Asthma is a complex disease of airway inflammation, which results in airway remodeling and hyper-responsiveness.1 Because asthma-related symptoms are not specific to asthma, diagnosis requires objective data from pulmonary function tests (PFT). Bronchodilator responsiveness and airway responsiveness to provocational stimuli (eg, methacholine, dry-gas hyperpnea) help establish the diagnosis of a...

Chatterbox Challenge is an annual web-based contest for artificial conversational systems, ACE. The 2010 instantiation was the tenth consecutive contest held between March and June in the 60th year following the publication of Alan Turing’s influential disquisition ‘computing machinery and intelligence’. Loosely based on Turing’s viva voca interrogator-hidden witness imitation game, a thought e...

Objective To examine whether or not an edrophonium challenge test is useful for diagnosing cervical dystonia. Patients We evaluated 10 patients with cervical dystonia and 10 with hemifacial spasms (disease controls). We administered edrophonium and saline in this double-blinded study. Before and after the injection, we recorded the participants' clinical signs using a video camera to assess the...

This systematic review aimed to examine the results of studies that have investigated the induction of panic attacks and/or the anxiogenic effect of the caffeine challenge test in patients with panic disorder. The literature search was performed in PubMed, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde and the ISI Web of Knowledge. The words used for the search were caffeine, caffeine challenge test, panic disord...

With the entry in force of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 (European Commission, 2002) laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety, a more clear specification of the responsibilities of food business operator (FBO)...

The authors report a case of cutaneous tuberculosis in a 63-year-old female patient, who had an infiltrated, erythematous-ferruginous plaque of indurated aspect on her right leg and a nonreactive PPD skin test. Diagnosis was made by tissue culture and PCR of skin biopsy material. The treatment was performed with pyrazinamide, rifampicin, isoniazid and ethambutol, with good response.

BACKGROUND The frequency of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is 0.6% -15% of pregnant woman. The modern trend towards the delay starting family is the main factor responsible for increase prevalence of GDM. This condition is associated with the adverse effect on mother and fetus, so it is important to find out the GDM by screening of all the pregnant women. OBJECTIVE To observe the feasibi...

AIM The aim of the current study was to present a comprehensive display of antimicrobial activity of a novel epoprostenol sodium formulation with respect to seven different microorganisms, two levels of inoculation (102-103 colony forming units [CFU]/mL and 105-106 CFU/mL), two diluents (sterile water for injection [SWI] and sterile saline [sodium chloride 0.9%] for injection [SSI]), two concen...