BACKGROUND Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) causes substantial clinical and economic burden. While several studies have reported the cost to treat CAP, there is little information on the cost to treat by age, risk profile, and hospitalization in US adults aged ≥50 years. OBJECTIVE To quantify the cost, from a payer perspective, of treating CAP at the episode level, stratified by age, risk p...

Germline stem cells in the Drosophila ovary are maintained by a somatic niche. The niche is structurally and functionally complex and contains four cell types, the escort, cap, and terminal filament cells and the newly identified transition cell. We find that the large Maf transcription factor Traffic jam (Tj) is essential for determining niche cell fates and architecture, enabling each niche i...

S ignificant acute hemodynamic changes occur in pilots upon transient exposure to high gravity forces (+G,).’ It is not well established, however, whether frequent repeated exposure to high values (up to 9) of acceleration stress may induce structural cardiovascular changes. A French study’ performed among 32 pilots flying high +G, revealed a statistically significant increase in left atria1 di...

surgery or autopsy. Unusual echocardiographic findings early in the course of the disease in a patient we studied recently led us to suspect the diagnosis of a ruptured left coronary cusp. When these were noted to correlate with clinical deterioration, immediate cardiac catheterization and aortic valve replacement was undertaken. The echocardiographic features of aortic valve endocarditis have ...

AIMS Transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) may affect afferent pathways innervating the bladder. We investigated the effects of GSK1016790A (GSK) and RN1734, a TRPV4 agonist and antagonist, respectively, and P2X-purinoceptor antagonists (TNP-ATP and PPADS) on cystometry (CMG), and the effect of GSK on single afferent fiber activities (SAAs) of the rat bladder and its relationship wit...

We tested the hypothesis that astrocytic glycogen sustains axon function during and enhances axon survival after 60 min of glucose deprivation. Axon function in the rat optic nerve (RON), a CNS white matter tract, was monitored by measuring the area of the stimulus-evoked compound action potential (CAP). Switching to glucose-free artificial CSF (aCSF) had no effect on the CAP area for approxima...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients often have dysphagia through age and several co-morbidities, leading to aspiration pneumonia (AsP). COPD patients also have increased risk of developing community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Using a national inpatient database in Japan, we aimed to compare clinical characteristics and outcomes between AsP and CAP in COPD patients an...

Accessory cells, which include glia and other cell types that develop in close association with neurons, have been shown to play key roles in regulating neuron development. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms remain poorly understood. A particularly intimate association between accessory cells and neurons is found in insect chordotonal organs. We have found that the cap ce...

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and its impact on hospital length of stay and in-hospital mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We carried out a retrospective, nationwide register analysis of CAP in adult patients admitted to Portuguese hospitals between 2009 and 2012. Anonymous ...