Symmetric bilateral caudate, hippocampal, cerebellar, and subcortical white matter MRI abnormalities in an adult patient with heat stroke.

Heat stroke is the end result of excess heat stress and results in multiorgan dysfunction with a propensity for central nervous system (CNS) injury. Damage to the CNS appears to be the result of multiple mechanisms, including direct heat damage and the initiation of a sepsis-type syndrome. Only a few scattered case reports exist in the literature that document CNS damage via imaging. We present a case with symmetric bilateral magnetic resonance findings in the caudate nuclei, subcortical white matter, hippocampi, and cerebellum. To our knowledge, this is the first case to report symmetric bilateral caudate abnormality and bilateral hippocampal enhancement.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha is a key mediator of gut inflammation seen in amebic colitis in human intestine in the SCID mouse-human intestinal xenograft model of disease.

We used Entamoeba histolytica infection in human intestinal xenografts to study the roles interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) in the pathogenesis of amebic colitis. We found that blockade of TNF-alpha reduced inflammation and intestinal damage in amebic infection, while inhibition of IL-1 reduced cytokine production but had less marked effects on inflammation and disease.