Neural evidence for attentional capture by salient distractors.

Salient objects often capture our attention, serving as distractors and hindering our current goals. It remains unclear when and how salient distractors interact with our goals, and our knowledge on the neural mechanisms responsible for attentional capture is limited to a few brain regions recorded from non-human primates. Here we conducted a multivariate analysis on human intracranial signals covering most brain regions and successfully dissociated distractor-specific representations from target-arousal signals in the high-frequency (60-100 Hz) activity. We found that salient distractors were processed rapidly around 220 ms, while target-tuning attention was attenuated simultaneously, supporting initial capture by distractors. Notably, neuronal activity specific to the distractor representation was strongest in the superior and middle temporal gyrus, amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex, while there were smaller contributions from the parietal and frontal cortices. These results provide neural evidence for attentional capture by salient distractors engaging a much larger network than previously appreciated.

Classification of temporal lobe epilepsy based on neuropsychological tests and exploration of its underlying neurobiology.

Objective: To assist improving long-term postoperative seizure-free rate, we aimed to use machine learning algorithms based on neuropsychological data to differentiate temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) from extratemporal lobe epilepsy (extraTLE), as well as explore the relationship between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological tests. Methods: Twenty-three patients with TLE and 23 patients with extraTLE underwent neuropsychological tests and MRI scans before surgery. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were firstly employed for feature selection, and a machine learning approach with neuropsychological tests was employed to classify TLE using leave-one-out cross-validation. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the relationship between brain alterations and neuropsychological tests. Results: We found that logistic regression with the selected neuropsychological tests generated classification accuracies of 87.0%, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.89. Three neuropsychological tests were acquired as significant neuropsychological signatures for the diagnosis of TLE. We also found that the Right-Left Orientation Test difference was related to the superior temporal and the banks of the superior temporal sulcus (bankssts). The Conditional Association Learning Test (CALT) was associated with the cortical thickness difference in the lateral orbitofrontal area between the two groups, and the Component Verbal Fluency Test was associated with the cortical thickness difference in the lateral occipital cortex between the two groups. Conclusion: These results showed that machine learning-based classification with the selected neuropsychological data can successfully classify TLE with high accuracy compared to previous studies, which could provide kind of warning sign for surgery candidate of TLE patients. In addition, understanding the mechanism of cognitive behavior by neuroimaging information could assist doctors in the presurgical evaluation of TLE.

Distance-dependent reconfiguration of hubs in Alzheimer's disease: a cross-tissue functional network study.

The hubs of the intra-grey matter (GM) network were sensitive to anatomical distance and susceptible to neuropathological damage. However, few studies examined the hubs of cross-tissue distance-dependent networks and their changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using resting-state fMRI data of 30 AD patients and 37 normal older adults (NC), we constructed the cross-tissue networks based on functional connectivity (FC) between GM and white matter (WM) voxels. In the full-ranged and distance-dependent networks (characterized by gradually increased Euclidean distances between GM and WM voxels), their hubs were identified with weight degree metrics (frWD and ddWD). We compared these WD metrics between AD and NC; using the resultant abnormal WDs as the seeds, we performed seed-based FC analysis. With increasing distance, the GM hubs of distance-dependent networks moved from the medial to lateral cortices, and the WM hubs spread from the projection fibers to longitudinal fascicles. Abnormal ddWD metrics in AD were primarily located in the hubs of distance-dependent networks around 20-100mm. Decreased ddWDs were located in the left corona radiation (CR), which had decreased FCs with the executive network's GM regions in AD. Increased ddWDs were located in the posterior thalamic radiation (PTR) and the temporal-parietal-occipital junction (TPO), and their FCs were larger in AD. Increased ddWDs were shown in the sagittal striatum, which had larger FCs with the salience network's GM regions in AD. The reconfiguration of cross-tissue distance-dependent networks possibly reflected the disruption in the neural circuit of executive function and the compensatory changes in the neural circuits of visuospatial and social-emotional functions in AD.

Imaging and pathological diagnosis of primary intracranial malignant melanoma: A case report and literature review.

RATIONALE: Primary intracranial malignant melanoma (PIMM) is a rare malignant tumor that lacks specific clinical manifestations. Preoperative diagnosis is difficult to differentiate from meningiomas on computed tomography (CT) scans. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) usually shows typical characteristics with high signal intensity on T1WI and low signal intensity on T2WI. PIMM is highly invasive, insensitive to chemoradiotherapy, and has a poor prognosis. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 27-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with a headache for 10 days. She did not experience nausea, vomiting, dizziness, or any other discomfort. A computerized tomography (CT) scan demonstrated a high-density mass in the left cerebellum with patchy calcification at the posterior edge, and heterogeneous enhancement was observed on a contrast-enhanced scan. MRI revealed typical characteristics of high signal intensity on T1WI and low signal intensity on T2WI. The signal characteristics of FLAIR were similar to those of T2WI, and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequence showed limited diffusion of the tumor. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed increased choline (Cho) and decreased creatine (Cr) and N-acetyl aspartate (Naa) in the tumor. INTERVENTIONS: The patient underwent tumor resection and postoperative chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy. PATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS: Histological and Immunohistochemistry (IHC) tests confirmed the diagnosis of PIMM. In addition, genetic testing revealed GNAQ gene variation. OUTCOMES: No recurrence or complications were observed during the follow-up for 6 months. LESSONS: PIMM is rare, and its pathological diagnosis should be closely combined with clinical and medical history. GNAQ is a common variant of PIMM and is expected to be a therapeutic target.

Expert consensus of Chinese Association for the Study of Pain on the radiofrequency therapy technology in the Department of Pain.

On the basis of continuous improvement in recent years, radiofrequency therapy technology has been widely developed, and has become an effective method for the treatment of various intractable pain. Radiofrequency therapy is a technique that uses special equipment and puncture needles to output ultra-high frequency radio waves and accurately act on local tissues. In order to standardize the application of radiofrequency technology in the treatment of painful diseases, Chinese Association for the Study of Pain (CASP) has developed a consensus proposed by many domestic experts and scholars.

Effects of Low-Frequency Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Bilateral Parietal Cortex in Patients With Tourette Syndrome.

Background: Traditional medical treatments are not effective for some patients with Tourette syndrome (TS). According to the literature, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be effective for the treatment of TS; however, different targets show different results. Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of low-frequency rTMS in patients with TS, with the bilateral parietal cortex as the target. Methods: Thirty patients with TS were divided into two groups: active and sham groups. The active group was subjected to 0.5-Hz rTMS at 90% of resting motor threshold (RMT) with 1,200 stimuli/day/side, whereas the sham group was subjected to 0.5-Hz rTMS at 10% of RMT with 1,200 stimuli/day/side with changes in the coil direction. Both groups were bilaterally stimulated over the parietal cortex (P3 and P4 electrode sites) for 10 consecutive days. The symptoms of tics and premonitory urges were evaluated using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), Modified Scoring Method for the Rush Video-based Tic Rating Scale (MRVBTS), and Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS) scores at baseline, the end of the 10-day treatment, 1 week after treatment, and 1 month after treatment. Results: At the end of the 10-day treatment, the YGTSS total, YGTSS motor tic, YGTSS phonic tic, MRVBTS, and PUTS scores in the active group significantly improved and improvements were maintained for at least 1 month. Conclusions: Low-frequency bilateral rTMS of the parietal cortex can markedly alleviate motor tics, phonic tics, and premonitory urges in patients with TS.

Expression of GLUT3 and HIF-1α in Meningiomas of Various Grades Correlated with Peritumoral Brain Edema.

AIM: To investigate the expression of glucose transporter 3 (GLUT3) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α protein (HIF-1α) in meningiomas and analyze the correlation between GLUT3 and HIF-1α expression with the pathological grade of peritumoral brain edema (PTBE) of meningiomas. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed meningioma specimens from 160 patients collected from January 1, 2014, to December 1, 2017, by dividing them into a low-grade (WHO I) or high-grade (WHO II and WHO III) group. Immunohistochemical analyses were used to detect the expression level of GLUT3 and HIF-1α in the tumor specimens. RESULTS: The proportion of GLUT3-positive staining in tumors sized <4 cm, 4-6 cm, and>6 cm was 35.9% (37/103), 63.6% (28/44), and 53.8% (7/13), respectively (P = 0.007). The proportion of HIF-1α-positive staining in tumors sized <4 cm, 4-6 cm, and >6 cm was 41.7% (43/103), 68.2% (30/44), and 38.5% (5/13), respectively (P = 0.010). The proportion of GLUT3-positive staining in the high-grade group and low-grade group was 70.8% (34/48) and 33.9% (38/112), respectively (P < 0.001). The proportion of HIF-1α-positive staining in the high-grade group and low-grade group was 62.5% (30/48) and 42.9% (48/112), respectively (P = 0.023). GLUT3-positive expression in meningioma PTBE grades 0, I, II, and III was 20.3% (13/64), 41.2% (14/34), 63.6% (21/33), and 82.8% (24/29), respectively (Bonferroni-corrected, P < 0.001, α/6 = 0.008). HIF-1α-positive expression in meningioma PTBE grades 0, I, II, and III was 34.4% (22/64), 47.1% (16/34), 54.5% (18/33), and 75.9% (22/29), respectively (Bonferroni-corrected, P = 0.003, α/6 = 0.008). Spearman's correlation analysis revealed a correlation between the expression of GLUT3 and HIF-1α in meningiomas (r = 0.463, P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that GLUT3-positive expression, HIF-1α-positive expression, and high pathological grade were associated with the development of PTBE (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: GLUT3 and HIF-1α expression in meningiomas was closely related to the tumor size, pathological grade, and PTBE. This study is the first to report a unique map-like multifocal GLUT3 staining pattern in meningiomas.

Preliminary results of posterior contralateral cervical 7 nerve transposition in the treatment of upper limb plegia after a stroke.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore a shorter and safer contralateral C7 transposition pathway for the treatment of central upper limb paralysis. METHODS: From July 2018 to March 2019, 10 patients with central upper limb paralysis underwent posterior cervical 7 nerve transposition. The age of these patients ranged within 31-58 years old (average: 44 years old). These patients comprised of eight male patients and two female patients. Nine patients had cerebral hemorrhage, and one patient had a cerebral infarction. Furthermore, nine patients presented with spastic paralysis of the upper limbs and one patient presented with nonspastic paralysis. The duration of plegia before the operation ranged from 6 to 60 months (average: 26 months). The surgical procedure included transposition of the contralateral cervical 7 nerve root via a posterior vertebral approach under general anesthesia, and the distal part of the contralateral cervical 7 nerve was anastomosed with the proximal part of the ipsilateral cervical 7 nerve. RESULTS: The length of the contralateral cervical 7 nerve was 5.16 ± 0.21 cm, which was directly anastomosed with the ipsilateral cervical 7 nerve. Neither case needed nerve transplantation. Most patients had temporary numbness in their healthy fingers, which all disappeared within three months. Up to now, the follow-up results are as follows: The spasticity of the affected upper limbs in five patients is lower than that before the operation, the pain and temperature sensation of the affected upper limbs in six patients are better than before the operation. CONCLUSION: The distance of nerve transposition can be shortened by a posterior vertebral approach operation, where the contralateral C7 nerve can be anastomosed directly with the ipsilateral C7 nerve which may be effective for nerve regeneration and functional recovery. However, this conclusion still needs further research and verification.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease: White matter structural changes and mechanisms.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous cognitive disorder that is often comorbid with Parkinson's diseases (PD). The amnestic subtype of PD-MCI (PD-aMCI) has a higher risk to develop dementia. However, there is a lack of studies on the white matter (WM) structural changes of PD-aMCI. We characterized the WM structural changes of PD-aMCI (n = 17) with cognitively normal PD (PD-CN, n = 19) and normal controls (n = 20), using voxel-based and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses on fractional anisotropy (FA) axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD). By excluding and then including the motor performance as a covariate in the comparison analysis between PD-aMCI and PD-CN, we attempted to discern the influences of two neuropathological mechanisms on the WM structural changes of PD-aMCI. The correlation analyses between memory and voxel-based WM measures in all PD patients were also performed (n = 36). The results showed that PD-aMCI had smaller FA values than PD-CN in the diffuse WM areas, and PD-CN had higher AD and RD values than normal controls in the right caudate. Most FA difference between PD-aMCI and PD-CN could be weakened by the motor adjustment. The FA differences between PD-aMCI and PD-CN were largely spatially overlapped with the memory-correlated FA values. Our findings demonstrated that the WM structural differences between PD-aMCI and PD-CN were mainly memory-related, and the influence of motor adjustment might indicate a common mechanism underlying both motor and memory impairment in PD-aMCI, possibly reflecting a predominant influence of dopaminergic neuropathology.

Characterizing the Structural Pattern Predicting Medication Response in Herpes Zoster Patients Using Multivoxel Pattern Analysis.

Herpes zoster (HZ) can cause a blistering skin rash with severe neuropathic pain. Pharmacotherapy is the most common treatment for HZ patients. However, most patients are usually the elderly or those that are immunocompromised, and thus often suffer from side effects or easily get intractable post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) if medication fails. It is challenging for clinicians to tailor treatment to patients, due to the lack of prognosis information on the neurological pathogenesis that underlies HZ. In the current study, we aimed at characterizing the brain structural pattern of HZ before treatment with medication that could help predict medication responses. High-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 14 right-handed HZ patients (aged 61.0 ± 7.0, 8 males) with poor response and 15 (aged 62.6 ± 8.3, 5 males) age- (p = 0.58), gender-matched (p = 0.20) patients responding well, were acquired and analyzed. Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) with a searchlight algorithm and support vector machine (SVM), was applied to identify the spatial pattern of the gray matter (GM) volume, with high predicting accuracy. The predictive regions, with an accuracy higher than 79%, were located within the cerebellum, posterior insular cortex (pIC), middle and orbital frontal lobes (mFC and OFC), anterior and middle cingulum (ACC and MCC), precuneus (PCu) and cuneus. Among these regions, mFC, pIC and MCC displayed significant increases of GM volumes in patients with poor response, compared to those with a good response. The combination of sMRI and MVPA might be a useful tool to explore the neuroanatomical imaging biomarkers of HZ-related pain associated with medication responses.

The relationship of anxious and depressive symptoms in Parkinson's disease with voxel-based neuroanatomical and functional connectivity measures.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depression are two frequent comorbidities of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the underlying neural mechanism is still unclear and the studies on their neural correlates were insufficient. METHODS: Using voxel-based neuroanatomical and functional connectivity (FC) measures, i.e. grey matter volume, fractional anisotropy, and weighted degree centrality (WD), we examined their correlations with the severity levels of anxious and depressive symptoms in 36 PD patients. RESULTS: Positive correlations were shown between anxiety and the WDs in the left amygdala, and between depression and short-ranged WDs in the left parahippocampal gyrus. Using these two regions as the seeds, we found that the severity levels of anxiety and depression were positively correlated with the FCs between the two seeds and the areas in the default mode network (DMN), while negatively correlated with the FCs between the two seeds and the prefrontal and superior temporal cortices. Anxiety was also positively correlated with the FC between the amygdala and the superior parietal lobule. LIMITATIONS: The severity levels of anxious and depressive symptoms of our participants is relatively mild than some previous studies. The cross-sectional design of this study cannot clarify the etiological relationship between PD and two comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: Our results were in line with the key roles of the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus in anxiety and depression, and reflected the distinct effects of the DMN, prefrontal and superior temporal cortices, and sensory-motor regions on emotional regulation. The identification of these neural substrates might assist clinical monitoring mood disturbances in PD.

Tumor Tissue Detection using Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent Functional MRI based on Independent Component Analysis.

Accurate delineation of gliomas from the surrounding normal brain areas helps maximize tumor resection and improves outcome. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) has been routinely adopted for presurgical mapping of the surrounding functional areas. For completely utilizing such imaging data, here we show the feasibility of using presurgical fMRI for tumor delineation. In particular, we introduce a novel method dedicated to tumor detection based on independent component analysis (ICA) of resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) with automatic tumor component identification. Multi-center rs-fMRI data of 32 glioma patients from three centers, plus the additional proof-of-concept data of 28 patients from the fourth center with non-brain musculoskeletal tumors, are fed into individual ICA with different total number of components (TNCs). The best-fitted tumor-related components derived from the optimized TNCs setting are automatically determined based on a new template-matching algorithm. The success rates are 100%, 100% and 93.75% for glioma tissue detection for the three centers, respectively, and 85.19% for musculoskeletal tumor detection. We propose that the high success rate could come from the previously overlooked ability of BOLD rs-fMRI in characterizing the abnormal vascularization, vasomotion and perfusion caused by tumors. Our findings suggest an additional usage of the rs-fMRI for comprehensive presurgical assessment.

White matter microstructure degenerates in patients with postherpetic neuralgia.

OBJECTIVE: The central mechanisms underlying postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) pain remains unknown. The primary purpose of this study was to identify microstructural white matter changes closely related to the PHN pain by means of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis. METHODS: DTI data of the brains were obtained from 8 PHN patients and 8 healthy controls (HC) that were matched in age, gender, and educational level. DTI metrics, including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD), were separately compared between the two groups using TBSS analysis to detect subtle microstructural changes. Partial correlation analyses were also conducted to evaluate the association between the altered DTI measures and clinical features. RESULTS: Average diffusion indices of white matter skeletons in the whole-brain showed no significant difference between the two groups. However, compared to the HC group, patients with PHN pain revealed reductions in localized FA and AD values in white matter underlying insula, occipital lobe, cerebellum, precentral gyrus, and many other regions, but without distinct change in regional MD and RD levels. In addition, decline of FA and AD values in patients represented significant negative correlations with PHN pain duration when the effect of VAS scores were excluded. CONCLUSION: The current study suggest that there exists altered microstructure integrity of white matter in multiple brain regions in patients with PHN, and these changes increase in size as the duration of the pain increases. These findings might provide a new insight into the mechanism of PHN pain in brain.

Gray matter atrophy associated with mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE: The underlying pathology of brain leading to cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD) remains poorly understood. The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in PD may be related to atrophy of special gray matter regions. METHODS: High-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance images of the brains and comprehensive cognitive function tests were acquired in 37 PD patients and 21 healthy controls (HC) from September 2013 to October 2014. Patients were divided into two groups: PD with MCI (PD-MCI, n=18) and PD with normal cognition (PDNC, n=19). Gray matter density differences were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). VBM and cognitive results, UPDRS scores and Hoehn-Yahr stages were compared between PD-MCI, PDCN and HC group, and correlation analyses were performed between those brain areas and cognition scores, UPDRS scores and disease duration, which showed significant group differences. RESULTS: The demographic data and motor severity among three groups were similar. However, comprehensive cognitive function results were more severe in PD-MCI than the other two groups. Compared to the HC group, the PDNC group showed reductions in gray matter density in frontal, temporal, parietal, bilateral insula lobes and many other regions of brain. Besides above changes, the PD-MCI group also revealed gray matter concentration decrease in left hippocampus and thalamus, and these changes still remained when compared with the PDNC group. The HC group did not show any more areas of atrophy in gray matter than others. Gray matter loss in PD represented significant correlations with global cognitive scores, motor severity or disease duration in some of these atrophic regions. CONCLUSION: The initial stages of cognitive function decline in patients with PD is closely associated with gray matter atrophy in left hippocampus and thalamus. These two regions may serve as potential imaging biomarkers for PD-MCI.

Identification and Genome Characterization of the First Sicinivirus Isolate from Chickens in Mainland China by Using Viral Metagenomics.

Unlike traditional virus isolation and sequencing approaches, sequence-independent amplification based viral metagenomics technique allows one to discover unexpected or novel viruses efficiently while bypassing culturing step. Here we report the discovery of the first Sicinivirus isolate (designated as strain JSY) of picornaviruses from commercial layer chickens in mainland China by using a viral metagenomics technique. This Sicinivirus isolate, which contains a whole genome of 9,797 nucleotides (nt) excluding the poly(A) tail, possesses one of the largest picornavirus genome so far reported, but only shares 88.83% and 82.78% of amino acid sequence identity to that of ChPV1 100C (KF979332) and Sicinivirus 1 strain UCC001 (NC_023861), respectively. The complete 939 nt 5'UTR of the isolate strain contains at least twelve stem-loop domains (A-L), representing the highest set of loops reported within Sicinivirus genus. The conserved 'barbell-like' structure was also present in the 272 nt 3'UTR of the isolate as that in the 3' UTR of Sicinivirus 1 strain UCC001. The 8,586 nt large open reading frame encodes a 2,862 amino acids polyprotein precursor. Moreover, Sicinivirus infection might be widely present in commercial chicken farms in Yancheng region of the Jiangsu Province as evidenced by all the tested stool samples from three different farms being positive (17/17) for Sicinivirus detection. This is the first report on identification of Sicinivirus in commercial layer chickens with a severe clinical disease in mainland China, however, further studies are needed to evaluate the pathogenic potential of this picornavirus in chickens.

COP9 signalosome subunit 6 binds and inhibits avian leukosis virus integrase.

The retroviral integrase plays an essential role in the integration of reverse-transcribed retroviral cDNA into the host cell genome, and serves as an important target for anti-viral therapeutics. In this study, we identified the COP9 signalosome subunit 6 (CSN6) as a novel avian leukosis virus (ALV) integrase binding protein. Co-immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down assays showed that CSN6 bound to ALV integrase likely through direct interaction of CSN6 to the catalytic core of the integrase. We further demonstrated CSN6 inhibited integrase activity in vitro; knockdown of CSN6 in DF-1 promoted ALV production. These results indicated that CSN6 may be a negative regulator of ALV replication by binding to and inhibiting integrase. Our findings provided the insight into the integrase-based host defense system and may have implications in the development of integrase-based anti-viral strategies.

A movable microelectrode array for chronic basal ganglia single-unit electrocorticogram co-recording in freely behaving rats.

The basal ganglia-cortical circuits are important for information process to brain function. However, chronic recording of single-unit activities in the basal ganglia nucleus has not yet been well established. We present a movable bundled microwire array for chronic subthalamic nucleus (STN) single-unit electrocorticogram co-recording. The electrode assembly contains a screw-advanced microdrive and a microwire array. The array consists of a steel guide tube, five recording wires and one referenced wire which form the shape of a guiding hand, and one screw electrode for cortico-recording. The electrode can acquire stable cortex oscillation-driven STN firing units in rats under different behaving conditions for 8 weeks. We achieved satisfying signal-to-noise ratio, portions of cells retaining viability, and spike waveform similarities across the recording sections. Using this method, we investigated neural correlations of the basal ganglia-cortical circuits in different behaving conditions. This method will become a powerful tool for multi-region recording to study normal statements or movement disorders.

Development and application of an indirect ELISA for detection of antibodies against avian hepatitis E virus.

An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) that could detect immunoglobulin G antibodies against avian hepatitis E virus (HEV) was developed. This assay employs a truncated C-terminal 268-amino acid recombinant ORF2 protein from an avian HEV genotype 3 strain isolated in China (CaHEV) as the coating antigen. The antigen concentration and serum dilution were optimized using a checkerboard titration. A cut-off value of 0.368 at OD(450nm) was determined by testing 120 positive and 200 negative chicken sera for avian HEV antibodies using the two-graph receiver operating characteristic (TG-ROC) analysis. This iELISA has a sensitivity of 96.1% and a specificity of 95.8%. The overall agreement between the iELISA and a corresponding Western blot was 97%. The iELISA was used to evaluate the seroprevalence of avian HEV in poultry farms in the Shandong province. The avian HEV seropositive rate of 35.9% was determined by testing 1871 serum samples that were collected from 10 chicken flocks ranged from 10 to 60 weeks of age. The iELISA that was developed in this study can be used for detection of immunoglobulin G antibodies against avian HEV.

Regional gray matter atrophy and neuropsychologcal problems in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

In multiple sclerosis, gray matter atrophy is extensive, and cognitive deficits and mood disorders are frequently encountered. It has been conjectured that focal atrophy is associated with emotional decline. However, conventional MRI has revealed that the pathological characteristics cannot fully account for the mood disorders. Moreover, there is no correlation between cognitive disorders and MRI results in clinically isolated syndromes or in cases of definite multiple sclerosis. In this case-control study, voxel-based morphometric analysis was performed on 11 subjects with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and the results show that these patients exhibit gray matter atrophy. Moreover, the gray matter atrophy in the superior and middle gyri of the right frontal lobe in patients with multiple sclerosis was correlated with scores from the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. The scores obtained with the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status were associated with gray matter atrophy in the middle gyrus of the left frontal lobe, the superior and middle gyrus of the right frontal lobe, the middle gyrus of the left cingulate, the superior and middle gyri of the left frontal lobe, and the triangular area of the left frontal lobe. However, there was no statistical significance. These findings suggest that the cingulate and frontal cortices of the nant hemisphere are the most severely atrophic regions of the brain, and this atrophy is correlated with cognitive decline and emotional abnormalities.