Pros and cons of narrow- versus wide-compartment rotarod apparatus: An experimental study in mice.

The rotarod test, a sensorimotor assessment that allows for quantitative evaluation of motor coordination in rodents, has extensive application in many research fields. The test results exhibit extreme between-study variability, sometimes making it challenging to conclude the validity of certain disease models and related therapeutic effects. Although the variation in test paradigms may account for this disparity, some features of rotarod apparatus including rod diameter make differences. However, it is unknown whether the width of animal compartment has a role in rotarod performance. Here we comprehensively evaluated the active rotarod performance and adverse incidents in multiple strains of mice on an 11-cm- or a 5-cm-wide compartment apparatus. We found that mouse behaviors on these apparatuses were surprisingly different. It took a markedly longer time to train mice on the narrow- than wide-compartment rotarod. Further, non-transgenic B6129S and tau knockout mice aged 11 months and beyond showed different levels of improvement based on the compartment width. These mice had no overt improvements on accelerating rotarod over 4-5 training sessions on the narrow compartment, contrary to marked progress on the wide counterpart. The incidents of mice passively somersaulting round and fragmented running occurred significantly more on the wide than narrow compartment during accelerating rotarod sessions. Mice fell off rod more frequently on narrow than wide compartments upon attempt to turn around and when moving backward on rod. The pros and cons of narrow versus wide compartments are informative as to how to choose a rotarod apparatus that best fits the animal models used.

Miocardiopatía por estrés: serie de casos / Stress cardiomyopathy: case series

La miocardiopatía por estrés, o takotsubo, se da en respuesta a un evento estresante que causa dilatación aguda del ventrículo izquierdo, disfunción ventricular, elevación de biomarcadores de daño miocárdico y cambios electrocardiográficos sin evidencia de lesiones coronarias significativas. Típicamente se presenta en mujeres posmenopáusicas y es de carácter reversible en la mayoría de los casos. Se reporta una serie de doce pacientes de sexo femenino, en la séptima década de la vida, con miocardiopatía por estrés, que se presentaron en un periodo de nueve años. La principal causa de consulta fue dolor torácico y el desencadenante más común fue de tipo emocional. De estas, el 25% tenía antecedentes médicos cardiológicos y los medicamentos más usados antes del evento fueron el ácido acetilsalicílico, los betabloqueadores y los inhibidores de la enzima convertidora de angiotensina. En todos los casos se documentó deterioro inicial de la función ventricular, que se recuperó en un periodo variable.

Takotsubo stress cardiomyopathy is the result of a stressing event which causes acute ventricular dilation and dysfunction, a rise in myocardial injury biomarkers, electrocardiographic alterations and no significant coronary artery lesions. Typically it presents in postmenopausical women and is usually reversible. We report a case series of twelve patients with stress cardiomyophaty evaluated over a period of nine years. All patients were female around the seventh decade of life. The most common presenting symptom was thoracic pain which presented in all patients, and the main trigger was emotional stress. Approximately 25% of patients had history of cardiovascular disease and the most common medications used previously to de event were acetyl-salicylic acid, betablockers and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors). All cases documented impaired ventricular function, which recovered in variable time.