1%) had TBM grade 1, 68 (57.6%) grade 2 and 11 (9.3%) grade 3. Of 108 patients who underwent cranial imaging 90 (83.3%) had at least one abnormal finding consistent with TBM. At the 5-mm cut-off the tuberculin skin test had a sensitivity of 61.9% (95% CI 51.2-71.6%) and at the 10-mm cut-off 50.0% (95% CI 40.0-60.0%). The test sensitivities of QuantiFERON-TB and T-SPOT.TB assays were 71.7% (95% CI 58.4-82.1%) and 82.5% (95% CI 58.2-94.6%), respectively (p=0.53). Indeterminate results were common, occurring in 17.0% of QuantiFERON-TB assays performed. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures were positive in 50.0% (95% CI 40.1-59.9%) of cases, and CSF PCR in 34.8% (95% CI 22.9-43.7%). In the subgroup of children who underwent tuberculin skin test, IGRA, CSF culture and CSF PCR simultaneously, 84.4% had at least one positive test result (95% CI 67.8%-93.6%). Conclusions: Existing immunological and microbiological TB tests have suboptimal sensitivity in children with TBM, with each test producing false-negative results in a substantial proportion of patients. Combining immune-based tests with CSF culture and CSF PCR results in considerably higher positive diagnostic yields, and should therefore be standard clinical practice in high-resource settings. Copyright © 2020 ERS.

Aim: To describe four novel primary epithelial tumours of the sella with papillary architecture and Thyroid Transcription Factor 1 (TTF-1) expression. Methods: Paraffin-embedded tissue from the four cases and recurrence of patient 1 was investigated with haematoxylin–eosin, special histochemical stains, immunohistochemistry with a broad panel of antibodies and next-generation sequencing. The ultrastructure of one tumour was studied in tissue retrieved from paraffin. Results: The lesions occurred in three females aged 20, 26 and 42years and a male aged 49 years. They presented with signs and symptoms secondary to pituitary stalk compression. Preoperative neuroimaging documented mixed solid and cystic, enhancing sellar masses with suprasellar extension. Histologically, the tumours showed thin papillae lined by a single layer of cytokeratin and TTF-1-positive cuboidal and cylindrical cells with mildly atypical nucleus. Next-generation sequencing performed in three cases did not identify any mutations. The main differential diagnosis included metastasis from lung or thyroid carcinoma, extraventricular choroid plexus papilloma and sellar ependymoma. Conclusion: We suggest the descriptive term of primary papillary epithelial tumour of the sella (PPETS) for this entity and propose that it could represent the intracranial equivalent of thyroid-like low-grade nasopharyngeal papillary adenocarcinoma. The cell of origin of PPETS remains undetermined although the intense and ubiquitous expression of TTF-1 may suggest a derivation from the infundibulum or ventricular recess. Our study expands the spectrum of sellar TTF-1-positive tumour and challenges the view that they all derive from pituicytes.

As previously described for the establishment of stable, pluripotent cell lines from pig blastocysts, an analogous cell line was isolated from a sheep blastocyst. There are common features in the morphologies and growth characteristics of the pig and sheep cells in culture; in particular, pig and sheep cells display large nuclei and relatively sparse cytoplasm, as is observed in mouse embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, the morphology of the sheep cells closely resembles that of cells in primary cultures of inner cell masses isolated immunosurgically from sheep blastocysts. This suggests that the sheep cell line represents a primary ectodermal lineage.

Current biomedical research is centered on the study of nanomaterials and their effects in biological environments. In particular, there is an increasing interest on TiO₂ nanostructures for biomedical applications such as drug delivery or implant materials. In this framework, we present a Chemical Vapour Deposition process to synthesize titanium dioxide nanowires (NWs) on a commercially pure titanium substrate and we test the material