PURPOSE To describe the clinical and molecular characteristics of patients with childhood-onset Stargardt disease (STGD). DESIGN Retrospective case series. PARTICIPANTS Forty-two patients who were diagnosed with STGD in childhood at a single institution between January 2001 and January 2012. METHODS A detailed history and a comprehensive ophthalmic examination were undertaken, including c...

BACKGROUND The diabetic heart exhibits increased left ventricular (LV) mass and reduced ventricular function. However, this relationship has not been studied in patients with aortic stenosis (AS), a disease process that causes LV hypertrophy and dysfunction through a distinct mechanism of pressure overload. The aim of this study was to determine how diabetes mellitus (DM) affects LV remodeling ...

BACKGROUNDAcrokeratosis paraneoplastica (Bazex Syndrome) is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome and dermatosis that only arises in patients with underlying malignancy and uncommonly resolves with systemic therapy.OBJECTIVE/METHODSWe present a patient with acrokeratosis paraneoplastica that improved significantly with acitretin. We present evidence to justify costs of therapy for insurance purposes. ...

AIM To evaluate photodynamic therapy (PDT) combined with the preferential the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, nabumetone in the treatment of the neovascular age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). METHODS A prospective, double-blind, randomized study on 60 patients with subfoveal CNV secondary to ARMD without any previous treatment. Patients were divided into a nabumetone or placebo grou...

C. elegans inhabit environments that require detection of diverse stimuli to modulate locomotion in order to avoid unfavourable conditions. In a mammalian context, a failure to appropriately integrate environmental signals can lead to Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and epilepsy. Provided that the circuitry underlying mammalian sensory integration can be prohibitively complex, we analyzed nematode be...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this case match study was to compare the outcome of patients with paradoxical low-flow (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] ≥50% but stroke volume index <35 ml/m(2)), low-gradient (mean gradient [MG] <40 mm Hg), a priori severe (aortic valve area [AVA] ≤1.0 cm(2)) aortic stenosis (AS) (PLG-SAS group) with that of patients with a severe AS (AVA ≤1.0 cm(2)) and consist...

BACKGROUND All indices of aortic stenosis (AS) rely on measurements of mean transvalvular pressure gradient (DeltaP) and flow rate. Because the gradient is reversed during late ejection, the late systolic left ventricular (LV)-aortic pressure crossover may be an erroneous landmark of end-ejection. The aortic incisura should be a better reference to calculate indices of AS invasively. METHODS ...

J ava i s a key t ec hnology for t he next gene ra ti on of dat a ac qui s it i on s ys t em s (DAQ ). J ava has excellent features, but its performance is a weak point. We evaluated various Java benchmark progr am s wi t h a J ava i nt erpr et er , J ava J us t -I n-Ti m e com pi l er s (J I T), a J ava nat i ve code compiler (TowerJ) which generates native code, and a C compiler. The benchmar...

BACKGROUND Primary cutaneous B-cell lymphoma manifested by anetoderma has been reported in 7 cases. In all, the secondary anetoderma developed in lesions of marginal-zone lymphoma or posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder resembling marginal-zone lymphoma. The mechanisms underlying the destruction of elastic tissue in anetoderma are unclear. However, there is growing evidence linking prima...

This review summarizes the literature on scleratrophic skin lesions as a manifestation of a Borrelia infection. An association of morphea with Lyme borreliosis was mainly reported from Middle-European Countries, Japan and South America. B. afzelii has been identified predominantly from the chronic skin lesions of acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans (ACA) and has been cultivated from morphea les...