Cue reactivity towards bodies in anorexia nervosa - common and differential effects in adolescents and adults.

BACKGROUND: Aberrant reward mechanisms with regard to slim body shapes are discussed in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). The aim of the present study was to examine of cue reactivity toward body shapes in AN via the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related electroencephalography (EEG) component. By including adolescents and adults, aspects of development and chronification could be studied (2 × 2 design). METHODS: Thirty-two female AN patients (19 adolescents and 13 adults) and 37 control participants (16 adolescents and 21 adults) were included. Standardized photographic stimuli showing women's bodies in underwear from five body mass index (BMI) categories (extremely underweight to extremely overweight) were presented. During picture evaluation, EEG activity was recorded (10-20 system). The LPP was measured in two time windows characterized by different topographies (450-700 ms: posterior; 1000-1300 ms: central). RESULTS: Regarding the posterior component, LPP amplitudes were clearly reduced in adult but not in adolescent patients; for both time windows the LPP showed differential patterns over BMI categories for patients and controls. Regarding the central component, a highly significant linear decrease from extremely underweight to extremely overweight body shapes was revealed in patients and no significant modulation in control participants. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent and adult patients show increased sustained attention toward extremely underweight bodies. In chronically ill patients, this bias appears to be accompanied by generally reduced automatic attention. The LPP findings provide a differentiated picture of aberrant cue reactivity which could be interpreted as motivated attention toward body shapes in AN.

TMS-related potentials and artifacts in combined TMS-EEG measurements: Comparison of three different TMS devices.

OBJECTIVES: Simultaneous use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG) allows the measurement of TMS-induced cortical activity. A challenge in the interpretation of the cortical responses to TMS pulses is the differentiation between stimulation artifacts and cortical signals. Thus, we investigated TMS-evoked potentials and artifacts with respect to different TMS devices. METHODS: Physical properties of the magnetic field produced by a MagStim(®), Magventure(®) and Deymed(®) stimulator were determined. Six subjects were stimulated over the left motor cortex hot spot of the right index finger 42 times with 120% motor threshold, while wearing a 60-electrode EEG cap. RESULTS: For each device we found a linear increase of field strength with a linear increase of machine output. The Magventure(®) system differed from the MagStim(®) and the Deymed(®) system with respect to field strength (higher), magnetic flux duration (shorter), motor threshold (lower), recovery time from the TMS artifact (shorter), motor evoked potentials (MEPs) latency (shorter), and had a reversed first artifact trajectory. There were no differences with respect to validity of the MEPs (number of valid epochs), MEP amplitudes, latency or amplitude of the second TMS artifact, or latency or amplitude of TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs). CONCLUSIONS: All of the used devices are well suited for TMS-EEG measurements, but the technical differences (e.g., pulse length) should be taken into account for the interpretation of the results of these experiments. Our results further confirm that adjustment of the stimulation intensity according to individual motor threshold seems to be an effective method to obtain comparable MEP and TEP amplitudes with different stimulation devices.

Virus inactivation on hard surfaces or in suspension by chemical disinfectants: systematic review and meta-analysis of norovirus surrogates.

Norovirus (NoV) infections are the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States. Effective disinfection is important for controlling outbreaks caused by this highly infectious virus but can be difficult to achieve because NoV is very resistant to many common disinfection protocols. The inability of human NoV to replicate in tissue culture complicates NoV research, generally necessitating genome copy quantification, the use of surrogate viruses, or the use of other substitutes such as virus-like particles. To date, comprehensive comparisons among NoV surrogates and between surrogates and human NoV are missing, and it is not clear how best to extrapolate information from surrogate data. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of comparisons of NoV surrogates with regard to their susceptibility to disinfection on hard surfaces or in suspension. Restricting our analysis to those studies in which two or more virus surrogates were compared allowed us to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in our analysis, similar to the epidemiological concept of matching. Using meta-analysis methods, our results indicate that hepatitis A virus, murine norovirus 1, and phage MS2 are significantly more resistant to disinfection than is feline calicivirus, but average differences in viral titer reduction appeared to be modest, 1.5 log PFU or less in all cases. None of the studies that compared surrogates and human NoV met our inclusion criteria, precluding a direct comparison between human NoV and NoV surrogates in this study. For all surrogates with sufficient data available to permit subgroup analyses, we detected strong evidence that the type of disinfectant impacted the relative susceptibility of the surrogates. Therefore, extrapolation of results between surrogates or from surrogates to human NoV must consider the type of disinfectant studied.

If you monitor e-mail, have a policy.

As the use of e-mail has increased, so has employer monitoring of e-mail messages. But what a health care employer deems its right to protect a vast amount of confidential patient information from improper use, employees may view as a privacy violation. If employees are violating a health care organization's confidentiality or other workplace policies, the health care provider can be held liable for their actions and the e-mail communication could be the proverbial smoking gun. Health care institutions that monitor employee e-mail must have a monitoring policy in place and communicate it to employees.

Effect of dietary fat and cholesterol on plasma lipids and lipoprotein fractions in normolipidemic men.

In a controlled feeding situation, male subjects were assigned to one of four treatment groups: low fat (31% of total kcal)/low cholesterol (193 mg/d) (LFLC), low fat/usual cholesterol (504 mg/d) (LFUC), usual fat (46% of total kcal)/low cholesterol (UFLC) and usual fat/usual cholesterol (UFUC) intake. For the first 2 wk of the 10-wk study all subjects consumed the UFUC diet. Subjects consumed experimental diets during wk 3-7 and resumed their customary intake during wk 8-10. Plasma total, high-density-lipoprotein (HDL), low-density-lipoprotein and very-low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides were determined weekly. A significant effect (P less than 0.05) of dietary fat on plasma total and HDL cholesterol was observed between the end of wk 2 and 7. Low fat intake resulted in 17 +/- 2 mg/dL lower total cholesterol and 10 +/- 1 mg/dL lower HDL cholesterol than the usual fat intake. Plasma lipids were not affected either by dietary cholesterol or by any interaction of dietary fat with cholesterol.

The effects of selective inattention upon the electrodermal orienting reflex: a test of information-processing theory.

Information-processing theories of the orienting reflex (OR) predict that disruptions of attention which impede the registration of a stimulus in memory should retard habituation of the OR. Studies examining effects of selective inattention upon rate of habituation of skin conductance responses (SCRs) to concurrently presented stimuli have yielded inconsistent results. We employed a dichotic vigilance task calling for selective attention to either male-voice or female-voice words. Comparisons between previously attended versus nonattended stimuli were subsequently conducted for habituation of SCR, as well as for a direct measure of recognition memory. Although there were unequivocal differences in long-term memory between attended and non-attended material, there was no clear evidence for corresponding differences in either initial magnitude or rate of habituation of SCR. These data, which replicated results from an earlier study, failed to demonstrate an effect of memory on the OR as predicted by information-processing theories.

A new procedure for separation of the enamel and dentin of human teeth.

A new method for the separation of enamel and dentin in various types of human teeth is proposed. The separated enamel and dentin samples have been analysed for thirteen elements by inductively-coupled plasma emission-spectroscopy and also for fluoride.

The lecithin/sphingomyelin ratio in a high-risk obstetric population.

An experience with the lecithin/sphingomyelin (L/S) ratio in a population of high-risk obstetric patients is presented. A wide range of values in ralation to gestational age was found. A delayed rise in L/S ratio was found in Class A diabetes and Rh sensitization but was most striking in Class B through F diabetes. Chronic hypertension alone or in combination with diabetes is associated with an earlier rise in L/S ratio. A poor correlation of L/S ratio and neonatal pulmonary outcome with birthweight and gestational age was found. However, a good correlation between L/S ratio and neonatal pulmonary outcome was apparent. An L/S ratio of over 2 was universally associated with absence of serious RDS, but a low L/S ratio was less precisely predictive.