The data showed an increase in the activation of platelets at 4 h after repeated blast exposures, indicating changes in platelet phenotype in blast neurotrauma. Platelet serotonin concentration showed a significant decrease at 4 h after blast with a concurrent

increase in the plasma serotonin levels, confirming the early onset of platelet activation after repeated blast exposures. Blood, plasma and brain myeloperoxidase enzyme activity and expression was increased in repeated blast exposed mice at multiple time points. Histopathological analysis of the brains of blast exposed mice showed constriction of blood vessels compared to the respective controls, a phenomenon similar to the reported cerebral vasoconstriction in blast affected victims. These results suggest that repeated blast exposure leads to acute activation of platelets/leukocytes which can augment the pathological MI-503 molecular weight effects of brain injury. Platelet/leukocyte targeted therapies can be evaluated as potential acute treatment strategies to mitigate blast-induced neurotrauma. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Background: Brain morphometric measures from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have not been used

to discriminate between first-episode patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects.

Methods: Magnetic resonance images were acquired from 34 (17 males, 17 females) first-episode schizophrenia patients and 48 (24 males, 24 females) age- and parental socio-economic status-matched healthy subjects. Twenty-nine Z-IETD-FMK research buy regions check details of interest (ROI) were measured on 1-mm-thick coronal slices from the prefrontal and central parts of the brain. Linear discriminant function analysis was conducted using standardized z scores of the volumes of each ROI.

Results:

Discriminant function analysis with cross-validation procedures revealed that brain anatomical variables correctly classified 75.6% of male subjects and 82.9% of female subjects, respectively. The results of the volumetric comparisons of each ROI between patients and controls were generally consistent with those of the previous literature.

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence of MRI-based successful classification between first-episode patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The potential of these methods for early detection of schizophrenia should be further explored. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Bluetongue virus (BTV) is transmitted by biting midges (Culicoides spp.). It causes disease mainly in sheep and occasionally in cattle and other species. BTV has spread into northern Europe, causing disease in sheep and cattle. The introduction of new serotypes, changes in vector species, and climate change have contributed to these changes. Ten BTV serotypes have been isolated in Australia without apparent associated disease.