In view of the morbidity and mortality caused by 2009 H1N1 influenza and the effectiveness of the vaccine, clinicians, policy makers, and those eligible for vaccination should be assured that the benefits of inactivated pandemic vaccines greatly outweigh the risks.”
“Background. Selleck IPI145 Direct comparisons
of brain function between obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other anxiety or OCD spectrum disorders are rare. This study aimed to investigate the specificity of altered frontal-striatal and limbic activations during planning in OCD, a prototypical anxiety disorder (panic disorder) and a putative OCD spectrum disorder (hypochondriasis).
Method. The Tower of London task, a ‘frontal-striatal’ task, was used during functional magnetic resonance imaging measurements in 50 unmedicated www.selleckchem.com/products/LDE225(NVP-LDE225).html patients, diagnosed with OCD (n=22), panic disorder (n=14) or hypochondriasis (n=14), and in 22 healthy subjects. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes were calculated for contrasts of interest (planning versus baseline
and task load effects). Moreover, correlations between BOLD responses and both task performance and state anxiety were analysed.
Results. Overall, patients showed a decreased recruitment of the precuneus, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus and thalamus, compared with healthy controls. There were no statistically significant differences in brain activation between the three patient groups. State anxiety was negatively correlated with dorsal frontal-striatal activation. Task performance was positively correlated with dorsal frontal-striatal recruitment and negatively correlated with limbic and ventral frontal-striatal recruitment. Multiple regression models showed that adequate task performance was best explained by independent contributions from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (positive correlation) and amygdala (negative correlation), even after controlling for state anxiety.
Conclusions. Patients with OCD, panic disorder and hypochondriasis
share similar alterations in frontal-striatal brain regions during a planning task, presumably partly related to increased limbic activation.”
“Background In north India, vitamin A deficiency (retinol Navitoclax <0.70 mu mol/L) is common in pre-school children and 2-3% die at ages 1.0-6.0 years. We aimed to assess whether periodic vitamin A supplementation could reduce this mortality.
Methods Participants in this cluster-randomised trial were pre-school children in the defined catchment areas of 8338 state-staffed village child-care centres (under-5 population 1 million) in 72 administrative blocks. Groups of four neighbouring blocks (clusters) were cluster-randomly allocated in Oxford, UK, between 6-monthly vitamin A (retinol capsule of 200 000 IU retinyl acetate in oil, to be cut and dripped into the child’s mouth every 6 months), albendazole (400 mg tablet every 6 months), both, or neither (open control).