Open Access DOI:10.23937/ijfa-2017/1710020

Herpes Zoster: An Atypical Cause of Foot Drop - Case Report and Review of the Literature

Coogan MK, Mobley T, Hagemeijer NC, Abbott B, Guss D, Johnson AH and DiGiovanni CW

Article Type: Case Report | First Published: December 14, 2018

We report on an 81-year-old female who presented with acute, atraumatic right foot drop four weeks after developing herpes zoster in the ipsilateral L4 and L5 dermatomes treated with valacyclovir. Lumbar MRI revealed no explanatory abnormality, and the etiology of her right foot drop was presumed to be due to an outbreak of herpes zoster. After three months of physical therapy and bracing, her right lower extremity weakness greatly improved. We present a comprehensive literature review of atraum...

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-5807/1510084

Research Statistical Method Seemingly Non-Transferrable to Clinical Pathology Practice: A Case for D-Dimer Quantitative Testing

Ezekiel Uba Nwose, Phillip Taderera Bwititi and Ross Stuart Richards

Article Type: Brief Report | First Published: December 13, 2018

Plasma D-dimer data are often not normally distributed. In the research setting, such data is non-parametric and statistical analysis is often based on log-transformed data. In the clinical pathology, results are not transformed, but interpreted as it is. Plasma D-dimer data are often not normally distributed. In the research setting, such data is non-parametric and statistical analysis is often based on log-transformed data. In the clinical pathology, results are not transformed, but interprete...

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-5823/1510112

ASPECT - Insufficient Care Environment Regarding Privacy, Views, Comfort and Facilities for Critically Ill Patients at One Emergency Department in Vietnam - An Observation Study

Sara Charmi, Amanda Johansson Landell and Kristina Rosengren

Article Type: Original Article | First Published: December 13, 2018

The importance of a healthy environment was noted by Florence Nightingale in the 19th century and is part of nurses' role of increasing health and well-being. The aim of this study was to investigate the care environment in emergency care (emergency ward and intensive care unit) at Hanoi Medical University Hospital in Vietnam. The study was conducted in the emergency department of a teaching hospital in Vietnam using a mixed methods design; quantitative (standardized protocol) and qualitative (f...

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2378-3516/1410099

Heart-Lung Acting Together

Robert S Fitzgerald

Article Type: Review Article | First Published: December 12, 2018

Most frequently medical education treats the pulmonary system and the cardiovascular system separately. And this is, indeed, quite understandable because each system's pathologies and their treatments differ in so many ways. However, from another perspective, the physiologist's, both systems are the evolutionary product for capturing oxygen from the external environment and delivering it to the mitochondria in the body's cells for the generation of the energy needed for life's operations. Bound ...

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2474-3674/1510060

Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Presenting as a Facial Soft Tissue Metastasis in a Non-Smoker

Berman Zoe, Pearl Joshua and Wiesel Ory

Article Type: Case Report | First Published: December 12, 2018

Lung cancer is an aggressive disease with projections estimating that more than 150,000 Americans will die in 2018 from lung cancer. Mortality is associated with advanced stage of disease and metastatic disease. While the major sites of metastases are the solid organs, the rate of soft tissue metastases has been reported as 0.75-9%. In an asymptomatic patient who is a nonsmoker, there is low likelihood to diagnose early lung cancer unless found incidentally. We present a case of a 66-year-old ma...

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2474-3674/1510059

Widened Mediastinum on Chest X-Ray as an Indicator of Mediastinal Injuries: A Relic of the Past?

Sunder Balasubramaniam, Rachel Yanlin Chen, Deng Tianshu and Teo Li Tserng

Article Type: Retrospective Study | First Published: December 12, 2018

The humble chest X ray (CXR) is an important factor in the assessment of the patient with traumatic injury. The Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) programme recommends performing a CXR as part of the secondary survey, and this is widely used in Singapore. All general hospitals that receive trauma patients in Singapore have resuscitation bays capable of rapidly obtaining a CXR film using either a fixed radiology machine or a portable machine kept within the Emergency Department itself....

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-5696/1410034

Bioinformatics Analysis of Altered lncRNAs in Peripheral Blood Molecular Cells from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) Patients

Mingjun He, Xiaoli Zhu, Wei Niu, Lingming Kong, Gaofeng Yao and Li-yi Zhang

Article Type: Research Article | First Published: December 12, 2018

Based on the prior studies, altered lncRNAs in peripheral blood Molecular Cells (PBMC) from depression patients were chosen to perform informatics analysis for lncRNA target gene prediction and functional annotation. Microarray was first used to screen dys regulated lncRNAs in the PBMCs of MDD patients, of which 10 lncRNAs were selected for quantitative real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) study, as well as bioinformatics analysis....

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-5807/1510083

Influence of Anticoagulants on Determination of H2O2 Levels in Blood: Comparison of Citrate and EDTA

Nwose EU, Bwititi PT and Chalada MJ

Article Type: Research Article | First Published: December 12, 2018

H2O2 is supposed to be part of the laboratory test panel for assessment of oxidative stress. This molecule contributes to oxidative stress by reacting with Fe2+ ions to produce hydroxyl radicals. Anticoagulants, including citrate and EDTA chelate Fe2+, possibly have implications in oxidative stress studies especially when H2O2 is measured. This brief commentary is on the measurability of H2O2 in citrated and EDTA blood samples....

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2378-3656/1410246

Visual Snow Syndrome: A Case Report and New Treatment Option

Shauna Wentzell and Mary Ryan

Article Type: Case Report | First Published: December 10, 2018

We present the case of a 47-year-old male who was diagnosed with Visual Snow Syndrome following extensive specialist consults and medical testing. With an unknown pathogenesis, Visual Snow Syndrome is very difficult to treat and there is no one treatment suited for all patients. The patient in this case report was successfully treated with Amitriptyline based on the hypothesis that Visual Snow Syndrome is a form of peripheral neuropathy and pituitary fatigue. With nearly 200 documented cases of ...

 Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-5807/1510082

Biological Role of Transcription Factor Twist1 in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma and Follicular Lymphoma

Vanessa Szablewski, Natacha Merindol, Sophie Ballazin, Valerie Costes-Martineau and Nathalie Bonnefoy

Article Type: Original Research | First Published: December 08, 2018

Twist1 expression was investigated by both real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-QPCR) and immunohistochemistry in 8 samples from reactive lymphoid tissues, 38 samples from DLBCL and 25 samples from FL patients. Results were correlated with clinicopathologic features. Both RT-QPCR and immunohistochemistry demonstrated increased Twist1 in DLBCL and FL in comparison to benign lymph nodes, where only stromal cells expressed Twist1. Twist1 was higher in FL. In DLBCL there was a tenden...