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Limited data suggest that F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) may have a role in diagnosing infection. Here we present two cases of lymphoma patients in complete response (CR) who presented during follow-up dry cough and fever. Physical examination and serum evaluations were negative for lymphoma while whole body FDG-PET showed lung uptake which posed a differential diagnosis between relapse of lymphoma and an atypical pneumonia due to persistent lymphopenia. In both cases, cytology examination of sputum suggested Pneumocystis Jiroveci pneumonia (PJP). After appropriate antibiotic treatment, the follow-up examination showed complete resolution of the lung changes revealed by FDG-PET. False-positive results on FDG-PET were supposed to be due to the high uptake of FDG in non-neoplastic inflammatory cellular elements such as macrophages and lymphocytes. Our findings suggest that in cases of FDG-PET positive images in immunocompromised patients with previous hematologic disease, caution must be used, and differential diagnosis might include infections such as PJP in addition to relapse of disease.

Several morphological and agronomic traits and the genetic diversity of nine Dactylis glomerata L. populations collected throughout Sicily (semi-arid Mediterranean environment) were evaluated for two successive years. Significant differences were recorded for morphological traits (plant height, leaf length, leaf width). In relation to the measurement of summer dormancy, the results suggest the expression of different levels of dormancy (completely dormant, semi-dormant, and non-dormant). For biomass yield, some Sicilian populations (SD63 and SD56) characterised by low levels of summer dormancy show production levels similar to the summer-active control varieties (Medly and Porto). However, SD46, with a much higher level of dormancy, gave biomass yield higher than the summer-dormant control variety (Kasbah). The genetic diversity evaluated by fAFLP analysis confirms the observed morphological and agronomic variability.

To cite this article:Banfi C, Brioschi M, Lento S, Pirillo A, Galli S, Cosentino S, Tremoli E, Mussoni L. Statins prevent tissue factor induction by protease‐activated receptors 1 and 2 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro. J Thromb Haemost2011; 9: 1608–19.

To determine whether APOE 4 predicts rate of cognitive change in incident and prevalent Alzheimer disease (AD).

Anosognosia, disordered awareness of cognitive and behavioral deficits, is a striking and common symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet its etiology, clinical correlates, and prognostic value are unclear. Historically, disordered awareness has been a conceptually challenging phenomenon, evidenced by the numerous and diverse theories that aim to explain the manner in which this syndrome arises. We review many of these theories, focusing on the neuroanatomic substrates of awareness, and highlighting the potential roles of critical regions such as the right prefrontal and parietal cortices in enabling self-awareness. We then address methodological limitations such as use of subjective measurement tools that likely contribute to the conceptual ambiguity surrounding anosognosia. We argue that metacognitive techniques used in healthy adults, such as the Feeling of Knowing task, offer models for dissecting awareness into clear and identifiable cognitive components in patients with AD. We critique several studies that have pioneered such tasks in AD, and offer guidelines for future implementation of such methods. A final goal of this review is to advocate for a multidimensional approach to studying metacognitive skills that will facilitate the objective investigation of deficit awareness as it relates to a variety of disease variables such as prognosis, neuropsychological profile, neuropathological distribution, psychiatric symptoms, and clinical course. (JINS, 2005, 11, 910–919.)

Essential oils and their components are becoming increasingly popular as naturally occurring antimicrobial agents. In this work the chemical composition and the antimicrobial properties of Thymusessential oils and of their main components were determined. Three essential oils obtained from different species of Thymusgrowing wild in Sardinia and a commercial sample of Thymus capitatusoil were analysed. The essential oil components were identified by GC/MS analysis. The antimicrobial activity of the oils and components was determined against a panel of standard reference strains and multiple strains of food‐derived spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, using a broth microdilution method. The GC/MS analysis showed that the major constituents of the oils were monoterpene hydrocarbons and phenolic monoterpenes, but the concentration of these compounds varied greatly among the oils examined. The results of the antimicrobial assay showed that essential oils extracted from Sardinian Thymusspecies have an antimicrobial activity comparable to the one observed in other thyme oils. It seems also confirmed that the antimicrobial properties of thyme essential oils are mainly related to their high phenolic content. Among the single compounds tested carvacrol and thymol turned out to be the most efficient against both reference strains and food‐derived bacteria. The results of this study confirmed the possibility of using thyme essential oils or some of their components in food systems to prevent the growth of foodborne bacteria and extend the shelf‐life of processed foods.

The mechanisms underlying duodenal ulcer (DU) recurrence after endoscopically confirmed healing are unclear. We sought to examine histologic differences in healing induced by omeprazole and nizatidine. This also entailed assessing interobserver variation in endoscopic diagnosis and the correlation between endoscopic and histomorphologic healing. We treated 31 DU patients for 4 weeks with either omeprazole (20 mg daily a.m.) or nizatidine (300 mg twice daily). The healing rates of both groups showed no significant differences (86.7% versus 81.2%; p = 0.5). Good mucosal repair rates did not differ significantly (38.5% versus 69.2% respectively; p = 0.5). Endoscopists' agreement over scar type was 0.80, with the chance of agreement 0.70 (k = 0.34 ± -0.08). The correlation between macroscopic and histologic appearance of scars was fair, but fully significant (r = 0.48; p < 0.05). We conclude that the study was too small to detect significant differences in healing patterns between the two drugs. The wide variation in endoscopic diagnosis suggests that mucosal repair is best assessed by histologic examination of biopsy samples.

A study was carried out to investigate the influence of atmospheric pollen and fungi in determining allergic diseases by comparing the frequency of skin reactions to air sampling data over a 6-year period.48% of our population reacted to at least one of the pollen and fungal extracts used. Among pollen, Gramineae gave the most frequent positive reactions, followed by Parietaria, Olea and Compositae. The most common positive skin tests in fungus sensitive patients were by extracts of Alternaria, Cladosporium, Aspergillus and CandidaAs for the aerobiological survey, the general trend of pollen and molds was similar during the sampling period. The annual pollen catch did not show remarkable differences during the years sampled, whereas the total fungal spore count was highest in 1988 and 1990.A comparison between aerobiological and clinical data revealed a good degree of concordance between total pollen counts and positive skin test frequencies for Urticaceae, Gramineae and Oleaceae but not for Compositae (high positive skin reactions and very low counts) and Cupressaceae (high counts and few skin reactions).A less marked correlation has been found between fungal spore counts and positive skin-test frequencies as compared to pollen. Spores such as Cladosporium, which are present in large number in the air, appear to be less sensitizing, while certain spore types (e.g. Alternaria), seem to be able to sensitize patients in spite of their low atmospheric concentrations.

mRNA from normal Chinese hamster embryo (CHE) cells was transcribed to cDNA and subtracted with an excess of mRNA from Chinese hamster embryo cells transformed by nickel compounds. Here we report the recovery of a sequence found to be highly homologous to the mouse thrombospondin 1 gene that was obtained by this subtraction procedure. Since thrombospondin is antiangiogenic, cancer cells expressing high levels of thrombospondin cannot grow in vivo because capillaries will not proliferate to cells secreting thrombospondin. To examine expression of thrombospondin, normal CHE cells were stained with monoclonal antibodies to human thrombospondin. The protein was present abundantly in the cytoplasm of normal cells but at greatly reduced levels in Ni-transformed cells. Analysis of mRNA by Northern (RNA) blot revealed transcripts in normal cells but little thrombospondin mRNA in Ni-transformed cells. Loss of thrombospondin mRNA expression was related to Ni treatment rather than transformation, since Ni-resistant cells also exhibited fewer thrombospondin transcripts than did wild-type cells. Digestion of genomic DNA with various combinations of restriction enzymes revealed thrombospondin gene patterns that were identical in both cell types, suggesting that there were no major deletions or rearrangements of the gene in the nickel-transformed cells. The inactivation of the thrombospondin gene was further investigated by analyzing the promoter activity of this gene linked to a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter plasmid that was transfected into normal and Ni-transformed cells. The CAT activity in normal cells was significantly higher than in Ni-transformed cells, suggesting that the promoter region of thrombospondin was less efficiently transcribed in Ni-transformed cells. We studied the consequences of enhanced expression of the retinoblastoma (Rb) gene, a known tumor suppressor gene, on CAT transcription driven by the human thrombospondin promoter. Cotransfection of an expression vector containing the mouse Rb gene greatly enhanced the transcription from the thrombospondin promoter such that the expression was higher in normal cells than in transformed cells.