Cervical spine arthritis is a well-recognized complication of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). It is usually present in patients with more severe disease.

Factors that would predict treatment outcome for methotrexate (MTX) would be of great value to clinicians. Recent pharmacogenetic studies have reported associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in MTX transporters and treatment outcome in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and in rheumatoid arthritis.

The conduct of Clinical Research in rare diseases, such as Juvenile Systemic Sclerosis (jssc) and Juvenile Localized Scleroderma (JLS), requires an adequate number of patients and a fruitful collaboration between international centers. The clinical management of young patients suffering from these diseases is also often difficult to achieve in an effective and shared matter.

Data regarding the safety and efficacy of treatment regimens for juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) tends to be from anecdotal, small, uncontrolled, non-randomized case series.

Dysregulation of many inflammatory cytokines, utilizing STAT signaling pathways, has been found as important contributor in initiation, progression and maintenance of inflammation in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). FoxP3+CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are important mediators of peripheral immune tolerance and their perturbed homeostasis, including expansion of CD45RA-FoxP3lo non-Treg subpopulation was reported in adult patients with SLE. Type I and II interferons (IFN I and IFN II), which are implicated in SLE pathogenesis, were shown to perturb Treg homeostasis. Many IFN regulated genes are dependent on STAT1 for optimal transcription, and STAT1 protein expression is under control of IFNs.

The antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) is a multisystemic autoimmune disease characterized by thromboembolic events, pregnancy morbidity, hematologic, dermatologic, neurologic and other manifestations in the presence of elevated titers of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). In recent years, APS has been increasingly recognized in various pediatric autoimmune and nonautoimmune diseases, but the relatively low prevalence and heterogeneity of APS in childhood made it very difficult to study in a systematic way.

We investigate the basins of attraction of equilibrium points and minimal period-two solutions of the difference equation of the form x n+1 = x n−1 2/(ax n 2 + bx n x n−1 + cx n−1 2), n = 0,1, 2,…, where the parameters a,  b, and  c are positive numbers and the initial conditions x −1 and x 0 are arbitrary nonnegative numbers. The unique feature of this equation is the coexistence of an equilibrium solution and the minimal period-two solution both of which are locally asymptotically stable.

BackgroundThe aim was to identify potential risk factors for lethal outcome in patients with delirium tremens (DT) treated in the psychiatric setting.MethodsIn a nested case-control study, a total of 190 medical records of patients with DT hospitalized at the Psychiatric Clinic in Serbia between 2002 and 2011 were reviewed and analyzed. The characteristics of patients who died (cases) were compared with those who survived (controls). For each case, two controls (matched for age, gender, and year of hospitalization) were randomly chosen.ResultsSignificant differences between cases and controls were found for serum potassium levels (p < 0.001), the number of hospitalizations (p < 0.001), and duration of hospitalization (p < 0.001). A significant association with lethal outcome was found for serum potassium levels even in the normal range (adjusted odds ratio 40.52; 95% CI 1.20, >1,000.00; p = 0.004).ConclusionsEven though the number and duration of psychiatric hospitalizations were identified as factors determining survival after admission for DT, only serum potassium levels were found to be significant. Patients with an increase in potassium (or absence of hypokalemia) may require more intensive treatment. Monitoring of serum levels of potassium is important not only as an indicator for replacement but also as an indicator of maladaptation.

With the increasing incidence of cancer in the general population and improved survival, emergencies in oncology and hematology are more frequently encountered. Oncologic emergencies represent a wide variety of conditions that can occur at any time during the course of a malignancy, from an initial presenting manifestations in patients with an undiagnosed cancer, to end-stage incurable metastatic disease. Oncologic emergencies include conditions caused by the cancer itself or side effects of antitumor therapy but they can also be independent from malignant disease. Oncologic emergencies can be metabolic (tumor lysis syndrome), hematologic (intravascular coagulation), inflammatory (neutropenic fever) and mechanic (brain edema) as emergencies in palliative care (pain). Prompt interventions can be lifesaving and may spare patients considerable morbidity and mortality. Implementation of palliative care is increasing patients Quality of Life and decreasing intensity of symptoms and it’s crucial in preparation for the natural completion diseases, departures and mourning.

The paper examines the use of creative figurative language in American political discourse. In particular, the paper focuses on the use of the expression to play the race card and the creative figurative language motivated by the use of this expression in the contemporary American political discourse. The aim of this paper is to show that conventional metaphors can be creatively stretched through conceptual blending, producing instances of creative figurative language which contributes to achieving different discourse goals and discourse coherence. Specifically, applying conceptual integration theory, the paper analyzes innovative conceptual blends, motivated by the conventional CARD GAME metaphor, which are used to achieve different discourse goals. In addition, such creative metaphorical blends also provide discourse coherence at the intertextual level.