Digital Case

casetv

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:00:07 EDT

case tv, through mediavision, has developed a comprehensive suite of production services that are designed to capture, edit, encode, store, index, catalog, manage and distribute streaming audio, video and other rich media content to both on and off campus locations. the goal is to enhance the educational experience by providing learners with the ability to query a web-based media archive that is searchable, non-linear, on demand and supports the individual needs of the students. case tv focuses on issues such as campus events, academics, research, student life, staff and other topics related to case western reserve university and the surrounding neighborhood

pubmedcentral

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:01:33 EDT

articles written by case western reserve university faculty, staff and students available in pubmedcentral

airway compromise in infectious mononucleosis: a case report.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:01:10 EDT

a 25-year-old caucasian man had difficulty swallowing and shortness of breath during an episode of infectious mononucleosis. his tonsils were "kissing" and erythematous but no superimposed infection with a streptococcal organism was identified. his symptoms improved rapidly upon administration of intravenous steroids. this case demonstrates a rare and short-term complication that is well described in young adults with infectious mononucleosis. physicians should routinely counsel their patients with infectious mononucleosis to be aware of potentially life-threatening airway obstruction in addition to splenic rupture and meningitis

gene expression profiling in the type 1 diabetes rat diaphragm.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:55 EDT

background: respiratory muscle contractile performance is impaired by diabetes, mechanisms of which included altered carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, oxidative stress and changes in membrane electrophysiology. the present study examined to what extent these cellular perturbations involve changes in gene expression. methodology/principal findings: diaphragm muscle from streptozotocin-diabetic rats was analyzed with affymetrix gene expression arrays. diaphragm from diabetic rats had 105 genes with at least +/-2-fold significantly changed expression (55 increased, 50 decreased), and these were assigned to gene ontology groups based on over-representation analysis using david software. there was increased expression of genes involved in palmitoyl-coa hydrolase activity (a component of lipid metabolism) (p = 0.037, n = 2 genes, fold change 4.2 to 27.5) and reduced expression of genes related to carbohydrate metabolism (p = 0.000061, n = 8 genes, fold change -2.0 to -8.5). other gene ontology groups among upregulated genes were protein ubiquitination (p = 0.0053, n = 4, fold change 2.2 to 3.4), oxidoreductase activity (p = 0.024, n = 8, fold change 2.1 to 6.0), and morphogenesis (p = 0.012, n = 10, fold change 2.1 to 4.3). other downregulated gene groups were extracellular region (including extracellular matrix and collagen) (p = 0.00032, n = 13, fold change -2.2 to -3.7) and organogenesis (p = 0.032, n = 7, fold change -2.1 to -3.7). real-time pcr confirmed the directionality of changes in gene expression for 30 of 31 genes tested. conclusions/significance: these data indicate that in diaphragm muscle type 1 diabetes increases expression of genes involved in lipid energetics, oxidative stress and protein ubiquitination, decreases expression of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism, and has little effect on expression of ion channel genes. reciprocal changes in expression of genes involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism may change the availability of energetic substrates and thereby directly modulate fatigue resistance, an important issue for a muscle like the diaphragm which needs to contract without rest for the entire lifetime of the organism

concurrent reactive arthritis, graves' disease, and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia: a case report.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:38 EDT

warm antibody autoimmune hemolytic anemia is due to the presence of warm agglutinins that react with protein antigens on the surface of red blood cells causing premature destruction of circulating red blood cells. we report the first case of concurrent reactive arthritis, graves' disease, and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. a 40-year-old man with reactive arthritis, graves' disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, mitral valve prolapse, and gilbert's disease presented with a one month history of jaundice, fatigue, and black stools. after diagnosis of warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, the patient was started on prednisone 1 mg/kg with rapid improvement in his anemia and jaundice. our subject's mother and possibly his maternal grandmother also had autoimmune hemolytic anemia, which raises the possibility of hereditary autoimmune hemolytic anemia, a rarely reported condition

polymorphisms in glutathione s-transferase genes increase risk of prostate cancer biochemical recurrence differentially by ethnicity and disease severity.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:00:18 EDT

objective: genetic polymorphisms that modify the detoxifying activity of glutathione s-transferases (gsts) can affect the level of carcinogenic metabolites created by endogenous steroid hormones and exogenous chemical substances. although the gstm1 null genotype has been shown to increase prostate cancer mortality in caucasians, potential associations between gst polymorphisms and prostate cancer biochemical recurrence (bcr) have not been well studied, particularly in african-americans. methods: we examined potential associations between the gstm1 null, gstt1 null and gstp1 ile105val polymorphisms and bcr, after prostatectomy, in 168 african-american and 226 caucasian patients treated at henry ford hospital in detroit, michigan using cox proportional hazards modeling. results: we found that african-americans with the gstt1 null genotype had increased bcr risk compared to those having gstt1 present (hazard ratio (hr) = 2.30; 95% ci = 1.01-5.18; p = 0.04); and african-americans with the gstt1 null genotype and high grade tumors had an even greater risk (hr = 7.82; 95% ci = 2.49-24.50; p < 0.001). in caucasians, an increased risk was observed in those patients with high grade tumors and the gstm1 null genotype (hr = 2.88; 95% ci = 1.16-7.14; p = 0.02). similar associations were observed for advanced stage and more aggressive (high grade or advanced stage) disease. conclusion: our results suggest gsts may hold promise as therapeutic targets in more advanced prostate cancers, particularly, in african-americans