BACKGROUND Spinal cord lesions is one of the predominant characteristics in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD). Interestingly, mounting evidence indicates that spinal cord atrophy (SCA) is one of common clinical features in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and correlates closely with the neurological disability. However, Clinical studies related to the SCA aspects of...

BACKGROUND Efforts to promote better health of sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients in low-income countries through the use of cheap and available alternatives are desirable. OBJECTIVE We investigated whether a locally designed incentive spirometry will improve peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) of teenage SCA patients. METHODS Forty-nine SCA teenagers were randomized into either the SCA spirom...

Vascular calcification is an advanced feature of atherosclerosis for which no effective therapy is available. To investigate the modulation or reversal of calcification, we identified calcifying progenitor cells and investigated their calcifying/decalcifying potentials. Cells from the aortas of mice were sorted into four groups using Sca-1 and PDGFRα markers. Sca-1(+) (Sca-1(+)/PDGFRα(+) and Sc...

SUMMARY Superior cerebellar artery (SCA) aneurysms sometimes involve the origin of the SCA making treatment difficult. We focused on the morphological characteristics of SCA aneurysms and adjacent vascular structures to apply clinical decision-making for the treatment strategy. Sixty-nine SCA aneurysms, including 34 ruptured and 35 unruptured ones, had been treated for over 12 years. Multiple a...

BACKGROUND People with epilepsy are at increased risk for sudden death. The most prevalent cause of sudden death in the general population is sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) due to ventricular fibrillation (VF). SCA may contribute to the increased incidence of sudden death in people with epilepsy. We assessed whether the risk for SCA is increased in epilepsy by determining the risk for SCA among pe...

Nigeria has the fourth highest prevalence of TB and the highest prevalence anaemia (SCA) in the world. SCA patients have impaired immunity and are vulnerable to TB. Hence, we studied the haematological indices of SCA patients with TB in Nigeria. A total of 23 SCA patients with TB were studied in parallel with equa SCA patients without TB. SCA patients with TB had significantly lower haematocrit...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are often caused by expansions of CTG/ CAG trinucleotide repeat in the genome. Expansions at the SCA1, 2 and 3 loci are the most frequent, but differences in their relative proportion in regions occur across the world. We carried out this study to assess the occurrence of SCA1, 2 and 3, at a tertiary neuro-psychiatric center in Bangalore, Ka...

Some sickle cell anemia (SCA) patients suffer significantly worse phenotypes than others. Causes of such disparities are incompletely understood. Comorbid chronic inflammation likely is a factor. Recently, mast cell (MC) activation (creating an inflammatory state) was found to be a significant factor in sickle pathobiology and pain in a murine SCA model. Also, a new realm of relatively noncytop...

The 95 kDa subunit a of eukaryotic V-ATPases consists of a C-terminal, ion-translocating part and an N-terminal cytosolic domain. The latter's N-terminal domain (~40 kDa) is described to bind in an acidification-dependent manner with cytohesin-2 (ARNO), giving the V-ATPase the putative function as pH-sensing receptor. Recently, the solution structure of the very N-terminal segment of the cytoso...