Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenia: A Comparative Imagistic Study.

Background and Objectives: Neuroimaging reveals a link between psychiatric conditions and brain structural-functional changes, prompting a paradigm shift in viewing schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder. This study aims to identify and compare structural brain changes found during the first schizophrenia episode with those found after more than 5 years of illness. Materials and Methods: This prospective study involved 149 participants enrolled between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2021. The participants were categorized into three groups: the first comprises 51 individuals with an initial psychotic episode, the second consists of 49 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia for over 5 years, and a control group comprising 50 individuals without a diagnosis of schizophrenia or any other psychotic disorder. All participants underwent brain CT examinations. Results: The study examined all three groups: first-episode schizophrenia (FES), schizophrenia (SCZ), and the control group. The FES group had a mean age of 26.35 years and a mean duration of illness of 1.2 years. The SCZ group, with a mean age of 40.08 years, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia for an average of 15.12 years. The control group, with a mean age of 34.60 years, had no schizophrenia diagnosis. Structural measurements revealed widening of frontal horns and lateral ventricles in the SCZ group compared to FES and the FES group compared to the control group. Differences in the dimensions of the third ventricle were noted between SCZ and FES, while no distinction was observed between FES and the control group. The fourth ventricle had similar measurements in FES and SCZ groups, both exceeding those of the control group. Our results showed higher densities in the frontal lobe in schizophrenia patients compared to FES and the control group, with the control group consistently displaying the lowest densities. Conclusions: In summary, our comparative imaging analysis of schizophrenia patients, first-episode schizophrenia, and control patients revealed distinct ventricular patterns, with SCZ showing greater widening than FES and FES wider than the control group. Frontal lobe density, assessed via cerebral CT scans, indicated a higher density in the SCZ group in both anterior and posterior cortex portions compared to FES and the control group, while the left posterior cortex in FES had the highest density. These findings highlight unique neuroanatomical features across groups, shedding light on structural differences associated with different stages of schizophrenia.

Machine Learning Models for Prediction of Sex Based on Lumbar Vertebral Morphometry.

BACKGROUND: Identifying skeletal remains has been and will remain a challenge for forensic experts and forensic anthropologists, especially in disasters with multiple victims or skeletal remains in an advanced stage of decomposition. This study examined the performance of two machine learning (ML) algorithms in predicting the person's sex based only on the morphometry of L1-L5 lumbar vertebrae collected recently from Romanian individuals. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether by using the machine learning (ML) techniques one can obtain a reliable prediction of sex in forensic identification based only on the parameters obtained from the metric analysis of the lumbar spine. METHOD: This paper built and tuned predictive models with two of the most popular techniques for classification, RF (random forest) and XGB (xgboost). Both series of models used cross-validation and a grid search to find the best combination of hyper-parameters. The best models were selected based on the ROC_AUC (area under curve) metric. RESULTS: The L1-L5 lumbar vertebrae exhibit sexual dimorphism and can be used as predictors in sex prediction. Out of the eight significant predictors for sex, six were found to be particularly important for the RF model, while only three were determined to be important by the XGB model. CONCLUSIONS: Even if the data set was small (149 observations), both RF and XGB techniques reliably predicted a person's sex based only on the L1-L5 measurements. This can prove valuable, especially when only skeletal remains are available. With minor adjustments, the presented ML setup can be transformed into an interactive web service, freely accessible to forensic anthropologists, in which, after entering the L1-L5 measurements of a body/cadaver, they can predict the person's sex.

Evaluation of smooth muscle relaxant potential of Bismarckia nobilis (Hildebr. & Wendl.) in diarrhea, hypertension and asthma by ex-vivo and in-vivo method / Evaluación del potencial relajante en músculo liso de Bismarckia nobilis (Hildebr. & Wendl.) en diarrea, hipertensión y asma por métodos ex vivo e in vivo

To explore the mechanistic basis behind smooth muscle relaxant prospective of Bismarckia nobilis in gastrointestinal, respiratory and cardiovascular ailments. The methanolic extract of B. nobilis and sub-fractions have been evaluated in vitro rabbit isolated tissues, in vivo castor oil-induced diarrhea in rats and charcoal meal activity in mice. The B. nobilis extract relaxed spontaneous and K+(80 mM)- induced contractions in rabbit isolated jejunum preparations, CCh (1 µM) and K+ (80 mM)-induced contractions in tracheal and bladder preparations, PE (1 µM) and K+ (80 mM)-induced concentrations in aorta preparations, likewise verapamil. Spasmolytic activity of dichloromethane fraction is stronger as compared to aqueous fraction. In vivo castor oil-induced diarrhea in rats and charcoal meal activity in mice further supported spasmolytic activity. B. nobilis extract possess anti-spasmodic, anti-diarrheal, airway relaxant and vasodilator activities possible mediated through calcium channel blocking mechanism, justifying therapeutic utility of B. nobilis in diarrhea, asthma and hypertension.

El objetivo de trabajo fue explorar el mecanismo de acción relacionado con el efecto relajante del músculo liso inducido por Bismarckia nobilis (B. nobilis) en enfermedades gastrointestinales, respiratorias y cardiovasculares. El extracto metanólico de B. nobilis y subfracciones fue evaluado in vitro en tejidos aislados de conejos. Además se evaluó diarrea in vivo inducida con aceite de ricino en ratas y la actividad de harina de carbón vegetal en ratones. El extracto de B. nobilis relajó tanto las contracciones espontáneas como las inducidas por K+(80 mM) en preparaciones de yeyuno aisladas de conejos, las contracciones inducidas por PE (1 µM) y K+(80 mM) inducidas en preparaciones de aorta; de manera similar a verapamilo. La actividad espasmolítica de la fracción de diclorometano es más potente en comparación con la fracción acuosa. La diarrea inducida in vivo por el aceite de ricino en ratas y la actividad de la harina de carbón vegetal en ratones apoyaron aún más la actividad espasmolítica. El extracto de B. nobilis posee actividades antiespasmódicas, antidiarreicas, relajantes de las vías respiratorias y vasodilatadoras, posibles a través del mecanismo de bloqueo de los canales de calcio, lo que justifica la utilidad terapéutica de B. nobilis en la diarrea, el asma y la hipertensión.