Citations

Purpose Audiologists frequently encounter patients who complain of chronic dizziness or imbalance, in the absence of active vestibular or neurological deficits. Knowledge about conditions that cause this clinical presentation will allow audiologists to make important contributions to accurate diagnosis and effective management of these patients. This article reviews 2 such conditions, chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) and conversion disorder. Method A case of CSD and another of conversion disorder are presented, with a literature review of their clinical presentations, key diagnostic features, and treatment strategies. The role of the audiologist in assessing patients with these conditions and facilitating appropriate treatment referrals is discussed. Conclusions The audiologist is in a key position to identify individuals with CSD and conversion disorder, 2 conditions that can be effectively managed if properly recognized. The authors demonstrate an effective team approach program that includes the audiologist’s contribution to differential diagnosis, education of patients and other clinicians about these conditions, and development of recommendations for neurological, psychiatric, otologic, and physical therapy referrals.

Abstract Visual data collection is paramount for the majority of scientific research. The added transparency of the zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) allows for a greater detail of complex biological research that accompanies seemingly simple observational tools. We developed a visual data analysis and collection approach that takes advantage of the cylindrical nature of the zebrafish allowing for an efficient and effective method for image capture that we call Specimen in a Corrected Optical Rotational Enclosure imaging. To achieve a nondistorted image, zebrafish were placed in a fluorinated ethylene propylene tube with a surrounding optically corrected imaging solution (water). By similarly matching the refractive index of the housing (fluorinated ethylene propylene tubing) to that of the inner liquid and outer liquid (water), distortion was markedly reduced, producing a crisp imagable specimen that is able to be fully rotated 360°. A similar procedure was established for fixed zebrafish embryos using convenient, readily available borosilicate capillaries surrounded by 75% glycerol. The method described here could be applied to chemical genetic screening and other related high-throughput methods within the fish community and among other scientific fields.

Identified in an RNA interference screen, proteins that prevent spindle multipolarity in human cancer cells may prove to be promising drug targets.

Realizing education and awareness are paramount in making clinical trials available, the authors sought to evaluate a statewide navigation service to identify how it might improve cancer clinical trial accessibility in Florida for physicians and patients.

Functions of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) core fall into three categories: (1) those of the central MRI core laboratory at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, needed to generate high quality MRI data in all subjects at each time point; (2) those of the funded ADNI MRI core imaging analysis groups responsible for analyzing the MRI data; and (3) the joint function of the entire MRI core in designing and problem solving MR image acquisition, pre‐processing, and analyses methods. The primary objective of ADNI was and continues to be improving methods for clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease. Our approach to the present (“ADNI‐GO”) and future (“ADNI‐2,” if funded) MRI protocol will be to maintain MRI methodological consistency in the previously enrolled “ADNI‐1” subjects who are followed up longitudinally in ADNI‐GO and ADNI‐2. We will modernize and expand the MRI protocol for all newly enrolled ADNI‐GO and ADNI‐2 subjects. All newly enrolled subjects will be scanned at 3T with a core set of three sequence types: 3D T1‐weighted volume, FLAIR, and a long TE gradient echo volumetric acquisition for micro hemorrhage detection. In addition to this core ADNI‐GO and ADNI‐2 protocol, we will perform vendor‐specific pilot sub‐studies of arterial spin‐labeling perfusion, resting state functional connectivity, and diffusion tensor imaging. One of these sequences will be added to the core protocol on systems from each MRI vendor. These experimental sub‐studies are designed to demonstrate the feasibility of acquiring useful data in a multicenter (but single vendor) setting for these three emerging MRI applications.

A recently identified variant within the fat mass and obesity-associated ( FTO ) gene is carried by 46% of Western Europeans and is associated with an ~1.2 kg higher weight, on average, in adults and an ~1 cm greater waist circumference. With >1 billion overweight and 300 million obese persons worldwide, it is crucial to understand the implications of carrying this very common allele for the health of our aging population. FTO is highly expressed in the brain and elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with brain atrophy, but it is unknown how the obesity-associated risk allele affects human brain structure. We therefore generated 3D maps of regional brain volume differences in 206 healthy elderly subjects scanned with MRI and genotyped as part of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We found a pattern of systematic brain volume deficits in carriers of the obesity-associated risk allele versus noncarriers. Relative to structure volumes in the mean template, FTO risk allele carriers versus noncarriers had an average brain volume difference of ~8% in the frontal lobes and 12% in the occipital lobes—these regions also showed significant volume deficits in subjects with higher BMI. These brain differences were not attributable to differences in cholesterol levels, hypertension, or the volume of white matter hyperintensities; which were not detectably higher in FTO risk allele carriers versus noncarriers. These brain maps reveal that a commonly carried susceptibility allele for obesity is associated with structural brain atrophy, with implications for the health of the elderly.