Using complexity-entropy planes to detect Parkinson's disease from short segments of haemodynamic signals.

Objective. There is emerging evidence that analysing the entropy and complexity of biomedical signals can detect underlying changes in physiology which may be reflective of disease pathology. This approach can be used even when only short recordings of biomedical signals are available. This study aimed to determine whether entropy and complexity measures can detect differences between subjects with Parkinsons disease and healthy controls (HCs).Approach. A method based on a diagram of entropy versus complexity, named complexity-entropy plane, was used to re-analyse a dataset of cerebral haemodynamic signals from subjects with Parkinsons disease and HCs obtained under poikilocapnic conditions. A probability distribution for a set of ordinal patterns, designed to capture regularities in a time series, was computed from each signal under analysis. Four types of entropy and ten types of complexity measures were estimated from these distributions. Mean values of entropy and complexity were compared and their classification power was assessed by evaluating the best linear separator on the corresponding complexity-entropy planes.Main results. Few linear separators obtained significantly better classification, evaluated as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, than signal mean values. However, significant differences in both entropy and complexity were detected between the groups of participants.Significance. Measures of entropy and complexity were able to detect differences between healthy volunteers and subjects with Parkinson's disease, in poikilocapnic conditions, even though only short recordings were available for analysis. Further work is needed to refine this promising approach, and to help understand the findings in the context of specific pathophysiological changes.

Carbon disulfide formation in papaya under conditions of dithiocarbamate residue analysis.

Golden, Sunrise Solo and Tainung cultivars of papaya were found to release CS2 when submitted to experimental conditions of dithiocarbamate residue analysis. Three common analytical methods were used to quantitate CS2; one spectrophotometric method and two chromatographic methods. All three methods gave positive CS2 results for all three papaya varieties. Other endogenous compounds present in isooctane extracts of papaya fractions detected via gas chromatography (GC/ITD) using electron ionization (EI) were: carbonyl sulfide, dimethyl sulfide, carbon disulfide, 2-methylthiophene, 3-methylthiophene, 2-ethylthiophene, 3-ethylthiophene, benzylisothiocyanate, benzylthiocyanate and benzonitrile. Control samples were obtained from papaya plantations cultivated in experimental areas, in which no treatment with fungicides of the dithiocarbamate group was applied. Endogenous CS2 levels were compared with true dithiocarbamate residues measured in papaya samples from the field trials following applications of the mancozeb fungicide. Three days after application, true dithiocarbamate residues, measured by the procedure with isooctane partitioning and GC-ITD, were at the average level of 2 mg kg(-1).

Actitud ante lesiones destructivas mediofaciales en pacientes que esnifan cocaína / Attitude to nasal cocaine abusers with midline destructive lesions

La cocaína esnifada es muy agresiva para el septum nasal y, si se consume de forma habitual, puede ocasionar destrucción de mucosa, cartílago e incluso hueso. Si nos encontramos ante un paciente con necrosis de línea media facial, antes de establecer la cocaína como agente causal, debemos hacer un diagnóstico diferencial con una serie de procesos que producen un cuadro clínico similar. Debemos descartar procesos sistémicos, neoplásicos e infecciosos. El tratamiento será inicialmente conservador, si bien es fundamental el cese del consumo. Cuando el paciente lleve un tiempo razonable de abstinencia, se puede plantear la cirugía (AU)

Chronic inhalation of cocaine can damage nasal septum with destruction of mucosa, cartilage and even bone. When we see a patient with midline nasal necrosis, we have to do a differencial diagnosis with systemic, neoplastic and infectious process. The treatment will be conservative at the beginning. The most important is to stop of using the drug. Surgery can be consider after some time of absence (AU)

[Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the nasal vestibulum]. / Carcinoma mucoepidermoide de vestíbulo nasal.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a malignant epithelial tumor, with a mucosecretor component that is exceptional in the upper airways. It seems to be a kind of immunity in this area to the development of this tumors. In the review of the literature we only have found three cases in the nasal cavity. We present the case of a 18th years old woman with a tumor in the right nostril for two months. Several biopsy were required to achieve its histopathological diagnosis as a high malignant mucoepidermoid carcinoma. Radical surgery over the tumor and metastasis was performed but the case has a bad prognosis. The prognosis of the mucoepidermoid carcinoma depends on the histological grade, the early diagnosis and the surgical treatment which has to be so radical as possible to obtain free tumors limits.

[Forestier's disease. Ear, nose and throat manifestations]. / Enfermedad de Forestier. Manifestaciones ORL.

Forestier's disease is a skeletal pathology that sometimes affects the head and neck as a consequence of hyperostotic involvement of the cervical spine. We report the case of a 73-year-old man who had progressive difficulty in swallowing solids. Gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a bony mass in the hypopharynx. The case is described and the disease manifestations in head and neck are discussed.